HOT AIR: This weekend NASA will test a large, inflatable heat shield aboard a suborbital rocket launched from the agency’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. The Inflatable Reentry Vehicle Experiment (IRVE-3) payload will travel through Earth’s atmosphere at Mach 5, or 3,800-7,600 mph, via a three-stage, suborbital Black Brant XI launch vehicle. After its flight, IRVE-3 will fall into the Atlantic Ocean about 350 mi. down range from Wallops. The flight is expected to take about 20 min. from launch to splashdown.

ISRO officials say a significant amount of work on the mission has been completed and scientific payloads have been shortlisted.

The extreme challenge of manned space missions drives terrestrial achievement as well.

LONDON — The European Space Agency is emulating the emphasis on collaboration with the private sector adopted by the U.K. Space Agency that was stood up last year. Britain has long been a second-tier player to ESA relative to its economic strength in Europe. U.K. contributions to ESA programs lag far behind those of France, Germany and Italy. For a time it looked like Britain might fall behind Spain in funding European space.

The initial SLS configuration will use two five-segment solid rocket boosters derived from the space shuttle’s boosters.

To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) JULY 16 — 24th Annual Greater Washington Aviation Open, "the regions largest Aviation Golf Charity," Lansdown Golf Resort near Leesburg, Va. For more information contact [email protected] or go to www.gwao.org JULY 26 - 28 — NewSpace 2012, "The Space Frontier Foundation's Annual Conference," Moffett Field, Calif. For more information go to spacefrontier.org/ns12registration/

Excalibur Almaz, a human-spaceflight startup based on the Isle of Man that has purchased surplus Soviet-era hardware, plans to position one of its two Almaz 20-ton space stations at the Earth-Moon L2 lagrangian point for commercial operations. In a July 12 announcement, the company said it will refurbish the Almaz with up-to-date life support and other internal hardware, and use Hall thrusters to position it in a halo orbit at L2. The estimated 90-day trip could come as early as 2015, according to Art Dula, the company’s founder.

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