Space news 5/4/12----detailed story

 

 
Stephen Clark – SpaceflightNow.com
 
Boeing conducted a successful end-to-end test Wednesday of the landing parachutes for the CST-100 commercial crew spacecraft, the second drop test of the boilerplate capsule in a month.
 
An Erickson Sky Crane helicopter hoisted the capsule to an altitude of about 14,000 feet and released it, according to a Boeing press release.
 
Wednesday's drop test included two drogue stabilization parachutes and three main chutes to slow the capsule to a gentle touchdown at Delamar Dry Lake near Alamo, Nev., a former emergency landing site for the X-15 rocket plane. Crewed flights of the CST-100 will initially return to Earth at White Sands Missile Range, N.M.
 
The parachutes all deployed smoothly on a timing sequence, and six airbags inflated before landing to cushion the impact of touchdown, according to Boeing.
 
A drop test of the same capsule April 3 only used the CST-100's three main parachutes.
 
"This second parachute drop test validates Boeing's innovative system architecture and deployment plan," said John Mulholland, vice president and program manager of Boeing commercial programs. "Boeing's completion of this milestone reaffirms our commitment to provide safe, reliable and affordable crewed access to space."
 
The CST-100 is Boeing's proposed spacecraft for commercial human transportation to the International Space Station. NASA awarded Boeing a $112.9 million agreement last year to advance the design and development of the capsule's systems.
 
It is competing with spacecraft concepts by SpaceX, Sierra Nevada Corp., and Blue Origin.
 
Bigelow Aerospace, a Las Vegas-based firm designing a private space station, is partnering with Boeing on the CST-100 vehicle. Bigelow Aerospace built the test article used for the drop tests.
 
HDT Airborne Systems provides the CST-100's parachutes, and ILC Dover is the contractor for the craft's landing airbags.
 
Through the end of July, Boeing plans a series of landing airbag tests, a forward heat shield jettison test, and a ground firing of the CST-100's orbital maneuvering and attitude control engine.
 
The tests will wrap up work under Boeing's current agreement with NASA, but the company is competing for another round of government funding to be awarded by August.
 
Boeing announces successful completion of capsule drop test
 
James Dean - Florida Today
 
The Boeing Co.'s commercial crew capsule this week successfully completed a second drop test, the company announced.
 
On Wednesday, a helicopter dropped a test article of the CST-100 capsule from 14,000 feet and it parachuted to a soft landing on six airbags in desert near Alamo, Nev.
 
"This second parachute drop test validates Boeing's innovative system architecture and deployment plan," said John Mulholland, vice president and program manager, Boeing Commercial Programs. "Boeing's completion of this milestone reaffirms our commitment to provide safe, reliable and affordable crewed access to space."
 
Two drogue chutes and a main chutes deployed during the test, which was assisted by Boeing partner Bigelow Aerospace.
 
"We're thrilled to see the robust progress that is being made via the Commercial Crew program," said Robert Bigelow, founder and president of the Nevada-based company that hopes to launch private space stations.
 
Boeing says it has completed 40 milestones under NASA's commercial crew development program. NASA has awarded the company up to $130.9 million over the program's first two phases.
 
Boeing said additional tests planned this year include another landing air bag test series, a forward heat shield jettison test and an orbital maneuvering/attitude control engine hot fire test.
 
Boeing last fall announced plans to assemble the CST-100 in a former shuttle hangar at Kennedy Space Center, if it wins future contracts from NASA.
 
Space Station Crew Excited for 1st Private Spaceship Visit
 
Clara Moskowitz - Space.com
 
The three astronauts living on the International Space Station are ready to usher in a new era at their orbiting home: the first arrival of a privately built spacecraft.
 
The Hawthorne, Calif.-based commercial spaceflight company Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX,  is preparing to launch its Dragon capsule toward the station May 7 on an unmanned mission to deliver supplies and demonstrate its own abilities. The flight is the Dragon capsule's maiden voyage for SpaceX under a NASA program aimed at buying cargo delivery services from private companies, now that the agency's space shuttles are retired.
 
The three astronauts on the space station are vital to the SpaceX capsule's safe arrival; the job falls to them to use the space station's robotic arm to grab the craft as it approaches (Dragon does not carry the tools that would allow it to dock itself).
 
"It feels very good to be part of that and I look forward to it very much," European Space Agency astronaut Andre Kuipers, who hails from the Netherlands, told the Associated Press Tuesday during an interview broadcast on NASA TV. "This is the start of a real new era and I expect there's a lot more to come."
 
Kuipers and his crewmate Don Pettit of NASA will be the ones manning the robotic arm, called the Canadarm. The two spacemen have been using software, as well as practice runs with the real arm, to get ready for the event. [Photos: Dragon, SpaceX's Private Spaceship]
 
"We were practicing a bit this morning," Pettit said. "We do it over and over and over again. We are getting prepared for our visitor next week."
 
