Cyclotron - Last Emperor of the Planet Earth

Hampton (VA) - NASA's Langley Research Center plays host to an Orion crew module and abort system simulator, components of the upcoming Ares I-X launch vehicle. Designed to be a less powerful rocket than the also planned Ares V rocket, the Ares I will eventually carry crew and components into space for NASA's return to the moon and on to Mars. The first test flight will occur Summer, 2009.

The first test launch of the Ares I-X craft will take place at Kennedy Space Center, FL, in the summer of 2009. It will lift off, climb 25 miles (132,000 feet) in a two-minute full-power test of the Ares I-X's first stage rocket. It will then separate and initiate the parachute recovery system returning to Earth. Later tests of the Ares I-Y in 2013 will include a test of the Orion crew-module ejection system and its safe return to Earth during a simulated aborted launch.

NASA's 2009 test flight will also include a necessary test, the real-world analysis of the craft's aerodynamic properties. NASA will literally be testing if the craft's design is "safe and stable in flight." According to NASA, "This is a question that must be answered before astronauts begin traveling into orbit and beyond."
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Cape Canaveral FL – Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) has been granted an Operational License by the US Air Force for the use of Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on the Florida coast. Receipt of the license, in conjunction with the approved Site Plan, paves the way for SpaceX to initiate Falcon 9 launch operations later this year.

“We are developing Falcon 9 to be a valuable asset to the American space launch fleet,” said Elon Musk, CEO and CTO of SpaceX.( Read more... )

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran plans to send a manned rocket into space in the next 10 years, state television reported on Thursday, just days after the Islamic Republic announced it had put a dummy satellite into orbit.

Embroiled in a standoff with the West over its nuclear ambitions, Iran said on Sunday it had put a dummy satellite into orbit on a home-grown rocket for the first time.

U.S. security officials said Tehran's attempted satellite launch was a failure that fell short of claimed successes, but an analyst said the test marked a technical advance for Iran.

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I personally dont think Iran wants to put nuks in space, but I do believe they are pursuing nukes (as some say/fear).

I also believed that this previous launched failed, and that Iran is far from becoming a space entity. There is too much corruption in their society to be successful. If you read about how earthquakes reveal the corruption and poor craftmanship, getting into space will be miraculous.

The ongoing conflict between Russia and Georgia, and the strain this has put on relations between the United States and Russia, could have implications for whether or not American astronauts get to travel in space after NASA ends its space shuttle program.

NASA is planning to mothball the aging space shuttle in 2010. The agency is working on a replacement spacecraft, called Orion, which will be able to travel to the international space station and also the moon. That won't be ready until around 2015, however.

NASA was planning to fill that gap in American space travel by sending its astronauts up to the orbiting station on the Russian space agency's Soyuz spacecraft. Now, some members of Congress are worried that NASA isn't going to get the political support the agency needs to do that.

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Major milestone achieved towards demonstrating U.S. transport to the International Space Station following retirement of the Space Shuttle

McGregor TX – Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) conducted the first nine engine firing of its Falcon 9 launch vehicle at its Texas Test Facility outside McGregor on July 31st. A second firing on August 1st completed a major NASA Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) milestone almost two months early.

At full power, the nine engines consumed 3,200 lbs of fuel and liquid oxygen per second, and generated 832,000 pounds of force (lbf) – four times the maximum thrust of a 747 aircraft. This marks the first firing of a Falcon 9 first stage with its full complement of nine Merlin 1C engines . Once a near term Merlin 1C fuel pump upgrade is complete, the sea level thrust will increase to 950,000 lbf, making Falcon 9 the most powerful single core vehicle in the United States.

“This was the most difficult milestone in development of the Falcon 9 launch vehicle and it also constitutes a significant achievement in US space vehicle development. Not since the final flight of the Saturn 1B rocket in 1975, has a rocket had the ability to lose any engine or motor and still successfully complete its mission,” said Elon Musk, CEO and CTO of SpaceX. “Much like a commercial airliner, our multi-engine design has the potential to provide significantly higher reliability than single engine competitors.”

