HOUSTON — NASA’s Morpheus team expects to assemble a second test vehicle from spare components and resume tethered test flights at Johnson Space Center by the end of 2012, following the prototype lander’s Aug. 9 crash during an untethered flight attempt at Kennedy Space Center (KSC).

NASA has issued a new call to researchers to flight test an array of space technologies on a variety of platforms ranging from the modified Boeing 727 Zero-G parabolic test aircraft to high-altitude balloons and reusable launch vehicles. The announcement is the fifth made by NASA’s Flight Opportunities program, which aims to develop key space technologies as well as help foster the growth of the reusable launch business. Proposals for the latest call are due by Sept. 21, with an initial announcement on selections possible as early as November.

ISRO is building a third launch pad as it eyes plans to significantly boost its launch tempo

NRO RETRY: The U.S. Air Force is eyeing Sept. 6 for the rescheduled launch of the National Reconnaissance Office’s latest classified satellite, NROL-36. Originally targeted for an Aug. 2 liftoff from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., the flight had to be postponed while engineers worked through a range instrumentation issue. The fixes for the range issues should be tested and certified by the end of this month, according to Atlas V rocket maker United Launch Alliance.

Three space-based experiments employing cubesats to demonstrate advanced communications and control techniques will share $22.6 million in NASA technology funding over the next three years. The agency’s Small Spacecraft Technology Program, funded through the Office of the Chief Technologist, picked proposals using the cubesat format based on 10 cubic cm. units, or Us, each weighing no more than 1.33 kg. All are scheduled to fly as secondary payloads in 2014-15.

LOGAN, Utah — The burgeoning demand for cubesat launches to orbit can easily be met by piggybacking on the commercial cargo spacecraft that soon will be visiting the International Space Station (ISS) regularly, according to an “Old Space” veteran who piggybacked with larger spacecraft three times.

NASA’s Inspector General (IG) has found significant lapses in the agency’s efforts to lease far-flung surplus real estate and facilities to private as well as other government entities as part of a wider cost-reduction strategy outlined in the NASA Authorization Act of 2010. The agency must do more to identify and market leasable assets as well as improve documentation of its response and the training of personnel responsible for carrying out the effort, according to IG Paul Martin’s Aug. 9 audit report.

The three teams all have ambitions beyond the agency’s basic requirement