08 October 2012
SpaceX Launches 1st Private ISS Cargo Mission
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08 October 2012
Virgin Galactic Acquires Full Ownership of The Spaceship Company
Virgin Galactic, the world's first commercial spaceline, has announced that it has taken 100% ownership of its sister company, The Spaceship Company (TSC), by acquiring the 30% stake held by Scaled Composites (Scaled) since TSC's formation under a joint venture with Virgin Galactic.
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06 October 2012
Russia, U.S. to send crew to ISS for year
A Russian cosmonaut and a U.S. astronaut will fly to the International Space Station for the first-ever yearlong mission in 2015, officials said. The Russian Federal Space Agency Roscosmos and other partners in the ISS project came to an agreement on the mission Friday, ITAR-Tass reported. The final crew and details of the mission will be determined through further negotiations between the partners.
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05 October 2012
Wind delays Austrian's edge of space jump in US
US organizers of an Austrian daredevil's record-breaking attempt to jump from the edge of space have delayed the mission by a day due to forecast wind, they said Friday. Felix Baumgartner, aiming to break a number of records including being the first man to exceed the speed of sound in free fall, is now scheduled to jump Tuesday instead of Monday over the US state of New Mexico.
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related:
A man on ledge, 23 miles up and no fear
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05 October 2012
Japan mini-satellite to flash code from space
A palm-sized Japanese satellite in orbit around Earth will flash a Morse code message that will be visible around the world from next month, the mission commander said Friday. The solar-powered device was released from the International Space Station 390 kilometres (242 miles) above Earth and is now in a regular orbit.
Observers, ideally with binoculars, will be able to see flashes of light -- green in the northern hemisphere, where people will see the "front" of the satellite, and red in the southern hemisphere, where the "back" will be visible. Morse code uses a series of dots and dashes to represent letters of the alphabet and is commonly understood across the world as a way of transmitting pieces of text. Specific timings and locations will be announced later on the institute's website -- http://www.fit.ac.jp/kenkyu/fitsat1/ -- in Japanese and English.
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05 October 2012
Space Competitiveness Report: U.S. Still Tops but Lead is Shrinking
The United States remains the world’s dominant space power. Its position relative to its peers, however, has eroded steadily during the past five years in a market that is becoming increasingly competitive with the entrance of new players, according to a report released Oct. 3 by Futron Corp., a consulting firm based in Bethesda, Md.
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03 October 2012
H-IIB Launch Service Privatization
As a result of the successful launch of the H-IIB Launch Vehicle No. 3, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries LTD. (MHI) have agreed to privatize the H-IIB launch service according to the "Basic Agreement on Development and Launch Service of the H-IIB Launch Vehicle."
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04 October 2012
ATK and NASA Showcase Cost-Saving Upgrades for Space Launch System Solid Rocket Boosters
ATK (ATK) and NASA held an event to highlight progress made in manufacturing the first ground test motor and cost-saving process upgrades for manufacturing the solid rocket booster for NASA's Space Launch System (SLS). These changes have reduced assembly time by approximately 46 percent, saving millions of dollars in projected costs for the SLS system.
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04 October 2012
Russian Export Rules Force ExoMars Mission Changes
Russian export control procedures made it impossible for Europe’s ExoMars mission in 2016 to employ a Russian nuclear heater that would have permitted the ExoMars lander to operate for two years on the martian surface, the ExoMars prime contractor said Oct. 3. Removing the RTG does help the 2016 mission keep to its schedule, but said the cost in terms of lost scientific return is high.
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03 October 2012
Shenzhou 10 mission to China's Tiangong 1 space module will perform more complex manuevers
Flightglobal reports that the next manned mission to the Chinese space module will see docking manuevers from a non-tangential approach, probably from below the space laboratory. According to Flightglobal, Ming Li of the China Academy of Space Technology explained that the previous docking manuevers from a linear rendezvous direction have been very successful and this time it will become important to test docking procedures also used for the International Space Station. He also mentioned that the next space module the Tiangong 2 space lab is about to be finalised in construction and would be available for a launch in the 2013/2014 time frame.
