8/24/12 news

 
 
Happy Friday everyone.  Have a safe and great weekend.
 
 
Friday, August 24, 2012
 
JSC TODAY HEADLINES
1.            Open House For Newly Refurbished Building 12
2.            Back to School
3.            Chronic Illness Group
4.            JSC: See the Space Station
5.            White Sands Test Facility (WSTF): See the Space Station
6.            Houston Technology Center Presents Tech Link on Sept. 14
7.            JSC Pressure Systems Document JPR 1710.13 Rev. F
8.            Would You Rather Live Without AC in August Than Give a Speech in Public?
________________________________________     QUOTE OF THE DAY
“ What's important is finding out what works for you. ”
 
-- Henry Moore
________________________________________
1.            Open House For Newly Refurbished Building 12
Center Operations Directorate (COD) would like to extend an invitation to all employees to come tour the newly refurbished Building 12. The building has been totally renovated and reconfigured to provide for onsite training functions, as well as office space for the previous occupants that included Education, Human Resources and Finance. The building will be open for tours from noon to 2 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 29. COD employees will be in the building to answer questions and highlight the sustainable features of our newly refurbished building. A ribbon cutting will take place earlier that morning. Please take this opportunity to see JSC's newest green building.
 
Pat Kolkmeier x33131
 
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2.            Back to School
Back-to-school time is an exciting and sometimes scary time of year. From preschool through high school, parents can help ease the transitions and promote a more pleasant, productive year. When is a child ready to stay home alone before or after school? How can I ease power struggles over homework or bedtime? For the new school year, join Gay Yarbrough, LCSW of the JSC Employee Assistance Program, for a refresher course on "Parenting for Back to School."
 
Date: Today, Aug. 24
Time: 12 noon to 1 p.m.
Location: Building 30 Auditorium
 
Lorrie Bennett, Employee Assistance Program, Clinical Services Branch x36130
 
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3.            Chronic Illness Group
Fifty-one percent of Americans are impacted by some form of chronic health condition. While a person has little control over curing a disease, we can learn what successful people know about managing the stress and living fully with chronic illness. Information, discussion and strategies for coping are addressed monthly on the third Tuesday at 4 p.m. in Building 32, Conference Room 142. The next meeting will be Tuesday, Aug. 28.
 
Lorrie Bennett x36130
 
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4.            JSC: See the Space Station
Viewers in the JSC area will be able to see the International Space Station this week.
 
Sunday, Aug. 26, 9:27 p.m. (Duration: 2 minutes)
Path: 13 degrees above NNW to 42 degrees above N
Maximum elevation: 42 degrees
 
Monday, Aug. 27, 8:38 p.m. (Duration: 4 minutes)
Path: 11 degrees above NNW to 19 degrees above E
Maximum elevation: 28 degrees
 
Wednesday, Aug. 29, 8:39 p.m. (Duration: 4 minutes)
Path: 28 degrees above NW to 17 degrees above SE
Maximum elevation: 74 degrees
 
The International Space Station Trajectory Operations Group provides updates via JSC Today for visible station passes at least two minutes in duration and 25 degrees in elevation. Other opportunities, including those with shorter durations and lower elevations or from other ground locations, are available at the website below.
 
Joe Pascucci x31695 http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/cities/view.cgi?country=U...
 
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5.            White Sands Test Facility (WSTF): See the Space Station
Viewers in the WSTF area will be able to see the International Space Station this week.
 
Saturday, Aug. 25, 9:13 p.m. (Duration: 2 minutes)
Path: 16 degrees above NNW to 49 degrees above NNE
Maximum elevation: 49 degrees
 
Sunday, Aug. 26, 8:24 p.m. (Duration: 5 minutes)
Path: 11 degrees above NNW to 16 degrees above E
Maximum elevation: 27 degrees
 
Monday, Aug. 27, 9:14 p.m. (Duration: 2 minutes)
Path: 25 degrees above WNW to 41 degrees above SW
Maximum elevation: 41 degrees
 
The International Space Station Trajectory Operations Group provides updates via JSC Today for visible station passes at least two minutes in duration and 25 degrees in elevation. Other opportunities, including those with shorter durations and lower elevations or from other ground locations, are available at the website below.
 
