05 July 2013
Russian watchdog says country's space program is inefficient
Poor management of space programs, projects, contracts and expenses made Russia's Federal Space Program inefficient despite the increase in its budget in the past three years, the parliament's Audit Chamber said in a statement.
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05 July 2013
UK astronomers to co-ordinate their search for alien signals
British scientists are to make a concerted effort to look for alien life among the stars. Academics from 11 institutions have set up a network to co-ordinate their Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (Seti).
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03 July 2013
NASA Wants More Spaceport Infrastructure Opened to Private Sector
 An internal legislative wish-list shows that NASA, mired in a U.S. budget crunch that has dimmed prospects for new authorization and appropriations bills this year, is looking for ways to give private space companies more sway over critical national space infrastructure - so long as they are willing to pay for the privilege. The undated 35-page legislative proposal - which also contains many noncommercialization suggestions for Congress to consider - was crafted by NASA in response to the draft NASA authorization bill unveiled June 19 by the Republican leadership of House Science, Space and Technology space subcommittee.
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02 July 2013
NASA Astronauts To Fly on Space Taxi Test Flights to Station
NASA expects to release a draft solicitation for the next phase of its Commercial Crew Program this summer, but one requirement already has been decided: Bidders need to make at least one test fight to the international space station (ISS) and NASA wants one of its astronauts aboard. “They may choose to fly un-crewed orbital test flights. They may choose to fly crewed orbital test flights that don’t go to station, but eventually at a minimum they will need to fly at least one test flight to the ISS with a NASA crew member on board,” astronaut Mike Good told reporters at a Kennedy Space Center program status briefing on June 27.
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02 July 2013
NASA Astronauts To Fly on Space Taxi Test Flights to Station
NASA expects to release a draft solicitation for the next phase of its Commercial Crew Program this summer, but one requirement already has been decided: bidders need to make at least one test fight to the international space station and NASA wants one of its astronauts aboard.
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02 July 2013
Russian Proton M Rocket Explodes Just After Blast Off
An unmanned Russian carrier rocket exploded Tuesday on takeoff at the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, releasing tonnes of highly toxic fuel into the air in the space programme's latest disaster caught on live television.
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02 July 2013
NASA Commercial Crew Partner SpaceX Completes Two Human-Critical Reviews
Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) of Hawthorne, Calif., recently completed two milestones for NASA's Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) initiative, which is intended to make commercial human spaceflight services available for government and commercial customers. These were the fifth and sixth milestones for SpaceX, a partner in NASA's Commercial Crew Program (CCP). The company is on track to complete all 14 of its CCiCap milestones by mid-2014.
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02 July 2013
NASA Seeks Information on Commercial Robotic Lunar Lander Capabilities
NASA Tuesday issued a Request for Information (RFI) that will help agency officials better understand current plans in the U.S. commercial space industry for a robotic lunar landing capability. The RFI will assist NASA in assessing U.S. industry's interest in partnerships to develop a robotic lander that could enable commercial and agency missions.
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02 July 2013
NASA Announces Space Station Research and Development Conference
The American Astronautical Society, in cooperation with NASA and the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS), will conduct the second annual International Space Station Research and Development Conference July 16-18 in Denver.
The theme of the conference is "Discoveries, Applications and Opportunities." It is the only annual conference offering details on the full breadth of research and technology development on the space station, including the full suite of prospects for future research over the life of the station.
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02 July 2013
NASA Tests Game Changing Composite Cryogenic Fuel Tank
NASA recently completed a major space technology development milestone by successfully testing a pressurized, large cryogenic propellant tank made of composite materials. The composite tank will enable the next generation of rockets and spacecraft needed for space exploration. In the past, propellant tanks have been fabricated out of metals. The almost 8 foot- (2.4 meter) diameter composite tank tested at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., is considered game changing because composite tanks may significantly reduce the cost and weight for launch vehicles and other space missions.
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28 June 2013
China to put second spacelab in orbit by 2015
China will go forward with development and construction of space labs and plans to launch its second, Tiangong-2, in 2015, an aerospace official said. The plans are in line with China's overall outline for the country's manned space program, Wang Zhaoyao, director of China's manned space program office, said.
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28 June 2013
Twilight for Tiangong
The last two missions both carried astronauts to occupy the laboratory. It has shown that China can support astronauts in comfort for extended periods. There have also been experiments with manual dockings and different approach patterns for dockings. This rather small module has achieved a lot over its lifetime. Let's consider the state of the laboratory right now. The interior looks fine on video footage. It has been largely depleted of logistics supplies for astronauts, making further occupation difficult.