“We made a major advancement from the previous five engine test by adding four new Merlin engines at once,” said Tom Mueller, Vice President of Propulsion for SpaceX. “All phases of integration went smoothly and we were elated to see all nine engines working perfectly in concert.”

FORMER NASA astronaut and moon-walker Dr Edgar Mitchell - a veteran of the Apollo 14 mission - has stunningly claimed aliens exist.

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To believe in alines, all you have is observation or a leap of faith - just like believing in God.

It is designed to replace the Soyuz vehicle currently in use by Russia and will allow Europe to participate directly in crew transportation.

The reusable ship was conceived to carry four people towards the Moon, rivalling the US Ares/Orion system.

Unlike previous crewed vehicles, it will use thrusters to make a soft landing when it returns to Earth.

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TOKYO (Reuters) - NASA has began unofficial negotiations with Japan's space agency on purchasing units of an unmanned cargo transfer spacecraft as the successor to its space shuttles, the Yomiuri newspaper said on Sunday.

Such a deal would be the biggest in Japan's 50-year space development history, the paper added.

The H-2 Transfer Vehicle (HTV), which costs about 14 billion yen ($131 million) each, is being developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and domestic companies including Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd and Mitsubishi Electric Corp, the Yomiuri said.

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Orion spaceship missing NASA's mark
Cost overruns and technical problems are slowing development of the Orion spaceships envisioned to replace the shuttles and carry astronauts back to the moon.

NASA officials said Wednesday that the program remains on track for a March 2015 launch of the first manned mission of the Ares 1 rocket and Orion exploration vehicle.

But the agency's internal schedules targeted that first human mission for summer 2013. A revised schedule outlining dozens of technical dilemmas shows that the launch will be no sooner than August 2014.

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Internal NASA Orion Update

The 117-page report, posted Wednesday at nasawatch.com, shows an $80 million cost overrun this year for just one motor and a dozen different technical problems that the space agency put in the top risk zone, meaning the problems are considered severe. The report put the program's financial performance in that category. Technical problems included software that may not be developed on time, the heat shield, a dangerous level of shaking during launch, and a hard-to-open hatch door. The report also said NASA's plans would shortchange astronauts' daily water needs, giving them only two liters a day when medical experts say they need at least 2.5 liters."

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NASA Is Shifting Ares 1-Y Launch To 2013 (Again)

"On 16 January 2008, Constellation Program Manager Jeff Hanley issued an internal agency memo wherein he asked a lot of people to adopt a series of Ares and Orion launch date slips. Most significantly, he said that Ares 1-Y would shifted 12 months from September 2012 to September 2013.

All of this arm waving and denials aside, it would seem that Jeff Hanley knew what was going to happen - eventually. NASA sent Lockheed Martin a letter on 1 July 2008 asking that the company "develop a NTE value" for the several changes. One change was to ..."

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[slashdot] "A team of 57 engineers at NASA's Marshall Spaceflight center feel that the Ares rocket is not the best solution for launching the new CEV. They are currently working on their own time developing an alternative launch system known as Jupiter. The 131 page proposal, along with other information, is available on the project website. Proponents of the project say that it is 'simpler, safer, and sooner' than the Ares project, predicting the ability for a return to the moon in 2017, two years before the current goal. Ares management has so far dismissed the proposal as a 'napkin drawing.'"

[Slashdot] "Michael Benson is proposing that NASA send the ISS to the moon instead of leaving it low earth orbit. (While we're at it, we should re-brand it as the 'International Space Ship.') He points out that it's already designed to be moved periodically to higher orbits so instead of just boosting it a few miles, strap on some ion engines and put it in orbit around the moon instead of the earth. That would provide an initial base for the astronauts going to the moon and give the ISS a purpose other than performing yet more studies on the effect of micro gravity on humans. Benson concludes: 'Let's begin the process of turning the ISS from an Earth-orbiting caterpillar into an interplanetary butterfly.'"

ring represents the final major event before launch to orbit.