Dragon is slated to launch next week aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 booster rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. It will spend about three days catching up to the space laboratory in orbit and undergoing checkouts, and then will be pulled in to make a docking with the station. The capsule will carry food, clothing, supplies and scientific equipment for the astronauts, though none of it is critical, since this mission is officially a test flight.
 
However, NASA officials are hoping things go smoothly to pave the way for a more regular delivery service by SpaceX, as well as another NASA-contracted company, Orbital Sciences Corp. of Dulles, Va. Orbital is due to fly its Cygnus spacecraft on a first demonstration flight later this year.
 
Overall, NASA has contracted SpaceX to fly 12 more cargo delivery flights for a total of $1.6 billion. Orbital has received an order for eight flights for $1.9 billion.
 
Pettit compared this new commercial-government partnership to what happened with forts in the Old West. While the U.S. government sponsored the forts and defined the mission, commercial outfitters ran the wagon trains that supplied the forts.
 
"Now government-run agencies like NASA can concentrate on the frontier aspect of being in space," Pettit said. "They can define what we're doing and then we can have the commercial entities supply us the gods and services we need in order to do the mission."
 
Q&A: Legal Scholar on Historic SpaceX Launch
 
Adam Mann - Wired.com
 
In the near future, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket will liftoff the launchpad, bringing the Dragon spacecraft to dock with the International Space Station. Until now, only the U.S., Russia, and the European Union have accomplished such a goal. If SpaceX succeeds, it will become the first private company to do so.
 
This week, Wired interviews experts in the spaceflight community to discuss the ways this historic launch will impact NASA and mankind’s presence in space. Is it a giant leap, or just a baby step?
 
Up today is Henry Hertzfeld, a scholar of economic, legal, and policy issues surrounding spaceflight and NASA at George Washington University in Washington D.C. Hertzfeld’s research has looked into the privatization of the Space Shuttle, the economic benefits of NASA’s research and development expenditures, and the socioeconomic impacts of earth observation technologies.
 
Wired: Will this launch be a big game changer for how spaceflight is done?
 
Hertzfeld: In certain ways yes, and in others ways, it won’t be as big a change as all the hype behind it. SpaceX is a private company but they could not succeed without significant government money and the promise of a fairly large supply contract.
 
The government and NASA have provided technical support and advisors. To do something like this, you need a partnership with government, no matter who you are.
 
Wired: How do you think this will this impact NASA?
 
Hertzfeld: It’s hard to say. NASA is a mission directed agency. They want to get to space to do something — deep exploration or research or new technologies. Price is not the only consideration, not even the major one if it’s a critical mission. That’s not a commercial model, pure and simple.
 
My own view is this is fine you have another competitor, but you still have to count on the old timers, the existing companies with long track records. You will still need the Lockheeds and Boeings of the world.
 
The government actually spent a lot of time in the 1990s consolidating this industry. It was duplicative and wasteful and the government encouraged mergers, which left us with two or three big companies. The government is now saying we need another competitor.
 
Wired: How much closer does this bring us to a future where manned spaceflight is cheap and quick?
 
Hertzfeld: If this stimulates other companies and the costs go down it could change things, but that’s a ways off. The price of getting to space is still expensive and we’re still using traditional chemical propulsion. Space is risky and other than telecommunication satellites, there’s very little of a market out there.
 
Some of these new companies say they can bring the cost of getting to space down significantly. They throw out numbers like $100 to $400 per pound, when now it’s $5,000 to $10,000 per pound. Even a 50 percent reduction will not take you to those numbers. We need new launch technologies and new ways to get there, but we’ve got a long way to go.
 
A mass market for space tourism hasn’t yet appeared. Some people have expressed interest but it’s not certain that is really going to stimulate lots and lots of flights. There have also been significant delays. In 2004, some companies were promising many flights, then again in 2008. Now its 2012 and we have yet to see anything. It’s much slower and more risky than expected.
 
Wired: What happens if it doesn’t work?
 
Hertzfeld: It depends on what kind of failure happens. If it’s the worst kind of accident, it will set them back tremendously. Space is risky and every launch vehicle, particularly new ones, doesn’t have a huge success rate. Even with commercial aircraft you’re lucky when you have a 95 percent success rate.
 
Let’s say there was a big accident and they were shut down for a year to figure out what went wrong. When Concorde [the supersonic passenger airliner] had that accident it was down for a year, and that was basically the end of it.
 
I feel that what SpaceX and the other commercial spaceflight companies are doing is interesting, and I hope they succeed. Not succeeding will not help the industry but there are many details that still need to be worked out.
 
Q&A: Explorer and Robotics Engineer on Historic SpaceX Flight
 
Michael Ray Taylor - Wired.com
 
In the near future, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket will liftoff the launchpad, bringing the Dragon spacecraft to dock with the International Space Station. Until now, only the U.S., Russia, and the European Union have accomplished such a goal. If SpaceX succeeds, it will become the first private company to do so.
 
