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Soyuz docks with space station, boosts lab crew back to six
William Harwood - CBS News
A Russian Soyuz ferry craft glided to a smooth linkup with the International Space Station early Thursday, bringing three fresh crew members to the lab complex and clearing the way for launch of a new commercial cargo ship Saturday, a critical test flight intended to pave the way for post-shuttle U.S. resupply missions.
With veteran cosmonaut Gennady Padalka monitoring an automated approach, assisted by flight engineer Sergei Revin and NASA astronaut Joseph Acaba, the Soyuz TMA-04M spacecraft's docking system engaged its counterpart in the station's upper Poisk module at 12:36 a.m. EDT (GMT-4), two days after launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
"It's gorgeous, just beautiful," Padalka, making his third trip to the space station, marveled as the Soyuz closed the final few feet.
"Gennady, you have to have ice running through your veins," a Russian flight controller radioed.
Standing by to welcome the Soyuz fliers aboard -- and to wish Acaba a happy 45th birthday -- were Expedition 31 commander Oleg Kononenko, European Space Agency astronaut Andre Kuipers and NASA flight engineer Donald Pettit, who have had the station to themselves since three other crew members departed April 27.
A few minutes after docking, Revin told Russian space agency director Vladimir Popovkin that the two-day flight to the station went smoothly, saying "we ate well, we worked well, the water quality was excellent, so everything's nominal, the vehicle behaved extremely well."
"OK, well the most important words I heard was that you ate well," Popovkin joked. "So that means you're feeling OK?"
"Yeah, we're doing very well, (it's) great to be on the station and we're very happy to be reuniting with our crewmates."
The Soyuz arrival kicks off a busy few weeks aboard the station, starting with the planned launching early Saturday of a Falcon 9 rocket carrying an unmanned Dragon cargo ship, both built by Space Exploration Technologies Corp. of Hawthorne, Calif.
SpaceX holds a $1.6 billion contract to build and launch at least 12 cargo delivery flights to the space station in a commercial venture intended to help keep the station supplied in the awake of the shuttle's retirement. The test flight is being carried out under a separate $396 million contract that included a 2010 Falcon 9/Dragon test flight that did not go to the space station.
Assuming an on-time launch Saturday from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station -- and successful tests of its navigation and abort systems during a close-approach Monday -- the Dragon capsule should be ready for capture by the station's robot arm early Tuesday.
Pettit and Kuipers, operating the Canadian space crane and the station's U.S. docking system, plan to attach the Dragon to the Earth-facing port of the forward Harmony module to complete the rendezvous and berthing sequence. Hatches between Harmony and the Dragon capsule will be opened Wednesday, clearing the way for the crew to begin unloading 1,150 pounds of food, clothing and other supplies.
If all goes well, the capsule, loaded with trash and no-longer-needed equipment, will be detached by the arm on May 31, setting the stage for an automated re-entry and splashdown off the coast of California.
The next day, Kononenko, Pettit and Kuipers plan to return to Earth aboard their Soyuz TMA-03M spacecraft, landing in Kazakhstan to close out a 193-day mission. Padalka, Revin and Acaba, the core members of the Expedition 32 crew, will have the station to themselves until July 17 when three fresh crew members -- cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko, NASA astronaut Sunita Williams and Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide -- arrive aboard the Soyuz TMA-05M spacecraft.
Ten days after that, a Japanese cargo ship will arrive at the station. After capture by the station's robot arm, the HTV-3 spacecraft will be berthed at the same Earth-facing port as the Dragon capsule. The HTV berthing will be followed by arrival of a Russian Progress supply ship, scheduled for docking Aug. 2.
Padalka, Revin and Acaba are scheduled to return to Earth Sept. 17 to wrap up a 125-day stay in space.
Former Mel-High teacher arrives at ISS aboard Soyuz
Todd Halvorson - Florida Today
An American astronaut who once taught science at Melbourne High School arrived at the International Space Station today along with two Russian cosmonauts.
Flying aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft, Joe Acaba, Gennady Padalka and Sergei Revin docked at the outpost at 12:38 a.m. EDT as the two craft soared 249 miles above Earth.
“It’s gorgeous. Just beautiful,” Padalka said just before docking was confirmed.
“Gennady, you have to have ice running through your veins,” a flight controller said on a radio link with the Russian Mission Control Center outside Moscow.
Acaba is celebrating his 45th birthday. He and his cosmonaut colleagues are embarking on a four-month expedition aboard the station. They join three others aboard the outpost: Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, U.S. astronaut Don Pettit and Andre Kuipers of the International Space Station.
The arrival came just two days before the planned launch Saturday from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station of a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft on a mission to show it can safely and reliably deliver cargo to the outpost.