Joe Pascucci x31695 http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/cities/view.cgi?country=U...
 
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6.            Houston Technology Center Presents Tech Link on Sept. 14
Come learn about Houston Technology Center's incubation and acceleration clients in the energy, life sciences, Information Technology and NASA/aerospace sectors at the next Tech Link on Friday, Sept. 14, from 7:30 to 9 a.m. in the Aerospace Transition Center (16921 El Camino Real).
 
Tech Link members represent the leaders, decision-makers and trendsetters of the technology community in the Houston and Clear Lake area. Open to the community, these meetings allow professionals to be involved with and influence the evolution of emerging technology.
 
The featured speaker for this event will be Mario C. Diaz, director of the City of Houston Department of Aviation. Diaz is responsible for the overall management of the Houston Airport System's three aviation facilities and its more than 1,400 employees. He is one of the industry's leading authorities in the study of future developments in commercial aviation.
 
Space is Limited. Register TODAY at: http://houstontech.org/events/1031/
 
Pat Kidwell x37156 http://houstontech.org/events/1031/
 
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7.            JSC Pressure Systems Document JPR 1710.13 Rev. F
JSC Pressure Systems document JPR.1710.13 Revision F was released on Aug. 17. Please verify that you are using the correct version. Compliance is mandatory.
PSMO database website: http://sma.jsc.nasa.gov/psdb/pressure.htm
 
http://server-mpo.arc.nasa.gov/Services/CDMSDocs/Centers/JSC/Dirs/JPR/JPR1710...
 
For more information, contact Wayne Gremillion in the Safety and Test Office at x34287.
 
Mary Kelley x35714
 
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8.            Would You Rather Live Without AC in August Than Give a Speech in Public?
Toastmasters can help! We offer a friendly and supportive environment to develop your communication skills. It's a fun way to overcome fear of public speaking. You can visit anytime, and bring a friend! The Space Explorers Toastmasters Club meets every Friday from 11:45 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. in Building 30A, Conference Room 1010.
 
Carolyn Jarrett x37594
 
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________________________________________
JSC Today is compiled periodically as a service to JSC employees on an as-submitted basis. Any JSC organization or employee may submit articles. To see an archive of previous JSC Today announcements, go to http://www6.jsc.nasa.gov/pao/news/jsctoday/archives.
 
 
 
NASA TV:
·      12:30 am Central SATURDAY (1:30 EDT) – Radiation Belt Storm Probes Launch Coverage
·      3:07 am Central SATURDAY (4:07 EDT) – RBSP Launch (20 minute window)
·      5:30 am Central SATURDAY (6:30 EDT) – RBSP Post-Launch News Conference
 
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT…
 
CCP Deputy Brent Jett talks CCiCap and going forward
 
Brent Jett stopped by Mission Control Thursday morning to talk about the latest developments in the Commercial Crew Program and the plans to eventually launch astronauts on a US-built spacecraft to the International Space Station.
 
Human Spaceflight News
Friday – August 24, 2012
 
HEADLINES AND LEADS
 
SpaceX’s Next Cargo Run to Space Station in October
 
Nancy Atkinson - UniverseToday.com
 
SpaceX is scheduled to launch the first of its 12 contracted cargo flights to the International Space Station in October, 2012. NASA Administrator Charles Bolden announced Thursday at Kennedy Space Center that SpaceX is now fully certified to ferry cargo to the space station. While the company’s Dragon capsule did bring cargo to the ISS during its initial flight in May, that was considered just a test flight. Now comes a series of ‘real’ cargo runs. Bolden also announced some other commercial milestones under NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services Program that “progress toward a launch of astronauts from U.S. soil in the next 5 years,” he said.
 
Dragon Spacecraft Set to Make Second Run for Orbital Station
 
RIA Novosti
 
U.S. private company SpaceX will launch its Dragon space freighter on a next resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS) in October this year, the Universe Today portal said. It will be the first of the company’s 12 commercial flights to the ISS under a 2008 contract with NASA as the initial successful mission in May was considered a test run.
 
