Before space shuttle Endeavour’s final launch on Friday, NASA officials plan to discuss what they envision as the next step in manned spaceflight.

The space agency will host a media briefing at 8 a.m. PST on April 28 with the four companies it selected to develop the next generation of rockets and spacecraft for its Commercial Crew Development program.

The briefing will be broadcast live on NASA Television and streamed at http://www.nasa.gov/ntv.

Last week, NASA handed out $269.3 million in seed money to the companies, which could one day take over the potentially multibillion-dollar job of ferrying astronauts to and from the International Space Station after the shuttle program is mothballed by the end of the year.

The companies include Hawthorne-based rocket maker Space Exploration Technologies Corp., or SpaceX, and Boeing Co., which develops spacecraft in Huntington Beach and uses rocket engines made by Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne in Canoga Park.  

The other two awards were $22 million to Blue Origin, a closely held space venture in Kent, Wash., that is owned by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, and $80 million to Sierra Nevada Corp. of Sparks, Nev.

The companies’ technology is still years away before it is astronaut-ready. In the meantime, U.S. astronauts will have no way to travel to the space station other than paying the Russian government $63 million for a ride on its Soyuz rocket.

However, there are still two shuttle launches, starting with space shuttle Endeavour set for Friday at 12:47 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time from Cape Canaveral, Fla.

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-- W.J. Hennigan

twitter.com/wjhenn

Photos: At top, SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket with its Dragon space capsule lifts off in December from launch complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral, Fla. Credit: Scott Audette/Reuters. At right, artist's rendering of the interior of the Crew Space Transportation-100 space capsule. Credit: Boeing Co.

When the space shuttle Endeavour blasts off for the final time, there will be 150 lucky space geeks in attendance who obtained a free behind-the-scenes pass thanks to Twitter.

On March 15, NASA gave its Twitter followers a chance to have a rare vantage point for the historic launch slated for April 29 at 6:47 p.m. from Cape Canaveral, Fla. through its account @NASA.

“You could see a space shuttle launch in person at a #NASATweetup,” the tweet read, linking to a registration site that closed 24 hours later.  

In that time, more than 4,100 people registered from around the globe. NASA said it selected 150 attendees at random. The participants come from 43 U.S. states and far-flung locales such as Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, and Venezuela.

The Tweetup participants get a tour of Kennedy Space Center as well as a spacesuit demonstration. To follow their pre-launch adventures, follow the #NASATweetup hashtag and the list of attendees here.

Endeavour was the final shuttle built. It joined the NASA fleet in 1991 to replace the ill-fated Challenger, which was destroyed shortly after launch in 1986.

Endeavour has flown 24 missions. After its last flight next week it will return to Los Angeles for permanent display at the California Science Center in Exposition Park.

Endeavour's launch will mark the fourth time NASA has invited Twitter followers to experience a space shuttle blast-off. The agency also hosts Tweetup events at other NASA centers. For example, there’s an upcoming event taking place June 6 at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.

If you’re interested, registration will open April 26 at noon for 24 hours at: http://www.nasa.gov/tweetup

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-- W.J. Hennigan

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Photo: Endeavour is scheduled to launch Friday for its 25th and final mission. Credit: Roberto Gonzalez / Getty Images

Boy Scouts have a pretty good idea of what it takes to earn a merit badge: backpacking a mountain trail, snagging a trout at the local pond, or perhaps paddling down a stream in a wooden canoe.

But nowadays, heading into the great outdoors is the old way of getting yourself a badge.

Earlier this week, the Boy Scouts of America unveiled a new merit badge that’s earned when scouts design and build a robot.

The new “robotics” merit badge was created through a collaboration between the Boy Scouts and NASA in order to help scouts develop skills that are relevant and needed in today's world, the groups said in a joint release.

"While the guiding principles of scouting -- service to others, leadership, personal achievement, and respect for the outdoors -- will never change, we continue to adapt programs to prepare young people for success in all areas of life," said Bob Mazzuca, the Boy Scouts of America’s chief scout executive.

Here's a sampling of what it takes to earn a badge:

"Design your robot. The robot design should use sensors and programming and have at least 2 degrees of freedom. Document the design in your robot engineering notebook using drawings and a written description."

"Share your robot engineering notebook with your counselor. Talk about how well your robot accomplished the task, the improvements you would make in your next design, and what you learned about the design process."

The Boy Scouts said that more than 10,000 robotics merit badges are expected to be earned within a year.... Hmm. Doing the math here, that's an awful lot of robots.

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Top photo: The head of "ROBBIXA," created and developed by ZigZag Productions, shown during the "Innovo" fair on March 24 in Lyon, France. Credit: Philippe Merle / AFP/Getty Images

Second photo:  The robotics badge. Credit: Boy Scouts of America

Space shuttle Endeavour is coming back to Southern California, where it was developed and built, for permanent display at the California Science Center.

Located just south of downtown Los Angeles, the Science Center already features some of the most impressive flying machines ever dreamed up, including Lockheed Corp.’s A-12, which was a precursor to the SR-71 Blackbird spy plane, and Lockheed’s supersonic F-104 Starfighter interceptor aircraft.

