Across the Universe
The Atlantic

The Volna rocket had risen out of the water, flown through the sky, and pierced the low-lying clouds. The Volna, a Soviet-era ICBM, had been refitted for peaceful duty, and on this first day of summer, it was lifting Cosmos 1 up from a Russian submarine and toward Earth orbit. If the spacecraft got there, it would deploy eight tissue-thin “blades,” 600 square meters of Mylar that would catch the sun and begin propelling the craft, on nothing but light, through humankind’s first solar-sailing voyage. The ship, beautiful as a flower or firework, would be controlled from the ground by two teams, each so small that Mission Operations Moscow was called MOM and Project Operations Pasadena was POP….

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PRESS RELEASE

The means to save the Earth? End hunger? Cure diseases? Among the entrants to this competition is the potential to reap enormous benefits all of us on Earth, and for our planet itself.

Three finalists in the Microgravity Research Competition, sponsored by The Heinlein Prize Trust, SpaceX (Space Exploration Technologies), and the Rice Alliance have been chosen. This competition gives student researchers an exciting opportunity to advance their projects in the ultimate laboratory—in Low Earth Orbit in the microgravity environment of a private spacecraft, the SpaceX Dragon.

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SpaceX is looking at about a six-week delay on the launch of its next Falcon 1 rocket, The New Straits Times reports:

The launch of the RazakSAT, Malaysia’s second remote sensing satellite has been postponed until further notice due to “technical problems”.

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Will Space-Based Solar Power Finally See the Light of Day?
Scientific American

SBSP could, according to energy experts, provide constant, pollution-free power—unlike intermittent wind and cloud cover–sensitive ground-based solar, and without the emissions of fossil fuels or radioactive waste from nuclear power. “[SBSP] is a disruptive technology [in that] it could change the whole energy equation,” says Frederick Best, director of the Center for Space Power (CSP) at Texas A&M University in College Station, Tex.

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Scaled Composites founder Burt Rutan was in Turkey this week, giving the keynote address at the opening of ÖzyeÄŸin University’s School of Engineering. He apparently gave the school’s administration and students a bit more than they bargained for.

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NASA’s Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel has issued its annual report for 2008, and it’s not a fun read. Not at all. Basically, it says that the U.S. is facing a long gap in human spaceflight and there’s not a whole lot anyone can do about it.

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Wallops: NASA to restore Wallops shoreline in $45M project
Delmarvanow.com

NASA is undertaking a $45 million project to protect over $1 billion of government assets on Wallops Island by restoring the island’s shoreline, which is eroding at the rate of about 10 feet a year.

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FAA Assesses Proposed Cecil Field Spaceport
News4Jax.com

The Jacksonville Aviation Authority’s dream of landing a commercial spaceport to accommodate reusable launch vehicles at Cecil Field moved one step closer to reality this week with the release of a Federal Aviation Administration released of a report finding no significant environmental impacts.

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The Congressional Budget Office has released a study of NASA’s budget that indicates the agency would nearly $5 billion in additional funding annually in order to achieve its goals and continue flying the space shuttle beyond 2010.

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SPACE FLORIDA PRESS RELEASE

Space Florida will join California Space Authority (CSA) officials next week in Washington D.C. to spend four days meeting with federal officials regarding vital space policy issues.

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Space Centre to Develop Lunar Rovers
UK Trade & Investments

Surrey Space Centre is joining forces with one of China’s top engineers to develop lunar rovers.

The Royal Academy of Engineering is to provide funding for UK-based space engineer Dr Yang Gao to develop a new generation of lunar rovers, used to explore the surface of the moon.

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The National Space Society (NSS) today announced that the 28th Annual International Space Development Conference (ISDC) will take place from Wednesday May 27 to Sunday May 31 at the Omni Hotel at Champions Gate in Orlando, FL. The conference will engage the public and decision-makers in an open and positive discussion about the role that space exploration, research and development will play in ushering in a new era of hope in a climate of uncertain change.

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