Virgin Galactic Considering Australia
Jules Vern Passes First Test
Space Access Conference Report
Rand Simberg has a report on the Space Access Conference.
Henry Cate has has blogged the entire conference.
Interview with NASA’s New Science Chief
Brian Berger has an interview with NASA’s new Science Chief, Ed Weiler. Someone needs to inform him about using private suborbital rockets for science.
XCOR Wins Contract For Operations Demonstrations With New Suborbital Vehicle
Mojave, CA, March 26, 2008 – The Air Vehicles Directorate of the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) has awarded, pending successful contract negotiations and signature by the Government Contracting Officer, XCOR Aerospace a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II contract to develop and test
Press Release: SpaceX Conducts First Three-Engine Firing of Falcon 9 Rocket
McGregor TX – Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) conducted the first three-engine firing of its Falcon 9 medium to heavy lift rocket at its Texas Test Facility outside McGregor, on March 8, 2008. At full power the engines generated over 270,000 pounds of force, and consumed 1,050 lbs of
XCOR Announces Suborbital Lynx
XCOR Aerospace announced today the development of a suborbital vehicle called the Lynx. It is a two seat craft that will blast off from a runway to 61km where passengers will experience 4.5 minutes of weightlessness and land on a runway. XCOR expects the craft to take off in 2010.
[update] The Wall Street Journal is [...]
Mars Rovers to Keep on Roving
NASA has said, officially, that the Mars Rovers Spirit and Opportunity will continue running despite budget cuts. It was reported earlier that Spirit may be put into hibernation mode to save money.
Private Flights to the Moon in 2020s
Pete Wooden, director of the NASA Ames Research station in California, while speaking in London yesterday said NASA should get people back to the Moon by 2020. But he also said “I think (private interests ) are going to beat us to the lunar surface.” Adding to that he said, “It’s NASA’s unstated policy that [...]
Mars Rovers Spirit May be Put to Sleep
Due to $4 million in budget cuts in NASA Mars exploration program, project leaders are thinking of putting one of the rovers in hibernation. NASA officials said, however, that it will not be necessary to and shutting down either Spirit or Opportunity is “not an option.” The tough little rovers have gone way beyond their [...]
Space Shuttle Getting Ready to Land on Wednesday
Space Shuttle Endeavor is in preparation for its landing on Wednesday. The next launch window starts May 25 when Space Shuttle Discovery on mission STS-124 will transport the Kibo Japanese Experiment Module - Pressurized Module (JEM-PM) and the Japanese Remote Manipulator System (JEM-RMS) to the International Space Station.
ESA Jules Vern Ready for Practice Docking
The European Space Agency ATV, Jules Vern, is ready to do practice docking runs on the ISS with NASA support. The practice runs will begin on March 29 and the actual docking is scheduled for April 3.
SpaceDev Wins Seal Cover Study Contract
SpaceDev’s subsidiary, Starsys, has won a six month contract to do studies on seal technologies for instrument covers on future NASA lunar missions.
Evidence of Liquid Water and Ammoniaon Titan
Scientist have found evidence of an ocean of liquid water and ammonia on Titan. Dr. Lorenz’s used 19 passes of Cassini’s Synthetic Aperture Radar over Saturn’s largest moon and analyzed the data. The ocean is believed to be 62 miles below Titan’s atmosphere.
SpaceDev Wins Japanese HTV Contract
SpaceDev has won a contract with IHI-Aerospace in Japan to provided multiple flight ship-sets of precision space mechanisms for the H2 Transfer Vehicle, or HTV. The HTV is designed to provide resupply to the ISS. The contract requires the systems to be delivered over the next six years
