Japan Launches Meteorological
Satellite on H-IIA Rocket (Source: JAXA)
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
(JAXA) launched the H-IIA Launch Vehicle No. 25 (H-IIA F25) with the
Geostationary Meteorological Satellite “Himawari-8” onboard on October
7 from the Tanegashima Space Center. The launch vehicle flew as
planned, and, at about 27 minutes and 57 seconds after liftoff, the
separation of the Himawari-8 was confirmed. (10/7)
Ten Years After the X PRIZE
(Source: Space Review)
Saturday marked the tenth anniversary of SpaceShipOne's final flight, a
suborbital journey that allowed it to win the $10-million Ansari X
PRIZE. Jeff Foust reports on a commemoration of that anniversary at the
site of the flight in Mojave, California, as well as Virgin Galactic's
efforts to get SpaceShipOne's successor finally flying. Visit http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2613/1
to view the article. (10/7)
US Space Policy and Planetary Defense
(Source: Space Review)
Events like the Chelyabinsk meteor more than a year and a half ago have
raised the profile of measures governments should take to prevent more
devastating impacts. James Howe examines the history of American space
policy in this area and the gaps in those policies. Visit http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2612/1
to view the article. (10/7)
The Strange Contagion of a Dream
(Source: Space Review)
The history of spaceflight has been shaped by a few key individuals who
have worked to convince governments to enable their dreams of space
exploration. Brian Altmeyer examines how these visionaries have enabled
progress in spaceflight and what that means for humanity's future in
space. Visit http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2611/1
to view the article. (10/7)
Editorial: A Big Change in U.S Space
Travel (Source: Ocala Star Banner)
Believe it or not, for-profit space ventures have been around awhile.
In pulp magazine stories of the 1930s and '40s, and later in sci-fi
movies of the 1950s, rockets to the moon and Mars were almost always
built by private companies and eccentric billionaires. When moviegoers
visited the huge space station in “2001: A Space Odyssey” (released in
1968), what did they see? A Howard Johnson and a Hilton hotel.
The agency that took Americans to the moon in 1969 is today hobbled by
bureaucracy and constant complaints of funding woes. We've already gone
far too long without manned rockets lifting off from nearby Kennedy
Space Center, a sight many in Central Florida would drop everything
they were doing to climb to the nearest rooftop to watch — if they
hadn't already driven to Cape Canaveral to get an up-close view.
NASA hopes that once Boeing and SpaceX start ferrying astronauts to the
space station, the government's lumbering, decades-old space program
can concentrate on boldly going where no one has gone before — to the
asteroids and Mars. Assuming, of course, that private companies don't
get there first. (10/7)
Branson’s Rival in the Great Space Race
(Source: Daily Beast)
Let’s just assume, for a moment, that you are both incredibly rich and
totally bonkers. So there you are, planning a trip to space. With whom
would you feel more confident traveling there—and back—with? A trained
aerospace engineer whose father was an astrophysicist and who has spent
several years working at the European Space agency, or Richard Branson?
I know who my money would be on. In the great race to put a tourist in
space, it is just possible that the quietly confident Spaniard José
Mariano López-Urdiales, whose project Bloon plans to serenely float
tourists 36km above the earth in pressurized capsules slung beneath
giant gas balloons (no, you won’t be hanging out of a gondola), may
quietly trump the bigger and noisier rocket-driven efforts of Virgin
Galactic. (10/7)
Texas STARGATE Gets $1.2M Federal
Grant, Will Support SpaceX Launch Tracking (Source: Brownsville
Herald)
U.S. Rep. Filemon Vela, D-Brownsville, and Pedro Garza, regional
director of the U.S. Economic Development Administration, will announce
the award of a $1.2 million grant for construction tied to STARGATE.
STARGATE stands for the South Texas Spacecraft Tracking and
Astronomical Research into Giga-hertz astrophysical Transient Emission.
It will be the first research Center of Excellence for the University
of Texas Rio Grande Valley.
It is a cooperative effort with SpaceX to develop and support
commercialization of phase-array technology for satellite and space
vehicle communication. Rick Jenet, an astrophysics professor at the
University of Texas at Brownsville, will speak about STARGATE and the
impact on faculty and students. The EDA grant will be used to fund a
business incubator for radio frequency laboratories, classrooms,
incubator offices, warehouse space and outdoor radio systems at the
STARGATE Technology Park located at the SpaceX Commercial Launch
Facility at Boca Chica Beach in Cameron County.
