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from the this-way-to-general-assembly-boarding-area dept.
http://spacenews.com/united-nations-to-fly-first-space-mission-on-dream-chaser/
The United Nations plans to purchase a dedicated mission on a Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) Dream Chaser spacecraft in 2021 to give developing nations an opportunity to fly experiments in space. At a press conference during the International Astronautical Congress here Sept. 27, the United Nations Office of Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) said the agreement to fly the dedicated Dream Chaser mission is part of a broader effort by the office to increase access to space to emerging nations.
"Our project is the first-ever United Nations space mission," said Simonetta Di Pippo, director of UNOOSA. "The mission has one very important goal: to allow United Nations member states to conduct research that cannot be done on Earth." The mission, she said, will be open to all nations, but with a particular emphasis on those nations that don't have the capabilities to fly their own experiments in space. UNOOSA will soon start the process of soliciting payload proposals, with a goal of selecting payloads by early 2018 so that the winning countries have time to build them for a 2021 launch.
Neither SNC nor UNOOSA disclosed the cost of the mission. Mark Sirangelo, corporate vice president of SNC's Space Systems division, said that the mission will be financed in several ways, with the countries selected to fly experiments paying at least some of the cost of the flight.
- See more at: http://spacenews.com/united-nations-to-fly-first-space-mission-on-dream-chaser/#sthash.Pz4SgTNO.dpuf
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Saturday October 01 2016, @01:13PM
The UN is generally a slush fund for the children and relatives of third world dictators everywhere. As a middle-class American, you walk into the place wanting to do good, and everyone there lives in palatial apartments on the Upper East Side of Manhattan (not a low-rent district) and drives sports cars. The only thing they talk about is partying. No money is spent on the facility itself, which looks like the inside of a trailer park in Tuscaloosa.
So the UN wanting to build a space program is a stretch.
Washington DC delenda est.