The Dragon is scheduled to blast off from Launch Complex 40 at 4:55 a.m. The liftoff is precisely timed to put the Dragon spacecraft on course for a rendezvous and berthing at the station. If successful, it would become the first commercial spacecraft to visit the outpost.
Acaba taught at Melbourne High School during the 1999-2000 school year. He became the first person of Puerto Rican heritage to fly in space during the STS-119 shuttle mission in 2009. He tallied two spacewalks during that 125th shuttle mission, which was the 35th flight of Discovery and the 28th shuttle mission flown in the assembly of the station.
Padalka, who is making his fourth trip into space, will become the first three-time commander of the International Space Station when current skipper Kononenko, Pettit and Kuipers return to Earth on July 1.
Revin is a spaceflight rookie. He and his crewmates launched late Monday at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Revin told Russian Mission Control that he was enjoying his first spaceflight.
“For the last two days, we ate well, and we worked well,” he said. “We’re doing very well. It’s great to be on the station.”
Revin, Padalka and Acaba will live and work on the station through mid-September. They are scheduled to return to Earth on Sept. 17.
Soyuz crew docks with International Space Station
Mark Carreau - Aviation Week
Russia’s 30 mission Soyuz successfully docked with the International Space Station early Thursday, delivering a three man crew.
The automated linkup unfolded at 12:36 a.m., EDT, as the two spacecraft sailed 250 miles over the border separating Kazakhstan and Mongolia.
The Soyuz TMA-04M capsule docked with the Russian segment two days after cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Sergei Revin and NASA astronaut Joseph Acaba lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
“Everything went smoothely,” Padalka informed Mission Control Moscow, where the Soyuz crew received praise from Vladimir Popovkin, head of Roscosmos, the Russian federal space agency.
The newcomers were greeted by the station’s Expediton 30 commander Oleg Kononenko, of Russia, and flight engineers Don Pettit, of NASA, and Andre Kuipers, of the European Space Agency.
The linkup restored the orbiting science laboratory to six person status for the first time since April 27, when a trio of U. S. and Russian fliers descended to Earth in another Soyuz, following a 5.5 month tour of duty.
Padalka will assume command of the station, as Kononenko, Pettit and Kuipers return to Earth in early July. Padalka, Revin and Acaba will remain aboard the station for four months.
The docking held a special significance for each of the men.
It coincided with Acaba’s 45th birthday. Two days ago, Texas Tech University announced that the former Florida high and middle school math and science teacher plans to pursue a doctorate in education under a flexible online study program starting this fall.
In July, Padalka will become the first person to command the station for a third time. Revin is on his first spaceflight.
New US-Russian Crew Arrives at Space Station
Mike Wall - Space.com
An American astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts arrived at the International Space Station early Thursday, kicking off a four-month stay aboard the orbiting laboratory.
A Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying NASA astronaut Joe Acaba and cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Sergei Revin docked with the space station at 12:36 a.m. ET Thursday as the two spacecraft soared 249 miles above the border between Mongolia and Kazakhstan.
"Everything went very smoothly, very well," Padalka radioed the Russian Federal Space Agency's Mission Control Center in Moscow just after docking.
For Acaba, the docking came as a welcome birthday present to mark his 45th birthday, NASA commentator Rob Navias said.
The three spacefliers were due to float into the orbiting lab's hatch overnight, bringing the station back up to its full crew of six. Their fellow Expedition 31 crew members — NASA's Don Pettit, Dutch astronaut Andre Kuipers and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko — have had the $100 billion orbiting complex to themselves since April 27.
Acaba, Padalka and Revin launched Monday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. They were originally scheduled to blast off on March 29, but a botched pressure test cracked their Soyuz capsule, causing a six-week delay while another spacecraft was readied. [See Spectacular Soyuz Launch Photos]
A four-month space stay
The three new arrivals will live and work aboard the space station for four months, returning to Earth in mid-September. All will serve as flight engineers under Kononenko, the commander of the Expedition 31 mission.
Kononenko, Pettit and Kuipers boarded the orbiting lab in late December and are scheduled to depart on July 1.
Acaba has visited the station once before, on the space shuttle Discovery's STS-119 mission in 2009. But that flight lasted just 13 days, so a long-duration stay in orbit will be a new experience for him. He said he's really looking forward to helping advance our knowledge of how to live and work for long periods off the planet.
"There’s still a lot we don’t know about living in space, so for me personally and professionally it’s really neat to be part of that and know that you’re kind of contributing in a small way," Acaba said in a pre-flight interview with NASA officials.
Living aboard the station will be even more novel for Revin, who had never been to space before Monday's launch. In contrast, Padalka is an experienced spaceflier with two long stints on the station under his belt. He will become commander of the station's new Expedition 32 mission when Kononenko, Pettit and Kuipers leave in July.