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03 October 2012
NASA Plan to Build Space Station Beyond the Moon Criticized
NASA's proposal to build a small space station at the Earth Moon Lagrange Point-2, which is where the gravity of the Earth and moon cancel out 38,000 miles from the far side of the moon, is coming under some criticism. John Strickland, a space advocate and a member of the National Space Society Board of Directors, suggests in the Space Review that building what is in effect a smaller version of the ISS at an Earth Moon Lagrange Point is a scheme by NASA to justify the expense of the Orion and Space Launch System. Currently Orion/SLS have a limited number of destinations. Without a lander, astronauts cannot access the lunar surface. Without a long duration habitation module, astronauts cannot visit Earth-approaching asteroids. A station in empty space in the cislunar system is about the only place that the Orion/SLS can go.
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27 September 2012
Russia to send all-novice crew to ISS
A crew of three all-novice members would be sent to the International Space Station (ISS) in October, Russia's Cosmonauts Training Center said Tuesday. The crew, consisting of Russian cosmonauts Oleg Novitsky, Yevgeny Tarelkin and U.S. astronaut Kevin Ford, is expected to stay at the ISS for five months.
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26 September 2012
Vietnam launches construction of national satellite center
A groundbreaking ceremony for construction of the Vietnam Satellite Center was held at Hoa Lac High-tech Park in Vietnam's capital Hanoi on Wednesday.
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26 September 2012
Senior scientist discusses China's lunar orbiter challenges
Landing and enduring extreme temperatures will be the two biggest challenges facing Chang'e-3, China's third lunar probe, the chief scientist of China's lunar orbiter project told academics on Wednesday. Different from the hard-landing adopted for the first lunar probe, Chang'e-1, Chang'e-3 cannot land with a parachute, explained Ouyang. "A smooth and steady soft landing on the lunar surface will be a challenge," he said of the project, which will see Chang'e-3 launched in the second half of 2013 to conduct a moon landing and lunar explorations.
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25 September 2012
Mars Planning Group Endorses Sample Return
A blue-ribbon panel chartered to help NASA reboot its robotic Mars Exploration Program outlined several approaches Sept. 25 for returning samples from the red planet to Earth but did not endorse any one plan.
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25 September 2012
ESA Members Offer Different Visions as Space Policy Conclave Looms
Senior officials from the German, French, Italian and British space agencies outlined the positions they will defend at what may be a rough conference in November to set Europe’s space policy direction for the next several years. In presentations made Sept. 12, these officials occasionally reminded their counterparts that, for European Space Agency members, supporting the neighbors is often the best way of supporting yourself.
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FOR FURTHER READING
01 October 2012
Russian Space research in 2012
Gennady Yevstafyev - retired Lieutenant General of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service is answering questions by Voice of Russia about the militarisation of space.
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01 October 2012
The cislunar gateway with no gate
According to recent news reports, NASA is working on plans for a “gateway” station at the Earth-Moon L2 point. John Strickland describes why such a facility could be useful, but also why NASA’s approach to it may be doomed to fail.
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01 October 2012
The Google Lunar X PRIZE at five: can it still be won?
Five years ago last month, Google and the X PRIZE Foundation announced a $30-million prize competition for a commercial lunar mission. With the prize not yet claimed, Jeff Foust reports on the prospects various teams have for winning the competition before it expires at the end of 2015.
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01 October 2012
Final flight
Just over a week ago the shuttle Endeavour arrived in Los Angeles, marking the final trip for that orbiter and the last time an orbiter will be ferried by plane. Andre Bormanis comments on this milestone.
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01 October 2012
Review: Doing the Impossible
One of the key figures in the Apollo program, although lesser known to many, was George Mueller. Anthony Young reviews a book that examines the management contributions that Mueller made that enabled the success of the program.
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24 September 2012
Building a starship’s foundation
Developing a starship, even over the course of a century, sounds like a wild thing to do given the challenges of spaceflight today, but DARPA awarded a $500,000 grant earlier this year to an organization led by a former astronaut to do just that. Jeff Foust checks out the status of the 100 Year Starship as discussed at a recent symposium.
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24 September 2012
Shedding a little more light on space policy
With six weeks until the election, the space community is increasingly interested in the policy positions of the two major presidential candidates on space. Jeff Foust reports on some recent developments that offer some more insights on their stances, while leaving many questions still unanswered.
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24 September 2012
Review: Working on Mars
As NASA’s latest Mars rover, Curiosity, ramps up its activities on the Red Planet, the previous Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, can offer a variety of lessons. Jeff Foust reviews a book that examines the interactions among that project’s scientists and what it means for a robotic vehicle, controlled by humans, to explore another world.
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