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Start-up Firm Building New Space Capsule System

No links to this YET - but the October issue of Popular Science reports on a firm called T/Space which is developing, with NASA backing, and some project collaboration with Rutan's Scaled Composites, a capsule system called the CXV or Crew Transfer Vehicle capable of carrying three or four astronauts to low Earth orbit, and returning for a wet landing, like the Mercury/Gemini/Apollo had.

The launcher is an aircraft launched propane & liquid oxygen rocket. The whole emphasis has been on economy and simplicity of design - and seems to be making some real progress - possibly having things ready to go b\y '08 or '09 - an unheard of timeline for NASA projects.

Best of all, this will be privately owned/operated, flying as contractors to NASA, or whoever else wants/needs to get to orbit. Meanwhile, NASA is proceeding with its plans for vehicles to replace the shuttles also apparently based on a larger, more advanced capsule design for personnel, and a heavy lift cargo launcher, for well, cargo. NASA doesn;t plan to be ready to fly before 2012 at best, so the T/Space CVX could fill a gap to help keep the International Space Station in business until then.

The folks at T/Space emphasize that they are NOT building a shuttle replacement - but perhaps a modern replacement for the truly antiquated Soyuz technology.

This is truly good news - the US must maintain an effective capability for space, if for no other reason, to prevent a default ceding of the ultimate high ground to China, Russia, or whoever else goes after it.

From the Times-Picayune: BATON ROUGE - Mayor Ray Nagin pledged Monday that he and other citizens of New Orleans rather than state and national officials would be the lead planners in rebuilding the Crescent City, even as the town copes...

While the storm rages over just how much the Katrina aftermath will affect George Bush's poll numbers, here are a couple of forward looking stories. First, how many people really died? I was always suspicious of the 10,000 speculation. I...

Great Britain considers getting rid of National Holocaust Day because it might offend Muslims. Meanwhile, Palestinians are gleefully burning synagogues in Gaza. What an amazing world we live in....

Methinks that Instapundit is right on the money: THE PRESS WANTS TO SHOW BODIES from Katrina. It didn't want to show bodies, or jumpers, on 9/11, for fear that doing so would inflame the public. I can only conclude that...

From Star Parker:The charges of racism-inspired foot-dragging isn't just nonsense. It's pernicious nonsense. This is how the New York Daily News called it regarding charges, from the usual circle of black leaders, that the rescue efforts in New Orleans were...

Oh, Jesus Christ....

14 September 2005 Roll Call:A few days before a federal commission was scheduled to decide the fate of Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota's two Senators preemptively released a lengthy statement pledging to work together on issues of importance to...

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