Today we have Bill Stone, explorer, inventor, cave diver, and robotics engineer who has designed machines capable of searching the Antarctic ice and the moons of Jupiter for new discoveries. Stone is CEO of Stone Aerospace. He also serves as Chairman of the Board for the Texas-based Shackleton Energy Company, a private space resources company that intends to send an expeditionary team to Shackleton Crater on the moon’s South Pole and mine water for fuel.
 
Wired: Will this launch be a big game changer for how spaceflight is done?
 
Stone: It will be a game changer provided two things happen. One, that they succeed and don’t have any accidents—they don’t have anything like what happened with the Progress approach to Mir in 1997, where it crashed into one of the solar panels and knocked out one of the modules. And two, they do it at radically lower prices than what the other ELV costs would be.
 
The big guys can get technical success, but it will cost you a lot of dough. The real question for Elon, is can he do it cheaply?
 
Wired: How do you think this will this impact NASA?
 
Stone: I hope Space X succeeds in putting Boeing and Lockheed out of business, or at least makes them humble and reduce their launch prices, or learn that it is possible to reduce their prices. But they have to succeed. There have been others who have gone down this path. Orbital Sciences was the latest and greatest thing in the early ‘90s. They were going to reduce the cost of going into space, but in the end, they were just absorbed into the system. They became just another high-priced aerospace company.
 
I hope that doesn’t happen to Space X. I don’t think it will, because people like Elon Musk and the engineers he has working for him are a different breed of cat. They’re smart. They know what they’re doing—a lot of them have jumped ship from established companies because they believe in what they’re doing. They want to be where the action is happening. They’re all motivated. Space X is unlike a big organization where you’re one tiny cog in a massive wheel. This is a lean, mean organization. Everyone is involved to the hilt. No one’s sitting at a desk worrying about collecting their retirement after working for years on missions that will never fly. They are doing things.
 
Wired: How much closer does this bring us to a future where manned spaceflight is cheap and quick?
 
Stone: I’ve heard various numbers for this mission — that it’s a half, a quarter, a fifth the cost of going rates. But you have to be careful which numbers you pick. If you said, Elon versus the space shuttle, in dollars per kilogram lifted, you might be gunning for a tenth of the cost. If you said, Elon versus Delta IV Heavy, you might be looking at a fifth of the cost. Versus Atlas V 551 would be different, and so on. You have to compare your vehicles. Everybody’s got a different rate.
 
The thing that’s really most unfair about the whole business is that it’s not a free market. If it were, people who wanted to get stuff into orbit could freely go and contract with the Russians for a Proton or a Soyuz at the real going rate, not the jacked-up rate that you have pay because of the artificial restrictions placed by our government. It’s all set up right now so that launches are beneficial to Lockheed and Boeing, with Atlases and Deltas, so people will go with them instead of the Russians.
 
If it was really a free market, the Russians would already be one half to one third the cost per launch of an Atlas or a Delta. There’s politics to the hilt. How Elon will end up in the mix remains to be seen.
 
Wired: What happens if it doesn’t work?
 
Stone: If they fail, I’ll ask the same question: Did they fail cheaply? If they got within half a kilometer of the space station, and one of their RCS units failed to provide orientation and they had to abort, I’d say, that’s pretty cool. How much did it cost?
 
In the end, these guys have the technical wherewithal to pull this off. Nothing has ever happened in the space business without initial failures. Go back and look at the history of Mercury, Gemini or Apollo. They had lots of failure. That’s normal.
 
But what Elon is doing that is new is mass producing and paralleling their systems so that economies of scale creep in. What kills things like Delta and Atlas is they only launch a couple per year, and each one is built like a Mercedes Benz, by hand. If you want to save money, you can’t go that way.
 
SpaceX Boldly Looks to Blast 'Millions of People to Mars'
 
PBS NewsHour
 
With the space shuttle era now over and U.S. space flight on the verge of going private for the near future, the company behind the so-called SpaceX project has ambitious plans to make space flight cheaper for cargo and for humans, with a bold idea to send millions of people to Mars. Science correspondent Miles O'Brien reports.
 
Transcript
 
JEFFREY BROWN: With the shuttle era over, American spaceflight is on the verge of going private for the immediate future. This week, the company behind the so-called SpaceX project announced another delay in its planned launch of a commercial cargo capsule. Liftoff was tentatively scheduled for this coming Monday, and the project is months behind its original schedule.
 
But its creator and engineers remain undaunted about their plans and their ambitions.
 
NewsHour science correspondent Miles O'Brien has our report.
 
MILES O'BRIEN: At the SpaceX factory in Hawthorne, California, they are going boldly where no small company has ever gone before, building spacecraft that are meant to open up the final frontier in ways that are hard to fathom, unless you are Elon Musk.
 
ELON MUSK, CEO, SpaceX: I'm talking about sending ultimately tens of thousands, eventually millions of people to Mars and then going out there and exploring the stars.
 
MILES O'BRIEN: Musk is the CEO and chief technology officer of 10-year-old Space Exploration Technologies, as it is more formally known.
 