Private Space Taxi Builders Pass Key Milestones for NASA
 
Space.com
 
Two commercial spaceflight companies have checked off vital milestones on the path toward flights to the International Space Station for NASA, the space agency announced Thursday. The Hawthorne, Calif.-based SpaceX has completed its Space Act Agreement under NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program, or COTS. The company is slated to launch the first of its 12 contracted robotic cargo flights to the space station from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in October, officials said. Meanwhile, the Dream Chaser space plane being developed by Sierra Nevada Space Systems in Colorado has reached its first milestone — a program implementation plan review — under NASA's recently announced Commercial Crew integrated Capability initiative. CCiCap is part of the agency's effort to spur the development of private American crew-carrying spaceships, to fill the void left by the space shuttle's retirement.
 
NASA announces new commercial space milestones
 
Lee Roop - Huntsville Times
 
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden announced that two commercial space companies -- SpaceX and Sierra Nevada Corp. -- have reached milestones in the race to supply and staff the International Space Station. Bolden said SpaceX has completed its Space Act Agreement with NASA for Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS). SpaceX will launch the first of 12 contracted cargo flights to the station in October, Bolden said.
 
NASA testing spacecraft's water impact in Hampton
 
Associated Press
 
NASA is testing the water impact of the Orion spacecraft at its Langley Research Center in Hampton. The space agency says it is scheduled to test the impact of an 18,000-pound test version of the spacecraft today.
 
At KSC, XCOR sees right people, right place
Ex-shuttle workers a perfect fit for company's operations
 
James Dean - Florida Today
 
Kennedy Space Center’s goal to become a more commercial spaceport received a boost Thursday with XCOR Aerospace’s announcement that it planned to test, fly and eventually build suborbital spacecraft here. The Mojave, Calif.-based company’s two-seater Lynx space plane could start taking off and landing at the shuttle runway in 2014, with a next-generation version flying customers regularly the following year. XCOR estimates it could hire more than 150 people locally by 2018, and executives said the area’s skilled former shuttle workforce was key to their decision to base a manufacturing site on the Space Coast.
 
XCOR Selects Central Florida For Expansion
 
Mark Carreau - Aviation Week
 
XCOR Aerospace, the suborbital commercial spaceflight company founded in Mojave, Calif., announced a second easterly expansion on Aug. 23, outlining plans for flight operations as well as manufacturing and assembly facilities for its winged, two-seat Lynx Mark II reusable launch vehicle in Central Florida. The plan calls for up to four flights of the Lynx spacecraft each day from the Shuttle Landing Facility (SLF) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center for suborbital researchers and tourists within two years, and an adjacent assembly facility for the production of two to three of the vehicles annually.
 
Spaceship builder setting up shop in Florida
 
Irene Klotz - Reuters
 
XCOR Aerospace, one of a handful of U.S. firms developing suborbital spaceships, plans to build its vehicles and fly tourists, researchers and commercial payloads from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, officials announced on Thursday. The privately owned firm, currently based in Mojave, California, is developing a two-seat suborbital space plane called Lynx that is expected to debut by early 2013. The company expects to fly four times daily, at a cost of $95,000 per person. The Lynx flights are similar to rides being offered aboard SpaceShipTwo, a six-passenger, two-pilot vehicle owned by Virgin Galactic, a U.S. offshoot of Richard Branson's London-based Virgin Group.
 
Suborbital company Xcor announces Florida base of operations
 
Zach Rosenberg - FlightInternational.com
 
Suborbital spaceflight company Xcor has announced a manufacturing and operations facility in Florida for the Lynx Mk II, the second iteration of the company's suborbital vehicle. The company hopes to begin Florida operations on 2014 as part of the transition from testing to revenue flights.
 
Shuttle Endeavor arrival prompts tree cutting in Inglewood
 
KABC TV (Los Angeles)
 
Inglewood residents are upset that over 100 trees are being cut down to make room for the Space Shuttle Endeavour, which will arrive at Los Angeles International Airport in October. Long-time Inglewood resident Sylvia Hill is outraged crews are cutting down the trees in her neighborhood, and she's not alone. "It's really hard to watch something that's been growing for over 100 years being just decimated down to the root just for one day," she said.
 
