A VASIMR powered space tug. (Credit: Ad Astra Rocket Company)
HOUSTON, Texas (Ad Astra PR) -– Ad Astra Rocket Company and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) have signed an Umbrella Space Act Agreement to continue the parties’ collaboration in the development of the Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket engine (VASIMR®).
Liberia, Guanacaste, Costa Rica (Ad Astra PR) – Ad Astra Rocket Company, through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Ad Astra Servicios Energéticos y Ambientales, Costa Rica, SRL (AASEA), in partnership with Costa Rica’s state-owned Petroleum Refinery, RECOPE, unveiled today the country’s first hydrogen generation and storage facility, a pilot project focusing on clean, renewable energy with applications in the transportation sector.
Houston, TX (Ad Astra PR) – Former Cummins Inc. (CMI, NYSE) Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Theodore “Tim” Solso, an internationally-renowned technology and business leader, has been elected to the Board of Directors of Ad Astra Rocket Company. The vote was cast by the Corporation’s shareholders at their 2013 annual meeting on November 12, 2013, held at the Company’s Texas Headquarters near Houston. Solso’s election accompanies that of eight Directors who compose the nine-member Board. He becomes the 9th member to join the top leadership of the Company. His term begins immediately. All Ad Astra board members are elected annually.
Members of the Ad Astra Houston team welcomed Ambassador Andrew (center) on October 2, 2013,
during her first tour of the company’s U.S. facility as a member of the Ad Astra Board of Directors. (Credit: Ad Astra Rocket Company)
Houston, TX (Ad Astra PR) – Former US Ambassador to Costa Rica, Anne Slaughter Andrew, a distinguished attorney, entrepreneur and environmentalist has been elected to the Board of Directors of Ad Astra Rocket Company. The unanimous vote was cast Friday, September 27, 2013, at Ad Astra’s Texas corporate headquarters near Houston during the board’s fourth scheduled meeting of 2013. Ambassador Andrew, a native of Evansville, Indiana, becomes the 8th member of the Ad Astra board and the first female director to join the top leadership of the company. Her term begins immediately and she will stand for re-election at the company’s annual shareholders meeting in November. All Ad Astra board members are elected annually.
Ad Astra Launches VASMIR Kickstarter Ad Astra has launched a Kickstarter fund-raising campaign to raise $46,000 for the creation of a short documentary called “Animating VASIMR®: The Future of Spaceflight.” Falcon Heavy Launches from KSC? Space News reports that SpaceX appears to be the only bidder to take over operations of PAD 39A at the Kennedy Space Center, which NASA used to launch space shuttles: NASA declined to comment on […]
HOUSTON (Ad Astra PR) – Dr. José Antonio Zaglul Slon, a distinguished educator and current president of EARTH University has been elected to the Board of Directors of Ad Astra Rocket Company. The unanimous vote was cast Friday, April 5, 2013, at the Ad Astra corporate headquarters in Houston, Texas during the board’s second meeting of 2013. Dr. Zaglul, a citizen of Costa Rica, becomes the 7th member of the Ad Astra board and the first outside “non-aerospace” director to join the top leadership of the company, highlighting its diversification. His term begins immediately and he will stand for re-election at the company’s annual shareholders meeting in November. All Ad Astra board members are elected annually.
HOUSTON, TX (Ad Astra PR) – Christopher Scott Olsen, a Research Scientist at Ad Astra’s Houston Research Laboratory, formally presented the results of his 5-year company-sponsored PhD research on the physics of magnetic nozzles.
The scientific seminar was conducted yesterday at Rice University’s Department of Physics and Astronomy as part of Olsen’s oral PhD defense before his thesis committee, which included professors Paul Cloutier (emeritus and committee chair), Franklin Chang Díaz (adjunct) and David Alexander, all from the Department of Physics and Astronomy and Prof. Frank Tittel from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
Media outlets in Costa Rica are reporting on a possible investment by Astrium North America in Dr. Franklin Chang-Diaz’s Ad Astra Rocket Company, which is developing the VASIMR rocket. The capital participation in Ad Astra will be in exchange for the construction of the Aurora platform to carry the VASIMR rocket on its initial trials in space. (A model of such a platform was constructed by a consortium of small […]
A VASIMR powered space tug. (Credit: Ad Astra Rocket Company)
Houston, Texas (Ad Astra PR) – Ad Astra Rocket Company reports two important advances with its VX-200 high power VASIMR® engine prototype:
1) a significant increase in its high power performance over previous test data obtained in late 2010, and
2) demonstration of the VASIMR®-unique feature called “Constant Power Throttling” (CPT).
These results will be presented on Monday July 30, 2012 at the 48th American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics’ (AIAA) Joint Propulsion Conference in Atlanta, Ga. USA, in the paper entitled: “VASIMR® VX-200 Improved Throttling Range.”
VX200 engine. (Credit: Ad Astra Rocket Company)
Houston, TX (Ad Astra PR) – Ad Astra Rocket Company and NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) have signed a Support Agreement (Annex 6) to collaborate on aspects of safety, reliability and mission assurance related to the development of VASIMR® technology. As the Agreement reads, the parties will:
“…work together to examine, understand, and document the safety and reliability aspects of the VASIMR® technology and develop a design approach for the flight system that conforms to accepted NASA safety, reliability and mission assurance best practices.”
