Ann Miller – Too Darn Hot
An evening pause: From the 1953 film Kiss Me Kate. Hat tip Edward Thelen.
Tag: commercial
SpaceX breaks ground on new spaceport
The competition heats up: At a ceremonial ground-breaking today in Brownsville, Texas, SpaceX officially began construction on the company’s own private spaceport for launching commercial satellites.
I will have more to say about this tomorrow. Regardless, this is a big deal, a private company building its own private spaceport.
Trouble in Branson-land
Rumors are flying that some of the individuals who gave Virgin Galactic deposits for space tourism flights on SpaceShipTwo are demanding their money back.
It appears that the most recent delay, revealed by Branson on David Letterman, is the cause.
India inks space deal with China
The competition heats up: India has signed a cooperative agreement with China to work together on several space projects.
Asked about the areas of focus, [Isro chairman K Radhakrishnan] said: “Right now, broadly speaking, it will be natural disasters and remote sensing, which are natural choices. But by March-April 2015, the joint working team would have prepared a roadmap, chalking out various options and opportunities for concentrated efforts in space exploration.”
This article is among a lot of articles from India this week about space and the upcoming orbital insertion of their Mars Orbiter Mangalyaan. As I’ve said repeatedly, this emerging prosperous and capitalist nation is space happy!
Also, when you click on the link make sure you scroll down to read the secondary sidebar piece at the bottom titled “After Mars, Kathakali beckons Isro chief.” There they describe the other culture interests of the head of India’s space agency, and how he plans to spend his time after he steps down in December. It will give you a flavor of India’s culture and how it differs from ours, even as it strives to emulate us.
Falcon 9 launch puts Dragon in orbit
The competition heats up: SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket has successfully put its fifth Dragon cargo freighter into orbit, with a docking at ISS scheduled for Tuesday.
Spaceflight Now’s status update above also noted that this is the 13th launch of a Falcon 9 rocket since 2010. All these flights have successfully put their primary payloads into orbit as promised, an amazing track record for a new rocket built by a new company only in existence for less than a decade.
Falcon 9 launch scrubbed due to weather.
They will try again 1:52 am (eastern) tomorrow, though weather doesn’t look that good then either. They will try, however, because they want to get this Dragon cargo mission off before the next Russia Soyuz mission.
Maintaining a high voltage line
An evening pause: Stick around to the end. It is worth it.
Hat tip Tim Vogel.
Emerson, Lake, and Palmer – Hoedown
An evening pause: Performed live at the Nassau Coliseum in 1978. What makes this particular video intriguing is that it focuses entirely on what the drummer is doing.
Extending ISS to 2024
An inspector general report released today has outlined some issues that NASA needs to address in order to keep ISS operational through 2024.
In this audit, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) found that while NASA has identified no major obstacles to extending ISS operations to 2024, it must address several areas of risk to ensure continued safe operations. Specifically, the ISS faces a risk of insufficient power generation due in part to faster-than-expected degradation of its solar arrays. Second, although most replacement parts have proven more reliable than expected, sudden failures of key hardware have occurred requiring unplanned space walks for repair or replacement. Third, with the retirement of the Space Shuttle fleet NASA has a limited capacity to transport several large replacement parts to the Station should they be needed. While the ISS Program is actively working to mitigate these risks, anticipating the correct amount of replacement parts and transporting them to the ISS present major challenges to extending Station operations 10 or more years beyond its original expected service life.
The report also noted concerns about the budget and the lack of commitment from NASA’s international partners.
Falcon 9 still go for launch on Saturday
Reports indicate that Wednesday’s Falcon 9 prelaunch static fire test was a success and that all systems are go for a September 2:14 am launch of Dragon to ISS.
If this launch happens has planned, it will occur only 13 days after the previous Falcon 9 launch in Florida, the shortest turnaround by SpaceX yet.
The Muppets & Rita Moreno – Fever
An evening pause: My first thought was: how can she keep a straight face?
Hat tip to Phil Berardelli.
The FAA approves spaceport license for Midland Texas.
The competition heats up: The FAA has approved a spaceport license for the airport in Midland Texas.
This license is mainly for XCOR’s Lynx suborbital spaceship that will be used to fly tourists into space.