28 January 2011
NASA's New Lander Prototype Skates Through Integration and Testing
NASA engineers successfully integrated and completed system testing on a new robotic lander recently at Teledyne Brown Engineering's facility in Huntsville in support of the Robotic Lunar Lander Project at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.
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27 January 2011
NASA marks 25 years after Challenger disaster
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27 January 2011
Russian Space Programs Underfunded
Russia is not in a position to carry out global space programs single-handedly and should team up with India and Kazakhstan, veteran rocket scientist Boris Chertok said on Tuesday.
He said Russian space programs are grossly underfunded compared to similar projects in the United States and China.
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27 January 2011
Russian answer to U.S. reusable robotic spacecraft in the offing
Russian researchers are working on an unmanned spacecraft similar to the U.S. Boeing X-37 Orbital Test Vehicle, Space Troops chief Oleg Ostapenko said on Thursday.
He said, however, it was not clear as yet how it would be used.
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27 January 2011
US Drops ISRO And DRDO From Entities List
Meeting the long pending Indian demand, Obama administration removed nine Indian space and defense related companies including those from the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and Defense Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), from its export control 'Entity List'.
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27 January 2011
NASA may Purchase More Seats for Astronauts from Russia - Roscosmos
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26 January 2011
Arianespace Shareholders Agree To Offset Consortium’s Losses
The Arianespace commercial launch consortium has won approval of its shareholders to recapitalize the company to compensate for two years of losses totaling 135 million euros ($184 million), European government and industry officials said Jan. 26.
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related:
14 January 2011
ESA Putting Arianespace Finances Under the Microscope
European governments have ordered a detailed audit of the sources and uses of money at the Arianespace commercial launch consortium and its industrial suppliers as a condition of granting the company’s request for what may be a permanent financial aid package to assure its ongoing financial viability, European government and industry officials said.
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26 January 2011
Vostochny: Space Haven of 21 Century
"The Vostochny will be constructed using the French Guiana’s Kourou Cosmodrome know-how and South Korea’s developments," Perminov says. This experience should be implemented in the Russian practice, when constructing buildings and facilities for the Vostochny Cosmodrome
"Vostochny’s satellite city is to be one-of-its-kind scientific and tourist space town with a unique design and a beautiful landscape," famous Moscow architect Dmitry Pshenichnikov says.
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25 January 2011
DLR Researchers Simulate The Martian Atmosphere
To support the European ExoMars Mission to explore the Red Planet, an international project is being launched on 20 January 2011 with the aim of simulating the entry of spacecraft into the martian atmosphere.
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25 January 2011
LockMart To Enhance Space Systems Development With Opening Of New Virtual Laboratory
The Collaborative Human Immersive Laboratory (CHIL), located at Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company headquarters in Littleton, Colo., integrates several virtual reality technologies enabling engineers and technicians to validate, test, and understand products and processes virtually before creating them physically. The result is a reduction in risk with savings in both time and cost.
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21 January 2011
Mars500 crew to simulate Mars walk next month
Preparations for this event will begin on 1 February, when the Mars500 ‘spacecraft’ docks with a Mars lander already in orbit. Half the crew will then transfer to the lander – Russia's Alexander Smoleevskiy, Europe’s Diego Urbina and China’s Wang Yue – to prepare for Mars landing on 12 February. The 14 February Marswalk is the first of three to take place during the ten-day stay.
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21 January 2011
Space Shuttle Program Baselines STS-135
On Thursday, the Space Shuttle Program baselined the STS-135 mission for a target launch date of June 28. It is NASA's intent to fly the mission with orbiter Atlantis carrying the Raffaello multipurpose logistics module to deliver supplies, logistics and spare parts to the International Space Station.
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21 January 2011
ESA Budget Rises to $4B as 14 Nations Boost Contributions
Fourteen of the European Space Agency’s (ESA)18 member nations have agreed to raise their contributions for 2011 despite public debt concerns that have reached near-crisis levels in some of them, ESA officials said.
