Aviation Week is reporting that China’s second lunar spacecraft, Chang’e 2, will orbit the Moon but not land on it, as previous reports had indicated. The magazine quotes Chinese space official Ye Peijiam as saying the spacecraft, set for launch in 2009-2010, will carry different instrumentation from its predecessor, Chang’e 1, which is now mapping the moon from lunar orbit.
The first Chinese landing on the moon is set for around 2012, with a sample return scheduled for 2017.
In the China Daily, Moon Exploration Center Director Hu Hao says his nation is still in the “initial stage” of space exploration and has a go-slow approach concerning the moon.
“Scientific research can’t be rushed. Lunar travel is an undertaking that is difficult, risky and requires huge investment. You can’t take a wish-list approach to it,” Hu said.
He dismissed stories that China is planning to land taikonauts on the moon by 2020. “You can’t declare yourself the boss of a chicken farm when you’ve only got one egg now, can you?” Hu explained.
In October, China launched its Chang’e-1 probe into lunar orbit. The country has announced plans to land a robotic spacecraft on the moon in 2013 and to follow it up with a lunar rover capable of returning soil samples by 2017.
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 [...]
