Things Change: Falcon 1 Launch Success!!

MSNBC.com is reporting the successful launch of the low-cost Falcon 1 orbital delivery system.

This comes just hours after an aborted launch attempt due to a "communications glitch."

Although the second stage did tumble into a half-orbit, the rocket reached an altitude of 187+ miles, officially reaching space and proving its concept was sound.

Elon Musk said it was likely the company would proceed with scheduled launches later this year.

Falcon 1 Fails Again

The most recent launch of Falcon 1 failed, most likely due to a communications glitch. As the Associated Press reports in this story at CNN.com, Space Exploration Technologies has yet to launch its low-cost alternative to orbit.

A previous attempt failed moments after lift-off.

Even their technological approach, an oxygen-kerosene formula, seems a little haphazard when compared to the nitrogen and rubber favored by SpaceDev and SpaceShip One builders, Scaled Composites.

But Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX, is no dummie. He has the right idea, and though the process may be slow, tedious and highly destructive, in the long run the payoff is great.

So what if it costs a few rockets?

SpaceDev Dream Chaser: Let's Get it Straight

Jim Benson dropped us a line last week, suggesting we might have been unfair in pointing out he has no hardware despite a plan to start sending paying customers to space in a few short years.

Fair enough. As he points out no one else does either, except SpaceShip One, which utilizes a hybrid rocket engine designed by SpaceDev, the same company responsible for developing Benson's SpaceDev Dream Chaser.

While the SpaceDev Dream Chaser project has no publicly displayed hardware, it certainly does have an impressive lineage: Vertical take-off and landing capability has been repeatedly successfully tested by NASA; It's lifting body design has been successfully tested by the Soviet Buran program; and the fact SpaceDev rockets have a very good success rate.

There are currently at least a half dozen commercial sub-orbital space tourism companies promising flights will begin in a few years or so. Of them all, Virgin Galactic is probably closer than anyone else, simply because they are using an already proven method for space insertion.

Benson Space Co. and the SpaceDev Dream Chaser are a close second place simply because of the proven concepts behind their project.

We stand slightly corrected, though still firm believers in the adage "the proof is in the pudding"...

Tooth Regeneration Success!

CNN is reporting that Japanese scientists have successfully grown new teeth in a mouse using only a single original cell. And it wasn't a stem cell.

The original story appeared in Nature Methods.

This success puts us further on the path to growing replacement organs from a patients own cells. The ability to do this means a better alternative for astronauts on deep space missions who become seriously ill or injured.

Calling Dr. McCoy...

Heard The News? ISS Crew Sets New Record--Pass It On

NASA Astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria set a new U.S. spacewalking record during their third EVA in little more than a week. The stepped-up pace of work is meant to help bring the station to a point where more scientific research can be conducted, the crew can be expanded and new labors on other space-related missions can be conducted. If all goes well, by this time next year there will be six astronauts on board, rather than the three-person crew which has manned the station for several years now.

The new U.S spacewalking record of 58 hours 32 minutes is still a long ways from the all-time record set by Russian Cosmonaut Anatoly Solovyoz of 82 hours. But for the Americans it is a step in the right direction...

Lost Amid the Turmoil: Ulysses Conducts Solar Pole Mission

While most of the nation searched for "astronaut diapers" and 'lust in space', NASA and ESA scientists were titillated by data from yesterday's solar southpole flyby being conducted by the Ulysses spacecraft.

For the third time since its launch in 1990, Ulysses has crossed the south pole of the Sun in an effort to provide data on an area we know very little about. The magnetic field in this area is different, Solar Wind comes from here, and strangely enough (according to data retrieved during a previous flyby of the area) the surface temperature in this area is different.

Scientists are excited about the questions they may have answered following this trip but also the new questions they will develop because of it...

Dream Chaser Developer Still Making Headlines, Despite Not Having Hardware

Brian Emmett, the software consultant who gave up the free suborbital spaceflight with Virgin Galactic he won from Oracle Corp. (valued at $138,000) is still making headlines, with a little help from Benson Space Co. founder, Jim Benson.

Granted the SpaceDev Dream Chaser is a real concept, with an impressive heritage of success,it is also true that at this time no hardware has been displayed, much less tested. Suborbital flights are not scheduled until late 2008, and no commercial flights until 2010, but the lack of an actual craft for shake-out means anything could happen between now and then; multiple delays are nearly guaranteed.

However, credit Benson with keeping the company name in the news, by offering Emmett a job and a free ticket to ride one of the first flights, provided he write about his experiences during testing and training.

Benson, with 30 years experience as a successful technology entrepreneur, knows his way around the business of making money, so leave it to him to take advantage of good PR...

Endeavor Returning After Three-Year Overhaul

Florida Today is reporting NASA crews are hard at work reconstructing shuttle Endeavor following a three-year overhaul in the wake of the Columbia disaster. It will roll out to the launch pad on May 25, slated for liftoff to the International Space Station on June 29. It will be NASA's 119th shuttle mission. It's payload is small section of the ISS truss.

Perhaps its most precious cargo, however, will be astronaut educator, mission specialist Barbara Morgan.

Morgan will be NASA's first "educator astronaut", following in the footsteps of her successor, Christa McAuliffe, killed with six other astronauts in the Challenger disaster of 1986.
McAuliffe was to teach two lessons during her trip; It is hoped Morgan will provide NASA with the tools needed to better connect its mission for space exploration with schoolchildren everywhere...

Experimental Lunar Lander for Sale on eBay

An experimental Lunar Lander named Lauryad I is for sale right now on eBay. Buy it now for $199,999.00.

The Lauryad I designers and builders intend to compete in this year's X-Prize Cup, Lunar Lander Challenge. Winning bidder will own the ship outright and be entitled to half its earnings (if any) from the contest.

The craft is named for a ship from author Vanna Bonta's FLIGHT novel.

Chief engineer on the Lauryad I project, Allen Newcomb, also worked on Burt Rutan's SpaceShip One. This may or may not give him an edge in the lander competition, though Armadillo Aerospace has already shown great success with its entry, nicknamed Pixel.

Regardless of the outcome of the Challenge, the buyer of Lauryad I will still be a winner in the eyes of space enthusiasts everywhere...

Discovery Astronaut Charged with Attempted Kidnapping

CNN is reporting that NASA astronaut Lisa Marie Nowak, mission specialist aboard Discovery shuttle flight STS-116 last July, and the first Italian-American woman in space, has been arrested and charged with the attempted kidnapping of a romantic rival.

According to reports Nowak, married with three children, was vying with another woman for the affection of astronaut William A. Oefelein, pilot aboard shuttle flight STS-116.

Police say Nowak followed the woman, Colleen Shipman, from Texas to Florida, then accosted her in the parking lot of Orlando International Airport. During a search of Nowak's vehicle police discovered a BB gun, steel mallet and folding knife; rubber gloves and garbage bags; maps to Shipman's home and love letters to Oefelein.
Police also say Nowak told them she only intended to scare Shipman into talking to her about the relationship issue; she admitted having some sort of relationship beyond a working one with Oefelein, though she declined to be more specific.

The Orlando Sentinel has a copy of the arrest affidavit here.

This is likely the first-ever felony arrest of an active duty NASA astronaut.