Dateline October 24, 2006: Space News from the Internet

• More reasons I quite the planetary society and will never rejoin. Louis Friedman is a nut.
• The decision on repairing Hubble is coming soon.
• Progress is on its way to the ISS.
• Brad Edwards take on the Space Elevator challenge.
• Johm Carmack's report of the X-Prize Cup
• Blue Origin got an FAA waiver for a short flight.
• Mark Whittington has a column in the Washington Post on commercial space.
• My representative Bud Cramer, thinks the monopoly concerns on the ULA are misplaced. I think he is an old b**tard that should be replaced. I just wish someone would run against him.

Dateline October 23, 2006: Space News from the Internet

• The Space Elevator Games opened at the X-Prize Cup yesterday. U of Saskatchewan came 2 seconds away from winning!
• Review of the X-Prize Cup. Here is some more. And some more. Apparently, about 20,000 people showed up.
• X Racer is called the Thunderhawk.
• And check out the rest of today's space review.

Dateline October 11, 2006: Space News from the Internet

• Alan Boyle discusses NASA's lunar lander competition
• Northrop Grumman is helping NASA to sponsor the Lunar Lander Challenge.
  
• Wirefly is the new sponsor of the Wirefly X-Prize Cup. Here is PR video on Google.
  
• Globalstar is launching 2nd generation communications satellites.
• ATK is building a "responsive" vehicle for the military.
• More comments on the new Space Policy.
• More comments on the ULA merger between Boeing and Lockheed Martin.
• A study on alternatives to the Ares I/V launchers. Clark Lindsey comments.
• Here is an (unofficial) launch schedule for the Shuttle through 2010. Hubble is April 17, 2008. And they plan 5 launches next year. Yeah, I see that happening.
• Everything in our solar system could be made of the same stuff.
• Mars Global Surveyor is tracking dust devils. (Just in time for Halloween).
• A Panel on robots vs humans in space came up with (gasp!) shocking conclusion that we need both. Duh!
• I think Mr. Herbert must have a boring existence if the only pictures that excite him are Wal-marts and McDonald's.

  The first color pictures sent back from the red planet tell me that Mars today is full of rocky craters and at least Saraha-like orange-hued sand dunes. No signs of a Wal-Mart or any golden arches, though. NASA scientists are reported to be overjoyed by the photos, from a robot they launched almost three years ago.

Dateline October 10, 2006: Space News from the Internet

New Space News

• Bigelow is selling advertising on the Genesis II, due to launch early next year.
• John Goff has some thoughts on space tugs and cryo fuels in space.

NASA News

• NASA is planning the first flight test of the Ares I in 2009.
• NASA is developing two versions of the J-2X engine.
• It looks like NASA is doing studies of what would make them more exciting to the public. About time if you ask me. Of course they could save the trouble and actually do some stuff. Clark has some thoughts as well.
• I got to agree with Mike Griffin on the ISS, much as I would like to chunk it into the Sun.

International Space News

• Russia is working on a space tug, Parom.

Astronomy News

• Hubble has (indirectly) shown that planets do in fact form from discs (well maybe...)
• Black hole jets appear to be made of protons and electrons. The jets observed by Swift contain about the mass of Jupiter if it were pulverized and blasted out into intergalactic space. (cool, huh?)
• "Space Scientists" never seize to amaze me. Now they are complaining about our new space policy being unilateral. Its our space policy, we can't plan the rest of the world.

Dateline October 9, 2006: Space News from the Internet

• Hobby Space sums up an article in Aviation Week describing each of the COTS winners plans for the future.
• A "Big announcement" is coming out sometime today about the X Prize Cup coming up in a few weeks. Stay tuned!
• NASA is now allowed to do night launches. That gives them a larger window to get the rest of the ISS built and fix Hubble.
• An article on spaceflight out of Mojave.
• The Space Review is up:
  
  • Space sports and space power
  • Dealing with risk
  • Homesteading the solar system: location, location, location
  • Mars: open for business?
  
  
• Fact checking is a problem in Utah. J Baxter seems to think the problem with space launches is propulsion technology. Even if the fuel was free, the cost wouldn't go down much. Check this out from Hobby Space. Also, Virgin Galactic is charging $200,000 not $500,000.

Why I Want to go to Space

To see stuff like this up close:



[Zoom In]


This is the HiRISE image of the Victoria Crater the Mars Rover Opportunity drove through. Go here for more information.

