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November 26, 2013

Obama Administration Announces Space Transportation Policy

Designed To 'Assure Access To Diverse Regions Of Space'

The Obama administration has announced its national Space Transportation Policy designed to assure access to diverse regions of space, from suborbital to Earth’s orbit and deep space, in support of civil and national security missions.

Testing Systems That Will Guide The SLS Heavy Lift Booster On Liftoff

NASA has completed the first tests with an F/A-18 research jet to evaluate the autonomous flight control system for the agency's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. The system, called the Adaptive Augmenting Controller, will allow SLS to respond to vehicle and environmental variations such as winds or vehicle flexibility after it blasts off the launch pad and heads toward space.

Comet Will Slingshot Around The Sun Thanksgiving Day

It began in the Oort cloud, almost a light year away. It has traveled for over a million years. It has almost reached the star that has pulled it steadily forward for so long. On Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 28, 2013, Comet ISON will finally sling shot around the sun. Here its inward journey through the solar system will end -- either because it will break up due to intense heat and gravity of the sun, or because, still intact, it speeds back away, never to return.

New Program Seeks To Lower Satellite Launch Costs By Developing A Reusable Hypersonic Unmanned Vehicle

Commercial, civilian and military satellites provide crucial real-time information essential to providing strategic national security advantages to the United States. The current generation of satellite launch vehicles, however, is expensive to operate, often costing hundreds of millions of dollars per flight. Moreover, U.S. launch vehicles fly only a few times each year and normally require scheduling years in advance, making it extremely difficult to deploy satellites without lengthy pre-planning.

Current $25,000 Bid Does Not Meet The Reserve

An item described as a "Real Flying Rocket Belt or Jetpack" is on the electronic auction block at eBay, but don't expect to get it for a song. And, given the number of typographical and grammatical errors in the listing, it's difficult to know whether to take it seriously.

Also: FIFI Takes Off, Tuskegee Airman Goes West, Thanksgiving In Space, Seattle Councilwoman Wants To Privatize Boeing....

FAA Administrator Michael Huerta called on the airline industry to work together to assess and prioritize voluntary actions to further improve training across the industry. The German company e-volo, together with a network of partners is pressing ahead with the development of the technology for the Volocopter during the next few years. The Volocopter is an electric-powered multi-rotor vertical takeoff or landing aircraft. Think of it as being like a quadcopter unmanned aerial vehicle on steroids ... with the ability to carry a pilot and a passenger. Last month we reported that the Proud Bird restaurant, a fixture for decades at Los Angeles International Air