London, England (Cosmica PR) –

“This alliance provides a dramatic step for both companies, and the New Space industry in Europe, since it establishes an unbeatable team with full-fledged technical and commercial capabilities to target an international market ready to take advantage of the new flight opportunities arising from XCOR’s Lynx spaceplane.” states, Dr. José Antonio Carrasco, CEO of EMXYS.

Cosmica and EMXYS released a full color brochure detailing the full range of payload integration services on offer. These include astronomy, zero-g science, aerospace testing, earth observation, atmospheric physics and nanosat launch. The Lynx offers a multi-mission platform to accommodate diverse suborbital applications with aircraft-like operations, including up to four flights per day and two-hour turnaround between flights.

“We are honored to make the announcement of our alliance today at such a prestigious establishment as the Royal Aeronautical Society during their 3rd European Space Tourism Conference: Open for Business.” announced Garrett Smith, founder & president of Cosmica Spacelines. XCOR Aerospace is a lead sponsor of the conference.

EMXYS and Cosmica provide complete payload integration services including technical and administrative support. The technical services include payload qualification, engineering & manufacture, data & telemetry services, astronaut operators and flight engineer training. The alliance is ready to provide the following administrative services: flight bookings, project management, design & safety reviews, flight insurance and export/import paperwork.

Leszek Farber, founder & CEO of Cosmica states, “Repeat access to microgravity, upper atmosphere and space environments will give researchers rapid feedback to design and iterate their experiments providing breakthrough science. This is a game changer for European scientific research and technology development.” In addition to institutional and corporate research opportunities, Cosmica and EMXYS offer payload integration services for student missions and educators through educational outreach programs designed to inspire future generations of space professionals to achieve their full potential.

Cosmica Spacelines:
Cosmica Spacelines is building a future of unique experiences, changed perspectives and boundless potential through repeat access to space onboard XCOR’s Lynx spaceplane. The Cosmica Elite Private Spaceflight Club offers passionate individuals exclusive memberships with lifetime privileges to experience the excitement of flying to space, time and again. For technology development and fundamental science, Cosmica provides complete payload integration support so that the space industry’s leading professionals can unleash their creativity and truly focus on innovation. Let Cosmica give wings to your inspiration. Complete details are available at www.cosmicaspacelines.com.

EMXYS:
EMXYS (Embedded Instruments and Systems S.L.) is a Spanish aerospace firm specialized in the design, development and manufacturing of space-borne electronics for instrumentation, data acquisition and control systems. EMXYS has extensive experience designing space grade hardware for European Space Agency and prime companies. EMXYS is an AS-9100 and ISO-9001 qualified company. www.emxys.com

XCOR Aerospace:
XCOR Aerospace of Mojave, California is in the business of developing and producing safe, reliable and reusable rocket powered vehicles, propulsion systems, advanced non-flammable composites and other enabling technologies. XCOR is working with aerospace prime contractors and government customers on major propulsion systems, and concurrently building the Lynx, a piloted, two-seat, fully reusable, liquid rocket powered suborbital vehicle that takes off and lands horizontally and serves research & scientific missions and private spaceflight. The Lynx production models (designated Lynx Mark II) are designed to be robust, multi-mission commercial vehicles capable of flying to 100+ km in altitude up to four times per day and are being offered on a wet lease basis. www.xcor.com

A description of the spacecraft and the development effort from the company’s website is shown below:

The Hermes spacecraft, named after the ancient Greek god of boundaries and the people cross them, is a suborbital space shuttle for everyone, built on the premise that anyone should be able to take a trip into space without spending their life savings. It’s inspired by people like yourself who want to go into space but don’t want to spend a fortune to get there. “There aren’t too many people who get to be astronauts,” explains Morris Jarvis, the founder of STAR Systems and the Hermes spacecraft. “I think anybody who wants to fly into space should have that opportunity.”

Compared to other vehicles in its class, the Hermes spacecraft is a fully reusable, vertical takeoff, horizontal landing, suborbital launch platform designed to provide space tourists, scientists and technology developers with the launch capabilities they want, when they want it and for a price they can afford. As compared to orbital space vehicles, the Hermes spacecraft is immensely easier and less costly to develop because it is not required to overcome the technical difficulties of achieving and returning from orbital velocities (~17,500 mph), and yet it can still meet the desire of the customer to reach the space environment, and for much less cost.