Now comes the Endeavour.

Richard Simon over at L.A. Now writes:

NASA Administrator Charles F. Bolden Jr. made the announcement at a ceremony at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Tuesday to mark the 30th anniversary of the first shuttle launch.

Officials at the California Science Center in Exposition Park got a shuttle-like blast from beating out more than a dozen other cities for the right to house the orbiter, which will enhance the museum's prestige and could provide an economic boost for the city.

Now, the museum must pay $28.8 million to bring the Endeavour to Los Angeles and overcome the logistical challenges of transporting the craft, with its 78-foot wingspan, to a city famous for its traffic problems.

At the conclusion of the Apollo moon landings of the 1970s, NASA embarked on the shuttle program. The program was an enormous economic driver in the Southland, pouring in billions of dollars to aerospace companies. The fleet was built by Rockwell International at its Palmdale facility. The shuttles' massive rocket engines were built by Rocketdyne in Canoga Park.

Endeavour was the final shuttle built. It was handed over to NASA in 1991 to replace the ill-fated Challenger, which was destroyed shortly after launch in 1986.

Endeavour has flown 24 missions. Its final mission is slated for April 29.

The Science Center's getting Endeavour “reflects the work and contributions of the people who have worked on it over the years here in Southern California,” said Ken Phillips, curator for aerospace science at the center. “It’s truly a gift to the city.”

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Photos: At top, space shuttle Endeavour, which is scheduled to launch April 29 for its 25th and final mission. Credit: Roberto Gonzalez / Getty Images. At lower right, the A-12 in front of the Science Center at Exposition Park. Credit: California Science Center

First, man landed on the moon. The next step might be mining it for minerals.

At least, that’s the business plan for Moon Express Inc., or MoonEx, a Silicon Valley start-up building robotic rovers capable of scouring the lunar surface for precious metals and rare metallic elements. The company joins a growing group of entrepreneurs in the private space race.

The private company is building its hardware alongside scientists at NASA's Ames Research Center northwest of San Jose. It was co-founded by Naveen Jain, who made a fortune off his previous start-up InfoSpace Inc.; Barney Pell, the head architect behind Microsoft Corp.'s Bing Internet search engine; and Robert Richards, a commercial space entrepreneur.

From my article in Friday’s Times:

MoonEx's machines are designed to look for materials that are scarce on Earth but found in everything from a Toyota Prius car battery to guidance systems on cruise missiles.

While there's no guarantee the moon is flush with these materials, MoonEx officials think it may be a "gold mine" of so-called rare earth elements.

"From an entrepreneur's perspective, the moon has never truly been explored," said Naveen Jain, chairman and company co-founder. "We think it could hold resources that benefit Earth and all humanity."

Aside from its founders' personal wealth and other outside investments, MoonEx has received a NASA contract that could be worth up to $10 million.

The company is among several teams hoping to someday win the Google Lunar X Prize competition, a $30-million race to the moon in which a privately funded team must successfully place a robot on the moon's surface and have it explore at least 1/3 of a mile. It also must transmit high definition video and images back to Earth before 2016.

In the meantime, MoonEx is on firm financial footing, Jain said, notable because a moon launch would require massive investment. MoonEx hasn't decided which rocket or company will launch its hardware quite yet, but one of the contenders is Hawthorne-based Space Exploration Technologies Corp., or SpaceX, Jain said.

"MoonEx should be ready to land on the lunar surface by 2013," Jain said in the article. "It's our goal to be the first company there and stay there."

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Images: From top, MoonEx logo and photo of company co-founder Naveen Jain. Credit: MoonEx.

"Boogie Woogie Shuttle." "I Want to Be an Astronaut." "Just Another Day in Space."

These are just a few of the songs you can vote for, if you’re interested in waking up commander Mark Kelly and the rest of the crew aboard space shuttle Endeavour during the next mission to the International Space Station.

Since the days of the Apollo missions in the 1960s, the wake-up song has been a part of the space program. Astronauts have been awakened from their space slumber by songs that they chose or that their families picked. But now NASA is allowing the public to vote on songs that will act as alarm clocks on Endeavor’s last mission before it is retired.

Check out the songs and vote for them here.   

NASA said the two songs with the most votes will be announced and played for two days during the 14-day mission, which is slated to launch April 19. Voting will be open until the day of launch.

The space agency allowed the public to vote on a wake-up song during Discovery's last mission. On March 8, astronauts were awakened with a live performance from Houston's mission control of "Blue Sky" by Big Head Todd and the Monsters. Watch the video here.

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Photo: The space shuttle Discovery at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla.,  in September 2010.  Credit: Red Huber / Orlando Sentinel

A nine-story rocket carrying an Earth-observation satellite dubbed Glory failed to reach orbit and likely fell into the South Pacific Ocean following its launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, north of Santa Barbara.

In a statement, NASA said that the protective shell perched atop the rocket did not separate and the satellite did not enter orbit, which should have occurred about three minutes after the launch.