Editor's Note:
Looks like SpaceX is leveraging more Texas and federal money to
build-up a phased-array radar tracking capability to support its
launches at Boca Chica. (10/7)
$9 Million for STARGATE, In Support of
SpaceX Launch Activity (Source: UT System)
A total of $4.4 million from the Texas Emerging Technology Fund, $4.6
million from the UT System and $500,000 from the Greater Brownsville
Incentives Corporation will enable STARGATE researchers to develop the
next generation of radio signal receiving and transmitting systems
based on "phased-array" technology. This technology has the potential
to be transformational in the commercial space and aviation sectors as
well as in commercial communications markets. UT System’s contribution
will primarily fund facilities and support infrastructure for the
project.
The launch and control facility presents extraordinary opportunities
for the development of high-tech jobs for South Texas, both directly
with SpaceX and with the associated commercial development it will draw
to the Rio Grande Valley. For The University of Texas System, the
arrival of SpaceX provides a platform for the establishment of STARGATE
– the first research center of excellence for the new UT Rio Grande
Valley. STARGATE will be a cooperative effort with SpaceX to develop
and support commercialization of phased-array technology for satellite
and space vehicle communication.
The STARGATE facility will be a radio frequency technology park located
adjacent to the SpaceX launch site command center. SpaceX will assemble
and launch their signature advanced rockets and spacecraft, with
launches every month at the Boca Chica Beach site. When not being used
for launches, SpaceX facilities will be used by student and faculty
researchers at STARGATE for training, scientific research and
technology development. (9/22)
Why Astronauts Get the ‘Space Stupids’
(Source: BBC)
As he was hurtling into orbit, Cosmonaut Gherman Titov had the distinct
feeling that his body was cartwheeling through the air. It started as
soon as Vostok 2 separated from its booster and he was thrust into
weightlessness. “I felt suddenly as though I were turning a somersault
and then flying with my legs up,” he said later on. In reality, there
was no cartwheel – the feeling was simply an illusion, something akin
to an out-of-body experience.
For many astronauts, these sensations tend to stop after a couple of
days in space, but others suffer the discombobulating feelings
throughout their trip. “I knew I was standing upright… and nevertheless
I felt upside down, despite the fact that everything was normally
oriented around me,” is how one astronaut described his experience on
the Spacelab space station.
And disorientation is not the only strange experience faced by
astronauts. Space travel can also cause distorted vision and duller
thinking, and might even influence mood. These mind-bending
consequences are sometimes known as the “space stupids”, and could
potentially put future missions in jeopardy. So what is the solution?
Click here.
(10/7)
Space Will Go Fully Commercial with
2015 Launch by Bigelow, SpaceX (Source: Venture Beat)
The International Space Station will continue its home improvement
project next year, this time by adding a large, inflatable workroom
from Bigelow Aerospace. The Bigelow Expandable Activity Module, or
BEAM, will head to low-Earth orbit (LEO) in 2015 aboard the Dragon, a
rocket built and operated by the privately run, Elon Musk-founded
company SpaceX.
NASA is paying Bigelow $17.5 million for its extra room. The addition
of a relatively inexpensive room, built by a private company and put
into orbit by a private company, marks a fairly significant transition
for manned spaceflight: From an activity led primarily by government
agencies to one dominated by commercial interests.
“LEO will become a commercial domain,” Mike Gold, the director of D.C.
operations for Bigelow Aerospace, told Space.com. Gold added that this
mirrors an earlier transition with unmanned satellites. In the 1950s
and 1960s, nearly every artificial satellite orbiting the Earth was put
there by a government entity. Now, the publicly funded satellites are
the exception, while most orbiters are put there by companies like
DirecTV, Sirius/XM, Hughes, Loral Skynet, and many others. (10/7)
SpaceX Launching Seattle-Area Office,
Recruiting Microsoft Engineers (Source: Geek Wire)
SpaceX, has been heavily recruiting engineers from Microsoft and other
companies in the region as it gears up a new Seattle-area office.
Recent status updates on LinkedIn show several former Microsoft
engineers in the Seattle region joining SpaceX within the past month,
and we’re hearing that the numbers are actually larger than that.
