Richard Branson, President of Virgin Galactic, says that his company plans to compete in the upcoming race to develop orbital space vehicles.
Let’s all sit in a dark room and contemplate our navel! Atmospheric scientists claim that space tourism will cause . . . global warming!
The laws covering the exploration of space are not helping.
This Aviation Week article outlines in detail the upcoming test flight program for Virgin Galactic’s WhiteKnightTwo/SpaceShipTwo following the first free flight of SS2. Key quote:
[SS2’s first] flight marks the start of the third of a seven-phase test program that is expected to culminate with the start of space tourism and science flights in 2012.
If Congress does end up appropriating money for that last extra shuttle mission, NASA managers are considering delaying it as long as possible, until the fall of 2011. Key quote:
[Shuttle Program Manager John] Shannon said if the shuttle is retired prematurely, the ISS will not be properly supplied.
In other words, Congress and the President should never have retired the shuttle in the first place, at least not until a replacement was ready to go.
Next week will mark the tenth anniversary of what is now the continuous human presence in space, since the first crew occupied ISS on November 2, 2000.
Not all space business news today is bad: Orbital Sciences, one of the companies building cargo ferrying services for ISS, posted good third quarter results today.
The Canadian company that makes the shuttle robot arm and other space robotics might be for sale. The company has vaguely denied this report, however.
As expected, the satellite company TerreStar has filed for bankruptcy.
Expensive and therefore not as competitive for market share as it could be, Arianespace is now facing a second year of losses and further competition from a variety of other rocket companies.
Unsure of the cause of yesterday’s fuel line leak on the space shuttle Discovery, engineers plan to replace a set of seals this week. Whether this will delay the November 1 launch remains unknown at this time.
The private space station company, Bigelow Aerospace, has signed agreements with six different nations — Japan, the Netherlands, Singapore, Sweden, Australia and the United Kingdom — to provide them space on its next orbiting station.
Because of damage sustained during the railroad trip from Russia to Kazakhstan, the Russians are flying in a replacement descent module for the Soyuz capsule scheduled for launch to ISS on December 13.
It appears that the fuel leak on the space shuttle Discovery has stopped.
The private space station company Bigelow is beginning the testing of its station life support systems, using human subjects.
The New Horizons space probe has now passed the halfway mark on its journey to Pluto.
Engineers are trouble-shooting a fuel leak on the space shuttle Discovery. At the moment NASA does not expect this to delay the planned November 1 launch.
United States may outsource lightweight satellite launches to India.
Via Clark Lindsey, amateurs have spotted the X-37b again, in what appears to be a lower orbit.
More details about SpaceShipTwo’s test flight, this time from one of the pilots.
The first powered test flight of SpaceShipTwo could come before year’s end.
The possibilities for China’s Chang’e 2 lunar probe include travel far beyond the Moon.
The state of NASA’s commercial crew program. Key quote:
The Obama administration requested $3.3 billion for commercial crew services over the next three years, but a so-called compromise bill forged in the Senate slashed the proposal in half. After months of heated contention, the House of Representatives finally agreed to the Senate authorization bill in late September, calling for $1.6 billion for the commercial program.
The various partners running the ISS are considering using it as a platform to launch an orbital manned mission to the Moon.
Spaceweather.com noted yesterday that the amateur astronomers have reported the X-37B space plane missing. It did not show up when expected, based on its known orbit. Key quote:
It’s possible that the X-37B has landed. More likely, the space plane has maneuvered into a new orbit and will be recovered again in the nights ahead.
The December Soyuz flight to ISS will be delayed due to the damage the capsule received during its transport by rail to Baikonur.
Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo made its first solo flight and landing today.
