Space.com’s latest profile of Google Lunar X Prize competitors is Team FREDNET, a virtual team begun by Silicon Valley denizen Fred Bourgeois.
Samantha Cristoforetti
Samantha Cristoforetti
Samantha Cristoforetti was born in Milan, Italy, in 1977. She studied at the Technische Universität Munich, Germany, the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de l’Aéronautique et de l’Espace in Toulouse, France, and the Mendeleev University of Chemical Technologies in Moscow, Russia. She holds a master’s degree in engineering, as well as a master’s degree in aeronautical sciences from the University of Naples Federico II in Italy. Lt. Cristoforetti is a fighter pilot with the Italian Air Force. In her leisure time, she enjoys mountaineering, scuba diving and caving. (more…)
The six individuals who will become Europe's new astronauts were presented at a press conference held at ESA Headquarters in Paris, France, on 20 May 2009. The new recruits will join the European Astronaut Corps and start their training to prepare for future missions to the International Space Station, and beyond. From left to right: Luca Parmitano, Alexander Gerst, Andreas Mogensen, Samantha Cristoforetti, Timothy Peake and Thomas Pesquet. Credits: ESA - S. Corvaja, 2009
ESA today presented the six individuals who will become Europe’s new astronauts. The new recruits will join the European Astronaut Corps and start their training to prepare for future missions to the International Space Station, and beyond.
DARPA has been experimenting with refueling and upgrading satellites on orbit to extend their lives.
Newsweek has a couple of articles on Ray Kurzweil, the singularity, and the upcoming Singularity University at NASA Ames.
DARPA plans two flight tests of his Falcon hypersonic vehicle, which is designed to develop cruise missile technology.
OSC PRESS RELEASE
Orbital’s Minotaur-I space launch successfully launched the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Tactical Satellite-3 (TacSat-3) on May 19, 2009 from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island, VA. The TacSat-3 mission, the eighth since the Minotaur Vehicle’s debut in 2000, originated from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at the NASA Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, VA. The TacSat-3 launch was the third Minotaur I mission from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport.
The New York Post, better known for tabloid headlines and scantily clad scants (??) than science policy, has three (count ’em three) op-ed pieces today about what to do with NASA.
All commentators – astronomer Philip Plait and former astronauts Tom Jones and Buzz Aldrin – all agree that the beloved space agency is in trouble. However, the differ somewhat in their prescription.
DARPA’s System F6 program will develop capabilities to decompose a monolithic satellite into an autonomous cluster of individual and physically disconnected modules carrying different payload and subsystem elements.
Diane Mattingly of Carnegie Mellon University describes the battery development she is doing for Atrobiotic, one of the competitors in the Google Lunar X Prize competition.
Headed for the launch pad, Apollo 10 commander Tom Stafford pats the nose of a stuffed Snoopy held by Jamye Flowers (Coplin), astronaut Gordon Cooper's secretary. Photo Credit: NASA
NASA PRESS RELEASE
The Charles M. Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa, Calif., is celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 10 mission with an exhibition highlighting the connection between NASA’s pioneering astronauts and Peanuts’ barnstorming beagle.
In May 1969, Apollo 10 astronauts Gene Cernan, John Young and Thomas Stafford traveled all the way to the moon for one final checkout before the lunar landing attempt.
At one time, the British Royal Navy ruled the seven seas, its mighty ships patrolling an empire upon which the sun never set.
Today, Great Britain might get a reserve astronaut in a trans-European human spaceflight program that it has no interest in funding. Ah, progress…