Minister wants astronaut ‘icon’
BBC News
Britain’s new science minister has made it clear that he thinks the country ought to have an astronaut.
Lord Drayson said the UK needed “icons” for science, to encourage the next generation to take up subjects that would boost the knowledge economy.
Human spaceflight was one of those arenas that could inspire young people, he told BBC News.
A Real Ministry of Space
The Space Review
“The common perception of Britain when it comes to space is one of apathy. Andrew Weston argues that there is considerable public interest in space in the UK, waiting to be harnessed by the British government in the form of a coherent policy.”
Govt vision on space must be clear, concise
The Yomiuri Shimbun
“The basic law on space came into effect late last month, finally providing a system that allows the nation’s political leaders to promote Japan’s space policy.
“Space development involves a huge amount of money and considerable risks. It is important, therefore, for concrete goals and schedules to be fully disclosed in the basic program.
“If the government fails to provide the whole picture of the program, including its planned investments, private companies will hesitate to participate in it.”
Up, Up and Away, Triangle
The News & Observer
NewSpace Consultant Jeff Krukin suggests that North Carolina’s Research Triangle could be a hotbed of space tourism activity if government, industry and universities work together.
“The key is treating space transportation the same way we treat terrestrial transportation — vehicles are developed, owned and operated by competing companies. Governments provide the regulatory framework, conduct basic technology research and development and become a consumer of the resulting products and services.”
Starchaser Industries of Britain has unveiled a new rocket that it plans to use to fly tourists into suborbital space in 2013. The Nova 2 rocket, fueled partly by used tires, will launch as three-person capsule from Spaceport America in New Mexico, company founder Steve Bennett says. The company plans to test booster next year. Tickets will cost about $200,000.
Steve Bennett to run space flights by 2013
The Telegraph
Passenger rocket fuled by old tyres
The Mirror
“I’ll take tourists into space”
Manchester Evening News
Some updates on human spaceflight from around the web (and the world)….
ISS to Double Crew Size: Aviation Week
“NASA and its partners on the International Space Station (ISS) are in final preparations for the shift from a full-time crew of three to a crew of six on the orbiting laboratory, beginning with the STS-124 space shuttle mission upcoming in June.”
ISRO To Seek Human Spaceflight Funding: Aviation Week
“The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) soon will ask the Indian government to approve a human spaceflight mission by 2014-15 at a projected cost of $2.5 billion.”
Rube Goldberg Was a Piker: Rocketsandsuch Blog
This insider blog reports on the NASA’s latest plan to deal with oscillations in its Ares rocket. Is “hare-brained” a compliment?
China Checks Out Relay Satellite: Aviation Week
“China is beginning the geosynchronous orbit checkout of its first relay satellite to increase communications coverage for manned Shenzhou spacecraft.”
British Perspectives on Human Spaceflight: The Space Review
The British once ruled the seven seas, presiding over an empire upon which the sun never set. Now, it doesn’t even send humans into space. Jeff Foust examines whether that will soon change.
Thales Alenia Space’s Answer to EADS Astrium’s Space Jet: Hyperbola Blog
Rob Coppinger looks at an Italian lifting body concept that could send astronauts and tourists into space. It’s got a really cool para-glider landing system.
Point-to-point suborbital transportation: sounds good on paper, but…: The Space Review
David Hoerr takes a look at the feasibility of taking a shortcut through space in order to fly from London to Sydney. Anyone remember the flying car?
A couple of brief updates on ESA’s search for its next generation of astronauts….
European Space Agency searching for Astronerds rather than Astronauts
Times of London
When European space chiefs begin sifting thousands of applications in a search for four new astronauts, they will not be interested in the kind of daredevil who pioneered space exploration. Instead they will be looking for scientists and engineers who display “team competence, empathy and emotional stability”. The European Space Agency wants astronerds rather than astronauts.
“We are not interested in the Right Stuff; we want the right staff,” a spokesman said.
Woman hopes to be Britain’s first astronaut
The Telegraph
There are currently eight ESA astronauts, all of whom are men from France, Italy, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Sweden, but many are now retiring and need to be replaced. Dr. Tracey Dickens, 29, an astrophysicist at Leicester University, is one of the British women who is applying to replace them.