Sunita Williams to walk in space on August 30
 
Bharat Yagnik - Times of India
 
Astronaut Sunita Williams who took off on July 14 for her second six-month-long space expedition from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan told her father, Dr Deepak Pandya that she can see earth from her space station and that it is like sitting in the balcony of a house and looking at the view outside! However, the astronaut has not been able to have a closer look at her birth country-India.
__________
 
COMPLETE STORIES
 
SpaceX’s Next Cargo Run to Space Station in October
 
Nancy Atkinson - UniverseToday.com
 
SpaceX is scheduled to launch the first of its 12 contracted cargo flights to the International Space Station in October, 2012. NASA Administrator Charles Bolden announced Thursday at Kennedy Space Center that SpaceX is now fully certified to ferry cargo to the space station. While the company’s Dragon capsule did bring cargo to the ISS during its initial flight in May, that was considered just a test flight. Now comes a series of ‘real’ cargo runs.
 
Bolden also announced some other commercial milestones under NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services Program that “progress toward a launch of astronauts from U.S. soil in the next 5 years,” he said.
 
“We’re working to open a new frontier for commercial opportunities in space and create job opportunities right here in Florida and across the United States,” Bolden said. “And we’re working to in-source the work that is currently being done elsewhere and bring it right back here to the U.S. where it belongs.”
 
Bolden also announced NASA partner Sierra Nevada Corp. has conducted its first milestone under the agency’s recently announced Commercial Crew integrated Capability (CCiCap) initiative. The milestone, a program implementation plan review, marks an important first step in Sierra Nevada’s efforts to develop a crew transportation system with its Dream Chaser spacecraft.
 
CCiCap is an initiative of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program (CCP) and an Obama administration priority. The objective of the CCP is to facilitate the development of a U.S. commercial crew space transportation capability with the goal of achieving safe, reliable and cost-effective access to and from the space station and low Earth orbit. After the capability is matured, it is expected to be available to the government and other customers. NASA could contract to purchase commercial services to meet its station crew transportation needs later this decade.
 
Dragon Spacecraft Set to Make Second Run for Orbital Station
 
RIA Novosti
 
U.S. private company SpaceX will launch its Dragon space freighter on a next resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS) in October this year, the Universe Today portal said.
 
It will be the first of the company’s 12 commercial flights to the ISS under a 2008 contract with NASA as the initial successful mission in May was considered a test run.
 
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden announced on Thursday that SpaceX is now fully certified to deliver cargo to the orbital station, the Universe Today said.
 
The Dragon is a reusable spacecraft developed by SpaceX to fly cargo to the ISS after NASA retired its space shuttle fleet last year.
 
NASA also awarded SpaceX a Commercial Crew Development contract in April 2011 to develop a reusable spacecraft to carry up to seven astronauts, or a combination of personnel and cargo, to and from the orbital station.
 
At present, NASA pays Russia a hefty $63 mln for every astronaut who flies to the ISS aboard Soyuz spacecraft.
 
Private Space Taxi Builders Pass Key Milestones for NASA
 
Space.com
 
Two commercial spaceflight companies have checked off vital milestones on the path toward flights to the International Space Station for NASA, the space agency announced Thursday.
 
The Hawthorne, Calif.-based SpaceX has completed its Space Act Agreement under NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program, or COTS. The company is slated to launch the first of its 12 contracted robotic cargo flights to the space station from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in October, officials said.
 
Meanwhile, the Dream Chaser space plane being developed by Sierra Nevada Space Systems in Colorado has reached its first milestone — a program implementation plan review — under NASA's recently announced Commercial Crew integrated Capability initiative. CCiCap is part of the agency's effort to spur the development of private American crew-carrying spaceships, to fill the void left by the space shuttle's retirement.
 
"We're working to open a new frontier for commercial opportunities in space and create job opportunities right here in Florida and across the United States," Bolden said from NASA's Kennedy Space Center. "And we're working to in-source the work that is currently being done elsewhere and bring it right back here to the U.S. where it belongs."
 
SpaceX has already flown to the space station once as part of its COTS partnership. The company's unmanned Dragon capsule docked to the orbiting lab during a historic demonstration mission in May, becoming the first private vehicle ever to do so.
 
The flight was designed to test whether Dragon and SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket were ready to begin the 12 official resupply flights, for which SpaceX holds a NASA contract worth $1.6 billion.
 