Hermes Rocket Specifications & Capabilities

• Crew: 2
• Passengers: 4
• Propulsion: Hybrid Rocket Motors
• Flight Profile: VTHL (Vertical Takeoff, Horizontal Landing)
• Maximum Altitude: 328,000+ ft (62 mi | 100 km)
• Maximum Velocity: Mach 3+ (2,300 mph | 3,700 kph)
• Payload: Human, Scientific, Educational, Technology
• Spacecraft design based on proven and tested NASA technology
• Commoditized rocket propulsion system designed to allow safer, lower cost, launch-on-demand capability
• Avionics system using commercially available, “off-the-shelf” technology
• Encrypted “remote” cockpit system allows spacecraft to be controlled remotely
• Semi-spacewalk capability

A Synergistic Development Program

At STAR Systems our primary focus is the synergistic development of the Hermes spacecraft and its constituent structural, propulsion, avionics and life support subsystems. We say “synergistic development” because the Hermes is not “break-through” technology. We are not inventing anything fundamentally new. Rather, the Hermes is a product of over 60 years of aerospace technology research and development already existing in an “off-the-shelf” capacity and modernized with current materials science. Hence we are able to lower the costs associated with research and development to primarily just development by synergizing what has already been done in the past into a profitable, commercial product incorporating new ideas for creating value for our customers. This development involves the physical fabrication and manufacture of the Hermes vehicle and its prototype constituent subsystems, with costs accounting for manufacturing materials, recurring equipment and other associated costs needed to produce, test and certify the vehicle. Such synergistic development, of course, requires an in-depth study of how the space industry has developed over its 60 year history, in addition to an entrepreneurial “eye” for identifying which concepts from the past hold the most practical potential for commercial application, as well as having the technical and fabrication skills necessary to understand how it can be made feasible and affordable using “off-the-shelf” technology.

At Popular Mechanics, Dave Mosher looks at what is known and unknown about Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ secretive suborbital and orbital projects. This is mostly a compilation of what’s already been reported by Clark Lindsey, myself and others. It quotes an anonymous aerospace executive as saying:

“I get why they’re so secretive. It’s a competitive business environment. But we’ll ultimately see them open up a little bit. They’re taking public money, so they’ll have to at some point.”

True enough. But, there might be more to it.

Google engineer Steve Yegge has posted a long entry on Google+ that discusses, among other things, his previous time working for Jeff Bezos at Amazon. Yegge says that Bezos is “super smart” but that his micro-management “makes ordinary control freaks look like stoned hippies.”

I’ve included a couple of excerpts below:

“Jeff Bezos is an infamous micro-manager. He micro-manages every single pixel of Amazon’s retail site. He hired Larry Tesler, Apple’s Chief Scientist and probably the very most famous and respected human-computer interaction expert in the entire world, and then ignored every goddamn thing Larry said for three years until Larry finally — wisely — left the company. Larry would do these big usability studies and demonstrate beyond any shred of doubt that nobody can understand that frigging website, but Bezos just couldn’t let go of those pixels, all those millions of semantics-packed pixels on the landing page. They were like millions of his own precious children. So they’re all still there, and Larry is not.

“Micro-managing isn’t that third thing that Amazon does better than us, by the way. I mean, yeah, they micro-manage really well, but I wouldn’t list it as a strength or anything. I’m just trying to set the context here, to help you understand what happened. We’re talking about a guy who in all seriousness has said on many public occasions that people should be paying him to work at Amazon. He hands out little yellow stickies with his name on them, reminding people “who runs the company” when they disagree with him. The guy is a regular… well, Steve Jobs, I guess. Except without the fashion or design sense. Bezos is super smart; don’t get me wrong. He just makes ordinary control freaks look like stoned hippies.”

Yegge also had some negative things to say about working at Amazon:

“They don’t give a single shit about charity or helping the needy or community contributions or anything like that. Never comes up there, except maybe to laugh about it. Their facilities are dirt-smeared cube farms without a dime spent on decor or common meeting areas. Their pay and benefits suck, although much less so lately due to local competition from Google and Facebook. But they don’t have any of our perks or extras — they just try to match the offer-letter numbers, and that’s the end of it.”

Read the full post.