Dragon's flight coming
The six astronauts will get to witness a historic event very soon, if all goes according to plan. The private spaceflight company SpaceX plans to launch its robotic Dragon capsule toward the station this Saturday.
The flight is a demonstration mission, to see if Dragon and SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket are ready to begin a series of 12 contracted unmanned supply runs for NASA. If the test mission succeeds, it will mark the first time a private vehicle has ever docked with the orbiting lab.
If all goes well, Dragon's first bona fide cargo mission could launch later this year, SpaceX officials have said.
New Crew Docks at Space Station
RIA Novosti
A Nasa astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts docked with the International Space Station (ISS) early on Thursday, beginning a four-month mission aboard the orbiting complex.
A Russian Soyuz TMA-04M capsule carrying NASA astronaut Joe Acaba and cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Sergei Revin docked with the ISS at 4:36 a.m. GMT as the two spacecraft sailed 400 kilometers above the border between Mongolia and Kazakhstan, Russian Mission Control said.
"Everything went off smoothly," Padalka told Mission Control.
The trio began their journey on Tuesday when they launched from the Baikonur Space Center in Kazakhstan, in Russia's first manned flight for almost five months. They were originally scheduled to blast off on March 29, but the start date was postponed due to technical problems.
The new arrivals will join fellow Expedition 31 members, Commander Oleg Kononenko, NASA's Don Pettit and Dutchman Andre Kuipers, who have been aboard the station for almost five months since arriving in December.
The hatches between the two spacraft will be opened around 08:00 GMT, when the vehicles will have undergone leak and pressure checks. The three will then enter the station itself.
The docking came as Acaba marks his 45th birthday, NASA said.
He had visited the ISS in March 2009 aboard the space shuttle Discovery, the U.S. space agency said.
For Padalka, it is his fourth long-duration spaceflight and his third aboard the outpost. Revin is travelling into space for the first time.
Their mission, expected to last for 126 days, will involve about a hundred experiments, a spacewalk and the expected arrival of the first commercial cargo craft at the ISS.
The Flight of the Dragon
Paul Spudis - Air & Space Magazine
If things go according to plan Saturday, the world will witness SpaceX launch its first Dragon cargo supply mission to the International Space Station. As this flight has been heralded as the dawn of a new age in spaceflight – a paradigm shift in the way the spaceflight is approached – it is appropriate to step back for some reflection and perspective on what this flight may or may not represent. As noted by many, this particular cargo flight has a lot riding on it – with overarching concern for success (even if a bit unfair), created in part both by vociferous advocacy and excessive public pronouncements.
1. A successful or unsuccessful result from this flight neither confirms nor negates the value and/or viability of commercial spaceflight.
This proposition should be obvious. Launch to orbit is an inherently difficult and risky endeavor. Even launch vehicles with long histories of reliable flight fail, sometimes with distressing frequency. We tend to think that space access should be routine but that appearance is deceiving; spaceflight is never routine, simply because orbital flight is possible only on the very edge of our capability. Think of it as carrying a heavy load of luggage while ice skating – you may know how to do it and you may even pull it off successfully a number of times, but if you start taking it for granted, a fall on the posterior is quite likely (with this eventuality more probable in the early stages of the endeavor).
Looked at in another way, a successful mission does not “prove” the case for commercial human spaceflight (the case for commercial unmanned space launch has long since been proven) nor does it negate its feasibility. The real issue with commercial human spaceflight is the existence of a market. Right now, such a market does not exist. New Space advocates have unlimited faith that one will emerge, but hope is not a business plan. It will take years of successful commercial launches (and safe returns) for the creation of a genuine commercial market. The uncertainties in the future legal status of commercial human spaceflight is enough to give one pause – contemplate the likely consequences following the first fatal accident in a commercial human spaceflight, after the ambulance chasers get their teeth into the flesh of every company who ever had anything whatsoever to do with the flight.
2. The creation of SpaceX capability is not “commercial” in the sense that we in the capitalist United States of America understand it. Likewise, a government space program is not “socialism.”
The word commercial has been re-branded. Previously, in most entrepreneurs’ way of thinking, “commercial” enterprise meant that a person or group drew up a business plan, raised private capital and shouldered the financial risk in an attempt to make a profit by providing a product or service. The understanding of the term “commercial space” has been stretched to encompass a business plan where a start-up company requests (and expects) government subsidies on their promise of future delivery of a product and/or service. Because it’s not “run” by the government, this form of government-sponsored crony capitalism is now deemed “commercial.” Financial tweaking is not how most would understand or define a new paradigm in space travel.
