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December 21, 2012

Landmark Year in Private Space Flight Development
Washington DC (VOA) Dec 21, 2012
With NASA's retired shuttles mothballed in museums, 2012 saw a new kind of spacecraft blaze its own path toward the International Space Station. In May, the Dragon space capsule - developed, owned and operated by California-based SpaceX - was launched from atop a Falcon-9 rocket, becoming the first private craft to dock with the ISS. A feat achieved by only a few governments, the docking, says SpaceX chief Elon Musk, signaled more than a mere technological breakthrough. "This was a crucial s ... read more

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SSL And Sea Launch Announce Successful Completion Of Investigation Space Systems/Loral (SSL) and Sea Launch AG have jointly reported that the Independent Oversight Board (IOB) formed to investigate the solar array deployment anomaly on a satellite launched in the s ... more		Clays on Mars: More Plentiful Than Expected A new study co-authored by the Georgia Institute of Technology indicates that clay minerals, rocks that usually form when water is present for long periods of time, cover a larger portion of Mars th ... more		MEXSAT Bicentenario Satellite Sends First Signals from Space The MEXSAT Bicentenario satellite, built by Boeing [NYSE: BA] partner Orbital Sciences Corporation [NYSE: ORB], sent its first signals from space Wednesday following launch from Kourou aboard an Ari ... more
				Opportunity For Some Shoulder Workout At Copper Cliff Opportunity is working at "Matijevic Hill" (named in honor of Jake Matijevic) at the inboard edge of "Cape York" on the rim of Endeavour Crater. There, the rover has been conducting in-situ (c ... more		Origin of life emerged from cell membrane bioenergetics A coherent pathway which starts from no more than rocks, water and carbon dioxide and leads to the emergence of the strange bio-energetic properties of living cells, has been traced for the first ti ... more

CubeSats, SmallSats and MicroSats

Swansong Biospheres: The last refuges for life on the far-future Earth Billions of years from now, life on Earth will be extinguished when the dying Sun scorches the surface of our planet. New research has aimed to determine what the last life forms on Earth will be, a ... more		Ariane 5 ECA orbits Skynet 5D and Mexsat Bicentenario satellites On Wednesday, December 19, 2012, Arianespace successfully carried out the 53rd Ariane 5 launch in a row, orbiting two payloads: the Skynet 5D military communications satellite for Astrium Services, ... more		New MachLab rocket test site launches UK into next phase of space engineering Ukraine's anti-graft body says new bill restores independence Iran meets European powers amid threats of UN sanctions snapback		Three astronauts blast off for ISS in Russian craft A Soyuz spacecraft carrying Russian, American and Canadian astronauts blasted off on Wednesday from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan bound for the International Space Station (ISS). ... more
				New Trio Launches to Join Expedition 34 Three new crew members are on their way to join their Expedition 34 crewmates aboard the International Space Station. They launched aboard the Soyuz TMA-07M spacecraft at 7:12 a.m. EST (6:12 p.m. Ba ... more		Nearby star is good candidate for Earth-like planets Tau Ceti, one of our closest stars, is a good candidate for hosting an Earth-like planet, astronomers reported on Wednesday. ... more

Solar systems for home and business
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Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison & Memory Foam Mattress Review

Health Concerns Could Ground Citizen Astronauts A group of former NASA executives plans to offer excursions to the moon to anyone who can afford the $1.4-million-dollar-per-couple ticket price. Golden Spike Co. is the latest private company ... more		From Cassini for the Holidays: A Splendor Seldom Seen Just in time for the holidays, NASA's Cassini spacecraft, in orbit around Saturn for more than eight years now, has delivered another glorious, backlit view of the planet Saturn and its rings. ... more		Australia's mammal megafauna face long-term decline from extinctions and invasive species Alien life clues may emerge from deep sea volcanic vents on Earth Seismic signatures reveal fragmentation patterns of fireball meteoroids		Curiosity Rover Explores 'Yellowknife Bay' The NASA Mars rover Curiosity this week is driving within a shallow depression called "Yellowknife Bay," providing information to help researchers choose a rock to drill. Using Curiosity's per ... more
				Sierra Nevada Corporation Selected by NASA to Receive Human Spaceflight Certification Products Contract Sierra Nevada Corporation's (SNC) Space Systems is pleased to announce that its Dream Chaser Space System Program has been selected by NASA's Commercial Crew Program to receive a Certification Produ ... more		Rocketdyne Reaches Milestone for J-2X powerpack Pratt and Whitney Rocketdyne successfully completed the last hot-fire test on the J-2X powerpack - an important step toward development of America's next rocket engine designed for human spaceflight ... more

