An update from Stephen Clark about the various issues that SpaceX must clear up before flying Dragon to the ISS: Dragon Mission Report | Software testing remains an obstacle for SpaceX flight - Spaceflight Now.

Russian Mars probe Phobos-Grunt was lost because space radiation disrupted its computer system, a commission investigating the incident said on Friday. The investigation found no faults with the spacecraft’s hardware, the commission said in a summary of its report, released on the website of the Federal Space Agency. Phobos-Grunt, Russia’s first interplanetary probe in years, was to travel to Phobos, a moon of Mars, and bring back samples of its soil by 2014. The $165 million spacecraf [...]

One of NASA's industry partners, Sierra Nevada Corp. (SNC), recently delivered the primary structure of its first Dream Chaser flight test vehicle to the company's facility in Louisville, Colo., where it will be assembled and integrated with secondary systems. This is one of 12 milestones to be completed under SNC's funded Space Act Agreement (SAA) with NASA's Commercial Crew Program (CCP). "It's rewarding to see our partner's ideas and concepts come to fruition," said CCP Program Manager Ed  [...]

HOUSTON -- More than 6,300 individuals applied to become a NASA astronaut between Nov. 15, 2011 and Jan. 27, the second highest number of applications ever received by the agency. After a thorough selection process, which includes interviews and medical examinations, nine to 15 people will be selected to become part of the 21st astronaut class. "This is a great time to join the NASA family," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said. "Our newest astronauts could launch aboard the first commerci [...]

Aboard the orbiting International Space Station, Expedition 30 Flight Engineers Oleg Kononenko and Anton Shkaplerov continued preparations Friday for their Feb. 16 spacewalk by gathering and sorting tools and preparing the Pirs docking compartment airlock. During the 5.5-hour excursion, the two cosmonauts will move one of the two Strela hand-operated cranes from Pirs to the Poisk module and install five debris shields on the Zvezda service module. If time permits, Kononenko and Shkaplerov al [...]

New images from ESA’s Mars Express show the Syrtis Major region on Mars. Once thought to be a sea of water, the region is now known to be a volcanic province dating back billions of years. Syrtis Major can be spotted from Earth even with relatively small telescopes – the near-circular dark area on the planet stretches over 1300 x 1500 km. Now, however, we know that the region is volcanic in origin, devoid of water and that the changes in its shape are due to dust and sand being blow [...]

Alan Boyle reviews several developments in NewSpace in the past week or so: Small moves in commercial space - Cosmic Log.
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Alexander Hreiz of Masten Space posted another photo of their new test trailer in action: More LN2 testing, full tank pressure. Can't wait for LOX (plus IPA) testing!

Dennis Wingo talked with David Livingston on the Space Show on Friday about "space commerce, a new space vision and plan, space applications": Dennis Wingo, Friday, 2-3-12 - Thespaceshow's Blog.
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Why stop at $500B? Romney and Santorium might as well round off the cost of a Moon base to an even trillion dollars: Santorum joins in - Space Politics.

The USAF is determined to go through with its big block buy of EELVs but Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is determined to make them prove it is a good deal: McCain Cites Conflict in EELV Block Buy Plan - SpaceNews.com.

Lunar base building looking more feasible: No Joke: These Guys Created A Machine For Printing Houses On The Moon - Co.Design (via Popular Science) -






Update: From Trent Waddington comes a link to this interesting paper: Lunar Contour Crafting – A Novel Technique for ISRU-Based Habitat Development, B. Khoshnevis et al - AAAS - Jan.2005 (pdf).

UP Aerospace Inc. says they will fly to space again this April in New Mexico: Twitter / @UPAerospace: UP Aerospace announced today that they will launch SpaceLoft 6 on April 5, 2012 from Spaceport America.If you are interested in placing a payload on this or other flights, see their user guides for info.
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John Carmack says on the aRocket forum that the next version of the STIG tube rocket will hold twice the propellant of STIG-A and should take "significant payloads to 120+ km". The rocket will require a launch permit or license since it will exceed the performance allowed within the amateur rules regime.
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Here's the second part of the Moonandback interview with Jon Goff: Moonandback Interview With Jon Goff pt 2- Direct-To-Station - Moonandback.

Here's more about the apparently successful effort to extend until 2015 the moratorium on FAA regulations dealing with crew and passenger safety: Congress acts to protect space industry from regulation - Bakersfield.com.

Bob Zimmerman wishes the whole law would go away: Lobbying to save commercial space - Behind The Black.

Just to review the situation: The package of legislation governing commercial spaceflight operations with reusable space transports, orbital and suborbital, is called the Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act (CSLAA) and was passed in 2004. A lot of it deals with ensuring the safety of uninvolved third-parties, e.g. making sure a kindergarten or the proverbial bus full of lawyers' spouses isn't hit by a falling rocket. Additional regulation dealing with how vehicles should be built and operated to ensure (as judged by the FAA) the safety of crews & passengers is what is being postponed.

Several space transport firms were deeply involved in the making and promotion of CSLAA. It wasn't something forced on the industry by Congress. The commercial space legislation existing at the time dealt primarily with expendable launchers of orbital spacecraft. There were also the rules governing amateur rocketry, where amateur refers to the performance of the rockets, not whether private individuals or companies are flying the rockets. Some aspects of testing and operating suborbital space vehicles also overlapped with aviation regs. The firms believed a regulatory framework had to be established for fully reusable, suborbital and orbital space transports because many investors wanted to see one before they would provide funding. Also, there were insurers, suppliers, and infrastructure institutions (e.g. spaceports) that wanted to see it as well.

