Tag: Pete Worden

OrbAstro Taking Students and Start-ups to Space in New Competitions

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OXFORDSHIRE, UK (OrbAstro PR) — OrbAstro has today revealed two new space competitions for students and start-ups to get spacecraft payloads to orbit, Orbital Student and Orbital Start-Up. The company has dedicated some capacity onboard their satellite launching in December 2021 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 to the competition.

Students and start-ups will mature designs for their novel spacecraft payloads, assessed by an independent panel of space industry experts. A short-list of teams will have their payloads put through environmental testing, to ensure they can survive the violence of rocket launch and the space environment. The best teams left standing, two student teams and one start-up, will have their payloads integrated to the OrbAstro satellite and launched. Once in orbit, teams will have the opportunity to carry out satellite and payload operations. 

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Breakthrough Initiatives to Fund Research into Search for Primitive Life in Clouds of Venus

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Venus hides a wealth of information that could help us better understand Earth and exoplanets. (Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

SAN FRANCISCO (Breakthrough Initiatives PR)  – Breakthrough Initiatives, the privately-funded space science programs founded by science and technology investor and philanthropist Yuri Milner, are funding a research study into the possibility of primitive life in the clouds of Venus. The study is inspired by the discovery, announced yesterday, of the gas phosphine, considered a potential biosignature, in the planet’s atmosphere.

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Trump to Chair National Space Council Meeting on Monday

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President Donald Trump signs an executive order reviving the National Space Council. (Credit: The White House)

President Donald Trump will chair the third public meeting of the National Space Council on Monday. The previous two sessions were chaired by Vice President Mike Pence, who heads up the council

I haven ‘t been able to find a time or agenda for the meeting, but when it does go live the event will be shown on NASA TV (https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html) and the White House Live website (www.whitehouse.gov/live/).

Although there is no published agenda, one likely topic of discussion is Space Policy Directive 3, which is focused on how the government will handle space traffic management.

The Space Council’s Users Advisory Group is scheduled to meet on Monday at NASA headquarters from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. EDT. The meeting will be webcast via Webex and be available via phone dial up.

Andy Pasztor of The Wall Street Journal reports that former House speaker Newt Gingrich and former NASA Ames Director Pete Worden have been dumped from the advisory group due to issues involving their business and financial ties.











SpaceResources.lu: New Law to Provide Framework for Space Resource Utilization

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Asteroid Eros
Asteroid Eros

LUXEMBOURG CITY (Luxembourg Government PR) — The Luxembourg Government forges ahead with the SpaceResources.lu initiative by presenting an overall strategy to be implemented progressively for the exploration and commercial utilization of resources from Near Earth Objects (NEOs), such as asteroids. Amongst the key actions undertaken is the establishment of an appropriate legal and regulatory framework for space resource utilization activities to provide private companies and investors with a secure legal environment.

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Pete Worden Joins Advisory Board of Luxembourg’s Space Resources Initiative

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Luxembourg Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Economy, Étienne Schneider with Pete Worden. (Credit: Luxembourg Government)
Luxembourg Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Economy, Étienne Schneider with Pete Worden. (Credit: Luxembourg Government)

LUXEMBOURG CITY (Luxembourg Ministry of the Economy PR) — The Luxembourg Government today announced that Simon “Pete” Worden (Brig. Gen., USAF, Ret., PhD), Chairman of the Breakthrough Prize Foundation, joins the government’s Advisory Board of the recently announced spaceresources.lu initiative. The initiative defines a framework for the exploration and commercial utilization of resources from Near Earth Objects (NEOs), such as asteroids.

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Luxembourg Launches Space Resources Mining Initiative

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Schematic view of asteroid (25143) Itokawa. (Credit: ESO)
Schematic view of asteroid (25143) Itokawa. (Credit: ESO)

LUXEMBOURG CITY (Luxembourg Government PR) — The Luxembourg Government announced a series of measures to position Luxembourg as a European hub in the exploration and use of space resources. Amongst the key steps undertaken, as part of the spaceresources.lu initiative, will be the development of a legal and regulatory framework confirming certainty about the future ownership of minerals extracted in space from Near Earth Objects (NEO’s) such as asteroids.

