WhiteKnightTwo The WhiteKnightTwo flew for the eighth time on June 11. Scaled Composites’ flight log indicates it was a “FAA Monitored flight for pilot ‘Type Rating’.
Study Finds Human-rated Delta IV Cheaper
Aviation Week
A NASA-funded study found that a human-rated Delta IV heavy rocket could be a cheaper route to the International Space Station than NASA’s Ares I crew launch vehicle.
Europe looks beyond just science
Flight Global
The EU may be preparing to expand into human exploration. A “high-level meeting on space exploration” organised by the European Commission will take place this September or October, and the EC says it will be the start of a “process to obtain a common European political vision about the role of Europe in space exploration”.
The Space Show schedule for this week: The Monday, June 15, 2009, 2-3:30 PM PDT Program welcomes back Dr. Richard Kirby to discuss New Horizons in Space Science Education. The Tuesday, June 16, 2009, 7-8:30 PM is OPEN LINES on The Space Show. Remember, all subjects are welcome (no politics, please). The Thursday, June 18, 2009, 9:30-11:00 AM PDT show welcomes back Tim Pickens of Orion Propulsion to the show. […]
A Brief History Review for Sen. Richard Shelby
by Jeff Krukin
Commercial Space Gateway
Sen. Richard Shelby (R. – Ala.) is unhappy because NASA Administrator Christopher Scolese intends to use $150 million of the $400 million NASA received as part of the stimulus package to support the development of commercial space transportation for delivering cargo and personnel to the space station.
His rationale reveals an astounding lack of historical perspective.
North Korea gambles as South readies own rocket
Spaceflight Now.com
The North Koreans may greet this week’s meeting with a barrage of short and long range ballistic missile tests to make at least a virtual appearance at the same White House gathering.
Rockets For The Red Planet
IEEE Spectrum
From his corner office at Ad Astra Rocket headquarters near Houston, Franklin R. Chang DÃaz hatches big plans. He’s tucked away behind a strip mall on a bland suburban street, but his mind is wandering the cosmos. He envisions multibillion-dollar mining operations extracting iron, cobalt, and platinum from asteroids for use in cities on the moon and Mars. He dreams of space infrastructures so evolved that astronauts freely roam the moons of Jupiter and Saturn. He sees parallel societies grown teeming and rich, and Earth gradually transformed into a grand nature preserve.
NASA MISSION UPDATE
The PharmaSat nanosatellite has successfully completed an experiment that could help scientists better understand how effectively drugs work in space. PharmaSat continues to collect data that could help scientists learn more about how yeast adapts to changes in its environment.
Plasma engine is ready for final test on Earth
Nacion.com
31 May 2009
Translated from Spanish (Google Translate)
In Houston, Texas, laboratory of the Ad Astra Rocket Company, led by Costa Rican astronaut and physicist Franklin Chang-Diaz is preparing for an exciting week.
The high vacuum chamber of the laboratory, ten meters long and four meters in diameter, is inside the VX-200: VASIMR the prototype of the engine propulsion plasma Chang outlined three decades ago to make space travel for faster and more cheaply, and hence to explore far away places in the solar system.
I found a story (in Spanish) on Franklin Chang Diaz, the former NASA astronaut who heads up Ad Astra Rocket Company. Below is an excerpt in English courtesy of Google Translate.
Why support Franklin Chang?
Elfinancierocr.com
I had the pleasure of meeting Franklin Chang in June 2006 with a handful of notes on his experiences at NASA with the physics of plasma.
His long career in the space race, after reaching the orbit of the earth seven times, had given him the vision to develop new ideas on the development of space propulsion, yea, a new era is developing in the exploration space.
After four decades, is America over the moon?
The Arizona Republic
The unmanned $504 million Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which launches Wednesday along with another satellite, is designed to take high-resolution photos to find safe future landing sites. Other instruments will examine radiation levels and identify natural resources on the moon, such as ice, for possible use by future human outposts.
- Space shuttle launch
PRESS RELEASE
The Space Economy Symposium, an initiative of George Mason University in collaboration with Phillips & Company and hosted by the Space Enterprise Council of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, provided a forum for a robust discussion on the contributions of space to the nation’s economic growth and the role of space in enabling greater national competitiveness in a global economy.