NASA also signed a $1.9 billion deal with Virginia-based Orbital Sciences Corp. for eight robotic cargo flights with its Cygnus vessel. Orbital plans to launch its first test flight with Cygnus this winter, NASA officials said.
 
Earlier this month, NASA announced that Sierra Nevada will receive $212.5 million under CCiCap, the latest initiative of the agency's Commercial Crew Program. SpaceX will get $440 million to help upgrade Dragon to a crew-carrying craft, while Boeing was awarded $460 million for its CST-100 capsule.
 
The Commercial Crew Program also awarded funding to private spaceflight firms in each of the last two years, in rounds known as Commercial Crew Development 1 and 2. Sierra Nevada got funding during both CCDev-1 and CCDev-2 as well.
 
NASA has said it wants at least two private American spaceships to be flying astronauts to the space station by 2017. Until that happens, the agency will be dependent on Russian Soyuz spacecraft to provide this taxi service, at about $63 million per seat.
 
NASA announces new commercial space milestones
 
Lee Roop - Huntsville Times
 
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden announced that two commercial space companies -- SpaceX and Sierra Nevada Corp. -- have reached milestones in the race to supply and staff the International Space Station.
 
Bolden said SpaceX has completed its Space Act Agreement with NASA for Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS). SpaceX will launch the first of 12 contracted cargo flights to the station in October, Bolden said.
 
Sierra Nevada has reached the first milestone under NASA's new program known as the Commercial Crew Integrated Capability initiative (CCiCap). The milestone reached was a successful "program implementation plan review."
 
"We're working to open a new frontier for commercial opportunities in space and create job opportunities right here in Florida and across the United States," Bolden said in Florida Thursday. "And we're working to in-source the work that is currently being done elsewhere and bring it right back here to the U.S. where it belongs."
 
NASA testing spacecraft's water impact in Hampton
 
Associated Press
 
NASA is testing the water impact of the Orion spacecraft at its Langley Research Center in Hampton.
 
The space agency says it is scheduled to test the impact of an 18,000-pound test version of the spacecraft today.
 
Officials say that some testing began last summer to certify the Orion spacecraft for water landings. The NASA team is conducting tests this week, where Orion is being dropped vertically into the pool for the first time.
 
NASA says the first space-bound Orion capsule will launch on an uncrewed flight planned for 2014.
 
That test will see Orion travel farther than any human spacecraft has gone in more than 40 years. It will eventually carry astronauts and provide emergency abort capability, sustain the crew during travel, and ensure safe re-entry and landing.
 
At KSC, XCOR sees right people, right place
Ex-shuttle workers a perfect fit for company's operations
 
James Dean - Florida Today
 
Kennedy Space Center’s goal to become a more commercial spaceport received a boost Thursday with XCOR Aerospace’s announcement that it planned to test, fly and eventually build suborbital spacecraft here.
 
The Mojave, Calif.-based company’s two-seater Lynx space plane could start taking off and landing at the shuttle runway in 2014, with a next-generation version flying customers regularly the following year.
 
XCOR estimates it could hire more than 150 people locally by 2018, and executives said the area’s skilled former shuttle workforce was key to their decision to base a manufacturing site on the Space Coast.
 
“Thanks to NASA’s long history here, there was just the right group of people here with exactly the right skills we need,” President and co-founder Jeff Greason said during an announcement at the KSC Visitor Complex. “I really look forward to taking advantage of it as we move forward to serial production of vehicles where, just like a lot of other operations, it really has to be done right every time.”
 
State and local agencies have offered the company $2.7 million in incentives, according to Space Florida President Frank DiBello. Space Florida also will offer financing that could help build a hangar and manufacturing facility near KSC’s three-mile runway, though no agreements are final yet.
 
DiBello said XCOR’s rocket engines and spacecraft could “revolutionize and drive down the cost of spaceflight, first to the edge of space and even into orbit.”
 
“They’re talking several flights a day, so that’s a change in the paradigm from the way we think about spaceflight now,” he said. “It opens up the door for adventure tourism, and it opens up the door for repeatable, reliable spaceflight for research and other purposes.”
 
Tickets to ride in the Lynx’s right seat, next to the pilot, cost about $100,000, or about half what Virgin Galactic is charging for a seat on its suborbital SpaceShipTwo.
 
