Pioneering weightless flight kicks off Society's 30th anniversary celebration

The National Space Society has become the first public organization to charter a Zero Gravity parabolic flight. The flight, dubbed NSS-1, took off aboard ZERO-G's specially-modified Boeing 727 aircraft from Los Angeles' Burbank Airport on Friday, September 17.

"The members of this flight are the first individuals to purchase their own tickets to weightlessness in the US," said George T. Whitesides, NSS Executive Director. "We are proud that those individuals are NSS members."

NSS members flew in from around the country and the world for the adventure, including a strong contingent from Houston and NSS chapter leader Maria Thome, direct from Brazil! They joined personalities from the Dennis Miller show, the Ellen Degeneres show, and the Jimmy Kimmel show.

The flight is the kickoff event for NSS' 30th anniversary, a year-long celebration marking three decades of grassroots space advocacy for a better future.

Stay tuned for more opportunities for you to fly on ZERO G! You can sign up right now for more information on the next flight at nss.org

Senate restores over $1 billion to NASA's budget

Fight is not over -- call or write your Congressional offices now to save Exploration Vision !

In January, the president announced the Vision for Space Exploration, a bold new plan to take us past low earth orbit to the Moon, Mars and beyond. That plan was put in question when the House of Representatives cut NASA's proposed budget by over $1 billion.

But thanks to your letters and calls, plus a concerted effort by NSS headquarters, the Coalition for Space Exploration, and the Space Exploration Alliance, , those cuts have been reversed by the Senate! On Tuesday, the Senate voted to restore much of the money cut from NASA's budget.

The fight is not over. The final decision on NASA's budget will be made over the next two months. We need you to call or write your Senators and Representatives to express your full support for the Vision for Space Exploration. Plus, keep an eye out for petitions you will receive soon -- please sign and return them asap; we have no time to waste! The switchboard of Congress is (202) 224-3121.

The 24th annual International Space Development Conference is already shaping up to be a major event. It will be held May 19-22, 2005, in Washington, DC, and the theme is "Your Ticket to Space." Mark your calendars today!

The conference of the year will feature top leaders in space exploration, private space ventures, space policy, space science, settlement, and technology and discussions will range from the Vision for Space Exploration to space tourism to planetary defense. A full slate of luncheons and dinners is also planned, including a gala awards banquet Saturday night, possibly in conjunction with the National Air and Space Museum's Udvar-Hazy Center near Dulles Airport. The 2005 ISDC will also be closely linked to NSS's legislative conference, scheduled for earlier that week.

More details about the conference, including registration and hotel information and a call for papers, are now available on the ISDC web site - http://isdc.nss.org/2005/.

On September 29, Burt Rutan's X PRIZE entry will make its first official flight to win the $10 million race to space!

Join your fellow NSS members, as well as thousands of other space enthusiasts, as you watch the action from Mojave Spaceport in the Mojave desert northeast of Los Angeles. The second flight is currently scheduled for October 4.

NSS is proud that Dr. Peter Diamandis, the chairman of the X PRIZE, chose to first publicize the idea in Ad Astra, the society's magazine. Since then, NSS has been a staunch supporter of the competition.

We also wish the Da Vinci project godspeed and best wishes for their first attempt, scheduled to launch October 2, from a launch site in Sasketchewan, Canada.

The sharpest image ever taken of a dust disk around another star has revealed structures in the disk which are signs of unseen planets.

Dr. Michael Liu, an astronomer at the University of Hawaii's Institute for Astronomy, has acquired high resolution images of the nearby star AU Microscopii (AU Mic) using the Keck II Telescope, the world's largest infrared telescope. At a distance of only 33 light years, AU Mic is the nearest star possessing a visible disk of dust. Such disks are believed to be the birthplaces of planets.

Full Story @ University of Hawaii:

A group of European-led astronomers has made a photograph of what appears to be a planet orbiting another star. If so, it would be the first confirmed picture of a world beyond our solar system. (Image above)

The new picture shows a dim, red point of light that Dumas and his colleagues think is a young, giant planet something like Jupiter. It orbits a failed star known as a brown dwarf, a very dim type of star -- its core does not support nuclear fusion -- that astronomers have for years hoped would make for good planet hunting.

Full Story @ Space.com:

UK astronomers studying the Tau Ceti system have discovered that it contains ten times as much material in the form of asteroids and comets as our own solar system. Their discovery, being published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, suggests that even though Tau Ceti is the nearest Sun-like star, any planets that may orbit it would not support life as we know it due to the inevitable large number of devastating collisions. It also suggests that the tranquil space environment around the Earth may be more unusual than previously realised.

Full Story @ Particle Physics & Astronomy Research Council:

In our solar system, the orbits of all the major planets are quite close to being circular (apart from Pluto's, which is a special case), and the four giant planets are a considerable distance from the Sun. The extrasolar planets detected so far - all giants similar in nature to Jupiter ­ are by comparison much closer to their parent stars, and their orbits are almost all highly elliptical and so very elongated.

"There are two main explanations for these observations," says Martin Beer. "The most intriguing is that planets can be formed by more than one mechanism and the assumption astronomers have made until now - that all planets formed in basically the same way - is a mistake."

Full Story @ Royal Astronomical Society:

Every NSS member can support the NSS Mission every day:

• Share the Vision with everyone you meet.
• Be a voter and communicate with your legislators.
• If you invest, consider space-related companies.
• Invite others to join NSS.
• Donate to NSS