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This next week I am off again on a month of continuous travel and will be awaiting my sainthood for putting up with all the ineffective security checks on multiple long flights.
But now, on to the good stuff.
Next week is the second annual X-Prize event out in Las Cruces and I will be at the airport on Sunday a week. As I will be attending a National Space Society board/management meeting for several days before, I understand we will also be co-hosting a party with the X-Prize people
I fully expect to run into many old friends in the commercial space business in the place one would most expect to run into rocket scientists: the bar! Last year I got my clock cleaned at air hockey (while a Japanese film crew wandered about filming and interviewing people) and it is time for a rematch.
I love the Science Museum in London, and there is another good reason to go there: it has an exhibition about the Spitfire fighter aircraft. Here is a nice review of it at the Social Affairs Unit blog.
Do not believe the nonsense about how the RAF was not essential to preventing an invasion of Britain in 1940. It was vital, and it seems morally right somehow that the aircraft that helped to nail the Luftwaffe was not just a brilliant piece of engineering, but also drop-dead gorgeous.
The Manchester based Starchaser has rolled out its prototype and they hope to give the Rutan/Branson team a run for the pole position in suborbital tourism.
They intend to launch in 2007 and follow up with a manned launch in 2008. Their spaceship can carry 3 passengers to 100 miles at 98,000 Pounds Sterling (US$183,000) for the half hour flight.
“The race is on,” he said. “This is a new space race. We’re building the vehicles, we’re building the hardware, we’re building capsules, we’ve done manned drop tests of capsules, we’re building engines,” he said. “We’re really going for it. You know we’re not just buying a ready made system from someone else so we have more control over what it is we do and I think we’re going to probably beat him to the punch.”
I am guessing I will see them at Las Cruces a few weeks from now, perhaps running their engine in a less spectacular fashion than last year.
Richard Branson has ‘rolled out’ the interior concept for the Virgin Galactic/Scaled Composites SpaceShipTwo:
“It won’t be much different than this,” Branson told reporters here at Wired Magazine’s NextFest forum. “It’s strange to think that in 12 months we’ll be unveiling the actual plane, and then test flights will commence right after that.”
Meanwhile, Anousheh Anseri has returned from her week aboard space station Alpha and UP Aerospace is retrieving their sounding rocket payloads after a launch which failed to reach suborbital altitude.
There may soon be some other news much closer to home 😉
A bit of as yet unidentified debris was seen floating away from the Shuttle Atlantis after some RCS engine firing tests. The landing will be delayed while they try to figure out what it was.
My take on the enhanced image is a tile with some of the gap fillers and thermal blanket from the backside of it. In most cases a single tile loss is not a huge deal unless it is in a critical location or likely to cause an unzippering of other tiles.
This is all pure conjecture, probably wrong, on my part. But hey, what is a blog for if one can not make wild guesses on insufficient data?
Today is probably the day. Anousheh Anseri, as I reported some weeks ago, will within hours become the first woman to have paid her own way into orbit. She and her entire family are an example to us all of what value immigrants bring to America. As a family, they have already secured a place in the American history books right up there with Lindbergh and the other great names of American aviation. They are the ones responsible for Peter Diamandis’ dream, the X-Prize, coming to fruition. If, as I believe is now a certainty, America forges ahead in commercial human space flight, it is the Anseri’s and Peter whom we should all thank.
I am incredibly happy for this woman and I pray I might one day follow on the trail she is personally forging for us all.
Godspeed Anousheh!
If you are interested in learning more about what sort of person Anousheh is, read this interview. I think you will like her.
Additional: You can follow her flight here.
There is so much happening in the commercial space breakout right now that it is difficult to keep up. I will just give you a few links to recent events.
The waiting list for tourist flights to Space Station Alpha is growing longer as former Microsoft developer Charles Simonyi has passed his Cosmonaut physical. Charles is in line behind a Japanese entrepreneur, Daisuke ‘Dice-K’ Enomoto who is already in training for a September flight. Meanwhile, the lovely Anousheh Ansari, whose family are the all-american heroes behind the Ansari X-Prize and X-Prize Cup is waiting in line for a slot to open up.
Also in the news, efforts towards a Canadian space port are moving ahead. There is something very poetic about a Cape Breton launch site: I can imagine the tourists spending an evening before their flight listening to some of the very fine Cape Breton traditional musicians. What better way to prepare for a flight than sipping a pint and listening to a few good sets of jigs and reels?
Breaking news: ‘Dice-K’ has been pulled from his flight for medical reasons. Anousheh will likely get the next flight opportunity.
