The most powerful rocket since the Apollo missions has been unveiled and is set to launch in 2013. The Falcon 9-Heavy will be able to put 53tonnes of satellites or spacecraft into orbit – more than twice the amount its closest rival, the Delta IV Heavy, can carry.

Falcon Heavy’s first stage will be made up of three nine-engine cores and will be powered with Merlin engines, currently being tested in Texas.

Elon Musk, chief executive and designer of Space Exploration Technologies, said: ‘Falcon Heavy will carry more payload to orbit or escape velocity than any vehicle in history, apart from the Saturn V moon rocket, which was decommissioned after the Apollo programme. ‘This opens a new world of capability for both government and commercial space missions.’

The space craft is due to arrive in Vandenberg, California, at the end of next year with plans for a lift-off from Cape Canaveral as early as late 2013 or 2014. At lift-off, Falcon Heavy will generate 3.8million lbs of thrust – equal to the thrust of 15 Boeing 747s taking off at the same time.

YES!

Whatever NASA was able to accomplish in the past, it’s obvious that it has outgrown its usefulness, and with the budget situation that we are dealing with, we have better uses for our money than by spending it on a bunch of subsidized science and (unfortuantely) junk-science projects that don’t have enough significance to earn funding from anyone except governmental bureaucrats who themselves are in search of a real life. (“The bureaucracy expands to meet the needs of the expanding bureaucracy.”)

So, where does that leave us in terms of space? Turning it over to private venture capitalism. The alternative is to concede the ultimate geopolitical “high ground” to the Russians and the ChiComs, and isn’t THAT a cheering thought! (NOT!)

With the capability of SpaceX’s machine, there’s no reason to stop at low earth orbit. With Musk, and others who are working on developing private spaceflight, there’s no reason not to get back to the Moon. (A good source of abundant Tritium…useful for fusion energy reactors. Any use for THAT these days? Hmmmm?)

Here’s a related vid clip from SpaceX…included because IMHO it’s just cool in it’s own right, and features SpaceX’s manned flight system that is currently under development.

WANT to go to space?

You could pay millions to get on board someone else’s [Russia’s] spacecraft as a tourist, spend six years at uni garnering the relevant NASA qualifications [not these days, with the shuttle program having it’s death rattle and no replacement in sight], or hitch-hike aboard the next alien construction fleet that passes through.

Or you could just build your own.

Yankee ingenuity? Uh…not quite…

A group of engineers in Denmark are preparing to do just that – launch a home-built rocket, along with a human passenger, more than 100km into the sky.

Dubbed HEAT1X, the rocket will be launched from a floating barge in the sea just outside the Danish border, 12 nautical miles from shore.

And it will be towed out there by a submarine built by one of the men behind the rocket project.

Home-brew submarine?…Not a narrow range of interests! At this rate soon DENMARK will have a more active native manned spaceflight program than the US!?

Good for them, shame on us.

NASA Chief: Next Frontier Better Relations With Muslim World

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said in a recent interview that his “foremost” mission as the head of America’s space exploration agency is to improve relations with the Muslim world.

Though international diplomacy would seem well outside NASA’s orbit, Bolden said in an interview with Al Jazeera that strengthening those ties was among the top tasks President Obama assigned him. He said better interaction with the Muslim world would ultimately advance space travel.

I could have thought that the foremost mission of the chief administrator of NASA was to…(maybe?) administer what little is left of our space program?

Silly me! But at least My opinion shared in good company:

Former NASA Director Says Muslim Outreach Push ‘Deeply Flawed’

The former head of NASA on Tuesday described as “deeply flawed” the idea that the space exploration agency’s priority should be outreach to Muslim countries, after current Administrator Charles Bolden made that assertion in an interview last month.

“NASA … represents the best of America. Its purpose is not to inspire Muslims or any other cultural entity,” Michael Griffin, who served as NASA administrator during the latter half of the Bush administration, told FoxNews.com.