Typically during the last 50 years of our federal civil space program, we were working toward some clearly articulated, reachable (that adjective is important) goal on some kind of timetable. Because spaceflight, particularly the manned variety, was considered to be dangerous and technically cutting edge, the program was more of an engineering research program than the deployment of an operational transportation system. Such R&D has important national security and economic ramifications and as such, fits perfectly under the constitutional requirement for the federal government to provide for the common defense and promote economic development. If that’s “socialism,” then America has been a socialist country from its founding.
3. True commercial space firms exist, but they are pursuing their goals quietly and generally without excessive hype. They do not rely on government money to support their R&D costs.
Burt Rutan developed Space Ship One for Paul Allen in order to win the Ansari X-Prize (and did) and is currently developing a new spacecraft for Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic suborbital spaceline. Robert Bigelow’s company took a discarded NASA design for inflatable spacecraft and is developing a future commercial space station, available for sale of lease (it’s the transportation problem to and from his station that’s holding him back.) None of these efforts are taking the King’s shilling – they are developing hardware and capability themselves. It’s interesting that unlike some New Space firms, they tend to make fewer public pronouncements and the ones they do make are both substantive and realistic (you tend to operate that way when you’re risking your own nickel).
4. The process of contracting with “commercial” firms to carry payloads into orbit is not a space policy.
This last item is obvious, but only if you’re not getting your news exclusively from the space media. Even if SpaceX is completely successful, all we will have done is to add another player to the existing roster of supply vehicles that enable the occupation and use of the ISS. Since discarding the Vision for Space Exploration over two years ago, we have no long-term goal or strategic direction for our civil space program. The pre-existing Commercial Crew and Cargo Program has been billed as a “new direction” but it is simply a utilitarian effort to keep an existing program going, not a new path or direction to follow. Mirages of human missions to asteroids and following a “flexible path” will produce pointless viewgraph engineering – and no missions getting off the ground. At least with the VSE, the nation knew where, when and why we were going.
Even as we hope for a successful SpaceX launch and return, it is vital that America recognize that our government has no space policy or strategic direction – commercial or otherwise. From both a security and an economic perspective, this is a dangerous situation for our nation.
Astronauts repair comm unit for SpaceX flight
Mark Carreau - Aviation Week
International Space Station astronauts Don Pettit of NASA and Andre Kuipers of the European Space Agency have replaced a UHF communications unit aboard the station that will be required for the upcoming berthing of the unpiloted SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule.
The Dragon is scheduled to lift off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., atop a Falcon 9 rocket on May 19 at 4:55 a.m. EDT, initiating the first U.S. commercial resupply mission to the orbiting science lab.
One of two Commercial Orbital Transportation System (COTS) Ultra High Frequency Communication Units, an internal electronics device developed by SpaceX to permit the station’s astronauts as well as the company’s flight control team to transmit commands and receive signals from Dragon, failed on May 10. Both must function as part of the commit criteria for the Dragon mission launch. The replacement took place May 14.
“We want both systems up and operating for redundancy,” says Mike Horkachuck, NASA’s SpaceX COTS project executive. The exchange of GPS signals through the system is critical to the relative navigation that permits Dragon to approach the ISS and the station crew to issue commands aborting a rendezvous, if necessary.
If the Dragon test mission unfolds as planned, the capsule and a cargo of just over 1,000 lb. of nonessential supplies will approach the station early May 22. Pettit and Kuipers will grapple Dragon with the station’s Canadarm2 and berth it to the U. S. segment for an 18-day stay.
Meanwhile, a three-man Soyuz crew raced toward docking with the station early May 17, following a flawless climb to orbit from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The TMA-04M transport carrying Russians Gennady Padalka and Sergei Revin and American Joseph Acaba will restore the station to six-crew operations for the first time since April 27 when they dock at the Russian segment at 12:39 a.m. EDT.
Their Soyuz 30 mission lifted off on May 14 at 11:01 p.m. EDT, or 9:01 a.m. at the launch site.
The newcomers will be greeted by Pettit, Kuipers and Expedition 31 commander Oleg Kononenko of Russia.
During a four-month mission, Padalka, Revin and Acaba expect to greet U.S., Russian and Japanese replacements for Kononenko’s crew as well as Japanese, Russian and perhaps additional U.S. commercial supply ships. In late July, Russia’s 47 Progress freighter will depart the station and return in a flight test of new automated rendezvous hardware.
Padalka and cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko, a future crewmate, have trained for a spacewalk to prepare the station for the arrival of Russia’s Multipurpose Laboratory Module, possibly next year. If time permits, the spacewalkers will install protective orbital debris shielding on the Russian segment.
The station’s crew is serving as operators or subjects in about 200 science experiments and engineering evaluations as well. “That’s our main focus,” Acaba says.
