Mon 12 Apr 2010
Mon 12 Apr 2010
Tue 16 Mar 2010
Tue 9 Mar 2010
Wed 3 Feb 2010
In a recent Space.com article , the development of new more sustainable aviation and space technologies is mentioned.
NASA's solar powered airplane
Green aviation
The new vision also calls for NASA to invest in developing more environmentally friendly modes of air and space travel. The budget proposal allocates $20 million per year for NASA’s green aviation program. Research programs will focus on reducing aircraft fuel needs, noise and carbon emissions.
“These investments will enable safer and cleaner air travel in the future,” NASA deputy administrator Lori Garver said Monday.
How wide does the term Green & sustainable for aviation/space go and what does that actually mean? One example already in development by a private company is the engines developed by XCOR Aerospace already use (relatively) non toxic propellants.
What areas Greenspace could include:
Related links:
NASA’s solar powered plane (Helios)
Tue 19 Jan 2010
Who needs the space shuttle? Take a tour inside the private space industry and its innovative, efficient plans to get astronauts into space when NASA retires its old ride
Mon 4 Jan 2010
Aviation week article – Person of the year: The Space Entrepreneur
By Frank Morring, Jr.
Working quietly in the background since the days of viewgraphs, a group of space entrepreneurs has long been pitching far-fetched ideas to skeptical moneymen with the fervor of evangelists. Now their viewgraphs—updated to Powerpoint and CAD/CAM—are becoming reality, and metal and fire are streaking through the upper atmosphere into low Earth orbit.
Collectively, they are in the vanguard of a new industry, poised to transform how humans venture into space in ways that most observers can scarcely imagine today. Space entrepreneurs had a big influence on aerospace in 2009, although it does not begin to compare with the impact they are likely to have in years to come.
That is why Aviation Week chose this intrepid group of engineers and visionaries as the 2009 Person of the Year.
Two developments have set the stage for space entrepreneurs to begin breaking down barriers, financially and otherwise. After investing more than $1 billion in hard-won private capital on hardware, they are finding increased acceptance for their business plans. And they have finally made it to space with humans onboard—three suborbital flights with SpaceShipOne that won Scaled Composites the Ansari X-Prize and launched a fledgling commercial space-tourism business.
Traditionally reluctant to rely on government backing, these brash businessmen now find themselves at the center of the debate on how government astronauts will get to space; the very governments they have often disdained are potentially their biggest customers. NASA already has multi-billion-dollar contracts with two of them to deliver cargo to the International Space Station and is spending big bucks to encourage them to develop more capability.
In the U.S., where almost all of the space entrepreneurs operate, the federal government may wind up relying on them to transport astronauts to the ISS. And, building on the success of the X-Prize Foundation in spurring development of a privately financed human spaceship, NASA and Congress are using a federal prize program to tap into the skills of the growing entrepreneur community.
As Burt Rutan at Scaled Composites was putting the finishing touches on SpaceShipTwo, the commercial version of the vehicle that won the privately backed $10-million X-Prize, another Mojave, Calif.-based company was winning big, too. Masten Space Systems pulled in more than $1 million in federal Centennial Challenge prizes for building a lunar-lander prototype and proving it on a simulated moonscape.
Mojave is a hotbed of the space-entrepreneurial spirit, and Dave Masten—featured on the cover with his prize-winning rocket-powered Xoie lander—epitomizes that zeal. Like some other space entrepreneurs, Masten got his start in information technology, but winning the Centennial Challenge lunar lander prizes make it less likely the longtime rocket buff will ever have to go back to Silicon Valley.
Click here for the full article.
Thu 17 Dec 2009
Press Release : XCOR Aerospace
XCOR Lynx Mark I pictured (Mark II will be vehicle used in South Korea)
December 18th, 2009, Mojave, CA, USA and Yecheon-gun, ROK: The Yecheon Astro Space Center announced today that it has selected XCOR Aerospace as its preferred supplier of suborbital space launch services. Operating under a wet lease model, XCOR intends to supply services to the Center using the Lynx Mark II suborbital vehicle, pending United States government approvals to station the vehicle in the Republic of Korea.
XCOR is committed to working with the US Department of State, Department of Defense, Department of Commerce and other agencies of the US government to comply with relevant laws, regulations, policies and procedures. XCOR has engaged specialized export control consultants from the Commonwealth Consulting Group of Arlington, Virginia, and legal counsel from the Washington, D.C. office of the international firm Bingham McCutchen, to assist in this first of a kind effort.