At least somebody is stills sane!

Griffin said Tuesday that collaboration with other countries, including Muslim nations, is welcome and should be encouraged — but that it would be a mistake to prioritize that over NASA’s “fundamental mission” of space exploration.

“If by doing great things, people are inspired, well then that’s wonderful,” Griffin said. “If you get it in the wrong order … it becomes an empty shell.”

Griffin added: “That is exactly what is in danger of happening.”

He also said that while welcome, Muslim-nation cooperation is not vital for U.S. advancements in space exploration. “There is no technology they have that we need,” Griffin said.

Dang! Does this mean that we won’t be able to use camels on Mars after all?

The former administrator stressed that any criticism should be directed at Obama, not Bolden, since NASA merely carries out policy.

That last bit hits the nail on the head. This rot begins at the top!

Allah’s final frontier
NASA races to reach the crescent moon
This editorial comment from the D.C. Times makes a decidedly non-PC but true observation:

The Muslim world has nothing to offer the United States as a space-faring nation. If anything, America should be discouraging Middle East space programs. Iran has the most advanced space initiative in the region and claimed to have launched a satellite in February. It’s a short step from putting satellites in space to being able to do the same with warheads. Given that Iran is on the verge of nuclear-weapons capability, the upbeat message from NASA seems ill-advised

It doesn’t take rocket science to figure this out…but hey, nobody except B.O. and his KoolAid crew could mistake Bolden for having any real understanding of non-pharmaceutical experience of space.

In addition, there is an explanation why Islam may be in need of some technological strokes:

Islam’s meager contribution to human technological advancement is no accident. In his new book “The Closing of the Muslim Mind,” former Voice of America director Robert Reilly describes the brief flourishing of intellectualism in Muslim Spain 1,000 years ago before it was brutally suppressed by religious extremists. They imposed a continuing Islamic orthodoxy that is hostile to rational thought and to the scientific method. According to this view, the only knowledge required for human existence is contained in the Koran and the life and sayings of Muhammad. Pursuing any knowledge beyond that is at best a waste of time, at worst a capital offense. Classical books of knowledge were burned, the few Muslim philosophers and scientists were banished and the stage was set for centuries of scientific decline. The small number of discoveries credited to that part of the world since the Middle Ages came principally from conquered peoples.

Where is JFK now that we REALLY need him!

The space shuttle era could get a new lease on life under a bill filed today by U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas.

The measure would delay the shuttle’s planned retirement in 2010 until NASA is confident that a replacement spacecraft is ready or that the shuttle and its massive payload bay is no longer needed to keep the International Space Station afloat through 2020.

The 37-page bill also authorizes an additional $1.3 billion in NASA spending next year above President Barack Obama’s request of $19 billion. The extra money would help prepare NASA for as many as two additional shuttle flights per year after 2010, as well as fund new spacecraft development.

“This must not be an ‘either or’ proposition where we are forced to choose between continuing to fly the shuttle to service the station and maintain our independence in reaching space, or investing in the next generation of space vehicle. We can and must do both,” Hutchison said in a statement.

The Chief doesn’t always appreciate Sen. Hutchinson’s brand of semi-conservatism, but in this case she’s spot-on:

…the Hutchison measure emphasizes the need for NASA to have a government-run system that could lift astronauts into space. The new bill also calls for the “continuation or modification” of programs initiated under the Constellation program.

“While commercial transportation systems may contribute valuable services, it is in the United States’ national interest to maintain a government operated space transportation system for crew and cargo delivery to low-Earth orbit and beyond,” it notes.

The private spaceflight efforts need to encouraged, and have administrative hurdles lowered. At the same time, as noted above, a continuing ability for the US to directly access the orbital high-ground is absolutely critical as a matter of national security…the space station be damned!

A travel entrepreneur who introduced hundreds of thousands of Americans to European travel in the 1960’s has taken luxury travel to new heights – the edge of space.