He has staked $100 million of the fortune he made founding PayPal to pursue a lofty goal: to make access to space an order of magnitude cheaper than it is right now.
 
Is there any doubt in your mind that this is the way NASA and the country should go as it looks towards the future in space?
 
ELON MUSK: No, not all. This is -- it's not -- this is not a path; it's the only path that will succeed. If this doesn't succeed, nothing will.
 
MILES O'BRIEN: The path to Musk's bold vision is now taking him to the International Space Station. This Falcon 9 rocket at Cape Canaveral is slated to launch a Dragon capsule to the station, where SpaceX hopes it can safely orbit in close formation and then, if all goes well, berth, delivering a load of food, water and clothing, and then about two weeks later return to Earth.
 
It sounds pretty routine, but this is a mission like no other in the history of space exploration. SpaceX is building rockets for NASA like Boeing would build an airplane for an airline. The space agency is not directly involved in the process. It is an arms-length/fixed-price contract.
 
But why make this change?
 
LORI GARVER, deputy administrator, NASA: There isn't that much new or unknown about launching to low-Earth orbit anymore. We have been doing it for 50 years, and NASA wants to do those cutting-edge things that are all about pushing the envelope farther. So it's only natural that those things we have done for 50 years should be taken over by the private sector.
 
MILES O'BRIEN: Lori Garver is NASA's deputy administrator, and its most vocal advocate for changing the way the agency does business in low-Earth orbit now that the space shuttles are prized museum pieces.
 
A lot of people view it as a retreat. What do you say to them?
 
LORI GARVER: The opposite is true. This is not a retreat. In fact, this is acknowledging this is something that we have been doing forever, and we need to push that boundary farther. A retreat would be doing the same thing over and over.
 
MILES O'BRIEN: SpaceX is one of a handful of companies with contracts to fly missions to the space station under NASA's $1 billion Commercial Crew and Cargo Program.
 
All right. So, what do we have here?
 
GWYNNE SHOTWELL, SpaceX: So, what were looking at here, Miles, is mission control. This is where we operate Dragon from.
 
MILES O'BRIEN: Gwynne Shotwell, the president at SpaceX, walked me through the factory. Here, they are aiming for the Holy Grail, a fully and rapidly reusable rocket. It would revolutionize access to space.
 
GWYNNE SHOTWELL: These engines actually are reusable.
 
MILES O'BRIEN: They are? How many flights can you get?
 
GWYNNE SHOTWELL: I know we have tested to 20.
 
MILES O'BRIEN: Those engines are built here from scratch, and that is typical. More than two-thirds of Falcon and Dragon parts are milled, made and mated right here.
 
ELON MUSK: We're trying to push the state-of-the-art technology. So, if we use suppliers that are just producing the old technology, then we're not going to have a revolutionary rocket.
 
MILES O'BRIEN: The Falcon/Dragon combination is obviously much simpler than a space shuttle, no wings, wheels, or cargo compartments.
 
MAN: Liftoff of space shuttle Atlantis.
 
MILES O'BRIEN: The cost of launching anything into space on a shuttle was about $10,000 a pound. Musk believes he can drive that number down below a $1,000.
 
Veteran space journalist Steven Young believes Musk can do it.
 
STEVEN YOUNG, Spaceflight Now: I think going back to something a little more basic, sort of capsule that SpaceX is going to fly, will reduce costs dramatically and open up a lot more opportunities for research in orbit.
 
MILES O'BRIEN: But hauling underwear and food to the space station is one thing; flying astronauts is another, and SpaceX wants to start doing that by 2015. Turns out they have been thinking about flying humans from the outset.
 
GWYNNE SHOTWELL: That's why the Falcon 9 was designed with much higher factors of safety, more than the standard expendable launch vehicle.
 
MILES O'BRIEN: Unlike the shuttle, the man-rated Dragon will be equipped with a crew escape system. And the capsule sits on top of the stack, upstream of any falling debris, the cause of the loss of Columbia and her crew in 2003.
 
The accident triggered then President George Bush to announce the shuttles would be retired after the space station was complete. Mr. Bush proposed a new program called Constellation that would aim for a return to the moon. But the Bush White House never delivered the promised funding, so President Obama canceled stillborn Constellation, and now all that remains of the program is this, a capsule called Orion being built and tested by aerospace giant Lockheed Martin.
 
JOHN KARAS, Lockheed Martin: So these would be where propellant tanks would go. So you have the actual attach points on the vehicle, but these would simulate the mass and the position of a propellant tank.
 
MILES O'BRIEN: John Karas is vice president and general manager of human spaceflight here. Lockheed Martin and NASA are building Orion the old-fashioned way, meaning the government pays for all the costs, and all the changes, plus a guaranteed fee to the contractor.
 
The testing is exhaustive to what engineers call the corners of the flight envelope, meaning the absolute edge of a vehicle's capability.
 
