Black-Hole Birth Hunter Launched

CBS News reports that NASA's fast-swiveling space science observatory, named Swift for its speedy pivoting and pointing, Launched into orbit Saturday to hunt for the birth of black holes.

"Swift, a $250 million collaboration by NASA, Italy and Britain, should begin its hunt for gamma ray bursts by January and erase some of the mystery surrounding these explosions and black holes."

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A trip Around the Moon? It Could Happen

According to MSNBC, "a private group of spaceflight planners has developed a strategy for lunar tourist missions using existing or modified space hardware.

"Constellation Services International, a small California space firm founded in late 1998, recently disclosed details of the Lunar Express project to resume human flights to the moon funded by private passengers. Chief executive officer Charles Miller discussed it with MSNBC.com in an interview this month." Read the article...

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Report Stirs Debate Over NASA's Vision


A new report released by an American Physical Society's Special Committee on NASA Funding for Astrophysics questions the "moon, Mars and beyond" initiative. MSNBC says, "The society's assessment warns that the cost of overcoming technological challenges to make the plan a reality could far exceed budgetary projections and that numerous approved science programs could be jeopardized."

"Returning Americans to the moon and landing on Mars would have a powerful symbolic significance," the APS report observes, "but it would constitute only a small step in the advancement of knowledge, since much will already be known from exploration with the robotic precursor probes that are necessary to guarantee the safety of any human mission."

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China's Space Chief to visit NASA

The head of China's fledgling space agency plans to visit NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe next week, according to CNN. One U.S. expert said this visit could mean increased cooperation between the two countries.

"It's not a major milestone by any means, it's more of an evolutionary thing," O'Keefe said of the meeting, which a NASA official called a courtesy visit.

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House Passes Private Spaceflight Bill

Space.com reports that on November 20, the House of Representatives approved a bill that would establish government regulations for the emerging sub-orbital human spaceflight industry.

"The main purpose of the bill is to give the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) clear authority to regulate sub-orbital human space flight and set some of the initial guidelines. The bill would also establish an experimental permit regime allowing firms to fly prototypes and test vehicles with a lot less FAA paperwork than would otherwise be required."

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