En pleine expansion, le marché des nanosatellites aiguise les appétits
des fabricants de petits lanceurs.
Les coûts de mise en orbite
réduisent, ce qui donne naissance à une longue traîne de start-up, tant
dans le secteur des lanceurs que dans celui des nanosatellites.
La
démocratisation de l'espace prend son envol.
Les nanosatellites décollent tous azimuts
Espace
Un assemblage de trois CubeSat, avec panneaux solaires déployables en orbite./ DR
Spaceport Sweden, is proud to announce, together with Kiruna
Lapland, the completion of a feasibility and concept study by IDEAS, a
world leading media and experience-design studio, for the development of
a Space Visitor & Science Center to further strengthen the
development of Kiruna, a leading space destination.
Spaceport Sweden is Europe's gateway to space and space travel. Located
in Kiruna, Swedish Lapland we offer launch infrastructure, space
adventures under the Midnight Sun and an international astronaut
program; Zero-G flights, Centrifuge training & Northern Light
Flights.
Inaugurated in 2007, Spaceport Sweden is a pioneering
initiative to establish commercial human spaceflight in Sweden and
become Europe's gateway to space, a center for excellence and
cross-industry innovation.
Located in Kiruna, Swedish Lapland,
Europe's premier space city since 1957, Spaceport Sweden work together
with selected partners to offer customers unique world-class space
adventures and learning experiences, further supplying launch
infrastructure, R&D facilities and high-tech expertise to commercial
space operators. Already today Spaceport Sweden offer learning space
adventures such as Northern Light Flights, Zero-G Flights and
Spaceflight Preparation and Centrifuge Training.
On
January 9, 2014, while the whole world watched Orbital's Cygnus launch
to ISS, Lithuanians had their eyes on a small satellite onboard the
Antares rocket lifting off from Wallops Island. Lituanica SAT-1
was successfully launched among other cubesats and a cargo craft to
space station, giving the country a solid reason to be space proud.
Lithuania is the country with no significant space exploration history,
thus launching nation's first satellite is really a major milestone in
spaceflight for this Baltic state.
"The project met huge interest from
the society, especially as it was from the very beginning well
publicized in the media" Laurynas Mačiulis, chief mission engineer told
astrowatch.net.
"It's
wonderful to see that a country like Lithuania, your president is
excited, that everybody is excited, and it's wonderful that you could
deliver it to your country and your people, without astronomical costs." said Nanoracks CEO, Jeffrey Manber.
Nanoracks provided the launch for
LituanicaSAT-1. It is a US comercial company which has the capability to
put comercial payload on ISS.
Boeing and Space Adventures want to fly you into space!
The two
companies announced an agreement to establish a space taxi system
that will launch astronauts and individual passengers into lower Earth
orbit. The aircraft will carry 7 people at a time.
Boeing and Space
Adventures are aiming to make commercial airflight operational by 2015.
Le véritable enjeu du tourisme spatial, ce n'est
pas d'amener des gens aux frontières de l'espace pour faire des sauts
périlleux arrière en apesanteur ou pour jouer les copilotes aux côtés
d'un astronaute aguerri.
Même si, en soi, c'est drôlement excitant.
Le
véritable enjeu, c'est de mettre au point un nouveau mode de transport
intercontinental ultrarapide et écologique.
«Des
vols suborbitaux intercontinentaux, c'est le Graal», lance Elliot
Holokauahi Pulham, chef de la direction de Space Foundation,
organisation américaine de recherche et de promotion du domaine spatial.
«C'est d'aller d'un point à un autre, de se rendre de Toronto à
Johannesburg en 90 minutes plutôt qu'en 14 ou 15 heures.»