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Tu Appointed New Director of NASA Ames

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Eugene Tu (Credit: NASA)
Eugene Tu (Credit: NASA)

WASHINGTON, DC (NASA PR) — NASA Administrator Charles Bolden announced Monday the selection of Dr. Eugene L. Tu as the next director of the agency’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California, effective immediately.

Tu most recently served as the director of Exploration Technology at Ames, where he led four technology research and development divisions, including two of NASA’s critical infrastructure assets: the consolidated arc jet testing complex and the agency’s primary supercomputing facility.

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Pete Worden to Retire From NASA

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pete_worden_portrait
Pete Worden

NASA Ames Center Director Pete Worden has announced he is leaving the space agency at the end of March to pursue opportunities in the private sector. He was appointed Ames center director in May 2006 after retiring from a 29-year career in the U.S. Air Force.

Worden has been seen as a maverick within a relatively conservative space agency, pursuing innovative initiatives such as phonesats and synthetic biology while forging close ties with Silicon Valley companies such as Google. NASA Ames hosted an International Space University summer session; its research park is home to the Singularity University and Made in Space.
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Google Founders Saved Millions With NASA Ames Lease Deal

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A P3 Navy aircraft with Hangar One at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California. (Copyright 2008: Douglas Messier)
A P3 Navy aircraft with Hangar One at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California. (Copyright 2008: Douglas Messier)

Google’s founders, Sergei Brin and Larry Page, have saved millions of dollars in fuel costs and property taxes through a lease deal with NASA Ames that allows them to house their private aircraft at Moffett Field, according to an investigation by NBC Bay Area.

Nearly $8 million worth of jet fuel that sold for as little as $1.68 a gallon was put into a fleet of seven different airplanes and two helicopters that are kept on taxpayer-owned land at NASA’s Ames Research Center at Moffett Field. The same jet fuel sells for two to four-and-a-half times that amount, up to $8.05 a gallon, at fixed-base operators at nearby airports in the Bay Area.

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Video: Pete Worden Talks About Small Satellite Potential

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Video Caption: NASA Ames Research Center Director Pete Worden was invited as keynote speaker to the Canadian Space Summit to talk about Small Satellites for Science and Other Uses using Earth Observation as an example.











NewSpace 2012: NASA Leadership Roundtable

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NewSpace 2012 Conference
NASA Leadership Roundtable

  • Rebecca Keiser (Moderator) — Associate Deputy Administrator for Strategy and Policy, NASA
  • Robert Cabana — Director, NASA Kennedy Space Center
  • Ramon Lugo — Director, NASA Glenn Research Center
  • Ellen Ochoa — Deputy Director, NASA Johnson Space Center
  • Pete Worden — Director, NASA Ames Research Center

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Experts to Debate Our Future Destinations in Space in Sunnyvale on Friday

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Asteroid Ida

The question of where humanity should go next in space will be the topic of a round table on Friday, Oct. 29 at the Sheraton Sunnyvale Hotel.

“Moon, Mars, Asteroids: Where to Go First for Resources?” will bring together some of the world’s top experts to debate our next step in the settlement of space. The round table, sponsored by the Space Studies Institute, will be held from 7:00 to 10 p.m., including a post-debate reception. Admission is free to registered conference attendees and the general public.

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DARPA, NASA Working on $1.1 Million Starship Project

NASA, NASA Ames, propulsion 0

An interesting — if sketchy — report from the website of futurist Ray Kurweil about a joint DARPA-NASA project on interstellar travel:

NASA Ames Director Simon “Pete” Worden revealed Saturday that NASA Ames has “just started a project with DARPA called the Hundred Year Starship,” with $1 million funding from DARPA and $100K from NASA.

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