Hawthorne CA – Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) successfully conducted a full launch dress rehearsal and hold down firing of the Falcon 1 Flight 3 vehicle on June 25, 2008 (Marshall Island Time) on Omelek Island, SpaceX’s launch site at the Kwajalein Atoll. This test is the final step before launch of the Falcon 1 rocket.( photo )

When We Left Earth: The NASA Missions marks a half-century of space exploration with original mission footage, some of it previously unreleased, upgraded to high-definition viewing standards.

The six-hour Discovery Channel series, to air over the next three Sundays (9 ET/PT), follows the U.S. space program from its beginnings, including John Glenn's famed Mercury flight, the Apollo moon landing and the space shuttle missions.

"This is living American history that's been preserved through this great documentary," says narrator Gary Sinise, who narrated an earlier documentary about the shuttle and played an astronaut in Apollo 13 and Mission to Mars.

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McGregor TX – Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) conducted the first five-engine firing of its Falcon 9 medium to heavy lift rocket at its Texas Test Facility outside McGregor on Thursday, May 29. At full power the engines generated almost half a million pounds of force, and consumed 1,750 lbs of fuel and liquid oxygen per second. This five engine test again sets the record as the most powerful test yet on the towering 235-foot tall test stand.( Read more... )

European aerospace consortium EADS Astrium unveiled a model of manned spacecraft it says could carry astronauts into space within 10 years. It would be a huge leap forward for a program that relies upon the aging space shuttle fleet or Russia's Soyuz to put people in orbit. Having its own manned vehicles is more than a point of pride for the Europeans. It's an issue of practicality. Hitching a ride with the Americans or Russians puts the European Space Agency at the mercy of those programs.

http://blog.wired.com/cars/2008/05/europe-hopes-ju.html

In a departure from previous spherical Russian capsule designs, a conical manned capsule with a service module has been selected for the European Space Agency and Russia's Federal Space Agency (FSA) joint programme Crew Space Transportation System (CSTS).

With a maiden test flight expected in 2015 and the first manned mission scheduled for 2018, both from Russia's planned Vostochny spaceport, the CSTS would carry six astronauts to low-Earth orbit or four to the Moon like NASA's Orion crew exploration vehicle, the design is a conical capsule and service module.

2008-05-31 The shuttle roared into a brilliantly blue sky dotted with a few clouds at 5:02 p.m., right on time. Among the cargo is a giant Japanese lab addition to the space station along with something more mundane - a toilet pump.

The shuttle's trip to the space station should take two days. Three spacewalks are planned during Discovery's 14-day flight, to install the $1 billion lab, replace an empty nitrogen gas tank and try out various cleaning methods on a clogged solar-wing rotating joint. The space station crew, meanwhile, will install a specially made pump for the outpost's finicky toilet.

"My family will never forget this," Garan Sr. said moments after the 123rd launch of the space shuttle. "It was a great launch. It had to be great because there was so much love here."

http://lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008806010348

http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2008/may/31/no-headline---31vthumbs/

(   )China's space program is the focus of immense national pride, and officials announced even more ambitious plans to explore the moon and build a space station after the program first put a man into orbit in 2003.

China sent an unmanned space ship to orbit the moon last year, the first step in a three-stage lunar exploration project. A manned lunar voyage is planned for some time after 2017.( Read more... )

10-minute suborbital flight into space seems so last season. Now, for a cool $100 million (Dh367m) you can go to the moon.

Space Adventures is offering a two-week vacation to stay at the International Space Station (ISS) and in the future, even a six-day extension for a trip around the moon should you fancy.( Read more... )

After creating history ISRO gears up for lunar mission
Zeenews Bureau

Sriharikota, April 29: After the picture perfect launch of 10 commercial satellites on Monday, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is gearing up for its ambitious project, moon mission Chandrayan I.

ISRO Chairman G Madhavan Nair, while addressing media shortly after the PSLV-C9 successfully placed 10 satellites into `precise` orbit, said that his team is preparing to launch Chandrayan I in the third quarter of this year. ( Read more... )