Local, state and NASA officials hailed XCOR’s arrival as evidence that Brevard County was diversifying its space industry and continuing to rebound from the shuttle program’s retirement last year.
 
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden on Thursday toured sites at KSC and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station to promote progress on commercial initiatives.
 
Standing before a Falcon 9 rocket inside SpaceX’s Launch Complex 40 hangar, he announced that NASA had given its blessing for the company to begin commercial deliveries of cargo to the International Space Station as soon as October, following a successful demonstration flight in May.
 
The Falcon 9 or United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V, which was scheduled to launch a pair of NASA satellites this morning from a neighboring pad, could by 2017 be launching astronauts to the space station under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.
 
And renovation is expected to begin next week on a former shuttle hangar to accommodate assembly and flights of The Boeing Co.’s commercial crew capsule, work that could eventually employ more than 500.
 
Bolden said the addition of XCOR would offer people who have never had access to space a chance to get there.
 
“Up until now, Kennedy and Cape Canaveral have been known for launching rockets that carry satellites and NASA people,” he said. “We want the Space Coast to be known as the place where anybody who wants to launch in America — a person — comes here.”
 
XCOR, founded in 1999, is designing and testing the prototype Lynx Mark I, a 30-foot-long, winged space plane that will be able to rocket up to 200,000 feet.
 
Starting in mid- to late-2014, it could begin test flight operations at KSC and possibly Jacksonville’s Cecil Field spaceport.
 
An upgraded Lynx Mark II, capable of flying to 350,000 feet and providing about 5 minutes in microgravity, would follow within a year to fly space tourists, researchers or science experiments. Another planned upgrade could allow deployment of small satellites.
 
Andrew Nelson, XCOR’s chief operating officer, said all Lynx’s capabilities would encourage clusters of microgravity researchers and space technology developers to grow around the spacecraft, attracting more jobs.
 
“So it’s not just XCOR that we’re bringing,” he said. “Hopefully, it’s a whole lot of our friends as well.”
 
XCOR Selects Central Florida For Expansion
 
Mark Carreau - Aviation Week
 
XCOR Aerospace, the suborbital commercial spaceflight company founded in Mojave, Calif., announced a second easterly expansion on Aug. 23, outlining plans for flight operations as well as manufacturing and assembly facilities for its winged, two-seat Lynx Mark II reusable launch vehicle in Central Florida.
 
The plan calls for up to four flights of the Lynx spacecraft each day from the Shuttle Landing Facility (SLF) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center for suborbital researchers and tourists within two years, and an adjacent assembly facility for the production of two to three of the vehicles annually.
 
Some details have yet to be worked out, including formal agreements with NASA for use of the SLF, the 15,000-ft.-long coastal runway once used by returning space shuttle crews. Market demand for the Lynx, which is expected to begin flight tests in Mojave by early 2013, has not been firmly established.
 
“We think it will be a wonderful place to operate from, historically, as well as the fact you have all the centers of excellence for research here at KSC,” Jeff Greason, XCOR’s president and co-founder, told an Aug. 23 teleconference. Greason was referencing NASA and the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space, a nonprofit recently established by the space agency to foster research activities in the National Lab segments of the International Space Station.
 
“You also have 30 million tourists a year that come to Central Florida,” Greason says. “So it will be a great opportunity for us in both sectors of the suborbital business.”
 
In early July, the 13-year-old XCOR announced plans to establish its Commercial Space Research and Development Center Headquarters at the Midland International Airport in West Texas. The R&D center will be staffed by the transfer of existing XCOR personnel in Mojave and the hiring of about 100 local employees.
 
As was the case in Texas, state and local incentives were a factor in XCOR’s Florida plans. Space Florida, a state-sponsored economic development agency, is providing $3 million in incentives for XCOR’s latest initiative, which is expected to generate more than 150 Central Florida jobs by 2018.
 
The Cecil Field Spaceport in Jacksonville, Fla., which has FAA spaceport certification, and possibly other sites in Florida will augment or stand in for Kennedy’s SLF for flight operations if NASA finds other uses for the former shuttle runway, says Andrew Nelson, XCOR’s chief operating officer. NASA is currently evaluating proposals for future operations of the shuttle runway.
 
