This is amazing footage! Click here for more info on the project. Watch:
According to FoxNews.com
“Forty years ago Thursday, Apollo 11 blasted off on its 280,000-mile journey, fulfilling President Kennedy’s 1961 call to reach the moon by the end of the decade.
To commemorate the anniversary, NASA released newly restored video footage of the Apollo 11 moon landings — but the fabled “lost” moon tapes weren’t among them.”
Good call Buzz. From The Tech Herald:
Legendary Moon walker and NASA spaceman Buzz Aldrin has said the race to establish a permanent Moon base should be the result of international cooperation with the real focus on a manned mission to Mars.
Speaking in a lengthy interview with Popular Mechanics magazine, Aldrin said the next race to be the first to host a manned presence on the Moon should not be a financially damaging “space race” but an international effort combining the resources of China, Europe, India, Japan and Russia.
“By renouncing our goal of being first on the Moon (again), we would call off Space Race II with the Chinese and encourage them to channel their ambitious lunar efforts into the consortium,” Aldrin said.
He added that the Mark II mission to the Moon is, in fact, a “damaging” detour from what should be NASA’s principal objective — namely, the preparation for a manned mission to Mars.
“The agency’s current Vision for Space Exploration will waste decades and hundreds of billions of dollars trying to reach the moon by 2020 — a glorified rehash of what we did 40 years ago,” he said. “Instead of a steppingstone to Mars, NASA’s current lunar plan is a detour.”
Approaching his 80th birthday, Aldrin was in no mood to hold back on criticism of the American space administration’s plan. In its place, Aldrin proposed a radical program he named the “Unified Space Vision,” which, controversially, calls for a permanently manned presence on Mars by 2035.
“Here’s my plan, which I call the Unified Space Vision,” he told the magazine. “It’s a blueprint that will maintain U.S. leadership in human spaceflight, avoid a counterproductive space race with China to be second back to the moon, and lead to a permanent American-led presence on Mars by 2035 at the latest.”
“That date happens to be 66 years after Neil Armstrong and I first landed on the moon — just as our landing was 66 years after the Wright Brothers’ first flight,” Aldrin said.
It’s new and clever, ScienceStage.com is a new-style online portal for science, academic teaching and practice, bridging significant gaps in scientific learning and a great research tool for students just returning to school or for people who are just eager to learn more.
“ScienceStage.com is a virtual conference room, lecture hall, laboratory, library and meeting venue all in one. It offers new methods of scientific presentation, scientific discourse and academic knowledge transfer by using video clips, audio extracts and text features. Research groups can be formed in the interests of academic networking. Science is thereby linked to a global network, and finally made accessible to a broader worldwide public.”
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NASA has put off the planned launch of its next-generation Orion spacecraft for a year, a setback to efforts to fly a successor to its aging space shuttles, the space agency announced Monday.
“September 2014 is when we are saying we will launch the first crew on the Orion,” program manager Jeff Hanley told reporters in a conference call Monday.
NASA officials plan to wrap up assembly of the International Space Station and retire the space shuttle fleet in 2010, freeing up money to build and fly the new spacecraft. Cost concerns are at the root of the delay, but NASA is also giving itself wiggle room to deal with the unforeseen technical problems that will inevitably crop up, Hanley said. Read more…
According to www.cnn.com
Virgin Galactic’s Sir Richard Branson and Scaled Composites’ Steve Rutan walk past EVE, the newly christened WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft.
The commercial plane—unveiled on July 28, 2008, in California—will carry a six-passenger SpaceShipTwo craft up to 50,000 feet (15,240 meters) before releasing it to continue the journey into space under its own power.
According to Ker Than
In a day-after analysis, PM’s resident private-space geek reminds us why it’s still going to be a while before the everyman gets a cheaper ticket onboard a suborbital plane.
NEW YORK — Two more big names are now set to join the pantheon of private citizens turned space tourists (if they’ll even let you call them that anymore). And, you guessed it, they’re both rich nerds—again.