JOHN KARAS: You can rest assured that, on a NASA-driven human spaceflight exploration program, we will test in all the corners. Right?
 
MILES O'BRIEN: So it's -- this is what cost-plus is all about, isn't it, doing -- when you have to do all this, right?
 
JOHN KARAS: Exactly right.
 
MILES O'BRIEN: Everyone agrees sending humans to space will never get cheaper if this remains the approach.
 
MAN: That went like clockwork, from what I could see.
 
MILES O'BRIEN: But the old guard is leery of retooling. Having a commercial player just build a rocket and you use it or not, like it or not, you don't see that as inherently more risky?
 
JOHN KARAS: So, I think it is inherently more risky. Now, the question is, what risk tolerance are you willing to take? And I don't think that question has been answered yet, and I think it's going to take a while, and it's going to be some trial and error, just like in the airline industry, where what's your level of tolerance to go build the airplanes, and how much -- what do you think the revenues are?
 
MILES O'BRIEN: Orion is designed to take up seven astronauts to low-Earth orbit and beyond, but where? The destination has changed repeatedly.
 
It was going to be a lifeboat for the space station. It was going to take crew to the station. It was going to go to the moon at one point. Then it was going to go to Mars, and now it might go to an asteroid. Is this really the way to build a space program?
 
JOHN KARAS: Well, no.
 
JOHN KARAS: No. Is it any way to run a railroad? No. Okay.
 
MILES O'BRIEN: And the political and budgetary winds keep shifting. When the Obama administration canceled the family of rockets that would have lofted Orion into space under the Constellation scheme, Congress got into the act.
 
Sen. Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat who flew on Columbia in 1986 with current NASA Administrator, Charlie Bolden, insisted the agency build a heavy-lift rocket that uses shuttle-derived components, again, with no clear destination in mind.
 
Is it a rocket to nowhere?
 
SEN. BILL NELSON, D-Fla.: It's a rocket to Mars. That's the goal. The president has said that's the goal, and that's where we're going.
 
MILES O'BRIEN: Well, maybe one day. The president did say that when he announced the cancellation of Constellation, but NASA doesn't have the money for a Mars program. Still, Nelson says the space agency is doing relatively well.
 
SEN. BILL NELSON: First of all, look at NASA compared to other agencies of the federal government. NASA is being treated very well. NASA is basically being flatlined.
 
MILES O'BRIEN: So the agency is left with Orion and an underfunded idea for a big rocket that could take humans to Mars, but no concrete plans to do so. When or if it will ever fly is anyone's guess.
 
What is NASA's goal right now? Do we know?
 
STEVEN YOUNG: That's a very good question. I think that's the fundamental problem. I think, for the first time in the space agency's history, its mission is very uncertain. There is no clear direction.
 
MILES O'BRIEN: Which brings us back to SpaceX, and the launchpad right next to the place where the shuttles left Earth for three decades. It is a lean, clean operation, filled with a lot of people like launch engineer Mike Sheehan, the boss at the tender age of 28.
 
This whole first part, first stage, is this all reusable?
 
MIKE SHEEHAN, launch engineer, SpaceX: Yes.
 
MILES O'BRIEN: So that will be -- this will be fished out of the Atlantic?
 
MIKE SHEEHAN: This one won't, no.
 
MILES O'BRIEN: This one -- but in the future, it will? Is that the -- is that the plan or. . .
 
MIKE SHEEHAN: Yes, yes.
 
MILES O'BRIEN: Okay.
 
It's not unlike NASA in the 1960s. Could this be a changing of the old guard?
 
Are we at an inflection point where that's changing?
 
ELON MUSK: Yes, I think we really are at an inflection point where space is increasingly driven by the private sector. Government still has a very important role to play, but it's going to be a greater and greater percentage of private enterprise.
 
MILES O'BRIEN: SpaceX has flown Falcon 9 to orbit twice before with great success, but this will be the maiden voyage for a fully equipped Dragon capsule and the first attempt to reach the space station. The SpaceX team is dotting I's and crossing T's, but in this case, the goal is not to ensure success at all costs.
 
City backs SpaceX proposal
 
Laura Martinez - Brownsville Herald
 
The City Commission has thrown in its support for SpaceX coming to Brownsville by passing a resolution in support of the $3 billion company.
 
"It’s a win-win situation for everyone," Mayor Tony Martinez said. He is encouraging city commissioners to talk to their constituents and rally support for SpaceX, or Space Exploration Technologies. Should the company decide to come to Brownsville, it could mean hundreds of jobs to the city.
 
Brownsville, or rural Cameron County, is one of three sites that SpaceX has under consideration for a launch site. The others are in Florida and Puerto Rico.
 
Gilbert Salinas, executive vice president of the Brownsville Economic Development Council, which is working with SpaceX, said the company could bring about 600 direct jobs to the area with a minimum annual salary of $55,000.
 
"This is money from the heavens," Salinas told the City Commission at its meeting earlier this week.
 
