The Orion spacecraft that launched atop a Delta-4 Heavy rocket was carrying an Embry-Riddle logo patch in the crew module, thanks to alumnus David Pintel who graduated in 1999 and now works as an engineer for Lockheed Martin. The spacecraft launched in the morning, orbited the earth twice then splashed down in the Pacific Ocean a few hundred miles off San Diego, after about four hours in space. Pintel plans to retrieve the patch once the craft is recovered by a Navy ship. He will then send it back to the university as a keepsake. (12/5)
Russian Internet Game Developer Plans Microsatellite Launcher (Source: Pravda)
Sergei Burkatovsky, known as one of the creators of the popular online game World of Tanks, is to invest from five to ten million rubles in Lin Industrial, a Russian developer of carrier rockets. The investment will be used to create ultra-light rocket "Taimyr". Chief Designer at Lin Industrial, Alexander Ilyin, said that the funds would be used to develop and test a prototype of a modular ultralight "Taimyr" carrier rocket with a thrust of 50 kg.
"Taimyr" will be able to launch smaller spacecraft into orbit, such as student-made satellites. The man explained his participation in the project with his devotion to space exploration. Lin Industrial is a party at Skolkovo space cluster and soon expects to receive from him minigrant of 5 million rubles. Consulting agencies estimate the global market of small spacecraft at more than $2 billion. "With the "Taimyr" rocket, we expect to take up to 30 percent of the market," said Ilyin. (12/10)
New U.S. Spending Deal a Mixed Bag for Science (Source: Science)
NASA and the National Science Foundation (NSF) appear to be among the winners—relatively speaking—in a spending deal reached Tuesday night by lawmakers in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, with both agencies receiving modest funding boosts. But research budgets at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Department of Energy would remain flat. (12/9)
Light Beams Let Data Rates Soar (Source: Space Daily)
You may know opals as fiery gemstones, but something special called OPALS is floating above us in space. On the International Space Station, the Optical Payload for Lasercomm Science (OPALS) is demonstrating how laser communications can speed up the flow of information between Earth and space, compared to radio signals. (12/10)
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