News 5/16/12

 
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
 
JSC TODAY HEADLINES
1.            Tune in Tonight to View Soyuz Docking Coverage on NASA TV
2.            JSC: See the Space Station and SpaceX Dragon
3.            Do You Know What's Going on Around the Space Industry?
4.            Nominate Your Peer for the POWER of One Award
5.            Striving for Excellence in Leadership, Diversity & Inclusion
6.            Confined Space Entry 8:30 a.m. and Lockout/Tagout 1 p.m. - July 24, Building 226N, Room 174
7.            NASA Night at the Houston Dynamo
8.            Water-Bots Summer Camp
9.            Starport Presents: Father-Daughter Dance 2012
10.          RSVP for the National Management Association May Luncheon
11.          JSC-EWB presents: The Director of a Rwanda Orphanage
12.          Space Available: APPEL - Risk Management II
13.          Are You Ready for the SATERN Downtime?
14.          Just for the guys
15.          Recent JSC Announcement
16.          Pre-Retirement for Federal Employee Retirement System (FERS)
17.          Affordability Thinking: A Workshop for Getting the Big Picture
18.          NASA IT Labs First Annual Project Call
________________________________________     QUOTE OF THE DAY
“ It ain't no use putting up your umbrella till it rains! ”
 
-- Alice Caldwell Rice
________________________________________
1.            Tune in Tonight to View Soyuz Docking Coverage on NASA TV
NASA astronaut Joseph Acaba, flight engineer, and his two Russian crewmates, Soyuz Commander Gennady Padalka and Flight Engineer Sergei Revin, on board the Soyuz TMA-04M spacecraft are scheduled to dock to the space station's Rassvet module at 11:38 p.m. tonight. Acaba, Padalka and Revin will join NASA's Don Pettit, Russia's Oleg Kononenko and ESA's Andre Kuipers to complete the Expedition 31 crew.
 
Wednesday, May 16
11 p.m. -- NASA TV coverage begins. The 11:38 p.m. docking will be followed by a post-docking news conference from mission control in Korolev, Russia.
 
Thursday, May 17
2:45 a.m. -- Soyuz TMA-04M hatch-opening and welcoming ceremony (hatch opening-scheduled at 2:55 a.m.).
4 a.m. -- Video file of Soyuz TMA-04M docking, hatch opening and welcoming ceremony.
 
JSC employees with wired computer network connections can view NASA TV using onsite IPTV on channels 404 (standard definition) or 4541 (HD) at: http://iptv.jsc.nasa.gov/eztv/
 
If you are having problems viewing the video using these systems, contact the Information Resources Directorate Customer Support Center at x46367.
 
For NASA TV downlink, schedule updates and streaming video information, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv
 
For more information, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/station
 
JSC External Relations, Communications and Public Affairs x35111
 
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2.            JSC: See the Space Station and SpaceX Dragon
Viewers in the JSC area will be able to see the International Space Station this week.
 
ISS
 
Thursday, May 17, 5:26 a.m. (Duration: three minutes)
Path: 15 degrees above SSW to 33 degrees above E
Maximum elevation: 46 degrees
 
Saturday, May 19, 5:15 a.m. (Duration: three minutes)
Path: 28 degrees above WSW to 24 degrees above NNE
Maximum elevation: 54 degrees
 
DRAGON
Saturday, May 19, 5:31 a.m. (Duration: three minutes)
Path: 18 degrees above W to 12 degrees above NNE
Maximum elevation: 28 degrees
 
Note that the Dragon sighting is on its first orbit.
 
The International Space Station Trajectory Operations Group provides updates via JSC Today for visible station passes at least two minutes in duration and 25 degrees in elevation. Other opportunities, including those with shorter durations and lower elevations, or from other ground locations, are available at the website below.
 
Joe Pascucci x31695 http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/cities/view.cgi?country=U...
 
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3.            Do You Know What's Going on Around the Space Industry?
Each day, you can keep up with all the news affecting NASA by reading the NASA News Summary. It is available on the Web at: http://www.bulletinnews.com/nasa/
 
It contains full-text links so that clicking the hypertext links in the write-ups will take you to the newspapers' original full-text articles. It also contains an interactive table of contents, so clicking a page number on the table of contents page will take you directly to that story. In addition to reading today's NASA news, you can also find older stories through the searchable archive of past editions. The website will also let you subscribe to receive a daily email of all the day's space news.
 
Brought to you by External Relations, Office of Communications and Public Affairs x35111
 
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4.            Nominate Your Peer for the POWER of One Award
We're currently taking nominations for JSC's only EXPERIENCE award, the POWER of One. Winners will be awarded based on contributions to NASA on one of the three levels:
 
- Gold: Agency Impact Award Level
- Silver: Center Impact Award Level
- Bronze: Organization Impact Award Level
 
This award is open to civil servants and contractors. Nominations can be made at http://powerofone.jsc.nasa.gov and they must include a short write-up on accomplishment and activities benefiting one of three categories. If chosen, the recipient can choose from a list of experiences and have their name and recognition shared on JSC features. Our next round of winners will be chosen soon, so nominate someone deserving today!
 
Jessica Ocampo 281-792-7804 http://powerofone.jsc.nasa.gov
 
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5.            Striving for Excellence in Leadership, Diversity & Inclusion
Don't forget: Tomorrow, Thursday, May 17, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Building 20 Auditorium, JSC's Asians Succeeding in Innovation and Aerospace Employee Resource Group has invited you to join in celebrating Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.
Doors open at 11 a.m. with a Kung Fu Master demonstration. Two distinguished industry guests, Dr. Aya Kameda and Mr. Thuy Mai, will discuss "Turning Diversity into Strength and Success" and "Adapting your Career."
 
All JSC team members are encouraged to attend this event. Light refreshments will be served outside the Building 30 Auditorium in the hallway following the program, and there will be a drawing for prizes.
 
Krystine Bui x34186
 
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6.            Confined Space Entry 8:30 a.m. and Lockout/Tagout 1 p.m. - July 24, Building 226N, Room 174
SMA-SAFE-NSTC-0806,Confined Space Entry: The purpose of this course is to provide employees with the standards, procedures and requirements necessary for safe entry to and operations in confined spaces. OSHA standard 29 CFR 1910.146, "Confined Space," is the basis for this course. The course covers the hazards of working in or around a confined space and the precautions you should take to control these hazards. A comprehensive test will be offered at the end of the class.
https://satern.nasa.gov/plateau/user/deeplink.do?linkId=SCHEDULED_OFFERING_DE...
SMA-SAFE-NSTC-0814,Lockout/Tagout - The purpose of this course is to provide employees with the standards, procedures and requirements necessary for the control of hazardous energy through lockout and tagout of energy-isolating devices. OSHA standard 29 CFR 1910.147, "The Control of Hazardous Energy (Lockout/Tagout)," is the basis for this course. A comprehensive test will be offered at the end of the class.
https://satern.nasa.gov/plateau/user/deeplink.do?linkId=SCHEDULED_OFFERING_DE...
Use the direct links to register in SATERN.
 
Shirley Robinson x41284
 
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7.            NASA Night at the Houston Dynamo
Calling all soccer fans - invite family and friends to the Houston Dynamo vs. FC Dallas on Saturday, June 16, at 4 p.m., at the new BBVA Compass Stadium. Make plans to come early to the SoccerFest Fan Zone and visit NASA's exhibit.
 
To purchase discounted tickets, go to http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/Events/ Click the link for the Houston Dynamo vs. FC Dallas game and follow the remaining instructions to purchase tickets with the pass code: nasa.
 
JSC team members, family and friends are encouraged to wear NASA shirts to the game.
 
Shelly Haralson x39168 http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/Events/
 
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8.            Water-Bots Summer Camp
The Aerospace Academy - San Jacinto College (SJC) offers a week of fun activities including: hands on instruction in robotics, speakers from various fields that use robots, and a tour of NASA JSC and the Sonny Carter Neutral Buoyancy Lab. At the end of camp the participants will compete in an underwater robotics competition.
Dates: July 16 to 20 and July 23 to 27
Age Groups: Students 12 to13 and 14 to 18
 
Cost: $250
Time: 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. (before and after hours available)
Location: San Jacinto College - Central Campus
 
For additional information or registration contact- Bridget Kramer 281-244-6803 bridget.a.kramer@nasa.gov or Angie Hughes 281-483-7252 angela.m.hughes@nasa.gov
 
Bridget Kramer x46803 http://www.aerospace-academy.org
 
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9.            Starport Presents: Father-Daughter Dance 2012
Make Father's Day weekend a date your daughter will never forget! Enjoy a night of music, dancing, refreshments, finger foods, dessert, photos and more! Plan to get all dressed up and spend a special evening with the special little lady in your life.
 
June 15 from 6:30 to 9 p.m. in the Alamo Ballroom at the Gilruth Center.
 
Cost is $40 per couple, $15 per additional child. Each couple will receive one free 5x7 photo.
 
Visit our website at http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/Events/ for more information.
 
Shelly Haralson x39168 http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/
 
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10.          RSVP for the National Management Association May Luncheon
Want to learn more about JSC's history and plans to lead the next era of space exploration?
 
Find out about the significant strategic planning, new business pursuits, technology investments, commercialization and partnership development underway at JSC at the next JSC Chapter of the National Management Association (NMA)luncheon.
 
When: May 23
Time: 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Where: Hilton, Discovery Ballroom
Who: Dr. Doug Terrier, Deputy Director, Strategic Opportunities and Partnerships Development Office
Topic: "Leading the Next Era of Space Exploration"
 
Cost for members: $0
Cost for non-members: $20
 
RSVP due date and instructions: Close of business on May 17 at http://www.jscnma.com/Events (Click on May 23 event). Non-members can register using "Click here to Register as a Guest."
 