I received a press release from my old drinking buddy Rick Tumlinson at the Space Frontier Foundation last night. NASA has announced the winners for the ‘Commercial Off The Shelf’ (COTS) space launch program:
Los Angeles, CA – August 18, 2006 The Space Frontier Foundation
congratulated SpaceX and Rocketplane – Kistler, the two winners of
NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation (COTS) program announced today
at NASA headquarters. The winners, selected out of a field that began
with at least 20 teams, will split a total of approximately $500 million
in funding to help them develop transportation systems that can be used
to support the International Space Station (ISS).
Many of us in the space field applaud this. Whether we like government involvement or not, it is there. This puts more money into the pot at just the right time and pretty much guarantees success of the SpaceX Falcon. A commercial manned orbital capability might now arrive in time to save NASA’s bacon: the sell-by date on the Space Shuttle fleet is rapidly approaching and their ‘CEV’ (Yesterday’s Space Program Today!) does not seem to have progressed past the view graph thus far.
The next SpaceX launch test from Kwajelein is due in the November-December time frame.
The way I heard the adage long ago, was “you are not a member of the club until you have blown one up”, as a NASA KSFC engineer is reported to have said when he called up Gary Hudson after Gary’s first big bang on Matagordo Island in Texas. Whatever the quote, Masten Aerospace became a full member a couple of days ago when their engine test resulted in an uncontrolled engine self-disassembly.
I am curious if they will still be entering a vehicle in the NASA Challenge at Las Cruces in two months.
I know at least several of the guys at MA. But then, I know a lot of the guys (and gals) at most of the rocket companies. Commercial space is a small world.
Bigelow Aerospace made a rather interesting announcement on August 11:
Due to a number of factors related to the outstanding performance of Genesis I, the hoped-for adequate performance of Genesis II and various additional factors—including, but not limited to, domestic and international issues forecast over the next four to five years bearing upon America’s transportation and launch deficits—we have made several bold decisions. An important announcement early in 2007 subsequent to the launch of Genesis II shall expose some of our plans.
Due to this change in direction, the Genesis II will be the only opportunity to fly photos and items for the “Fly Your Stuff” program. The general public is being urged to act quickly or they will lose their chance to be a part of this exciting program. Items and photos will be accepted only prior to November 1, 2006, or until all reservations are sold out on Genesis II, whichever comes first. Please be aware that there will be no second chances to fly personal items or photos in space through the “Fly Your Stuff” program.
If I were a betting man, I would guess the reason for no further fly-your-stuff opportunities is that Bigelow is going to jump to the full scale station next year, assuming the next larger size test article, Genesis II, is also successful.
I think the 2012 time line for a manned private space station has just been pulled in by a couple years.
 Photo: Bigelow Aerospace
This just in! Our ever vigilant illuminati underground has just uncovered the little known fact Adnan Hajj photographed early shuttle flights. As a Samizdata exclusive we have this spectacular shuttle landing photograph.
Ms. Ima Fake, a senior Reuters representive, has assured us this photo is absolutely genuine.
Kevin Connors mentioned this blog story about the fascinating new small jet from Honda to me a few days ago and I remembered it when I ran across this today:
Honda announced today it will begin taking orders for a new, small jet aircraft later this year.
The HondaJet, unveiled last year, will enter the “very light jet” market in the United States, the company said.
It sounds like quite a nice piece of kit:
The sleek jet has an an all-glass flight deck. An over-the-wing engine design maximizes space in the fuselage for passengers and luggage, the company said. The configuration is also said to reduce drag at high speed to improve fuel efficiency.
The prototype jet, which seats up to seven, has completed more than 240 hours of flight testing, flying to 43,000 feet and hitting 412 knots.
I am much afraid I will not be running out to buy one myself, but I will certainly have my camera ready to click on it at first sight!
Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic expects to start flying in 2008.
Designer Philippe Starck, former soap star Victoria Principal and ‘Superman Returns’ director Bryan Singer have booked their flights for tourist trips in outer space, an official from the company selling the galactic voyage said Monday.
Virgin Galactic, a Virgin Group company, has sold some 200 tickets to passengers for suborbital flights, starting in 2008, said Will Whitehorn, the company’s president.
It has collected 8.5 million pounds (US$15.6 million, euro12.4 million) in deposits for the flights that cost 109,000 pounds (US$200,000, euro158,000).
Despite the seemingly hard scheduled time here, I have heard Virgin Galactic officials state emphatically they will not fly until Burt Rutan says SpaceShipTwo is ready nor will they put pressure on him to rush the job. Branson is in this for the long haul, and that means he has to ‘Bring ’em Back Alive’.
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Who Are We? The Samizdata people are a bunch of sinister and heavily armed globalist illuminati who seek to infect the entire world with the values of personal liberty and several property. Amongst our many crimes is a sense of humour and the intermittent use of British spelling.
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