No Lockheed money for PlanetSpace

Lost in all the developments surrounding the X Prize Cup was a report that Lockheed Martin would invest $45 million towards the development of a spaceport in Nova Scotia for PlanetSpace. Well, so much for that. The Globe and Mail reported a day later that Canadian officials had quashed any such investment plans, which were […]

PlanetSpace, Lockheed Martin, and spaceport funding

US-Canadian space transportation company PlanetSpace appears to have found an unlikely benefactor to help fund development of a planned spaceport for the company in Nova Scotia, Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail reported Friday. Lockheed Martin is reportedly offering to contribute $45 million over six years to help pay for the development of a spaceport […]

ISPS Day 1 wrap-up

(The picture above doesn’t have anything to do directly with the conference, it’s just a nice view of the Moon rising around sunset Wednesday as seen from the conference site in Las Cruces.)

Yesterday’s sessions of the International Symposium for Personal Spaceflight didn’t have any groundbreaking revelations, but there were still some interesting developments […]

PlanetSpace looks beyond tourism

SPACE.com published yesterday an overview of PlanetSpace and its plans to develop the Silver Dart spaceplane. What’s noteworthy about this review is that space tourism is a relatively low priority for the company, which is instead pursuing orbital flights to the ISS (and presumably other destinations, if any) as well as point-to-point flights, taking advantage […]

Deals for PlanetSpace, t/Space

NASA announced yesterday that it has signed Space Act agreements with PlanetSpace and t/Space, two companies that competed for COTS awards last year but failed to win any money. The agreements provide neither company with any money, but do involve the sharing of information and the creation of “milestones and objective criteria by which the […]

Spaceport news update

Some developments at commercial spaceport projects in the US and Europe:

On Friday the Swedish government officially announced Spaceport Sweden, including an agreement to have Virgin Galactic conduct suborbital tourist flights from the facility near Kiruna. According to SPACE.com, the government doesn’t plan to invest any money into the site, saying that there is sufficient […]

PlanetSpace and NASA: what’s the deal(s)?

Today’s issue of the Halifax (Nova Scotia) Daily News provides an update on PlanetSpace and its plans to establish a spaceport in the Cape Breton region of the province. A couple curious things come out of the article: it states that “the Chicago-based company has signed one contract with NASA and is said to be […]

Ohio’s offer to PlanetSpace

According to a report in Wednesday’s issue of the Columbus Dispatch, the state of Ohio has made a preliminary incentive offer to PlanetSpace to lure the venture to establish operations in the state. (See previous coverage of Ohio’s plans to get PlanetSpace to establish a landing site and/or manufacturing facility near Columbus.) Details about the […]

The seasick astronaut

Today’s Toronto Star has an article about Terry Wong, a member of the astronaut corps of Canadian Arrow/PlanetSpace first announced back in 2003. Wong, a Canadian Forces pilot, used to suffer something that would seem to be a disadvantage to a pilot or astronaut: airsickness (including an incident on his first solo airplane flight that […]

Spaceport Ohio?

MSNBC reports, in a surprising development, that PlanetSpace is in negotiations with the state of Ohio about establishing a spaceport at a cargo airport on the outskirts of the state capital, Columbus. Rickenbacker International Airport, a former Air Force base that is today a cargo and passenger charter airport, would be the landing site for […]