NASA SLS: New Deep Space Exploration System

NASA is ready to move forward with the development of the Space Launch System -- an advanced heavy-lift launch vehicle that will provide an entirely new national capability for human exploration beyond Earth's orbit.

The Space Launch System will give the nation a safe, affordable and sustainable means of reaching beyond our current limits and opening up new discoveries from the unique vantage point of space.

The Space Launch System, or SLS, will be designed to carry the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, as well as important cargo, equipment and science experiments to Earth's orbit and destinations beyond. Additionally, the SLS will serve as a back up for commercial and international partner transportation services to the International Space Station.

"This launch system will create good-paying American jobs, ensure continued U.S. leadership in space, and inspire millions around the world," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said. "President Obama challenged us to be bold and dream big, and that's exactly what we are doing at NASA. While I was proud to fly on the space shuttle, tomorrow's explorers will now dream of one day walking on Mars."

NASA - NASA Announces Design for New Deep Space Exploration System

NASA Shuttle: The End of an Era of Achievement and Awe

Workers measured and marked in bright red the letters "MLG" at the spot where space shuttle Atlantis' main landing gear came to rest after the vehicle's final return from space.

Securing the space shuttle fleet's place in history on the STS-135 mission, Atlantis safely and successfully rounded out NASA's Space Shuttle Program on the Shuttle Landing Facility's Runway 15 at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Main gear touchdown was at 5:57:00 a.m. EDT, followed by nose gear touchdown at 5:57:20 a.m., and wheelstop at 5:57:54 a.m. On the 37th shuttle mission to the International Space Station, STS-135 delivered more than 9,400 pounds of spare parts, equipment and supplies in the Raffaello multi-purpose logistics module that will sustain station operations for the next year.

STS-135 was the 33rd and final flight for Atlantis, which has spent 307 days in space, orbited Earth 4,848 times and traveled 125,935,769 miles.

Image Credit: NASA/Kyle Herring

Canada's MDA Sees Business Case for In-orbit Servicing

Artist's image of MDA Corp's Radarsat-2

Canada’s MDA Corp., with little debt and now entering a period of predictably strong cash flows, believes its money is better placed investing in a future in-orbit satellite servicing business — something that has never been attempted — than in repurchasing its stock or increasing shareholder dividends, MDA Chief Executive Daniel E. Friedmann said May 5.

In the clearest indication yet that MDA believes it has found a sustainable satellite-servicing business model that has eluded everyone else, Friedmann said the Richmond, British Columbia-based company plans a major investment in the business starting late this year.

In a conference call with investors, Friedmann did not say how much MDA thinks it will need to finance a first robotic mission to deliver fuel or to perform another service on a satellite in orbit. He said “it may be more or less than” an investor’s guess of 200 million Canadian dollars ($195 million).

But he said the more the company investigates the business, the more potential missions, both commercial and military, it finds for a robot capable of attaching itself to a satellite in orbit.

“Certainly talking to defense customers, we’ve discovered markets we didn’t know we had an opportunity to go after,” Friedmann said. “It will be a significant use of capital for organic growth. That’s our first [near-term investment] priority as we work through the spring and summer to finalize it.”

MDA will likely withhold significant further cash investment until at least one firm customer signs up for a mission. But for now, the company is telling its shareholders that in-orbit servicing is MDA’s most promising new business venture.