NickyJ… Rocketgirl

Masten Space Systems successfully flew their Xombie vehicle Sept 07 2009, completing two flights and meeting the Level 1 requirements of the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge.

Masten had a previous attempt on September 16, 2009, but did not complete the second flight due to engine damage. ). This time around the the first flight lasted about 93 seconds and the vehicle landed ~20 cm from the center of the pad; almost a perfect repeat of their first NGLLC flight. The second flight lasted 91 seconds and the vehicle landed 11 cm from the center of the pad — an impressive feat indeed (all numbers preliminary until judges declare them official).

Having worked with the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge for the past 3 years have been such amazing experience. seeing this team success is like watching your baby take a first step and then go into walking!! The Armadillo team did a great job prior to this and we still have 2 more teams to go. We are making history within the personal space flight industry and I am so happy and proud to be part of it.

Stay tunned for more!!

Nicky & the new rover go figure!’

rocket “Xombie”, Masten Space’s Level One Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge vehicle, getting ready for LOX load!!

Digging through some cool stuff one of our coworkers found this post with a fabulous set of pictures from the Apollo 11 mission. I have posted it once again here in my for all of you to enjoy!!!

This summer marks the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. Everyone knows the famous photographs of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walking on the surface of the moon. Lesser-known are the photos of what took place back on Earth. Recently, we searched the NASA images archive for some of the seldom-seen images of the 1969 lunar mission. These images show the trappings of the space age: Engineers in skinny ties, scientists with serious expressions, space buffs camping out in Detroit-built station wagons, and above all, the sublime awesomeness of being an astronaut.

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All photos via NASA

Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong, seen with the helicopter he flew to practice landing the Lunar Module.

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July 9, 1969: A week before the launch, the astronauts reported to the flight crew training building of the NASA Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins arrived carrying a cup of coffee.

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Apollo 11 astronaut Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin arrives arrival at the flight crew training building.

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July 15, 1969: Collins, Armstrong and Aldrin, spoke to the press the night before launch.

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July 16, 1969: Apollo Program Director Lieutenant General Samuel C. Phillips monitored pre-launch activities from the Kennedy Space Flight Center control room.

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July 16, 1969: Thousands of people camped out on beaches and roads adjacent to the Kennedy Space Center to watch the Apollo 11 liftoff.

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A million spectators came to the spaceport to witness the historic launch. Some camped on the beach.

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Vice President Spiro Agnew and former President Lyndon B. Johnson watched the liftoff, July 16, 1969, 9:32 am EDT.

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Apollo 11 mission officials relaxed after the successful liftoff. From left to right are: Charles W. Mathews, Deputy Associate Administrator for Manned Space Flight; Dr. Wernher von Braun, Director of the Marshall Space Flight Center; George Mueller, Associate Administrator for the Office of Manned Space Flight; Lt. Gen. Samuel C. Phillips, Director of the Apollo Program.

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With the mission underway, reporters interviewed the family of Neil Armstrong.

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Dr. Robert R. Gilruth, Director of the Manned Spacecraft Center, followed progress of the lunar landing mission from his console in Houston’s Mission Control Center.

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The Apollo 11 astronauts splashed down at 11:49 a.m. CDT on July 24, 1969, about 812 nautical miles southwest of Hawaii. They waited in a raft for helicopter pickup with a United States Navy underwater demolition team swimmer.

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Flight controllers and mission officials celebrated the return of the astronauts to earth.

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Aldrin, Armstrong, and Collins were flown by helicopter to the U.S.S. Hornet. They wore biological isolation garments they donned while still in the spacecraft.

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Immediately, the astronauts were placed in quarantine.

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The mobile quarantine facility was transported from Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, to the NASA Manned Spacecraft Center Lunar Receiving Laboratory in Houston, Texas.

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The astronauts bow their heads in a prayer offered by USS Hornet Chaplain Lt. Commander John Pirrto. President Richard Nixon stands at right.

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The astronauts were kept under quarantine for three weeks. Here are Armstrong, Collins and Aldrin seen through the window of the Mobile Quarantine Facility.

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Friends and family greeted the astronauts as they emerged from the quarantine on August 10, 1969.

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The astronauts were international celebrities. A goodwill tour carried them to 24 countries and 27 cities in 45 days. Thousands swarmed them during a parade in Mexico City on September 23, 1969.

Looking forward to the next generation of manned flights to the Moon!!! Sign me up!!!!

At around 2:12 PM, the first launch window will open for not one, but two NASA missions to explore the Moon, the first such missions to be launched in almost 10 years.

Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) will be launching aboard an Atlas V rocket from Kennedy Space Center.

Webcast at http://www.spacevidcast.com or http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html

More info:
LRO: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/overview/index.html
LCROSS: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LCROSS/overview/index.html

Hope you all enjoy it!!!