Be a part of the NewSpace revolution and work closely with a small, dynamic team on spacecraft, rocket engines and other aerospace related projects.  The opportunity to be in on the ground floor of an entirely new industry only comes once in a lifetime.   We’re going to space and we want to take you with us! 

We have four positions currently open in Mojave, CA: 

• Electrical / Electronics Engineer (EE) 
• Structural Engineer (two positions)
• Senior CNC+Manual Prototype Machinist 

Click each job title for more information.  Resume submission instructions are located at the bottom of each description.   We look forward to hearing from qualified candidates! 

The Xaero vehicle during assembly November 2010. (Credit: Masten Space Systems)

Dave Masten
Masten Space Systems

Developing reusable, highly operable suborbital vehicles and technologies — orbital effort lies in the future

Progress — Past Year

• Lost some team members — replaced them and added a focus on business
• First VTVL Relight Flight
• SBIR
• Plume Impingement SBIR
• Scimitar Engine
• Signed agreement with Space Florida (letter of intent)
• Xaero in the air
• Focus on customers

Scimitar Engine

• Improved design — easier to maintain from operational standpoint
• 1,800 lbs. of thrust (more than planned)

CRuSR Work

• completed payload integration
• continue to work towards flight milestones
• plans to conduct first CRuSR launch within the next few months

2011 Focus

• Xaero to 30 km
• Xogdor buildout
• Engine tests and other technical developments
• Building up business office
• Going for another round of funding

Q&A

Why Florida?

• A lot of talent in Florida and they’re going to be available soon.
• Every spaceport they can fly with has military airspace over it. Love Mojave but they only want us to fly it into their airspace if it is R&D. As soon as they get operational (commercially), they don’t want them flying from there.
• White Sands Missile Base adjacent to Spaceport America is “pretty lousy” at providing airspace. Armadillo Aerospace had problems with a rocket launch last week.
• Florida is willing to bend over backwards to get people to launch from their state.

Time frame for going up to 30 kilometers?

September time frame. Relates to CRuSR contract. Need to get it done.

What is the schedule for Xogdor and the vehicle flying to 100 km?

Can’t give you a schedule until his signs up his new investor.

What is your biggest concern?

Federal government policy and budgets. The President’s NASA budget last year was excellent. Obama actually listened to his own committee and made intelligent decisions. Provided plenty of money for most centers. Those on Constellation program that was canceled would have worked on new technology programs.

Space Launch System (aka Senate Launch System) isn’t going to fly. Why are we building it?

Bruce Pittman: “Jim Muncy is going to explain all that to us tomorrow morning.”

Jim Muncy: “No I’m not.” (Laughter)

“I don’t know what Congress is thinking….Kick them all out.” (Applause)

NASA’s Office of Chief Technologist has published detailed information about suborbital vehicles that will be available beginning in 2011 for researchers to conduct microgravity experiments. The vehicles are being built by Armadillo Aerospace, Blue Origin, Masten Space Systems, Virgin Galactic, and XCOR.

Today we will look at Blue Origin’s New Shepard system. The Washington State-based company is expected to begin commercial flight operations with cargo next year, with human flights following in 2012. The New Shepard vehicle will fly from Texas.

PLATFORM

The New Shepard system is comprised of a Propulsion Module and a Crew Capsule, the latter being stacked on top of the Propulsion Module, and capable of separating from the Propulsion Module during flight.

Both the Propulsion Module and Crew Capsule will be fully reusable, carry their own avionics, and operate autonomously under the control of on-board computers. The Propulsion Module will use 90 percent concentration hydrogen peroxide as oxidizer and rocket propellant grade kerosene (RP) as propellant. The Crew Capsule will carry a solid rocket motor for use in an emergency escape situation. The Crew Capsule will have a low-thrust reaction control system (RCS) using cold gas for orientation.

FLIGHT PROFILE

The New Shepard system launches vertically, ascends to suborbital altitudes over 100 km and performs a powered vertical landing for recovery and reuse of the vehicle. After a propulsive boost phase, the New Shepard vehicle will coast up to an apogee greater than 325,000 feet (over 100,000 meters), then return to the launch site. The entire flight will be nearly vertical.The New Shepard system launch, flight and landing activities take approximately 10 minutes.

PAYLOAD CONFIGURATION

Experiments will be hosted inside the Crew Capsule in standard Cabin Payload System (CPS) racks. Each rack supports a total of 10.6 cubic feet (over 300 liters) of available volume divided in standard Cabin Payload Bays (CPBs) of either 1.8 cubic feet (over 50 liters) or double-height 3.6 cubic feet (over 100 liters).

