Race for Mars hots up – test flight on ESA mini shuttle set for 11 February 2015

#spacetaxi #ESA #ISS #IXV #vegarocket The European ‘space taxi’ IXV (or Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle) is getting readied for launch on 11 February 2015 as indicated in dailymail.co.uk of dated 29 January 2015 – it would be a test flight. This vehicle would make available to Europe with its own shuttle-like, reusable space vehicle.
One of the objectives of this mission is to gather vital flight data that that could assist Europe to develop technology for a sample return mission to Mars, or to return astronauts from the space station.
It has been planned to launch the ‘space taxi’ on February 11 by using a Vega rocket from Kourou, French Guiana – the flight would be of 100-minute duration. It may be recalled that the launch had, initially, been scheduled for November 18, but in October, Arianespace had announced a postponement in order 'to carry out additional flight trajectory analyses'.
The weight of the taxi is two tonnes, its size is that of a car and it is fitted with 300 sensors. The prototype IXV is expected to collect data on the craft's handling and thermodynamics. The two-piece shell will open to release the space plane at an altitude of 200 miles (320 km).
It has been developed over five years at a cost of $225 million and this IXV would be the test-bed for a reusable vehicle. It would be useful to bring astronauts back from the International Space Station (ISS). At present, this is done by Russia and its Soyuz.

NASA eyes humans on Mars by 2024 – Boeing and SpaceX to ferry astronauts to ISS

#NASA #boeing #SpaceX #CST100 #ISS NASA plans to tie up with commercial companies like Boeing and SpaceX to ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station ISS by 2017 and, subsequently, to send humans to Mars by 2024. It may be recalled that the announcement of US$4.2 billion for Boeing and US$2.6 billion for SpaceX was made in September 2014. However, things are gradually hotting up.
Following the end of its 30-year space shuttle program in 2011, NASA has to rely on Russia and its Soyuz capsules but the cost charged is $US70-million per seat but, with the entry of private contractors like Boeing and SpaceX, the cost would reduce to approximately $US58-million.
As indicated by Commercial crew program manager Kathy Lueders, the cost per seat in the new US commercial industry would be approximately $US58 million – this would be an average cost teased out over the course of a five-year mission plan. The goal is to have two robust providers.
The tentative plans are to send a NASA astronaut and a Boeing test pilot in the first crewed test flight on the spacecraft called Crew Space Transportation-100, or CST-100 for short, in July 2017. This has been informed by John Elbon, Boeing's vice president and general manager of space exploration.
NASA administrator Charles Bolden has clarified that the rise of private industry in reaching low-Earth orbit would translate into greater benefits because the US space agency will then be in a position to focus on sending humans to Mars by 2024.
Of course, another major benefit for the US would be to end its costly dependency on the Russian space agency.