Virginia-based trip vendor Space Adventures announced here yesterday that it’s secured two seats aboard Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft for 2011 in the first privately funded mission to the International Space Station. Google co-founder Sergey Brin, who was a driving force in funding the new Google Lunar X Prize, will be on that flight—following the mission of fellow Space Adventures investor Richard Garriot this October. Read more…
According to Joe Pappalardo
ScienceDaily (Apr. 30, 2008) — A new life-detecting instrument is preparing for a mission to the Red Planet. The Urey: Mars Organic and Oxidant Detector instrument, developed by a scientist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego, received approximately $2 million in NASA funding to further refine the design and technology for the European Space Agency’s (ESA) 2013 ExoMars Rover Mission. Read more
POWAY, CA–(Marketwire - February 25, 2008) - SpaceDev, Inc. announced today that it was awarded a subcontract in support of the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), a key part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program. MSL is scheduled for launch to Mars in late 2009 to determine if Mars maintains an environment able to sustain microbial life.
The subcontract is for the design, development and delivery of various SpaceDev gearbox subsystems used on the rover’s sample acquisition system, which will be used to acquire, process, and deliver soil samples from the Martian surface. This is SpaceDev’s second program it is supporting on MSL. Last year, SpaceDev was awarded a subcontract for the design, development and delivery of the MSL descent brake system.
“We are excited to engage with JPL on this important program. We provided the gearboxes on the Spirit and Opportunity rovers that have been exploring the Martian surface for nearly four years. This program will build on the experience from that highly successful program,” said Mark N. Sirangelo, SpaceDev’s Chairman and CEO. “Being part of these historic missions is a privilege. Our team is ready to design and deliver this hardware and looks forward to working with JPL on another Mars Exploration program.”
About SpaceDev
SpaceDev, Inc. is a space technology/aerospace company that creates and sells affordable and innovative space products and mission solutions. For more information, visit www.spacedev.com.
Except for factual statements made herein, this news release consists of forward-looking statements that involve risks that are difficult to predict. Words such as “believe,” “intends,” “expects,” “plans,” “anticipates” and variations thereof, identify forward-looking statements, although their absence does not mean that a statement is not forward looking. Forward-looking statements are based on the Company’s current expectations, and are not guarantees of performance. The Company’s actual results could differ materially from its current expectations. Factors that could contribute to such differences include risks associated with the Company’s ability to effectively manage customer orders, control costs, and obtain additional financing. Reference is also made to other factors described in the Company’s periodic reports filed with the SEC. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this release. SpaceDev does not intend to update these forward-looking statements.
POWAY, CA–(Marketwire - January 7, 2008) - SpaceDev, Inc. recently completed its second milestone under the Space Act Agreement that was signed with NASA in June 2007. The significant milestone completed is the Flight Test Plan for the Dream Chaser™ space vehicle. The plan provides a detailed approach for the Dream Chaser™ to conduct numerous suborbital flight tests in preparation for its first orbital flight later this decade.
SpaceDev entered into the Space Act Agreement with NASA to facilitate its development of reliable, safe and affordable transportation of passengers and cargo to and from Earth orbit. As part of the agreement, NASA is providing support regarding ISS visiting vehicle requirements and processes as well as ongoing quarterly milestone review meetings.
“The on schedule completion of our second milestone reaffirms our commitment to the development of the Dream Chaser™ and to the value of NASA’s Space Act Agreement program. SpaceDev and NASA teams are continuing to work well together to advance the Dream Chaser™ launch vehicle,” said Mark N. Sirangelo, SpaceDev’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. “SpaceDev is excited about completing another significant technical milestone which enables us to forward our development schedule.”
The SpaceDev Dream Chaser™ space vehicle is a derivative of the HL-20 Launch System developed by NASA Langley. The vehicle has on-board propulsion utilizing SpaceDev’s patented and patent-pending hybrid motor technology. This unique space transportation system is designed to effectively, reliably and safely carry crew/passengers and cargo in both the suborbital and orbital flight regimes. The SpaceDev Dream Chaser™ Space Vehicle can be adapted to various mission configurations including carrying all passengers; pressurized or unpressurized cargo or, various combinations of crew and pressurized cargo. It is a piloted space solution which launches vertically and lands horizontally on conventional runways.
About SpaceDev
SpaceDev, Inc. is a space technology/aerospace company that creates and sells affordable and innovative space products and mission solutions. For more information, visit www.spacedev.com
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