Each standard CPB will accommodate approximately 25 lbs (11.3 kg) of payload and the double-height CPB will accommodate approximately 50 lbs (22.7 kg). Blue Origin will consider payloads that are larger than the standard bay sizes, particularly for experiments seeking a high flight rate. A rack provided by an outside organization should not exceed approximately 260 lbs (120 kg) of carry-on mass.

Blue Origin anticipates that the Crew Capsule will experience 3 or more minutes of microgravity at a level less than 0.001 g during a typical flight.

The Crew Capsule will contain windows, allowing viewing of both Earth and space. Experiment racks could be positioned to optimize window access and field of view. Blue Origin is exploring the possibility of supporting externally-mounted experiments, such as sensors that can sample the atmosphere. These experiments will likely be constrained not to violate the outer mold line of the vehicle.

EXPERIMENTS

Blue Origin is currently working with several universities on a Phase 1 Research Flight Demonstration Program. The purpose of this program is to serve as a pathfinder, demonstrating the integration and operation of scientific experiments during unmanned test flights of the New Shepard system to high altitudes. The selected experiments are:

• Three-Dimensional Critical Wetting Experiment in Microgravity. The principal investigator of this effort is Dr. Steven Collicott, of Purdue University.

• Microgravity Experiment on Dust Environments in Astrophysics (MEDEA). The principal investigator of this effort is Dr. Joshua Colwell, of the University of Central Florida. The Southwest Research Institute is also contributing to this experiment.

• Effective lnterfacial Tension lnduced Convection (EITIC). The principal investigator of this effort is Dr. John Pojman, of Louisiana State University. Professor Patrick Bunton of William Jewell College is also contributing to this experiment.

FLIGHT SCHEDULE AND RATES

Flight testing of a prototype New Shepard system began in 2006. Blue Origin expects the first opportunities for experiments requiring an accompanying researcher astronaut to be available in 2012. Flight opportunities in 2011 may be available for autonomous or remotely-controlled experiments on an uncrewed flight test.

The flight rate would depend on market demand, but Blue Origin anticipates rates up to approximately 52 launches per year of the New Shepard vehicle.

LAUNCH SITE

The New Shepard flight program will be conducted from Blue Origin’s West Texas Launch Site (WTLS). WTLS is located in the remote desert of Culberson County, North of Van Horn, Texas, about a two hour drive from the El Paso airport. Launches and landings will both take place at Blue Origin’s WTLS facility.

Editor’s Note: The above information was compiled from NASA’s Flight Opportunities Program website and Blue Origin’s public Request for Information (RFI) response for the CRuSR program. A shout out to Clark Lindsey of Hobby Space for originally finding the published information.

XCOR's Lynx suborbital vehicle

A few additional details on the XCOR-Curacao deal, courtesy of The Wall Street Journal:

The latest such effort, slated to be announced Tuesday, is a nearly $25-million agreement between start-up space-plane maker XCOR of Mojave, Ca., a group of Dutch investors and the government of Curacao.

XCOR officials said they are currently in discussions with a number of prospective European partners. “We’ve received a lot of inquiries from around the world,” said Andrew Nelson, XCOR’s chief operating officer, including “a coupe of different locations in Europe.” The company declined to elaborate.

Read the full WSJ story.

TEACHERS IN SPACE PRESS RELEASE

Dallas, TX – The nonprofit Teachers in Space program has been selected by NASA to create an innovative professional-development program for science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) teachers.

“The NASA Education Office has selected Teachers in Space for funding under NASA’s K-12 Cooperative Agreement Notice,” Teachers in Space project manager Edward Wright said today. “Under this cooperative agreement, Teachers in Space will receive approximately $400,000 in funding and work with NASA to take STEM education to a new level.”

Under the cooperative agreement, Teachers in Space will conduct a series of professional-development workshops for high-school STEM teachers during the summer of 2011 and 2012. The workshops will take place in various states including California, Florida, and Texas.