For membership information and RSVP assistance, please contact Lorraine Guerra (x34262) or visit: http://www.jscnma.com/Members (Click on "Join NMA")
 
Cassandra Miranda x38618
 
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11.          JSC-EWB presents: The Director of a Rwanda Orphanage
The JSC chapter of Engineers Without Borders has been working with the L'Esperance Children's Aid Orphanage in Rwanda since 2006 on rainwater catchment, water treatment and currently fruit dehydration. The L'Esperance orphanage director Victor Monroy will be visiting JSC on his first trip to the U.S. and would like to invite all JSC employees to the Building 30 Auditorium Monday, May 21, from noon to 1 p.m. to learn about the work he has done at L'Esperance and the upcoming work on a small business initiative, with EWB-JSC, that will become the funding source for the orphanage making it the first self-sustaining orphanage in Rwanda. No RSVP required.
 
Angela Cason x40903 http://lesperancerwanda.org/
 
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12.          Space Available: APPEL - Risk Management II
This two-day course builds on the knowledge of NASA's approach to managing risk. It provides an opportunity to evaluate and practice application of the Risk Informed Decision Making and Continuous Risk Management in the context of NASA projects and programs.
 
This course is designed for NASA's technical workforce, including systems engineers and project personnel who seek to develop the competencies required to succeed as a leader of a project team, functional team or small project.
 
This course is available for self-registration in SATERN until Monday, May 21, and is open to civil-servants and contractors on a space-available basis.
 
Dates: Tuesday to Wednesday, June 20 to 21
Location: Building 226N, Room 174
 
Zeeaa Quadri x39723 https://satern.nasa.gov/plateau/user/deeplink.do?linkId=SCHEDULED_OFFERI...
 
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13.          Are You Ready for the SATERN Downtime?
SATERN will be unavailable from Friday, May 25, at 4 p.m. until Monday, June 4, as new features are implemented.
 
In preparation for the upgrade, please manage the following tasks:
- Register for June training classes in SATERN before the downtime on May 25.
- Check the status of your Individual Development Plan. IDPs that are in pending status must be approved prior to downtime.
- IT Security Training and all other Federally Mandated courses that are due during the downtime (May 25 to June 3) should be completed by May 24 for all SATERN users at JSC, contractors and civil servants.
- Complete any required Computer Based Training courses
 
Updated training materials, job aids, and quick reference guides will be available on the SATERN Informational Website after the June 4 go-live date: https://saterninfo.nasa.gov
 
Contact the NSSC Contact Center for technical assistance: 1-877-NSSC-123 (1-877-677-2123) or nasa-satern.support@nasa.gov.
 
Jennifer Ahmed-Alonso x27851
 
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14.          Just for the guys
This is a meeting for the male population at JSC to discuss ideas and suggestions on issues related to male stereotypes. Takis Bogdanos, MA, LPC, of the JSC Employee Assistance Program (EAP), will facilitate the meeting and offer tools. Through discussion and feedback, we can expand our view of the male role on how to manage life more resourcefully. Some of the "men's issues" discussed include work and responsibility, relationships and parenting. The meeting will be tomorrow, Thursday, May 17, in the EAP Office (Building 32, Room 132) at noon.
 
Takis Bogdanos x36130
 
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15.          Recent JSC Announcement
Please visit the JSC Announcements Web Page to view the newly posted announcement:
 
JSCA 12-012: Key Personnel Assignment - John A. McCullough.
 
Archived announcements are also available on the JSCA Web Page.
 
 
Pam Baker x33791 http://ird.jsc.nasa.gov/DocumentManagement/announcements/default.aspx
 
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16.          Pre-Retirement for Federal Employee Retirement System (FERS)
Are you prepared to retire?
 
This Pre-Retirement for FERS Seminar is designed to help you effectively manage today's realities as you begin to explore retirement possibilities.
 
Retirement is often looked upon as a financially-based decision. Although the financial aspects are important, many other concerns need to be addressed. This seminar is designed to help effectively deal with today's realities as you begin to explore retirement possibilities.
 
Topics covered include life-style planning, health maintenance, financial planning, legal affairs planning and more.
 
Who Should Attend: Federal employees interested in learning more about the Federal Employee Retirement System with 5 to10 years or fewer until retirement eligibility.
 
Course Length: 16 hours
 
PRE-RETIREMENT FOR FEDERAL EMPLOYEE RETIREMENT SYSTEM (FERS)
Date: June 25-26
Time: 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Location: Teague Auditorium
 
Registration via SATERN: https://satern.nasa.gov/plateau/user/deeplink.do?linkId=REGISTRATION&schedule...
 
Nicole Kem x37894 https://satern.nasa.gov/plateau/user/deeplink.do?linkId=REGISTRATION&sch...
 
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17.          Affordability Thinking: A Workshop for Getting the Big Picture
The Performance Management and Integration Office is sponsoring a unique training opportunity at the Gilruth entitled "Affordability Thinking: A Workshop for Getting the Big Picture." Three sessions of this two-hour workshop will be offered:
- 9 to 11 a.m. on May 23
- 1 to 3 p.m. on May 23
- 9 to 11 a.m. on May 24
 
Upon completion of the training, you will learn to approach a problem resolution with affordability in mind, be a catalyst for affordable options in your everyday work environment and create the conversation about affordability with your co-workers, leaders and customers. We encourage intact teams with all experience levels to sign up for this workshop. Both civil servant and contractor employees are welcome. Please sign up for this workshop via SATERN using the following links:
 
https://satern.nasa.gov/plateau/user/deeplink.do?linkId=SCHEDULED_OFFERING_DE..
 
https://satern.nasa.gov/plateau/user/deeplink.do?linkId=SCHEDULED_OFFERING_DE..
 
https://satern.nasa.gov/plateau/user/deeplink.do?linkId=SCHEDULED_OFFERING_DE..
 
Cathy Claunch x38979
 
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18.          NASA IT Labs First Annual Project Call
IT Labs is the Technology and Innovation Program for the NASA Chief Technology Officer for Information Technology. The goal of IT Labs is to leverage expertise across the Agency to identify challenging problems, ideas and solutions and integrate IT solutions and innovations into the Office of the Chief Information Officer service model.
 
IT Labs wants to fund your innovative ideas for IT-related solutions that can be used across all NASA centers. NASA's IT Labs Program will be accepting proposals during its First Annual Project Call from May 14 through June 15. This is your chance to help solve challenging Information Technology problems and introduce new technologies across the agency. If you have an idea, please coordinate with your NASA Center Chief Technology Officer to submit a proposal on the IT Labs website. IT Labs will review all submissions and fund a limited number of projects.
 
Allison Wolff x39589 http://labs.nasa.gov
 
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________________________________________
JSC Today is compiled periodically as a service to JSC employees on an as-submitted basis. Any JSC organization or employee may submit articles. To see an archive of previous JSC Today announcements, go to http://www6.jsc.nasa.gov/pao/news/jsctoday/archives.
 
 
 
NASA TV:
·         9:15 am Central (10:15 EDT) – Exp 31 w/European YouTube Spacelab Participants
·         11 pm Central (Midnight EDT) – Soyuz TMA-04M docking coverage
·         11:38 pm Central (12:38 am THURSDAY EDT) – Soyuz TMA-04M docking/news conference
·         2:45 am THURSDAY Central (3:45 EDT) – Hatch opening coverage (opens at 2:55 am CDT)
·         5 am Central THURSDAY (6 EDT) – Video File of Soyuz docking, hatch opening & welcome
 
Human Spaceflight News
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
 
HEADLINES AND LEADS
 
Stars align for SpaceX journey
Saturday launch would bring craft to ISS next week
 
James Dean - Florida Today
 
SpaceX’s Dragon capsule on Tuesday won approval from International Space Station managers to approach and possibly berth with the outpost next week, putting it a step closer to a planned early Saturday launch from Cape Canaveral. The flight readiness review, which followed up one held in mid-April, confirmed improvements to the Dragon’s software systems and that the station and its crew would be ready to support the unmanned capsule’s arrival.
 
Space station managers give go for SpaceX launch
 
Stephen Clark - SpaceflightNow.com
 
NASA's space station management team on Tuesday approved plans to launch SpaceX's first commercial flight to the complex Saturday, signing off on software changes governing the privately-built capsule's final approach to the orbiting outpost. The 157-foot-long rocket will roll out from its hangar at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Thursday to be rotated vertical on top of its seaside launch pad. Liftoff is set for Saturday at 0855 GMT (4:55 a.m. EDT). The Dragon spacecraft should be grappled by the space station's robot arm at about 1211 GMT (8:11 a.m. EDT) on May 22.
 
A new frontier for space travel
 
W.J. Hennigan - Los Angeles Times
 
For the last half-century, space flight has been the domain of the world's superpowers. All that is set to change as soon as Saturday when SpaceX, the private rocket company in Hawthorne, will attempt to launch a spaceship with cargo into orbit and three days later dock it with the International Space Station. If successful, the mission could mean a major shift in the way the U.S. government handles space exploration. Instead of keeping space travel a closely guarded government function, NASA has already begun hiring privately funded start-up companies for spacecraft development and is moving toward eventually outsourcing NASA space missions.
 
SpaceX counting down for historic launch to space station
 
Jason Paur - Wired.com
 
Elon Musk is one step closer to his end goal of making human life multi-planetary. No, the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket hasn’t boosted the Dragon spacecraft into its rendezvous orbit with the International Space Station quite yet. That launch is scheduled for Saturday morning at 4:55 a.m. ET from Cape Canaveral in Florida. But as Floridians were drifting off to sleep Monday, halfway around the world a Russian Soyuz rocket lifted off with a pair of cosmonauts and an American astronaut bound for the ISS. Monday’s launch was part of the reason SpaceX delayed the launch by about two weeks from its previously scheduled lift off. NASA and SpaceX wanted to avoid a potential traffic jam in orbit with two separate spacecraft scheduled for trips to the space station. And the successful launch was one of the final variables before SpaceX will finally get the chance to test its Dragon capsule.
 