Both Greason and Nelson say the company’s expansions have long been in the works. The strategy calls for XCOR to serve scientific researchers as well as tourists with flight operations based in Mojave and Kennedy and eventually other global locations. Midland will serve as XCOR’s executive headquarters and flight test center.
 
“We’ve been planning to establish a manufacturing site starting with the third [vehicle] tail number as long as there has been a company,” Greason says. “We’ve been planning for years to locate our long-term R&D center at a place other than California for various business climate reasons, though I love Mojave as an operations location.”
 
“We want a manufacturing site geographically separate from our research and development people,” Nelson says. “You don’t want the real creative folks who like to change things every five minutes anywhere near the people whose only job in life is to make sure things are exactly the same every time. The fact the workforce here at KSC is focused to make sure everything is exactly the same every single time they launch something is what we want.”
 
Spaceship builder setting up shop in Florida
 
Irene Klotz - Reuters
 
XCOR Aerospace, one of a handful of U.S. firms developing suborbital spaceships, plans to build its vehicles and fly tourists, researchers and commercial payloads from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, officials announced on Thursday.
 
The privately owned firm, currently based in Mojave, California, is developing a two-seat suborbital space plane called Lynx that is expected to debut by early 2013.
 
The company expects to fly four times daily, at a cost of $95,000 per person. The Lynx flights are similar to rides being offered aboard SpaceShipTwo, a six-passenger, two-pilot vehicle owned by Virgin Galactic, a U.S. offshoot of Richard Branson's London-based Virgin Group.
 
Virgin Galactic, which is selling rides for $200,000 per person, plans to fly from a new spaceport outside Las Cruces, New Mexico. Its first vehicle is undergoing testing in Mojave by manufacturer Scaled Composites, a subsidiary of Northrop Grumman.
 
Both spacecraft take off horizontally --- Lynx by its own engines and SpaceShipTwo from beneath a carrier aircraft -- then rocket themselves about 63 miles above the planet's surface before plunging back through the atmosphere.
 
The thrill ride gives fliers a few minutes to float in microgravity and a view of the Earth set against the blackness of space.
 
XCOR intends to fly Lynx from California, as well as Florida and several other sites around the world, primarily in partnership with companies and space agencies, similar to how airline manufacturers lease planes and pilots under so-called "wet lease" agreements.
 
NASA shuttle facility
 
XCOR evaluated several sites before settling on Florida. It was wooed in part by more than $4 million in state and local economic incentives and a skilled technical workforce idled by the end of NASA's space shuttle program last year.
 
The proposed site, to be located at the Shuttle Landing Facility, would include a hangar, flight operations center, manufacturing and assembly plants and a center to support space flight participants.
 
XCOR said it hopes to open its KSC site in October 2014. The company expects to employ about 150 engineers and technicians by the end of 2018, said chief operating officer Andrew Nelson.
 
Commercial suborbital spaceflights are expected to bring in between $600 million and $1.6 billion in revenue within a decade after the start of operations, a recent study commissioned by the U.S. government and the state of Florida shows.
 
"When you have a vehicle like Lynx flying you can expect to see technology clusters around it," Nelson told community leaders and guests at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex on Thursday, where the Florida expansion was announced.
 
In the wake of the shuttles' retirement, NASA is in the midst of transforming its Florida launch site to handle a variety of government, commercial and military space and aviation projects.
 
XCOR previously announced it was moving its corporate headquarters and setting up a research and development center in Midland, Texas, lured in part by $10 million in financial incentives.
 
XCOR's agreement with NASA to use the Shuttle Landing Facility is still pending, said Frank DiBello, president of Space Florida, a state-backed economic agency that is brokering the deal and contributing $3 million to the project.
 
Suborbital company Xcor announces Florida base of operations
 
Zach Rosenberg - FlightInternational.com
 
Suborbital spaceflight company Xcor has announced a manufacturing and operations facility in Florida for the Lynx Mk II, the second iteration of the company's suborbital vehicle.
 
The company hopes to begin Florida operations on 2014 as part of the transition from testing to revenue flights.
 
