16 December 2011
NASA to change private spacecraft plans
William Gerstenmaier, associate NASA administrator for the human exploration and operations mission directorate, said the agency has decided on a more flexible contracting procedure that will keep more private companies in the running and still allow NASA to sign off when the companies achieve certain milestones.
NASA is not expecting a new vehicle to be ready until at least 2017, a year later than initially planned, he said.
MORE...
16 December 2011
NASA Announces: Dragon To The Space Station
NASA recently announced February 7, 2012, as SpaceX new target launch date for the upcoming mission. In addition, NASA officially confirmed that SpaceX will be allowed to complete the objectives of COTS 2 and COTS 3 in a single mission.
MORE...
15 December 2011
Orion Drop Test Makes A Clean Splash
Testing continues at NASA Langley Research Center as the 18,000-pound (8,165 kg) Orion test article took its eight and final splash of the year into the Hydro Impact Basin on Dec. 13.
MORE...
15 December 2011
Russia space agency 'bans foreign travel'
Roscosmos' new chief Vladimir Popovkin has imposed a formal ban on managers and staff employed by its rocket-making subsidiaries taking holidays abroad, the Izvestia daily said, quoting an internal directive.
MORE...
14 December 2011
Orbital Selects Antares as Permanent Name For New Rocket Based On Taurus II Program
Orbital Sciences has announced that Antares will be the permanent operational name for the medium-class launch vehicle created by its research and development program formerly known as Taurus II. Orbital has been in the development phase of the new rocket program for the past four years.
MORE...
14 December 2011
Boris Chertok who helped put Gagarin in space dies at 99
One of the last surviving architects of the Soviet space programme that put Yuri Gagarin into orbit half a century ago died on Wednesday, officials said. Boris Chertok was 99.
MORE...
14 December 2011
Phobos-Grunt mission now impossible says chief designer
"We should admit that Phobos-Grunt has failed to fulfill its main mission of reaching Mars," Khartov told RIA Novosti on the sidelines of a space research conference in Moscow. "This is a fact. Mission Impossible."
MORE...
14 December 2011
NASA seeking astronaut candidates
MORE...
14 December 2011
NASA Developing Comet Harpoon for Sample Return
Researchers want to send a spacecraft to rendezvous with a comet, then fire a harpoon to rapidly acquire samples from specific locations with surgical precision while hovering above the target.
MORE...
14 December 2011
Voyager spacecraft that toured outer planets nearing solar system edge
NASA has announced that Voyager 1 - about 11 billion miles from Earth - has now sailed to the edge of the solar system and is expected to punch its way into interstellar space in the coming months or years. Voyager 2 is not far behind, but on a different trajectory.
MORE...
13 December 2011
DLR Chief Sees Battles Ahead on Station, Ariane
The head of the German space agency on Dec. 13 said Germany is preparing for a tough battle in 2012 to persuade its debt-burdened European partners to continue a large investment in the international space station.
MORE...
13 December 2011
ESA Challenges Astrium To Reduce Space Station Operations 30 Percent by 2020
MORE...
13 December 2011
Peres promotes Israeli moon probe
Israeli space enthusiasts are taking part in an international moon-probe competition.
President Shimon Peres cut the ribbon Thursday on Space IL, a nonprofit group that will compete for the international Google Lunar X Prize.
MORE...
13 December 2011
Scientist Travel to Laguna Negra (Chile) for Titan analog mission
MORE...
12 December 2011
DLR tests Australian spacecraft
Can new types of engine make spaceflight easier and more economical? This question is being investigated by researchers at the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum fur Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) using one of Europe's leading hypersonic wind tunnels, located in Gottingen. The engine is being tested for an Australian Scramjet-based Access-to-Space Systems (SCRAMSPACE) experimental spacecraft - SCRAMSPACE I - scheduled for launch in 2013.
MORE...
08 December 2011
ExoMars Partnership Inches Forward
Senior officials from the U.S., European and Russian space agencies on Dec. 7 agreed to pursue negotiations that would make Russia a full partner in a planned U.S.-European Mars exploration project that has been stymied by budget restrictions at NASA, a European Space Agency (ESA) official said Dec. 8.
MORE...