SpaceX's 1st private capsule launch to space station: How it will work
 
Clara Moskowitz - Space.com
 
On May 19, if all goes well, the private spaceflight company SpaceX will launch the first commercial spaceship ever to visit the International Space Station. But the mission will be like no other U.S. flight to the orbiting laboratory. SpaceX's unmanned Dragon capsule is due to deliver food, supplies and science experiments to the outpost as a test mission for NASA. The space agency awarded the company a $1.6 billion contract for 12 robotic resupply flights to fill the delivery needs left over by the space shuttle fleet's retirement last year. SpaceX is one of two companies with NASA contracts for robotic cargo delivery flights (Virginia's Orbital Technologies Corp. is the other), but is the first to actually try a launch. And as the first American-built robotic cargo ship ever to visit the space station, there are some unique aspects of this mission NASA is hoping will succeed.
 
Private space taxi builders ponder future beyond NASA
 
Denise Chow - Space.com
 
The private spaceflight company SpaceX is poised to launch a robotic capsule toward the International Space Station Saturday on a test flight that, if successful, could be a watershed moment for the commercial space industry. But while SpaceX has a NASA contract to provide cargo deliveries to the space station, the company and other private spaceship developers are looking to a future beyond NASA funding. The Hawthorne, Calif.-based SpaceX is one of several aerospace firms who are competing for NASA funding under the third and final phase of NASA's commercial crew development program. Proposals for this stage of the competition, called Commercial Crew integrated Capability (CCiCap), require companies to present a complete launch system — rocket and vehicle — for consideration.
 
NASA intends to use Delta 4 upper stage on moon flights
 
Stephen Clark - SpaceflightNow.com
 
NASA says Boeing is best equipped to provide two cryogenic upper stages derived from the Delta 4 rocket to power the agency's Orion capsule on a test flight around the moon in 2017 and send astronauts on a voyage to lunar orbit in 2021, according to documents posted on a federal government procurement website. The space agency issued a sole-source award to Boeing on April 27 for a feasibility study on the compatibility of the Delta Cryogenic Second Stage, or DCSS, with the Space Launch System, a heavy-lift rocket designed to dispatch astronaut crews on expeditions to the moon, asteroids, Mars, and other deep space destinations.
 
Chris Hadfield’s tweets give an insider’s look at astronaut training
 
Tom Spears - Ottawa Citizen
 
When a photograph of astronaut Chris Hadfield training for spacewalks surfaced on Twitter last week, the questions started rolling in: How do you go to the bathroom? What happens if something itches inside that big suit? Does training for spacewalks underwater make the astronaut feel water pressure? Lo and behold, the answers came right back from Hadfield, who will soon be the first Canadian to command a space mission. Hadfield is Canada’s most experienced astronaut. He has been to the former Russian space station Mir, and has done several spacewalks to install the Canadarm2 on the International Space Station.
 
Launch preps begin for next Chinese human spaceflight
 
Stephen Clark - SpaceflightNow.com
 
The Long March rocket and Shenzhou spacecraft for China's next manned space mission are being readied for blastoff as soon as June from the country's Jiuquan launching base. Three astronauts will fly into space on the Shenzhou 9 mission, which will be China's fourth human spaceflight. Shenzhou 9 could carry China's first female space flier, according to state media. One official Chinese website indicated the mission would include a woman.
 
Hundreds turn out for SpaceX hearing
 
Laura Martinez - Brownsville Herald
 
Hundreds of people turned out Tuesday for a public hearing on SpaceX’s proposal to build a satellite launch site in Cameron County, and virtually all comments from the public showed support for the project. Dozens of people took the microphone and all supported the venture, according to Gilberto Salinas, spokesman for the Brownsville Economic Development Corporation. A few people voiced concerns for wildlife in the area. The Federal Aviation Administration hosted Tuesday hearing to help assess the proposal by Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, for a launch pad in Cameron County. The gathering, held at the ITEC Center, attracted an estimated 500 people, all seeking information or wanting to offer comments.
 
Skylab-Salyut Space Laboratory
 
David Portree - Wired.com
 
On May 14, 1973, the five F-1 engines at the base of the last Saturn V rocket to fly ignited, engulfing Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center in orange flame and gray smoke. Seconds later, the hold-down arms on the launch pad swung clear, and the giant white-and-black rocket began its thundering ascent. The last Saturn V bore aloft the Skylab Orbital Workshop, a temporary space station. Skylab was the last vestige of NASA’s ill-fated Apollo Applications Project.
__________
 
COMPLETE STORIES
 
Stars align for SpaceX journey
Saturday launch would bring craft to ISS next week
 
James Dean - Florida Today
 
SpaceX’s Dragon capsule on Tuesday won approval from International Space Station managers to approach and possibly berth with the outpost next week, putting it a step closer to a planned early Saturday launch from Cape Canaveral.
 
The flight readiness review, which followed up one held in mid-April, confirmed improvements to the Dragon’s software systems and that the station and its crew would be ready to support the unmanned capsule’s arrival.
 
“Everyone is GO for launch,” NASA said in a Twitter message after the station team completed its review.
 
SpaceX is targeting a 4:55 a.m. blastoff Saturday of a Falcon 9 rocket and the Dragon from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
 
The launch would put the spacecraft on course to fly close under the station on Monday for tests designed to show the spacecraft can safely approach and back away from the complex.
 
If all goes well, the automated Dragon would position itself to be grappled by a robotic arm and berthed to the station Tuesday morning.
 
The Dragon would be the first commercial spacecraft to fly near to and link up to the space station.
 
SpaceX had been targeting a launch in late April, but delayed it to allow more time to test and validate the Dragon’s complex software, which is designed to ensure the mission can be completed even if multiple systems fail.
 
On Monday, a NASA manager said the agency had “looked at a lot of the changes that have been done on the software and got comfortable that all of those changes were acceptable.”
 
“We closed out a lot of work over the last couple of weeks,” added Mike Horkachuck, NASA’s project executive for SpaceX. “There was a lot of software that’s been rechecked and validated by the space station program.”
 
Horkachuck also said SpaceX’s March 30 test-firing of the rocket’s first-stage engines had produced no concerns.
 
A launch readiness review is planned Thursday to ensure the vehicles, ground systems and launch teams are set for the countdown.
 
Space station managers give go for SpaceX launch
 
Stephen Clark - SpaceflightNow.com
 
NASA's space station management team on Tuesday approved plans to launch SpaceX's first commercial flight to the complex Saturday, signing off on software changes governing the privately-built capsule's final approach to the orbiting outpost.
 
The 157-foot-long rocket will roll out from its hangar at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Thursday to be rotated vertical on top of its seaside launch pad.
 
Liftoff is set for Saturday at 0855 GMT (4:55 a.m. EDT). The Dragon spacecraft should be grappled by the space station's robot arm at about 1211 GMT (8:11 a.m. EDT) on May 22.
 
Officials have delayed the launch from the beginning of 2012 to review the Dragon spacecraft's software, particularly the code which controls the capsule's final rendezvous with the space station and detects and responds to system failures during the Dragon's delicate maneuvers near the complex.
 
Tuesday's Flight Readiness Review evaluated results from software tests over the last few weeks.
 
"The teams reported all remaining work had been completed and everyone is 'go' for launch," NASA posted in a statement on its website. "SpaceX reported that the Dragon spacecraft and its systems are ready for the mission."
 
Mike Horkachuck, NASA's project executive for SpaceX, said the space agency is comfortable with SpaceX's readiness for the flight.
 
"We closed out a lot of work over the last couple of weeks," Horkachuck said. "There was a lot of software that's been rechecked and validated by the space station program. They did an end-to-end test of the data system, as well as another stage test, checking all the software functionality as it relates to the space station. We looked at a lot of the changes that have been done on the software and gotten comfortable that all those changes were acceptable."
 
Astronauts Don Pettit and Andre Kuipers replaced a GPS navigation unit aboard the space station Monday after ground controllers noticed a failure last week. The GPS instrumentation is mandatory for Dragon's navigation system during the craft's final approach to the complex.
 
SpaceX plans an internal Launch Readiness Review on Thursday.
 
The flight is a crucial test for SpaceX, which holds a $1.6 billion contract for 12 cargo delivery flights to the space station. SpaceX could begin executing operational flights under the contract later this year if the upcoming test mission goes as planned.
 
A new frontier for space travel
 
W.J. Hennigan - Los Angeles Times
 
For the last half-century, space flight has been the domain of the world's superpowers.
 
All that is set to change as soon as Saturday when SpaceX, the private rocket company in Hawthorne, will attempt to launch a spaceship with cargo into orbit and three days later dock it with the International Space Station.
 
If successful, the mission could mean a major shift in the way the U.S. government handles space exploration. Instead of keeping space travel a closely guarded government function, NASA has already begun hiring privately funded start-up companies for spacecraft development and is moving toward eventually outsourcing NASA space missions.
 
The upcoming launch is "the first step in the handoff" to private industry, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said. "Everybody realizes the importance of this mission," he said. "Nobody will be rooting against SpaceX."
 
But if the mission fails, it could trigger serious doubts about NASA's decision to hand these responsibilities to a fledgling private space industry. Doubters have already begun to raise questions. Some former astronauts, members of Congress and space experts say the current plan to subcontract space missions is foolhardy. They say the plan is risky and that outer space is no place to roll the dice on unproven companies.
 
On launch day, it falls to SpaceX and its 40-year-old billionaire founder, Elon Musk, to prove they're prepared.
 
With SpaceX engineers at the controls in Hawthorne, a towering rocket will blast off from a launch pad about 2,600 miles away in Cape Canaveral, Fla., and lift a gumdrop-shaped space capsule with a half-ton of food, water and other supplies up to the crew aboard the orbiting space station.
 
But delivering cargo isn't the key mission — the space station is well-provisioned. The main purpose is to demonstrate that the space capsule can rendezvous with the $100-billion orbiting outpost and link up with the space station's onboard computers. If all goes well, the crew aboard the space station will snag the spacecraft with a robotic arm and lead it in for docking. Weeks later it will be released and sent back to Earth.
 
"We're ready to take that next step," Musk said. "It's been a long road to this point."
 
Musk is a straight-talking modern-day industrialist cut in the mold of a young Howard Hughes. He's led numerous start-up companies in a wide-range of industries, dating Hollywood starlets along the way.
 