The new workshops will build on the existing Teachers in Space program. Teachers in Space is working with the US companies that are now developing fully reusable suborbital spacecraft for science and commercial applications. The goal of Teachers in Space is to enable large numbers of teachers to fly in space and return to the classroom. The first seven Pathfinder astronaut teacher candidates were announced by Teachers in Space on July 20, 2009 at NASA Ames Research Center. “We want to put a thousand astronaut teachers into American classrooms in the next decade,” Wright said.

Teachers in Space is designed to attract the best and the brightest to the teaching profession and retain highly qualified teachers by creating exciting new incentives. At the same time, that excitement will flow down to students, along with the first-hand knowledge teachers gain from their spaceflight experiences. “We want to make teachers heroes,” said Teachers in Space education director Donald McMahon.

The teachers participating in the workshops under the cooperative agreement will not fly into space, but they will experience some of training being developed by Teachers in Space for astronaut teachers. “In one workshop, teachers will learn to fly a suborbital flight simulator with former Shuttle astronaut and XCOR Aerospace chief test pilot Rick Searfoss,” Wright said. “In another, they can build an experiment that will fly aboard a Masten Space Systems or Armadillo Aerospace vehicle. These are among the companies that are now developing the low-cost, fully reusable vehicles that will bring about a revolution in spaceflight and permit people from all walks of life, including teachers, to fly in space.”

The professional-development workshops to be conducted under the cooperative agreement will focus on suborbital science, suborbital flight, and space medicine and human factors. To conduct these workshops, Teachers in Space has assembled a team that includes members from NASA, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Space Education Initiatives, and other organizations, as well as the Space Frontier Foundation, the Teachers in Space parent organization.

“We have assembled an exceptionally strong, highly experienced team whose accomplishments range from commanding Space Shuttle missions to Emmy-Award winning television productions,” Wright said. “The NASA Education Office recognized our proposal as among ‘the most innovative approaches, with promising outcomes and alignment to NASA.’ We look forward to a very exciting and productive partnership with NASA over the next two years.”

First free flight of the Super Mod configuration with fairing and deployable legs. Apogee was 2247ft.

XCOR’s Chief Engineer Dan DeLong explains the Lynx engine.

• Showed a promotional video highlighting company’s progress
• Played a second video in which the vehicle lost control at 4,000 feet and fell head-over-tail to the ground

Business Update:

• Company is growing. Taken on two more full-time team members
• Operating profit again this year – marginally profitable small aerospace company right now
• Couple of customers paying them decent money – “We’re very distracted by these customers.” (laughter)
• Armadillo Aerospace was operating at the margins of what they could sustain
• Sold his software company last year – provided Armadillo with some more financial stability…
• What we’re flying now is pretty close to what we need for reusable suborbital vehicles. A number of upgrades needed that they are working on.
• Hoped to have a new business deal to announce for the conference…announcement due within the next month…
• Will be conducting tests at Texas launch site, the Oklahoma Spaceport, and Spaceport America in New Mexico

Centennial Challenges, NASA and the Rest of It

• Centennial Challenges – best money NASA has spent on new technology
• Upset over decision to allow Masten Space Systems a third launch window  in Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge. Masten edged out Armadillo to win first prize…Carmack described it as bunch of people walked into a smoke-filled room and came out to announce they had taken a half million dollars away from you…
• Very excited about NASA’s commitment to purchase commercial suborbital research…$15 million for the next year, $75 million over five years….
• May end up doing some payload work for NASA before the end of the year….
• Being able to make dozens of flights will give them the experience needed before they put people on it….eventual goal is to send people into orbit….
• Considers NASA to be a slow-motion train wreck….great relationship with people within NASA, FAA, etc. but it is horribly inefficient and not cost effective…
• Every year, they have a regulatory crisis involving something they want to do….

Artist's conception of WhiteKnight2/SpaceShipTwo in flight (credit: Virgin Galactic)

Push on for Moray RAF space base lift-off site
The Press and Journal

Science Minister Lord Drayson has been urged to include the possibility of Lossiemouth becoming a spaceport in pursuing his policy of increasing the UK’s share of the space technology market.

The plea has been delivered by Moray SNP MP Angus Robertson following publication of the government’s Space Innovation and Growth Strategy for the next two decades.

The document sets out the aim to “firmly establish the UK as one of the world’s leading space nations” and details the changes in the business environment to see this happen.

The paper was referring to the UK’s acknowledged expertise designing satellites.

Read the full story.

