Torontonians express interest in space tourism
CBC News
Stephanie Anevitch, an accredited space agent for Virgin in Toronto, says an entrepreneur and a businessman from Toronto have booked flights on the spaceship — and there’s plenty more interest.
Space Florida Launch Bill Stuck on the Pad, Sponsor Says
Orlando Sentinel
Space Florida, the state’s fledgling aerospace economic development agency, has been trying for weeks to jump-start a proposal to help it promote the commercial launch pad it hopes to market to would-be space-flight companies…
World space agencies eye U.S. station ties
The Huntsville Times
World space agencies – including NASA – are reviewing options to stretch America’s involvement in the International Space Station beyond 2015.
House Panel Raises Conflict of Interest Concern at NASA
Congressional Quarterly
The House Science Committee is taking aim at NASA over a recent contract award that its chairman says wasn’t scrutinized enough for possible conflicts of interest.
SFF PRESS RELEASE
The Space Frontier Foundation announced that conference and hotel registration for NewSpace 2009 is now open and available for space professionals and enthusiasts everywhere.
Omega Envoy says Embry Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) in Florida will be assisting the team in developing its lunar lander, according to a blog post on the Google Lunar X Prize website.
Two members of the Synergy Moon team have been nominated for World Technology Awards, according to a blog post on the Google Lunar X Prize website.
Embattled head of space-tourism venture Odyssey resigns
Tallahassee.com
The head of the Andrews Institute’s space-tourism program resigned Tuesday to prepare his defense against an accusation that he used his job in the Florida’s tourism and trade office to launch a new mission at more than double his state salary.
PRESS RELEASE
Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT – News) will webcast live its First Quarter 2009 Earnings Conference Call on Tuesday, April 21, 2009, at 11 a.m. EDT. Bruce Tanner, Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer, and Jerry Kircher, Vice President, Investor Relations, will discuss first quarter 2009 financial results, provide updates on key topics, and answer questions.
Boldly Going Nowhere
Op-Ed by Seth Shostak
The New York Times
Carting humans into deep space requires technology akin to wormhole rockets or matter-antimatter engines, the standard transports of science fiction. Wormhole travel, which takes shortcuts to the stars by warping space, looks appealing on blackboards, but physicists can’t yet say whether it would ever work in practice. Matter-antimatter engines use the enormous energy released when ordinary atoms encounter their exotic, opposite numbers, demanding the creation and storage of large amounts of hard-to-contain antimatter — a Sisyphean task, to put it gently.
Well, Stephen Colbert apparently won’t get a space station module named after him. But astronauts will be able to walk all over him.
Give Node 3 an inspirational name
Op-Ed by Matthew Gast
Houston Chronicle
NASA’s naming contest for Node 3 was meant to continue to inspire us. Names like Unity, Destiny, Quest, Zarya (Russian for sunrise), Zvezda (Russian for star) and Kibo (Japanese for hope) create images that reflect the purpose of the International Space Station. To me, these names give an identity to an endeavor meant to bring us together as a people, while searching for the answers to those age-old questions. Obviously, giving people the chance to take part in naming a module of the ISS is simply a way to connect with its purpose on a personal level.