08 December 2011
China honors its 'father' of space efforts
China says it is commemorating the centennial birth anniversary of Qian Xuesen, considered the country's father of space technology.
MORE...
08 December 2011
Hundreds of NASA's moon rocks missing: audit
NASA Inspector General Paul Martin issued a report detailing foibles such as the US space agency making loans to researchers who never used the samples, or simply losing track of rare pieces dating back to the first US trip to the Moon in 1969. "According to NASA records, 517 loaned astromaterials have been lost or stolen between 1970 and June 2010," said the report.
MORE...
07 December 2011
ESA responds to Phobos-Grunt tracking request
MORE...
related:
02 December 2011
ESA suspends tracking support to Russian Mars mission
MORE...
06 December 2011
NASA vows $8.8 bln space telescope on track for 2018
MORE...
06 December 2011
NASA Chief Downplays Threat of ‘Sequestration’ Cuts
MORE...
05 December 2011
MSL Course Excellent, Adjustment Postponed
MORE...
02 December 2011
X-37B on Overtime
The US Air Force has officially confirmed that the second flight of their X-37B robot spaceplane is on overtime. This small experimental spacecraft, which resembles a car-sized space shuttle, has been in orbit since early March. At the end of November, the spacecraft passed its semi-official endurance limit of 270 days in space.
MORE...
FOR FURTHER READING
16 December 2011
Is there profit in outer space
Nonetheless, there is real energy in the room: people at Orbital say that it's exciting and fun to build a spacecraft. But the company also has a lot on the line: a successful demonstration by Cygnus enables a $1.9 billion contract with NASA for eight additional missions.
MORE...
12 December 2011
Competition and the future of the EELV program
The US government is grappling with both the growing costs of existing launch vehicles and the emergence of new, if relatively untested, competitors. Stewart Money argues that the future of reliable, cost-effective space access depends on enhanced competition among launch providers.
MORE...
12 December 2011
The long-term vision thing
Many NewSpace ventures today have benefited from the stable financial support provided by a wealthy founder. Jeff Foust examines how two very different such companies have each found ways to maintain a long-term vision independent of near-term issues.
MORE...
12 December 2011
A first look at Austria’s new domestic space law
The Austrian parliament recent passed a new law governing outer space activities by its citizens. Michael Listner provides an overview of the law and how it matches up with international agreements and treaties.
MORE...
12 December 2011
Six Million Dollar snooze
In the 1970s TV series The Six Million Dollar Man, Steve Austin was an astronaut who became a bionically-enhanced special agent. Dwayne Day looks back at the series, now available for rental, and finds it has not improved with age.
MORE...
12 December 2011
Review: Lights of Mankind
Countless images have been taken of the Earth from space, most commonly in daylight. Jeff Foust reviews a book that offers a very different perspective of the Earth from space, when the lights of cities shine brightly in the night.
MORE...
05 December 2011
Accelerating the future: human achievements beyond LEO within a decade
Is it possible to accelerate human missions beyond Earth orbit within constrained budgets? Harley Thronson, Dan Lester, and Skip Hatfield describe how to leverage the experience and technologies of the ISS to support cislunar missions.
MORE...
05 December 2011
Time for Russia to rethink its Mars exploration plans
In the wake of the apparent failure of its Phobos-Grunt mission, Russian officials are suggesting they’ll try to refly the same mission in the coming years. Lou Friedman argues that Russia instead needs to review its overall Mars exploration plans and consider closer cooperation with the US and Europe.
MORE...
05 December 2011
Innovations in exoplanet search
One of the challenges facing the burgeoning field of extrasolar planet research is finding new ways of discovering more, and more Earth-like, planets within constrained budgets. Jeff Foust reports on a couple of innovative approaches that leverage advances in smallsats and suborbital vehicles.
MORE...
05 December 2011
Big comm, little mysteries
What do changes in little details in a satellite’s design mean? Dwayne Day examines a changing antenna design of a classic communications satellite and wonders what story it might tell.
MORE...
05 December 2011
The perils of spaceflight prediction
Last week the BBC released a long-lost recording of a 1963 TV show featuring Arthur C. Clarke talking about his visions for the future of human spaceflight. Jeff Foust compares those predictions to what actually happened in the 1960s and beyond.
MORE...