… a charter flight to space. And you can have it, too, for a cool $1.7 million. It’s in this year’s Neiman Marcus Christmas catalog. Your very own SpaceShipTwo flight with five of your closest friends, and a stay at Richard Branson’s retreat in the Virgin Islands to top it … Continue reading
Category Archives: Commercial Space
UP Aerospace launch falls short of space
Looks like UP Aerospace’s inaugural launch from Spaceport America didn’t go as high as they had hoped. Condolences from the OotC team to everyone who worked so hard on this launch. It’s always disappointing when something goes wrong, but I’m sure that they will learn from it and try again. … Continue reading
Orion CEV mock-up rolled out for media
In this artist’s concept, the Orion CEV docked to a lunar lander, is depicted orbiting the moon. Credit: Lockheed-Martian Associated Press reporter recounts his experiences as he tries out Lockheed-Martian’s mock-up of their Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle, (CEV). Fresh off of receiving an $8 billion contract to build it, Lockheed-Martian … Continue reading
Astronaut collapses at “Welcome Home” celebration
Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper, an astronaut on the STS-115 mission, collapsed twice Friday, a day after she returned to Earth in the shuttle Atlantis, and officials attributed her wobbles to the adjustment from 12 days at zero gravity. Wobbly and light-headed, Stefanyshyn-Piper collapsed while speaking publicly at a welcome-home ceremony. Fellow crew … Continue reading
“The Survival Imperative: Using Space to Protect Earth”
“The Survival Imperative: Using Space to Protect Earth” by Burrows, William E.
Published in 2006 by Forge Books (a Tom Doherty Associates press, like Tor Books), it weighs in at 350 pages of content plus several appendices. No errors noted.
Mr. Burrows, a professor of Journalism at NYU, is one of the better known chroniclers of the space age, and his book “This New Ocean” is a particularly well known title. In “The Survival Imperative”, Mr. Burrows picks up on the growing theme of “Space for the benefit of Earth”, and lays out a very compelling case for why our efforts to develop the space frontier are not merely a luxury, but rather a necessity if we value the continuity of our civilization into the indefinite future.
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Blogging from the ISS, Anousheh tells of her ride to orbit
You really want to take the time to read this. It is an inexpressibly cool story, made even more so by the knowledge that a) it is true, and b) the author is writing it floating in zero gravity far above the Earth on the International Space Station. As I … Continue reading
Bigelow announces 3-crewmember “Sundancer” space station to launch in 2010
Blogging from the AIAA Space conference, Rand Simberg of Transterrestrial Musings reports: Bigelow announced at lunch that he will be putting up a three-person space station in late 2009 or early 2010, about fifty percent bigger than an ISS module. He is putting up a destination in hopes that the … Continue reading
Ansari, Expedition-14 crew arrive at the International Space Station
Anousheh Ansari, X-Prize backer and private astronaut, has arrived at the ISS, along with the station’s new crew. In downlink video of the hatch opening, she could be seen smiling broadly, and wearing an X-Prize cap. You can read about her adventures in near-real time: she is blogging from the … Continue reading
Blue Origin gets vehicle testing go-ahead
Alan Boyle at Cosmic Log is reporting that Blue Origin has won an experimental permit to conduct flight tests from their Van Horn, Texas, launch site. With permit in hand, Blue Origin can proceed with plans for unmanned testing at the West Texas site. The company said in its environmental … Continue reading
Rocket Racing League gets a new team
A new team has joined the Rocket Racing League. The new team, RRL’s second, was founded by Navy Lt. James Bridenstine. The chief pilot for the first Rocket Racing League team, Leading Edge, has an Air Force background, flying F-15s and F-16s. This looks like it’s heading for an entertaining … Continue reading
Tourist Schmourist
Congratulations to Anousheh Ansari, who has just realised her lifelong dream of travel into space. She has worked hard, trained hard, accepted real risk, and conducted herself professionally to get there. And in the mainstream media, she’s the first ‘female space tourist’. Anousheh is no more a ‘space tourist’ than … Continue reading
The Lunar Library v2.0
Out of the Cradle is proud to introduce its newest feature, the Lunar Library v2.0!
