On August 13, 1968, at the Intersociety Energy Conversion Engineering Conference ( IECEC) in Boulder, Colorado, Dr. Peter Glaser of the US Solar Energy Society presented the idea of collecting solar energy in orbit and delivering it as radio wave energy to receivers on Earth 24/7.

by Dr. Patrick Collins

50 years ago today the prototype of the supersonic SR.53 rocket-powered interceptor aircraft made its first test flight at RAE Boscombe Downs, England. Over the following year, the two prototypes flew 42 times, including supersonically, but after an unexplained crash the project was cancelled. The planned function of high-altitude interception was fulfilled by the "Lightning" aircraft which was being developed at much the same time. Although the Lightnings were much loved by pilots, and became famous as world record-holders for high-speed climb, they could not of course leave the atmosphere as a rocket-powered vehicle could have.

On Thursday, March 4, 2004, the US House of Representatives approved legislation which is designed to promote the development of the emerging commercial human space flight industry.

by Dr. Patrick Collins

Sadly, Lance Bass will not fly on the upcoming Soyuz “taxi flight,” as reported earlier. However, he is continuing his training, so the possibility remains open that he could fly next year. Bass has been tethered by a lack of necessary funding; his backers could not provide the $20 million in time.

Nasa was recently ranked the 4th worst-managed US government organisation by the Senate Government Affairs Committee. It was particularly criticised for the incompetence it showed in:

Space News reported on January 15 that "senior Nasa space station officials" will meet in Moscow in February to discuss Russian plans to fly US citizen Dennis Tito to the ISS. The reason for this was given as: "Russian space officials recently informed Nasa in writing of a plan to fill the Soyuz capsule's vacant third seat with paying customers during routine missions."

NASA has recently admitted that the X-34 project, touted with the X-33 as the route to reducing launch costs, is at an impasse. Readers will remember that in 1995, as a result of the great success of the DC-X reusable rocket funded by the Defence Department, NASA announced its own RLV program - with the X-33 and X-34 reusable rockets as its centre-pieces. Both were to start a series of progressive demonstration flights in 1999, leading on to low-cost launch vehicles.

It is now more than 6 months since Mr Goldin promised in front of a plenary session of the 1999 Space Frontier Foundation Conference to put NASA's space tourism report on NASA's web-site. But he has still not done so.