Monday, January 31, 2011

Posters for Hadfield, NASA for Rent, Academia Launches Rockets and Other Space News
Guy Laliberté at work
Here's a quick summary of recent Canadian and commercial space focused activities, stories, gossip, rumour and innuendo:
For rent. The Kennedy Space Center.
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    CaNoRock III launches from Andoya.
  • But academia, at least Canadian academia, does seem to also have a sense of what needs to be done. For example, the University of Alberta has just signed a 10-year program with the University of Oslo to send forty students yearly for training at the Andoya Rock Range in Norway under the Canadian Norwegian Student Exchange and Sounding Rocket (CaNoRock) program, according to the January 31st, 2011 Edmonton Journal article "Uof A, Norway partner in outer space project." The article quotes Professor Ian Mann, research chair in space physics at the University of Alberta as stating that the exchange students will be launching rockets to an altitude of 10 kilometres, measuring the earth’s gravitational pull and performing other tasks similar to those done when launching a commercial satellite. Mann claims the program will prepare students for lucrative careers in space technology.
ESA ATV cutaway.
  • Meanwhile, back in that lucrative commercial world, "Singapore could become launch pad to space" according to the January 31st, 2011 article in the Singapore Straits Times. The article quotes sources in the aerospace firm European Aeronautic Defence and Space (EADS), as stating that the firm is preparing "to launch the world's first commercial space flight this year." Unfortunately, we'll have to wait until Monday, February 7th for the full story from the Strait Times (which printed only a teaser) although it is expected to be related to the planned launch of the latest European Space Agency (ESA) Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) to resupply the ISS on February 15th. EADS, which acts as prime contractor for the ATV, has made no secret of its plans for further development of the ATV into both a cargo return and human launch versions. It is also likely that the article will focus on the further development of an EADS suborbital space plane using Singapore subcontractors as described in the January 27th, 2011 Aviation Week article titled "EADS Astrium to Develop Spaceplane."
Artists impression of the Clyde Space 3U cubesat.

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