Vostochny Space Launch Centrer - Remember That Name

Here is a name you will be hearing a lot about in the next decade:  The Vostochny Cosmodrome  or quite literally the Russian:  "Eastern Spaceport".   This new Russian space launch facility's   Raison d'être  is, according to the Wikipedia,   to reduce Russia's dependency on the Baikonur Cosmodrome, which is located in Kazakhstan.

The planned total area is over 342 miles and almost 20 miles in diameter and construction costs have been estimated  over 13 billion.

Plans call for the building of seven launch pads at the site, including two for manned flights and two for space freighters.  (and three for hummmmmmmm) 

Of course not all is vodka and caviar in Amur Oblast land.  From the Wikipidea file:

• In November 2012, press reports indicated that the Russian government is having difficulty in finding a good use for the new spaceport, and that other government ministries have been avoiding the project while "calling the project a 'dolgostroi,' which is Russian for an endless construction boondoggle (aka Boston's Big Dig).

In any case The first launch from Vostochny is unlikely to occur until 2018 at the earliest due to construction delays.

SpaceX Testing New Heavy Lift System

From SpaceXhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif via Boing Boing is news on SpaceX's new heavy lifting system, The Falcon Heavy which according to the website:

• (is)the world’s most powerful rocket. (The Falcon Heavy has) the ability to carry satellites or interplanetary spacecraft weighing over 53 metric tons (117,000 lb) to Low Earth Orbit (LEO), Falcon Heavy can lift nearly twice the payload of the next closest vehicle, the US Space Shuttle, and more than twice the payload of the Delta IV Heavy.

The Falcon Heavy develops over 3.8 million pounds of thrust at liftoff. To put that into perspective: that kind of thrust is equal to fifteen Boeing 747 aircraft at full power. That makes it one of the most powerful rockets since Apollo's Saturn 5 main stage.

(I KNOW! Saturn 5 WAS the main stage! But lets be honest, when most people see the whole Saturn stack they think Saturn 5! I know...Saturn 3 was the next stage and Saturn 1 was what pushed the "Luna stack" towards Luna insertion. I just KNOW some of you rocket jocks would call me on that if I hadn't said something! lol)

Check out the SpaceX page here