An interesting interview with Bill Khourie, executive director of the Oklahoma Space Industry Development Authority. OSIDA’s Burns Flat facility has been without a space tenant since Rocketplane moved out about a year ago. However, officials are pursuing some intriguing possibilities:

• XCOR, which might base one of its Lynx vehicles there;
• Armadillo, which has been developing a suborbital vehicle and has flown test flights at Burns Flat before;
• A point-to-point corridor in collaboration with New Mexico’s Spaceport America, presumably involving Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo.

You can read the accompanying story here.

XCOR's Lynx suborbital vehicle

XCOR PRESS RELEASE
December 17, 2009

The Yecheon Astro Space Center announced today that it has selected XCOR Aerospace as its preferred supplier of suborbital space launch services. Operating under a wet lease model, XCOR intends to supply services to the Center using the Lynx Mark II suborbital vehicle, pending United States government approvals to station the vehicle in the Republic of Korea.

XCOR is committed to working with the US Department of State, Department of Defense, Department of Commerce and other agencies of the US government to comply with relevant laws, regulations, policies and procedures.  XCOR has engaged specialized export control consultants from the Commonwealth Consulting Group of Arlington, Virginia, and legal counsel from the Washington, D.C. office of the international firm Bingham McCutchen, to assist in this first of a kind effort.

“This is a ground breaking opportunity for our company, our industry and a very good opportunity for the U.S. to set an example of responsible international commerce in space transportation,” said XCOR CEO Jeff Greason.  “To our knowledge, this is the first time that a US commercial suborbital launch vehicle will undergo the export licensing and approval process. We believe there is no better pathfinder than with our partners at the South Korean Yecheon Astro Space Center.”

Yecheon Astro Space Center is a non-profit entity that operates multiple space related activities including: aerospace training center; astronomy research center; planetarium; a commercial space camp with centrifuge; and commercial helicopter tourism operation in the South Korean State of Gyeongsangbuk-do, approximately 240 kilometers (150 miles) southeast of Seoul.

Working closely with its partners, Yecheon Astro Space Center has formed a broad coalition of regional and national entities to fund the approximately $30 Million project to bring the Lynx to Yecheon for space tourism, educational, scientific and environmental monitoring missions, making it the early leader in commercial manned space flight in Asia. Under the envisioned arrangement, Yecheon will be the exclusive Lynx operational site in Korea.

“As part of our long term strategic plan, we have performed an extensive review of the suborbital vehicle suppliers over the past 18 months, and found XCOR’s Lynx to be the best mix of safe design, reliable clean propulsion, skilled team members, full reusability, ease of operation, turn around time, upfront cost and long term cost to operate,” said Mr Jo Jae-Seong, Founder and Chief Executive Director of Yecheon Astro Space Center.  “We look forward to a long term relationship with XCOR and Lynx!”

“This is an incredibly important development for the New Space industry charting a course for other innovative US companies to flourish here and abroad. It will produce high paying manufacturing jobs, and allow the innovative spirit of America to take root and grow a new industry before international participants can catch up,” said XCOR Chief Operating Officer, Andrew Nelson, adding, “I think the wet lease model is an innovative means to safely operate, maintain and provide physical security for the Lynx while ensuring that US export control issues are addressed completely.

About XCOR

XCOR Aerospace is a California corporation located in Mojave, California. The company is in the business of developing and producing safe, reliable and reusable rocket powered vehicles, propulsion systems, advanced non-flammable composites and other enabling technologies for responsive private space flight, scientific missions, upper atmospheric research, and small satellite launch to low earth orbit. The Lynx is a piloted, two seat, fully reusable, liquid rocket powered vehicle that takes off and lands horizontally.  The Lynx production models (designated Lynx Mark II) are designed to be robust, multi-commercial mission vehicles capable of flying to 100+ km in altitude up to four times per day.  XCOR’s web address is: www.xcor.com.

About Yecheon Astro Space Center

Yecheon Astro Space Center (formerly called the Yecheon Astronomy Foundation) is a non profit educational and research entity established in the city of Yecheon-gun, state of Gyeongsangbuk-do, South Korea.  The Center is home to: an astronomical research center that houses a collection of research telescopes and auxiliary telescopes, and other research apparatus; a space camp training center with centrifuge, aerial rooftop training device and reduced gravity simulators; a planetarium; a conference center and dormitories; and a helicopter tour operation. The Center’s web site is: www.portsky.net.