Here’s a couple of short blasts from the world of space transportation.

At the recent rollout of the WhiteKnightTwo carrier plane in Mojave, California, one topic that got little in the way of chatter: what’s the status on the engine that’s to power SpaceShipTwo?

SpaceDev of Poway, California has just announced that it has signed a multi-year contract with Scaled Composites, to assist Scaled in development of a production rocket motor for the passenger-carrying SpaceShipTwo suborbital rocket plane.

Under the new contract, SpaceDev will be the lead rocket motor team member for SpaceShipTwo and will collaborate with Scaled’s internal design team to develop a production ready hybrid rocket motor. SpaceDev will provide engineering services to refine the design of the hybrid rocket motor being developed by Scaled Composites, as well as providing the development, manufacture and integration of key rocket motor system components.

Also, SpaceDev will be carrying out ground tests on those motor components, working to assist Scaled in the full-scale rocket test program both on the ground and during SpaceShipTwo flight tests.

The contract — which runs through 2012 — has an initial value of roughly $15 million for work to be primarily completed over the next two years.

In another bit of upstart space news, check out this video clip from my good friend, Bob Martin, a TV reporter at KRQE in Albuquerque.

It’s a smashing bit of reporting about that recent hush-hush Lockheed Martin prototype space plane test at New Mexico’s Spaceport America - and used with permission.

Check out: http://www.krqe.com/Global/story.asp?s=8832212