Padalka, who served as the station’s commander in 2009 and 2004, will become the first person to lead a station crew for a third time when Kononenko, Pettit and Kuipers depart in early July. Revin, an NPO Energia flight-test engineer, is flying for the first time. Acaba, one of NASA’s educator astronauts, is a former Florida middle and high school science and math teacher, and a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer. He served aboard a shuttle space station assembly mission in 2009.
Obama’s Florida campaign wants Romney to take a stand on space
SpacePolitics.com
Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney is campaigned in Florida Wednesday, which prompted President Obama’s campaign organization in the state to issue a statement calling on Romney to take a position on space policy. “Today, Floridians deserve to know if Mitt Romney agrees with his Republican allies in Congress or if he stands with President Obama in supporting the next era of space exploration,” said Eric Jotkoff, press secretary for Obama for America Florida, in a statement emailed earlier.
Romney, Jotkoff said in the statement, “has provided unwavering support for the Republican budget plans that would undermine America’s space program and our country’s future as the leader in a new industry. He is seeking advice on space policy from the strongest advocates of a Bush Administration plan that tried to recreate the glories of the past with the technology of the past.” That’s a reference to a January open letter issued by the Romney campaign on space policy, whose signatories include former NASA administrator Mike Griffin.
The Obama campaign statement sought in particular to link Romney to the CJS appropriations bill passed by the House last week that, among other measures, includes report language calling for an immediate downselect to one or two companies for NASA’s commercial crew development program. “Now his allies in Congress are trying to eliminate competition in a nascent private space industry which is driving innovation, moving space exploration forward and creating hundreds of jobs on Florida’s Space Coast. Mitt Romney has said he supports the House Budget,” Jotkoff stated.
The Romney campaign has largely been quiet on space since the candidate’s January 27 speech on Florida’s Space Coast, where Romney declined to take a particular stand on space policy (in marked contrast to Newt Gingrich’s call for a lunar base by 2020, made just two days earlier). Instead, he talked about how he would bring in experts from throughout the space community to develop a mission for NASA. In that speech he was critical of President Obama’s approach to space, calling out “his failure to define a mission for the space program for this nation.” One month later Romney said he was in no hurry to go back to the Moon, which actually would put him more in line with the current administration, which abandoned plans by the Bush Administration for a human return to the Moon by 2020, than fellow Republican Gingrich.
NASA's massive renovation
Jeffrey Kluger - Time Magazine
The best time to do a little renovating is when everyone is out of the house -- something homeowners know and something NASA appears to appreciate too. The space agency is experiencing empty-nest syndrome in a big way, with the shuttles heading for museum retirement and the next manned American space vehicle not scheduled to fly until 2016 -- unless it's 2018 or 2025 or who knows when?
That leaves the huge and now-vacant vehicle assembly building (VAB) quieter than it's been since it first opened its 45-story doors in 1966. With half-century old cables snaking behind its walls, aging electronics running the cranes overhead and leaky plumbing feeding the heating, cooling and water systems, it's crying out for a little This Old House love. And now it's going to get it.
The VAB's gross dimensions were headspinning in 1966 -- and still are. The iconic old building is 526 ft. tall, by 716 ft. deep by 518 ft. wide (160m by 218m by 158m). It has more than 129 million cu. ft. (3.6 million cu. meter) of space. In the changeable Florida climate, it even has its own weather, with tiny cloud-like formations sometimes gathering near its ceiling. The foundations for the building go 160 ft. (49 m) deep.
All that space was necessary because the VAB was built to accommodate the massive Saturn V rocket -- 363 ft. (111 m) tall and made up of three stages, plus an escape tower. The stages would be lifted and stacked on top of one another, and a massive crawler would then take the completed booster on its 3.5 mi. (5.6 km) journey to the launch pad, moving at the decidedly patient clip of 1 mph (1.6 k/h). Booster and crawler together weighed so much that the gravel that lined the path underneath would be crushed to powder as they passed.
After 1973, when the last Saturn V flew, the VAB was retrofitted for its far longer career as an assembly hangar for the 184 ft. (56m) shuttle. But last summer the shuttle program came to an end, and NASA has begun work on a new Saturn-like -- and Saturn-sized -- booster known prosaically as the space launch system (SLS). The SLS is planned to be a sweet-looking machine, but given NASA's depressing history of start-stop projects, plenty of people are convinced it will never fly.
"Yes, there will be budget cuts. Yes, it will be stretched out. Yes, it will have problems. Yes, it will fall apart," space policy consultant James Muncy told the New York Times when the SLS design was unveiled in Sept. 2011. Even William Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator for space operations, could offer no more than a qualified forecast when he spoke to Time: "We've put this together to make sure we can accommodate small budget changes over the years. The architecture and design have as low a technical and development risk as possible. We're going to give this a good run."