No problem. China had never planned more than two crewed expeditions to Tiangong 1, and it has completed both of these successfully.
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27 June 2013
NASA's Voyager 1 approaches outer limit of solar system
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27 June 2013
China calls for international cooperation in manned space program
China is willing to explore new cooperation models in fields including astronaut training and joint flights and to further promote the cooperation and exchanges between Chinese astronauts and their international counterparts, Deng Yibing, director of China Astronaut Research and Training Center, told a press briefing in Beijing. "We believe that more extensive exchanges could help deepen understanding between us and establish a better basis for more concrete cooperation in the future," he said.
China has long been paying great attention to exchanges and cooperation between Chinese astronauts and their international counterparts and is willing to help train astronauts for other countries, Deng said.
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27 June 2013
Sierra Nevada Corporation Completes the Finance Investment Milestone for the Dream Chaser
Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) has successfully completed another Dream Chaser milestone under NASA's Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) agreement. The CCiCap Investment Finance milestone represents SNC's commitment to significantly invest its own dollars into the design, development and testing of the Dream Chaser Space System.
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26 June 2013
China's Shenzhou-10 mission successful
Zhang Youxia, commander-in-chief of China's manned space program, said the Shenzhou-10 mission was a "complete success". The reentry capsule of Shenzhou-10 landed safely in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region at 8:07 a.m.. All three astronauts were in good physical condition.
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26 June 2013
China’s Astronauts: Home from Space, Hope for the Earth
It’s happening again. Seeing the earth from space is raising our awareness, as a species, of the precious and precarious nature of life on what astronomer Carl Sagan called our “mote of dust, suspended in a sunbeam.” Many U.S. astronauts commented on the transformative personal experience of seeing the earth from space. Chinese astronauts are having the same experience.
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20 June 2013
China astronaut teaches lesson from space
A Chinese astronaut orbiting more than 300 kilometres (186 miles) above the Earth's surface delivered a video class to children across the country on Thursday, state television showed in a live broadcast.
More than 60 million students and teachers were expected to watch the class, the state-run China Daily said.
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FOR FURTHER READING
01 July 2013
Mist around the CZ-3B disaster (part 1)
Over 15 years ago, a Chinese Long March rocket went off course seconds after liftoff, crashing not far from the launch site and, according to some accounts, killing many people. In the first of a two part article, Chen Lan examines what we have learned about that accident since 1996.
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01 July 2013
Smallsat constellations: the killer app?
Interest in smallsats is rising as such spacecraft become more capable, but finding applications for them that will generate significant demand has been a challenge. Jeff Foust reports on how two companies, including one that announced its plans last week, are seeking to fly fleets of such satellites for Earth imaging applications.
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01 July 2013
Conflating space exploration and commercialization: coverage of PayPal’s announcement
Last week, electronic banking company PayPal announced, to some surprise, that it was kicking off an initiative to study how to perform financial transactions in space. John Hickman takes issue with the lack of critical reporting about the announcement in the press, especially those who confused space commercialization with space exploration.
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01 July 2013
Life and death and ice
Although it won’t be in theaters until August, the sci-fi movie Europa Report is available now via video on demand. Dwayne Day watched the movie and describes an interesting and thought-provoking film about a human mission to Europa.
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01 July 2013
Review: The Astronaut Wives Club
In the early Space Age, the women married to NASA’s first astronauts were, in public, the ideal housewives who cheerfully supported their husbands’ dangerous journeys into space. Jeff Foust reviews a new book the describes the private struggles these women faced dealing with the unique stress of their situation.
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24 June 2013
Redirecting an asteroid mission
Since its announcement in April, NASA has struggled to win public and political support for its asteroid initiative, including a mission to move a small asteroid into cislunar space. Jeff Foust reports on how NASA may be tweaking the effort to place a greater emphasis on planetary defense, while some in Congress move to block the project.
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24 June 2013
Bird on a wire
On Saturday, the Kennedy Space Center’s Visitor Complex will open its new exhibit showing the shuttle Atlantis. Dwayne Day offers a preview of what to expect when the doors open to the public.
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24 June 2013
Gallery: Atlantis exhibit at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex
A collection of photos of the new Space Shuttle Atlantis exhibit at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.
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24 June 2013
Review: Up and Down
A contest to select two ordinary people to fly in space in order to build public support for spaceflight: what could possibly go wrong? Jeff Foust reviews a Canadian novel that entertainingly shows how how things could go awry.
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