Congratulations to SpaceX on a flawless launch of the Falcon 9, and separation and solar array deploy on the Dragon spacecraft!

The Excalibur Almaz Reusable Return Vehicle, which forms part of a planned commercial manned deep space exploration system, will go on display in London on 19-20th June. The spacecraft will be exhibited as part of the Royal Aeronautical Society's 3rd European Space Tourism Conference, at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre at Parliament Square on 20 June between 9 a.m. – 6 p.m. The public will have an opportunity to hear from knowledgeable speakers and view the spacecraft and space-flown Sokol-KV spacesuits.

“A profitable market exists for private and government deep space expeditions,” said Mr. Dula. “Examples that can be performed using our flight-proven spacecraft include missions to lunar orbit and to Lagrange Point 2 behind the Moon. EAL intends to provide space infrastructure that can be used by anyone wanting to investigate cislunar space, the Moon and near Earth asteroids.”

EAL’s Reusable Return Vehicle (RRV) spacecraft, which will serve as transport vehicles for the cislunar spacecraft, were flight-tested nine times as part of the Soviet Union’s Almaz high-altitude reconnaissance program in the 1970’s and 1980’s. Each RRV carries a crew of three passengers and is believed to be reusable for 15 missions. The other hardware element of EAL’s lunar mission includes large Salyut-class space stations that will transport passengers to Low Lunar Orbit, L2, L5 and beyond as early as 2015. Salyut-class space stations have proven extremely durable as demonstrated by the two Russian-supplied modules on the International Space Station.

• Excalibur Almaz spacecraft, spaceman to land near Parliament Square -- Royal Aeronautical Society
• Lunar & L2 Missions -- Excalibur Almaz

(Source: Department of Business, Innovation & Skills)

The Intellectual Property Office (IPO) has launched this year’s Cracking Ideas competition and is inviting children across the country to use their creativity to invent a special space-themed gizmo or gadget.

Parents and teachers are asked to encourage as many four to 16 year olds as possible to participate. By taking part, children and educators will discover how patents, trade marks, copyright and design have a part to play in everyday life and how this ties in with 21st Century space-age technology.

This year’s competition requires participants to construct a special Moon Bug lunar contraption and then demonstrate how to protect their creativity using patents, trade marks, design and copyright. Material will be provided but participants can also use their own materials to make models, take photographs, draw plans and record their creation.

• Cracking Ideas competition

Rocketeer comments: "to construct a special Moon Bug lunar contraption".. Cool, I thought, sounds like fun...

..."then demonstrate how to protect their creativity using patents, trade marks, design and copyright"... and then I died a little inside ;p

An alternative view: Elon Musk refuses to file patents for fear of Chinese copycats...

...and again...

Musk: "We're entering the era of commercial space flight, which will advance dramatically faster than in the past. But I made the decision to patent almost nothing: Our competition is the Chinese and Russian governments, against whom patents are unenforceable and can simply be used as a recipe. It's much better for our technology to be trade secrets. I'd rather keep the information to myself. There could be a Chinese spy or a cyber attack, but my CIO is from PayPal, which never got cracked."

Dr Lucy Rogers reports on an attempt by Cambridge University Spaceflight on the UK rocketry altitude record in early May. The current record stands at 21,200 feet, and the Cambridge two-stage rocket was expected to reach at least 35,000 feet.

The flight appeared to go well, but unfortunately the upper stage and data recorder have not yet been found, and any record currently remains unconfirmed.

(warning: expletive ;-) )

The rocket was launched by the Cambridge University Spaceflight Team at the Big Range 2012 Launch Campaign in Sutherland. The event was specifically for high altitude experimental rocketry and was a collaboration between the Scottish Aeronautics & Rocketry Association (SARA), UK Rocketry Association (UKRA) and AspireSpace.

• UK Rocket Altitude Record Attempt -- Professional Engineer
• Martlet-1 Launch Report -- Cambridge University Spaceflight

The first attempt at launching the Falcon-9/Dragon on the COTS-2/3 cargo demonstration mission to the ISS was halted at T-0.5 seconds when monitoring software detected an unexpected rise in pressure in the combustion chamber of engine #5.

The fault was subsequently traced to a faulty check valve in the nitrogen purge system which was subsequently replaced, and liftoff is currently scheduled for the next available window on Tuesday, May 22nd at 3:44 AM Eastern.

• How One Faulty Nitrogen Purge Valve Forced SpaceX to Abort -- Wired
• COTS 2/3 Mission Status -- Spaceflight Now
• 4 Reasons why the SpaceX Abort was not a Failure -- Policymic.com

So far, this has been an impressive vindication of the vehicle health monitoring systems on the Falcon 9, and their ability to trigger a safe and near-instantaneous abort 500 milliseconds from launch when an off-nominal engine condition is detected. The ability of the SpaceX ground team to conduct engine repairs on the pad, and be ready for another launch window within 72 hours is similarly impressive.

A report from the Institute of Directors recommends a number of UK space infrastructure improvements, including the construction of a spaceport for suborbital flights.

• Report recommends that Britain should build a spaceport -- BBC News
• Calls for UK spaceport, to grow £8bn sector -- Bdaily Business Network
• Space: Britain's new infrastructure frontier (PDF) -- Institute of Directors

The report strongly recommends greater UK participation and cooperation in NewSpace projects:

"As an English-speaking mid-sized wealthy country, the UK is well-placed to compete in
“New Space” – today’s era where private companies cooperating across borders participate, innovate and launch vehicles and services, just as the major state-sponsored space agencies of the 20th Century accelerate their long retreat from the marketplace."

"...a proper regulatory regime would help to attract entrepreneurs to the UK to bring about suborbital and orbital flight services. Greater international cooperation, particularly with America’s private space entrepreneurs and NASA, could also help to bring costs down and tangible results up."

There are currently several openings in engineering and sales at Surrey Satellite.

Some interesting followup articles on the 50 Years of the UK in Space conference blog:-

• SolO: the UK's next step into space
• The Human Touch
• Handshakes all round