1st Private Rocket Launch to Space Station Delayed

By Denise Chow, SPACE.com Staff Writer. 

SpaceX tweeted on Jan. 4, 2012: "First look: Dragon Spacecraft in final processing, getting ready to head to the ISS." CREDIT: SpaceX

The first test flight of a privately built robot space capsule to the International Space Station has been delayed to allow more time to prepare the vehicle, the spacecraft's builder announced today (Jan. 16).

The unmanned Dragon space capsule, built by the California-based Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), was scheduled to launch toward the space station on Feb. 7, but the company has decided to postpone the flight to accommodate more engineering tests.

"In preparation for the upcoming launch, SpaceX continues to conduct extensive testing and analysis," SpaceX spokesperson Kirstin Grantham said in an email statement. "We believe that there are a few areas that will benefit from additional work and will optimize the safety and success of this mission."

A new launch date for the mission has not yet been announced, but SpaceX officials said the company is working with NASA to determine the best time for the test flight.

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Introducing nanotechnologists Sourabh Kaushal and Nishant Arora

By Chris McLemore

Nishant Arora (l) and Sourabh Kaushal (r) have proposed next generation technology concepts to not only help mitigate space debris, but also to create renewable energy.

In an effort to preserve human kind's attempt to explore beyond Low Earth Orbit (LEO), two individuals from India have reviewed current literature and proposed new cutting-edge space debris mitigation technology--one of which has the potential to harness energy from the left over junk.

Comparable to the pollution of Earth's oceans, there is a dust cloud of space debris thats swirling the globe at cruising at orbit speed. Hazards such as bolts, empty fuel tanks, upper stages of thousands of rockets can pose a catastrophic threat to future space missions.

Sourabh Kaushal and Nishant Arora co-authored a review historical review about individuals who have recognized the dangers space debris poses to spacecraft. Hailing from two neighboring communities in northern India, Kaushal and Arora are two research associates on the Google Lunar XPrize Team Indus. Kaushal and Arora have spoken at several conferences including the widely popular TED.

Huntsville Space Professionals is also actively helping to increase exposure to their work here in the United States as both represent promising new talent in the aerospace industry.

Their work on space debris mitigation has most recently been featured on a blog radio website. Click play below to listen to K. Leslie Graves' report.

Listen to internet radio with K Leslie Graves on Blog Talk Radio

We make Huntsville and Space Professionals our number one priority

Welcome back everyone. We hope everyone has had the chance to spend quality time with their families. Just before the New Year, an article pointed out that NASA is not a priority for most of the presidential candidates. We want you to know that Huntsville and space professionals are our priority!

To read the Boston Herald article about the presidential candidates blind to space exploration, click here.

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NASA invites media to attend an Industry Day to talk about SLS tommorow

 From www.nasa.gov

What: NASA will host an industry day at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. to share information on an upcoming NASA Research Announcement for the Space Launch System's (SLS) advanced booster. Marshall is leading the design and development of the SLS on behalf of the agency. The new heavy-lift launch vehicle will expand human presence beyond low-Earth orbit and enable new missions of exploration across the solar system.

The 130-metric ton, evolved SLS vehicle will require an advanced booster with a significant increase in thrust over existing U.S. liquid or solid boosters. Its first full-scale test flight is set for 2017.

When: The industry day will be held Dec. 15, at 9 a.m. CST in the Morris Auditorium in Marshall's building 4200. Media representatives are invited to cover the event and interview NASA management beginning at 9:45 a.m. CST.

Who: Speakers will include Dan Dumbacher, NASA's Exploration Systems Development deputy associate administrator at agency headquarters in Washington, and Todd May, SLS program manager at Marshall.

To attend: Journalists interested in attending should contact Jennifer Stanfield in Marshall's Public and Employee Communications Office at 256-544-0034 no later than 4 p.m. CST, Wednesday, Dec. 14. To ensure adequate security processing time on the day of the event, media should report to the Redstone Arsenal Joint Visitor Control Center at Gate 9 by 8 a.m., with two photo IDs, vehicle registration and proof of car insurance. Visitor parking is available in front of Building 4200 on the south side.

