ESA to Unveils Brit-Made SABRE Hybrid Rocket Engine

The makers of the newfangled Synergetic Air-Breathing Rocket Engine (SABRE) have secured the necessary funding to fire up their hardware by 2020.

Reaction Engines – the Oxfordshire, England-based team behind the next-gen engine – signed a collaboration contract with the European Space Agency at the Farnborough Air Show on Tuesday, which in turn unlocks a full £60m (US$80m) grant from the UK government. The ESA will administer €10m of that cash and the UK Space Agency (UKSA) will take care of the rest.

That means both the ESA and the UKSA will have a hand in overseeing the project, which is reassuring. We should see the engine test unit firing by the end of the decade – with a full aircraft expected a few years after that.

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Turkey's New Launcher Concept

Turkey has unveiled its concept for a new space launch vehicle and satellite launch center in a video produced by the country's undersecretariat for defense industries and missile-maker Roketsan.

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North Korean Satellite Launch

North Korean satellite launch 2016

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North Korea Missile Reaches New Heights

North Korea launched what appeared to be an intermediate-range missile on Wednesday to a high altitude in the direction of Japan before it plunged into the sea, military officials said, a technological advance for the isolated state after several test failures.

The launch came about two hours after a similar test failed, South Korea's military said, and covered 400 km (250 miles), more than halfway towards the southwest coast of Japan's main island of Honshu.

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French Navy Successful M51 Ballistic Missile SLBM Test

The French Ministry of Defense announced that an M51 submarine launched ballistic missile (SLBM) was test launched "in operational conditions" from French Navy (Marine Nationale) ballistic missile submarine (SSBN) Le Triomphant on July 1st 2016.





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Phobos and Deimos would Allow SpaceX to Practice Interplanetary Flight

An outpost on Earth’s moon will not be as easy as many think, but if the “already done” moon seems too easy for Mr. Musk, there are other destinations more realistic than the Martian surface. The Martian moons Phobos and Deimos would allow SpaceX to practice interplanetary flight without the enormous added risk and expense of landing. Mars is not an easy world to land on, and doing so should not be taken lightly. Such a “PhD” strategy would allow SpaceX to operate around and on asteroid-like bodies, which could ultimately lead to main belt mining operations, another potential long-term strategy to make money.

A PhD outpost would enable scientists to efficiently operate rovers on Mars without the time delay from communicating with Earth. This would provide reconnaissance useful for later scientific expeditions with geologists on the surface. Most importantly, lunar and PhD destinations do not require development of a new rocket. The Delta 4 Heavy, or if successful the Falcon Heavy, will do just fine.

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Lockheed-Boeing Rocket Venture Cuts 350 Jobs

A rocket company owned by Lockheed Martin and Boeing said on Friday it cut 350 jobs, with another 400 to 500 layoffs expected in 2017.

The staff reductions amount to a quarter of the workforce at United Launch Alliance LLC, the Centennial, Colorado-based company that supplies the U.S. Air Force with Atlas and Delta rockets to launch military and spy satellites into space.

ULA wants to position itself to better compete against technology entrepreneur Elon Musk's Space Exploration Technologies and other upcoming commercial launch service companies, such as Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin and Paul Allen's Stratolaunch Services.

SpaceX, as Musk's privately owned Hawthorne, California-based firm is known, in April broke ULA's 10-year monopoly on military satellite launch contracts with an $83-million Air Force award to deliver a GPS spacecraft into orbit in 2018.

The price for a SpaceX Falcon 9 launch is 40 percent less than what the Air Force expected to pay for a ULA Atlas 5 rocket ride, Lieutenant General Samuel Greaves, head of the Air Force's Space and Missile Systems Center, told reporters on a conference call after the contract announcement.

About two-thirds of ULA's layoffs were voluntary, with another 110 workers receiving notice on Thursday of an involuntary layoff, Rye said.

The cuts impact employees in Colorado, Texas, California, Alabama and Florida.

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UAE to include EIAST projects in curriculum

The Emirates Institution for Advanced Science and Technology (EIAST) has signed an agreement with the UAE Ministry of Education as per which its key findings will become part of the secondary school curriculum of Geography and Social Studies.

As per the agreement, EIAST will provide the ministry with detailed information on its vision, mission, researches and main programmes, in addition to the images received by DubaiSat-1 to be included in the geography text book of the tenth grade next year, said a statement from UAE Ministry of Education (MoE).

This initiative is part of the ministry’s efforts to strengthen the student curriculum with contemporary subject materials to enhance the knowledge base of students, and complements EIAST’s efforts in sharing its concrete contributions for the benefit of the UAE student community.

A delegation from the Ministry of Education headed by Shaikha Kholood Saqr Al Qassimi, director of Curriculum Department, MoE, recently visited EIAST to identify its workflow, future development plans and programmes, as well as to discuss aspects of cooperation between them.

Adnan Mohammed Al Rais, team leader of Ground Systems and Image Processing, gave a detailed presentation on the launch process of DubaiSat-1, how the Ground Control Station is connected to the satellite for receiving images and updates on DubaiSat-2.

The delegation also visited the Ground Control Station connected to DubaiSat-1, the Image Processing and Data Analysis lab, and the Assembly Integration and Test room.

Shaikha Kholood lauded the efforts of UAE nationals in achieving the historic accomplishment.

“We are pleased to co-operate with the EIAST and share their knowledge base with the student community of the UAE. By incorporating EIAST’s achievements as part of the student curriculum, we aim to further positioning the UAE on the international map of innovation and excellence by promoting stronger interest in the young minds about the country’s scientific accomplishments.”

Ahmed Al Mansoori, director general, EIAST, said the joint initiative was important given the vital role that the ministry plays in strengthening and developing the skills of future generations.

'We are pleased to co-operate with the ministry and we hope that EIAST’s activities, especially the achievements of DubaiSat-1, will be a catalyst for UAE high school students to pursue the path of advanced technology for the overall welfare of the nation,' he added.

The delegation from the Curriculum Department, MoE, included Mariam Kamal, head of Humanities curricula; Fatima Ahmed Al Muhairi, art director, and Dr Jassim Mohammed Abdel Karim, a specialist in geography - Social Studies Division.

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