The competition heats up: India unveils its first test manned capsule.
There was an earlier story about this that was very vague. This one is only somewhat more informative (the test flight could happen as early as May), but it also includes a picture of the capsule, which is essentially only the structural hull.
Opportunity heads uphill after engineers finally pinpoint the origin of the rock that appeared out of nowhere.
They have now confirmed that the rock was kicked off a larger piece when Opportunity traveled over it.
The competition heats up: The structural assembly of India’s manned crew module was delivered to its space agency this week.
The article is not very informative, but it appears that this is the basic hull and structure of a manned test module that will be outfitted and then flown on a test flight of India’s GSLV rocket.
Orbital Sciences’ balance sheets booming as a result of commercial space.
“Orbital’s fourth quarter financial results reflected solid growth in revenues, earnings per share and free cash flow, and capped a very successful year in 2013,” noted Mr. David W. Thompson, Orbital’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. This highly successful report reflects the successes Orbital have enjoyed during the last year. The most publicly recognized successes have involved the opening launches of their new Antares launch vehicle, two of which lofted the first Cygnus spacecraft on their missions to the ISS.
I’m so glad: The FAA has given its permission for Blue Origin to expand its operations in Texas.
“After reviewing and analyzing currently available data and information on existing conditions and the potential impacts of the Proposed Action, the FAA has determined that issuing experimental permits and/or launch licenses to Blue Origin for operation of suborbital RLVs at the West Texas launch site would not significantly impact the quality of the human environment,” the agency said in document posted on its website.
Two takeaways: First, Blue Origin is moving forward with the testing of more sophisticated suborbital and maybe orbital spacecraft. That is great news. Second, it really is annoying that they need the government’s approval to do this, especially since the FAA knows far less about it then they do.
For the first time in 20 years, the global total spent on government space programs declined in 2013.
According to Euroconsult’s newly released research report, Profiles of Government Space Programs, global budgets for space programs dropped to $72.1 billion in 2013 following peak spending at $72.9 billion in 2012. This is the first time since 1995 that public space programs worldwide have entered a downward trend, a direct result of the cyclical nature of countries’ investment in space-based infrastructures combined with governments’ belt-tightening efforts during tough economic times.
This is not bad news. It just reflects the shift from public to private in the space industry in the U.S. and elsewhere, which is also reducing the cost for doing exactly the same thing. Thus, spending might drop, but more is being done.
The competition heats up: SpaceX gets incentives to build a spaceport in Texas.
It’s alive! Though Chinese engineers say that Yutu is still having problems, they have gotten a signal from it.
The reports continue to be vague. It appears that they are in communication with the rover, which is good, but cannot get it to do what they need or want it to do, which is bad.
Eight museum Corvettes go caving when a sinkhole opens up below them.
Will SpaceShipTwo take passengers into space this year? Branson says yes, Messier says probably not.
Messier’s analysis seems very sound to me. Moreover, if you watch the video of Branson at the link, he sure doesn’t seem comfortable making his claim. I hope Messier is wrong, but the history and facts seem to support him.
Chicken Little report: A defunct Soviet-era military satellite might spew debris onto the ground when it re-enters the atmosphere on Sunday.
Apparently the rover was not prepped properly for the long lunar night and did not survive its second night.
