Commercial spaceflight took another step forward on March 28 when the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) awarded commercial suborbital flight training company Black Sky Training the first ever safety approval for space training. “By establishing a standard protocol for training of the flying public and flight crews, they [the FAA/AST] have signaled the burgeoning space flight industry that nothing but the highest safety [...]
Post Tagged with: “USA”
Was the Virgin Land Campaign only a Giant Cover-up for the Baikonour Construction?
According to a post in the Friends of NASA forum on LinkedIn in December, a 2006 Russian documentary movie called Secrets of the Century: Baikonour suggested that the large 1950s Soviet agricultural campaign, known also as Raising of the Tzelina, was nothing more than an extreme cover up designed to conceal the logistically demanding construction of what is today known [...]
Approaching the Countdown for SpaceX’s Dragon Spacecraft
If everything goes according to plan, the first American private cargo transporter will embark on its maiden journey towards the ISS by May 7. During the demonstration mission, the umanned Dragon capsule will launch from Florida’s Cape Canaveral aboard a Falcon 9 rocket which will carry it to low Earth orbit to dock with the ISS. If the test mission [...]
US State Department Rejects Proposed Space Code of Conduct
On January 12th it was revealed at a Washington DC press conference that the US State Department would not endorse a Space Code of Conduct for spacefaring nations proposed by the Council of the European Union in 2008, finding it “too restrictive.” The 12-page document, lastrevised in 2010, calls for nations to “have access to, explore, and to use outer [...]
NASA Space Debris Chief Minimizes Phobos-Grunt Threat
The ill-fated Russian space probe Phobos-Grunt has been stranded in its parking orbit around the Earth since its launch in early November, and in spite of efforts by ground controllers with the support of the European Space Agency and NASA, the fate of the spacecraft has remained uncertain. Concerns have been raised that the spacecraft may present hazards both in [...]
State Department: Leading with Diplomacy to Strengthen Stability in Space
Source Department of State Remarks by Frank A. Rose Deputy Assistant Secretary Bureau of Arms Control, Verification and Compliance U.S. Department of State USSTRATCOM Cyber and Space Symposium Omaha, Nebraska November 17, 2011 Thank you for your kind introduction. I am honored to have been invited back to the Symposium to give a keynote speech this year. When I spoke last [...]
Phobos-Grunt: a legal analysis of potential liability and options for mitigation
Source: Michael Listner for The Space Review: For the third time in as many months the potential exists for a large space object to fall out of orbit and impact the surface of the Earth. Unlike the prior two incidents where the space objects involved were derelict research satellites, the space object in question is a probe launched by the Russian [...]
Still Out of Contact, Phobos-Grunt Fuel, Mass, and Radioactive Cobalt Pose Reentry Concerns
As of 21:00 GMT November 13th, ground controllers in Baikonur have been unable to reestablish communications with the ailing Phobos-Grunt probe, despite efforts to contact the probe overnight on November 11th and during the day on November 12th. There are growing concerns that if the probe were to reenter the atmosphere over a populated area, its 10 tons of hydrazine could [...]
USA-193 Intercept May Provide Precedent for Phobos-Grunt
The USA-193 was a US spy satellite launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base on December 14th, 2006 atop a Delta II rocket. Its launch was the first operated by the United Launch Alliance (ULA). Owned by the National Reconnaissance Office, its precise function was classified; however, it is categorized as “Surveillance and Other Military” in the National Space Science Data [...]
Excalibur Almaz and NASA Cooperation
Private space company Excalibur Almaz Incorporated (EAI) signed an unfunded Space Act Agreement with NASAto work together on second development round of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. This cooperation aims at accelerating the availability of US transportation capabilities for commercial crew, as well as reducing the gap in American human space flight. The Space Act Agreement should encourage the technical information [...]
