January 2008 Archives

Today NASA's International Space Station commercial resupply website went online. We now know what the contract award date is, for what is also known as Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) phase two, and it is 28 November 2008

SpaceX's Falcon 9 launches, its maiden flight and the COTS demo one flight, are both in "Q4", according to its website

On the website you can find the procurement synposis, the schedule, Bill Gerstenmaier's presentation from the 21 September 2007 industry day, and here you can submit anonymous questions

But perhaps the key immediate dates are, the draft RFP's publication on 28 February and a pre-proposal conference and one-on-one meetings scheduled for 17 March and 18 March, respectively

So next month we finally get to find out who will inherit the $175 million (or some of it) left behind by Rocketplane-Kistler's departure last year from NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) demonstration programme

According to Hobbyspace.com Space News has already named the finalists for NASA's exploration systems mission directorate's (ESMD) "prize" and they are Spacehab, Andrews Space, Orbital Sciences and PlanetSpace

Before all that happened I spoke to Planetspace and Spacehab, both of whom are working with Lockheed Martin

Find Chair Force Engineer's view on the PlanetSpace/Lockheed/Alliant Techsystems (ATK) proposal here

My personal view is that at this stage, whomever wins the ESMD phase one SAA, what really matters is who wins NASA's space operations mission directorate's (SOMD) International Space Station resupply contract that it will place this year

International Space Station resupply is needed from late 2010, depending on when Shuttle is retired. Any one can apply for the SOMD contract so really this ESMD phase one SAA is a red herring

Yes, winning the SAA and successfully completing its milestones to receive NASA funding will not count against you but the SOMD contract is to be placed THIS year. If the contract is placed before Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX)'s fourth quarter launch of its Falcon 9 rocket none of the likely bidders will have demonstrated any of the proposed COTS launch systems

Because of the use of proven Lockheed Martin and ATK rocket systems for Spacehab's and Planetspace's proposals I think these bids, even if they don't win the ESMD SAA, have just as good a chance at winig the SOMD contract

It won't be easy. It is going to be extremely difficult for anyone to beat SpaceX and win SOMD's ISS resupply contract because much of the hardware used for Falcon 9 has already been test flown with Falcon 1, and the Merlin 1C will fly this April, if all goes according to plan, and SpaceX's COTS milestones have all been successfull as far as we know and they have included COTS programme flight reviews

If anyone thinks I'm wrong, don't hold back

I think the likely scenario for any possible competitor to win the SOMD contract, when they haven't already won an ESMD SAA, is that SpaceX would have to fail in its SOMD resupply contract demonstration mission several times before another contractor was considered

So who will win and what space policy is being promised to the Floridians? Do they care?

Unsurprisingly Jeff Foust's Space Politics website usurps all in this area and so expect most of this, unless stated, to be links to his handywork

So go here for the latest on ex-New York mayor Rudy Giuliani's space related comments including his budget demands and here for Republican nominee pack leader John McCain's view

Promises, promises, but I should be, technical gremlins aside, be blogging live from the launch of STS-122 next week

The European Space Agency, whose Colombus laboratory module is being launched by STS-122, is highlighting NASA TV's mission briefing details for the 30 January

Watch this video, care of businesswire.com, of the recent test firing of two Space Exploration Technolgoies' (SpaceX) Merlin 1C engines, integrated into the Falcon 9 first-stage, at the SpaceX test facility in McGregor, Texas

Powered by liquid oxygen and rocket grade kerosene, the pair of Merlins produced over 805kN (181,000lb)-thrust during the test. The next test, using three engines on the first-stage, is scheduled for February. A total of nine Merlin 1C engines will power the Falcon 9 rocket's first-stage

40% less than the maximum payload capability of White Knight II at 50,000ft

But what is that, you may well ask, and how on Earth did you find that out?

On the afternoon of 23 January Virgin Galactic president Will Whitehorn said to me in a one-on-one interview , "White Knight II has the [payload] capacity for 40% more weight than SpaceShipTwo is."

I think WK2's payload capacity is 13,600kg (30,000lb)

So that makes SS2's mass, drum roll please, 9,740kg or 21,428lb

So why am I so ready to pick 30,000lb as the WK2 capacity?