One key to that run is being ready for the rocket if it's ever built, and so the VAB is undergoing a floor-to-attic overhaul. About 13 mi. (20 km) of copper cabling have already been removed, with another 37 mi. (56 km) to go. All of it will be replaced by pinky-width fiber optic cables. The five overhead cranes, which can lift up to 350 tons (317 metric tons), are still sound, but their electronics and other controls will be ripped out and replaced. Spigots and pumps for the fire control system -- which was up to code in 1966 but falls short of modern standards -- will be removed and replaced next year.
Most important, the seven fixed work platforms that are attached to the walls at different heights and were built for the Saturn V will be replaced by 10 new ones that can be repositioned as needed. That's critical in an era in which NASA plans to lean on private contractors like Elon Musk's SpaceX to get humans and cargo to and from low-Earth orbit, while the SLS is used principally for deep space exploration. Such a variety of launch vehicles requires flexibility; if you don't know exactly what rocket you'll be assembling on any one day, after all, you'd better be able to accommodate them all.
Even so extensive a renovation will not take all that long. Since the VAB structure itself is sound, engineers expect to complete their work by 2014. The effort they expend between now and then will make things that much sweeter if the new rockets actually show up -- and that much more forlorn if they don't.
Nasa trains astronauts for asteroid mission
The first official British European Space Agency astronaut Tim Peake is being trained for a mission to land on an asteroid, it can be revealed
Richard Gray – London Telegraph
It is a space mission straight from the Hollywood film Armageddon.
A team of astronauts are being trained to land on an asteroid to explore its surface, search for minerals and even learn the skills they may need to destroy it should one pose a threat to the Earth.
Nasa, the US space agency, is planning to send humans far further than they have ever been before to by making contact with an asteroid up to three million miles away by the end of the next decade.
It would take astronauts far beyond the current limit of human endeavour – the Moon, which is 239,000 miles from Earth.
Travelling at around 50,000 miles per hour around the Sun with almost non-existent gravity due to their small size, landing safely on these space rocks will present a significant challenge.
A team of astronauts, however, have already started preparing for just such a mission. Among them is Major Tim Peake, a former British Army helicopter test pilot who is now the first official British astronaut with the European Space Agency.
Next month they will begin a training programme that will teach them how to operate vehicles, conduct spacewalks and gather samples on the surface of an asteroid.
While the primary goal of a mission to an asteroid will be scientific to learn more about their hostile environments, the skills needed to work on their surface could also prove invaluable should scientists discover one on a collision course with Earth.
Nasa is currently monitoring more than 400 objects with potential to hit the Earth, although most are considered to be low risk.
Major Peake said: "With the technology we have available and are developing today, an asteroid mission of up to a year is definitely achievable.
"Asteroids are interesting on a number of different levels. Nasa is focused on the science you can achieve as asteroids are essentially a historical record of billions of years of our universe where we can take samples from.
"These objects are also coming extremely close to Earth all the time, but we rarely hear about it. In the last year we had an asteroid come within Earth's geostationary orbit, which is closer than some satellites.
"With enough warning we would probably send a robotic mission to deflect an asteroid, but if something is spotted late and is big enough we might come into Armageddon type scenarios where we may have to look at manned missions to deflect it.
"That is when the skills we are learning about how to work on an asteroid could be useful."
Officials at Nasa are due to reveal details of a manned mission to an asteroid at a conference later this month in Japan.
In a report to be presented to the Japan Geoscience Union Meeting, they will say that it hopes to launch an unmanned spacecraft that will use a robotic arm to collect samples from an asteroid by 2016 before sending a manned mission by the late 2020s.
A manned mission will aim to rendezvous with an asteroid up to three million miles from the Earth, taking around a year to make the entire round trip. The astronauts could stay on the asteroid for up to 30 days.
The officials will say that such missions to asteroids could help test technology for future human missions to other planets including Mars.
Nasa hopes that such missions will provide new scientific information about the early universe while also providing valuable information for ways of defending Earth from collisions with asteroids.
Earlier this year scientists identified an asteroid more than 460 feet wide that could come close enough to Earth to collide with our planet in 2040.
New findings by Nasa's Dawn spacecraft released last week have also revealed that around six per cent of the meteorites to have hit the Earth broke off a large 120 mile wide asteroid called Vesta, which was found to be rich in metals and minerals including iron and magnesium.
In the Hollywood movie Armageddon, a crew of astronauts and oil rig drillers are sent into space to land on a massive asteroid that is on a collision course with the Earth, where they drill beneath the surface to plant nuclear warheads in the hope of destroying it.
Major Peake and five other astronauts will next month be sent to an underwater base off the coast of Florida where they will spend 12 days living 65 feet beneath the surface of the Atlantic Ocean to simulate working in the difficult low gravity environment of an asteroid.
