Astronaut Shannon Walker activates NanoRacks experiments. Image credit: NASA
WASHINGTON — NASA announced it will provide support to Space Adventures, Ltd. of Vienna, Va., to conduct a global competition for students to design experiments that will be performed in space and broadcast around the world.
NASA entered into a non-reimbursable Space Act Agreement with Space Adventures for astronauts aboard the International Space Station 250 miles above Earth to conduct the winning experiments on the orbiting outpost. The experiments will be performed on the U.S. portion of the space station that has been designated as a national laboratory.
The National Laboratory Education Initiative seeks innovative ways to use the unique microgravity environment of the space station to promote science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education. The contest is designed to encourage students from 14 to 18 years old to develop STEM skills through practical experience. The goal is to develop creative and analytical abilities by working on teams to solve problems using the latest information technology and tools.
Space Adventures, Ltd., the only company currently providing human space mission opportunities to the world marketplace, along with their partner Armadillo Aerospace, LLC, released a Request for Information (RFI) solicitation today in an effort to gather information on the industry’s capabilities in designing and fabricating a spacesuit for suborbital spaceflight. Last year, Space Adventures entered into an exclusive marketing agreement with Armadillo Aerospace, a leading manufacturer of reusable rocket power vehicles, and together the companies are developing a commercial passenger suborbital space program.
“A key part of the development program is the selection of a spacesuit design for integration with the ongoing vehicle cabin mock-up and test program to ensure maximum safety, mobility and comfort for our clients,” said Tom Shelley, president of Space Adventures. “Space Adventures is playing an active role in the solicitation and selection of a suit design because of the impact that the space suits will have on the experience for our customers.” Continue reading ‘Armadillo, Space Adventures Want Information on Suborbital Spacesuits’
Space Adventures is teaming with the Space Needle to send a lucky winner into space to celebrate the 50th anniversary next year of the famous structure that graces the Seattle skyline. It’s an interesting competition: there will be 1,000 entrants picked randomly in December who will compete in a separate “skill-based competition” to win a suborbital spaceflight worth $110,000 on an unspecified vehicle. There are no details on precisely what the competition will entail other than they will include “various tests and challenges” to be conducted throughout December.
On Tuesday, March 8, 2011, the TEDxMidTownNY headline speaker will be Tom Shelley, Vice President of Space Adventures, Ltd., the only company providing human space missions to the world marketplace. He will provide an “Overview of the Human Spaceflight Training Market.†Tom will share his insights and discuss developments in commercial space transportation and other related industries.
The second speaker for this event will be Noah Zerkin, Research Engineer in the Neurology Department at the Human Aerospace Lab at Mount Sinai Medical Center. Noah designs and fabricates prototype sensor modules for automated mobile neurovestibular evaluation of human subjects who have spent extended periods in microgravity (i.e. at the International Space Station). Noah is also the inventor and developer of the Zerkin Glove, a low cost glove for interacting with virtual objects in an augmented environment, and the author of Augmentation featuring his views on the coming AR revolution.
Pad OA at Wallops Island. (Credit: Orbital Sciences Corporation)
Jack Kennedy tells me that a measure to earmark funding for the Virginiia Commercial Space Flight Authority has passed the House of Delegates by a vote of 89-8 after being approved unanimously by the Senate. The measure now heads to Gov. Robert McDonnell for his signature.
The bill earmarks any state income tax generated by human space flight or human space flight training to be directed to the space authority. The measure was supported by Virginia-based Space Adventures because it would direct taxes that it pays to the state toward improving facilities on Wallops Island that it might use for its activities. Space Adventures has said that it will not directly fund infrastructure improvements.
Pad OA at Wallops Island. (Credit: Orbital Sciences Corporation)
Jack Kennedy reports that a bill that direct tax revenues from Virginia companies engaged in commercial human spaceflights or commercial spaceflight training to the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority has been reported out of the Senate Finance Committee.
Jeff Manber isn’t very impressed with Space Adventures’ plan to send humans around the moon. He’s skeptical about whether the company has actually sold a $150 million ticket, thinks their promo video has crappy production values, and says they should hire James Tiberius Priceline (William Shatner) as a spokesman. He also questions the wisdom of spending $150 million to be a guinea pig on Russia’s first ever lunar human flight. (A good question, actually.)
Space Adventures, which had announced the conclusion of an agreement with Russian Federal Space Agency and Rocket Space Corporation Energia (RSC Energia) to commercially offer three seats on the Soyuz spacecraft bound for the International Space Station (ISS), beginning in 2013, has not signed any contract neither with Roscosmos, nor with RSC-E, Roscosmos Human Spaceflight Directorate Head Alexey Krasnov told Marker.
According to Krasnov, the a.m. negotiations may commence in spring, provided that Space Adventures finds funding for increasing of Soyuz production, from four to five space vehicles per year.
Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides and Space Adventures Chairman Eric Anderson talk NewSpace at the DLD Conference in Munich.
Eric Anderson: We’ve sold a $150 million ticket for a circum-lunar mission that will start in 2015. Need to sell a second ticket; finalizing that sale now.
The video cuts off early, but Jeff Foust (@jeff_foust) Tweeted some additional notes:
– Whitesides: Virgin will spend about $500M before operations begin in 2012.
– Whitesides: expect Virgin Galactic to be cash flow positive “very quickly” once ops begin, flying ~500 in 1st year.
– George Whitesides says that if the US Gov’t allows the export of the WK2/SS2 system, the 1st place it will go is Abu Dhabi.
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