So come Wednesday morning we had all staggered into The Power House at New York's American Museum of Natural History for the press conference

Behind us scribblers were the tv cameras, it looked like the coverage of the event would be global

The end of the press conference descended into chaotic thronging crowds as a large media scrum formed around Sir Richard Branson and Burt Rutan

Here is my hand held video of the White Knight II (WK2) and SpaceShipTwo (SS2) press conference held yesterday, 23 January, with presentations by Scaled Composites' president Burt Rutan and his WK2 and SS2s engineers. Thanks for being patient I know I said I'd have it posted yesterday:

Part one

Burt Rutan said that White Knight II (WK2) could launch a two-stage rocket and put a single person into low Earth orbit, at the end of the Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo (SS2) and WK2 press conference

Flight learnt that WK2 has a 13,600kg (30,000lb) payload capacity sometime back

And in August 2004 Rutan told the Royal Aeronautical Society that he could envisage an orbital transportation system

As a very crude rule of thumb a payload is about 10% of a launch vehicle and its payloads combined gross lift off weight

So with a 13,600kg payload, a 1,300kg capsule could be launched, in theory. If you assume the passenger has an "average" mass of 90kg then there is 1,20kg left for the spaceship's systems. Not much

Despite this fantastic claim Burt said that he did not have a customer for his one-person LEO spaceship and that Scaled only built vehicles for customers

Fishing for a contract, Burt?

This blog contains all the images released by Virgin Galactic for the unveiling of the SpaceShipTwo and its carrier aircraft White Knight II

I don't know why but my blog post that contained ALL the pictures we had been provided with would not publish on Hyperbola - but that should be resolved soon

In the mean time you can find some of the pictures here at our community area airspace.aero

The press conference has just finished

Due to technical difficulties I have been unable to blog live but a video recording of the key part of the press conference will be available later today

However I can report that;

Burt Rutan, looking frail after a recent illness, said that they still did not know what caused the accident at Scaled's facility last July but they were working with Californian authorities and aerospace consultants to find out. Once a cause was found that would be published.

Talking about the twin-fuselage White Knight II (WKII) the aircraft, when not carrying SpaceShipTwo, can make a 6g descending wind up turn and that can be used to give passengers g training prior to their flights. Using parabolic flight the WKII will also simulate weightlessness for a few seconds

Burt Rutan said that on reentry passengers will experience 4g and above for 20s and that the build up from microgravity to 1g will be 20-25s.

More soon, including that video

I can't give any specific details that are included in the embargoed information we were given for today's Virgin Galactic press conference but I can say that if you like the 1960s era NASA/USAF X-20 Dyna-Soar vehicle then you will like SpaceShipTwo

Trouble was it was slow going out on the apron yesterday

but I never expected to encounter Virgin Galactic adverts on my Virgin Atlantic upper class entertainment system

And what is it with New York hotels and dark corridors?

After a busy start to the week, following last Friday spent with the European Space Agency in Friedrichsafen, Germany, I am on the road again today making my way across the Atlantic for the Virgin Galactic unveiling of the designs for SpaceShipTwo and its carrier aircraft White Knight II

If all goes well expect to see me blog live from the press conference at the American Museum of Natural History from 1000h local time Wednesday. Will the designs look anything like this I ask myself?

I was in Friedrichsahfen, Germany, on Friday visiting EADS Astrium for a contract signing event for the European Space Agency/Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency BepiColombo mission's spacecraft. From our press room window you could see Lake Constance

Expect a story on BepiColombo soon

But in the meantime watch this animation of BepiColombo

Space Politic's has a couple of interesting links to pro-space exploration activism and the increasing number of exploration related questions cropping up in the presidential debates but this report of Republican presidential candidate wannabe Rudy Guiliani having a space policy roundtable - and this guy sees Florida as the real start of his election - suggests that there are 5,000 space programme workers and their families who are going to be wanting Rudy to opt for a delayed end to Shuttle

NASA's Learning Technologies Project Office has started evaluating the development of a NASA-based massively multiplayer online educational game (MMO).

Following on from NASASpaceflight.com's report that NASA has decided to keep its orbiter Atlantis going till 2010 I emailed the agency to ask them about this. And the answer is...

(Accompanied by recovery vehicles, the Space Shuttle Atlantis is towed up the taxiway at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center following its 1249h local time landing on 22 June 2007 at Edwards Air Force Base in California, following its mission STS-117)

January 2007 saw the Chinese shoot down one of their own satellites at an altitude of about 800km (496miles) resulting in an international outcry and a lot of debris

We hear that the Russians and the Americans both tested ASAT missiles in the 1980s but knocked out satellites at much lower altitudes avoiding the space debris problem China has now given the world

So have the Great Powers, in their inifinite wisdom, abandoned ASAT technology? No, silly!

