| 21 November 2011 |
NASA Flies Robotic Lander Prototype to New Heights By Kimberly Newton, NASA "NASA successfully completed the final flight in a series of tests of a new robotic lander prototype at the Redstone Test Center’s propulsion test facility on the U.S. Army Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Ala. Data from this test series will aid in the design and development of a new generation of small, smart, versatile robotic landers capable of performing science and exploration research on the surface of the moon or other airless bodies in the solar system, such as asteroids or the planet Mercury. Since early October, the Robotic Lander Development Project at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville has subjected the lander prototype to a series of more complex outdoor flight tests maneuvers. The team steadily increased the lander's flight profile, starting by hovering the lander – dubbed Mighty Eagle -- at 3 feet, then 30 feet and finally a record 100-foot flight test." |
| 27 April 2011 |
NASA's NanoSail-D Satellite Continues to Slowly De-Orbit Earth's Upper Atmosphere By SpaceRef.com "NASA's nanosatellite NanoSail-D is slowly descending after successfully orbiting the Earth's upper atmosphere for 95 days since deploying its 100-square-foot sail on Jan. 20. The small satellite demonstration experiment continues its descent towards Earth, lending key sail data to the design of de-orbit mechanisms for future satellites. The NanoSail-D experiment was designed and built by engineers in Huntsville and managed at the Marshall Center with design, testing, integration and execution of key nanosatellite activities by engineers at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. This experiment is a collaborative partnership between the Department of Defense Space Test Program at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M., and the Space and Missile Defense Command, the Von Braun Center for Science and Innovation, and Nexolve Corp., all in Huntsville and NASA." |
| 17 April 2011 |
Huntsville-Based
Dynetics Gains Big Partner for Google Lunar X Competition By Budd McLaughlin, The Huntsville Times "The Huntsville-based company announced that Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne has joined the Rocket City Space Pioneers, a group of businesses led by Dynetics, competing in the $30 million Google Lunar X Prize. "Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne will be a key player on our team," said Tim Pickens, team leader of the Rocket City Space Pioneers. "We are very fortunate to have such a reputable space company with a proven history of success join us on our mission."" |
| 19 January 2011 |
NanoSail-D Ejects: NASA Seeks Amateur Radio Operators' Aid to Listen for Beacon Signal By Kimberly Newton, NASA "On Wednesday, Jan. 19 at 11:30 a.m. EST, engineers at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., confirmed that the NanoSail-D nanosatellite ejected from Fast Affordable Scientific and Technology Satellite, FASTSAT. The ejection event occurred spontaneously and was identified this morning when engineers at the center analyzed onboard FASTSAT telemetry. The ejection of NanoSail-D also has been confirmed by ground-based satellite tracking assets. Amateur ham operators are asked to listen for the signal to verify NanoSail-D is operating. This information should be sent to the NanoSail-D dashboard at: http://nanosaild.engr.scu.edu/dashboard.htm. The NanoSail-D beacon signal can be found at 437.270 MHz." |
| October 2010 |
Dynetics to Lead Google Lunar X Prize Team Huntsville/Madison County Chamber of Commerce Initiatives Magazine "The lander/rover system is capable of making a soft landing on a planetary body and deploying a rover measuring approximately 20x30x40 centimeters and weighing less than 10 kilograms. The lander, when stowed, measures approximately 60x60x98 centimeters and weighs approximately 200 kilograms. Chamber member companies and organizations affiliated with “Team Rocket City Space Pioneers” include Teledyne Brown Engineering, UAHuntsville, Von Braun Center for Science and Innovation and Draper Laboratory." |
| 16 October 2010 |
NASA
Deals Gives Dynetics Team a Boost in Race to the Moon By Lee Roop, The Huntsville Times "NASA signaled its confidence Friday in six teams competing in the Google Lunar X Prize, including the team led by Huntsville's Dynetics Inc. In a move that also showed how NASA will likely develop its own future landers, the space agency said it would buy data from the Dynetics team and five others competing to be first to land on the moon and send back data. Dynetics is the lead contractor on the Rocket City Space Pioneers team, comprised of Teledyne Brown Engineering, Draper Laboratories, Andrews Space, Spaceflight Services, the University of Alabama in Huntsville and the Von Braun Center for Science & Innovation (VCSI)." |