Examples include a former Microsoft senior electrical engineer and a
former principal electrical engineering lead at Microsoft who worked on
“an incubation team developing proprietary hardware concepts” for the
Redmond company. (10/6)
Virgin Galactic Teams with Hotel Near
Spaceport (Source: Las Cruces Sun-News)
Another local business has been picked by Virgin Galactic to offer
hospitality to southern New Mexico's space tourists. And, no surprise,
it's a Truth or Consequences lodge owned by media mogul and New Mexico
land magnagte Ted Turner.
Virgin Galactic, the privately-funded space company owned by Sir
Richard Branson's Virgin Group and Abu Dhabi's aabar Investments PJS,
announced that it has partnered with Ted Turner's Sierra Grande Lodge
and Spa as it continues to expand its New Mexico accommodation options
for future astronauts and their families. The Sierra County partnership
complements the hospitality partnership in Dona Ana County with Hotel
Encanto de Las Cruces. (10/6)
Russian Scientists Develop Mechanism
for Rover’s Descent to Mars (Source: RIA Novosti)
Russian scientists have developed a unique mechanism for the rover's
descent to the surface of Mars, Lev Zeleny, the head of the Russian
Space Research Institute said. "Our European colleagues want maximum
safety for the rover, for it to be able to slide down, if necessary, to
the surface of Mars in any direction. We have developed such a system,"
Zeleny said, adding that the solution presupposes the construction of
two ramps upon which the rover will be able to drive off the landing
deck. (10/3)
Utah State, NASA Partner to Test
Atmosphere-Measuring Tool (Source:: Cache Valley Daily)
NASA is assisting a team from Utah State University in the testing of
an instrument designed to measure upper-atmosphere weather conditions,
a precursor to trialing the instrument on satellites. The team tested
its split-field Etalon Doppler Imager device by attaching its to a NASA
balloon that flies at high altitude. The effort was part of NASA's
University Student Instrumentation Program, which gives students
hands-on, scientific experience. (10/2)
NASA CRS 2 Competition Heats Up
(Source: SpaceFlight Now)
With its Nov. 14 deadline, NASA's Commercial Resupply Services, or CRS
2, competition is expected to draw interest from a number of suppliers,
including incumbents Orbital Sciences and SpaceX, as well as Sierra
Nevada and Boeing. Within the next several weeks, Orbital is expected
to choose a supplier for the Antares rocket first stage, a key step for
its NASA CRS 2 bid. (10/3)
Skyscanner Predicts Space Vacations of
the Future (Source: The Independent)
Travel site Skyscanner has predicted that holidays will be far more
exotic in the future. By 2024, they say we could be jetting off outside
of the Earth’s atmosphere. The Future of Travel 2024 report shows new
destinations we could potentially travel to, and how holidays will look
ten years from now. Experts might dispute how realistic the predictions
are when it comes to non-astronauts frequenting space by that time, but
also say it's feasible that in the future we could all be following in
the steps of Yuri Gagarin, who first ventured into space in 1961. (10/6)
Mankind Returns to the Moon
(Source: The Telegraph)
While Virgin Galactic staggers towards its inaugural flight, Space
Adventures is quietly getting on with business. The only company to
have sent private individuals into space – seven people since 2001 – it
is now preparing to launch the world’s first private mission to the
moon. In 2018, two paying passengers and a Russian cosmonaut will
travel around the moon and back, flying within 62 miles of its surface
and witnessing Earth rise over the horizon.
It will be the first time humans have travelled beyond low-Earth orbit
in more than 40 years. The last people to walk on the moon were Gene
Cernan and Harrison Schmitt in December 1972. The trio who make this
circumlunar journey will come to within 60miles (100km) of the moon’s
surface and will travel around the satellite’s far side before
witnessing an “Earthrise” as they return home.
The trip begins with the group first travelling to the International
Space Station by Soyuz spacecraft. They will undertake 10 days’
acclimatisation there before recommencing their flight around the moon
– a process that is expected to take six days. (10/6)
10 Years Since the X Prize—So Where Is
My Space Taxi? (Source: Popular Mechanics)
When SpaceShipOne rocketed out of the atmosphere over Mojave,
California, on October 4, 2004, it reached suborbital space for the
second time in less than a week and the third time that year, capturing
the $10 million Ansari X Prize. To those of us on the ground that
morning, it seemed that the competition had done what X Prize founder
Peter Diamandis had hoped, opening the door to commercial space travel.