As a result, the agency has been given an overall 7 percent budget increase, to 2.975 billion euros ($4 billion). The additional money could provide a financial cushion in the event unplanned bills arrive ahead of its member governments’ scheduled payments, officials said.
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21 January 2011
ISRO Allocates Resources For Research On Manned Mission
The Indian Space Research Organisation has allocated Rs. 9.8 crore to Institute of Aerospace Medicine for upgrading its laboratories to conduct research for its manned mission into space.
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related:
13 January 2011
Indonauts Must Wait For A Better Rocket
The 2010 Christmas Day failure of India's Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle was a sad blow to India's space program. ISRO, India's space agency, lost a rocket and a major satellite. There's an obvious need to plan a replacement for the lost bird, and debug the problems that caused the failure. Beyond this, there could be further implications. The loss of this rocket will have an influence on India's fledgling human spaceflight program.
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18 January 2011
Satellite Executive Felled by WikiLeaks Diplomatic Cable Disclosure
The publication of U.S. diplomatic cables depicting German mistrust of France with respect to satellite technology has caused the immediate dismissal of a well-known space industry executive, the sharp interrogation of an employee of another company and the publication of a letter from the head of Germany’s space agency insisting that German-French relations were fine.
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related:
13 January 2011
Galileo satnav system called 'stupid idea': US cable
According to an October 2009 cable from the US embassy in Berlin obtained by WikiLeaks and released by Norwegian daily Aftenposten, the head of German satellite firm OHB Technology, Berry Smutny, made the comments to US diplomats in Berlin. "I think Galileo is a stupid idea that primarily serves French interests," Smutny was quoted as saying in the cable.
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17 January 2011
Space News Interview with NASA Administrator Charles Bolden
NASA’s Human Exploration Framework Team, or HEFT, concluded that the president’s goal of sending astronauts to an asteroid in 2025 is unrealistic. What now?
For how long do you expect NASA to rely on Russia for space station crew transport after the space shuttle retires this year?
What was your impression of China’s space program and capabilities following your visit to Beijing last year?
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13 January 2011
NASA says it can't afford new rocket, spacecraft
NASA this week told Congress it cannot afford to build a new heavy-lift rocket and spacecraft to replace the retiring space shuttle program within the timeframe and budget approved by lawmakers. The plan to make a first launch of a new rocket and space capsule to carry astronauts by 2016 "does not appear to be possible" within the projected budget, NASA said in a report to legislators.
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related...
14 January 2011
The HLV Cost Information NASA Decided Not To Give To Congress
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14 January 2011
2011 to be 'revolution' for Europe in space - ESA
Europe is set for a space "revolution" in 2011 when two new types of rocket join its launch pad in French Guiana, European Space Agency (ESA) boss Jean-Jacques Dordain said on Friday. ESA's Ariane 5 heavy launcher is to be joined at Kourou this year by a tried-and-tested workhorse of space, Russia's medium-sized Soyuz, and by a new European-designed rocket, Vega, for small payloads. "2011 will be the year of the launchers," Dordain said at a press conference at ESA headquarters.
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14 January 2011
Extra shuttle mission this year in doubt
Two more shuttle trips were planned before the aging three-orbiter fleet was to be retired when a third, final mission was approved by Congress last year in a NASA authorization bill signed by President Barack Obama, SPACE.com reported.
But funding for the measure has not been appropriated as the country operates under a continuing resolution, freezing NASA at 2010 funding levels until Congress can agree on a formal budget.
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13 January 2011
Space Adventures Signs Three Seat Soyuz Deal For 2013 Manifest
Space Adventures has reached an agreement with the Federal Space Agency of the Russian Federation (FSA) and Rocket Space Corporation Energia (RSC Energia) to commercially offer three seats on the Soyuz spacecraft bound for the International Space Station (ISS), beginning in 2013.
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13 January 2011
End of US shuttle program poses safety risks: panel
A climate of uncertainty in the US space program combined with the approaching retirement of the shuttle missions presents safety risks, a government advisory panel said Thursday. "Lack of clarity and constancy of purpose among NASA, Congress, and the White House is a key safety concern," the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel said in its annual report.