In my humble opinion this US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency programme called Spacecraft for the Universal Modification of Orbits (SUMO) is exactly that

As if the name is not enough, its website blurb says, "SUMO can remove and install Orbital Replacement Units (ORUs) and replenish propellant and pressurant. For spacecraft with compatible interfaces, SUMO can perform station-keeping and attitude control and modify the spacecraft's orbit [emphasis added]."

But somehow I can imagine that this SUMO spacecraft could "modify" an orbit even if the target satellite does not have a "compatible interface"

Here you can watch a video of it doing its thing

NASASpaceflight.com is reporting that NASA has already decided to keep its orbiter Atlantis going until 2010 and the same website has some detail on changes to Atlantis' external tank to solve the engine cut off sensor problems

NASA has now released its Altair Lunar Lander development study solicitation - more on that from me later this week, and this announcement by the space agency adds some contract value figures to the study

Talking of the Constellation programme NASAWatch is not too happy about the amount of time NASA is taking in responding to his questions, which appear to be designed to confirm things the website already knows about Ares I crew launch vehicle and its "issues" for want of a better word

Congressional efforts to get NASA more money to spend on Constellation are underway according to Space Politics

Meanwhile Shana Dale talks NASA budget work, care of spaceref.com

Hobbyspace.com reports more on Barak Obama's space policy and has links to a extremely inefficient mass idea for launchers

And finally, some good news, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center has been testing its Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter

I'm looking forward to LRO because I understand its camera will be so good the Apollo descent stages will be visible

The Spaceports blog talks Virginia state's space law with efforts underway to give space companies immunity from taxation

Find here interviews with the two people I think are really leading the field in terms of what could become a real commercial space industry, Bob Bigelow and Elon Musk

While over at the industry's regulator, the FAA, George Nield has become the acting office of commercial space transportation (AST) chief after Patricia Grace Smith's departure

And if you're interested, here Rand Simberg blogs on a debate between Hobbyspace.com's Clark Lindsey and himself

It was a packed room yesterday at the annual "Meet the director-general" press conference that ESA has every year

The event is a good chance to get a full picture of the agency's goals and hear about new programes such as the European Data Relay Satellite Infrastructure, which I had never heard of and apparently could have a role relating to defence. More details on that once I get an interview with its programme manager

But probably of more interest to you all are Jean-Jacque's comments about Crew Space Transportation System (CSTS); also called Advanced Crew Transportation System at one point

Charles Miller has just sent me the following;

Space Systems/Loral (SS/L) and CSI have released additional information about our proposal for NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program. You can find that information at the following sites.

SS/L published an article in "The Space Review"

A week ago SS/L answered questions from the members of NASAspaceflight.com

You can listen to a two-hour episode of "The Space Show" from last Friday, where Andy Turner of SS/L and I answer questions

Other Information

You can find the SS/L COTS Fact Sheet, a recent "Space News" article, and other information here

Onwards and upwards,

- Charles

Charles E. Miller
Chief Executive Officer
Constellation Services International, Inc.

According to this report about a new documentary the scientific community has woken up to the need to develop a defence against civilisation destroying asteroids. But it's not as if nothing is already being done, the European Space Agency has had such a project for some time

Spacefellowship.com has an interview with the UK spaceplane project Spacefleet, which I wrote about a while back. Sadly Spacefleet is about as likely to get funding as a killer asteroid is to crash into the Earth tomorrow

Talking of coming down to reality with a crash, this link claims to show Democratic party candidate Barak Obama's "space plan" but I can't find it on his campaign website. It doesn't have any surprises anyway, it's the Bush policy without the Moon exploration and some waffle about education

And finally, MSNBC has a video report about aviation and space in 2008

While there is still no official press release from NASA about the no earlier than launch date for the agency's Space Shuttle Atlantis NASASpaceflight.com has a few more details about the external tank (ET) testing and details about the status of orbiter Endeavour as it waits for the launch pad to become free for its STS-123 mission. I bet NASA wishes it hadn't transferred pad 39B to its Constellation programme now

Here you can find the 8 January Internatonal Space Station status report that includes a whole series of dates for flights to ISS later this year but now none of it is correct

