Sen. Richard Shelby: America can’t afford space shuttle, station and Ares rockets
The Huntsville Times
Plans making the rounds of the U.S. Congress to extend the space shuttle and keep using the International Space Station cannot be allowed to delay the Marshall Space Flight Center-lead Ares rocket projects and may force “something to give,” Alabama’s senior Washington lawmaker Sen. Richard Shelby said today.
A project director for Spaceport America says the first of 13 bid packages for construction of the nation’s first inland commercial facility for orbital flights will be released in about two weeks.
Roskosmos signs contract for new rocket and space complex
ITAR-TASS
Russia’s Federal Space Agency (Roskosmos) has signed a contract for the creation of a new rocket and space complex at the Vostochny spaceport.
Some interesting stories in this week’s edition of The Space Review: The Ares 1-X test flight: crunch time for Constellation Later this year NASA plans to carry out the first test launch of the Ares 1 rocket that will be a cornerstone of Project Constellation. Taylor Dinerman discusses what’s on the line for NASA with this launch. NASA gets pwned online In an effort to better engage with the public, […]
PRESS RELEASE
Six pararescuemen from Patrick Air Force Base, Fla., conducted recovery testing on a mockup of NASA’s next-generation spacecraft March 8 at the Trident Turn Basin here.
Howry: Buzz Aldrin pushing for settlements on Mars
Ventura County Star
Aldrin is worried about the direction the space program is taking, and thinks it would be a terrible waste of time and money to engage the Chinese in a race back to the moon. As he put it, unless there is something to be gained — economically, scientifically, or something else he’s unaware of — why do we want to get into a race to a place we’ve been before? He sees nothing to gain from it.
Ex-ISRO Chief Calls for Greater Investment in Space Research
Star of Mysore
Prof. U.R. Rao, former Chairman, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), today called for greater investment in space research as the country’s progress owed a great deal to satellite technology.
Anatoly Zak reports that Russia will delay launch of its 11-ton Phobos-Grunt mission to 2011 because of problems in developing the massive craft.
ROSKOSMOS PRESS RELEASE
Space Russia exhibition opened in Blagoveschensk regional local museum on April 11. The opening is timed to the Cosmonautics Day celebrated in Russia and all over the world on April 12. The exposition was organized by Konstantin Chmarov, Vostochny space port Construction Minister in the Government of the Amurskaya region.
In what is potentially bad news for well-heeled millionauts, scientists have finally defined where precisely space begins. And it’s not where most of the suborbital tourism vehicles will be flying.
Russian officials marked the 48th anniversary of the first human spaceflight by laying flowers at the tombs of pioneering cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin and Sergey Korolev, the chief designer of the rocket that launched him into history.
Roskosmos Executive Director Anatoly Perminov recently talked with the state-owned Vesti TV channel about the global financial crisis, space tourism, and Russia’s plans for new human spacecraft and spaceport.
