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Editorial Team

Space Travel Editorial Team

Editorial Team

The Space Travel Editorial Team produces Space Travel's coverage of human spaceflight and access to space. We report on launch, crewed missions and space tourism, and the propulsion, vehicles and human factors of getting people to space. Articles reflect our team's collective editorial process, source verification, drafting, technical review, and editing, rather than a single writer's work. Space Travel takes editorial responsibility for content under this byline. For more on how we work, see our editorial policy.

Cornell To Study Planetary Magnetic Fields Propulsion Research Under NASA Grant

Ithaca NY (SPX) Feb 28, 2007 - Dr. Mason Peck from the Cornell University College of Engineering received a NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Phase I $75,000 award to study an innovative idea for altering spacecraft orbits in future missions. His paper, Lorentz-Actuated Orbits: Electrodynamic Propulsion without a Tether, made a compelling case for merging the small-scale physics of dust moving in a plasma and large-scale physics of planetary orbits to enable propellant-less spacecraft propelled by planetary magnetic fields.

Feb 28, 2007

NASA Set Flight Readiness Review For STS-117

Cape Canaveral FL (SPX) Feb 27, 2007 - NASA managers will hold the traditional Flight Readiness Review at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida Feb. 27-28 -- the next major milestone for mission STS-117. Before each mission, the review is conducted by top-level NASA officials, space shuttle program managers, engineers and contractors approximately two weeks prior to the opening of the launch window. They examine the readiness of the space shuttle, flight crew and payloads to determine if everything is set to proceed for launch.

Feb 27, 2007

Grand Theft Pluto

Huntsville AL (SPX) Feb 27, 2007 - When New Horizons, NASA's Pluto-bound spacecraft, swings by Jupiter on Feb. 28th, it will pick up a few souvenirs along the way - photos, data, and an extra 9000 miles per hour courtesy of the largest planet in our solar system.

Feb 27, 2007

Construction Of Soyuz Launch Base In French Guiana Begins

Kourou, French Guiana (SPX) Feb 27, 2007 - The construction site of the Soyuz launch base in French Guiana was officially opened today by Jean-Jacques Dordain, ESA Director General, Yannick d'Escatha, President of CNES, Jean-Yves Le Gall, Director General of Arianespace, and Anatoly Perminov, Head of Roscosmos. The ceremony took place in the presence of many French authorities and representatives of all the European and Russian entities contributing to the startup of the project.

Feb 27, 2007

NASA Delays Shuttle Atlantis Launch Due To Hail Damage

Washington (AFP) Feb 27, 2007 - The US space agency delayed Tuesday the scheduled March 15 launch of the space shuttle Atlantis for at least a month due to hail damage to the orbiter's external fuel tank. A strong thunderstorm swept the Cape Canaveral, Florida, area Monday, pelting the shuttle with hail as it sat at a Kennedy Space Center launch pad, being prepared for a mission to the orbiting International Space Station (ISS).

Feb 27, 2007

Space Shuttle Atlantis External Tank Hit By Major Hail Storm On Pad

Washington DC (SPX) Feb 27, 2007 - A major hailstorm has ripped through the Cape Canaveral area causing damage to Space Shuttle Atlantis' critical external tank. NASA has confirmed that the tank has been extensively pitted by thousands of hail strikes and the agency has decided to move Atlantis back to the hanger for inspection of the tank and the orbiter itself.

Feb 27, 2007

Hyundai To Build First South Korea Launch Pad

Seoul (AFP) Feb 27, 2007 - Hyundai Heavy Industries, the world's largest shipbuilder, said Tuesday it had won an order to build South Korea's first space rocket launch pad. The contract from the Korea Aerospace Research Institute calls for a launch platform and related facilities at the Naro Space Center on a southern island off the town of Goheung.

Feb 27, 2007

NASA Issues Ares I Upper Stage Production Request For Proposal

Huntsville, AL (SPX) Feb 26, 2007 - Friday NASA issued a request for proposal for the Ares I launch vehicle upper stage element. Ares I is the launch vehicle that will transport the Orion crew exploration vehicle and its crew and cargo to low Earth orbit. The upper stage proposals are due to Marshall Space Flight Center no later than 1 p.m. CDT April 13, 2007.