While NASA frets about when Atlantis will go and its ET troubles the Russians are apparently planning to use the Energia Progress vehicle M-61 that undocked at the station on 22 December to conduct plasma environment experiments before it reenters the atmosphere and burns up on 22 January

And talking of Russians, my colleagues found this video about the alleged ISS cosmonaut vodka drinking live on Ukrainian television, which you may have seen elsewhere on the internet

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency has announced that it has carried out observations using two of Kaguya lunar orbiter's onboard sensors, the laser altimeter and sounder mode of the lunar radar sounder

However JAXA has not been so lucky with an Earth observation satellite

While in Russia Khrunichev Space Center prepares one of its Proton rockets for a satellite launch

As Proton user, International Launch Services, celebrates its first year separate from Lockheed Martin Eutelsat places an oder for a new spacecraft from EADS Astrium

And, care of Hobbyspace.com, Popular Mechanics has this article about an allegedly radical new solar energy technology. Reading it I am highly dubious it works. I agree with some of the comments below the article. Hydrogen is not an easy element to work with. It has to be cryogenically stored for many applications, and I would imagine for a heat transfer device like the one described, that is also necessary. Many materials are very porous where hydrogen is concerned so the idea of using such a gas in a "closed system" sounds bogus

Reuters has reported in the last hour that NASA's Space Shuttle Atlantis is to launch on 7 February and not 24 January

I can only find this NASASpaceflight.com report identifying the 7th and there is nothing on NASA's website

It is an interesting choice of date becauswe it is the same day as Energia's Progress M-63 was supposed to go up. My source expected maybe a 24h advance from the Russians but NASA must have done a good job of persuading the Russians so the two-days grace between launches normally preferred is achieved. NASASpaceflght.com reports that the Russians will try for the 5th

I had also heard that the launch window time on the 24 January was about 0200h local time. So I'm rather glad of the slip to 7 Feb as I am expecting to be blogging live from Kennedy Space Center come Atlantis' launch day

I am hearing that in the next few days NASA will know if it needs to do another week of tanking tests to solve its external tank engine cut off sensor problems and that would mean no 24 January launch

While the 2 February has been bandied around as a Shutttle launch date this is not possible because the Russian Federal Space Agency Energia Progress M-63 is flying to the International Space Station on the 7th and NASA's Space Shuttle can't be docked to ISS when a Progress docks.

The docking impact would, so I am told, damage the Shuttle docking system. The same rule will apply with ESA's Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV). No ATV docking when Shuttle is docked

To get an 8 February Shuttle launch the Russians could be persuaded to launch the Progress early, say the 5th, to ensure there was sufficient time between its 6 Feb ISS arrival and the Shuttle Atlantis' 10 Feb arrival for its 11-day STS-122 mission to attach ESA's Columbus laboratory module

Once Atlantis had left on 16 February for an 18 Feb landing ESA's ATV would be clear for its 22nd launch. In the meantime here are two pictures, care of Arianespace, of the ATV Jules Verne undergoing its fuelling operation at the Kourou, French Guinea spaceport

According to this 2007 article at Salon.com the Floridian primary is on 29 January and I am beginning to wonder if the prospect of up to 5,000 job losses in the sunshine state, due to the Space Shuttle programme's retirement, will have an impact on the presidential race

Could we see any or all of the candidates, fighting it out for their party's nomination to be their presidential candidate, answer in the affirmative to questions during the pre-vote caucus that Shuttle's demise should be delayed?

Being a British engineer cum journalist I am straying off my home patch, or comfort zone if you will, when talking about the US presidential elections and entering Jeff Foust's domain but covering the very political US space programme it can't be helped

The Salon.com article says, "Florida potentially becomes Hillary Clinton's firewall state -- the primary in which she could launch a comeback even if she endures a string of early defeats."

So finally NASA has got its money for fiscal year 2008, despite earlier threats of president Bush vetoing the appropriations bill that the space agency's budget was a part of

The agency's exploration directorate (ESMD) chief Richard Gilbrech told me in a media telecon last year that they would have to re-evaluate the March 2015 first flight for Ares I crew launch vehicle (CLV) and Orion crew exploration vehicle (CEV) if the budget wasn't approved by around about now. I would imagine there was a big sigh of relief at NASA HQ when that bill got signed

But what it means for NASA's programmes when they have had far less to spend for the first three months of FY2008 I just don't know. I am not even sure if NASA gets its monies straight away or if it gets the cash once it has submitted its operational plan to the US Congress (for which the agency has 60-days to do) or that plan is approved; if that is necessary? Something else for me to research

Now they have to battle it out for the FY2009 request. We already know that NASA wants an extra $350 million for Ares/Orion for FY2009 following Gilbrech's Congressional testimony last November. What I don't understand about the ESMD crowd is why, when they suffered cuts in funding, they just don't blame that for the milestone slips we are seeing in the Constellation programme?