During the underwater training they will also test equipment that is being developed for such a mission.
Although the training does not guarantee Major Peake a place on a future mission to an asteroid, it means he could be on a shortlist of potential candidates if one is launched within the timescales being proposed by Nasa.
The astronauts have already received extensive briefings about working on asteroids and have begun training on land to prepare for the mission beneath the sea.
They will share a 43 feet long by 20 feet wide underwater capsule where they will live, eat and sleep as part of the Nasa Extreme Environment Mission Operation, or NEEMO.
Major Peake said: "Asteroids present some really interesting challenges as even a big asteroid is going to be a low gravity environment, so we have to look at how we would anchor a vehicle and ourselves to that surface.
"We are looking at all sorts of different tools and techniques for how you would explore an asteroid, collect scientific samples and return them to Earth.
"NEEMO is as close to the real thing as we can manage on Earth. We are in a confined space and living quarters are very tight.
"We will need at least 12 hours of decompression before we can resurface safely so we are sort of trapped down there, and that makes it much more realistic."
While underwater, they will conduct a hectic schedule of exercises where they will move around the ocean floor in vehicles much like they would above the surface of an asteroid.
They will also perform "spacewalks" on the sea floor and test equipment for tethering a spacecraft to an asteroid, collecting rock samples and drilling into the rock.
Major Peake added: "I would love to go on an asteroid mission. There is a possibility that if things continue at a good pace an asteroid mission could happen within the 2020s and that is within the operational time frame of myself and the other ESA astronauts."
Delta stage to push Orion to space
2 flights seen with proven engine
Todd Halvorson - Florida Today
NASA intends to use a modified Delta IV second stage to launch Orion spacecraft on an unmanned test flight in 2017 and then a human expedition to lunar orbit four years later.
The Boeing upper stage is “the only means available to support the immediate in-space propulsion needs” for the excursions, NASA said in a procurement notice issued early this month.
The missions both are to be launched from complex 39B at Kennedy Space Center on early versions of NASA’s new heavy-lift Space Launch System.
The second stage for the first flight must be delivered to KSC no later than the fourth quarter of 2016, the notice said.
The fourth quarter of 2020 is the deadline for delivery of the upper stage for the second mission.
NASA performed an internal market study of in-space propulsion systems available in the U.S., Europe and Japan, the notice said.
From that research, NASA determined that the Delta IV upper stage “is the only known in-space stage requiring relatively minor modifications” to meet mission requirements as well as the launch schedule, the notice said.
Moreover, NASA said no other in-space propulsion system – “either existing with flight proven performance, or planned” – could be upgraded to fly astronauts with “relatively minor modifications.”
A single Pratt & Whitney RL-10B2 engine powers the Delta IV second stage. The engine runs on supercold liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen.
The RL-10 was the first liquid hydrogen rocket engine built in the United States and has been flying for 50 years.
Versions of it still power Atlas V and Delta IV upper stages.
Jennifer Stanfield, a spokeswoman for NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., said NASA sought input from the aerospace industry in January.
Three companies responded. She could not identify the companies due to procurement rules and restrictions.
Companies have until Friday to propose alternatives.
Composite Crew Module Tops Off Liberty Launch Bid
Guy Norris - Aviation Week
Three months after NASA made its first-ever call for “full-up, end-to-end integrated system” proposals for its commercial crew program, contenders are revealing complete concepts and new teammates.
At stake is not only a share of the action with multiple Space Act agreements on offer worth up to $500 million, but a potentially priceless lead role in commercial space access for decades to come. Vying for such a place is Alliant Techsystems (ATK), which has announced plans to develop a composite crew compartment with support from Lockheed Martin as part of a complete launch system being proposed with Astrium. Other contenders include Blue Origin, Boeing, Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) and Sierra Nevada.
Unveiling new details about its Liberty project, ATK says the system could be tested in 2014, with the first crewed test mission anticipated as early as 2015. Kent Rominger, ATK vice president and Liberty program manager, says the test plan supports crewed missions for NASA by 2016 and is built on flight-proven elements.
“We're at the point where [the U.S.'s] reputation is on the line, and hopefully when people see Liberty they'll recognize the whole system is unique in that it has been designed from the outset to meet NASA's human-rated standards,” says Rominger. Although ATK and Astrium previously detailed the use of a five-segment, space shuttle-derived solid first stage and Ariane 5-based liquid-fueled upper stage for Liberty's combined configuration, the team has not previously discussed details of the crew capsule, abort system and other elements of its proposal.
Liberty is one of several competing system-level proposals for the third phase of NASA's commercial crew program, known as Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap). Proposals for the contest were submitted in March, with expectations of multiple follow-on contracts valued at $300-500 million due to be awarded in early August.