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With one press conference, Paul Allen puts Huntsville in commercial space race

From the Huntsville Times--By: Lee Roop Dec. 14, 2011

Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, left, shakes hands with aerospace pioneer Burt Rutan as Rutan dissusses how the two came to an agreement to build a giant airplane and spaceship, at a news conference Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2011, in Seattle. Allen and Rutan announced Tuesday they're building a giant airplane and spaceship to zip people and cargo into orbit, but unlike traditional rockets and government spaceships, the new commercial spaceship will drop from a high-flying airplane instead of blasting off from a launch pad. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson

SEATTLE, Washington -- Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, one of the world's richest men, put Huntsville in the commercial space race Tuesday with one press conference. Speaking from Seattle, Allen announced formation of a new Huntsville company - Stratolaunch Systems - to build and launch rockets from the world's biggest airplane as soon as 2016.

Huntsville's Dynetics Inc. is one of Allen's partners, along with space pioneer Burt Rutan and Elon Musk's SpaceX Technologies. Scaled Composites, the company Rutan founded in 1982, will build the airplane to carry aloft rockets built by SpaceX. Dynetics will design and build the control systems and dock that mates the rockets to the airplane.

The new company's headquarters will be in Huntsville's Cummings Research Park, and it will grow from about 40 employees now to more than 100 in the coming months. Future growth depends on the market for its products.

The company's target is the lucrative military and commercial satellite launch market, and its slogan is "any launch, anytime," a reference to the new plane's flexibility. "It's the next great step" in space, Allen said Tuesday.

Allen bankrolled Rutan when the aerospace pioneer won the $10 million Ansari X Prize by launching his SpaceShip One craft from an airplane into space in 2004. It was the first successful private space launch. That effort cost Allen, whose fortune is estimated at $13 billion, an estimated $250 million. He declined to give a public budget for the new company Wednesday, but said he was prepared to spend "an order of magnitude" more.

The plan calls for Rutan's company, located at California's Mojave Airport, to build "the largest aircraft ever flown" to carry rockets aloft. It will have a wingspan of 385 feet, 60 feet wider than Howard Hughes' Spruce Goose, the previous wingspan record-holder.

"This is not a sketch," Rutan said of the new plane. "It exists in hundreds of detailed drawings. It is close to construction as soon as we get a building big enough." That building is under construction now in Mojave, Dynetics officials said after the press conference.

Stratolaunch CEO Gary Wentz, a former chief systems engineer at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, said the new plane is targeted for completion in 2015 with a first rocket launch the following year.

"Unmanned cargos that are not flights to the space station. That's the place to start," said former NASA administrator Mike Griffin, a member of the new Stratolaunch board of directors.

Reporters at the press conference questioned Griffin's presence on the board, given his vocal criticism of White House efforts to fund private space companies such as SpaceX.

Griffin said he opposed giving companies public money "prior to performance. That doesn't apply here."  Griffin said successful private space companies must have the "financial wherewithal" and "the vision and resolve" to keep going past the inevitable failures along the way. "I think Paul Allen has demonstrated already through his personal history both of those qualities," Griffin said.

After the press conference, Steve Cook, director of space technologies for Dynetics, called the new company "one of the most ambitious commercial space programs ever attempted." It puts Huntsville in the private space race, Cook said.

Mayor Tommy Battle agreed, calling the new company "a great opportunity for Huntsville" late Tuesday.  Battle said the city will now a player in low-earth orbit flights with Stratolaunch and deep-space missions with NASA's new heavy-lift rocket being developed at Marshall. "We have the synergy here for rocket propulsion," Battle said.

Cook said Dynetics will build and assemble the hardware needed to mate the rockets to the plane at a 226,000-square-foot structure under construction in Huntsville. The company will also do the systems engineering to control the launches, he said.

Dynetics Vice President David King, a former Marshall director and space shuttle launch director, is also on the new company's board, along with executives from SpaceX and Allen's investment company.

Cook said the new company is a legacy project for the 58-year-old Allen, and Allen seemed to echo that idea in the press conference. "You have a certain amount of dreams in your life that you want to fulfill," Allen said.

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Stratolaunch Systems is pioneering innovative solutions to revolutionize space transportation. Watch the video or visit http://www.stratolaunch.com to learn more.