| 20 September 2010 |
Huntsville 'Economic Cluster' Awarded SBA Grant The Associated Press "The Von Braun Center for Science & Innovation, a Huntsville-centered regional economic group, has been selected by the Small Business Administration to receive $600,000 to help economic development and create jobs, SBA Administrator Karen Mills announced today. The funding is through the SBA's pilot initiative "Innovative Economies." The program supports small businesses in regional economic "clusters," which are collaborations among small businesses, the public sector, economic development and other organizations." |
| 7 September 2010 |
Rocket City Space Pioneers Enter $30 Million Google Lunar X PRIZE
Competition X PRIZE Foundation "Today, the Rocket City Space Pioneers - a group of Huntsville businesses, educational institutions and non-profit organizations - announced their official entry into the Google Lunar X PRIZE, a $30 million competition that challenges space professionals and engineers from across the globe to build and launch to the Moon a privately funded spacecraft capable of completing a series of exploration and transmission tasks. Headquartered in Huntsville, Alabama, Team Rocket City Space Pioneers is comprised of seven organizations and is among twenty-three teams from a dozen countries that are registered in the competition." |
| 11 August 2010 |
NASA’s FASTSAT Satellite Arrives at Kodiak, Alaska, Launch Complex By Kimberly Newton, NASA "NASA's first microsatellite designed to create a capability that increases opportunities for secondary, scientific and technology payloads, or rideshares, to be flown at lower cost than before has arrived at Kodiak Island, Alaska, to begin final launch preparations. The Fast, Affordable, Science and Technology Satellite, or FASTSAT, arrived at the Kodiak Launch Complex on Aug. 10 from NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. Following final checkout, the just under 400-pounds satellite will be integrated on a Minotaur IV launch vehicle as one of three secondary payloads." |
| 8 June 2010 |
Sixteen students arrive to Panama for Study Abroad Program on Climate Change and Sustainable Development CATHALAC Study Abroad Program "Sixteen students arrived to Panama on June 6, 2010, to begin the first Study Abroad Program on Climate Change and Sustainable Development in Latin America and the Caribbean conducted by CATHALAC (the Water Center for the Humid Tropics of Latin America and the Caribbean) in partnership with UAHuntsville (the University of Alabama in Huntsville). The Study Abroad participants, now in Panama for the 8-week long summer program arrived with great excitement and are eager to learn not only about climate change and sustainable development from the Latin American perspective, but also about the Panamanian culture, customs, traditions, and especially the language." |
| 7 June 2010 |
FastSat Ready for Shipping to Alaska By Kimberly Newton, NASA "NASA has successfully completed a comprehensive pre-shipment review of the Fast, Affordable, Science and Technology Satellite, or FASTSAT, a small, microsatellite class spacecraft bus that will carry six experiment payloads to low-Earth orbit. The pre-shipment review was completed in May, demonstrating the flight hardware has successfully passed all environmental and performance tests and is authorized for shipment to the launch site for final integration on the Minotaur IV launch vehicle, built and operated by Orbital Sciences Corporation, Dulles, Va." |
| 11 March 2010 |
Three FASTSAT Instruments Pass Tests By Rob Gutro and Kim Newton, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center "The outer layers of Earth's atmosphere hold many secrets yet to be uncovered and three scientific instruments will fly soon on the FASTSAT-HSV01 satellite and seek to uncover them to benefit us here on Earth. Known as MINI-ME, PISA and TTI, these instruments recently passed a series of important final tests to prove their readiness for spaceflight. These instruments were conceived and built at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., and were integrated to the satellite and tested at NASA's Marshall Spaceflight Center, Huntsville, Ala." |
| January 2010 |
SatMagazine: January 2010 Edition - Small Satellites