"Looking over the [Kennedy Space Center] Visitor Complex grounds and seeing the history of US human spaceflight and realizing that soon XCOR will be a part of the fabric of the Space Coast is very exciting to me personally and our company," says Jeff Greason, XCOR CEO. "When we started the company back in 1999, we could only have dreamt about the possibility of flying the person on the street or the citizen scientist to space from such an important place."
 
While the exact location is unspecified, likely sites for both manufacturing and test flights are NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) on Merritt Island, or Cecil Field, an FAA-certified spaceport in Jacksonville.
 
While KSC boasts long experience with human spaceflight - the announcement was made at KSC with NASA personnel present -- operations at Cecil Field would allow Xcor to avoid the burdens that come with flying from government facilities. Xcor's business model includes up to four flights per spacecraft, per day.
 
The Lynx Mk I, which Xcor is building with a 2013 first flight scheduled, will move to Florida in 2014 for "demonstration and pathfinder" flights, while the significantly more capable Mk II will be constructed and flown in Florida, as will other Xcor products "should market demand materialize and the emerging commercial space industry maintain its current momentum", says the company.
 
Xcor was founded in Mojave, California, but is currently moving headquarters to Midland, Texas.
 
Shuttle Endeavor arrival prompts tree cutting in Inglewood
 
KABC TV (Los Angeles)
 
Inglewood residents are upset that over 100 trees are being cut down to make room for the Space Shuttle Endeavour, which will arrive at Los Angeles International Airport in October.
 
Long-time Inglewood resident Sylvia Hill is outraged crews are cutting down the trees in her neighborhood, and she's not alone.
 
"It's really hard to watch something that's been growing for over 100 years being just decimated down to the root just for one day," she said.
 
That day is October 13, when the Shuttle Endeavour makes its way from LAX through the streets of Inglewood to its new home at the California Science Center. The exact route will follow Manchester Boulevard to Crenshaw Boulevard, then onto Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. But getting the massive five-sstories tall, 78-feet wide orbiter through city streets means 128 trees will have to come down in Inglewood.
 
"I just want an assurance from all parties involved that they will replant these trees in a timely manner," said Hill.
 
The city of Inglewood says it will replace the trees starting at the end of October.
 
"We are cutting down 128 trees, and we're glad that we will be replacing them at a two to one ratio," said Sabrina Barnes, the city's director of parks, recreations and library services.
 
The expense will be covered by the California Science Center. City leaders insist the project will benefit Inglewood in the long term and give residents the opportunity to watch history in the making.
 
"It's absolutely something to celebrate. We're going to be a part of history. This is a national stage, and we as Inglewood residents, staff, volunteers, etc., we get to say we are part of this effort," said Barnes.
 
Sunita Williams to walk in space on August 30
 
Bharat Yagnik - Times of India
 
Astronaut Sunita Williams who took off on July 14 for her second six-month-long space expedition from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan told her father, Dr Deepak Pandya that she can see earth from her space station and that it is like sitting in the balcony of a house and looking at the view outside! However, the astronaut has not been able to have a closer look at her birth country-India.
 
Pandya told TOI that Sunita calls him once every week and gives him a lowdown on her work and experiences in the space station. "Sunita said that her space station allows her to see the earth as if she is sitting in her balcony. The view is so close and clear. However, due to excessive clouds, she has not been able to have a closer look at India. She is hoping to catch a clear glimpse sometime soon", said Dr Pandya.
 
Dr Pandya used a colloquial term to express that Sunita was doing fine in the space. "Khadhe pidhe sukhi che", he said.
 
Dr Pandya said that Sunita is currently busy with carrying out different experiments which are part of her space mission and puts in 15-17 hours at work. "She is keeping extremely busy with her work. I had given her an Upanishad while she embarked on her mission. She told me that she has been able to read a few pages but there is very little time. They also have to sleep for a minimum number of mandatory hours."
 
While her other colleagues conducted the space walk on August 20, she will space walk on August 30. "I pray for her as it is a challenging mission where anything can go wrong any second. My prayers are with her", the father said.
 
Sunita Williams also celebrated Independence Day when she unfurled the Indian flag in her space station in the presence of her colleagues on the ambitious mission. "She was extremely proud and happy", Dr Pandya said.
 
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