The salaries SpaceX could bring would be about 80 percent above the county’s average wages, Salinas said.
 
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. Vehicles to be launched include the Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy and smaller reusable, suborbital launch vehicles.
 
The proposed site, which is privately owned, sits just south of State Highway 4 not far from Boca Chica beach. The area is nothing but a grassy field with lots of sand.
 
"They (SpaceX) want to know that they are wanted in the community, and we want them to know that they are wanted in this community," Martinez said.
 
Salinas said SpaceX found out about the South Texas area through Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s office, which in turn connected SpaceX founder Elon Musk with area officials.
 
Perry’s office earlier said that it does not comment on ongoing negotiations.
 
SpaceX, based in Hawthorne, Calif., already has an active launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida and is developing a launch site at Vandenburg Air Force Base in California. The company also operates a rocket development facility in McGregor, Texas.
 
Officials said SpaceX already has secured $3 billion in launch business. The company has contracts with NASA for the Falcon 1 and Falcon 9 launch vehicles.
 
"He’s (Musk) got the business, he needs to get it built pretty quick," Salinas said.
 
A scope meeting is scheduled for May 15 at the International Technology, Education and Commerce Center or ITEC in Brownsville, where residents will learn more about the project and can voice their concerns.
 
Salinas said officials from SpaceX will be at the meeting to talk about the project and answer questions from the public.
 
Martinez is urging everyone to attend the meeting to learn more about the company.
 
Residents unable to attend the scope meeting may send their public comments to the FAA’s Environmental Protection Department at faaspacexeis@cardnotec.com
 
Mock shuttle due here around June 1
 
Mary Alys Cherry - Bay Area Citizen
 
Bay Area Houston’s mock space shuttle is being prepared for its journey to Clear Lake and will probably arrive here around June 1, Space Center Houston President Richard Allen said Wednesday.
 
After examining the depth of waters the vehicle will travel from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, around the Gulf of Mexico and across Galveston Bay and Clear Lake to its Space Center Houston destination on NASA Parkway, it was determined the waters are deep enough so no dredging will be necessary, Allen explained.
 
The mock shuttle is the full-size orbiter mockup that has been on display at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida for a number of years.
 
And, it may turn out to be better than a real space shuttle. The advantage is visitors can walk through the mockup while they cannot access the flight and mid-level decks on the real retired shuttles, which were given to Washington, New York, California and Kennedy Space Center.
 
The mock shuttle is sitting in the spot where KSC wants to place Space Shuttle Atlantis, so Kennedy officials called up offering the mock shuttle right after it was learned the Johnson Space Center area had been snubbed when the retired shuttles were passed out.
 
Once approval came, Allen and Bay Area Houston Economic Partnership President Bob Mitchell have been working for a number of months on moving the mock shuttle.
 
There is no cost for the shuttle but there will be for transportation and providing a facility to house it.
 
As Allen said earlier, “The devil is in the details.”
 
Chevron donated $100,000 toward the costs at a December fundraiser in Houston. Most likely, it will travel by barge.
 
Plans for the move are being finalized now, Allen said, promising more news soon.
 
Marshall Director to lawmakers: Space exploration part of Alabama's past and future
 
Kim Chandler - Birmingham News
 
Marshall Space Flight Center Acting Director Gene Goldman said the center that helped take people to the moon is working again to explore deeper space.
 
"Marshall is still making history and making an impact on Alabama and our world," Goldman said in an address to lawmakers
 
Lawmakers Thursday honored Marshall for its role in space exploration and for its economic impact in Alabama. Legislators presented a resolution honoring Marshall. Goldman spoke to a joint session of the Senate and House saying that "our past accomplishments and our future successes are intertwined."
 
"With your support, Marshall Space Flight Center pledges to keep making history every day, exploring space, learning more about our planet, inspiring the youth who will take our place, improving the quality of life for all and making Alabama proud,"   Goldman said.
 
Goldman said Marshall has a $2.9 billion economic impact, according to a 2009 study. With 5,500 government and contract workers, it is the third largest employer in Huntsville with 90 percent of employees having a four-year college degree or higher.
 
The center that developed the Saturn V moon rocket in the 1960s, Goldman said, is now developing NASA's new Space Launch System designed to "take us exploring again beyond Earth's orbit with people and robots in ways that aren't possible today."
 
Marshall is leading the design and the development of the SLS, a  heavy-lift launch vehicle that NASA says will eventually take humans to destinations such as Mars.
 
Goldman said Marshall is not just about rocket development. Marshall scientists used satellite data to track the path of destruction from last year's tornado outbreak. Marshall also helped track and study the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
 
Goldman told lawmakers that Marshall is part of the state's heritage and one of its valuable resources, "no less valuable to the future of Alabama than our waterways and coastline -- our farms and auto industry - our educational institutions and our culture."
 
As part of the celebration, NASA exhibits dotted the hallways of the the State House. A space shuttle engine was parked in front of the State House.
 
