If you’re in the USA right now you might be peering at this through a haze of Thanksgiving related food and drink excess but worry not, you’re not hallucinating because of that extra slice of Turkey, you are reading ths correctly, NASA is looking for rats in space experiments
But not these rats
If you can believe that then your likely to embrace with vigour Space.com’s Leonard David and his analysis of the commercial space world and how its prospects are shaping up
Last week saw the deadline for submissions for the new NASA Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) demonstration phase one $175 million space act agreement. As well as PlanetSpace’s link up with Lockheed and ATK, Hyperbola has heard that Spacedev and T/Space have submitted proposals for COTS
Another organisation with launch hopes is Sea Launch. After its on-pad explosion earlier this year it is finally getting its sea legs again
China on the other hand is celebrating its unveiling of the first image from its Chang’e-1 lunar orbiter
Slightly more down to Earth Hobbyspace.com has more links to US presidential election candidate space policy discussions
Meanwhile the European Space Agency is looking for new young graduate trainees
Talking of Europe, the European Commission’s ideas for a way past the Galileo satellite navigation programme impasse seem to have been leaked
But if that is just to unbelievable then there is always the reassuring fantasy of boyhood with space suits with glass bowl helmets and huge behemoth direct ascent Moon rockets, care of a link from Transterrestrial Musings