Selenian boondocks has gone for a mammoth posting about reusable orbital transportation stuff while this press release is all about a new financing network called Space Angels; sounds like a bad 1970s Glen A. Larson television show to me

Talking of cash and dreams Spacedev has announced that it has met another of its milestones for its unfunded space act agreement with NASA

But here is one company that has all the cash, but has to face harsh reality, and that is Lockheed Martin Space Systems and its recently unveiled Exploration Development Laboratory; that the AIAA/Houston newsletter has profiled in its latest edition (thanks to Hobbyspace.com for flagging this one up) showing the Orion crew exploration vehicle (CEV) mock ups and other work

But I did get to dream a little when I had the chance to play with the Honeywell CEV flight sim at the 2nd NASA/AIAA space exploration conference held in Houston, Texas December 2006

I (in the picture above) bumped the space station first time round, just missing the docking port, managed to slam that puppy right into the ISS second time, but had a great docking on go number three - and thanks to the Honeywell guy on the stand who took the picture for me

Care of Hobbyspace.com, The Washington Post is worrying about proposed Shuttle schedules with six launches allegedly planned for this year

With 14 flights left (including Atlantis/STS-122 that NASASpaceflight.com is expecting a 2 February launch for), NASA could do five this year, five next year and four in 2010, with a February, April, June, August timetable, to retire the fleet within fiscal year 2010. Then again that could become 15 flights if Congress gets its way with its demands for a flight to International Space Station for the Alpha Magnetic Spectrograph (AMS)

Personally I think we are seeing a drift into 2011, and with 5,000 jobs potentially going with Shuttle's retirement in 2010 I wonder how significant that figure will become as we get closer to the November 2008 date of the US presidential election. Expect renewed candidates' commitments to a programme that employs a lot of voters in a state that has been crucial in past elections, me thinks

And then there is something else that has little hope of getting to ISS, Shuttle or not Shuttle. The British Interplanetary Society's latest issue of its Spaceflight magazine has a proposal for a UK built habitation module that would be attached to ISS' Node 3. This UK blog has some issues with the idea.

While I would recommend the latest issue of Spaceflight because there is an article about the Chinese manned space programme, by, well, me, of course! Or you can read my blogs about my China trip

Aviation Week is reporting Chang'e-1 is going to get very cold and without sunlight for a long 5.5h soon, suggesting the Chinese might not see much more of their lunar explorer

While the South Koreans have apparently already lost contact with their first satellite

But for the Israeli's there is hope that their synthetic aperture radar satellite will be flying soon

According to this the Russians are aiming for 13, unlucky for some, satellite launches in 2008

And finally, here is a report about Sea Launch's next launch, which the company's website confirms is its resumption of operations since the disastrous on-pad Yuzhnoye Zenit-3SL explosion it suffered back in January last year

Space Politics blog had a series of budget reviews (scroll down, they will be in reverse order) and also pondered whether there was change in the air regarding spaceflight and US politics - after Obama and Huckabee's Iowa wins it might be right to some extent - and here Space Politics links to Space Review and Space.com’s articles on presidential candidates' space policies

For those of you who lost all internet access and perhaps even consciousness due to extreme rich food and alcoholic excess over the last few weeks, the following series of blog posts highlight what Hyperbola's official view is of what were the best stories over the holdiay season, starting with Exploration

According to Hobbyspace.com Space News has reported that Rocketplane Kistler (RpK) will not sue NASA if the US government's General Accounting Office review of COTS goes against RpK's claims of unfair agreement termination

Meanwhile over at NASA's sole COTS participant, Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), the website might need to be updated as SpaceX's launch manifest shows a Q1 launch for the next Falcon rocket (that is using the Merlin 1C engine for its maiden flight) and the Falcon 1 launch for the Malayasian government's Razaksat imaging satellite, while the FAA says Q2 for the first of 2008's Falcon 1 launches and Q3 for the Razaksat

Hobbyspace.com had a series of posts about:

Mojave air and space port resolving its licence difficulties after energetic materials storage and handling dispute with the FAA