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13 January 2011
International Space Station and Mars Conference at George Washington University
Explore Mars, Inc. is pleased to announce a two-day conference called "The International Space Station and Mars" (ISSMars-DC). This conference will take place on April 6-7, 2011 at the Jack Morton Auditorium at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
ISSMars-DC will focus extensively on how the International Space Station can be used to advance exploration beyond Low Earth Orbit - specifically to Mars. Speakers and panelists will include some of the most prominent experts from NASA, industry, and the ISS international partnership.
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11 January 2011
Russia to spend $3.8B on space program
The Russian government will spend $3.8 billion on its national space program in 2011, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Tuesday.
Putin said Russia plans to launch about 50 spacecraft in 2011 and adopt a federal program to develop the Glonass satellite navigation system until 2020, RIA Novosti reported.
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10 January 2011
Ex-NASA worker charged military tech sale to SKorea
An American who worked for NASA was charged with illegally shipping infrared military technology to South Korea, the Department of Justice announced Monday.
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for further reading
24 January 2011
Smiling In Space
A comment by Morris Jones on the prospects of Sino-US-American cooperation in space.
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24 January 2011
The Grand Tour: Uranus
Twenty-five years ago today Voyager 2 made its closest approach to Uranus, becoming the first, and so far only, spacecraft to visit the seventh planet. Andrew LePage recounts the challenges of getting a spacecraft designed primarily for Jupiter and Saturn to continue the exploration of the outer solar system.
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24 January 2011
Fly me to the stars
Given the near-term challenges of just getting beyond Earth orbit, does it make sense to think about how to travel to other stars? Lou Friedman explains the benefits of long-term planning for interstellar missions, as DARPA and NASA are currently exploring.
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24 January 2011
EML-1: the next logical destination
One potential destination for human spaceflight beyond Earth orbit is the Earth-Moon L-1 point. Ken Murphy discusses the various roles a human presence there could play in supporting space exploration and development.
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24 January 2011
Sub-scale and classified: the top secret CIA model of a Soviet launch pad
During the race to the Moon in the 1960s, the CIA built models of the Soviet N-1 launch pad to help them better understand the launch site infrastructure. Dwayne Day describes the discovery of one of those vintage models in an unexpected location.
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24 January 2011
Review: The Four Percent Universe
Discoveries in recent years have revolutionized the field of cosmology, indicating that ordinary matter makes up on a small fraction of the universe. Jeff Foust reviews a book that examines the search for dark matter and dark energy.
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17 Monday 2011
The flight of the Big Bird (part 1)
Development of the KH-9 spy satellite, often referred to in the media as “Big Bird”, has been shrouded in secrecy for decades, but new details are emerging. Dwayne Day examines the early history of the KH-9, including tensions between the NRO and CIA, in the first of a two-part article.
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17 Monday 2011
Can NASA develop a heavy-lift rocket?
Last week the debate on how NASA should develop a heavy-lift rocket restarted after NASA submitted a report indicating its preferred design would not fit into the budget and schedule of its authorization act. Jeff Foust reports on the issues regarding the technology, budget, and even utility of a heavy-lifter raised in that debate.
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17 Monday 2011
Small ball or home runs: the changing ethos of US human spaceflight policy
Past efforts to develop big human spaceflight programs patterned after Apollo have failed, most recently NASA’s implementation of the Vision for Space Exploration. Roger Handberg uses a sports analogy to explain why it’s time to turn to a more sustainable approach to human space exploration.
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17 Monday 2011
Funding the search for life in the solar system
Advances in astrobiology have expanded the range of potential sites in the solar system that could support life. Lou Friedman discusses how to make it possible to afford exploring all those sites.
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17 Monday 2011
Footnotes of shuttle history: the Advanced Communications Technology Satellite
One of the lesser-known payloads launched by the space shuttle was an experimental communications satellite. Dwayne Day describes how ACTS was part of a larger but now dated debate about industrial policy.
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