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Pentagon sees doubled cost for rocket launch program

May 23, 2013 23:17
By Andrea Shalal-Esa WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon on Thursday told Congress that a recent restructuring of its heavy rocket launch program to add 60 more launches and extend the schedule for a decade would more than double the program's projected cost to $70.7 billion.

N Korea-rocket launcher

Yonhap News AgencyMay 22, 2013 23:16
By Kim Eun-jung SEOUL, May 23 (Yonhap) -- North Korea may be able to deploy its new multiple rocket launchers within this year after test-firing short range missiles over the weekend, a senior Seoul official said Thursday. North Korea fired six rounds of short-range rockets from its east coast for three days from Saturday, putting a damper on hopes for inter-Korean talks to ease tensions after months of bellicose rhetoric from Pyongyang.

Japan to develop new large successor rocket to H2-A

Kyodo News InternationalMay 17, 2013 06:45
Japan plans to develop a large successor rocket to its current mainstay H-2A launch vehicle, government sources said Friday. The government's seven-member advisory body on space policy, called the Committee on National Space Policy, plans to make an official decision on the development of the new rocket by the end of this month, the sources said. If the plan is adopted, it would be the first document of a mainstay rocket since 1996 when Japan started development of the H-2A rocket.

NASA's Kepler planet hunter appears broken

Agence France-PresseMay 15, 2013 17:15
NASA's planet-hunting Kepler spacecraft appears to be hobbled by a faulty wheel and may be near the end of its four-year mission, space agency scientists said Wednesday. Kepler, a $600 million mission, was launched in 2009 on a search for other planets. So far, it has found 2,700 candidates, including a handful that may be habitable worlds, not too hot and not too cold. The problem is a reaction wheel that keeps the spacecraft pointed but has stopped working, said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA.

Space tourism won't hurt environment

Agence France-PresseMay 13, 2013 11:49
British billionaire Richard Branson said Monday that rocket-powered space tourism flights by his firm Virgin Galactic would have only a minor impact on climate change. More than 500 people have already reserved seats -- and paid deposits on the $200,000 ticket price -- for a minutes-long suborbital flight on the SpaceShipTwo (SS2) set to begin by the end of this year.

Space tourism won't hurt environment: Branson

Agence France-PresseMay 13, 2013 08:01
British billionaire Richard Branson said Monday that rocket-powered space tourism flights by his firm Virgin Galactic would have only a minor impact on climate change. More than 500 people have already reserved seats -- and paid deposits on the $200,000 ticket price -- for a minutes-long suborbital flight on the SpaceShipTwo (SS2) set to begin by the end of this year.

Space tourism won't hurt environment: Branson

Agence France-PresseMay 13, 2013 07:46
British billionaire Richard Branson said Monday that rocket-powered space tourism flights by his firm Virgin Galactic would have only a minor impact on climate change. More than 500 people have already reserved seats -- and paid deposits on the $200,000 ticket price -- for a minutes-long suborbital flight on the SpaceShipTwo (SS2) set to begin by the end of this year.

Pentagon cites new drive to develop anti-satellite weapons

May 11, 2013 17:30
By Andrea Shalal-Esa WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter on Tuesday said the U.S. military had launched a "long overdue" effort to safeguard U.S. national security satellites and develop ways to counter the space capabilities of potential adversaries.

Every dollar must go to bridge gaps to Mars

Agence France-PresseMay 6, 2013 11:15
Setting foot on Mars by the 2030s is human destiny and a US priority, and every dollar available must be spent on bridging gaps in knowledge on how to get there, NASA's chief said Monday. Addressing a conference of space experts at George Washington University, NASA administrator Charles Bolden said that despite hard economic times the United States is committed to breaking new boundaries in space exploration.

Virgin Galactic tourist spaceship breaks sound barrier

Agence France-PresseApril 29, 2013 20:45
Virgin Galactic's passenger spaceplane, which is designed to take tourists to the edge of space, flew its first rocket-powered test flight Monday, breaking the sound barrier at high altitude. SpaceShipTwo ignited its engine after being released by WhiteKnightTwo, a plane that carried it to 47,000 feet (14,000 meters) above California's Mojave desert, British billionaire Richard Branson's firm said in a statement. The rocket burned, as planned, for 16 seconds -- enough to propel the spacecraft to 55,000 feet at 1.2 times the speed of sound, the statement said.
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