She said: “Since I was 12 years old, I have wanted to be the next British born astronaut. I could never understand why there have never been any more British females and I have always felt that if all those men can do it, then why can’t I?”
British-born astronaut Piers Sellers is urging UK policymakers to get the nation involved in human spaceflight. Sellers, a veteran of two shuttle missions, said the rewards are well worth the expense.
“The UK needs a new generation of scientists and engineers if it is to be viable in the future world economy. I and many of my scientist and engineer colleagues were inspired to get into science and engineering in the first place because of space. And it is obvious that the appeal of space exploration to the public in general and to the young in particular is as strong as ever,” he writes in The Guardian.
Britain’s Channel 4 will be airing a two-part series about famed physicist Stephen Hawking this week. Stephen Hawking: Master of the Universe, which will be aired on March 3-4.. The channel’s website has extensive information about the series and physics in general.
The Guardian has a story here by Rachel Cooke, who interviewed Hawking. There are quotes from the physicist and his colleagues, with discussions about space exploration, philosophy, religion and alien beings. The story also includes an interesting account of what it is like to interview Hawking, who is confined to a wheelchair and can only speak with the help of a computer.
With private companies such as Virgin Galactic getting into the space game and the United States aiming for the moon, the UK government is launching a formal review to decide whether to create a British astronaut corps.
British officials launched the review because of concerns the country could lose out in the next phase of space exploration.
Officials also unveiled plans for a new European Space Agency facility in Harwell, Oxfordshire, which will focus on climate change, robotic space exploration and applications.
In an editorial, the Financial Times says that Britain should focus on these areas instead of an expensive if flashy astronaut program. Astronomer Royal Martin Rees weighs in with similar sentiments in The Times of London.
Landeene Speaks About Challenges, Opportunities of Spaceport America
KRWG-TV’s Minding Your Business host Charles Comer recently talked with Steve Landeene, Executive Director of the New Mexico Spaceport Authority. Landeene talks about current and future goals for Spaceport America, a $200 million spaceport that New Mexico is building in the desert.
Best of What’s New: WhiteKnightTwo, Phoenix, Rocket Racer and GeoEye
Popular Science has named its Best of What’s New 2008 lists for the year’s top technological achievements. NASA’s Mars Phoenix Lander has been named Grand Award winner in the Aviation & Space category. The spacecraft spent more than five months analyzing soil and conditions near the martian north pole.
Other space- and rocket-related products on the list [...]
A Look at Virgin Galactic’s Millionaut Training Regime
Brooke Borel of Popular Science takes a look at centrifuge training that future millionauts are undergoing for Virgin Galactic flights. He reports:
“Safety is top concern for Virgin Galactic: da Silva and other trainees also underwent vigorous medical testing, including a heart stress test and a physical. No one with even the slightest heart condition is allowed to fly, [...]
The International Space Station - that $100 billion plus, taxpayer funded lab/millionaut vacation getaway - turned 10 years old this week as astronauts worked to install a new module to the facility. ISS won’t be finished until 2010. In about two months, we will celebrate the 25th anniversary of Ronald Reagan proposing the United States build the station.
Ah, progress….
Two other [...]
Did Money Talk in Getting Enomoto Booted Off, Ansari Put on ISS Space Tourism Flight?
Would-Be Space Tourist Sues for Refund
Associated Press
“A federal judge heard arguments Friday in [Daisuke] Enomoto’s lawsuit against Virginia-based Space Adventures, a firm that made its name brokering deals with the Russian space agency to put half a dozen “space tourists” in orbit for fees of $20 million or more….
“Space Adventures wants the lawsuit thrown out, [...]
Energia Gets Loan, Kazakh Cosmonaut to Fly Commercial
RIA Novesti reports that Sberbank has loaned Energia 2.9 billion rubles ($106 million) to allow the company to continue production of the Soyuz and Progress vehicles required for the International Space Station (ISS).
Meanwhile, the news agency says that Kazakhstan will be paying a commercial rate to send a cosmonaut to ISS. “‘The only way a [...]