Dateline October 6, 2006: Space News from the Internet

• Garden's for the Moon & Mars
• A nuclear battery that could be used for space.
• Some thoughts on Lockheed Martin's newspace rumblings with Bigelow Aerospace. Mark Whittingham's thoughts as well.
• Truth or Consequences is growing, in part due to the Spaceport.
• The X-Prize Cup is in two weeks.

Battlestar Galactica is back

The single greatest show on television (since Firefly went off the air) is returning for Season 3 Friday night. Get your popcorn & mountain dew ready.

If you haven't ever seen it, The Story so Far.
If you haven't seen the 9 webisodes between Season 2 and Season 3, take a look.

BTW: I am a colonial. Try your luck with the Quiz.


And Boomer/Sharon is a hottie.

Dateline October 5, 2006: Space News from the Internet

• NASA has modified the contractt with ATK Thiokol for the Ares I first stage. The extension goes through Dec 31, 2006 and adds $35 million making the total value of the contract $63 million.
• Even the Washington Post thinks the ULA is a bad idea. The FTC is now intervening the formation of the ULA. They are requiring ULA to do the following:

  
  (1) ULA must cooperate on equivalent terms with all providers of government space vehicles;
  (2) Boeing and Lockheed's space vehicle businesses must provide equal consideration and support to all launch services providers when seeking any U.S. government delivery in orbit contract; and
  (3) Boeing, Lockheed, and ULA must safeguard competitively sensitive information obtained from other space vehicle and launch services providers.



• Michael Belfiore has the cover of his book on private space business leaders out.
• A new class of planets orbit their sun in hours rather than years.
• The shuttle has a ding. Better not tell Dad ;)
• Scientists are looking for other habitable universes (subscription)
• Burt Rutan is one of Popular Mechanic's breakthrough leaders.
• The Register thinks space tourism will help NASA with the public.

Dateline October 4, 2006: Space News from the Internet

• NASA has extended the Space Elivator Challenge to 5 years.
• Alan Boyle has a post on the state of private spaceflight two years after the X-Prize was won.
• Neiman Marcus is selling Virgin Galactic seats.
• 2/3 of Americans polled support NASA's plan to go to the Moon.

Dateline October 3, 2006: Space News from the Internet

• The Lunar Surface Module will be called Artemis. I wish NASA would put out as much new hardware as it does new names.
• A new survey on space tourism from Spaceport Associates and Incredible Adventures shows. Apparently, $25,000 for suborbital and $500,000 for orbital is the sweet spot as 2/3 of respondents would go at that price.
• Apparently the FTC has cleared the Boeing Lockheed Martin joint venture, ULA. Help us Jesus. Jeff Foust discusses.
• A launch ring. Very Heinleinian.
• The Ares I recovery systems seem to be working.
• An overview of the three Centennial Challenges taking place at or around the X-Prize Cup this year.
• SpaceDev won a contract to work on NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter

Dateline October 2, 2006: Space News from the Internet

[Editor - Sorry I have been out of action. I have a lot more stuff on me than I used to and it has taken some time to get schedule set so I could get everything done. Should be find now -djs]

• NASA is checking out possible commercial uses for the shuttle landing landing strip at Kennedy an performing an environmental assessment of such activities.
• Jim Benson, of SpaceDev fame, has stepped down as the chairman and CTO to found a new human spaceflight company, Benson Space Company (BSC). BSC plans to buy the Dream Chaser(TM) ship from SpaceDev and be on of its largest customers. More from Space.com.
• Rocketplane Kistler is setting up an alliance with Andrews Space to support COTS.
• In the space review: A look at the interior of SpaceShipTwo, History if Science Fiction, The importance of suborbital in getting a RLV, and a review of Einstein's Jury.
• More photos of SpaceShipTwo's interior. Michael Belfiore has more still.
• Apparently, Neil Armstrong did say "One small step for a man..."
• UP Aerospace's first rocket was found in the New Mexico desert. The failed launch went up 40,000 feet and went off course last Monday.
• NASA's planned launch schedule may be too much. (You think?)
• A short run-down of what is happening in new space the rest of the year along with two articles on the coming new space industry 1 & 2.
• Some guy has traded in 2 million Virgin Atlantic miles to get a ride on SpaceShipTwo.