The sandy-haired South African emigrant first made millions when he co-founded and sold online payment business PayPal Inc. to EBay Inc. in 2002 for $1.5 billion. Armed with his personal fortune and a Rolodex full of Silicon Valley venture capitalist contacts, Musk started SpaceX, or Space Exploration Technologies Corp., and co-founded electric car company Tesla Motors Inc. in Palo Alto.
 
In starting SpaceX in 2002, his goal was to make money by developing and launching rockets that could carry satellites into space at a fraction of the cost of the current generation of spacecraft.
 
The sales pitch as a low-cost alternative has resonated with NASA. With federal money in short supply and the space shuttle fleet retired, the space agency has experienced thousands of job cuts across the country at places such as Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Johnson Space Center in Houston and Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge.
 
The U.S. government now has no way to space other than doling out $63 million for a seat on a Russian Soyuz rocket.
 
After years of study and approval from Congress, the space agency is moving to turn the job of carrying cargo and crews over to private industry at a lower cost. Meanwhile, NASA will focus on deep space missions to land on asteroids and Mars.
 
Still, some in Congress aren't sold on the privatization plan.
 
"I believe NASA would better serve the American taxpayer by continuing to push the frontiers of human space travel in its own right," said Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) "There are no 'private' space companies; only taxpayer-funded ones that NASA has arbitrarily decided to call 'commercial' and hold to reduced standards of performance and accountability."
 
Eugene Cernan, who was the last astronaut to walk on the moon in 1972, and Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon in 1969, testified before Congress in September about NASA's decision to outsource space missions to private business. Cernan described NASA's future plans as a "slide to mediocrity," "third-rate stature" and "devastating."
 
Earlier this month, the pair, along with Jim Lovell, commander of the Apollo 13 mission, wrote a letter to Congress saying they want safe spacecraft.
 
"We all agree that our country has painted itself into a corner and does not now, nor will for many years, have a U.S. government craft suitable for carrying cargo or crew to the International Space Station," the astronauts wrote. "The reputation of our country … dictates that we do everything possible to ensure that any commercial crew service meets standards equal to those that we would enforce would the craft be government owned and operated."
 
NASA says it is working with SpaceX to ensure safe flights and also has signed development contracts with lesser-known names in aerospace such as Sierra Nevada Corp. of Sparks, Nev. and Blue Origin of Kent, Wash.
 
Inside SpaceX's Hawthorne complex, the company has a vast mission control center where engineers can keep real-time tabs on rocket launches at Cape Canaveral and on the mission itself. They monitor incoming data for anomalies, and if there are any, they can order the launch to be scrubbed or address the mission issues.
 
Musk recently sat at a workstation and discussed the coming launch date. A boyish smile spread across his face as he talked about the beehive of activity that will fill the room, which resembles NASA's mission control center in Houston.
 
Then he grew cautious.
 
"There's a real chance this mission doesn't succeed — a lot can go wrong," Musk said. "I mean, there's a reason they call it rocket science."
 
Musk started the company after investing $100 million of his own fortune with limited knowledge of the rocket business. He came to find that the industry was difficult to enter and littered with failed projects.
 
The company's first rocket, the single-engine Falcon 1, failed three times before it successfully carried a satellite into space in 2008. That same year, NASA awarded SpaceX a $1.6-billion contract to transport cargo in 12 flights to the space station.
 
In addition to the NASA contract, SpaceX has commercial contracts worth more than $4 billion to launch satellites aboard its new, larger Falcon 9 rocket for various countries and telecommunications companies. The privately held company is not required to disclose its financial details, including the dollar amounts involving commercial deals.
 
The company has a workforce of about 1,800, mostly in Hawthorne and Cape Canaveral. And much like the early days of NASA, the company has a cadre of young engineers — the average age is in the early 30s — who have turned down jobs at larger aerospace companies. Many say they work for SpaceX because it's new and operates more like a Silicon Valley start-up than an entrenched aerospace company.
 
SpaceX has been planning this mission for more than 17 months. In December 2010, SpaceX became the first private company to blast an unmanned spacecraft — a capsule called Dragon — into outer space, have it circle Earth and return intact.
 
The company initially hoped to visit the space station with the Dragon less than a year later, but has faced repeated delays.
 
Now, if everything goes according to plan, success will come sometime in June, when the Dragon carries out the mission and splashes down in the Pacific Ocean hundreds of miles west of Southern California. The craft will deploy parachutes to slow its descent after entering Earth's atmosphere.
 
"I'm starting to get nervous just thinking about it," Musk said. "Last launch, I couldn't even sit down. It's pretty nerve-racking."
 
SpaceX counting down for historic launch to space station
 
Jason Paur - Wired.com
 
Elon Musk is one step closer to his end goal of making human life multi-planetary. No, the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket hasn’t boosted the Dragon spacecraft into its rendezvous orbit with the International Space Station quite yet. That launch is scheduled for Saturday morning at 4:55 a.m. ET from Cape Canaveral in Florida. But as Floridians were drifting off to sleep Monday, halfway around the world a Russian Soyuz rocket lifted off with a pair of cosmonauts and an American astronaut bound for the ISS.
 
Monday’s launch was part of the reason SpaceX delayed the launch by about two weeks from its previously scheduled lift off. NASA and SpaceX wanted to avoid a potential traffic jam in orbit with two separate spacecraft scheduled for trips to the space station. And the successful launch was one of the final variables before SpaceX will finally get the chance to test its Dragon capsule.
 
The last scheduled SpaceX launch on May 7 had to be scrubbed due to more software testing. There is a manual override option, but the Dragon will mostly be an autonomous, robotic spacecraft during its rendezvous in orbit. In fact, the manual override is one of the many things being tested during the test flight. The entire mission includes two separate demonstrations by SpaceX to fulfill requirements NASA has set for commercial companies to be able to deliver cargo payloads to the ISS.
 
The SpaceX delays should make things a bit easier for the ISS crew currently in orbit. The three man crew was expecting to handle the SpaceX rendezvous and berthing on their own. But now with the Soyuz capsule currently in orbit, three more crew members are expected to be on board the space station on Thursday. The original three are still expected to handle the rendezvous and berthing of the Dragon using the station’s large robotic arm – the picture above is from a rehearsal session from inside the Cupola observatory module where the berthing will be orchestrated. But the three extra crew members should make the laborious unpacking and cargo transfer much easier.
 
If successful – and SpaceX, Elon Musk and NASA have all reiterated the fact this is a test flight and therefore a big “if” – the Dragon spacecraft will be the first commercially developed, launched and operated spacecraft to deliver supplies to the ISS some time early next week. There will be just over 1,000 pounds of supplies and gear on the way up, and the Dragon will carry several hundred pounds of cargo back to earth as well.
 
According to NASA, nothing on board the Dragon is essential to the operation of the ISS or the crew. But for several groups of young students, the payload is very important. Tucked inside Dragon along with some food, clothes, batteries and a laptop, are 15 experiments chosen from from 779 student teams that submitted proposals for doing research in low earth orbit.
 
The winning teams were scheduled to fly their experiments on a Soyuz rocket, but in the rarely predictable scheduling of rocket launches, the manifest changes meant the middle and high school student projects are set to launch on the Falcon 9 this Saturday. All of the experiments are housed in a single modular housing and include research on microbial life and water purification in a micro-gravity environment.
 
For Musk the success of this week’s mission may not be guaranteed, but he told us last month that there will be other opportunities for flights to the ISS later this year and he’s absolutely confident that SpaceX will deliver to the ISS. The cargo mission and eventual contract with NASA is just one step in Musk’s grand plan of traveling to Mars. Something he believes will happen in the not too distant future and one day will be available for anybody who wants to spend $500,000 for the roughly 130,000,000 mile trip.
 
SpaceX's 1st private capsule launch to space station: How it will work
 
Clara Moskowitz - Space.com
 
On May 19, if all goes well, the private spaceflight company SpaceX will launch the first commercial spaceship ever to visit the International Space Station. But the mission will be like no other U.S. flight to the orbiting laboratory.
 
SpaceX's unmanned Dragon capsule is due to deliver food, supplies and science experiments to the outpost as a test mission for NASA. The space agency awarded the company a $1.6 billion contract for 12 robotic resupply flights to fill the delivery needs left over by the space shuttle fleet's retirement last year.
 
SpaceX is one of two companies with NASA contracts for robotic cargo delivery flights (Virginia's Orbital Technologies Corp. is the other), but is the first to actually try a launch. And as the first American-built robotic cargo ship ever to visit the space station, there are some unique aspects of this mission NASA is hoping will succeed.
 
Here's how the robotic mission is expected to play out:
 
Step 1: Launch
The Dragon capsule is set to lift off aboard SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. SpaceX has use of the facility's Space Launch Complex 40, where the rocket will blast off May 19 at 4:55 a.m. EDT, if plans stay on schedule. The initial ascent is powered by Falcon 9's first stage, consisting of nine SpaceX Merlin 1C rocket engines.
 
Step 2: Main Engine Cut Off/Stage Separation
At a little before 180 seconds into the flight, the Falcon 9's first stage engines will cut off, and the first stage will drop off, falling back to Earth. At this point, the booster's second stage engines should start, further propelling the vehicle into orbit.
 
Step 3: Payload Separation
Around 9 minutes into the flight, the Dragon capsule should separate from Falcon 9's second stage and orbit on its own. The capsule will deploy its solar arrays to start soaking up energy from the sun. At this point, Dragon is on its own and must maneuver using its onboard thrusters. [The World's Tallest Rockets: How They Stack Up]
 
Step 4: Orbital Checkouts
After reaching orbit, Dragon will begin a series of checkouts to make sure it's functioning as designed and ready to meet up with the station.
 
Teams on the ground will lead the vehicle through tests of its Absolute GPS (AGPS) system, which uses global positioning system satellites to determine its location in space. It will also demonstrate its performance in free drift phase, with thrusters inhibited. Finally, Dragon will test out its abort system to prove it can terminate its activities and move away from the space station if something goes wrong.
 
Step 5: Fly-Under
During its third day in orbit, Dragon will fire its thrusters to perform a fly-under of the International Space Station, swooping to 1.5 miles (2.5 kilometers) below the outpost. At this point, the capsule will make radio contact with the station using a system called the COTS Ultra?high frequency Communication Unit to communicate.
 
