The Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (Ladee) is ready for environmental testing at NASA’s Ames Research Center, following installation of the last of its three instruments.

NASA AUDIT: House Investigations and Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Paul Broun (R-Ga.) is asking the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) to request a review of NASA’s export control policies, in response to recent allegations that Simon “Pete” Worden, director of NASA’s Ames Research Center, allowed foreign nationals access to information protected under International Traffic in Arms Regulations. In an Oct.

The space industry is finding it can’t afford to wait for the government to come calling with new business.

Lander visit lunar south pole by 2019 if ESA approves funding for continued development

Blue Origin has tested the pusher-type launch-abort system it developed with NASA funding, boosting a full-scale mockup of its suborbital crew vehicle to an altitude of 2,307 ft. at its test range near Van Horn, Texas, and recovering the capsule by parachute. The Oct. 19 test, announced Oct. 22, was conducted under a Space Act Agreement for the second round of NASA’s Commercial Crew Development (CCDev-2) effort to spark a commercial industry for transporting astronauts to low Earth orbit.

Work is underway at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center can help keep crews alive deep in the Solar System

NASA’s vision for deep-space exploration may be missing an opportunity to re-fortify the agency’s long-running but sporadic ties to nanotechnology, according to an assessment from Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy.

SLOW GOING: Orbital Sciences Corp. has once again postponed a flight demonstration of the Antares rocket and Cygnus cargo capsule it is developing under NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program. The Dulles, Va.-based company will slip the mission three or four months to next spring, following a flight demonstration of the rocket from the Wallops Island, Va., launch facility in December. Under the terms of a 2008 COTS agreement, the first flight of the rocket and cargo vessel was slated for late 2010.