
Monday, 28 September 2009
Selenokhod

Sunday, 27 September 2009
Team Armadillo qualify for $1M Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge

Saturday, 22 August 2009
Excalibur Almaz

An Isle of Man company are looking into ways of using secret Soviet era space vehicle technology to send paying passengers on week long orbital trips. Excalibur Almaz has bought 'several' of NPO Mashinostroyenia's Almaz Reusable Re-entry vehicles - spacecraft that were developed to provide the Soviet Union with a manned space station capability. Excalibur Almaz are purportedly working with NPO Mashinostroyenia to reconfigure the company's stock of existing space hardware. EA's officials have told reporters: "A critical feature of the RRVs is their reusability, which will reduce logistical, overhead and program costs for commercial access to space". Changes are also being made to the Almaz vehicles that will bring them up to standard for future customer requirements.
Originally designed to be flown aboard Chelomei's UR-500 rocket, EA intends to adopt the Almaz system to be lofted aboard other launch vehicles. With the history of the NPO Almaz stations (christened Salyut) stretching as far back as the early 1970s, EA will now have to convince potential investors that Soviet era technology can be sucessfully adapted to provide a viable basis for a tourist/commercial vehicle. However,the task may be bolstered due to the fact that EA boasts some impressive names and expertise at its helm including former NASA astronauts Leroy Chiao and Franklin Chang-Diaz. Several veteran space officials and cosmonauts are also steering Excalibur Almaz - in the hope of EA becoming a successful, internationally backed New Space company.
Source: Space.com
Image: Excalibur Almaz/NPO
Monday, 17 August 2009
Bigelow Orion 'lite'

Atlas V is flown by United Launch Alliance, a joint venture co-owned by Boeing and Lockheed Martin. With Lockheed developing Orion for NASA, ULA's study into man rating the Atlas V at Bigelow's request has obviously spurred Bigelow to adopt the Lockheed capsule design.
Key differences between the Bigelow Orion and the NASA Orion are passenger capacity and the landing system. Whereas the NASA Orion is being designed to take astronauts to the Moon, Bigelow's lite version will carry more crew(7 in total) thanks to the savings made in propellant tanks and hefty heat shields. In addition, rather than a water splashdown, Orion lite will be aircaptured using a similar system to the one used to retrieve sensitive spy capsules and payloads that are vulnerable to contamination.
Credit: Space.com
Images: Bigelow Aerospace.
Tuesday, 21 July 2009
Apollo 40th anniversary and why the US should aim for Mars

Tuesday, 14 July 2009
RazakSAT lofted to orbit aboard 5th Falcon 1


Saturday, 11 July 2009
Elon Musk's presentation to the Augustine Commission
No one can now doubt that the US manned programme is indeed in grave jeopardy. With the Space Shuttle due for retirement in 2010 and its successor vehicle (Orion) slated to enter service in 2015, America now faces at least 5 years without a launch system and craft capable of delivering astronauts to orbit. Quite simply Bush's 2004 Constellation Programme remains underfunded and unloved by both politicians and engineers; the latter group have even challenged official NASA thinking on the Constellation Project, questioning the logic of developing vehicles (Ares I and V) that are unsuited to a simple manufacturing/development and launch transition from existing shuttle infrastructure. This problem has led to a rogue group within NASA developing the Direct Architecture comprising not the Ares I and V but the Jupiter class of launch vehicles - designs whose proponents say offers a lower development cost and quicker operational timeline. Add to this group other voices that believe that Orion can be launched on evolved expendable launch vehicles such as the Delta IV heavy and you get some idea of the problems that the Augustine Committee faces.
So what part is New Space playing in these troubling times? Have a look at Elon Musk's presentation to the AC:
