Posted on May 12, 2012, at 12:01 pm .
ESA's IXV re-entry test vehicle.
CHARLOTTE, NC (CWC PR) – Curtiss-Wright Controls, Inc. today announced that it has received a contract from Alenia Aermacchi S.p.A. to supply rugged data acquisition subsystems for use in the Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle (IXV). Under the contract, Curtiss-Wright Controls will supply Alenia Aermacchi with its Acra KAM-500, Acra PCM recorder and Acra network switch for the re-entry vehicle data handling and telemetry subsystem. The Curtiss-Wright Controls Avionics & Electronics (CWC-AE) division’s data acquisition, networking and recording products will enable the IXV mission to acquire data to test new re-entry vehicle technologies.
Continue reading ‘Curtiss-Wright Wins Deal for ESA IXV Re-entry System’
Posted on May 6, 2012, at 3:00 pm .
Reston, Va. (AIAA PR) – The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), in coordination with the International Astronautical Federation (IAF), is pleased to announce the initial program for the Global Space Exploration Conference (GLEX) to take place May 22–24, 2012 at the L’Enfant Plaza Hotel, 480 L’Enfant Plaza Southwest, Washington, D.C.
The opening day of the event will feature a “Heads of Space Agencies Global Space Exploration Dialog.” Moderated by AIAA Executive Director Bob Dickman, it will bring together Charles Bolden, administrator, NASA; Jean-Jacques Dordain, director general, European Space Agency; Steve MacLean, president, Canadian Space Agency; Vladimir Alexandrovich Popovkin, head, Russian Federal Space Agency; and Chen Qiufa, administrator, China National Space Administration, for a candid discussion on the future of space exploration initiatives in the global community. Dr. Keiji Tachikawa, president, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and Dr. K. Radhakrishnan, chairman, Indian Space Research Organization, have also been invited.
Continue reading ‘Global Space Exploration Conference Set for Late May in DC’
Posted on May 5, 2012, at 7:18 am .
Soyuz launch complex in Kourou. (Credit: ESA - S. Corvaja, 2011)
Well, it looks like the burgeoning commercial space industry in the United States is beginning to have a major impact overseas. Space News reports:
The European Space Agency (ESA) will select two competing proposals by late June to design a next-generation rocket that, if accepted by European governments in November, could succeed the current Ariane 5 heavy-lift vehicle within 15 years, ESA officials said.
The 19-nation agency is taking a new approach to launcher design by asking industry from the start to design a cost-effective rocket that would appeal to owners of satellites, both commercial and governmental, without regard for where the vehicle’s contractors are located.
Continue reading ‘ESA: Affordable Ariane 5 Replacement Only 15 Years Away’
Posted on March 27, 2012, at 11:41 am .
A taikonaut emerges from China's Shenzhou 7 spacecraft after a successful orbital flight
Check out this update on cooperation with China on human spaceflight:
European Space Agency Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain met with his Chinese counterpart March 22-23 to discuss future cooperation in manned spaceflight, including the potential for a Chinese Shenzhou spacecraft to dock with the International Space Station (ISS).
The two sides met at Dordain’s request on the sidelines of the European Space Agency’s third Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) launch to the ISS March 23 to further establish a dialogue and lay the groundwork for potential Sino-European cooperation in manned spaceflight.
“For the moment we cannot dock and rendezvous with the ISS, because our system is not the same as the Americans or the Russians,” said Wang Zhaoyao, the newly named director general of the China Manned Space Engineering Office (Cmseo), adding that experts from both agencies are expected to establish a working group that will meet in Paris next month to discuss Shenzhou’s compatibility with a planned ISS common docking mechanism. “We would like to have cooperation.”
Dordain says the two sides are discussing a range of collaborative opportunities in the area of manned spaceflight, including astronaut training, life-support systems and utilization of each other’s space station facilities.
Read the full story.
Posted on March 16, 2012, at 12:47 pm .
NASM PR – The 2012 Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum Trophy will be awarded in the Lifetime Achievement category to Burt Rutan and in the Current Achievement to the Cassini-Huygens Flight team. They will be presented their awards March 21 at a black-tie dinner in Washington, D.C.
“The winners of the 2012 Trophy Awards have challenged the established ways of thinking,” said Gen. J.R. “Jack” Dailey, director of the museum. “Burt Rutan has inspired the aeronautical community to reach beyond the conventional for innovation and achievement; the Cassini-Huygens mission has changed our understanding of the Saturn system and contributed to our understanding of planetary systems’ formation and evolution.”
Established in 1985, the award recognizes outstanding achievements in the fields of aerospace science and technology and their history. As in past years, Trophy winners receive a miniature version of “The Web of Space,” a sculpture by artist John Safer.
Continue reading ‘Burt Rutan Wins NASM Lifetime Achievement Award’
Posted on March 5, 2012, at 6:40 am .
Support for bringing China, India and other nations into the International Space Station partnership appears to be growing following a meeting of the five families space agency heads in Canada last week:
“We are not a closed club, our doors are wide open,” Vladimir Popovkin, the head of the Russian Space agency, said after a meeting Thursday of the leaders of the organizations involved in the station.
Popovkin ventured that the day will come when China and India will work together with the five ISS partners — Canada, the United States, Russia, Japan and the European Space Agency.
Continue reading ‘Will China, India Join International Space Station Partnership?’
Posted on February 23, 2012, at 11:55 am .
VIA ESA PR — Malta signed a Cooperation Agreement with ESA on Monday, allowing the island nation to become more involved with projects being undertaken by the continent’s space agency. Meanwhile, Romania has joined ESA as its 19th Member State while ascension talks are being held with Poland to become the 20th member.
Continue reading ‘ESA Expansion Includes Malta, Romania and Poland’
Posted on February 17, 2012, at 5:20 am .
Having spent 9 years and $930 million developing a new solid-fuel rocket to launch small satellites into Earth orbit, France and Italy have decided that working on a new spacecraft that will send humans to explore the moon, Mars and various asteroids is both beneath them and simply too boring.
Two of Europe’s biggest International Space Station contributors have rejected a NASA proposal that would see the European Space Agency (ESA) pay its share of ISS operating costs by building a propulsion module for NASA’s Orion crew transport capsule, saying the proposal is technologically lackluster and unlikely to generate public enthusiasm.
Interesting.
Continue reading ‘Vega Backers Find Orion Service Module Work Too Boring’
Posted on February 16, 2012, at 5:17 am .
Inaugural Vega flight. (Credits: ESA - S. Corvaja, 2012)
Despite committing almost $1.5 billion to developing and flight testing its newest launch vehicle, Vega, Europe will spend even more money to upgrade the rocket.
European officials are eying the developing of a new German fourth stage to replace a Ukrainian-built RD-868 engine that was used on Vega’s successful inaugural flight on Monday. It’s not clear how much the new engine would cost.
Continue reading ‘Officials Eye New Upper Stage for Vega Rocket’
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