Not long after, Richard Branson bolstered our hopes by signing
SpaceShipOne builder Scaled Composites to build a bigger craft,
SpaceShipTwo, for his Virgin Galactic outfit. Branson promised that VG
would soon fly paying passengers on suborbital flights, offering the
chance to see the curvature of the earth and experience a few minutes
of microgravity.
And here we are 10 years later, still stuck on the ground. SpaceShipOne
hangs on display in the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum in
Washington, and no other craft has duplicated its achievement. In the
decade since the X Prize, Scaled has completed SpaceShipTwo and its
White Knight 2 mothership. And this past January, the craft completed
its third rocket-powered flight. (10/6)
Countdown Continues on Commercial
Spaceflight (Source: Albuquerque Journal)
Ten years ago this month, the first private, reusable, manned
spacecraft to rocket to the edge of space won the $10 million Ansari X
Prize, setting in motion a commercial race to space that has sputtered
since and taken longer than most imagined. The prize caught the eye of
Richard Branson, who agreed to finance a fleet of commercial spacecraft
built by Scaled Composites. Virgin Galactic – the catalyst and anchor
tenant for New Mexico’s Spaceport America – was born.
The past decade has seen an explosion of research and development in
technology to make suborbital and orbital travel possible – not funded
in the old model by government but by industry. Although SpaceShipOne
proved that a commercial venture could send a man to space, replicating
that early success has proved difficult. No company, including Virgin
Galactic, has sent a human to space since.
Spaceports hoping to host these budding commercial spaceflight
companies have proliferated. New Mexico’s $212 million, taxpayer-funded
spaceport plans to host Virgin Galactic once that company starts flying
passengers commercially. The FAA has licensed nine spaceports around
the country, including New Mexico’s Spaceport America and, the latest
addition to the roster, a spaceport in Midland, Texas, licensed last
month. (10/6)
Southern Hemi Analysis: Global Warming
Underestimated By 24% To 58% (Source: Neomatica)
Oceanographers have discovered the heat content change of the Earth has
been severely underestimated. New calculations suggest that the amount
of heat added to the Earth in the last 35 years is 24% to 58% higher
than thought, due to poor sampling of ocean temperatures in the
Southern Hemisphere. The results have global implications as the ocean
absorbs over 90% of the heat due to trapping by greenhouse gases.
The implications are that there has been greater net inflow of energy
from the Sun, and greater amounts being stored in the world’s oceans.
The scientists obtained satellite measurements of sea surface heights,
and combined it with ocean temperature data collected between 1970 and
2004, a 35 year period. The reason for using sea surface height is that
the volume change of the ocean is intimately linked to temperature:
water expands as it is being warmed and additional water is added by
increased melt from land ice. (10/6)
Groundbreaking for new Kennedy Space
Center Headquarters (Source: News 13)
An Orange County construction company is getting ready to break ground
on new headquarters for NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. A groundbreaking
ceremony is scheduled for Tuesday for the space center’s new
200,000-square-foot headquarters.
The seven-story building will consolidate services and administrative
offices. Hensel Phelps Construction Company was awarded the two-year
contract for more than $64 million. Plans call to demolish the current
headquarters building. NASA said it will save $400 million over the
next 40 years by cutting square footage, lowering operation and
maintenance costs. Click here.