I had the opportunity to attend for a couple of days the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space 52nd Session in Vienna. It was my first time attending this event and I have to say I was quite impressed with how the countries were presenting their reports, initiatives and expressing their points of view. COPUOS has 69 member States and I was particularly proud to see that the Space Generation Advisory Council was one of the Organizations that had a permanent Observer status.

Even though I knew there were several translators that helped the delegates facilitate the reports and presentations, I was surprised to see that most of the dialogue and presentations took place in Spanish. I learned that it is of custom to use the native language of the COPUOS chair which in this case was Spanish, but regardless for some reason I was expecting for most of the dialogue to be in English. The session included topics such as the Use of Space technology in the United Nation System, Space and Climate Change, Spin –off and Benefits of Space Technology, the future of the space and society , and the committee also discusses issues raised in the reports of the scientific and legal subcommittees among others. Below is the latest report summarizing the conclusion of the session.

VIENNA, 12 June (UN Information Service) – The United Nations Committee
on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) has concluded its
deliberations over ways and means to maintain outer space for peaceful
purposes and to ensure that space technology and its applications continue
to benefit many areas critical to all humanity at its 52nd session held
from 3 to 12 June.

On the new agenda item of space and climate change, the Committee agreed
that due to the global nature of climate change, space-based observations,
complemented with ground-based observations, were well-suited to monitor
the different manifestations of climate change and factors which are
contributing to it. Space-based observations could be also used in support
of mitigation and adaptation measures linked to climate change.

Highlights of the 52nd session of the Committee include:

• The Committee endorsed the Safety Framework for Nuclear Power Sources
Applications in Outer Space, adopted by its Scientific and Technical
Subcommittee at its 46th session and subsequently agreed by the IAEA
Commission on Safety Standards at its 25th meeting, both held in Vienna,
earlier in 2009.

• US astronaut and Brigadier-General of the United States Strategic
Command, Susan Helms stressed in her statement to the Committee how
international cooperation between space-faring nations could lead to
improved space situational awareness and shared insights on the
Iridium-Cosmos collision, which took place on 10 February 2009 at an
altitude of 790 km above the Earth.

• The Chinese astronauts Yang Liwei and Jing Haipeng delivered a keynote
address on the success of China’s manned space flights Shenzhou-5 and
Shenzhou-7. They also met with Antonio Maria Costa, Director-General of
UNOV, briefing him on China’s outer space programme that was launched in
1992 and performed three manned and four unmanned missions.

• The Office for Outer Space Affairs signed cooperation agreements on 4
June to establish the Regional Support Offices of the United Nations
Platform for Space-based Information for Disaster Management and
Emergency Response (UN-SPIDER) with Iran, Nigeria, Romania, and the
Asian Disaster Reduction Centre. The Regional Support Offices will serve
as centres of expertise in the use of space technology in disaster
management.

• The panel discussion on the theme “Tenth anniversary of UNISPACE III”
was held on 3 June to discuss the progress and achievements made so far.
The implementation and follow-up of recommendations of UNISPACE III
relating to the use of space-based systems for areas such as agriculture
and land use, water resource management and disaster management helps
Member States to support their sustainable development needs and achieve
the Millennium Development Goals.

* *** *

For further information, please contact:

Jamshid Gaziyev
Associate Programme Officer, UNOOSA
Telephone: (+43-1) 26060-4958
Email: jamshid.gaziyev@unoosa.org
Website: www.unoosa.org

Panel: “Looking Back: The Rationale Of the Space Generation Forum.”

Moderator: Sergio Cmacho, Director CRECTEALC
Panelists:
Lance Bush, Paragom Space Development Corporation
Norbert Frischauf, European Commission
Kelly Snook, NASA
Gernot Gromer, Austrian Space Forum
Loretta Hidalgo Whitesides
Will Marshall, NASA AMES
Fernando Stancato, University of Sao Paulo

Great Minds, great ideas!!! “We are using space to change Humanity”

Ladies and Gentleman, Start Your Engines!

6/04/2009 10:53:00 AM

They say you’ll never forget your first prize (What, you’re telling me they don’t actually say that?!?). Well, my first prize was the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge. It gave me my first hands-on experience writing rules, recruiting teams and Judges, and watching the trials and tribulations of the competitors. It has been an absolute pleasure and honor to get to work alongside the spectacular men and women who make up our teams and our partners at NASA, Northrop Grumman, the State of New Mexico, the Federal Aviation Administration, the Las Cruces International Airport, and Holloman Air Force Base. I am a die hard believer in the positive impact that this prize program has had on the commercial space industry, and on the incredible return that it has already delivered on NASA’s investment. As a space enthusiast and as a tax-payer, I’m very grateful this program and the other Centennial Challenges are around.

Today, we begin the next chapter of the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge. As you may have read, this year’s competition will look a little different than the past three. Unlike 2006-2008, the 2009 challenge will be open to teams competing at a variety of locations and a variety of times, stretching from mid-July through Halloween. Although I’ll be sad to set aside the commraderie and excitement that came with the fixed-date, fixed-location format, my colleagues and I were completely convinced after thorough investigation that this new format is the best way to move forward and ensure a fair competition that meets NASA’s goals.

