Hearing: Assuring National Security Space: Investing in American industry to end reliance on Russian rocket engines Keith’s note: The House Armed Services Committee is holding a hearing Friday with quite a cast of characters – Tory Bruno, Rob Meyerson, Julie Van Kleeck, Frank Culbertson, Jeff Thornburg, Katrina McFarland, John Hyten, Samuel Greaves, and, to round out the fun, Mike Griffin. This hearing ought to be a classic example of the […]

NASA JSC Solicitation: Open Innovation Challenge “NASA/JSC has a requirement for the use of an established external crowdsourcing support platform with a curated crowd in order to publically post one challenge (external to NASA) to enable interaction with an existing global solver network. Specifically, NASA requires the use of an established platform in order to run a single, short-duration challenge. NASA/JSC intends to purchase the items from InnoCentive, Inc. due […]

Invitation to Membership on the Formulation Assessment and Support Team for the Asteroid Redirect Mission “The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) intends to release a letter of invitation for membership on the Formulation Assessment and Support Team (FAST) for the Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM). ARM is part of NASA’s plan to advance the new technologies and spaceflight capabilities needed for a human mission to the Martian system in the […]

Bush’s former NASA Administrator Michael Griffin says Obama’s Space Launch System ‘next essential step’: guest opinion, Huntsville Times “The SLS vehicle design materialized from an extensive, unbiased set of NASA technical studies which compared all possible scenarios, with a focus on efficiency and budget constraints.” Keith’s note: “Unbiased”, eh Mike? Nothing about “Apollo on Steroids” using Ares 1-X etc which also arose from what you call “an extensive, unbiased set […]

Empty Promises On NASA’s Road to Mars, SpaceRef “These days you can’t seem to go anywhere in the Internet without seeing #JourneyToMars slapped on Tweets about, well, everything that NASA does – regardless of how it is actually related to sending humans to Mars. Its in press release titles, on posters, YouTube videos. NASA is all about the “Journey To Mars” these days and its marketing campaign reflects a concerted […]

A spacecraft launched in 2006 is about to try for our first good photo of Pluto, Washington Post “NASA’s Jim Green is dismissive of the controversy: “That’s nomenclature. To me, that’s unimportant. What’s important is that this is a body well worth going to. It represents a brand new frontier.” Does Alan Stern think Pluto is still a legitimate, no- qualifiers “planet”? “Of course I do!” Stern said. “It has […]

NASA Names New Director for Langley Research Center “NASA has announced that Dr. David E. Bowles has been named director of NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, succeeding Stephen G. Jurczyk who served in that capacity from April 2014. Bowles has been serving as the acting center director since March of this year when Jurczyk was temporarily assigned to NASA Headquarters as the acting Associate Administrator for the Space […]

Senate Passes FY2016 Defense Authorization, But Blocked on Defense Appropriations, Space Policy Online “The Air Force is trying to convince Congress to give it a few more years to make the transition, arguing that it needs more time to develop, test and certify a new launch system (of which an engine is part). It wants an extension to 2022. The House-passed FY2016 NDAA provides that flexibility, but the Senate bill […]

SpaceX Early-adopter SES Ready To Reuse Falcon 9 For the Right Price, SpaceNews “Satellite fleet operator SES on June 17 said it wants to reuse the first stage of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that will launch the SES-9 satellite by September for a future, discounted SpaceX launch, and is awaiting the response of SpaceX. In a presentation to investors in London, SES Chief Technical Officer Martin Halliwell said he […]

Sally’s Ride Through the Clouds “On June 18, 1983, Sally Ride became the first American woman to fly in space when the space shuttle Challenger launched on mission STS-7 from Pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The STS-7 crew consisted of astronauts Robert Crippen, commander, the first two-time space shuttle astronaut; Frederick H. Hauck, pilot; and three mission specialists — Ride, John M. Fabian and Norman E. […]