Nano2Sol by Marc Boucher

In response to questions from the space community the Canadian Space Agency has provided a Q&A for bidders and extended the AO to May 26. The notice of intent is till due on April 18.

I had previously remarked on my blog that I felt the AO timeline was too short so I’m happy the community spoke up and that the CSA was able to respond favorably.

SpaceX Moves Closer to Inaugural Launch of…: After several issues over the last months it finally looks like Elon Musk and his SpaceX team are ready to launch their first Falcon rocket. If successful, and every space explorer wannabe is praying the launch goes well, this could open up the exclusive commercial space launch business for small start-ups with the balls (and money) to take on the establishment. Could SpaceDev, Rocketplane Kistler and others be next?

(Via Commercial Space Watch.)

This from MSNBC, and it’s about time. About from some company in North America to step up and finally implement this. After the Japanese have had by phone services for several years now.

PayPal plans payments via text message: “PayPal, the online payment service owned by eBay Inc., has begun testing a new offering to allow people to make and receive payments using cell phones and other mobile devices.”

I thought I’d let people know what conferences are on my radar this year. Each year it’s hard to pick only a few conferences to attend, after all there are so many to choose from. So they have to be directly related to some business ideas I’m developing. So this year here are the conferences I’m attending and am considering attending.

The first is Search Engine Meeting in Boston, April 24-25. The conference brings together commercial search engine developers, academics and corporate professionals to learn from each other. I’ve had a long standing interest in search engines and directories having developed one in 1995 for Canada called Maple Square and currently do a lot of data aggregation with some new ideas in development.

Next up is Search Engine Strategies in Toronto, April 25-26. I’ll only be able to attend the second day but it should informative in helping promote all the online properties I manage.

Next up is a conference I’m really looking forward to as it’s one I’ve never attended. It’s the 2006 International Space Development Conference which is being co-hosted by the National Space Society and the Planetary Society. It’s being held in LA, May 4-7. Since the two largest space advocacy groups are co-hosting the event I’m expecting a good turnout.

When I last exchanged emails with George Whiteside on the event was that they were hoping for 750 people. I’d like to see that number over 1000, so make a point of going. It’s got a great lineup of speakers. I also hope to talk to people about any business development ideas they have for the Mars Institute or SpaceRef.

(more…)

NASA announced today that the launch of the next Shuttle mission, STS-121, has been pushed back to between July 1-19.

For me this is good news as I’ve been wanting to visit KSC and watch a launch for some time now and the May launch window wasn’t working with my schedule. A July launch window works well and I may be able to finally see my first launch in person.