Space Spies & Soviet Era Spaceships to Fly Commercial Missions Now

Well, time to get back to the main focus of this blog - Aerospace Technology. Cruising through the Space.com website this weekend, I uncovered four articles that I thought were worthy of mentioned.

First was a recent posting by Space.com writer Tariq Malik about a commercial company going to re-use several Soviet-era Reusable Return Vehicle (RRV) that they used to fly up to their military space stations-the Almaz class space station in the 1970s.

Made up of two sections, the cone shape RRV can carry three people. A commander and two passengers. The RRVs will be updated with modern equipment and technology.

The announcement was made at the Moscow Air Show in Russia. Price per ticket has yet to be revealed.

That company, Excalibur Almaz Limited, based out of the Isle of Man, has managed to get a hold of several RRVs that were in storage.

Next, Robert Bigelow to the rescue to save Project Orion! He is proposing a "stripped" down version of the Orion capsule known as Orion Lite. He even had a private meeting with the White house-charted panel on the future of the space program.

Quoting that article: In a July 30 interview with Space News, Mike Gold, director of Bigelow's Washington office, said he believes a low Earth-orbit optimized version of Orion could be ready to launch atop a human-rated version of the Atlas 5 within three or four years — much sooner than NASA's discredited March 2015 target for the first crewed launch of Orion and its Ares I rocket.

Gold said the Bigelow capsule would have the same outer mold line as NASA's 16-foot (5-meter) wide Orion and possibly the same internal pressure vessel, but little else in common."

A unique twist to this proposal is the mid-air capture of the Orion lite instead of letting it splash down in the ocean. Quote: One of the biggest deviations from NASA's Orion design involves the vehicle's landing system. Whereas NASA plans call for Orion to make an Apollo-style splashdown in the ocean, Bigelow is considering midair retrieval as a safer and more economical means to land the spacecraft following atmospheric re-entry.

"Air-capture is a strategy that has been implemented many times in the past, but never done at weights as high as a capsule," Gold said.

Midair capture was used by the military during World War II to recover gliders and during the 1960s to catch film canisters dropped from Corona spy satellites orbiting overhead.

The third bit of news is now more than a year old. There was a documentary (that I never heard about sadly) about Soviet and American military space flight operations and proposed spaceflight activities. Photo attached to this post is from www.deepcold.com showing the MOL in action.

You really need to read this article and check out the www.deepcold.com website. Somehow, reading through all that - I was thinking about the Mattel 6" tall action figure known as Major Matt Mason. And the fact that the U.S. Air Force went to the trouble to have "blue" color spacesuits made for their cancelled MOL(Manned Orbital Laboratory-1965) and Dyna-Soar orbital interceptor projects. How do we know this? Because NASA uncovered them in a long-sealed room at Cape Canaveral, FL, by accident in 2005. The program was aired on PBS as "NOVA: Astrospies."

Finally, there was this article by Bill Christensen posted on February 15, 2006, entitled "Anti gravity Propulsion System Proposed."

Dr. Franklin Felber presented a paper at the 2006 Space Technology and Applications International Forum (STAIF) that was held in Albuquerque, NM, February 14, 2006.

Quote: Dr. Felber's paper states that a mass moving faster than 57.7 percent of the speed of light will gravitationally repel other masses lying within a narrow 'anti gravity beam' in front of it. This "beam" intensifies as the speed of the mass approaches that of light.

The link to his actual paper appears to be broken now. So I was unable to download it to read it in detail.

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Ref. Space.com "Soviet-Era Spaceships to Fly Commercial Space Missions" by Tariq Malik, August 18, 2009. (http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/090818-excalibur-almaz-spaceships.html).

Space.com. "Nevada Company Pitches 'Lite' Concept for NASA's New Spaceship." by Amy Klamper. August 14, 2009. (http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/090814-orion-lite.html).

Space.com "Space Spies Revealed in New Documentary" by Tariq Malik. February 12, 2008. (http://www.space.com/entertainment/080212-astrospies-mol.html).

Space.com "Antigravity Propulsion System Proposed" by Bill Christensen. February 15, 2006. (http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/060215_technovel_antigravity.html).

Major Matt Mason Movie With Tom Hanks

I'm going to post this news on both of my blogs.  I am so totally geeked out over the POSSIBILITY of this even happening!  

Universal and actor Tom Hanks have optioned the rights from Mattel for their 1960's era action figure Major Matt Mason. 

This project is designed to be a "star vehicle" for actor Tom Hanks (Apollo 13).  Script will be written by Graham Yost.  Playtone partner Hanks and Gary Goetzman will be the producers.

For those who do not know about Mattel's Man In Space Program, otherwise known as Major Matt Mason; a American team of astronauts lead my the good Major in the white spacesuit.  The toy line first appeared in 1966 and was a 'major' hit in the massive buildup for the real manned moon missions.  Major Matt Mason toyline was retired in the early 1970s.

It was reported that Mattel executives Tim Kilpin and Barry Waldo came to the Playtone meeting with samples of the action figure and some of the gear that went with it.  It was also reported that Tom Hanks arrived with his own Major Matt Mason figure.  

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Ref. Scifiwire.com news item posted 03/25/2009.  This is the link for it. ( http://scifiwire.com/2009/03/universal-to-adapt-matt-m.php)