Last news bites of 2007

I'm on vacation as of 20 December but check back with Hyperbola on a daily basis as there will be blog postings popping up on autopilot during the course of this holiday season

But in the mean time wonder over what will happen with NASA's planned Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) demonstration programme's phase two International Space Station resupply contract in 2008 when it could be law that the agency has to first sort out its ongoing dispute with Rocketplane Kistler before giving away its cash again

However COTS hopeful Spacehab has announced the successful mid-air recovery capture test for its ARCTUS transportation system

Space.com ponders NASA's water or land conundrum for its Orion crew module

Over at NASASpaceflight it's the Space Shuttle programme's fun and games with its external tank that been the focus of attention and Aviation Week is no less concerned

Russia's famous S P Korolev Rocket and Space corporation Energia provides photos of its preparations for the next Progress cargo vehicle launch

The European Space Agency is also publicising its work towards the launch of its first Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV, named Jules Verne, from Kourou, French Guiana

Then on the slightly less serious side it seems reality television and space tourism are merging

And finally, it wouldn't be a Hyperbola blog post without some links care of Hobbyspace.com