MOJAVE, Calif., May 26 /PRNewswire/  Masten Space Systems, a leader in vertical take off, vertical landing (VTVL) rocket vehicles, successfully demonstrated in-air engine re-light capability today at the company’s test facility in Mojave, CA. Xombie, Masten’s most-flown vehicle, carried
Schmitt Complains, Tumlinson Responds
Highly respected former Apollo 17 lunar scientist-astronaut and former US Senator Harrison ‘Jack’ Schmitt today took to the Lunar Listserv to articulate his primary concerns [text link] with the Obama White House space policy announced April 15, 2010 at the
Space Access 10 Reports
The folks at NewSpaceJournal have posted some write-ups about this year’s Space Access Conference in Phoenix earlier this month: RocketPlane’s Florida Opportunity Chuck Lauer announced that Rocketplane Global had signed a letter of intent with the Jacksonville Aviation Authority (JAA)
X-37B Ready To Fly
The United States Air Force plans to launch its first robotic X-37B space plane Thursday on a mission that is a forerunner of things to come. A second mini-space plane is already under contract and is projected to be launched
Cassini’s Next 7 Years
The New York Times has an interesting piece on the machinations required to extend the Cassini probe for another 7 year mission at Saturn.
The (Almost) Firy End of Apollo 13
Apollo 13. Everyone knows the story. Damaged by an explosion on the way to the moon in 1970, the three astronauts and the folks at NASA pulled out every stop to get them home in their crippled spacecraft. Using the
ISS Comes Together
Building anything can be a complicated task. Building big doesn’t always make it easier. Building big in space definitely makes it more complex. USAToday has a dandy flash presentation on the 10+ year construction effort to build the International Space
Jet-A From Biomass
A team of University of Wisconsin-Madison engineers has developed a highly efficient, environmentally friendly process that selectively converts gamma-valerolactone, a biomass derivative, into the chemical equivalent of jet fuel. The simple process preserves about 95 percent of the energy from
Last Shuttle Patch Selected
The final patch design for the Space Shuttle Program has been selected by a NASA committee from a pool of entries by NASA employees and contractors. It beat out 84 other prospective patches to be the final commemorative token of
AvWeek Person Of The Year
Person Of The Year: The Space Entrepreneur … features Dave Masten and Xoie! Aviation Week’s article starts out: The quiet work of space entrepreneurs is becoming reality, and metal and fire are streaking through the upper atmosphere into low Earth