NASA said the entire cost of the mission was $424 million.

It is the second consecutive time that NASA has encountered the problem with the rocket, the Taurus XL, built by Orbital Sciences Corp. of Dulles, Va. The space agency’s previous launch attempt on Feb. 24, 2009, of an Earth science spacecraft, the Orbiting Carbon Observatory, also failed to reach orbit when the fairing did not separate.

“NASA has begun the process of creating a Mishap Investigation Board to evaluate the cause of the failure,” NASA said. “The launch proceeded as planned from its liftoff at 2:09 a.m. PST through the ignition of the Taurus XL's second stage.”

The fairing failure occurred during the second stage engine burn. The exact location of the spacecraft is not yet known.

-- W.J. Hennigan

Photo: The Taurus the XL rocket and NASA's encapsulated Glory spacecraft await an early morning launch on the pad at Space Launch Complex at Vandenberg Air Force Base on Friday. Credit: NASA / Randy Beaudoin / Vandenberg Air Force Base

A Christmas card from space?

NASA astronauts Scott Kelly and Cady Coleman, and Paolo Nespoli of the European Space Agency, sent down their Christmas and New Year's greetings to Earthlings on Wednesday from aboard the International Space Station.

Kelly, Coleman and Nespoli are part of the six-person crew at the station. They are set to come back by May of next year.

Watch the video above, in which they extend their warm wishes for the holiday season.

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Virgin Galactic, the world’s first space line, is looking to offer tourists a chance to orbit the Earth.

The company said in a statement Thursday that it was working with Sierra Nevada Corp. and Orbital Sciences Corp. to develop a spacecraft capable of “orbital service for fare-paying passengers.”

Virgin Galactic is collaborating with both companies in their attempt to win NASA’s $200-million competition to design prototypes that can ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station after the space shuttle is retired in 2011.

It is a hotly contested competition in which a winner could potentially earn billions of dollars' worth of contracts as NASA’s means of transport. Seeing the potential windfall, a wide range of companies have entered the contest including aerospace giants such as Boeing Co. and privately funded start-ups such as Hawthorne-based Space Exploration Technologies Corp.

But Virgin Galactic wants to give wealthy tourists the chance to circle the Earth as well.

The company already offers trips to suborbit. Starting next year, Virgin Galactic plans to fly tourists to the edge of space, or about 60 miles above the Earth's surface, where passengers experience weightlessness and see the curvature of the Earth.

The cost? $200,000.

The company says it has taken reservations and deposits from more than 400 people.

“We know that many of those same people, including myself, would also love to take an orbital space trip in the future, so we are putting our weight behind new technologies that could deliver that safely whilst driving down the enormous current costs of manned orbital flight by millions of dollars,” Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Galactic, said in a statement.

Branson did not indicate how much an orbital flight might cost, but added that "today’s announcement is an important step along the way to achieving our ultimate and long term goal of leading an industry which opens up the huge potential of space to everyone."

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Photo: Virgin Galactic's WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo on the tarmac at Mojave Air and Space Port. Credit: Virgin Galactic/Mark Greenberg

Space Exploration Technologies Corp., the Hawthorne-based rocket venture better known as SpaceX, announced Monday that the first attempt to launch the Dragon space capsule had been bumped back due to cracking in a second-stage engine nozzle.

The privately owned company will now aim for Thursday for the maiden launch of the spacecraft, which is designed to carry cargo and crew for NASA. The launch from Cape Canaveral, Fla., had been slated for Tuesday.

“We found some indications on second-stage nozzle that we're spending some time investigating," said Gwynne Shotwell, president of SpaceX, during a press conference that was webcast on NASA’s website.

Shotwell added that if the nozzle had to be replaced, the company would aim for a Friday launch. SpaceX has a launch window that will remain open until Saturday.

It is a key launch for the company, which employs more than 1,100 people, most of whom are in California. The reusable Dragon capsule is considered a contender for the job of ferrying astronauts to and from the International Space Station after the space-shuttle program is mothballed in 2011.

In the test launch, the capsule will be affixed to SpaceX’s massive Falcon 9 rocket, which made its first flight in June from Cape Canaveral, Fla. The capsule is expected to orbit the Earth, reenter the atmosphere and splash down in the Pacific Ocean.

This will be the first attempt by a commercial company to recover a spacecraft reentering from low-Earth orbit. Aside from the U.S., only five nations or governmental agencies have tried: Russia, China, Japan, India and the European Space Agency.

SpaceX makes the capsule and rocket at a sprawling facility in Hawthorne that once housed the fuselage assembly for Boeing Co.'s 747 jumbo jet.

[Updated Monday, 6:15 p.m.: Despite saying several times during Monday's press conference that a launch will take place no earlier than Thursday, SpaceX issued a statement late Monday that said, "A decision on whether or not to attempt launch on Wednesday will be provided tomorrow evening."]

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Photo: artist's rendering of the Dragon space capsule and the second stage of the Falcon 9 launch vehicle. Credit: NASA