There wasn't unanimous support in the industry. Burt Rutan, for example, did not support CSLAA but not because he was against any regulatory framework. He wanted a vehicle certification process like that used in aviation. The companies supporting CSLAA thought certification would be far too time-consuming and expensive for them and that it would inevitably involve arbitrary standardization since in this infant industry there was no proven standard with which to compare.

So far, CSLAA seems to have worked out well. The level of pain involved in the permit/licensing process for vehicle test flights, for spaceports, etc. appears to be acceptable to those involved. I don't know of any regs that have been criticized as particularly onerous and unwarranted. The FAA Office of Commercial Space Transportation (FAA/AST) has the combined responsibilities of regulation and promoting the industry (the FAA had a similar dual role for aviation until the late 1990s). FAA/AST, for example, often sends top officials to space related hearings in Congress, public events, conferences, etc. to speak in favor of commercial human spaceflight.

However, much of the industry would still like to keep FAA/AST from setting crew/passenger rules before any commercial operating system is flying. We can certainly hope by 2015 there will be a least a couple of firms each with a couple of years of commercial suborbital spaceflight experience.

Update: I've been informed that the term "moratorium" exaggerates the limitations in the CSLAA. The FAA can take a number of regulatory actions such as issuing advisory circulars, propose rules in response to particular incidents in licensed/permitted flights, etc. There's no outright prohibition on any and all rules regarding participant safety. It's more proper to call it a time of limited regulation and a learning period to observe design approaches, hardware, and operational techniques in action in the real world.

Jeff Foust reports that the Romney campaign continues to try to use Newt's space proposals against him: Space hasn’t completely faded from the presidential campaign - spacepolitics.com.
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A defense of such proposals: Peter Navarro and Greg Autry: Newt May Have Lost in the Space State, but He Wasn't Just Giving Way to Lunar-cy - Peter Navarro & Greg Autry/rhuffingtonpost.com.
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Doug Messier talks about Romney's set of space advisers and Eric Anderson's participation: CSF Chairman Anderson Backs Romney, Attacks Obama as Ineffective - Parabolic Arc

Leonard David hears from George Whitesides of Virgin Galactic about the installation of the motor into the SS2, an expectation of reaching space by end of the year, commercial ops in 2013, and the second pair of WhiteKnightTwo/SpaceShipTwo is under contruction: Virgin Galactic's Private Spaceship Ramping Up Toward Passenger Flights - Space.com - "Over the next few months we're integrating parts and pieces of the hybrid rocket motor into the SpaceShipTwo airframe, completing ground testing of the rocket motor, and then [will] try and start powered flight over the summer," Whitesides told SPACE.com. Those rocket-powered flights, he said, will continue for some period of time.

Whitesides said it looks possible "to get up to space altitude by the end of the year, if all goes well." The next major follow-on steps, he said, involve obtaining a commercial operating license from the Federal Aviation Administration and moving operations from California to Spaceport America in New Mexico.

"We hope to get to space this year and our hope is to be able to start commercial operations from Spaceport America in 2013," Whitesides said.

UPHAM, NM – New Mexico Spaceport Authority (NMSA) officials announced today a launch of a “STIG-A” rocket designed and built by Armadillo Aerospace. The launch took place from Spaceport America's vertical launch complex on Saturday, January 28, 2012. The research and development test flight was a non-public, unpublished event at the request of Armadillo Aerospace, as the company is testing proprietary advanced launch technologies. Saturday’s Armadillo launch successfully lifted [...]

One small step for man, one giant leap for young minds! STEM Ambassadors inspiring the next generation of scientists, mathematicians, engineers & technologists

Iran has successfully launched an observation satellite, Iranian news network Press TV reported on Friday. The domestically-built Navid (Harbinger) satellite is designed to take pictures of the Earth at low altitudes of 250 to 370 kilometers. Press TV hailed it as the “first satellite to be completely designed and built by Iranian experts.” The head of Iran’s Space Agency, Hamid Fazeli, earlier announced plans to establish a “national satellite launch base” in the Islamic repu [...]

A crewed mission to the moon is possible by 2020, the head of Russia’s space agency Roscosmos, Vladimir Popovkin, said in an interview with the Ekho Moskvy radio station on Thursday. "Today science is ripe for using the moon. I think that by 2020 a man will land on the moon,” Popovkin said. He also said Russia’s previously announced cosmonaut recruitment drive will focus on preparing crews for a moon mission. The competition will be open for every Russian citizen with technical or me [...]

One of NASA's industry partners, United Launch Alliance (ULA), successfully completed two milestones that could eventually lead toward the certification of its Atlas V launch vehicle for human spaceflight. In December, ULA conducted a series of detailed reviews that reflected the culmination of efforts involving technical experts and representatives from NASA's Commercial Crew Program (CCP). “ULA gave us an invaluable opportunity to get to know its Atlas V systems and subsystems thro [...]

The Expedition 30 crew of the orbiting International Space Station tackled a heavy workload Thursday with a special focus on preparations for a spacewalk scheduled for Feb. 16. Flight Engineers Anton Shkaplerov and Oleg Kononenko spent most of their day gathering tools and preparing their Orlan spacesuits. During the five-and-a-half-hour spacewalk, the two cosmonauts will move one of the two Strela hand-operated cranes from the Pirs docking compartment to the Poisk module and install five de [...]