Amateur astronomers can help a commercial space start-up by taking pictures of its cubesat SkyCube in orbit.
The cubesate was launched from ISS last week, but has not operated as expected and they want to know why. Images would help.
The competition heats up: Airbus plans to do the first drop test a prototype of its commercial space plane sometime in May.
It appears this space plane is designed for both transportation and space tourism.
Returning the Falcon 9 first stage safely: More details about the next attempt during the next Dragon launch to ISS on March 16.
Not only will this test do more engine burns, they will attempt the first deployment of the stage’s landing legs. The article also gives more details about the last launch test, as well as the Grasshopper tests.
Posted from Tucson, Arizona, at last home!
The war of space names continues: Despite the disapproval of the International Astronomical Union (IAU), the space company Uwingu has announced another private commercial naming project for the craters of Mars.
Starting today (Feb. 26), anybody with an Internet connection and a few dollars to spare can give a moniker to one of the Red Planet’s 500,000 or so unnamed craters, as part of a mapping project run by the space-funding company Uwingu. “This is the first people’s map of Mars, where anybody can play,” said Uwingu CEO Alan Stern, a former NASA science chief who also heads the space agency’s New Horizons mission to Pluto. “It’s a very social thing.”
Sounds fun, and a clever way for this company to raise capital. Whether these names stick is an entirely different thing. Uwingu has as much right to assign names to objects as the IAU, but so far the IAU’s fake authority in this matter carries more weight.
It is now confirmed that the next Falcon 9 launch to ISS will have legs on its first stage and will attempt a controlled landing over water.
Earlier reports were based on rumors and unofficial reports.
The competition heats up: NASA is preparing the next round of commercial contracts to supply cargo to ISS.
NASA announced the plan in a request for information released late Feb. 21. Responses from industry are due March 21. The document, which NASA posted online, did not say when the agency would solicit bids, or when it would make an award for the Commercial Resupply Services 2 (CRS) contract. The expected budget for CRS 2 is between $1 billion and $1.4 billion a year from 2017 to 2024, NASA said. NASA envisions four to five flights a year under CRS 2. Back in January, the White House announced it wanted to extend space station operations through 2024. Congress has currently committed to fund the space station through 2020. CRS 2 contract calls for delivery of 14,250 to 16,750 kilograms per year of pressurized cargo, and delivery of 1,500 to 4,000 kilograms per year of unpressurized cargo.
Assuming both SpaceX and Orbital Sciences win new contracts, this will give them a strong cash flow as they pursue new space endeavors.
R.I.P. astronaut Dale Gardner.
Gardner was a astronaut during the early eighties during the heyday of the shuttle’s commercial satellite operation. He was part of the 1984 shuttle mission where he and Joe Allen each flew out to a stranded commercial satellite and took control so that the shuttle’s robot arm could grapple them. Both satellites were brought back to Earth, refurbished, and launched back into space again.
Gardner’s most remembered moment might be when, at the end of his spacewalk, he held up a “For Sale” sign (on right), referring to the commercial availability of both recovered satellites.
The competition heats up: A close look at the environmental assessment that Blue Origin submitted to the FAA to get approval for an expanded test operations reveals their intention to do numerous launch abort tests of an orbital crew capsule.
At least, this is how I interpret the paperwork.
The consolidation of the Russian aerospace industry continues as the government considers taking over privately owned Sea Launch.
The Russian government will a take closer look at the idea of buying commercial launch services provider Sea Launch, which is owned by a top Russian space contractor but whose key assets are based in California, Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said Feb. 19. Moscow has asked the Russian space agency, Roscosmos, and Russian manufacturer RSC Energia, which holds 95 percent of Swiss-registered Sea Launch, to submit an overview of the financial situation of the maritime launch services company, Rogozin said in remarks posted on the Russian Cabinet website. The Russian government holds 38 percent of Energia, which supplies the upper stage of the Sea Launch rocket.
Should the government go forward with the deal, it likely would move the oceangoing rocket pad and command ship from Long Beach, Calif., to a Russian port on the Pacific Ocean, Rogozin said. “Something tells me that if we go for it, then the base will definitely be outside the United States,” he said.
Without question the Putin government is trying to recreate the top-down centralized system that existed during the Soviet era, with everything controlled and even owned by the government. While this might please their love of power, I doubt it will be an effiicent way to compete in the open commercial market.
Which means this consolidation is a wonderful opportunity for the new private launch companies. Soon, Russia will be out of the market, focused instead on launching Russian only satellites and spacecraft.
Posted from Rome, Italy. I am between flights, awaiting my connection to Tel Aviv.
The purchase of land by SpaceX in the Brownsville, Texas area might have revealed the name the company is considering giving to its spaceport there.
It appears they have combined the various plots of land that they have purchased and named that development “Mars Crossing.”
The competition heats up: The next Falcon 9/Dragon launch to ISS will include the first test of legs on the rocket’s first stage, as well as an attempt to complete a soft touchdown on water of that first stage.
The article is chock full of interesting details about SpaceX’s effort to make the first stage of the Falcon 9 reusable.
Posted from Garden City, New York.
The competition heats up: Russia on track to test launch its new Angara rocket before June.
A full-scale mockup of the rocket was rolled out to a launch pad earlier this week to check ground support systems. The Angara is planned to launch from both Plesetsk and the new Vostochny space center in Russia’s Far East that is being built to reduce reliance on the Baikonur launch facility in Kazakhstan. The modular launcher will have a variety of configurations to cover a wide range of payload weights, from two to 24.5 metric tons. They are currently served by several different rockets, including the Proton, Russia’s largest booster.
That first test launch will be a revealing event, as this is the first completely new Russian rocket in almost a half century. The last time they built a new rocket stage, the Briz-M upper stage for the Proton rocket, they had several significant failures before they worked out all the kinks.
And in a related story, Russia’s deputy prime minister made it clear on Wednesday that his country’s spacecraft manufacturers will face stiffer penalties for any failure to meet production deadlines.
An Audit Chamber report in July last year concluded that the country’s space industry was ineffective and plagued by poor management and misuse of funds. It said Russia had only launched 47 percent of the required number of satellites between 2010 and 2012.
Both stories are revealing by their emphasis on keeping Russia commercially competitive. Note however that Russia recently consolidated its entire space industry into a single entity run by the government. Though I doubt it, we shall find out if this Soviet-style strategy can compete with American-style competition and private enterprise.