Spaceport Kiruna developments and methane thruster work

Rocketplane XP info

a link to an Holman Jenkins op-ed in the Wall Street Journal in which he promotes private spaceflight development

Spaceport America funding

Wallop island spaceport progress

And an update on the European space tourism programme called Project Enterprise

NASAWatch.com picked up on the report that Russia's head of its space agency said tourist flights to the space station were unlikely from 2009 - an ESA official told me this was the case back in early December and I am now waiting for Space Adventures to clarify its position on this

Personal Spaceflight picked up on the same newswire article and also reported that an almost forgotten commercial spaceflight company had reappeared while famous UK insurer Lloyd's of London had nice thiongs to say about commercial human spaceflight

The Spaceports blogs looks at the prospects for 2008

Spacedev announced that it had tethered/guide wires test of its hybrid rocket powered “lander” and the video for that can be found here

And finally, Two Guys and a Van (TGV) unveiled new info about its rocket engine

NASASpaceflight.com had a great story about a re-entry experiment that will be conducted during STS-126

And the same website had some interesting detail about the work to sort out the External Tank (ET)-125's engine cut off sensors

And at one point NASAWatch.com thought this contract meant Shuttle operations were drifting post 2010 - but NASA said no

Selenian Boondocks went for some real blue sky thinking, or is that black sky, with its thoughts on a lunar ejection seat

The Space Fellowship reports on Interobital's new manned capsule work

Hobbyspace.com reviews Orbital Recovery's situation and its name change and highlights another Google Lunar X Prize competition entrant

Rand Simberg sort of comments on Bob Zubrin’s new book and MSNBC reports on NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft's flyby

Hobbyspace.com and Personal Spaceflight provided year-end reviews and links to year-end reviews about all sorts and space tourism

While China's state owned media organisations make more hopefull statements about the planned October 2008 third manned space mission for that country, which may entail a spacewalk, others in the US media are pointing to claims of alleged secret Chinese military spaceplane work; devilishly fiendish that, as the US prepares to retire its Space Shuttle

Talking of Shuttle, Aviation Week is reporting on today’s expected Shuttle Atlantis/STS-122 launch date change meeting and press conference - at about 10pm UK (GMT/Zulu) time

Meanwhile NASASpaceflight.com expects an early February launch date, which surely must mean STS-122 is replacing Endeavour's STS-123 mission carrying the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency Kibo laboratory module to the International Space Station

While the US space agency lumbers on with its 27-year old Shuttle system another part of the organisation is developing the new Moon machines, and here you can find the synopsis for NASA's Altair Lunar Lander industry-led design review solicitation, while here you can find some old lunar lander designs

This solicitation suggests that the Altair Lunar Lander project office's plans, revealed by Flight back in July 2007, are on track

This plan envisaged an Altair design by mid-February this year that would then have industry input by or during this April.

The Lander is someway off and will have its own technical challenges to overcome but for now NASA has announced it would use Gloyer-Taylor Laboratories’ Universal Combustion Device Stability (UCDS) process to assess the thrust oscillation issues it has with its Ares I crew launch vehicle. UCDS is a modeling and analysis process that provides a physical insight into complex combustion devices’ stability characteristics

Over in Russia there is apparently more success with new launchers with Khrunichev Space Center's Angara rocket's first-stage RD-191 engine having a successful test

On Friday 14 December in London Flight got to talk to NASA administrator Michael Griffin on camera about a wide range of subjects

Unfortunately due to technical problems with the sound we have been unable to post the interview video. But in this blog entry I can provide key information from the meeting and provide details of what Griffin said at the two events he spoke at (beyond his speeches that NASA posts) in London on Thursday 13th and Friday 14th of December, at the Royal Aeronautical Society and the Royal Astronomical Society (go here for future postings of the recorded webcast), respectively

Above: A still from the video interview showing Griffin speaking to Flight technical reporter Rob Coppinger (out of view) at a hotel meeting room in central London on 14 December

Now in the eighth year of the 21st century, Hyperbola - admittedly only a few months old - is becoming more of a blog for Planet Earth

Or at least those that can't read the English language; which admittedly is an ever decreasing number of people. Still, on the right hand side of this blog you will find Google's translate gadget

If you feel like testing out your language skills or just want to read a blog posting in your native tongue then check out the drop down menu and see if your language is listed. You could even translate this post!

Otherwise watch this video of Esperanto speaking socks, alas not a language served by Google