SpaceX Introduces DragonLabTM
SpaceX to Host (Invitation-only) Users Workshop on November 6 Hawthorne, CA - November 3, 2008 – Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) is introducing a new commercial product called DragonLab™, a free-flying, reusable spacecraft capable of hosting pressurized and unpressurized payloads to and from space. DragonLab will launch to orbit aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle. (more...)
NASA to use Russian Rockets if COTS Fails
If the companies selected by NASA for COTS fail to produce cargo delivery service to the ISS in 2010, NASA says they will buy seats from Russia. Currently SpaceX, the first COTS selection, is preparing to launch a Falcon 9 rocket from Florida later this year. NASA is expected to make the selection of the other private company this month.
Update: Elon Musk has said: "There will be no gap in American access to the space station," Musk said in a statement.SpaceDev Wins Asteroid Tracking Competition
SpaceDev and partner SpaceWorks Engineering designed a craft called Farsight that won an asteroid tracking competition. Farsight tracked the asteroid Apophis (a somewhat unnerving name to Stargate SG-1 fans - djs) that should come within 30,000 km of the Earth in 2029 and has a slight chance of hitting us in 2036. The competition was [...]
Agile at work in Space
This is agile at work. Using existing UDP/IP or SMTP (store and download like email) for the communications protocols for space missions. Duh! Why create a whole new comm networks for each mission when you can by a TCP/IP stack on any cellphone.
There’s some good news and some bad news…
NASA has finally settled on the inline shuttle derived HLV. Damn.
But on a lighter note, Virgin Galactic announced the development of SpaceShip 3, a suborbital version.
Military in Space
This who “Peace in Space” crap just irritates me beyond belief. UPI has a story today about the military wanting to (gasp!) use space. Uhhh da’ horror. I love this quote by Ms. Hitchens:“They will go there if we go there,” says Theresa Hitchens of the Center for Defense Information in Washington. [...]
