From Cosmic Log
By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News
Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo rocket plane lit up its engine for the first time in flight on Monday, taking a giant supersonic leap toward outer space.
The crucial 16-second blast took place at about 7:50 a.m. PT (10:50 a.m. ET), high above California’s Mojave Air and Space Port. Virgin Group’s billionaire founder, Richard Branson, was on hand to watch the proceedings. Continue reading
XCOR Aerospace today announced a first in aviation and space history, the firing of a full piston pump-powered rocket engine. This breakthrough is the foundation for fully reusable spacecraft that can fly multiple times per day, every day. It is a game changing technology that has the power to fundamentally alter the way we as a society view, visit, and utilize the abundant resources around our planet and in our solar system. Continue reading
Playing AstroDrone. – ESA
NOORDWIJK, The Netherlands, — A free ESA app released Friday turns a popular iPhone-controlled ‘home drone’ into a spacecraft. The augmented reality game lets owners of Parrot AR.Drone quadcopters attempt dockings with a simulated International Space Station while flying their drones for real – in the process helping to improve robotic rendezvous methods.
This new AstroDrone app is part of a scientific crowdsourcing project by ESA’s Advanced Concepts Team, gathering data to teach robots to navigate their environments.
“People intuitively assess their position and motion in relation to their surroundings in various ways, based on what they see before them,” explained team research fellow Guido de Croon.
“This new app lets us crowdsource examples of this process in practice, as a first step to reproducing it with artificial intelligence.
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The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is requesting funding in the 2012 budget to offer a $5 million prize to encourage the development of projects designed to provide low-cost space transportation.
“I’m a big proponent of the value of prizes to stimulate innovation,” George Nield, FAA associate administrator for commercial space transportation, said Feb. 28 during a speech at the Next-Generation Suborbital Research Conference at the University of Central Florida in Orlando. “I plan to work with both NASA and the Department of Defense to discuss how best to implement this program.” Nield offered no further details on the prize but told conference participants to “stay tuned.”
Continue reading
KLM Announces Suborbital Flight Relationship with Space Experience Curaçao
Using XCOR’s Lynx Suborbital Spacecraft
November 17, 2010, Mojave, CA: Today KLM Royal Dutch Airlines announced to the Netherlands press that they were embarking upon a new relationship with Space Experience Curaçao (SXC). KLM will be supporting future suborbital flights through purchases, inclusion in their frequent flyer program, inclusion in future KLM vacation packages to Curacao, and other yet-to-be-named support. The flights will be made on the XCOR Lynx suborbital spacecraft.
Last month SXC and XCOR Aerospace jointly announced the intent of SXC to lease a production version of the Lynx suborbital spacecraft, pending United States government approvals to station the vehicle on the island of Curaçao in the Netherlands Antilles. With a planned start date in January 2014 SXC and now KLM will market and sell flights. XCOR will provide operational support for the vehicle at Space Port Curaçao.
Masten Space Systems has been chosen as one of the 10 “Best of What’s New” Innovations by Popular Science magazine.
Alan Boyle writes: Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo rocket plane was set loose for its first gliding flight today, about 45,000 feet above California’s Mojave Desert — and landed to a chorus of cheers minutes later. That’s one small step for gliders, but one giant leap for SpaceShipTwo and the future of suborbital space tourism.
The free-flying test was chronicled as it happened by Popular Mechanics’ Joe Bargmann from the Mojave Air and Space Port, where the spaceship’s builder, Scaled Composites, has its headquarters. Scaled has been working on the craft for years as a commercial follow-up to the history-making, prize-winning spaceflights of SpaceShipOne in 2004. The $100 million-plus development effort is being bankrolled by Virgin’s billionaire founder, Richard Branson, who was among the crowd watching today’s flight.
Space Manufacturing 14: Critical Technologies for Space Settlement will be held at NASA Ames Conference Center in Mountain View, CA, October 30 and 31, 2010.
Attendance will be limited to 200 participants. (Non-US Citizens, please allow 30 days for approvals to process. All permanent residents must bring their original I.N.S. green card. All foreign nationals must have their original passports and visas.)
Registration is $250 for the full two day conference Saturday October 30 & Sunday October 31, which includes a catered lunch for both days and a Friday night reception.