For the first time since WWII Germany is expressing an interest in an independent space project. The current German plan is to send an orbiter to the moon by 2013 to photograph the surface and create a lunar atlas. Germany also plans to send a soil sampler to the moon by 2020. The Lunar Exploration Orbiter project is being underwritten by proposed funding of 300 million Euros.

The project to map the surface of the moon sounds like the Change'I project from China. I believe that a similar project has also been proposed by Japan.

The Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan was on the short list of suspects in the recent orange snow event of the Omsk region of Siberia. The orange snow has been described as oily and rotten smelling. It also contains levels of iron, acids, and nitrates that are four times higher than ordinary snow. It is said that the region has plenty of other industrial polluters who may be to blame for the fortean weather.

An 8 megajoule Railgun was tested at Dahlgren Naval Surface Warfare Center in Virginia. Future tests are calling for a 32 megajoule gun before a 64 megajoule railgun is deployed aboard US Navy ships. Using electromagnetically fired railguns rather than conventional ordinance, the Navy hopes to increase the range of fire from ships by ten times to about 250 nautical miles. The project is expected to be operational by 2020. Last week Popular Science printed an article about a similar project being undertaken by the US Air Force. The Air Force project is expected to launch satellites and supplies into orbit.

Rocket Recovery Test by the Indian Space Research Organization. The capsule to be recovered is called the SRE-1. This is the 11th launch by the Indians. The rocket carries the first Indonesian made satellite.

After some delays caused by the US army's software malfunction, the Atlantic Spaceport in Virgina launched their first rocket. The Atlantic Spaceport is a project of the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is not a privately owned spaceport, but it is designated as being a commercial spaceport. That is probably a much different designation than a NASA spaceport. The land is leased by the Commonwealth of Virginia from NASA's Wallops Flight Facili

The private spaceport in Atlantic, VA is experiencing an indefinite delay in the launching of several satellites into space. The reason is listed as an 'anomaly' in the Army's TacSat-2 satellite software. There is no word on whether other cargo on the rocket is going to receive free hotel rooms until launch.

TacSat-2 software anomaly ground cargo flight