“Unlike when we bid on CCDev2 [Commercial Crew Development 2], now we have an entire system,” says Rominger. The spacecraft leverages design work performed at NASA Langley Research Center on the composite crew module and Maximum Launch Abort System (MLAS), for which ATK was a contractor, as well as service module design work performed by NASA Glenn Research Center, he adds. “We're using all that work and, in some cases, making it less capable to suit the less demanding missions to low Earth orbit [LEO].”
ATK's crew module development comes as the manufacturer's aerospace structures division continues the company's strategic push for leadership in composite assembly for commercial, military and space markets. As well as wing skins and access covers for the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, ATK produces stringers and frames for the majority of the Airbus A350 fuselage in addition to engine cases for the Boeing 747-8 and A350. Composite structures for space applications include large elements of the Delta? IV, Atlas V, Ariane 5 and more than 11,100 rocket motor cases.
Aside from the better strength-to-weight ratio of composites over metal, ATK decided to pursue the advanced design for the crew module because “it's a core competency, so it makes sense,” says Rominger. However, to allay concerns over the potential permeability of the material in the vacuum of space, tests are underway to check that the composite capsule does not leak. “As we speak, the composite crew module is undergoing permeability tests at NASA Langley. Even without a coating, it meets requirements for being docked at the International Space Station for up to 210 days,” says Rominger. “There are a lot of skeptics about composites, but we're comfortable with them.”
The abort system is a pusher rather than a tractor device; but unlike liquid-fueled pusher abort systems proposed for competing designs such as the Boeing CST-100, the Liberty system will have six solid rocket motors embedded around the periphery of the crew vehicle. “It's very capable and very simple,” says Rominger. “If you had a fire, it will take the crew over a mile from the pad.”
ATK considered a liquid-fueled system, which would have enabled the potential use of unexpended propellant in orbit. However, it finally opted for solids because of simplicity and the fact that the additional thrust “is not that significant” on a vehicle designed to deliver 44,000 lb. into orbit. The solid abort motors are designed to jettison around 3 min. into the flight.
As well as providing the crew module and MLAS, ATK is responsible for the first stage, system integration and ground and mission operations, while Astrium provides the Vulcain 2-powered second stage. Lockheed Martin will provide subsystems and other support, including access to the same supply chain building components and systems for the NASA Orion capsule, as well as the use of its recently completed Space Operations Simulation Center near Denver. “With things like backshells, heatshields, guidance, navigation and control [GN&C] and so on, we are trying to leverage all those things,” says Rominger.
Lockheed Martin will work with ATK to tailor the design of subsystems for the crew compartment to suit the “specific mission requirements” of the LEO flights, says Scott Norris, Lockheed Martin lead for Liberty. Aside from “implied” cost savings from the use of a common supply chain, Norris says the entire development process will also be speeded up. “We have 21 months if selected to get to critical design review,” he notes. Lockheed Martin will provide crew interface systems design, sub-system selection, assembly, integration and mission operations support. ATK subsystems could include avionics, GN&C, propulsion, environmental control, docking and other components.
Astrium North America CEO John Schumacher says the initial second stage will be shipped to Kennedy Space Center, where it will be integrated with the ATK-made first stage. However, “once the business case develops in the U.S., then we envision moving manufacture of the Liberty upper stage to the U.S.” Although the second stage is nearly identical to the standard Ariane 5 core, Schumacher says additional structural reinforcement is required. Despite this, he notes that no major tooling will be needed to accommodate the Liberty on the Ariane line, which can be grown from its current 6-7-per-year rate to “easily incorporate three to five more.”
As the Snecma-developed Vulcain 2 is used on the first stage of the Ariane 5, powering 47 consecutive launches, simulated altitude testing will be required to prove its air-starting capability for use in Liberty's second stage. Rominger says test sites at NASA's Stennis Space Center and Glenn Research Center are being evaluated. “We are working with both NASA centers to see which will be most appropriate.”
Analysis of the forces acting on the stack also indicates that, unlike NASA's similarly configured Ares 1 launcher, the Liberty will not be prone to potential thrust-oscillation issues at liftoff. The key difference is that the liquid oxygen tank is higher in the second stage than the liquid hydrogen tank, rather than the other way around in the Ares vehicle. The resulting change in weight distribution “changes the axial modes,” says Rominger. “We need no mitigation and are well within the requirements. NASA is fully on board with that,” he adds.
Other Liberty subcontractors now identified include wiring manufacturer Safran/Labinal in Salisbury, Md., avionics and telemetry provider L-3 Communications Cincinnati Electronics and Moog, which provides thrust-vector and propulsion control.
New Sierra Nevada office will support Army, NASA, other programs
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