Randy Babbitt has been confirmed for a five-year term as Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration, which overseas the airline industry and the emerging commercial space sector.

Babbitt, who was most recently Chairman and CEO of Eclat Consulting, has more than 40 years of experience in aviation. He was a pilot for Eastern Airlines for 25 years and then served as President and CEO of the U.S. Airline Pilots Association and as a Presidential appointment on the National Commission to Ensure a Strong Competitive Airline Industry.

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WhiteKnightTwo

Scaled Composites has posted the flight log for the fifth test of its WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft that took place on Wednesday.

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U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama attacked the Obama Administration’s plan to review NASA lunar program and also dismissed the possibility that Elon Musk’s SpaceX could easily fill the spaceflight gap that will exist after NASA retires the shuttle next year.

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How to Build an ”Affordable” Space Plane: Design, Test, Repeat
Time Compression

But how does a relatively new private company–funded with venture capital investors, and government and commercial contracts–possibly compete with the would-be titans of space tourism, including mogul Richard Branson and his Virgin Galactic effort?

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PRESS RELEASE

You may never fly in space, but a new club is offering “space geeks” everywhere the opportunity to own items that have. The Astronaut Scholarship Foundation announced today its newest endeavor, 2009 Space Artifact Series, which offers its members three artifacts flown in outer space!

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Starchaser Industries has completed phase 1 of its tests on a new hybrid rocket engine.

From the Talis Enterprise website comes news of a joint development agreement between the Germany space tourism company, the Swiss Propulsion Laboratory (SPL), and Space Tourism Society, Malaysian Chapter (STSMC).

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A short video showing development work being done by teams in the Google Lunar X Prize.

JAXA will send its Kaguya probe into the surface of the moon on June 11, ending a highly successful lunar mapping mission.

Spacewalkers Drew Feustel (left) and John Grunsfeld participate in the third Hubble repair spacewalk of STS-125. Photo Credit: NASA

David Leckone, one of the Hubble Space Telescope’s senior scientists, bemoaned the planned retirement of the space shuttle next year, criticizing NASA’s for a lack of leadership and vision in producing an Orion replacement vehicle based on the old Apollo capsule.

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In an interview with the Orlando Sentinel, Charles Bolden had no comment concerning the possibility of him becoming the next NASA Administrator. He refused to comment on his meeting with President Barack Obama on Tuesday.

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President Barack Obama talks on the telephone to the crew of the Space Shuttle Atlantis from the Oval Office, Wednesday, May 20, 2009. Official White House photo by Pete Souza.

Below is a transcript of the call that President Barack Obama put in to the space shuttle Atlantis yesterday. During the call, he chats with the crew and promises to name a new NASA Administrator soon.

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