During the fly-under, Dragon will also test a secondary locator system called the relative GPS system, which uses the spacecraft's position relative to the space station to establish its coordinates.
 
While Dragon is flying under the station, the six-person crew inside the orbiting laboratory will be monitoring their new visitor. They will use a crew command panel onboard the station to communicate with the capsule and send it a command to turn on a strobe light.
 
After completing the fly-under, Dragon will loop out in front, above and then behind the space station to position itself for docking.
 
Step 6: Rendezvous
The next day, during Dragon's fourth day of flight, the spacecraft will fire its thrusters again to bring it within 1.5 miles (2.5 kilometers) of the space station. Once there, NASA's Mission Control team in Houston will run through a "go-no go" call to confirm all teams are ready for rendezvous. If everyone is "go," Dragon will inch closer, to about 820 feet (250 meters) away from the space station.
 
At this point, a series of final checkouts will be performed to make sure all of Dragon's location and navigation systems are accurate. If all looks good, Dragon's SpaceX control team on the ground will command the vehicle to approach the space station. When it reaches 720 feet (220 meters), the astronauts onboard the outpost will command the capsule to halt.
 
After another series of "go-no go" checks, Dragon will approach to 656 feet (200 meters), and then 98 feet (30 meters), and finally 32 feet (10 meters), the capture point.
 
Step 7: Docking
At this position, Mission Control will tell the space station crew they are "go" for capturing Dragon. NASA astronaut Don Pettit will use the station's robotic arm to reach out and grab Dragon, pulling it in to the bottom side of the lab's Harmony node, and then attaching it.
 
The next day, after more checkouts, the crew will open the hatch between Dragon and the station. Over the coming weeks, the astronauts will spend about 25 hours unpacking the 1,014 pounds (460 kilograms) of cargo that Dragon delivers. Though none of the cargo is critical (since this is a test flight), the capsule will arrive bearing food, water, clothing and supplies for the crew.
 
Step 8: Undocking
Dragon is due to spend about 18 days docked at the International Space Station. When it's time to let it go, the station astronauts will use the robotic arm to maneuver the capsule out to about 33 feet (10 meters) away, then release it. Dragon will then use its thrusters to fly a safe distance away from the laboratory.
 
Step 9: Re-entry
About four hours after departing the space station, Dragon will fire its engines to make what's called a de-orbit burn. This burn will set the capsule on a course for re-entry through Earth's atmosphere. The spacecraft is equipped with a heat shield to protect it from the fiery temperatures of its 7-minute re-entry flight.
 
Step 10: Landing
Dragon is due to splash down in the Pacific Ocean to end its mission. There, recovery crews will be waiting to collect the capsule about 250 miles (450 kilometers) off the West Coast of the United States.
 
Private space taxi builders ponder future beyond NASA
 
Denise Chow - Space.com
 
The private spaceflight company SpaceX is poised to launch a robotic capsule toward the International Space Station Saturday on a test flight that, if successful, could be a watershed moment for the commercial space industry. But while SpaceX has a NASA contract to provide cargo deliveries to the space station, the company and other private spaceship developers are looking to a future beyond NASA funding.
 
The Hawthorne, Calif.-based SpaceX is one of several aerospace firms who are competing for NASA funding under the third and final phase of NASA's commercial crew development program. Proposals for this stage of the competition, called Commercial Crew integrated Capability(CCiCap), require companies to present a complete launch system — rocket and vehicle — for consideration.
 
SpaceX intends to use a version of its current cargo ship, the robotic Dragon capsule,to fly up to seven passengers to the International Space Station and other destinations in low-Earth orbit. The spacecraft will launch atop the company's own Falcon 9 rocket from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
 
Private spaceships of tomorrow
 
SpaceX isn't alone in the private spaceship game. The company is facing some stiff competition from other aerospace firms, including Boeing and Sierra Nevada Corp.  NASA is expected to announce at least two recipients for CCiCap funding awards in August.
Some of the contenders have said they intend to forge ahead with the development of their spacecraft regardless of whether they receive NASA funding or not.
 
"At SpaceX, we definitely hope to go forward in partnership with NASA, not only for financial reasons, but just also it's been a very effective partnership during our cargo efforts as far as being able to tap into the great experience base in technology and know-how that NASA has," said Garrett Reisman, SpaceX's senior engineer for astronaut safety and mission assurance. [Gallery: Dragon, SpaceX's Private Spacecraft]
 
Reisman, Keith Reiley, deputy program manager of Boeing's commercial crew development, and Mark Sirangelo, chairman and vice president of Sierra Nevada, participated in a panel discussion about the future of human spaceflight at the inaugural Spacecraft Technology Expo, which was held May 8-10 in Los Angeles.
 
But even if SpaceX is not selected for the final round of NASA funding, a crewed version of the Dragoncapsule will not be mothballed, Reisman said.
 
"[I]f we are not selected in this next phase, would we continue to work on human spaceflight? Absolutely," he said. "We might proceed in different directions, we might proceed at a different pace with less resources available to us, but, oh yeah, we're going to keep going."
 
Other companies are not quite so sure.
 
U.S. space taxi evolution
 
Boeing is developing a gumdrop-shape capsule, called the CST-100, that could be ready to fly astronauts to the space station as early as 2015 or 2016, company officials have said. The spacecraft, which measures 14.8 feet (4.5 meters) across at its widest point, will be able to ferry up to seven astronauts to low-Earth orbit. [Photos: Boeing's CST-100 Capsule]
 
To date, NASA has provided Boeing with about $120 million for its commercial crew transportation work. Without further agency funding, Boeing officials are undecided about the future of the CST-100 capsule.
 
"It's a tough question," Reiley said. "I frankly don't know. We've thought about it, but there's not anything official that we've done. Obviously NASA would be providing a significant amount of money. Would the Boeing Company be willing to continue that at that level? I doubt it — maybe at some lower level, but I really don't know."
 
Alliant Techsystems (ATK) announced its bid for CCiCap funding at the Spacecraft Technology Expo, presenting the Liberty rocket and capsule. Kent Rominger, ATK's vice president and program manager for Liberty, told SPACE.com that the company will not stop developing the launch system if they are not selected by NASA.
 
The goal of executing the first crewed test flights of the Liberty system by 2015, however, would become much less realistic without CCiCap funding, he added.
 
A space market beyond NASA
 
Still, NASA is not the only client being considered by commercial spaceflight companies, which may mean other markets could be suitable for these vehicles, Sirangelo said.
 
At Sierra Nevada, Sirangelo and his team are developing a space plane, called Dream Chaser, to fly up to seven astronauts or other paying passengers to low-Earth orbit.
 
"We look at it from two perspectives: one is that NASA is certainly providing a lot of funding, but the destination of the ISS also adds a lot of complexity, and that complexity, if it weren't there, there could be other destinations, other activities that are going on," he explained.
 
Sirangelo pointed to Boeing's X-37B spacecraft as an example of an unmanned, winged lifting body that could be used for other purposes.
 
"We think there are other markets that we can explore and look at, but clearly it's like having an anchor tenant in a mall, and you can continue to have stores, but whether or not that mall gets built as quickly is, I think, the issue here."
 
NASA intends to use Delta 4 upper stage on moon flights
 
Stephen Clark - SpaceflightNow.com
 
NASA says Boeing is best equipped to provide two cryogenic upper stages derived from the Delta 4 rocket to power the agency's Orion capsule on a test flight around the moon in 2017 and send astronauts on a voyage to lunar orbit in 2021, according to documents posted on a federal government procurement website.
 
The space agency issued a sole-source award to Boeing on April 27 for a feasibility study on the compatibility of the Delta Cryogenic Second Stage, or DCSS, with the Space Launch System, a heavy-lift rocket designed to dispatch astronaut crews on expeditions to the moon, asteroids, Mars, and other deep space destinations.
 
The $2.4 million contract also covers an evaluation of the upper stage against NASA's human-rating requirements. Boeing will also determine what modifications are needed for the Delta 4 second stage to fly with the Space Launch System.
 
The Delta 4's hydrogen-fueled upper stage includes an RL10B-2 engine built by Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, or PWR. The engine generates 24,750 pounds of thrust and has flawlessly flown on all 19 Delta 4 missions to date.
 
Space agency officials declined comment on the upper stage acquisition until they formally select a procurement strategy.
 
But NASA released a justification document for the sole-source study award to Boeing, outlining internal market research and a public request for information solicitation which indicated the Delta 4 second stage is the only propulsion system available to meet NASA requirements.
 
"The DCSS appears to be the only solution mature enough to meet the requirements of the government within the timeframe needed to support the government's need date for initial delivery," NASA officials wrote in the justification document.
 
In a presolicitation notice posted May 3 on the Federal Business Opportunities website, NASA wrote it "determined that the DCSS is the only means available to support the immediate in-space propulsion needs of the SLS."
 
Boeing maintains the design data and manufacturing skills to modify the Delta 4 upper stage for the Space Launch System, according to NASA. United Launch Alliance, a partnership between Boeing and Lockheed Martin, currently builds the Delta 4 and Atlas 5 rocket fleets.
 
NASA is accepting proposals and quotes from other rocket contractors through May 18, and the agency will use the data to determine whether to conduct a competitive procurement for the SLS upper stage.
 
The interim cryogenic propulsion stage for the first Space Launch System flight must be delivered to the Kennedy Space Center by the end of 2016 for an unmanned test launch of the mega-rocket and 26.5-ton Orion spacecraft in 2017. The flight will send the Orion capsule on a free return trajectory around the moon and back to Earth for a splashdown landing in the ocean.
 
"We're in a very constrained budget environment, so it's going to have to come in on mark and show up in time for that first flight," said Todd May, NASA's Space Launch System program manager.
 
NASA's proposed budget for the SLS program calls for nearly $1.4 billion per year through fiscal year 2017.
 
The second mission of the SLS and Orion vehicle, tentatively scheduled for 2021, will launch an astronaut crew into orbit around the moon for three or four days, according to current plans.
 
