There are times in journalism that with the best will in the world things don't quite turn out to be what you expected or were told
Over a year ago I reported that NASA had decided its Constellation programme's Lunar Lander would be called Artemis
NASA didn't deny it and I was unable to get any comment from the agency nor could I get an interview with any of the personnel in their Lander project office. Well, whether my very reliable source had got it right or not the new name is Altair
The other surprise this morning was that Charles Miller from Constellation Services International (CSI) got in touch and said that there is no Russian element to the Space Systems Loral (SSL), CSI proposal for NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) demonstration programme.
Speaking to me in October Miller explained that an S P Korolev Rocket and Space corporation Energia Progress vehicle would act as a spacetug and meet the CSI's cargo cannister in low Earth orbit and take it to the International Space Station. But now it turns out the big change with SSL's invovlement is that a satellite bus is to be used as the tug and push the cannister to ISS
Find infromation on Spacehab's COTS proposal here and its competitor for the $175 million space act agreement on offer, PlanetSpace, here
Other items of interest today, Andrews Space has announced its ISS cargo module design, Space Shuttle Atlantis' launch has been put back to 10 January and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency has posted an update to its lunar orbiter Kaguya/Selene mission