Space Tourism, Space Transport and Space Exploration News

June 26, 2014

Orion Parachute Test Hits No Snags
Washington DC (SPX) Jun 26, 2014
NASA completed the most complex and flight-like test of the parachute system for the agency's Orion spacecraft on Wednesday. A test version of Orion touched down safely in the Arizona desert after being pulled out of a C-17 aircraft, 35,000 feet above the U.S. Army's Yuma Proving Ground. It was the first time some parachutes in the system had been tested at such a high altitude. Engineers also put additional stresses on the parachutes by allowing the test version of Orion to free fall for 10 ... read more

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Bringing back our spaceplane Yesterday, the ship and crew aiming to recover Europe's unmanned IXV spacecraft in November had a practice run off the coast of Tuscany, Italy. They retrieved a prototype of the suborbital IXV ... more		Spitzer Spies an Odd, Tiny Asteroid Astronomers using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope have measured the size of an asteroid candidate for NASA's Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM), a proposed spacecraft concept to capture either a small a ... more		What If Voyager Had Explored Pluto? As I mentioned in my previous PI Perspective, New Horizons crosses the orbit of Neptune, the outermost planet explored by the Voyager mission, late this August. Voyager's flyby of Neptune was in Aug ... more
				NASA has a Problem with Unauthorized Access to it's Technologies A few days ago the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) released its findings related to unauthorized access to NASA's technologies by foreign entities. Auditors found weaknesses in NASA's ex ... more		Aluminum-Bearing Site on Mars Draws NASA Visitor With its solar panels their cleanest in years, NASA's decade-old Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity is inspecting a section of crater-rim ridgeline chosen as a priority target due to evidence of a w ... more

CubeSats, SmallSats and MicroSats

William Cress Corporation - We Build To Last

UAV Payloads 2014, 24 - 25 June - London, UK

Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison & Memory Foam Mattress Review

Mars Curiosity Rover Marks First Martian Year with Mission Successes NASA's Mars Curiosity rover will complete a Martian year - 687 Earth days - on June 24, having accomplished the mission's main goal of determining whether Mars once offered environmental condition ... more		Japan unveils 'world's first' android newscaster Japanese scientists on Tuesday unveiled what they said was the world's first news-reading android, eerily lifelike and possessing a sense of humour to match her perfect language skills. ... more		US lawmaker warns of military 'misunderstanding' risk with China Spain approves 'total' arms embargo against Israel Khamenei says Iran 'won't yield' to pressure to abandon uranium enrichment		Curiosity celebrates one-year Martian anniversary For exactly one year now, the beloved Mars rover Curiosity has delivered knowledge to NASA scientists and joy to science lovers across the globe. ... more
				Scientists work on 'quantum superclock' to reveal mysteries of time itself Physicists say they believe they're on track to creating a "quantum superclock" that would revolutionize the way the world tells time. If the work proves to be a success, than the concept of time as ... more		Elon Musk plans to take people to Mars within 10 years Entrepreneur and inventor Elon Musk has some travel suggestions that are out of this world. The SpaceX CEO known as the brains behind the Tesla electric car says he wants to take humans to Mars duri ... more

Startup in the Land of the Rising Sun; A Japanese Solar Venture - by Bradley L. Bartz

NASA's Science Mission Directorate Cubesat Initiative Beginning in October 2013, the NASA Science Mission Directorate, or SMD, started a new CubeSat Initiative - a cross divisional project to develop scientific CubeSats for all four science divisions ... more		Moon to see first tourists by 2017, single roundtrip ticket costs $150 mln The moon will welcome its first tourists as early as 2017, Space Adventures, a US-based space tourism company, said Wednesday. According to Space Adventures' head Tom Shelley, two brave folks have a ... more		Typhoon Ragasa hits south China after killing 15 in Taiwan Toxic homes a lasting legacy of Los Angeles fires Climate change causing havoc with global water cycle: UN		US firm scrambles to replace Russian-made engine for Atlas rockets United Launch Alliance (ULA), the US joint venture providing space launch services in the US, has signed a number of contracts to find a replacement for the Russian-made RD-180 rocket engine, which ... more
NASA considers sending quadcopter drone to look for life on Titan While one NASA probe whizzes by Saturn's moon Titan on Thursday to analyze its atmosphere, the American space agency is also considering a plan to send a quadcopter drone capable of searching for li ... more		SpaceX to launch six satellites all at once Tonight, private aeronautics company SpaceX is planning to launch six satellites into orbit via its Falcon 9 rocket. The rocket is set to blast off at 6:08 p.m. from its launch pad at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. ... more		Cosmic Impacts May Help Create Suitable Habitat for Life Cosmic impacts are known to trigger mass extinctions on Earth. However, a new study adds to evidence that asteroid and cometary bombardment can also shelter life by generating pores in rocks that sh ... more		Titan Flybys Test the Talents of NASA's Cassini Team As NASA's Cassini spacecraft zooms toward Saturn's smoggy moon Titan for a targeted flyby on June 18, mission scientists are excitedly hoping to repeat a scientific tour de force that will provide v ... more

	Companies to merge expertise for space program products Sierra Nevada Corporation plans to acquire Orbital Technologies Corporation, a sub-systems integrator and high-tech company. ... more		A Laser Message from Space Anyone who remembers dialup internet can sympathize with the plight of NASA mission controllers. Waiting for images to arrive from deep space, slowly downloading line by line, can be a little like t ... more

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Discovery of Earth's Northernmost Perennial Spring

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Messenger Spots Giant Space Weather Effects at Mercury

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