By SatMagazine "For additional proof as to the interest in small satellites, let’s take a look at NASA. The agency has just partnered with Dynetics and the Von Braun Center for Science and Innovation, or VCSI, and has successfully completed environmental testing of the Fast, Affordable Science and Technology Satellite, or FASTSAT- HSV01. A NASA team built this small, low-cost satellite called FASTSAT, and it’s almost ready to fly. But, why name it FASTSAT? It’s certainly not because it travels fast. It’s because it was built in a hurry. The FASTSAT team built this prototype in a mere 10-½ months for the relatively thrifty sum of US$4 million dollars." |
| 16 December 2009 |
Marshall Space Flight Center Works with Dynetics to Develop Fast Satellite Prototype By Shelby G. Spires "Dubbed the FastSat, the small satellite will be able to loft six instruments that will study the environment and will play host to a smaller satellite "or cube sat that will deploy a solar sail that will be used to study solar wind and propulsions," Cook said. The $10 million satellite was developed by Dynetics, in partnership with Marshall Space Flight Center and the Von Braun Center for Science and Innovation here. "It's all homegrown," Cook said. "The design, the testing and the development all happened here. It took about 10 months, and that's pretty good." |
| 8 December 2009 |
NASA and Contractor Team Develop One Fast Satellite By Kimberly Newton, NASA "NASA has partnered with Dynetics and the Von Braun Center for Science and Innovation, or VCSI, both in Huntsville, Ala., to successfully complete environmental testing of the Fast, Affordable Science and Technology Satellite, or FASTSAT- HSV01. FASTSAT-HSV01 is a unique platform that can carry multiple small instruments or experiments to low-Earth orbit on a wide range of expendable launch vehicles for a fraction of the cost traditionally required for such missions. The satellite or "bus" will carry six small payloads, including three technology demonstration experiments and three atmospheric research instruments." |
| 25 November 2009 |
Autonomous Lunar Lander Hover Test By Joe Pappalardo, Popular Mechanics "Just for us, NASA drop-tested a lunar lander model that will be used to create a robot that can guide itself to the moon's surface. The 3-foot-tall, 270-pound robot dropped from 10.5 feet and used compressed-air thrusters to set down. The hardware will be used to research control algorithms for other lunar landers, about the same size as those that could be used by NASA in a program called the International Lunar Network. Members of the program, which is being studied now, could each land robots on various parts of the moon for coordinated, comprehensive studies. The lander pulses its thrusters to counter earth's gravity, as well as those used to control its landing and to rotate. The next step is using a more energetic propellant in the lander's thrusters." |
| 11 November 2009 |
NASA 'Drops' Next Generation Robotic Lander During Autonomous Tests By Kimberly Newton "The Robotic Lunar Lander Development Project is a team of industry, government and not-for-profit collaborators, including the Marshall Center, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., and the Von Braun Center for Science and Innovation in Huntsville. This team is designing and building the "next generation" of robotic landers that can carry a broad range of science payloads and devices, including geophysical measurement instruments, volatile measurement instruments or possibly lunar sample returns." |
| 26 October 2009 |
Fastsat Instruments Shipped to NASA Marshall for Tests and Launch
Preparation Published by Klaus Schmidt "The satellite was created at NASA Marshall with the Von Braun Center for Science and Innovation, in partnership with Dynetics, a corporate partner. "Engineers at NASA Marshall will test TTI, Mini-ME and PISA to ensure they can withstand the vibrations of launch, and the frigid temperatures in space," said FASTSAT Project Manager Mark Boudreaux at NASA Marshall." |
| 19 September 2009 |
Lunar Lander Test Article Glides Above the Safety Net Published by Klaus Schmidt "NASA MSFC in partnership with the Von Braun Center for Science and Innovation (VCSI) has successfully demonstrated the first autonomous flight of a new robotic lander test article -- one that will aid in the development of a new generation of multi-use landers for future robotic space exploration. During recent testing, the lander's thrusters operated precisely as planned and the vehicle has performed a 9.8 second flight, demonstrating it can fly autonomously while safely controlling itself." |