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Submission Summary: 0 pending, 18 declined, 23 accepted (41 total, 56.10% accepted)

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Moon

Submission + - NASA Celebrates Kennedy Moon Speech

Submitted by
RocketAcademy
RocketAcademy writes: "Today, NASA is celebrating the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy's historic speech at Rice University.

Kennedy's speech remains one of the most famous and rousing bits of oratory in US history. In that speech, Kennedy proclaimed, "We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard..."

Kennedy's Rice speech set the tone for the entire Apollo era, but some feel it had a long-term negative effect on space policy."
Space

Submission + - Texas Teacher May Be Among First Lone Star Astronauts

Submitted by
RocketAcademy
RocketAcademy writes: "Astronauts have lived and trained in Texas for the last 50 years, but no astronaut has ever flown into space from Texas. That will change in the next few years when XCOR Aerospace begins flights from a new spaceport in Midland, Texas.

Maureen Adams, a teacher and principal at West Ward Elementary School in Killeen, Texas hopes to be among the first Lone Star astronauts. Adams is an astronaut candidate who is part of Citizens in Space, a project of the United States Rocket Academy which has purchased 10 flights on the Lynx spacecraft being developed by XCOR. Citizens in Space has already chosen its first four astronaut candidates, three of whom are from Texas: Maureen Adams and two others to be named later this year.

“This isn’t just a joyride,” Adams says. “Each of our flights will carry 10 to 12 citizen-science experiments. We’ll be operating experiments, working with researchers, and gathering new knowledge in areas of space science that have not been full explored. Students need to see teachers doing real scientific research, and teachers need experience with real research so they can accurately teach the process to students.”"
Space

Submission + - Amateur Astronomers Spot Jovian Blast

Submitted by RocketAcademy
RocketAcademy writes: Spaceweather.com reports an explosion on Jupiter, which was detected by two amateur astronomers.

According to Spaceweather.com, the event occurred at 11:35 Universal Time on September 10. Dan Peterson of Racine, Wisconsin, observing through a 12-inch Meade telescope, observed a white flash lasting for 1.5-2 seconds. George Hall of Dallas, Texas was capturing a video of Jupiter at the time, which also captured the event.

It's believed that the explosion was due to a comet or small asteroid collision. Similar events were observed in the past, in June and August 2010.
Space

Submission + - Piglets in Space

Submitted by
RocketAcademy
RocketAcademy writes: "Moss piglets, also known as waterbears or tardigrades, are tiny (microscopic or near-microscopic) multicelled organisms that can survive in extreme environments including the vacuum of space. This ability makes them of great interest to astrobiologists.

Tardigrades have already been in space, thanks to Russia, the European Space Agency, and NASA. Only a few species have flown, however. With 1150 known species of tardigrade, there is plenty of opportunity for follow-on experiments.

The nonprofit Citizens in Space has published a Call for Experiments that will fly aboard the XCOR Lynx suborbital spacecraft beginning in 2014. The call is open to both professional and citizen scientists. Citizens in Space plans to fly 100+ experiments, so there's plenty of room for moss piglets and waterbears."
NASA

Submission + - Blue Origin: A Peek Inside (citizensinspace.org)

Submitted by RocketAcademy
RocketAcademy writes: Among the emerging commercial space transportation companies, Blue Origin is the most secretive and mysterious. A VIP tour by NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver afforded a rare glimpse inside Blue Origin's headquarters, including a look at what appears to be a Blue Origin crew capsule.
NASA

Submission + - Partisan Food Fight Erupts Over NASA, Commercial Space

Submitted by RocketAcademy
RocketAcademy writes: Until recently, space policy has been a non-partisan issue. Even when politicians disagreed on space-policy issues, that disagreement rarely aligned with party lines. That has changed in the last few years. Now, one organization is throwing fuel on the political fire.

The Space Frontier Foundation has called Republicans the Party of Big Government Space. SFF is upset about the GOP platform, which lacks specifics about space policy. According to the SFF, the GOP “has nothing but hackneyed praise for NASA, and doesn’t even mention the increasing role of the private sector.” The Obama campaign quickly echoed the statement.

But NASA Watch points out that the Democratic platform is even less specific than the GOP's. Others express concerns that partisanship harms space policy.
NASA

Submission + - Printable Spacecraft (citizensinspace.org)

Submitted by
RocketAcademy
RocketAcademy writes: "Atmospheric confetti, inchworm crawlers, blankets of ground-penetrating radar: those are some of the unique mission concepts enabled by printable spacecraft technology.

Flexible printed electronics are already being used in commercial applications from medicine to packaging. In 10 years, the market for printable electronics is expected to reach $60 billion – several times NASA’s budget. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory is working with Boeing and Xerox Palo Alto Research Center to find ways of leveraging that commercial investment to build complete functional satellites and spacecraft. Printable electronics has the potential to eliminate most or all of the touch labor which make conventional aerospace systems so expensive.

In the not-too-distant future, an engineer may design a space probe on her laptop in the morning, send it off to a printer, and pick up the printed hardware in the afternoon."
NASA

Submission + - Blue Origin: T+1 (citizensinspace.org)

Submitted by
RocketAcademy
RocketAcademy writes: "Time flies like a rocket. It's been a little over a year since the last flight of a Blue Origin test vehicle.

On 24 August 2011, Blue Origin flew the New Shepard Propulsion Module 2 (PM2) to Mach 1.2 and 45,000 feet. Unfortunately, the vehicle lost stability and exceeded its planned angle-of-attack, causing the range-safety system to terminate thrust. The PM2 crashed in the desert.

Not much has been heard since, but there is hope that Blue Origin may soon begin flying again."
Space

Submission + - US Military Wants Cheap Satellites, Launcher

Submitted by
RocketAcademy
RocketAcademy writes: "The US Army is beginning low-level work on two low-cost microsatellites for the warfighter — Kestrel Eye, a 15-kg (33-lb.) tactical reconnaissance satellite with 1-meter optical resolution, and Snap, a tactical communications satellite — and a low-cost, responsive launch vehicle that can place a satelltie in orbit for $1.8 million by transported from place to place by C-130.

These goals are similar to what DARPA's working on in two programs: Space Enabled Effects for Military Engagements (SeeMe) and Airborne Launch Assist Space Access (ALASA)."
NASA

Submission + - Two NASA Postponed Due to Weather

Submitted by
RocketAcademy
RocketAcademy writes: "Weather has delayed two NASA launches which were scheduled for today: an Atlas launch from Cape Canaveral carrying two Radiation Belt Storm Probe satellites and a Terrier-Improved Malemute sounding-rocket launch from Wallops Island, Virginia carrying four student experiments.

The susceptibility to weather delays is a problem for current launch systems."
NASA

Submission + - XCOR TO ESTABLISH FLORIDA BASE (citizensinspace.org)

Submitted by
RocketAcademy
RocketAcademy writes: "With the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex as a backdrop, XCOR Aerospace has announced its intentions to establish an operational base for the Lynx spacecraft in Florida. Plans call for XCOR to begin initial operations from a Florida location in 2014 with the Lynx Mark I prototype. As market demand dictates, XCOR may also establish a manufacturing and assembly center for the production vehicle, designated Lynx Mark II."

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