Ariane 5 ECA orbits Skynet 5D and Mexsat Bicentenario satellites

Payload integration complete for final 2012 Ariane 5 mission

Arctic town eyes future as Europe's gateway to space

Opportunity For Some Shoulder Workout At Copper Cliff

Clays on Mars: More Plentiful Than Expected

Curiosity Rover Explores 'Yellowknife Bay'

NASA probes crash into the moon

Apollo's Lunar Dust Data Being Restored

GRAIL Lunar Impact Site Named for Astronaut Sally Ride

Halfway Between Uranus and Neptune, New Horizons Cruises On

Dwarf planet Makemake lacks atmosphere

Keck Observations Bring Weather Of Uranus Into Sharp Focus

	TDRS-K Arrives at Kennedy for Launch Processing The first in a new class of Tracking and Data Relay Satellites arrived at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Dec. 18 to begin the final phase of launch preparations ahead of a targeted liftof ... more		Beating Heart of J-2X Engine Finishes Year of Testing NASA on Thursday took another step toward human exploration of new destinations in the solar system. At the agency's Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, engineers conducted the final test-firing of ... more		CU-Boulder team develops swarm of pingpong ball-sized robots University of Colorado Boulder Assistant Professor Nikolaus Correll likes to think in multiples. If one robot can accomplish a singular task, think how much more could be accomplished if you had hun ... more		Venus transit and lunar mirror could help astronomers find worlds around other stars On 6 June 2012 Venus passed directly between the Earth and the Sun, in a so-called transit where the planet appears as a silhouette against the solar disk, something that will not happen again until ... more

NASA's X-59 moves under its own power

Sri Lanka orders Singapore shipowner to pay US$1 bn over marine disaster

More than 80% of Tuvalu seeks Australian climate visa

Payload integration complete for final 2012 Ariane 5 mission		Lights to combat astronaut insomnia		NASA probes crash into the moon		Flexing fingers for micro-robotics: Berkeley Lab scientists create a powerful, microscale actuator		Head-mounted cameras could help robots understand social interactions
Apollo's Lunar Dust Data Being Restored		What happens to plant growth when you remove gravity?		Medical Ops, Fan Checks for Space Crew; New Trio Checks Soyuz		Charitum Montes: a cratered winter wonderland		Search for life extends to the stars

Opportunity Continues Rock Studies

Custom robots could do Fukushima cleanup

To reach final frontier, NASA can't go it alone: analysts

Station Crew Does Maintenance as Soyuz Rolls to Launch Pad

ISS Orbit Raised Ahead of Crew Arrival

Enabling ChemCam to Measure Key Isotopic Ratios on Mars and Other Planets

Fast20XX research project - ideas for travelling at hypersonic speed

Hat Trick for X-37B

BepiColombo Mercury Transfer Module Mass Properties Measurement

Operation to "rescue" Yamal-402 a success

GRAIL Lunar Impact Site Named for Astronaut Sally Ride

Thales Makes Second Attempt to Adjust Yamal Orbit

Arctic town eyes future as Europe's gateway to space

China Makes First Asteroid Fly By

Rocket Burn Sets Stage for Dynamic Moon Duos' Lunar Impact

Curious About Life: Interview with Darby Dyer

No plans of sending an Indian on moon

Asteroid Toutatis Slowly Tumbles by Earth

NASA Progressing Toward First Launch of Orion Spacecraft

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