The Sky's the Limit, New Space Race.....

[MMC]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43829330...science-space/

So, while many observers lament the end of the shuttle era and the onset of a multi-year gap in American manned spaceflight, many at NASA and in the private sector say the future is bright.



Blue Origin and SpaceX, too
NASA gave Blue Origin, based in Kent, Wash., $22 million under CCDev-2. The company, which was established by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, may use the money to further the development of its New Shepard vehicle. However, Blue Origin is generally very tight-lipped about its plans, so it's tough to say for sure what the firm is up to.

The California-based Space Exploration Technologies, better known as SpaceX, got $75 million during CCDev-2. Unlike the other grantees, SpaceX has actually launched its vehicle into space. Last December the firm blasted its Dragon capsule to orbit aboard its Falcon 9 rocket, then fished the Dragon out of the Pacific Ocean after it splashed down.
SpaceX thus became the first private company ever to launch a spacecraft to Earth orbit and bring it back to terra firma.

SpaceX has a $1.6 billion NASA contract to use the Dragon/Falcon system to carry cargo to the International Space Station. But the company designed Dragon all along to carry crew, and it's in the process of performing the necessary upgrades, officials have said.....snip~

Looks Like The buisness sector is wasting no Time.....

[MMC]

Aerospace heavyweight Boeing is advancing plans for its new capsule-based spaceship, designed to ferry people to and from the International Space Station and future private space stations. The capsule design is part of an effort to fill the void that will be left by the 2011 retirement of NASA's space shuttle fleet. The new Crew Space Transportation-100 spacecraft (CST-100) is part of the company's $18 million award from NASA under the Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) Space Act Agreement. The award aims to advance the concepts and technology required to build a commercial crew space transportation system. Boeing's capsule design is one of several efforts by different U.S. companies to develop the first private spaceship capable of flying humans to space. The push fits in with President Barack Obama's new plan for NASA, which calls for commercial spacecraft to take over the role vacated by the space shuttles of transporting astronauts to the space station.

Boeing's new spaceship design will look similar to NASA's cone-shaped Apollo and Orion spacecraft. The Apollo capsules were built to fly astronauts from Earth to the moon in the late 1960s and 1970s. The larger Orion vehicles were part of NASA's Constellation program to return astronauts to the moon, which was cancelled by President Obama as part of his new proposal. The Obama administration did resurrect Orion, though, to serve as a space station lifeboat.

The CST-100, which can carry up to seven people, will be bigger than the Apollo spacecraft but smaller than the Orion capsule. It is designed for short missions to space, and the "100" in the name stands for 100 kilometers (62 miles) the distance from the ground to low-Earth orbit that it will travel. Boeing plans to launch the CST-100 capsule from Florida, but has yet to determine which rocket will carry it into space. The spacecraft is being designed for compatibility with a variety of different rockets, including United Launch Alliance's Atlas and Delta boosters, and SpaceX's Falcon rockets.

Multiple customers
While NASA could be the main user of the CST-100 capsule, the space agency is certainly not the only customer that Boeing has in mind. The company has teamed up with Bigelow Aerospace, a Las Vegas-based company that joined the Commercial Spaceflight Federation in June. Boeing hopes to use the CST-100 capsule to take people to and from the Bigelow Aerospace Orbital Space Complex a commercial space station the company is building. Bigelow Aerospace is developing private inflatable space habitats with the goal of launching the first private space station in 2014. The company has already launched two prototype modules into space.....snip~

Damn Boeing making some moves.....thoughts?

[MMC]

Another of the CCDev-2 grant winners, Sierra Nevada Corp. of Louisville, Colo., got $80 million to help its Dream Chaser along. This winged vehicle, which looks like a miniature space shuttle, is designed to carry seven astronauts to low-Earth orbit and back. Like the CST-100, the Dream Chaser is coming along nicely, according to officials of its company. "We are in the midst of our first build of the first vehicle right now. It's under construction," Sierra Nevada Chairman Mark Sirangelo told reporters in Florida earlier this month. "We'll be conducting our first orbital tests in 2014, with service in 2015."



What you guys think?

[MMC]

Here's a pic of the Space Station.....

The Russians say they will Sink it in 2020.....

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/...#ixzz1TOUJXXFF

Russia's space agency announced Wednesday that the International Space Station -- a space base the world's scientists and billions of U.S. tax dollars helped build and maintain some 200 miles above the surface of the Earth -- will be de-orbited and allowed to sink into the Pacific Ocean in 2020, just like its Russian predecessor, Mir.....snip~

[Mister D]

pardon the tangent but did you guys see the ads for that new movie Apollo 18? It look slike Blair Witch Project in space.

[MMC]

pardon the tangent but did you guys see the ads for that new movie Apollo 18? It look slike Blair Witch Project in space.

Yeah I have seen some of the commercials for it.....another infected movie eh. Something gets into his space suit that is sealed shut.

I just seen Quarntine 2.....Now I don't mind taking out people infected with rabies. But the Government locking you in? That gives people something to think about. Especailly when it concerns Diseases that are volatile.

[Mister D]

pardon the tangent but did you guys see the ads for that new movie Apollo 18? It look slike Blair Witch Project in space.

Yeah I have seen some of the commercials for it.....another infected movie eh. Something gets into his space suit that is sealed shut.

I just seen Quarntine 2.....Now I don't mind taking out people infected with rabies. But the Government locking you in? That gives people something to think about. Especailly when it concerns Diseases that are volatile.

Oh, it's about a pathogen of some kind?

[MMC]

pardon the tangent but did you guys see the ads for that new movie Apollo 18? It look slike Blair Witch Project in space.

Yeah I have seen some of the commercials for it.....another infected movie eh. Something gets into his space suit that is sealed shut.

I just seen Quarntine 2.....Now I don't mind taking out people infected with rabies. But the Government locking you in? That gives people something to think about. Especailly when it concerns Diseases that are volatile.

Oh, it's about a pathogen of some kind?

Well Quarntine is about Rabies. The Commercial I saw, the guy from the Apollo Mission says it's inside his suit. So I take it is some sort of parasite that infects him. Course I haven't seen the movie yet.