Jules Klar, founder of Phoenix, AZ-based RocketShip Tours, has announced that his company will immediately begin selling rides to the edge of space for $95,000 per flight. Participants will fly aboard the Lynx, a two-seat suborbital vehicle being built by California-based XCOR Aerospace.

The future is now.

Anyone got an extra $95K to sponsor the Chief for a great report? Ha ha.

The Chief continues to relish anything that gives us a greater presence in space.

Sir Richard Branson’s dreams of operating the world’s first commercial spaceline will move a step closer today when he unveils his new space rocket.

The billionaire will present White Knight Two to the world in the searing heat of the Mojave Desert – ahead of the first proper flight which is expected as early as next year.

White Knight Two will be the mothership, on which a much smaller spaceship will sit until it is projected into sub-orbital space flight at a certain altitude.

Designs for both White Knight Two, which is the world’s largest aircraft made entirely from carbon composite, and the smaller SpaceShip Two were unveiled in New York in January.

What’s the point? It’s like anything else…the more you use something (in this case space flight), the better you get at it. As far as the broader national strategic security view is concerned, there’s NOTHING like being present on the higher ground!

DUH!

People are in space. And, regardless of what the Chief, or anyone else thinks about morality and propriety…based on human experience, this headline is as big a no-brainer as the Time magazine cover that proclaimed a number of years ago in effect: “Men and Women: The’re Really Different!”

Buzz Aldrin: Invest in Nasa to beat the Chinese to Mars

Buzz Aldrin, the second man on the Moon, has issued a stark warning that America must invest now in the space agency Nasa, or surrender leadership of space exploration to Russia and China. In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, Mr Aldrin revealed that he intends to lobby Barack Obama and John McCain, the two US presidential candidates, in an effort to ensure they find sufficient funds for Nasa’s goal to establish a permanent base on the Moon and then send a manned mission to Mars.

This would be really BAD in so many ways…Russia and China literally holding the high ground?

Mr Aldrin, 78, said: “To me it’s abysmal that it has come to this: after 50 years of Nasa, and after putting about $100 billion into the space station, we can’t get our own astronauts to our space station without relying on the Russians.”

Really!

He said his message to the next president is this: “Retain the vision for space exploration. If we turn our backs on the vision again, we’re going to have to live in a secondary position in human space flight for the rest of the century.”

Any bets on this getting the attention of either of the major presidential candidates? No?

Didn’t think so. How sad.

‘You know, as an actor, the things to do here are to play at the National, open at the West End, do a BBC film that’s so good it’s really a quality movie – and be in Doctor Who?!” says Michael Brandon, the American actor and committed anglophile who gave us Jerry Springer on stage and Dempsey of Dempsey and Makepeace on TV. He’s not joking: a guest role in the new, regenerated Doctor Who, the fourth series of which begins tomorrow, has become, if not quite the holy grail of the thespian world, then certainly an acting badge of honour.

Interesting. The Chief really liked the Doctor…it seems he isn’t alone.

A small California aerospace company today unveiled a new suborbital spaceship that will provide affordable front-seat rides to the edge of space for the millions of people who want to buy a ticket.

The company, XCOR Aerospace, of Mojave, CA, announced that its two-seat Lynx suborbital spaceship will carry people or payloads to where they will experience weightlessness and see the stars above and the Earth and its atmosphere below. This will launch XCOR into the emerging space tourism market, estimated at over a half-billion dollars.

The Lynx will offer affordable access to space for individuals, researchers and educators,” said XCOR CEO Jeff Greason. “Future versions of Lynx will offer ever-improving capabilities for scientific and engineering research and commercial applications.

The spaceship, roughly the size of a small private airplane, will first take off in 2010 and will be capable of flying several times each day.

First, Sir Richard Branson’s budding Virgin Galactic suborbital servide, and now this…Great!

Competition for the space tourism market! Maybe someday it’ll be cheap enough that even the Chief will be able to afford a trip to space!