This Week in Space

The Spaceflight Now website has recently added a webcast called "This Week in Space," which has some interesting content. If you can ignore the odd backgrounds and poor video quality, you will find a good set of stories on the U.S. space program. It bills itself as follows: A new show dedicated to keeping space lovers up to speed on the stories and issues making news off the planet.

Only two webcasts are available at this time; December 22, 2009 and January 15, 2010. Each are worth a quick look or, better yet, you can subscribe to the program on the website or iTunes and get every episode.

A Bit of Fun...

Milestones in 2009

The magazine NetworkWorld had a good list of NASA's 2009 projects worth highlighting here because it shows the diversity of the U.S. space program. The article notes

2009 was a critical year for NASA. The space agency saw its very existence reviewed by the United States Human Space Flight Plan Committee and it watched as its venerable space shuttle fleet ticked off five of its remaining 10 missions. But there were plenty of other projects that took center stage such as the development of the next generation heavy lift rocket, Ares, and the extension of the agency's Antarctica's sea ice monitoring program as well as its ongoing Mars operations.

Here are some other projects mentioned in the article, some of which I hope to follow-up on throughout 2010.

• NASA partnered with the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory to develop a plan for reusable commercial spaceships.
• NASA offered $50 million in stimulus money to develop private commercial spacecraft - the Commercial Crew and Cargo Program plans to develop safe, reliable, and cost-effective capabilities to transport cargo to low-Earth orbit and eventually astronauts to the International Space Station.
• NASA's Lunar CRater Observing and Sensing Satellites (LCROSS) crashed into the moon in October 2009 confirming the presence of water on the surface.
• NASA's Mars rover Spirit became stuck in a sand trap in a place NASA calls "Troy" on April 23, 2009 - however, the little guy continues to conduct experiments.
• NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) agreed to cooperate on a future trip to Mars.
• NASA's Centennial Challenges program awarded $1.65 million in prize money to two aerospace companies that successfully simulated landing a spacecraft on the moon, as was as lifting off again. The $1 million first prize went to Masten Space Systems and the $500,000 second prize went to Armadillo Aerospace.
• NASA and Goodyear developed an airless tire for large, long-range vehicles transporting heavy loads across the surface of the moon.

Not a bad year at all, and plenty to do in 2010.