You’ll find the complete Team Agreement (including the rules for the competition) and the registration forms over on the NGLLC website, as well as this statement:

It is with great pleasure that we announce the opening of Registration for the 2009 Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge! If you are interested in competing for the $1,650,000 in remaining prize purses, you can download the complete 2009 Team Agreement (including the technical rules for the competition) and the 2009 Registration Forms here.

For the past three years, the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge was offered once per year at an event managed by the X PRIZE Foundation and hosted by our gracious friends in Southern New Mexico. The 2006 and 2007 events, held at the Las Cruces International Airport and Holloman Air Force Base respectively, were conducted as part of a larger Air & Space exposition called the X PRIZE Cup. The 2008 event returned to Las Cruces, NM, but was this time held as a stand-alone event in front of a smaller audience. Over these three years, we were grateful for the opportunity to introduce tens of thousands of people to the excitement of rocketry and to highlight New Mexico’s position at the forefront of the emerging commercial space industry.

The 2009 Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge will be the start of a new chapter in the competition’s history. Unlike the fixed-date, fixed-location competition of previous years, in 2009, Registered Teams will be able to compete for the remaining prize purses at a date and location of their choosing within a competition ‘window’ that will run from July 20th to October 31st. Qualified teams will be able to register for prize-winning attempts on a first-come, first-served basis, with a small crew of Judges and observers traveling to meet the team at a venue of their choosing. This new process should allow for more flights by more teams, while still preserving the fairness of the competition.

At the end of the competition window, the X PRIZE Foundation may identify the winner or winners for the three remaining prize purses: Level Two First and Second Place and Level One Second Place. Should multiple teams meet the prize requirements for either Level of the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge within the competition window, ties will be broken by assessing the accuracies of each team’s landings during qualifying flights. If teams are still tied after this assessment, purse money will be split evenly between them.

In its first three years, the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge has helped to demonstrate why NASA’s prize program – Centennial Challenges – is one of their most innovative and efficient programs. To date, only $350,000 of the initial $2,000,000 in prize money has been awarded, yet a dozen teams of spectacular engineers and innovators have already devoted more than 70,000 working hours toward building new technologies to win the competition. The Challenge has also demonstrated the connection between first generation lunar exploration, including the Apollo Lunar Modules built in the 1960s by Northrop Grumman, and the next generation vehicles being designed today.

The prize competition would not be possible without the generous support of a number of individuals and institutions. Particularly deserving of thanks are:

* NASA’s Centennial Challenges program, which has provided the $2,000,000 in prize purses for this Challenge

* The Northrop Grumman Corporation, which provides operational funding and expertise

* New Mexico’s Spaceport America, which graciously hosted the first three years of this competition

We look forward to working with all of our teams, and wish them all the best of luck as they pursue the remaining $1.65MM in prize money available as part of the Lunar Lander Challenge.

Credits William Pomerantz, Senior Director, Space Prizes, and Cristin Lindsay, Vice President, Prize Operations

Astronaut Russell L. Schweickart gave a brief introduction to the COPUOS audience before For All Mankind was shown. After the movie, he took the floor and answered some questions about the return to the Moon!

I have to say, being here I am glad he took Q&A! Rusty is particularly enthusiastic about future missions to explore asteroids. His talk was very interesting to this audience.

On Monday some of us X PRIZErs attended Geekoutt 2009. The event was hosted by Shira Lazar and it’s purpose was to bring together geeks from the entertainment and tech industries. I guess now days our generation has managed to introduce a whole new meaning to the word Geek!! So if you were ever a geek or you currently consider yourself a geek you will be happy to know that geek is the new cool!!!!!

The event was pretty cool and over all it was a good place to network. It had a live streaming DJ, a digital photobooth, a 12 second video booth and most people were drinking the geektini. One of the hits of the night was the launch of the I AM A GEEK!, video. The purpose of the video was to feature some of the biggest personalities in the social networking and web 2.0 space, including: Shaq, Steve Wozniak, Ashton Kutcher, Kevin Pollak, Wil Wheaton, Levar Burton, Jason Calacanis, Samm Levine, Felicia Day, Kevin Rose, Alex Albrecht, Leo Laporte, IJustine, David Karpe, Brian Solis, Veronica Belmont, Sarah Lacy, Randi Zuckerberg, Ton Hsieh, Gary Vaynerchuk, Jonathan Coulton, Kevin Pereira, Tay Zonday, Julia Allison, Julia Roy, Marina Orlova and Shira Lazar

I have to say I personally like the new Geekie trend! and I would definitely stay tuned for more events to come from The Society for Geek Advancement . This society was “founded upon the principles that we should all embrace our inner and outer geek and have fun while doing it. As individuals who love learning, innovating and believe in possibility as well as change, the second step of responsibility is to “be the geek that keeps on giving.””

Pretty cool!!! Ah?