Astronaut T.J. Creamer, who lived and worked aboard the space station for six months, was part of the NASA contingent at the State House.
 
Creamer said the same quest for exploration that pushed America to the moon in the 1960s is alive and well.
 
"At the moment we are trying to go farther. We're trying to go to the moon, Mars and beyond and get to places where we have not been before because we want to learn so much more," Creamer said.
 
NASA Pursues Wearable Technology
 
Mark Carreau - Aerospace Daily
 
Spaceflight brings a whole new meaning to dressing for success. An astronaut’s garments must be functional, yet as comfortable as possible, whether the flier is sealed inside a spacecraft or on a spacewalk.
 
As NASA envisions a future of deep-space exploration and missions stretching from months to years, the list of wardrobe requirements soars as well.
 
Mass, volume, durability, ease of care, even resistance to bacteria and recyclability compete with greater demands for functionality. So much so that a small team of Advanced Exploration Systems engineers from NASA’s Johnson Space Center has turned to experts from the University of Minnesota’s College of Design for help in navigating the emerging fields of functional clothing and wearable technology.
 
The formative collaboration promises to influence health care, and even traditional fashion. Think of garments laced with sensors and circuitry that monitor vital signs or that display patient histories in a virtual setting to medical specialists. A safety tunic donned by bicycle or motorcycle riders might incorporate turn signals and caution lights.
 
“We are really focused on displays and controls, human interfaces,” says Cory Simon, an engineer in the Avionics System Div. of Johnson’s Engineering Directorate, who is leading the effort. “There are a lot of challenges. Commercial industry is working on this, particularly in medical monitoring. We are hopeful that as they work on this path and we work on this path, we are able to leverage from one another. That is definitely the goal, to have an operational space control capability down the road.”
 
A major focus is clothing with sensoring technology that collects information about unfamiliar environments and quickly provides it to the wearer in a usable format.
 
“With augmented reality, you could look at someone and face-recognition technology would overlay a wealth of information about them and your previous conversations,” Simon explains.
 
His initial quest for outside expertise led Simon to Lucy Dunne, an assistant professor of apparel design at the University of Minnesota and an early researcher in the field of technology-enhanced apparel.
 
Their meeting in late 2011 initiated a semester-long project involving 15 students from Dunne’s functional clothing lab who previewed some of their concepts to NASA engineers for integrating environmental sensors and controls, microphones, cameras, computers, and even hazard-warning devices into test garments.
 
“We’ve used this course to start a collaboration that we hope will be longer term, possibly broader,” says Dunne, whose students typically look to Target, Kohl’s, and Lands’ End to start their careers. “This type of effort asks students to use an engineering rather than a creative process. Their brains need to be exercised in both directions in order to be really effective.”
 
“I think there is a lot of potential,” says Lucie Viros, one of the students, of potential commercial applications. “I’m drawn to the artistic side of fashion, but I like the meeting of form and function.”
 
“We’re very happy with what they produced,” says Simon, who intends to extend the research effort to other schools. “There are a lot of students with creative ideas.”
 
Carlisle C. Campbell
 
Carlisle Caston Campbell, Jr., 81, former NASA engineer, loving husband, father and grandfather, lost his courageous battle with cancer April 30. He was surrounded by family and friends.
 
He is survived by his wife of 50 years, Grace, daughter Carmen (Phil) Crabtree, son Carlisle "Rusty" Campbell, two sisters, and 6 grandchildren.
 
Carlisle was born in Eden, North Carolina, on June 11, 1930 to Carlisle and Amy Campbell. He graduated from North Carolina State University with a degree in Industrial Engineering.
 
After serving in the U.S. Air Force he returned to school and received another degree in Mechanical Engineering. He worked for Western Electric on the anti-missile program before coming to NASA in 1962.
 
During his 50 years at NASA, Carlisle received numerous awards including the Engineering Legacy Award, Manned Flight Achievement and the 50 Year Service Award.
 
Carlisle had many talents: painting, woodworking and writing poetry, but sculpting was his special gift. He loved hiking and canoeing and enjoyed outdoor activities with many friends in The Outdoor Club sponsored by College of the Mainland.
 
A visitation will be held on Saturday, May 5 at Crowder Funeral Home. A memorial service follows Sunday, May 6, at Seabrook Methodist Church with a reception following at the Senior Center Building in Seabrook. Entombment will be in the Lawson Cemetery in Eden, N.C. on Saturday, May 12 at 11 am.
 
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorial donations be sent to the Building Committee, Seabrook Methodist Church, 3300 Lakeside Dr. Seabrook, TX 77586.
 
The family wishes to thank the wonderful people at M.D. Anderson for guiding them through his fight with cancer and also the Odyssey Hospice for their loving care during Carlisle's final days.
 
Feds inspect bridge to spaceport after structural "popping sounds"
 
Carol Vaughn - Salisbury Daily News
 
Federal Highway Administration engineers were called in Thursday morning to inspect the 52 year-old bridge to Wallops Island after “popping sounds” were heard at the bridge on Wednesday, according to NASA Wallops Flight Facility spokesman Keith Kohler.
 