(10/6)
Virgin Galactic Poised To Resume
SpaceShipTwo Powered Flights (Source: Space News)
California — A nine-month pause in powered test flights of Virgin
Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo suborbital vehicle will end “imminently” as the
company plans to take official possession of the vehicle and receive
its launch license, company officials said Oct. 4. “Those are going to
start imminently, literally very imminently,” said Mike Moses, vice
president of operations of Virgin Galactic. SpaceShipTwo made its last
powered test flight Jan. 10. In May, the company announced it was
switching the fuel used in the vehicle’s hybrid rocket motor,
hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene, a form of rubber, to a
polyamide-based plastic. (10/6)
Editorial: ADS-B Opposition for No
Apparent Reason (Source: Space News)
International regulators should brush aside a curious recommendation by
an alliance of high-profile satellite operators against approving
satellite transmissions in radio frequencies currently reserved for
air-to-ground links. The surprise recommendation by the European
Satellite Operators Association (ESOA), if adopted, could complicate
efforts by Aireon LLC and others to offer services to allow aircraft
flying beyond the range of ground-based Automatic Dependent
Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) antennas to relay their position via
satellite to air traffic management authorities. ADS-B signals are
derived from GPS position-location data. (10/6)
Incredible Shrinking Research
Investments (Source: Space News)
For many years technology advancement and innovation have been at the
heart of the great U.S. advantage that propelled us from an agrarian
nation, focused primarily on farming in 1900, to the world’s only
remaining superpower. Our military remains the singular dominant
military in the world. But what will happen when we begin to fall
behind in technology breakthroughs and innovation?
Investigating technology in a pure research sense in and of itself does
not make a nation great; it takes the innovator to figure out how to
turn that technology into something important. However, without
technology advances the innovator has little to work with. It is not
just the military that has been propelled forward with the technology
advances made possible through U.S. investments in military and civil
capabilities. What a different world we would be in today without the
technology and innovation advancements made by government investments.
Click here.
(10/6)
Private Inflatable Room Launching to
Space Station Next Year (Source: Space.com)
A privately built inflatable room for astronauts on the International
Space Station is on track to launch into orbit next year. The Bigelow
Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) is expected to head to space inside
SpaceX's Dragon cargo spacecraft in 2015, according to a senior
representative for the company Bigelow Aerospace, which is building the
module. Once BEAM gets to the space station, the robotic Canadarm2 will
install it on the Tranquility node's aft port to test out
expandable-habitat technology.
NASA is paying Nevada-based Bigelow $17.8 million to send the
demonstration module to the station, where it will be in place for at
least a couple of years. Here at the International Astronautical
Congress Thursday (Oct. 2), Bigelow representative Mike Gold said BEAM
provides an example of what the company, and private firms in general,
can do in low-Earth orbit (LEO). "LEO will become a commercial domain,"
said Gold, Bigelow's director of D.C. operations and business growth.
(10/6)
NASA Selects New Science Teams for
Astrobiology Research (Source: Astrobiology)
NASA has awarded five-year grants totaling almost $50 million to seven
research teams nationwide to study the origins, evolution,
distribution, and future of life in the universe. "With the Curiosity
rover characterizing the potential habitability of Mars, the Kepler
mission discovering new planets outside our solar system, and Mars 2020
on the horizon, these research teams will provide the critical
interdisciplinary expertise to help interpret data from these missions
and future astrobiology-focused missions, " said Jim Green. Average
funding for each team will be approximately $8 million. Click here.
(10/6)
NASA Study Finds Earth’s Ocean Abyss
Has Not Warmed (Source: NASA)
The cold waters of Earth’s deep ocean have not warmed measurably since
2005, according to a new NASA study, leaving unsolved the mystery of
why global warming appears to have slowed in recent years. Scientists
at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory analyzed satellite and direct ocean
temperature data from 2005 to 2013 and found the ocean abyss below 1.24
miles (1,995 meters) has not warmed measurably. Study coauthor Josh
Willis said these findings do not throw suspicion on climate change
itself. "The sea level is still rising, We're just trying to understand
the nitty-gritty details." (10/6)
SpaceX Wins Safety-by-Design Award
(Source: Space Safety)
The International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety has
announced that this year’s Vladimir Syromiatnikov Safety-by-Design
Award will go to Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX)
for safety accomplishments related to its Dragon vehicle. The award
will be received at the 7th IAASS Conference Awards Gala Dinner by
SpaceX Director of Risk and System Safety Michael Lutomski. (10/6)
Roscosmos: Russia Remains Committed to
Space Tourism (Source: Moscow Times)
The head of Russian space agency Roscosmos says that the country
remains committed to space tourism, and that international cooperation
in space is continuing despite international tensions over the Ukraine
crisis. Roscosmos chief Oleg Ostapenko pointed out that British
pop-star Sarah Brightman will arrive in Russia in January to begin
training for her Oct. 4, 2015, flight to the International Space
Station aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. Brightman is scheduled to
spend 10 days aboard the ISS and return to earth with a departing ISS
crew in mid-October. (10/6)
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