This unique resource provides a wealth of information for those interested in learning more about our neighbor in space. From the issues facing Moonbases, to the science of the soil, to the role of the Moon in our culture and history and more. Continue reading
New SpaceX update available
(via Clark at HobbySpace RLV and Space Transport News) Elon Musk has posted a new update at the SpaceX website. There’s plenty to read, including some information about the company’s recent COTS win, pictures of the Falcon-9 with a Dragon crew capsule – showing, for the first time, a launch … Continue reading
Anousheh Ansari to replace Daisuke Enomoto as next space tourist to ISS
It looks like X-Prize sponsor Anousheh Ansari is poised to become the first paying female space tourist. (We shouldn’t forget Helen Sharman, though – she almost qualifies). Ansari was the backup crewmember for Japanese businessman Daisuke Enomoto, who was recently disqualified from the next Soyuz flight to the International Space … Continue reading
NASA picks SpaceX and Rocketplane Kistler for COTS
Congratulations to SpaceX and Rocketplane Kistler for successfully winning funded Space Act Agreement contracts with NASA for the demonstration of cargo delivery to the International Space Station. Under the agreements announced at a NASA press conference late on Friday afternoon, Rocketplane Kistler could receive up to $207 million, and SpaceX … Continue reading
NASA to announce COTS winners on Friday
NASA will hold a press conference on Friday to announce the winners of the Commercial Orbital Transportation Systems contracts. The conference will be held at 4pm EDT on Friday the 18th, and will be broadcast live on NASA TV. The six finalist companies are SpaceHab, Andrews Space, Space Exploration Technologies … Continue reading
Rocketplane Kistler teaming with Orbital Sciences Corportation
Orbital Sciences Corporation has joined forces with the Rocketplane Kistler team, to support them in their COTS bid. Read about it on the Rocketplane website. The Rocketplane Kistler guys are so busy with the COTS work, it’s starting to impact their timeframe for the development of the suborbital Rocketplane XP. … Continue reading
Hi-res pictures from Genesis 1
There are several hi-res pictures of the interior of Genesis 1 available now over at the Bigelow Aerospace website. It’s good stuff. The fuzzed out parts are logos that they haven’t yet received permission to display. On that theme, Alan Boyle over at Cosmic Log has a good piece entitled … Continue reading
The Space Frontier Foundation has issues with Project Orion (updated)
According to this report from Leonard David at Space.com, the Space Frontier Foundation has just released a fairly comprehensive white paper about NASA’s efforts to implement the vision for space exploration (now named – still unofficially at this point – Project Orion). They’re not too happy with it.
Charles Wood, creator of Lunar Photo of the Day
Running the popular website, Lunar Photo Of the Day, (LPOD) and writing a regular column on the moon that appears monthly in Sky & Telescope magazine, are the things Charles A. Wood is probably known for most. But, the interest of a 9 year-old in the sky went from backyard observations on a small telescope, to the University of Arizona, a stint in the Peace Corp and included working at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory cataloging Lunar craters.
Space Adventures now offering a “Space Walk” option
On July 21st, Space Adventures Ltd., announced a feature to its line of services. These are the folks who have arranged for three tourists to visit the international space station, and now you can add a space walk to your tourist package. The current duration of a Space Adventures’ orbital … Continue reading
Awww nuts!! A corroded nut caused Falcon 1 launch failure
According to this AP story, the review board into the Falcon 1 failure has announced its findings. Despite earlier speculation that the problem was a procedural error, this report identifies the cause as a corroded nut. The review determined that “the only plausible cause” of the fire was a corroded … Continue reading
Space shuttle’s happy return
Congratulations to the STS-121 crew for a very successful mission and a safe return. In NASA’s launch schedule August 28th is the date set for the next shuttle launch. Flying Space Shuttle Atlantis, STS-115 crew will deliver a truss and other key components during the Space Shuttle Program’s 19th mission … Continue reading
Genesis 1 photo available
The graphic above is an artist’s concept of the Genesis 1 module after deployment. Image Credit: Bigelow Aerospace.  This image (Available on Bigelow Aerospace’s website) shows the module, inflated and drifting along in low Earth orbit. I took the liberty of rotating the image 90 degrees clock-wise, for better … Continue reading
A nominal flight day for Genesis I
It’s one thing to have your prototype space module lofted to low earth orbit, it’s quite another to have it function in the space environment, under control from the ground, and with all systems performing as predicted. So far so good for Genesis I, as this update from Bigelow Aerospace … Continue reading