The hump-backed bridge dates to 1960 and crosses Cat’s Creek, connecting the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport’s launchpads and other facilities on Wallops Island to the mainland Eastern Shore of Virginia.
 
Limitations were placed on traffic over the bridge as a precaution, Kohler said.
 
Replacement of the bridge is among items listed as under consideration in an environmental review process currently underway for Wallops Flight Facility.
 
NASA officials were expected to receive a briefing on the inspection results late Thursday afternoon.
 
Neil Armstrong's Corvette lands on eBay
 
Fox News
 

 
It didn't go to the Moon, but it sure looks like it did.
 
A 1967 Chevrolet Corvette once owned by Neil Armstrong is being auctioned on eBay.
 
The blue coupe sat unused in a garage since 1981, before being purchased by its current owner in February of this year. It's in barely running condition, but is mostly original.  Aside from a new carburetor, water pump, muffler and wheels, the only major modification is a set of poorly done fender flares.
 
The fully-documented 'Vette has a 390 hp 427 cubic-inch V8 running through a four-speed manual transmission and, fitting of a Florida car, factory air conditioning as well as power windows. The odometer shows just 38,148 miles, but as it only has five digits and hasn't worked since the 1970's, there's no telling how much mileage the car really has on it.
 
According to the seller, the yet-to-be-first man on the Moon took delivery of the 'Vette in December of 1966 as part of a special program run by Melbourne Chevrolet dealer, Jim Rathman.
 
The enterprising salesman used to offer astronauts a special one year lease deal on 'Vettes so they would always be seen behind the wheel of the latest model. One of his employees bought the car in 1968 when it was turned in for trade.
 
Chevrolet's connection with the space program launched in 1961, when GM President Ed Cole presented the first American in Space, Alan Shepard, with a new 1962 Corvette upon his return. Afterwards six of the seven Mercury astronauts would join him as Corvette owners, with only John Glenn opting for a Chevy station wagon.
 
Many other folks with the right stuff would follow, and the Cape Kennedy Corvette Club held a parade of cars with 30 surviving astronauts on May 7th, 2011, two days after the 50th anniversary of Shepard's flight.
 
The auction for Armstrong's car ends on May 6th, and as of this writing the bidding is closing in on $250,000, about $1 for every mile to the moon. That's still not enough to meet the unpublished reserve, so the sky's still the limit for this very unique piece of American history.
 
Buzz Aldrin Gives TV Comedian Stephen Colbert Space Award
 
Denise Chow - Space.com
 
Veteran Apollo astronaut Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon, graced the small screen Thursday to present TV comedian Stephen Colbert with a special award for his work in promoting space exploration to the public.
 
Aldrin appeared on Comedy Central's popular late-night show "The Colbert Report" to present its funnyman host with the National Space Society's 2012 Space Pioneer Award for Mass Media.
 
"I could not be T-minus more excited to receive the National Space Society's Space Pioneer Award for Mass Media," Colbert said on the show, before welcoming Aldrin onto the set with him.
 
Aldrin is a member of the National Space Society's board of governors. The nonprofit organization aims to foster the creation of a robust spacefaring nation.
 
"I'm a big supporter for spacefaring, but not spacefare, which is welfare for aliens," Colbert joked, before mentioning that the NSS board includes actor Tom Hanks and politician Newt Gingrich, who recently bowed out of the 2012 Republican Party presidential nomination race.
 
Aldrin, who was the lunar module pilot on NASA's historic Apollo 11 mission that landed on the moon, expressed gratitude on behalf of the NSS for Colbert's interest in space exploration.
 
"A while back, I was chairman of the Space Society," Aldrin said, adding that the organization strongly supports commercial ventures to the International Space Station, and exploration efforts beyond Earth, to the moon, to an asteroid, and beyond the moons of Mars.
 
"We want to thank you for promoting space exploration," Aldrin said to Colbert.
 
The former astronaut, who donned a fun, space-themed tie for the occasion, then played along as Colbert recreated the atmosphere of an award ceremony. The TV comedian had Aldrin read the names of other pretend nominees, which included actress Meryl Streep, cartoon character Elroy Jetson and ABC's popular sitcom "Modern Family," before announcing him as the winner.
 
"Thank you so much," Colbert said after he was presented with the award. "It is a true honor. A true honor. I want to thank you. I want to thank the National Space Society. I accept this award on behalf of every kid who dreamed of growing up to be an astronaut, but instead went into television. And I accept it on behalf of all their kids, who I think should still dream of growing up to become an astronaut like Buzz Aldrin."
 
Colbert has been a vocal fan of NASA and the country's space program. In fact, an exercise treadmill on the International Space Station was named after the comedian. The $5 million Combined Operational Load-Bearing External Resistance Treadmill (or COLBERT) was part of a consolation prize for the TV host, who won an online NASA contest for the naming rights to a new space station module in 2009.