Canceling Ares I Could Prove Costly
Aviation Week
Embattled exploration-program managers at NASA say a decision to cancel the Ares I crew launch vehicle development now in favor of a potentially lower-cost effort to human rate the Delta IV heavy would add $14.1 billion – $16.6 billion to the cost of developing the Ares V moon rocket.
ARIANESPACE PRESS RELEASE
Initial preparations for Vega’s new launch site in French Guiana have been completed, clearing the way for facility integration and qualification tests that should lead to a maiden flight of this new lightweight launcher in 2010.
AIA PRESS RELEASE
NASA stands front and center as the most visible representation of the U.S. space program and is critical to our country’s future leadership and competitiveness, AIA Vice President of Space Systems J.P. Stevens said Thursday.
“Over the last 50 years, space technologies have increasingly become an important part of our nation’s economic, scientific and national security fabric,†Stevens said in testimony to the House Science and Technology Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics. “However, other nations are making rapid advancements, and our leadership in space is no longer guaranteed.â€
NASA’s return to the moon will require the excavation of a lot of lunar regolith. Engineers are already working on solutions.
CSA PRESS RELEASE
The California Space Authority (CSA) and the French Aerospace Valley Association (FAV), entered into a cooperative agreement today for the purpose of improving and fostering space enterprise workforce and economic development between their members.
“Space Talk,” a new one-hour radio program dedicated to the topic of America’s space program, will begin broadcasting June 20 from the studios of WMMBAM on Florida’s Space Coast.
Duck! A Runaway Moon Is Speeding Toward a TV Near You
The New York Times
“Impact,†a two-part mini-series beginning on Sunday on ABC, is about averting the end of the world in less time — 39 days — than the warranties expire on most food processors. And like “24,†it might have arrived with the subtitle “We’re running out of time,†all bold type, no minimum on the exclamation points. Should you choose to drink every time you hear that phrase, or some similarly fervent expression of temporal anxiety, I can promise that you will be too hung over on Monday morning even to understand what goes on during the fourth hour of the “Today†show…
ESA MISSION UPDATE
On 14 July, a crew of six will leave their Mars mission simulator and see the Sun once again. The crew, which includes a French pilot and a German engineer selected by ESA, will have completed 105 days of confinement and numerous scientific experiment runs inside the isolation facility at the Russian Institute for Biomedical Problems (IBMP) in Moscow.
PRESS RELEASE
The Omega Envoy Project, the “Florida Team” competing in the Google Lunar X PRIZE, and the only student formed and led team, announced during the International Space Development Conference (ISDC) a significant milestone in their progress towards the moon: a realistic demonstration of core rover technologies.
In collaboration with 4Frontiers Corporation and the National Space Society, the team is sending their rover prototype to the Mars Society’s Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station (FMARS) on Devon Island for the month of July 2009.
Couple floats into zero gravity nuptials
Reuters
The bride wore white and earrings resembling tiny planets, the groom a tuxedo and cuff links shaped like spacecraft, and the wedding party attended in blue jump suits.
Media Monitors reports that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Chinese leader Hu Jintao issued a joint statement on Wednesday saying the two nations would work together for a treaty to ban the militarization of space.
AIRBUS PRESS RELEASE
Airbus announced Friday the signature of a cooperation agreement with Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) on the cooperative research activities in the field of composite materials.
