Exploration News - 21 October 2012
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19 October 2012
'Unprecedented' Budget Environment Drives Change across Space Industry
Declining U.S. federal budgets and the looming threat that things could get much worse before they get better are forcing government space agencies and contractors to rethink the way they do business, and according to some officials, that is not such a bad thing.
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19 October 2012
How Space Station Can Help Humans Follow Curiosity to Mars and Beyond
Taking the guess work out of long-duration exploration, however, is one of the benefits of the International Space Station. This orbiting laboratory serves as a test bed for technology and helps researchers understand how to prepare for extended trips in space.
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19 October 2012
Preventing infection on long flights
The cabin of a spacecraft halfway to Mars would be the least convenient place - one cannot say "on earth" - for a Salmonella or Pneumococcus outbreak, but a wide-ranging new paper suggests that microgravity and prolonged space flight could give unique advantages to germs.
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18 October 2012
Orbital’s Cygnus Debut Pushed to March or April
Orbital Sciences Corp. on Oct. 18 said its new Antares rocket will not launch its Cygnus cargo freighter on a demonstration flight to the international space station until around March or April, assuming that two preceding rocket tests occur without a hitch.
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Exploration News - 08 October 2012
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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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A man on ledge, 23 miles up and no fear
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Exploration News - 23 September 2012
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24 September 2012
NASA Selects Space Launch System Advanced Development Proposals
NASA has selected 26 proposals from academia and industry for advanced development activities for the nation's next heavy lift rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS). Proposals selected under this NASA Research Announcement (NRA) seek innovative and affordable solutions to evolve the launch vehicle from its initial configuration to its full lift capacity capable of sending humans farther into deep space than ever before.
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21 September 2012
California welcomes shuttle Endeavour back to birth state
Completing the final leg of the final space shuttle ferryflight, the decommissioned Endeavour toured iconic landmarks around California before her 747 carrier jet made a tire-smoking touchdown at the Los Angeles International Airport on Friday.
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21 September 2012
Lawmakers Propose Restructuring NASA Management
A coalition of Republican lawmakers on Sept. 20 introduced legislation that would revamp NASA’s leadership structure, creating an 11-member board empowered to recommend candidates for NASA administrator, who would serve a 10-year term. "We have filed this bill today to make NASA less political and more professional by modeling their internal leadership after the FBI and the National Science Foundation,” Culberson said in prepared remarks.
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21 September 2012
ESA Chief Urges Immediate Investment in Next-gen Ariane Rocket
Do we have to decide on a new-generation launcher now?” Dordain asked, referring to the biggest debate about European space policy in 20 years. “I say yes. I strongly believe we have to decide, as quickly as possible, to develop a new-generation launcher to be competitive in the market as it is forecast, and with the competitors.”
Dordain made his comments Sept. 11 at a press briefing in Berlin during Germany’s ILA air show.
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21 September 2012
SpaceX, NASA Target Oct. 7 Launch For Resupply Mission To Space Station
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Exploration News - 25 August 2012
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25 August 2012
One small headline in the news but a giant loss for mankind - US astronaut Neil Armstrong dies
US astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first man to set foot on the Moon, has died at the age of 82. His family says he died from complications from heart surgery he had earlier this month. In a statement, his family praised him as a "reluctant American hero" who had "served his nation proudly, as a navy fighter pilot, test pilot, and astronaut".
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24 August 2012
Sarah Brightman In Talks Over Space Trip
British singer Sarah Brightman is in talks with the space tourism firm Space Adventures to become the world's eighth space tourist, a senior Russian space official said on Wednesday. "I think that if we do come to a consensus, then theoretically it can happen," Alexei Krasnov, head of manned space missions at the Russian space agency Roscosmos, said.
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24 August 2012
XCOR To Build, Fly Suborbital Ships in Florida
The Aug. 23 announcement at KSC’s Visitor Complex is the second expansion plan unveiled by XCOR in as many months. The privately held firm, currently based in Mojave, Calif., will relocate its headquarters and set up a research and development center in Midland, Texas, leaving only an operations center, and possibly some flight test activities, in Mojave.
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24 August 2012
SpaceX Cleared To Start Station Resupply Flights
NASA has formally cleared Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) to begin making cargo runs to the international space station in October, making the Hawthorne, Calif., company the first private-spacecraft owner-operator to serve the orbital outpost.
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Exploration News - 09 September 2012
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09 September 2012
Indian PM defends spending on space exploration
"Questions are sometimes asked about whether a poor country like India can afford a space programme and whether the funds spent on space exploration, albeit modest, could be better utilised elsewhere," Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said in a speech on Sunday. "This misses the point that a nation's state of development is finally a product of its technological prowess."
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07 September 2012
Russia Denies ‘Systemic Crisis’ in Space Industry
Russia’s space industry is not in crisis despite some local problems, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said on Friday. “There is no systemic crisis in the Russian space industry; we have problems with some firms, in some sectors,” said Rogozin, who oversees the military-industrial complex in the Russian government.
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07 September 2012
A Mars Rover Curiosity Begins Arm-Work Phase
After driving more than a football field's length since landing, NASA's Mars rover Curiosity is spending several days preparing for full use of the tools on its arm. Curiosity extended its robotic arm Wednesday in the first of six to10 consecutive days of planned activities to test the 7-foot (2.1-meter) arm and the tools it manipulates.
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07 September 2012
NASA Document Explains Agency’s Commercial Crew Picks
NASA dropped one company from its short list of potential commercial crew providers and relegated another to a backup role because of doubts that the proposed vehicles could be completed within the time and money the agency has available, according to an internal document NASA released Sept. 4.
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04 September 2012
NASA Dropped ATK’s Commercial Crew Proposal over Technical Concerns
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Exploration News - 12 August 2012
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12 August 2012
"What are the chief qualifications to become an astronaut?"
Liu Wang who controlled the Shenzhou-9 spacecraft to dock with the Tiangong-1 space lab module answered to this question by Cheung Hon Ching from Queen's College, who was among the four students chosen to have direct conversation with the delegation on stage, that maintaining good health is highly important.
Veteran taikonaut Jing Haipeng added that perfect psychological condition and willing to sacrifice are of the paramount importance. Cheung later on told reporters that he was greatly impressed by Jing's sacrificial spirit. "Now, I know that an astronaut has to give up much of his personal time and space and work really hard to reach success."
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10 August 2012
MSL Readings Could Improve Safety for Human Mars Missions
The MSL Entry, Descent and Landing Instrument (MEDLI) recorded the thermal and aerodynamic forces on the rover’s heatshield and aeroshell during descent into the martian atmosphere, and the Radiation Assessment Detector monitored radiation levels during MSL’s nearly nine-month cruise to Mars. The data gathered by these systems were among the first to be returned by MSL. The measurements could influence future NASA designs for larger martian landing craft, and help engineers better protect astronauts from solar and cosmic radiation during the long trip to Mars or other faraway destinations.
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09 August 2012
Small test vehicle veers out of control, crashes at KSC
The Morpheus rocket was designed and built by engineers at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston to test advanced technologies and approaches to integrated propulsion and guidance, navigation and control that could be used in the future for cargo missions to the moon.
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09 August 2012
Orbiter Images NASA's Latest Additions To Martian Landscape
The four main pieces of hardware that arrived on Mars with NASA's Curiosity rover were spotted by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). The High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera captured this image about 24 hours after landing.
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