The RL10B-2 engine on the first two SLS flights would inject the Orion spacecraft into low Earth orbit, then accelerate the capsule on a course toward the moon. NASA says the upper stage engine must be capable of igniting three times on each SLS mission.
 
The J-2X engine will ultimately fly on the upper stage on future missions of NASA's Space Launch System.
 
But NASA has put development of the J-2X engine on the back burner while engineers race to ready the Space Launch System for its initial test launch before the end of 2017.
 
The launches in 2017 and 2021 will use a version of the Space Launch System designed to lift at least 70 metric tons, or 154,000 pounds, into low Earth orbit. The earliest flights will feature a rocket standing up to 320 feet tall powered by a 27.5-foot diameter core stage and twin solid rocket motors derived from motors flown on the space shuttle.
 
The colossal rocket's cryogenic core stage will be propelled by four space shuttle main engines, known as RS-25D/E engines, provided by PWR. The engines are left over from the space shuttle program.
 
Chris Hadfield’s tweets give an insider’s look at astronaut training
 
Tom Spears - Ottawa Citizen
 
When a photograph of astronaut Chris Hadfield training for spacewalks surfaced on Twitter last week, the questions started rolling in:
 
How do you go to the bathroom? What happens if something itches inside that big suit? Does training for spacewalks underwater make the astronaut feel water pressure?
 
Lo and behold, the answers came right back from Hadfield, who will soon be the first Canadian to command a space mission. In order, he tweeted:
 
·         “we wear an ‘absorbent garment’ underneath”
 
·         “you have to rub itches against the suit.”
 
·         “pressure, no, but the viscosity of the water causes unrealistic drag.”
 
Hadfield is Canada’s most experienced astronaut. He has been to the former Russian space station Mir, and has done several spacewalks to install the Canadarm2 on the International Space Station.
 
He’s in full-time training to become the commander of Expedition 35 — the 35th crew aboard the space station. He’ll fly up on a Soyuz in early 2013. (Fluent in Russian, Hadfield will be a central part of the crew.)
 
But while Canadian astronauts are generally too busy for interviews during training, Hadfield is tweeting up a storm at twitter.com/Cmdr_Hadfield. When a Soyuz lifted off this week he tweeted that three more people had just left Earth, and a reader asked what the crew does before launch.
“We do 2 full checks of the cockpit and interior. The rocket you just have to trust,” he replied.
That’s Hadfield’s style: Detailed and to the point, but with a sense of humour.
 
That style has made him a YouTube star at the same time. More than 1.3 million viewers have seen his unscripted explanation of space toilets, given to a Toronto audience. He plays it mostly straight, but this is no textbook explanation: “Imagine if you were halfway done, and somebody shut off gravity. It would be a mess, and you’d float off the toilet. So when we designed our space toilet, first it has to have a seatbelt on it.
 
Another YouTube video, this one from the Canadian Space Agency, shows him explaining how an astronaut shot the best-ever crew portrait many years ago, looking from a window in Mir toward the visiting shuttle, where other astronauts and cosmonauts clustered in two windows in blazing sunshine.
 
You can feel Hadfield re-living the moment with animated gestures as he tells the story.
 
Another shows him describing the experience of his first spacewalk, preparing in the “claustrophobic” airlock and finally opening the hatch and emerging.
 
He uses Twitter to explain about his past two and a half years of training, much of it living in Star City, a community of space workers outside Moscow. Hadfield posts photos on Twitter nearly every day: Russia in the snow, a common nighthawk on a Houston airport taxiway, himself during training, space tool kits, astronaut friends. In the heavily scripted world of space agencies, these are spontaneous glimpses into the living conditions of astronauts.
 
Teachers appreciate it too. Here’s one: “Thanks for this one! Great for demonstrating LeChatelier’s principle of chemical equilibrium to my grade 12 chem students!” (Hadfield had posted a video of himself shaking and then opening a Coke can in an undersea habitat. High air pressure nearly 20 metres below the sea surface prevents a Coke explosion.)
 
A friend comments on all the skills he has had to learn: doctor, engineer, mechanic, dentist, pilot, manager ... Hadfield’s response: “that’s why the training takes so long. But it’s also the good part.”
 
A Twitter follower asked whether you need humans and robots alike in space. His answer: “we need both; robots to do specific tasks, and people to plot, replan, notice, understand, rejoice, share and wonder.”
 
The best part: He can keep on tweeting from the space station. And yes, it’s a wireless connection.
 
Launch preps begin for next Chinese human spaceflight
 
Stephen Clark - SpaceflightNow.com
 
The Long March rocket and Shenzhou spacecraft for China's next manned space mission are being readied for blastoff as soon as June from the country's Jiuquan launching base.
 
Three astronauts will fly into space on the Shenzhou 9 mission, which will be China's fourth human spaceflight.
 
Shenzhou 9 could carry China's first female space flier, according to state media. One official Chinese website indicated the mission would include a woman.
 
The identities of the Shenzhou 9 crew members have not been announced, and the mission's duration remains secret.
 
After launching from the Jiuquan space center in northwest China, the three-person crew will guide the Shenzhou 9 spaceship to a manual docking with the Tiangong 1 laboratory, a 34-foot-long module launched in September 2011.
 
Shenzhou means divine vessel in Chinese. Tiangong translates to heavenly palace.
 
Packed into shipping containers for the journey from a Beijing factory, components for the mission's Long March 2F rocket arrived at Jiuquan on May 9, according to the China Manned Space Engineering Office.
 
The Long March rocket family is produced by the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, or CALT, a division of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp., the state-owned contractor for the Chinese space program.
 
According to the CALT website, the Long March 2F rocket for the Shenzhou 9 mission features dozens of upgrades to improve safety and reliability.
 
Engineers will stack and test the rocket inside the vehicle assembly building at the military-run Jiuquan space center. The Long March 2F launcher, comprised of two stages and four liquid-fueled boosters, stands about 191 feet tall when fully assembled.
 
The launch team will also load storable propellant into the rocket before liftoff, which is expected some time in June, July, or August.
 
Based on the time necessary to prepare the rocket and Shenzhou spacecraft for launch, the flight could take off as soon as mid-June.
 
The Shenzhou 9 spacecraft was delivered to Jiuquan on April 9 to begin its own set of launch preparations.
 
After deployment from the Long March booster, the Shenzhou 9 spacecraft will chase the Tiangong 1 module in orbit for two days before docking. Shenzhou 9 and Tiangong 1 will form a combined spacecraft stretching approximately 60 feet long with more than 700 cubic feet of habitable volume.
 
China accomplished the first docking in its manned space program in November, when the Shenzhou 8 spacecraft made two automated link-ups with no crew on-board.
 
Once they dock with Tiangong 1, the Shenzhou 9 crew will enter the pressurized lab for several days to conduct experiments intended to lay the foundation for future Chinese space exploits, including the construction of a space station about the size of NASA's Skylab complex, which hosted three crews in 1973 and 1974.
 
Another crewed flight in 2013 could follow Shenzhou 9 and dock with Tiangong 1. Chinese engineers are building a larger lab module, named Tiangong 2, for additional demonstrations.
 
China aims to launch the first component of its space station by 2020.
 
China's earlier Shenzhou missions include the country's first human spaceflight in 2003, a two-man, five-day voyage in 2005, and the first spacewalk of the Chinese program in 2008.
 
Turning space exploration dreams into reality
 
Chris Gilbert - Space News (Opinion)
 
(Gilbert is a visiting scholar at the George Washington University Space Policy Institute following interests in international cooperation issues of space exploration.)
 
The Apollo program continues to cast a long shadow, and John Logsdon’s essay “When Did We Stop Dreaming?” [April 16] captures perfectly the lingering disappointment and nostalgia of a generation that witnessed those achievements but thereafter had to be satisfied with the repetitive space shuttle missions to low Earth orbit, and is now left with a human space exploration program of disputed direction and uncertain future.
 
But it is time to put Apollo and the shuttle behind us and make the best of what we can afford in the future. The United States aspires to a space exploration program “worthy of a great nation,” but at the moment chooses only to fund a collection of exploration elements comprising the Space Launch System (a heavy-lift launch vehicle derived from the space shuttle main engines combined with the external tank and boosters), the Orion crew exploration vehicle, associated ground segment upgrades, and the effort to transfer low Earth orbit crew transportation capabilities to commercial providers.
 
Clearly some people don’t think this is sufficient. And yet this particular version of a human space exploration program succeeds where all previous attempts since Apollo have failed: After eight years, in which the occupant of the White House has changed once and the NASA administrator has changed twice, it still survives. Congress has supported the program with three authorization acts (2005, 2008 and 2010), the most recent one admittedly not in line with White House wishes, but these acts have provided guidance and continuity even when White House support was unfocused.
 
And here lies the key ingredient for the potential sustainability of this particular space exploration program: Both the White House and Congress finally accept that a program of human space exploration, with Mars as the eventual goal, is an activity the United States should not cancel. This is an important step to achieving a sustainable program of human space exploration. Given the inherent uncertainties in the U.S. electoral and budgetary processes, this is perhaps the best that can be hoped for.
 
A parallel can be drawn to the decision by President Richard Nixon in 1972 on the direction human spaceflight should take after the Apollo lunar landings. Nixon did not really understand why the United States should continue with human spaceflight, but he did not want to be the one to cancel it. So Nixon approved the space shuttle program and in so doing redirected human spaceflight activities from exploration capabilities to engineering capabilities. Turning low Earth orbit from a symbolic to a pragmatic frontier provided a foundation for construction and industrial activities, which in turn provides the foundation for commerce we are striving to establish today.
 
Today, the administration of President Barack Obama does not know what to do with human space exploration but does not want to be the one to cancel it. This is a weak position that must be changed if space exploration is to become a reality.
 
In March, when testifying before a Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee hearing on the past, present and future of NASA (and indeed at other events since then), Neil deGrasse Tyson passionately appealed for NASA’s budget to be doubled to “a penny on a dollar” to “transform the country from a sullen, dispirited nation, weary of economic struggle, to one where it has reclaimed its 20th century birthright to dream of tomorrow.” So is the glass of NASA’s budget half-full or half-empty? For Tyson it is clearly half-empty. But would a full glass for NASA produce a better space exploration program? And would such a space program be sustainable politically and financially?
 
