Recent items of news:

• Avanti's next-generation broadband comsat Hylas-1 arrives at Kourou spaceport
• UKSA welcomes start of TechDemoSat-1 programme, SSTL funded to start design phase.
• Oh, that's where he's gone.... Former head of Odyssey Moon, Bob Richards moves to new GLXP competitor Moon Express. With no corporate press releases since March '09, Odyssey is now starting to look a little moribund :(

Some recent items of news:

• A somewhat breathless account of upcoming developments in commercial space: Experts: Huge space tourism expansion just months away -- CNN
• NASA announces funded data purchase agreements for Google Lunar X-Prize contestants. Interesting (and rather worrying) that Odyssey Moon isn't on the list, as they were thought to be a front runner.
• Branson considers Central Florida for a passenger spaceport location within the next ten years -- Parabolic Arc
• Seven Albertans buy $200,000 space flight -- Toronto Sun. An interesting comment: "Edmontonian Rob Heath has paid his $20,000 deposit, guaranteeing him seat number 598 aboard the VSS Enterprise". Most recent reports put the number of seats sold between 360-370.
• SpaceShipTwo test program: Two phases down, five to go -- Parabolic Arc

(Source: Parabolic Arc)

GLXP insiders claim that Odyssey Moon's MoonOne lander/rover is currently favourite to win the $30 million prize for the first commercial spacecraft to soft-land on the moon and return data.

• Odyssey Moon favored for prize -- Spaceports

Colin Pillinger, head of the ill-fated Beagle 2 Mars project, is proposing to fly a backup of the Beagle magnetic mass spectrometer on board the Odyssey Moon commercial lunar lander, in order to search for potentially valuable materials on the lunar surface.

The Odyssey Moon commercial lander and rover are under development at MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates (MDA) in Canada using Canadian technology mated with a NASA spacecraft design already tested at the NASA Ames Research Center.

"For a number of months we have had contact with Odyssey Moon and in early July we had "more firm" discussions," Pillinger tells Spaceflight Now. "They are interested in our mass spectrometer, but arrangements are still tentative at this moment."

• Moon beckons commercial comeback for Beagle -- Spaceflight Now

(Source: Google Lunar X-Prize)

London, UK & Douglas, Isle of Man – Education has taken ‘the next great leap’ in Britain as Odyssey Moon announces its fifth payload to the Moon.

Google Lunar X PRIZE contender Odyssey Moon Limited today is announcing its partnership with the International Space School Education Trust (ISSET) and their customer Moonlink Ltd. of Yorkshire to put a British science instrument on the Moon.

Moonlink has signed up with the International Space School Educational Trust (ISSET) to set aside one kilogram of payload capacity on Odyssey Moon’s “MoonOne” lunar lander, to be launched to the Moon in late 2012. Moonlink will be heading up a county wide competition driving innovation in schools, universities, and local industry in the form of a competition to design, build, and fly an experiment to the Moon.

Chris Barber, director of ISSET, said: “It is a world-class opportunity to discover the unfound genius of Yorkshire. Also, importantly, the building of a lunar experiment in Yorkshire will increase jobs, together with research and development capabilities in the region.”

The competition will be open to students from UK universities, colleges and high schools, with individual entries also invited from the public. Full–details regarding participation in the competition will be announced after summer.

Gary Fawcett, chief executive of Link Telecom, one of the UK’s leading private sector sponsors of education-related initiatives, has been appointed Managing Director of Moonlink. “The project will put Yorkshire at the forefront of technological discovery in the UK and help increase both the prestige and confidence of the region,” he said. “It will provide spin-off technologies and business opportunities, raise the county’s technological and innovative profile, boost the self-esteem of the region and help create new employment opportunities."

Fawcett and Barber also aim to leverage the mission to increase research capabilities among Yorkshire universities and intensify student and pupil interest in STEM partnerships - a series of regional hubs that provide up-to-date information, support and advice to schools about quality science technology engineering and mathematics activities that enhance and enrich the curriculum.

“Yorkshire is literally now leading the world in innovation," said Odyssey Moon chairman Dr. Ramin Khadem. “We are thrilled to have ISSET and Moonlink onboard.”

“This is a fantastic opportunity for students and an inspiration to all of us,” said Odyssey Moon CEO, Dr. Robert Richards. “Seeing a program like this makes me wish I was back at school as a student again. I hope this educational competition model catches on worldwide.”

(Source: Odyssey Moon)

Mountain View, California & Douglas, Isle of Man – Google Lunar X PRIZE contender Odyssey Moon Limited announced today that top industry leaders Near Earth LLC, WPP Group, Aon and Milbank have joined its corporate team. Odyssey Moon intends to become the first private company to supply payload delivery services to the Moon in support of science, exploration and commerce. This is the first time such major organizations have come together to support a commercial Moon venture.

As the world celebrates the 40th anniversary of “Moon 1.0” – mankind’s first but short lived activities on the lunar surface – Odyssey Moon is forging ahead with its plans to capitalize on commercial opportunities created by renewed interests in exploring the Moon – “Moon 2.0”.

Joining the Odyssey Moon venture is:

• Near Earth LLC: a leading investment bank specializing in satellite, media and telecom
• The Brand Union/WPP: one of the world's largest marketing and communications
companies
• Aon International Space Brokers: the leading global space risk advisor and provider of
space related insurance
• Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP: a leading global law firm experienced in
telecommunications and space

“This is a power house team, a dream team,” said Dr. Robert (Bob) Richards, Odyssey Moon’s CEO. “We are combining the very best from the global satellite industry with the very best of the space exploration community to make this company and its historic first mission a success.”

“Odyssey Moon’s team now includes world‐class leaders from the areas of finance, insurance, law, marketing, communications, advertising, and technology," said Odyssey Moon chairman Dr. Ramin Khadem. “Each of these are esteemed firms that have been highly successful in their own right and now for the first time they have come together to support our lunar venture.”

Continue reading press release...

(Source: Google Lunar X-Prize)

Here's a video clip of the press conference with Odyssey Moon and Paragon Space Development on their proposed "Lunar Oasis" greenhouse payload for the MoonOne lander. Featured in the video are Bob Richards of Odyssey Moon, and Taber MacCallum, CEO of Paragon, and his wife Jane Poynter, who is President and Founder of Paragon.

Yup, thought so from the soundtrack. Jane Poynter is British-born.

Update:

• Paragon's Taber McCallum explains the Lunar Oasis project in a videocast on Engineering TV. Engadget makes the obvious 'Silent Running' references.
• The Telegraph refers to growing Brussel sprouts on the Moon, a sure way to get kids interested in space development!