NASA’s Project Constellation program has been overhauled to include a slightly smaller Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) and a new human-rated booster with an Apollo-era upper stage engine.

Project Constellation is the name NASA has given for the effort to develop hardware necessary to replace the space shuttle and return astronauts to the Moon late next decade.

NASA still intends to make use of the solid-rocket booster technology that has helped lift the space shuttle off the pad for a quarter century. But the agency recently approved CEV launcher plans calling for development of a new five-segment solid-rocket booster instead of the four-segment motor currently in production.

CEV Makeover: NASA Overhauls Plans for New Spaceship

SUMMARY: The FAA proposes requirements for human space flight of crew and space flight participants as required by the Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act of 2004. If adopted, this rulemaking would establish requirements for crew qualifications, training, and notification. It would also establish training and informed consent requirements for space flight participants. The rulemaking would also modify existing financial responsibility requirements to account for the FAA's new authority for space flight participants and crew, and to issue experimental permits. The experimental permit is the subject of a separate rulemaking. The FAA is conducting this rulemaking in order to fulfill its responsibilities under the new act. The requirements are designed to provide an acceptable level of safety to the general public, and to notify individuals on board of the risks associated with a launch or reentry.

Human Space Flight Requirements for Crew and Space Flight Participants; Proposed Rule | SpaceRef - Your Space Reference

Four rare transits of the Sun by aircraft have been captured by the Improved Solar Optical Observing Network (ISOON) telescope at the National Solar Observatory atop Sacramento Peak at Sunspot, New Mexico.

Follow the link to nso.edu to see the original pics.

Flying across the Sun

Galileo, Europe's global navigation satellite system, will start becoming concrete reality the day after Christmas with the launch of Galileo In-Orbit Validation Element GIOVE-A on top of a Soyuz-Fregat rocket from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The complete constellation of 30 satellites, specifically designed for civil use, will eventually offer European citizens and institutional users state-of-the-art global positioning and timing services with outstanding accuracy, availability, integrity and a guaranteed signal. Galileo is a joint initiative being taken by the European Commission and ESA.

EU doesn't want to be beholden to DoD for GPS.

First member of Galileo satellite family to be launched on 26 December

NASA Selects ATK Reusable Solid Rocket Motors as Baseline for Human Access to Space

This is refactoring the STS SRB into the CLV for CEV. Completely pro forma but still, nice to see anything happening here.

NASA Selects ATK to be Prime Contractor for First Stage of Next Generation Crew Launch Vehicle

The X Prize Foundation has completed a study on how the Federal Government—NASA—can establish cash prizes to spur human-carrying orbital spacecraft.

X Prize For Human Orbital Vehicle Studied

As NASA prepares to once again send humans to the surface of the Moon, Russia is also developing its own plans for future manned spaceflight.

The country's Clipper project to develop a six-person spacecraft to deliver astronauts into Earth orbit, and potentially beyond, appears in some ways to be the Russian Federal Space Agency's answer to NASA's Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV).

Russia's Next Spaceship: Alternative to NASA's CEV

XCOR's EZ-Rocket flew into the history books today. The craft made a record-setting point-to-point flight, departing here from the Mojave California Spaceport, gliding to a touchdown at a neighboring airport in California City.

XCOR Rocket Plane Soars into Record Book

NASA is leaning toward flying its next space shuttle mission without the protective foam ramp that broke away from Discovery's external tank during its July return to flight, according to a spokesman for the U.S. space agency.

NASA Likely To Fly Next Shuttle Sans Foam Ramp

Iran's space agency is trying to snap up technology from abroad as fast as possible for its satellite program, fearing the West will seek to impose restrictions like those put on the Iranian nuclear program.

Iran has major ambitions in space, looking to show off its technological abilities, monitor its neighborhood � where the United States has hundreds of thousands of troops � and establish itself as a regional superpower.

Iran Plans to Boost Space Program