NASA ISS: Orbital Boost from inside the Space station - video

As the International Space Station is boosted into a higher orbit, Expedition 29 Commander Mike Fossum and Flight Engineers Satoshi Furukawa and Sergei Volkov float freely to demonstrate the acceleration of the orbiting complex.

Air Force's X-37B Robot Space Plane: Secret Mission may go on longer

After nearly seven months of flight, the U.S. Air Force's latest X-37B robotic space plane is nearing a milestone in its supersonic super-secret mission in Earth orbit as it chalks up air mileage and operational experience.

As of last week, the re-usable X-37B space plane had been in orbit for more than 206 days, two months shy of its 270-day mission design lifetime.

The spacecraft, which looks like a miniature space shuttle, launched on its clandestine mission on March 5 from Cape Canaveral, Fla.

The space plane is the second X-37B spacecraft built for the Air Force by Boeing's Phantom Works and carries the name Orbital Test Vehicle 2, or OTV-2.

NASA Selects XCOR to Participate in Suborbital Flight Contract

XCOR's suborbital reusable launch vehicle, Lynx, is capable of up to four flights per day using advanced rapid call-up and turnaround operations.

NASA has selected XCOR Aerospace to provide suborbital flight and payload integration services for research and scientific missions in a program that will offer up to $10 million dollars in contracts to match payload customers with flight vehicle services.

The awards were announced by NASA's Flight Opportunities Program, a part of NASA's Office of the Chief Technologist at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC that is managed at Dryden Flight Research Center in Edwards, California.

"Through this award, NASA has recognized XCOR's Lynx suborbital vehicle as a useful payload platform that will benefit both NASA's R and D needs and the private research, scientific, and educational communities," said Jeff Greason, XCOR CEO.

"By encouraging and incentivizing frequent, low cost access to space, NASA is helping to ensure America's future as a leader in space."

XCOR's suborbital reusable launch vehicle, Lynx, is capable of up to four flights per day using advanced rapid call-up and turnaround operations.

The Lynx will provide three to four minutes of microgravity as well as, if desired, exposure to the harsh environment of space. This will provide opportunities to investigate the largely unexplored regions of our upper atmosphere.

XCOR has partnered with four leading payload integration providers in the US to give NASA and the research community a first-rate experience for the Program's missions.

The Planetary Science Institute (PSI) of Arizona, Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in Texas, NanoRacks LLC of Kentucky and Washington, DC, and Spaceflight Services of Washington will provide payload processing and related support services based on their multiple areas of expertise.

These independent payload service providers specialize in atmospheric science, physics, microgravity research, planetary science, Earth observation, and life sciences, and other areas.

XCOR Aerospace is a California corporation located in Mojave, Calif. The company is in the business of developing and producing safe, reliable and reusable rocket powered vehicles, propulsion systems, advanced non-flammable composites and other enabling technologies.

Animation of Orbital Insertion of Mercury spacecraft

NASA's MESSENGER mission, launched in 2004, is slated to slide into Mercury's orbit March 17 after a harrowing 4.7 billion mile journey that involved 15 loops around the sun and will bring relief and renewed excitement to the University of Colorado Boulder team that designed and a built an $8.7 million instrument onboard.

"In 2004, this milestone seemed like it was a long, long way away," said Senior Research Associate William McClintock, a mission co-investigator from CU-Boulder's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics. "But here we are at last, poised to help solve some of the many tantalizing mysteries about Mercury."

The smallest of the solar system's four rocky planets, Mercury is about two-thirds of the way nearer to the sun than Earth and has been visited by only one other spacecraft, NASA's Mariner 10, in 1974 and 1975. CU-Boulder scientists say learning what makes the hot, rocky planet tick will help them better understand the formation and evolution of planetary systems.

The refrigerator-sized spacecraft is carrying seven instruments -- a camera, a magnetometer, an altimeter and four spectrometers. Designed and built by CU-Boulder's LASP, the Mercury Atmospheric and Surface Composition Spectrometer, or MASCS, is a power-packed, 7-pound instrument that will make measurements of Mercury's surface and its tenuous atmosphere, called the exosphere.

MASCS breaks up light like a prism, and since each element and compound has a unique spectral signature, scientists can determine the distribution and abundance of various minerals and gases on the planet's surface and exosphere, said McClintock. "We now know Mercury's exosphere is constantly changing," he said.

During a 2009 MESSENGER flyby of Mercury, MASCS detected magnesium, an element created inside exploding stars, clumped in the exosphere. The team determined magnesium, sodium and potassium and several other kinds of atoms flying off Mercury's surface were being accelerated by solar radiation pressure to form a gigantic tail of material flowing away from the sun, said McClintock.

"All of the instruments on MESSENGER had to be extremely light, which stretched our imaginations and creativity," said LASP's Mark Lankton, program manager for MASCS. "We have learned a lot, and wound up getting a lot of bang for our buck."

LASP Director Daniel Baker, also a co-investigator on the MESSENGER mission, is studying Mercury's magnetic field and its interaction with the solar wind, including violent "sub-storms" that occur in the planet's vicinity. Since Mercury is the closest planet to the sun, MESSENGER is equipped with a large sunshade and heat-resistant ceramic fabric to protect it, said Baker.

"The three successful flybys of MESSENGER past Mercury have already rewritten the textbooks about the sun's nearest neighbor," Baker said. "We are pleased by all we have learned about the space environment of the planet. But we think there is so much more to learn -- we've probably just scratched the surface, so to speak."

Baker said the orbit insertion of Mercury will be celebrated by all of LASP, including a solar science team that saw its $28 million instrument crash into the sea March 4 due to problems with a NASA-contracted launch vehicle. "A very important aspect of LASP is that it is like a big family," Baker said. "Everyone shares the joys of success and the sorrow of failure, which has been a blessedly rare occurrence in our history."

"We have all of our appendages crossed for a successful orbit insertion," said Lankton. "MESSENGER is part of NASA's Discovery Program, and I'd be surprised if we don't continue to be surprised. Once we are in Mercury's orbit we are going to be getting a bounty of new data every day."

Arianespace Takes Delivery Of Two More EADS Birds For Orbital Delivery

SES ASTRA's ASTRA 3B spacecraft was delivered by an Antonov An-124 cargo jetliner, which landed yesterday at Rochambeau International Airport near the capital city of Cayenne.

Built by EADS Astrium, ASTRA 3B is a state-of-the-art Ku- and Ka-band spacecraft designed for the distribution of both direct-to-home broadcast services and two-way broadband services across Europe and the Middle East.

It will be positioned at the increasingly important 23.5 deg. East orbital position for SES ASTRA.

ASTRA 3B has a payload power of 10 kW, and can operate at a relay capacity of up to 60 transponders in Ku-band and 4 in Ka-band.

It is based on the Eurostar E3000 satellite bus, and is equipped with six mission antennas - four of which are side-mounted and will be deployed in orbit. With a launch mass of 5,470 kilograms, ASTRA 3B has been designed for a nominal lifetime of 15 years.

Liftoff of the upcoming dual-payload Ariane 5 mission is set for March 24, initiating another busy schedule in which Arianespace has planned a total of seven flights for its heavy-lift workhorse during 2010.

In addition, three missions are targeted with the medium-lift Soyuz from its new Spaceport launch facility, and the lightweight Vega vehicle's maiden flight also could occur before year-end from the Spaceport.