Wired Science has an interesting story analyzing the entrants in the Google Lunar X Prize, a competition to land a private spacecraft on the moon. The competitors include include “a Jesus freak, a Linux geek and a guy who recently bought 30 books on space exploration…an eclectic mix of engineers, rocketeers and dreamers so confident of winning they made reaching the moon sound easy.”
Monthly Archive for February, 2008Page 3 of 11
Grand Prize Winner will receive $2M Bonus Prize for Successful Florida Based Launch.
Space Florida Press Release via Business Wire
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla.–Space Florida, the organization charged by the Florida Legislature with promoting and developing Florida’s aerospace industry, today announced that it will be a new preferred partner and Florida will become the first preferred launch site for the $30 million Google Lunar X PRIZE competition. Each preferred partner offers additional prizes or strategic services at a discounted rate to all competition teams.
As the first preferred launch site, Space Florida will award an additional prize of $2 million to the Grand Prize winner of the Google Lunar X PRIZE competition, provided the winner launched the winning flight from the State of Florida and upon confirmation that the winner has complied with all competition rules.
UA News has a story about the University of Arizona’s partnership with Carnegie Mellon University and Raytheon Missile Systems to form Team Astrobotic - one of 10 competitors in the Google Lunar X Prize competition.
The UA Lunar and Planetary Laboratory and its Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering are the major elements of the university’s participation. “This is the dream team,” Lunar and Planetary Laboratory Director Michael J. Drake said.
LPL will provide its expertise in designing, building and operating imaging camera systems. It will add a clean room and a high bay to its Phoenix Science Operations Center, where the lunar lander will be assembled.
The Arizona Daily Star also has a story.
Virgin’s Galactic has a 5-5 plan for its growth - order five additional spacecraft from Scaled Composites and turn a profit within five years beginning suborbital tourism launches in 2010.
“In the short term, we have firm orders for five spaceships and options for seven … We believe there is a very strong market,” said Virgin Galactic Director Alex Tai during an appearance at the Singapore Airshow.
Read the full Reuters story here. Public Radio also has a short piece about Virgin Galactic, which you can listen to here.
Outer space will rocket into reality as “the” getaway of this century, according to researchers at the University of Delaware and the University of Rome La Sapienza.
“In the twenty-first century, space tourism could represent the most significant development experienced by the tourism industry,” says Prof. Fred DeMicco, ARAMARK Chair at the University of Delaware’s Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management program.
You can read the full story at UDaily, the University of Delaware website.
Destiny Space Press Release
Houston, Texas (PRWEB) February 22, 2008 – DestinySpace Enterprises (DSE), www.destinyspace.com, the world’s leader in space tourism retail, announced today that it has formed a strategic alliance with Mojave-based rocket manufacturer and launch provider Interorbital Systems (IOS), www.interorbital.com, to market IOS’ low-cost commercial orbital space tourism and satellite launch services.
DSE’s subsidiary Orbital Expeditions (Orbex) will act as an official booking agent for IOS’ orbital payload launch services and week-long orbital spaceflight expeditions. Augmenting the sales force of Astro Expeditions LLC, IOS’ in-house marketing arm, DSE will provide a ‘reservations portal’ for orbital crew and cargo spaceflight services to a wider customer base. Clients will include government, academia, commercial firms and space tourists.
Continue reading ‘Interorbital Systems Taps Destiny Space to Book Space Tourism and Sat Launches’
SpaceShipTwo designer Burt Rutan is recovering from open heart surgery, according to a report by MSNBC’s Alan Boyle. The 64-year-old Rutan had heart surgery at UCLA Medical Center on February 7. He expects recovery to take about three months.
Rutan is leading Scaled Composite’s efforts to build a suborbital tourism vehicle for Virgin Galactic. Initial test flights are schedule for later this year, with commercial flights occurring as early as 2010.
The Decatur Daily has a story about how United Launch Alliance suffered a setback for its Atlas V vehicle, which was not chosen for the COTS program.
Earlier this week, NASA officials awarded a $170 million contract to Virginia-based Orbital Sciences Corporation to develop a new launch system capable of delivering cargo to the International Space Station. The space agency had earlier awarded a similar contract to California-based SpaceX for a similar project involving both cargo and crew vehicles.
The Atlas V vehicle is being considered as the prime rocket for Bigelow Aerospace’s planned Sundancer space station. The companies are reportedly in negotiations for up to 50 Atlas V cargo and crew launches.
SPACEHAB Press Release
HOUSTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–SPACEHAB, Incorporated (NASDAQ:SPAB), a provider of commercial space services, today issued a statement from SPACEHAB Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Thomas B. Pickens, III, regarding NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) announcement on February 19, 2008.
“While we are disappointed that SPACEHAB was not selected as a winner of the COTS competition, we want to be certain to convey to our stockholders that the Company has been aggressively pursuing other valuable opportunities including growing our profitable Astrotech subsidiary, primarily through our expanded long term relationship with the U.S. Government Office of Space Launch and our announced end-to-end ALLSAT satellite service system. Also, by design, most of the costs and advanced engineering that were invested in the COTS ARCTUS Program are also being applied to advance our ALLSAT satellite system.
Continue reading ‘SPACEHAB Releases Statement About COTS Loss’
Florida is offering a $2 million incentive to encourage entrants in the Google Lunar X Prize to launch their robotic rover from the state.
The money would be in addition to the $20 million prize being offered by Google and the X Prize Foundation for the first private group to land a spacecraft on the moon by the end of 2010. Ten organizations have registered for the competition.