Technologies being developed to explore space are already being used with tangible benefits to the economy, and this message needs to be communicated more aggressively. Appealing for more money, however passionately, is not as effective as ensuring that existing plans and policies for space exploration are accepted and implemented by White House officials. There is a depressing history of NASA being shortchanged year after year by individuals in key positions who, in the absence of administration leadership, prefer to say the resources to fund out-year budget requirements are not available, rather than finding the resources necessary to implement approved policies.
 
A review of comparable activities in other countries serves to underline the fact that the United States has a clear lead in human space exploration. In the eight years since President George W. Bush announced his Vision for Space Exploration, Europe has yet to formulate a cogent strategy for space exploration after or beyond the international space station. The European Space Agency (ESA) now possesses a reliable launch vehicle capable of transporting crews to low Earth orbit, and has developed in-space transportation and re-entry technology that could form enabling building blocks of an autonomous human spaceflight capability to low Earth orbit, but as yet is unable to make the next step. The situation in Europe has become more complicated of late, with the European Union demonstrating an increasing determination to formulate and implement a space policy for Europe reflecting European economic and societal priorities. Political involvement on this scale could bring about a larger budget for space activities, but it is not clear that space exploration would benefit.
 
Japan, with assets and capabilities similar to those in Europe, has plans for a cargo return spacecraft derived from its H-2A Transfer Vehicle, perhaps leading to an eventual crew space transportation capability to the space station by 2025, but as yet has made no decision to proceed with full development.
 
Russia has an extensive heritage of space capabilities and achievements, and in particular is the key partner for the United States in maintaining the international space station. Following a period of stagnation and reduction in assets (in particular the Energia launch vehicle and the Buran shuttle), Russia is showing renewed confidence in modernizing its space transportation systems and developing new capabilities. Recently the Russian space agency Roscosmos revealed details of a possible space strategy up to around 2030. Here again, human space exploration does not enjoy a high priority. It remains to be seen what the Russian government decides to fund.
 
China is pursuing a steady but slow-paced effort in developing human spaceflight capabilities (in some ways, a simpler version of the capabilities-enabled approach being pursued by NASA), and has announced plans to launch a small space station by 2020, with the goal in the long term to land humans on the Moon. But China is at an early point in developing the capabilities needed to achieve that goal, and major obstacles must still be overcome.
 
At one point India had hoped to have initial human spaceflight capabilities by 2015, but problems with its large launch vehicle have set back those ambitions by an undetermined number of years.
 
For the United States, leadership in space exploration is a central objective — the American space exploration program as currently formulated in the 2010 NASA Authorization Act charges NASA with expanding “permanent human presence beyond low-Earth orbit.” If there is a space agency capable of achieving that goal, it is surely NASA. But Congress has not yet seen fit to provide the funding necessary for NASA to do it alone, and Congress added a catch in the second half of the sentence: “… and to do so, where practical, in a manner involving international partners.” International cooperation is often mentioned in agency plans and policies, but as far as future human space exploration is concerned it has remained an object of lip service, with relatively little being undertaken to make it a reality.
 
A group of 14 space agencies has been holding discussions and organizing conferences on possible exploration scenarios for the past five years, but with no commitment to implement them. This lack of progress highlights the underlying lack of an international political consensus, and this is the key challenge facing the United States: achieving political leadership of a long-term international space exploration partnership. This would enable the United States to achieve not only its own national goals but those of its international partners too. This issue deserves more political attention because the anticipated level of funding for human space exploration is insufficient for NASA to develop, build and launch the Space Launch System and the Orion crew vehicle and also develop the additional exploration elements needed to visit locations or destinations beyond low Earth orbit.
 
And so we see that the combination of international interest in space exploration, combined with the prevailing financial problems around the globe, actually provide a catalyst for a country able to provide geopolitical leadership to step forward and coordinate the resources available. If NASA is to attract timely international contributions to enable deep-space exploration missions to be carried out when the core transportation elements become operational, agreements must be negotiated soon. A strong and enduring administration commitment is a key requirement to assuring the United States of international leadership of a human space exploration program worthy of a great nation. Conversely, the current weak administration position on space exploration is a serious risk to program sustainability.
 
If we are going to explore the universe there are a thousand ways of going about it, and it will be impossible to keep all the stakeholders happy all of the time. Inevitably, when we look back in 20 or 30 years we will see many mistakes in our early exploration efforts, regardless of what choices we make. I only hope that when we do look back, at least we can say, “We made a start.”
 
Hundreds turn out for SpaceX hearing
 
Laura Martinez - Brownsville Herald
 
Hundreds of people turned out Tuesday for a public hearing on SpaceX’s proposal to build a satellite launch site in Cameron County, and virtually all comments from the public showed support for the project.
 
Dozens of people took the microphone and all supported the venture, according to Gilberto Salinas, spokesman for the Brownsville Economic Development Corporation. A few people voiced concerns for wildlife in the area.
 
The Federal Aviation Administration hosted Tuesday hearing to help assess the proposal by Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, for a launch pad in Cameron County. The gathering, held at the ITEC Center, attracted an estimated 500 people, all seeking information or wanting to offer comments.
 
The FAA heard from local, county and state officials as well as educators and students — all showing support for space technology making its way to one of the poorest areas in the nation.
 
Jose Martinez, a junior physics major at the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College, said a launch site coming to Brownsville would give him an opportunity to work in his hometown.
 
“I support SpaceX,” Martinez said in the public forum.
 
Rural Cameron County is one of three sites being considered for a new SpaceX launch site. The other two sites are in Florida and Puerto Rico.
 
Steve Davis, SpaceX’s project leader for the Brownsville site, told The Brownsville Herald before the meeting that most of the people he had spoken to wanted to know more about the project and what it would mean to the area.
 
He said it was “very important” to SpaceX to get a feel for local opinion on the project.
 
“It is really important to go to a place that wants us to be there and to know both the positive impacts and the negative impacts and really judge that. That is kind of the stage we are in right now,” Davis said.
 
“It has been very, very positive, which has been great,” Davis said of community response.
 
The Cameron County site under consideration is at the eastern end of State Highway 4, about 3 miles north of the Mexican border. It is about 5 miles south of Port Isabel and South Padre Island.
 
All launches would be toward the east over the Gulf of Mexico.
 
State Rep. Rene Oliveira, D-Brownsville, said residents were mistaken if they believed SpaceX did not have the support of Governor Rick Perry’s Office. Oliveira said the state has dedicated about $2.2 million to the project.
 
Like others, Oliveira said he was concerned about the impact a launch site would have on sea turtles, but added he believed “common ground” could be reached among all parties involved.
 
Perry’s office provided the Brownsville Economic Development Council, which is working with SpaceX locally, with a letter of support for the project that officials believe could be an economic boon to the area.
 
Juan Salazar, a fifth grade teacher at Resaca Elementary School, said such a project would not only bring opportunities to the area but get students more interested in their studies.
 
“I can only imagine what it would be like for them to see an actual SpaceX rocket launch,” Salazar said. It would not only be rockets ignited but students’ “dreams being ignited,” he said.
 
Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX, refers to it as the “commercial Cape Canaveral.” His company is working with city and county officials here about the proposal for a launch site.
 
SpaceX, based in Hawthorne, Calif., already has an active launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida and is currently developing a launch site at Vandenburg Air Force Base in California. The company also operates a rocket development facility in McGregor, Texas.
 
According to the BEDC, SpaceX could bring about 600 direct jobs to the area with a minimum annual salary of $55,000. The salaries would be about 80 percent above the county’s average wages, officials said.
 
The project requires an environmental impact statement, which is pending; a public scoping period, which goes to the end of May; and the public scoping meeting, which was held Tuesday evening.
 
According to the Federal Register, SpaceX proposes to build a vertical launch area and a control center to support up to 12 commercial launches per year. The vehicles launched would include the Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy and smaller reusable, suborbital launch vehicles.
 
All facilities would be built on private land owned or leased by SpaceX.
 
Skylab-Salyut Space Laboratory
 
David Portree - Wired.com
 
On May 14, 1973, the five F-1 engines at the base of the last Saturn V rocket to fly ignited, engulfing Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center in orange flame and gray smoke. Seconds later, the hold-down arms on the launch pad swung clear, and the giant white-and-black rocket began its thundering ascent.
 
The last Saturn V bore aloft the Skylab Orbital Workshop, a temporary space station. Skylab was the last vestige of NASA’s ill-fated Apollo Applications Project. It comprised the 22-foot-diameter cylindrical Orbital Workshop (OWS) with two wing-like solar arrays, the cylindrical Airlock Module (AM) and Multiple Docking Adapter (MDA), and the truss-mounted Apollo Telescope Mount (ATM) with four solar arrays arranged in a “windmill” formation. The OWS, for which McDonnell Douglas was prime contractor, was a converted Apollo Saturn S-IVB stage.
 
Fully deployed in 435-kilometer-high orbit inclined 50° relative to Earth’s equator, 100-ton OWS measured about 36 meters long. It included 347 cubic meters of living and working space pressurized to 5 pounds per square inch (psi). Skylab reached orbit unmanned and fully stocked with oxygen, nitrogen, water, food, clothing, film, spare parts, and other expendables. Apollo Command and Service Modules (CSMs) launched on two-stage Saturn IB rockets delivered to Skylab three-man crews and a small amount of cargo.
 
In a move that immediately generated confusion, NASA designated the mission to launch the Skylab Orbital Workshop Skylab 1 and the program’s first piloted mission Skylab 2. The Skylab 2 crew then wore a mission patch, designed by fantasy artist Kelly Freas, which bore the name “Skylab I.” The Skylab 3 crew’s mission patch said Skylab II, and the Skylab 4 patch had a stylized numeral 3. Prior to launch, Skylab 1 was designated Skylab A; had it failed, a backup OWS designated Skylab B was available, though in retrospect it seems unlikely that NASA would have allocated funds to complete and launch it.
 