“This is a ground breaking opportunity for our company, our industry and a very good opportunity for the U.S. to set an example of responsible international commerce in space transportation,” said XCOR CEO Jeff Greason. “To our knowledge, this is the first time that a US commercial suborbital launch vehicle will undergo the export licensing and approval process. We believe there is no better pathfinder than with our partners at the South Korean Yecheon Astro Space Center.”
Yecheon Astro Space Center is a non-profit entity that operates multiple space related activities including: aerospace training center; astronomy research center; planetarium; a commercial space camp with centrifuge; and commercial helicopter tourism operation in the South Korean State of Gyeongsangbuk-do, approximately 240 kilometers (150 miles) southeast of Seoul.
Working closely with its partners, Yecheon Astro Space Center has formed a broad coalition of regional and national entities to fund the approximately $30 Million project to bring the Lynx to Yecheon for space tourism, educational, scientific and environmental monitoring missions, making it the early leader in commercial manned space flight in Asia. Under the envisioned arrangement, Yecheon will be the exclusive Lynx operational site in Korea.
“As part of our long term strategic plan, we have performed an extensive review of the suborbital vehicle suppliers over the past 18 months, and found XCOR’s Lynx to be the best mix of safe design, reliable clean propulsion, skilled team members, full reusability, ease of operation, turn around time, upfront cost and long term cost to operate,” said Mr Jo Jae-Seong, Founder and Chief Executive Director of Yecheon Astro Space Center. “We look forward to a long term relationship with XCOR and Lynx!”
“This is an incredibly important development for the New Space industry charting a course for other innovative US companies to flourish here and abroad. It will produce high paying manufacturing jobs, and allow the innovative spirit of America to take root and grow a new industry before international participants can catch up,” said XCOR Chief Operating Officer, Andrew Nelson, adding, “I think the wet lease model is an innovative means to safely operate, maintain and provide physical security for the Lynx while ensuring that US export control issues are addressed completely.”
# # # # #
XCOR Aerospace is a California corporation located in Mojave, California. The company is in the business of developing and producing safe, reliable and reusable rocket powered vehicles, propulsion systems, advanced non-flammable composites and other enabling technologies for responsive private space flight, scientific missions, upper atmospheric research, and small satellite launch to low earth orbit. The Lynx is a piloted, two seat, fully reusable, liquid rocket powered vehicle that takes off and lands horizontally. The Lynx production models (designated Lynx Mark II) are designed to be robust, multi-commercial mission vehicles capable of flying to 100+ km in altitude up to four times per day. XCOR’s web address is: www.xcor.com.
Yecheon Astro Space Center (formerly called the Yecheon Astronomy Foundation) is a non profit educational and research entity established in the city of Yecheon-gun, state of Gyeongsangbuk-do, South Korea. The Center is home to: an astronomical research center that houses a collection of research telescopes and auxiliary telescopes, and other research apparatus; a space camp training center with centrifuge, aerial rooftop training device and reduced gravity simulators; a planetarium; a conference center and dormitories; and a helicopter tour operation. The Center’s web site is: www.portsky.net
Contact:
Mike Massee
XCOR Aerospace
Phone +1 (661) 824-4714 x127
Fri 11 Dec 2009
Source: Seattle pi Blogs
Virgin Galactic’s unveiling this week of what promises to be the first manned commercial spaceship may signal the start of rapid development of this new business arena.
“Suborbital velocities outside the friction of the atmosphere bring the entire world within a two-hour flight,” he said. “Spacesports that start as space tourism centers will eventually become regional suborbital hubs.”
“I believe that in within the next five years we will see several companies that are conducting regular and frequent launches up to the edge of space and that will, of course, greatly change how we think about space transportation,” George Nield, the Federal Aviation Administration’s associate administrator for commercial space transportation, told the U.S. House Commercial Space Transportation Subcommittee last week.
Full article here.
Thu 19 Nov 2009
A new aviation business park and long, isolated runways in eastern North Carolina could be keys to attracting commercial space-travel companies here, according to experts who attended a forum Thursday at Elizabeth City State University.
Leaders in the industry spoke during the daylong NewSpace Commerce Forum, including Jeff Greason, CEO of XCor Aerospace in California; Robert Richards, CEO of Odyssey Moon Lt d.; and Jeff Krukin, a consultant in the field who helped organize the forum.
It was the first forum of its kind in North Carolina, Krukin said Friday.
“The opportunities now are better than they have ever been in North Carolina,” he said in an interview.
Full article here.