Feb 26, 2007

Iran Launch Claims Brought Down To Earth

Tehran (AFP) Feb 25, 2007 - Iran said on Sunday it had successfully launched its first rocket into space for research purposes, at a time of mounting tension with the West over its nuclear programme. The rocket reached an altitude of 150 kilometres (93 miles) but did not stay in orbit, said Ali Akbar Golrou, deputy head of Iran's aerospace research centre.

Feb 25, 2007

Engine Helps Satellites Blast Off With Less Fuel

Atlanta GA (SPX) Feb 23, 2007 - Georgia Tech researchers have developed a new protoype engine that allows satellites to take off with less fuel, opening the door for deep space missions, lower launch costs and more payload in orbit. The efficient satellite engine uses up to 40 percent less fuel by running on solar power while in space and by fine-tuning exhaust velocity.

Feb 23, 2007

Astronauts Urged To Take Up Skiing Ahead Of Lunar Missions

San Francisco (AFP) Feb 23, 2007 - Astronauts could be trained to cross-country ski across the surface of the moon as preparations for the next generation of lunar missions take shape, a conference heard Saturday. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced plans last year to build a base on the moon by 2020, hoping to use the lunar outpost as a launchpad for exploring the solar system in future generations.

Feb 23, 2007

SERVIS-2 To Be Launched On Rockot

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Feb 22, 2007 - The Institute for Unmanned Space Experiment Free Flyer (USEF) of Tokyo, Japan and Eurockot Launch Services GmbH of Bremen, Germany yesterday signed a contract for the launch of the SERVIS-2 spacecraft on a Rockot launch vehicle following an international competition. SERVIS-2 will verify the performance of commercial off-the shelf-parts and technologies in the space environment. It is planned to be launched in 2009 from Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Northern Russia.

Feb 22, 2007

Soyuz TMA-10 Spacecraft To Launch Expedition 15 Crew To ISS On April 7

Moscow (RIA Novosti) Feb 22, 2007 - A Soyuz TMA-10 spacecraft with 15th International Space Station (ISS) expedition will be launched April 7, 2007 from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan, the Russian Space Agency said Tuesday. The 15th ISS expedition comprises two Russian astronauts Fyodor Yurchikhin and Oleg Kotov and U.S. millionaire Charles Simonyi, who is set to fly to the ISS as a space tourist.

Feb 22, 2007

Speeding To Zeus On Route Pluto

Laurel MD (SPX) Feb 22, 2007 - We're a week from Jupiter closest approach. And if you're monitoring the Where Is New Horizons? page, you've likely noticed that we're already accelerating because of Jupiter's gravity. Although the effect is relatively small now, it will build dramatically in the coming days, giving us a boost of approximately 9,000 miles per hour (nearly 14,500 kilometers per hours) by the middle of next week. That's half the speed of a space shuttle in Earth orbit - essentially for free!

Feb 22, 2007

ISS Crew Complete Hour Space Walk As Next Shuttle Crew Conduct Dry Countdown

Moscow (AFP) Feb 22, 2007 - Two astronauts at the International Space Station (ISS) did a six-hour space walk on Thursday to repair an antenna on a refuelling vessel, Russia's space flight control centre said. The American astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria and his Russian colleague Mikhail Tyurin opened the station's airlock at 13:27 Moscow time (10:27 GMT) and left the station, a spokesman at the centre, Valery Lyndin, told AFP.

Feb 22, 2007

NASA And Virgin Galactic To Explore Future Cooperation

Moffett Field CA (SPX) Feb 22, 2007 - NASA officials announced they have signed an agreement with a U.S. company, Virgin Galactic, to explore collaborations on development of future space systems and support to commercial human spaceflight activities. Under the terms of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), NASA Ames Research Center and Virgin Galactic will explore possible collaborations in several technical areas.

Feb 22, 2007