Skylab 1 was in fact nearly lost; it suffered damage about a minute after launch as its meteoroid shield deployed prematurely and peeled away, then lost one of its twin OWS solar array wings shortly after attaining orbit. The other wing array was stuck shut, leaving Skylab starved for power. With the reflective meteoroid shield gone, temperatures on board soared, threatening to spoil food, medicines, and film. NASA engineers hurriedly fashioned a sun shield and specialized tools and trained Skylab 2 astronauts Pete Conrad, Joe Kerwin, and Paul Weitz in their use. They reached Skylab on May 25, 1973, and succeeded in making it habitable and functional, then spent a total of 28 days in space. The Skylab 3 crew (Alan Bean, Jack Lousma, and Owen Garriott) spent 59 days on board the repaired station. After 84 days in space, the Skylab 4 crew (Gerald Carr, Edward Gibson, and William Pogue) undocked from Skylab on February 8, 1974.
 
Skylab 1 was not Earth’s first space station; that honor belongs to the Soviet Union’s Salyut 1. Salyut 1 had reached orbit on top of a Proton rocket, the Soviet equivalent of the Saturn IB, on April 19, 1971. The station was much smaller than Skylab, with a mass at launch of only 20 tons. Built from parts developed for the Almaz military space station and the Soyuz piloted spacecraft, Salyut 1 measured 15.8 meters in length and contained 90 cubic meters of living and working space pressurized to 15 psi (that is, approximately Earth sea-level pressure). Like Skylab, Salyut 1 reached orbit unmanned and stocked with expendables. Soyuz ferries delivered three-man crews and a limited quantity of cargo to a single port at Salyut 1's front end.
 
At the time Salyut 1 flew, the U.S. and the Soviet Union were negotiating toward a U.S. spacecraft docking with a Soviet spacecraft. By the end of 1971, the sides had settled on an Apollo CSM docking with a Salyut station. The spacecraft would each carry a new-design International Docking Mechanism (IDM).
 
In April 1972, however, Soviet negotiators declared that the Salyut design could not easily be modified to include a second docking port. They suggested that a CSM dock instead with a modified Soyuz. On May 24, 1972, at a summit meeting in Moscow, U.S. President Richard Nixon and Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin signed the Space Cooperation Agreement, an international treaty that called for a wide range of cooperative ventures, including an Apollo-Soyuz docking. On June 30, 1972, NASA named the new cooperative program the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP). The Soviets called it Soyuz-Apollo.
 
A week earlier, a McDonnell Douglas Astronautics Company team had pitched to NASA a cooperative space mission much more ambitious than either Apollo-Soyuz or Apollo-Salyut. The team proposed a docking between the Skylab B, a Salyut, an Apollo CSM, and a Soyuz ferry. The resulting “cooperative space laboratory” would “address world needs” and “provide identifiable benefits from space [and] mutual technological benefits and cost savings.” The U.S.-Soviet crew would perform solar, stellar, and Earth observations, communications technology development, and biomedical studies. Perhaps most important for NASA, Skylab-Salyut would serve as “an evolutionary step between Skylab A and Space Shuttle/Station” that would permit the U.S. space agency to keep its spaceflight teams mostly intact during the projected gap in U.S. piloted flights between ASTP in 1975 and the planned first Shuttle flight in 1979.
 
The company proposed a 140-day Skylab-Salyut mission in mid-1976. The Skylab B OWS would launch into a 435-kilometer-high orbit inclined 51.6° relative to the equator; that is, at Skylab A’s orbital altitude but at the Soviet Union’s preferred orbital inclination. A CSM bearing three astronauts would launch the following day and dock with an Apollo-type port on the side of the Skylab B MDA. The Soviet Union would then launch a Salyut into a 240-kilometer-high orbit at 51.6° of inclination, followed by an IDM-equipped Soyuz ferry bearing three cosmonauts. The Soyuz would dock with the Salyut forward port, which would also carry an IDM.
 
McDonnell Douglas cited published Soviet data when it assumed that the Salyut’s propulsion system could be used to match orbits with Skylab B. As the Salyut-Soyuz combination approached the U.S. station, two cosmonauts would undock from the Salyut in the Soyuz and dock with an IDM-equipped port on the side of the Skylab MDA opposite the CSM. The lone cosmonaut on board the Salyut would then pilot it to a docking with the IDM-equipped Skylab forward port.
 
The cosmonauts and astronauts would work together on board Skylab-Salyut for at least 24 days (the longest period a Soyuz had operated in Earth orbit as of June 1972). The three cosmonauts would then undock in the Soyuz and return to Earth. The Soviets could then launch at least one more crew to the station. After up to 70 days in orbit, the first U.S. crew would return to Earth in its CSM. A second CSM would then deliver a second crew. If they docked immediately after the first crew departed, the second crew could remain on board Skylab-Salyut for up to 70 days.
 
As noted above, U.S. and Soviet spacecraft provided their crews with different gas mixes and pressures. Astronauts and cosmonauts passing between the two parts of the Skylab-Salyut station might prebreathe to adapt their bodies to the change in pressure and gas mix, though the time required would probably become onerous very quickly. Alternately, the sides could adopt a common atmosphere.
 
If the international station adopted Skylab’s oxygen-rich 5 psi atmosphere, the Salyut and Soyuz would require improved fireproofing and beefed-up thermal control systems to keep its electronics cool in the thin air. If, on the other hand, the Soviet 15 psi pressure were adopted, Skylab B would need substantial structural changes to withstand the increased pressure and extra tanks of oxygen and nitrogen to make up for air lost through accelerated leakage. The CSM could not withstand 15 psi without suffering damage, so would need to remain isolated from the Skylab/Salyut/Soyuz cluster. McDonnell Douglas suggested that a small airlock for prebreathing be placed in the MDA for CSM access.
 
The company then proposed a compromise 8 psi atmosphere slightly rich in oxygen. The CSM could withstand this pressure, it explained, and the modifications both sides would need to make would be roughly equivalent in magnitude.
 
Some modifications would be required no matter which atmosphere was adopted. McDonnell Douglas assumed that Skylab B would provide all attitude control for the international station. To meet this requirement, NASA would need to equip it with control moment gyros 30% more capable than those planned for Skylab A. The Skylab B MDA structure would have to be beefed up to handle greater docking loads, as would its ATM trusses. In addition, a new thermal radiator would be needed to dissipate the heat produced by the three Soviet cosmonauts when they worked on board Skylab B. McDonnell Douglas proposed that this be added to the Fixed Airlock Shroud at the front of the OWS, close to the MDA.
 
Possible Salyut changes would include enlarged solar arrays; these might be needed because the four arrays on the Skylab B ATM would shade the Salyut’s forward pair of arrays, reducing the Soviet station’s electricity supply by up to a quarter. McDonnell Douglas assumed that Skylab B and the Salyut would not share electricity, so the U.S. would be unable to make up the difference. The company added, however, that, by relieving the Salyut of attitude control responsibilities, Skylab B might save it as much electricity as it took away.
 
A little more than a three years after McDonnell Douglas completed its study, the ASTP mission commenced. On July 15, 1975, the Soyuz 19 spacecraft ascended to Earth orbit, followed seven hours later by the final Apollo CSM, which had no official numerical designation. On board Soyuz 19 were Alexei Leonov, the first man to walk in space, and Soyuz 6 veteran Valeri Kubasov. The ASTP Soyuz carried an “APDS-75? international docking unit with three out-splayed guide “petals.” Gemini and Apollo veteran Thomas Stafford and rookie astronauts Vance Brand and Donald Slayton rode aboard the ASTP CSM.
 
After reaching an unusually low 188-by-228-kilometer orbit – required because the Soyuz could not climb higher – the ASTP Apollo CSM detached from the Saturn IB S-IVB stage that had injected it into orbit and turned 180°. It then docked with an Apollo-type port on the Docking Module (DM). The DM, which had reached orbit within a streamlined shroud between the CSM’s large engine bell and the top of the S-IVB stage, included an international docking system and an airlock to enable the ASTP crews to move between the U.S. and Soviet spacecraft atmospheres without harm. After they extracted the DM from the spent S-IVB, the American ASTP crew maneuvered their spacecraft toward a rendezvous with Soyuz 19.
 
The ASTP CSM docked with Soyuz 19 on July 17, 1975. Following two days of ceremonies and mutual experiments, the two spacecraft undocked, redocked with Soyuz 19 playing the active role, and then went their separate ways. Soyuz 19 landed in Soviet Kazakhstan on July 21, and the ASTP CSM splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on July 24, six years to the day after Apollo 11 returned from the moon. It was the last time American astronauts flew in space until the first Space Shuttle flight in April 1981.
 
In 1974, NASA studied a 1977 ASTP mission. At about the same time, work began toward a Shuttle-Salyut docking in the early 1980s. New cooperation was hampered by U.S. domestic politics: the Administration of Gerald Ford felt unable to commit to a new international piloted flight ahead of the November 1976 presidential election.
 
President Jimmy Carter renewed the Space Cooperation Agreement in May 1977. In November of that year, NASA and Soviet engineers met in Moscow to discuss the Shuttle-Salyut mission. The sides examined using the Shuttle to deliver an experiment module to a Salyut and traded engineering data. By then, Salyut 6 was in orbit. The new station included a second, aft-mounted, docking port. In January 1978, NASA completed a preliminary Shuttle-Salyut mission plan which saw the Shuttle dock with the Salyut front port while a Soyuz was docked at its aft port.
 
U.S.-Soviet relations gradually soured, however. A Shuttle-Salyut technical meeting planned for April 1978 was indefinitely postponed. In September 1978, NASA ceased Shuttle-Salyut planning pending the outcome of an interagency review of U.S.-Soviet space cooperation. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979 subsequently halted for a decade almost all discussion of dockings between U.S. and Soviet piloted spacecraft, though superpower cooperation with a lower profile – for example, the Cosmos biosatellite program – continued.
 
Skylab B never reached orbit; it became an exhibit in the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC.  NASA studied reboosting Skylab 1 into a higher orbit and reusing it in the Space Shuttle era, but Shuttle delays and a higher-than-expected rate of orbital decay meant that it reentered Earth’s atmosphere on July 11, 1979.
 
END
 
 


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