The latest presentation to the Future In-Space Operations (FISO) study group is now posted in the FISO Working Group Presentations Archive. Both slides (pptx) and audio (mp3) are available for the talk, PISCES: Settling the Near Space Frontier, Doris Hamill, NASA LaRC – June 5, 2013.
The NASA JSC Project Morpheus project carried out a tethered test flight of their vertical takeoff and landing vehicle on Thursday:
The French firm Heller is offering a kit of the European ATV (Automated Transfer Vehicle) spacecraft, which delivers cargo to the International Space Station: MISSION JULES VERNE – Heller (Google Translation to English).
The next ATV mission is scheduled to blast off today at 2152:11 GMT (5:52:11 p.m. EDT) on an Ariane 5 rocket from the ESA spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana :
Updates and video of the launch can be found at ATV Mission Report | Mission Status Center – Spaceflight Now
This video shows a NASA news briefing about a new solar wind research spacecraft, the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS), which will launch this month:
NASA hosts a news update about the June 26 launch of the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) mission from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
IRIS is a NASA Small Explorer Mission to observe how solar material moves in a dynamic million-degree atmosphere that drives the solar wind around the Sun’s atmosphere. The region is the origin of most of the ultraviolet solar emission that impacts the near-Earth space environment and Earth’s climate.
Icarus Interstellar is a “non-profit organization dedicated to achieving interstellar spaceflight by the end of the century”. They have organized a Kickstarter campaign to support a meeting this summer to discuss the gamut of issues related to deep space and interstellar spaceflight:
Imagine collectively experiencing the progressive thoughts and unencumbered designs of the world’s leading spacecraft designers, engineers, and astro-theorists. Picture for a moment, attending a forum where scientists, physicists, engineers, researchers, urban designers, representatives from international space programs and present-day commercial space operators, as well as popular and well-known interstellar speakers and space journalists share their visions for how the future of spaceflight and exploration may unfold.
This is the vision behind the Icarus Interstellar Starship Congress, to be held August 15-18, 2013, in Dallas, Texas. The aim is to bring together the interstellar community to foster discussion surrounding the development of deep space exploration within the next several decades, and how we may move humanity toward becoming an interstellar civilization.
More at Icarus Interstellar – Starship Congress 2013 Summit by Steve Summerford — Kickstarter.
Update June.3.13: I forgot to post their video: