Hope you can join us this Thursday, June 7th at our monthly NASA Retirees Luncheon at Hibachi Grill on Bay Area Blvd. at 11:30am. Afterwards, you can swing by Space Center Houston and checkout the Explorer Orbiter.
Monday, June 4, 2012
JSC TODAY HEADLINES
1. JSC Library is Moving - Access Resources Online
2. Physical and Financial Fitness - The Basics of Both
3. JSC Features and Roundup Readership Contest Winners for May
4. Caregiver's Resource Group Speaker
5. SAIC/S&MA Innovation Speaker Forum Hosts Nick Skytland - June 6
6. Father-Daughter Dance 2012 - Get Your Tickets by Friday
7. AIAA Houston Section 50th Anniversary Dinner
________________________________________ QUOTE OF THE DAY
“ Problems cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them.”
-- Albert Einstein
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1. JSC Library is Moving - Access Resources Online
The JSC Library in Building 45, Room 100, along with the staff and physical collection, will move during the last two weeks of June. The new location will be in Building 30, Room 1077, to re-open on July 2.
From June 18 to June 29 there will be no interruption in services and access to online resources. However, access to some JSC documents may be limited.
Interlibrary loan books checked out with a due date after June 22 will need to be returned at the new location in July or at the drop box in the parking lot across from Building 45. To renew books, please contact the library at 281-483-4245.
The STI Center libraries and repositories will be available to answer questions. Contact information for the International Space Station Library, Bioastronautics Library and Still Imagery & Video Repositories are located here http://library.jsc.nasa.gov/aboutus/default.aspx
Scientific and Technical Information Center x34245 http://library.jsc.nasa.gov
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2. Physical and Financial Fitness - The Basics of Both
In the world of wellness, there's more than one way to get fit. Join us for a fitness workout in two ways this week; physical and financial. Learn how to set, meet and track your fitness goals by becoming educated about the basics of both topics.
Basic Principles of Health Related Fitness
June 13, 11 a.m., Building 4S, Room 1419
Understand the role of physical fitness in health. Acquire skills to design, evaluate and conduct a safe and effective personal fitness program. Achieve significant improvements in cardio-respiratory fitness, body composition, muscular strength, muscular endurance and body flexibility. Receive motivation for exercise adherence.
Financial Classes - Day and Evening
Introductory financial classes are being offered during June and are designed to provide you with basic foundational knowledge. Topics include:
Financial Wellness Foundation
Budgets, Debt, Insurance and Long Term Care
Investing and Retirement Planning
Taxes and Estate Planning
Details are at the link below.
Jessica Vos x41383 http://www.explorationwellness.com/rd/AE104.aspx?June_Signup.pdf
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3. JSC Features and Roundup Readership Contest Winners for May
The winner of the JSC Features Readership Contest drawing is: Kimberly Musfy
What is the 20-Year Remediation Project about?
*The correct answer:
The twenty-year remediation project was the process of removing groundwater contamination caused by a leaking, underground process sewer line from Building 356. This site now meets regulatory requirements.
The winner of the Roundup Readership Contest drawing is: Joseph Parani
During shuttle missions, the still and motion imagery captured by crew members was immense, but _____________________________.
*The correct answer:
... when astronauts began occupying the space station, the downlink system used for transmitting motion imagery increased exponentially.
Congratulations to the winners, and thanks to all contest participants and readers. The next contest will post after publication of the June Roundup. Don't be a stranger, and don't be shy! Join the fun. You could be the next winner of the JSC Features and Roundup readership contest!
http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/roundup/online/
http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/jscfeatures/
Neesha Hosein x27516
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4. Caregiver's Resource Group Speaker
The Caregiver's Resource Group is happy to present Peggy Schrodi of Emeritus Senior Living on Tuesday, June 5, at noon in Building 32, Conference Room 146. Schrodi will provide information about caregiver tips, levels of care and the aging process. Join us to gain education about eldercare and caregiving strategies.
Gay Yarbrough x36130
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5. SAIC/S&MA Innovation Speaker Forum Hosts Nick Skytland - June 6
The SAIC/Safety & Mission Assurance Innovation Speaker Forum hosts Nick Skytland - Program Manager of NASA's Open Government Initiative
Wednesday, June 6, from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in Building 1, Room 966
Topic: OpenGov
1. Social Media
2. Citizen Engagement Project
3. Technology Accelerators
4. Open Government Plan v2.0
5. Open Source
6. Open Data
7. Int'l Space Approval Challenge
8. RHOK (Random Hacks of Kindness)
Skytland is the Program Manager of NASA's Open Government Initiative and is responsible for directing the agency's Open Government Plan with aggressive goals towards releasing more high value data sets online, pushing forward the use of open source software, developing new technologies, and creating participatory opportunities to engage citizens in NASA's mission. Skytland is well known for many of his presentations promoting the human space program, participatory exploration, millennials, social media and open government.
Joyce Abbey 281-335-2041
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6. Father-Daughter Dance 2012 - Get Your Tickets by Friday
Let Starport help you make Father's Day weekend a date your daughter will never forget! Enjoy a night of music, dancing, refreshments, finger foods and 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 and $15 per additional child. Tickets must be purchased by Friday, June 8. Each couple will receive one free 5x7 photo. Additional photos may be purchased.
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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7. AIAA Houston Section 50th Anniversary Dinner
You are cordially invited to the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Houston Section's 50th Anniversary Dinner to celebrate this golden milestone with guest speaker Michael Coats, JSC director and panelists (AIAA Houston Section leaders from the last 50 years) Guy Thibodaux, Jim McLane, Norman Chaffee, Zafar Taqvi and Ellen Gillespie.
Where: JSC Gilruth Center, Alamo Ballroom
When: This Wednesday, June 6, 5:30 p.m. - Cocktail/Social Hour
6 p.m. - NASA displays
6:30 p.m. - Dinner
7:30 p.m. - Program
Make dinner reservations online: http://www.aiaa-houston.org/Events.aspx#68
Members: $15; Non-members: $20
This event is open to the public.
For more information, please contact Alan Sisson at: programs@aiaa-houston.org.
Irene Chan 713-933-6892 http://www.aiaa-houston.org/Events.aspx#68
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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.
Human Spaceflight News
Monday, June 4, 2012
HEADLINES AND LEADS
Commercial Crew Vehicles Will Use New Docking Standard
Frank Morring, Jr. & Mark Carreau - Aviation Week
Before the SpaceX Dragon can begin carrying crews to the International Space Station (ISS), it must deliver a new docking mechanism that astronauts will affix permanently in the spot where space shuttles once connected to the orbiting laboratory. That is good news and bad news or SpaceX. The company can add 750-1,000 lb. of payload to its commercial cargo manifest for the ISS. But any competitor with a docking mechanism that meets the emerging International Docking System Standard (IDSS) will also be able to use it.
SpaceX has big plans for launches
W.J. Hennigan - Los Angeles Times
SpaceX, the upstart company that shot a capsule to the International Space Station and back last week, won’t have much time to savor its first major success. It now must ready its Dragon spacecraft with life-support systems to ferry astronauts as well as cargo. And some analysts are skeptical that it can be a government contractor while maintaining its Silicon Valley style of doing business.
NASA expects quick start to SpaceX cargo contract
Stephen Clark – SpaceflightNow.com
The top NASA manager in charge of the agency's commercial cargo transportation program hailed SpaceX's demonstration flight to the International Space Station as a success and indicated approval for continued resupply missions under a $1.6 billion contract would be a mere formality. The Dragon spacecraft made an on-target splashdown in the Pacific Ocean on Thursday, ending a nine-day mission that set out to prove the capsule's ability to safely reach the space station, deliver supplies, and return equipment to Earth.
Dragon Headed for Texas after Historic Flight
Dan Leone - Space News
Space Exploration Technologies Corp.’s (SpaceX) Dragon cargo capsule, which returned May 31 from a nine-day demonstration mission to the international space station (ISS), is on its way to Texas for postflight processing. The inspection will take place at SpaceX’s rocket-testing facility in McGregor. With its historic flight complete — Dragon is the first privately operated spacecraft to deliver cargo to ISS — SpaceX must prove that the capsule, and the 620 kilograms of cargo it brought back to Earth, were not damaged during the return from orbit.
Big week for commercial space flight, big week for Louisville-built Dream Chaser
John Aguilar - Boulder Daily Camera
Images from space dominated the week and fired up imaginations all over again. An unmanned capsule launched by a private company docked with the International Space Station 240 miles above Earth, exchanged cargo with the astronauts living there and then plummeted through the atmosphere into a picture-perfect splashdown in the Pacific Ocean on Thursday morning. The accomplishment was a first for the burgeoning commercial space sector and California-based SpaceX, helmed by 40-year-old South Africa-born billionaire Elon Musk, was lauded worldwide for its success. But just two days before the heralded return of SpaceX's Dragon capsule 560 miles off the coast of Baja California, a company much closer to home reached a critical milestone of its own in the commercial race to space -- albeit one done largely out of the glare of the media spotlight. Sierra Nevada Corporation Space Systems, headquartered on the Colorado Technology Center campus in Louisville, passed one of the most complex tests it has faced in its attempt to launch a seven-person orbital vehicle -- called the Dream Chaser -- into space by 2016.
Sierra Nevada completes Dream Chaser flight test, landing test expected this summer
Mike Killian - AmericaSpace.org
Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) reached another milestone last week in its efforts to become the next commercial company to venture into space and provide NASA crew transport capabilities to low-Earth orbit, or “LEO” as it is more commonly called. The NewSpace firm successfully completed a “captive carry” flight test of a full scale version of their Dream Chaser spacecraft in the skies over the Rocky Mountains of Jefferson County, Colorado last week. The full-scale flight test, conducted on May 29, 2012, was the first of the company’s Dream Chaser Space System’s flight test program. The vehicle was carried under an Erickson Air-Crane helicopter to assess the vehicle’s aerodynamic flight performance, laying the foundation for additional flight tests to take place in the future.
Spaceships will follow Dragon's trail
Alan Boyle - MsNBC.com's Cosmic Log
SpaceX's scorched Dragon cargo capsule is on a ship making its way back to Los Angeles after Thursday's historic descent from orbit. The California-based company reported that the 14.4-foot-high (4.4-meter-high) spacecraft and its more than 1,300 pounds (620 kilograms) of cargo were in good shape, despite its plunge from the International Space Station. On the way down, the Dragon weathered re-entry temperatures in excess of 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit (1,650 degrees Celsius). At a height of 40,000 feet, the Dragon started deploying its parachutes and drifted into the Pacific, about 560 miles west of Baja California. A recovery team got to the craft, towed it to the ship and used a crane to hoist it aboard, as planned.
Boeing provides NASA with flight computer software for Space Launch System
Tiffany Kaiser - DailyTech.com
Boeing gave NASA's new Space Launch System (SLS) a huge boost by delivering the first three flight computer software test beds needed for launch vehicle control. NASA's SLS is an advanced heavy lift vehicle that was designed to carry the Orion Multi-purpose Crew Vehicle and cargo. It will also be used as a backup for commercial and international partner transportation to the International Space Station (ISS).
Local tourism, business leaders to lobby Congress
Officials will emphasize space efforts
Dave Berman - Florida Today
A group of about a dozen local tourism and business leaders are heading to Washington on Tuesday to participate in a few days of lobbying in the halls of Congress as part of a trip organized by Citizens for Space Exploration. The Space Coast participants will seek congressional support for the space program, tourism and the fishing industry.
Enterprise passes World Trade Center on barge trip toward USS Intrepid
David Li - New York Daily News
The Space Shuttle Enterprise has gone from spaceship to sea ship. The historic NASA craft floated through New York Harbor and past the World Trade Center yesterday, making its way past some of the city’s sights before it reaches its final home. The Enterprise was loaded onto a barge at John F. Kennedy Airport early in the morning and set sail for Port Elizabeth, NJ.
Shuttle towed to NJ before final NYC stop
Associated Press
The prototype space shuttle Enterprise has arrived in New Jersey, the first half of its trip to the flight deck of a decommissioned aircraft carrier in New York City. The shuttle left Kennedy Airport Sunday morning on a barge and was towed past thousands of spectators to Jersey City. The shuttle had been at JFK since it flew from Washington atop a 747 jet earlier this spring.
Space Shuttle at Sea: Enterprise Sails for NYC's Intrepid
Robert Pearlman - collectSPACE.com
NASA's space shuttle Enterprise launched on a voyage Sunday (June 3), going where no space shuttle has gone before: New Jersey. The space agency's original prototype orbiter, Enterprise is scheduled to arrive at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum on the west side of Manhattan on Tuesday (June 5). Leaving Sunday from New York's John F. Kennedy (JFK) International Airport where it was delivered atop a jumbo jet in late April, the shuttle was barged to Bayonne, N.J., as a layover on its way up the Hudson River.
Shuttle replica arrives amid fanfare
Harvey Rice - Houston Chronicle
The shuttle replica that arrived at the NASA barge dock Friday may be a consolation prize, but it's a welcome one. "The replica will help us remember and commemorate 30 years of shuttle flight," Houston Mayor Annise Parker said at a news conference after the full-size spacecraft mockup arrived at the NASA Road 1 Barge dock. "I'd like to have a shuttle that flew," Parker admitted, but "Houston doesn't look back - we always look forward."
It's not a shuttle, but Houston will take it
Juan Lozano – Associated Press
It's not the space shuttle Houston was hoping to get. Actually, it's not even a space shuttle. But that didn't dampen the excitement by officials and hundreds of residents who gathered Friday to welcome a full-sized shuttle replica. It arrived in suburban Houston after an eight-day trip aboard a barge that began from Kennedy Space Center in Florida and went across the Gulf of Mexico.
Visitors to be able to walk inside shuttle mock-up
By Christopher Smith Gonzalez - Galveston Daily News
Clear Lake was crowded with boats, the banks were lined with people and traffic at the intersection of Space Center Boulevard and East NASA Parkway slowed to a crawl Friday afternoon. Everyone had their eyes out on the water as the 122-foot-long mock-up of Space Shuttle Explorer finished its eight-day trip to Houston. And while Houston might not have gotten one of the four retired NASA shuttles, those in the bay area are going to get something from the replica that no one will from the real ones, said Rex Walheim, a NASA astronaut who flew in the last shuttle mission. “Obviously, we’d all love to have a shuttle to show here in Houston, but the nice thing about mock-ups is you can go inside,” Walheim said.
Shuttle replica completes tedious trek to new museum home
Robert Stanton - Houston Chronicle
The long-awaited shuttle replica arrived safely Sunday at Space Center Houston after a five-hour, mile-long journey along Nasa Road 1. Houstonians young and old arrived before the break of dawn Sunday to watch the shuttle replica make its trek to its new home aboard a 144-wheel trailer. Scores of onlookers lined the roadway to watch the move, many walking alongside the shuttle replica on its tedious trip.
Shuttle replica arrives at Space Center Houston
Christine Dobbyn – KTRK TV (Houston)
The space shuttle replica 'Explorer' finally arrived at its new home Sunday after a week-long trek from the Kennedy Space Center and a slow ride from Clear Lake to Space Center Houston. NASA's mock shuttle arrived in one piece, but the road was paved with obstacles. The shuttle took nearly six hours to get to its destination -- twice as long as expected.
Shuttle mock-up's final 1.4 miles a test
T.J. Aulds & Jennifer Reynolds – Galveston Daily News
The 1,273-mile journey for the space shuttle replica once called Explorer, for the most part, went off without a hitch. It was the final 1.4-mile journey from Clear Lake to Space Center Houston that didn’t go exactly as planned. It took crews about seven hours to get the mock-up from the NASA dock to the parking lot of its new home at Space Center Houston. It was thought the process would take four hours, but the removing of traffic lights along the route took more time than originally planned. Still, the mock-up’s trip drew thousands of onlookers as the 130,000-pound shuttle replica inched its way down NASA Parkway aboard a 144-wheeled Goldhofer trailer.
Thousands greet shuttle’s arrival in Clear Lake
Mary Alys Cherry - Bay Area Citizen
As thousands lined the streets and shores of Clear Lake to greet her, the Bay Area’s Space Shuttle finally took up residency Friday -- sailing through an arch of water sprayed by area fireboats and tying up at the NASA dock next to the Hilton on NASA Parkway. Then, on Sunday, she moved into her new home at Space Center Houston. Her journey here ended after an eight-day trip around the tip of Florida and across the Gulf of Mexico and an overnight stop in Galveston so Johnson Space Center officials could repair some of the dings she suffered during her journey from Kennedy Space Center.
Shuttle Replica Takes Sunday Drive to Space Center Houston
Robert Pearlman - collectSPACE.com
A replica space shuttle went on a Sunday morning (June 3) road trip, making its way from the lakeside dock here where it arrived on Friday to the NASA visitor center where it will go on public display. The 1-mile (1.6-kilometer) trek was originally scheduled to take just three hours to complete, but obstacles along the way doubled that time . The mockup, loaded atop a 144-wheel transporter, was slowly and methodically trucked down NASA Parkway — also known as NASA Road 1 — to Space Center Houston, the official visitor center for the Johnson Space Center (JSC).
Space Shuttle Replica Docks in Houston Lake, Launches 'Shuttlebration'
Robert Pearlman - collectSPACE.com
A full-scale space shuttle replica came into dock on Friday (June 1), but rather than pull into an orbiting space station, it arrived at port in a Texas lake near NASA's Houston space center. The high-fidelity space shuttle mockup, which was known as "Explorer" for the 18 years it was at NASA's Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida, sailed into Houston's Clear Lake to a dock opposite the Johnson Space Center (JSC), where it will be offloaded for display.
Shuttle Impossible: LAX to Expo Park
Curbed LA (la.curbed.com)
So what will it take to get the space shuttle Endeavour from LAX to it's new home in Exposition Park this fall? Wide streets, no overpasses, and oodles (TBD) of dollars. The City's Transportation Committee issued a report (PDF) on the task at hand, and the herculean challenge to accomplish the 10 mile trek.
Spaceport plan in Texas raises wildlife concerns
Matthew Tresaugu - Houston Chronicle
A proposed spaceport in South Texas could harm endangered falcons, ocelots and sea turtles, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department told federal officials this week — a concern echoed by environmentalists who say the project should not be built on land bounded on three sides by a state park and national wildlife refuge. The Texas agency raised the environmental concerns with the Federal Aviation Administration, which has the permitting authority for the private spaceport, even as state officials stepped up efforts to lure the SpaceX project.
Proposed SpaceX launch site in state draws concerns
Lubbock Avalanche-Journal
The company behind the commercial spacecraft that landed successfully in the Pacific Ocean on Friday after a mission to the International Space Station wants to come to the Rio Grande Valley. But the launch pad it is considering building has raised concerns among environmentalists and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department because of the proposed site’s proximity to endangered animals and other wildlife. The 50-acre site in southern Cameron County scouted by SpaceX, a commercial space transport company, is surrounded by Boca Chica State Park where animals listed under the Endangered Species Act such as ocelots, jaguarundi, piping plovers and green sea turtles have been sighted. “TPWD is especially concerned with the direct impact noise, heat, vibration, fencing, and hazardous material spills may have on federally-listed species,” the parks department wrote Tuesday in a letter to the Federal Aviation Administration.
Are We Really Surprised When Private Companies Do Great Things?
Richard Grant - Forbes (Commentary)
When things have been done a particular way for a long time, it is often difficult to imagine them being done any other way. This was evident in the apparent amazement that a private company might be capable of successfully launching a spacecraft capable of docking with the International Space Station. The private company, Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX), has now done just that. This is a great achievement for any organization, even for government agencies, which until now had an apparent monopoly on such missions. Clearly the founder and chief executive of SpaceX, Elon Musk, was able to imagine that things could be different. He also had the wherewithal and the will to succeed.
“Attitude-Control Game:” The Fateful Launch of Skylab
Ben Evans - AmericaSpace.org
Nearly four decades have passed since America almost lost its first space station. On the morning of 14 May 1973, the last in a generation of Saturn V boosters sat on Pad 39A, ready for its journey into space. Visually, it was quite distinct from its predecessors, possessing two stages, instead of three, and in place of what would have been the final propulsive stage was Skylab, capped off by a bullet-like aerodynamic shroud.
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COMPLETE STORIES
Commercial Crew Vehicles Will Use New Docking Standard
Frank Morring, Jr. & Mark Carreau - Aviation Week
Before the SpaceX Dragon can begin carrying crews to the International Space Station (ISS), it must deliver a new docking mechanism that astronauts will affix permanently in the spot where space shuttles once connected to the orbiting laboratory.
That is good news and bad news or SpaceX. The company can add 750-1,000 lb. of payload to its commercial cargo manifest for the ISS. But any competitor with a docking mechanism that meets the emerging International Docking System Standard (IDSS) will also be able to use it.
The cargo version of Dragon that last month became the first commercial vehicle to reach the ISS includes a “trunk” for unpressurized cargo—a unique capability that will find a market niche that NASA once filled with the space shuttle's payload bay. But before it can begin flying astronauts in Dragon's pressurized compartment, SpaceX engineers must change the way their vehicle connects with the space station—from the grapple-and-berth technique used May 25 to a shuttle-style docking.
“In the event that the crew needs to leave for some reason, you don't want to be dependent on a system on the ISS like the arm,” says Skip Hatfield, manager of the development projects office for the ISS program at Johnson Space Center (JSC). “You want to be able to jump in the thing and just depart, in case you're having a bad day, so to speak.”
To reach the station in its demonstration flight, the inaugural cargo Dragon flew in formation 10 meters (33 ft.) below it while NASA astronaut Don Pettit manipulated the 17.6-meter-long Canadarm2 to grapple the unpiloted vehicle from the robotic control station in the ISS cupola. Aided by Andrew Kuipers of the European Space Agency (ESA) and Joe Acaba of NASA, Pettit maneuvered the vehicle to a common berthing mechanism (CBM) on the Harmony node for a hard mate and unloading across the pressurized interface. The process was reversed May 31, when the Dragon left the station to reenter the atmosphere and parachute to a splashdown landing 560 mi. off the coast of Baja California.
The crew version of Dragon also will be designed to link with the station at Harmony, which is nestled between the main European, Japanese and U.S. laboratory modules and attached to them with CBMs that contain the interior hatches. But the Dragon—and other commercial crew vehicles docking with the station—will use a new International Docking Adapter (IDA) that fits onto the Russian-built Androgynous Peripheral Attach System (APAS) at the forward end of Harmony.
Integrated into the Pressurized Mating Adapter (PMA), the Russian system was designed to perform either the passive or active function in a vehicle docking. It mechanically damps out oscillations as the vehicles make contact and then cranks them into a structural connection.
Hatfield's office has just completed a preliminary design review of the two IDAs that NASA plans to send to the station, the first late in 2014 in a Dragon trunk. Essentially a modified APAS at one end and a NASA-developed passive docking interface that meets the international standard at the other, the IDA will be pulled from the Dragon with the station arm, positioned in front of PMA-2 on the front of Harmony, and installed by a pair of spacesuited astronauts.
A second IDA will follow later, for installation on a position to be determined by NASA and its partners. Initially, though, the mechanism on the front of Harmony will be the point of entry for station crews arriving on U.S. commercial vehicles, all of which are being built to meet the basic international standard for spacecraft docking.
Approved by the top human-spaceflight managers at the Canadian, European, Japanese, Russian and U.S. space agencies, the IDSS sets parameters that will allow any spacecraft meeting the standard to dock with any other. Hatfield's office also is developing a NASA Docking System (NDS) that meets the international standard, and will play the most active role in commercial-vehicle dockings at the space station, at least initially.
All four companies working with partial NASA funding under Space Act Agreements (SAAs) to develop commercial crew vehicles—Blue Origin, Boeing, Sierra Nevada and SpaceX—will use the NDS to dock with the station. NASA has also discussed the IDSS with companies that have unfunded SAAs for commercial crew work. The JSC Engineering Directorate is building the first “production representative” of the system, and Boeing will produce the qualification and flight systems. Details of how the systems will be transferred to private companies are still being worked out.
“We have said these visiting spacecraft have to have an IDSS-compatible docking system,” Hatfield says. “So they are basically free to pursue how they want to achieve that.”
The NDS also will be mounted on NASA's Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, a holdover from the old Constellation program of human exploration vehicles that is intended for human exploration beyond low Earth orbit. A technical descendent of the Low-Impact Docking System (LIDS) that was under development for Orion under Constellation, the NDS uses an electro-mechanical system of sensors and actuators to detect and damp out loads after initial contact, within parameters set by the international standard (see chart).
“The Russians have in their system springs and dampers that attenuate the forces and moments,” Hatfield says. “We have a closed-loop system that senses forces and moments through a set of load cells, and then dynamically manages a set of actuators to damp that out.”
Detailed work on the international standard is still evolving at the working-group level, Hatfield says, with the “conservative” Russians wanting to see that the U.S. approach works before they adopt it themselves. One issue has to do with the difference in the width of the rings that must meet and align in the soft-capture portion of a docking to form a solid connection in the hard mate that follows. The U.S. system is based on a ring 104 mm (4 in.) across, while the Russians use a 45-mm ring in their APAS. Both systems connect a 1,255-mm “tunnel” that the crew can use to move themselves and their gear between spacecraft.
Also to be determined is a standard for passing utilities—data, power, video and fluids—across the interface. The standards are public documents, although some elements of the NDS design are protected by U.S. International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR).
“If they wanted to build it to print, for example, they would need to have an agreement with us for us to release those details so that we're compliant with export control and ITAR,” says Hatfield. “But that could be a contract, it could be a Space Act Agreement, there are a number of ways to enter into those kinds of agreements that would allow us to give them that data package.”
SpaceX has big plans for launches
W.J. Hennigan - Los Angeles Times
SpaceX, the upstart company that shot a capsule to the International Space Station and back last week, won’t have much time to savor its first major success.
It now must ready its Dragon spacecraft with life-support systems to ferry astronauts as well as cargo. And some analysts are skeptical that it can be a government contractor while maintaining its Silicon Valley style of doing business.
The Hawthorne, Calif., company, officially Space Exploration Technologies Corp., won international attention for being the first privately owned company to visit the space station, deliver cargo and return safely. Now that the U.S. has retired its fleet of space shuttles, the company wants to begin running regular cargo supply missions this year and eventually deliver astronauts there.
But that’s just the beginning of the company’s list of ambitious plans.
SpaceX is building a new launch pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base, northwest of Santa Barbara, Calif., and has plans to blast off a massive new 23-story rocket, the largest since a mighty Saturn V rocket took man to the moon. It’s trying to persuade the Pentagon to allow it to launch billion-dollar national security satellites into orbit. The company also says it is working on the first-ever fully reusable rocket - the Holy Grail in rocketry - that would fly back to Earth after a trip into space.
"There’s a lot going on," Elon Musk, SpaceX’s billionaire founder and chief executive, said in a Thursday news briefing from company headquarters.
The space industry is notoriously difficult to enter and an even tougher place to prosper. Musk’s objectives would be a tall order for the giants of the aerospace industry, let alone SpaceX - a company with just five successful rocket launches under its belt.
SpaceX also faces a flurry of competition and the challenges of staying small and nimble while thinking big.
A handful of other young private firms are hungry for NASA business and eager to prove themselves in an industry that has been dominated by global superpowers and giant, entrenched aerospace firms for decades.
Newcomers Sierra Nevada Corp. and Blue Origin, a startup headed by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, are trying to win NASA contracts. So are experienced firms like Orbital Sciences Corp. and Boeing Co., which has built nearly every manned spacecraft in U.S. history.
Work is already under way at SpaceX on upgrading its Dragon spacecraft so astronauts can ride inside. The Dragon craft that visited the space station was unmanned and built for cargo only. Dealing with human lives ups the ante for SpaceX. Engineers are designing an abort system for the capsule that would enable astronauts to escape injury if a launch goes wrong. The company is also adding oxygen systems, temperature controls and other life-sustaining instruments.
With about 1,800 employees, SpaceX is a fraction of the size of a competitor like Boeing, with 170,000 people across the U.S. and in 70 countries. But some analysts see that as a strength. SpaceX doesn’t have layers of bureaucracy, and it manufactures nearly all its parts in-house, mostly in a Hawthorne complex where fuselages for Boeing’s 747 jumbo jet were once assembled.
"What fundamentally makes SpaceX different from other aerospace companies is that they approach things from a Silicon Valley mind-set," said Jay Gullish, a space and telecommunications analyst at Futron Corp., a Bethesda, Md., firm that tracks the industry.
Musk, 40, first made millions when he co-founded online payment business PayPal Inc. and sold it 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 and co-founded electric car company Tesla Motors Inc. in Palo Alto, Calif.
He’s tried to take the startup mind-set into the aerospace business, but Gullish said that could be hard to maintain.
"As they follow the money - and large government contracts - they run the risk of becoming part of the industry they want to disrupt," said Gullish.
If SpaceX wants to launch people into orbit and continuing doing business with the government, the company is going to have abide by tighter regulations, which means added cost, said Loren Thompson, SpaceX critic and aerospace policy analyst for the Lexington Institute in Arlington, Va.
"Washington is a graveyard for lean entrepreneurial enterprises," he said. "The only path to success in Washington is having a ton of lobbyists, a ton of resources and doing business on the government’s terms. There is no other model."
SpaceX is already tossing around cash to play the political game in Washington. Since its founding in 2002, SpaceX has ramped up its lobbying effort every year. In all, the company has spent about $3.5 million on lobbyists, according to data filed by the Center for Responsive Politics.
It will probably have to spend a lot more than that as it seeks a slice of the lucrative business of launching national security satellites for the Pentagon. United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of aerospace behemoths Lockheed Martin Corp. and Boeing, is the Pentagon’s sole launch provider for such missions.
In October, the U.S. government took the first steps toward opening up that business to competition.
There is no guarantee that SpaceX will win those Air Force contracts. Still, it’s in the process of building a massive new rocket, called Falcon Heavy, capable of lifting the bulky satellites. And it’s building a $30 million launch pad for the rocket at Vandenberg Air Force Base.
Situated along the Pacific Ocean, Vandenberg has been used primarily for launching spy satellites since the beginning of the Cold War because its location is considered ideal for putting satellites into a north-south orbit.
"We’re looking forward to serving the needs of the Defense Department in terms of launching satellites," Musk said. "Hopefully the third success of Falcon 9 in a row will give them the confidence they need to open up the defense contract to competition."
Still, SpaceX is not entirely reliant on the U.S. government for business. It has dozens of commercial contracts worth more than $4 billion to launch satellites aboard its rockets for various countries and telecommunications companies.
Daniel Longfield, an analyst with the research firm Frost & Sullivan, said that isn’t what makes SpaceX innovative.
"If SpaceX just launched telecommunications satellites, there isn’t much that separates them from any other launch provider," he said. "They would be just as boring as the rest of them. It’s the company’s aspirations to more difficult tasks that make them exciting."
NASA expects quick start to SpaceX cargo contract
Stephen Clark – SpaceflightNow.com
The top NASA manager in charge of the agency's commercial cargo transportation program hailed SpaceX's demonstration flight to the International Space Station as a success and indicated approval for continued resupply missions under a $1.6 billion contract would be a mere formality.
The Dragon spacecraft made an on-target splashdown in the Pacific Ocean on Thursday, ending a nine-day mission that set out to prove the capsule's ability to safely reach the space station, deliver supplies, and return equipment to Earth.
The SpaceX-owned spacecraft will be the only vehicle in the space station's fleet of resupply freighters able to return to Earth intact with cargo. Other robotic cargo spacecraft built in Russia, Europe and Japan dispose of trash and burn up in the atmosphere.
Alan Lindenmoyer, manager of NASA's commercial cargo development program, said the flight looked to be 100 percent successful.
"We'll get a quick-look report from SpaceX next week, and then we'll await a final post-flight report several weeks later," Lindenmoyer said.
NASA invested $396 million into SpaceX under a public-private partnership agreement signed in 2006. The space agency released payments to the California-based company as it met design, testing and flight milestones.
Following the announcement of the space shuttle's retirement, NASA started investigating new ways to transport critical spare parts, food, experiments, and other geat to the space station. But no companies had the ability to do the job, and NASA wished to set its sights on more ambitious expeditions into the solar system.
After surveying the market, NASA established the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program to help fund private development of rockets and spacecraft to resupply the space station.
"You have turned those hopes into a reality today," Lindenmoyer said to Elon Musk, SpaceX's CEO and chief designer, following Thursday's splashdown.
SpaceX and Orbital Sciences Corp. won agreements with the COTS program. Orbital's first flight to the space station could launch as soon as October.
SpaceX has received $381 million under the agreement to date, and the remaining $15 million will be paid at the conclusion of the post-flight review.
"I just don't think it's going to take us very long to make the determination this was an extremely successful mission, and they should be well on the way to starting services," Lindenmoyer said.
SpaceX's next launch to the space station is tentatively scheduled for Sept. 24. The Falcon 9 rocket for the flight is being checked out in a hangar at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., and the Dragon payload will be shipped to the Florida launch site as soon as next month, according to SpaceX officials.
"We became your customer today," Lindenmoyer said to Musk. "I believe we're very close to having you provide cargo resupply services to the station on a regular basis."
SpaceX and NASA signed a $1.6 billion Commercial Resupply Services contract in December 2008 for 12 flights to the space station through 2015. Officials expect a cadence of about three or four missions per year.
But first, NASA's separate COTS agreement with SpaceX called for three test missions to prove out the Falcon 9 and Dragon.
The first COTS test flight was in December 2010, during which SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket and a simplified Dragon capsule into orbit, flew the vehicle twice around the world, and successfully splashed down in the Pacific Ocean.
The COTS agreement included provisions for two more Dragon test flights, first to prove the ship's long-range rendezvous techniques and other advanced systems in a flyby of the space station, then to berth with the complex with the aid of the space station's Canadian robotic arm.
SpaceX proposed changing the COTS manifest early 2011, instead offering to fly one mission to achieve the objectives of both flights. NASA agreed, but the launch was delayed one year for SpaceX to complete ground testing of the spacecraft's unflown components needed to reach the space station. The space agency also carefully verified Dragon's software code was robust enough for the mission, triggering a delay of several months.
NASA and SpaceX outlined more than 30 test objectives for the flight, and Dragon met all of them through Thursday's return to Earth, according to Lindenmoyer.
"I was looking at the criteria we set for the mission, and pretty much every one of them looked solid," Lindenmoyer said. The only thing left to go is actual recovery of the cargo."
SpaceX will hand over a few items from Dragon's cargo cabin as soon as Saturday, when the capsule reaches the Port of Los Angeles on the deck of a 185-foot recovery barge.
The rest of the equipment returned by Dragon will be retrieved when the spacecraft reaches SpaceX's test facility in McGregor, Texas, where NASA officials will take custody of the rest of the ship's 1,367-pound cargo cache.
Future Dragon flights will haul up to 7,300 pounds of pressurized and external cargo to the space station. Dragon can return up to 5,500 pounds of internal equipment to Earth.
"We look forward to doing lots more missions in the future, and we will continue to upgrade the technology and push the frontier of space transportation," Musk said.
SpaceX has a backlog of about 40 commercial and NASA launches with the Falcon 9 rocket, and the company plans to modify the Dragon spacecraft to transport astronauts to and from the space station.
SpaceX is competing with other commercial firms for NASA funding to support the crew effort, and the agency expects to announce awards in August.
Dragon Headed for Texas after Historic Flight
Dan Leone - Space News
Space Exploration Technologies Corp.’s (SpaceX) Dragon cargo capsule, which returned May 31 from a nine-day demonstration mission to the international space station (ISS), is on its way to Texas for postflight processing.
The inspection will take place at SpaceX’s rocket-testing facility in McGregor. With its historic flight complete — Dragon is the first privately operated spacecraft to deliver cargo to ISS — SpaceX must prove that the capsule, and the 620 kilograms of cargo it brought back to Earth, were not damaged during the return from orbit.
The ship carrying Dragon is due to dock in a port near Los Angeles on June 6, SpaceX spokeswoman Kirstin Grantham said. The trip could take longer depending upon weather. Once Dragon makes landfall, some of the cargo it is carrying will be delivered to NASA right away, and some will be trucked to Texas along with the spacecraft.
“The only thing [left] to go is the recovery of the cargo,” said Alan Lindenmoyer, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew and Cargo Program Office. Lindenmoyer joined SpaceX founder and chief executive Elon Musk for a post-splashdown media briefing from SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, Calif. “That’ll complete the formal objectives that we had for the mission.”
Lindenmoyer said SpaceX will make an initial postflight report to NASA the week of June 6, with a final report to follow “several weeks later.”
If NASA determines that SpaceX met all of its technology demonstration milestones, the company will be cleared to start carrying essential cargo to ISS under a $1.6 billion contract it signed in 2008.
Dragon parachuted into the Pacific about 900 kilometers off the coast of Mexico’s Baja California. Splashdown occurred at 11:42 a.m. EDT, about two minutes ahead of schedule. SpaceX recovered the craft, intact and fully functional, shortly after, Musk said. Dragon’s return marked the first time since the end of the shuttle program in July that a U.S. vehicle has brought anything back from ISS.
Big week for commercial space flight, big week for Louisville-built Dream Chaser
John Aguilar - Boulder Daily Camera
Images from space dominated the week and fired up imaginations all over again.
An unmanned capsule launched by a private company docked with the International Space Station 240 miles above Earth, exchanged cargo with the astronauts living there and then plummeted through the atmosphere into a picture-perfect splashdown in the Pacific Ocean on Thursday morning.
The accomplishment was a first for the burgeoning commercial space sector and California-based SpaceX, helmed by 40-year-old South Africa-born billionaire Elon Musk, was lauded worldwide for its success.
But just two days before the heralded return of SpaceX's Dragon capsule 560 miles off the coast of Baja California, a company much closer to home reached a critical milestone of its own in the commercial race to space -- albeit one done largely out of the glare of the media spotlight.
Sierra Nevada Corporation Space Systems, headquartered on the Colorado Technology Center campus in Louisville, passed one of the most complex tests it has faced in its attempt to launch a seven-person orbital vehicle -- called the Dream Chaser -- into space by 2016. Known as a captive-carry test, the effort required the 40-foot-long and 25-foot-wide Dream Chaser to be lifted by an Erickson Air-Crane helicopter into the skies above Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport and put through a battery of tests measuring its aerodynamic flight performance.
Last week's successful result paves the way for the sleek space plane to undergo autonomous approach and landing tests at Edwards Air Force Base in California this fall before finally heading skyward on an Atlas V rocket.
"We're really excited because after taking it on paper for many years, we're actually starting to fly the real thing that NASA is going to be taking to space," said Mark Sirangelo, who heads up Sierra Nevada's 230-employee space systems division in Louisville.
He doesn't begrudge SpaceX's day in the sun because he recognizes that every success scored by Sierra Nevada's competitors strengthens the private sector space program as a whole. With NASA's space shuttle program mothballed since last summer, Sirangelo said the only thing that will spare the United States from having to pay upwards of $60 million for a seat on the Russian Soyuz space capsule is a privately built vehicle like Dream Chaser.
"We believe that the goal here is to bring America back into the human space flight business," he said.
Sirangelo imagines a day when Colorado, with an already formidable aerospace infrastructure in place, takes on an even bigger role in the next phase of space travel.
He points to Sierra Nevada's relationship with the University of Colorado's Engineering Center and United Launch Alliance, based in Centennial, as a powerful nexus. And then there's Lockheed Martin's work at its Waterton facility south of Denver on NASA's Orion crew module, which is being designed for interplanetary and deep space travel.
"We see Colorado potentially as being the focal point of human space flight for the United States going forward," Sirangelo said.
High-risk business
Industry analysts warn, however, that the path ahead for the commercial space sector won't be free of space junk, floating debris and other risks.
While a private company has proven it can deliver supplies to the International Space Station and return to Earth, shuttling
astronauts back and forth to space -- a feat only a handful of national governments has managed to do -- represents a whole new level of complexity.
"The next phase of delivering crew up there is an additional quantum leap over moving cargo up there," said David Klaus, associate professor with the aerospace engineering sciences department at CU-Boulder.
Paul Guthrie, senior economist at space industry consulting firm The Tauri Group in Alexandria, Va., said one major slip-up or error by a company trying to land a lucrative contract with NASA can set back a program by years and cost it hundreds of millions of dollars.
Making matters worse is that Sierra Nevada is not alone in seeking funding from NASA, which has operated over the last few years with a constrained budget. The space agency's Commercial Crew Program, which aims to partner with and fund companies that can design and build fully integrated commercial crew transport systems, includes seven firms working on launch systems, spacecraft or both.
Candrea Thomas, a NASA spokeswoman based at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, said the space agency's goal with its Commercial Crew Program is to work with private industry to develop multiple spacecraft that can reliably and consistently ferry astronauts into low Earth orbit.
"It is in America's interest to have an American-led system to take our astronauts to the International Space Station," she said. "This kind of program helps us because it allows NASA to focus on deeper space exploration -- to places where we haven't gone before."
NASA has existing financial arrangements with Sierra Nevada, SpaceX, Boeing and Blue Origin, a space venture started by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, but the next big step happens next month. That's when the space agency awards $300 million to $500 million in Space Act Agreements to get to the goal of a crewed orbital demonstration flight in the next few years.
And that, Commercial Spaceflight Federation Executive Director Alexander Saltman said, has everyone asking the same question.
"Who will NASA choose to fund and how much?" he said.
'Huge psychic advantage'
No one wants to lay bets on who comes out best in the funding scramble or gets a manned vehicle to space first, but The Tauri Group's Guthrie likes Sierra Nevada's odds.
First, there's the Dream Chaser's appearance: With its sleek, swept-back wings and rounded nose, it looks very much like a miniature version of the space shuttle that captured the nation's imagination over a 30-year period. Guthrie said the popularity of the shuttle program was made evident in mid-April when adoring spectators watched Discovery, mounted atop a Boeing 747, circle over Washington, D.C. on its way to retirement at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.
"I think Sierra Nevada is being very intelligent in how they are designing the vehicle and how it will play in the public sphere," he said. "It's a huge psychic advantage in the PR battle."
More importantly, the company's recent completion of four milestones for NASA -- including a flight test readiness review and a preliminary design review -- "will put them on an accelerated path," he said. Sierra Nevada has already landed $125 million in funding from NASA.
Guthrie said the Dream Chaser, which is modeled after NASA's decades-old HL-20 Personnel Launch System, has been under development for a long time and is designed to launch on one of the world's most reliable rockets -- the Atlas V.
Klaus, the aerospace professor at CU, said the Dream Chaser's ability to land on any commercial runway in the world -- unique among the spacecraft being developed -- is a significant advantage. Unlike SpaceX's capsule, which had to be located and retrieved by ship, scientists would have quick access to time-sensitive biological experiments coming back on the Dream Chaser from the space station or from future scientific labs that may one day be built in space.
And unlike the space shuttle, Dream Chaser uses a nonvolatile fuel and can be handled almost immediately after coasting to a stop, said Jim Voss, vice president of Space Exploration Systems at Sierra Nevada.
"You can walk right up to this thing when it lands," said Voss, who flew on five space shuttle missions for NASA.
And Dream Chaser will prove more cost-effective than the space capsules it is competing against, Sirangelo said, because of its ability to be used multiple times on short notice.
"We have a reusability factor and we can turn the vehicle around in 60 days," he said.
Dot-com-like boom ahead?
Sierra Nevada and its rivals in the private space business aren't putting all their eggs in the International Space Station basket as they tackle what appears to be a wide-open market.
Sierra Nevada already manufactures small satellites and rocket motor systems for other aerospace companies, including some of its rivals. Sirangelo said the company could easily move in the direction of building a Dream Chaser that can repair or retrieve satellites. Or one that caters to the nascent space tourism market, especially since the craft's low g-force dynamics would translate into a smoother takeoff and reentry experience for the passenger than would be possible on a space capsule.
While penetrating the suborbital travel market would put Sierra Nevada up against even more competitors -- like Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo, XCOR Aerospace's Lynx, and Armadillo Aerospace -- Alan Stern, associate vice president of the Boulder-based Southwest Research Institute, said providing a variety of services is the right way to tackle the commercial space market.
"They have to find a diversified customer base," he said. "They cannot make a viable business with only one customer -- NASA."
Stern said Sierra Nevada is up against some venerable competitors in the low Earth orbit sector, like ATK and Boeing. But he credits the company for having "deep experience on the bench." That includes the company's director of flight operations, Steven Lindsey, who joined Sierra Nevada last year.
Lindsey, who flew four shuttle missions for NASA, said he was awestruck at the number of people who gathered on Simms Street on the west side of Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport to watch Dream Chaser's captive-carry test on Tuesday.
"We're at a tipping point in commercial space," he said. "We're on the cusp of changing how things are done."
Guthrie, the analyst, likens today's jockeying and jostling among companies in the commercial space sector to the excitement and uncertainty of the dot-com boom 15 years ago.
"Like the Google or Amazon that came out of that boom, we could have some very big players that change the face of the space industry," he said.
Stern, who has already reserved for his institute future seats on suborbital spacecraft being designed by Virgin Galactic and XCOR, said as notable as this past week was for the commercial space industry, it's nothing compared to what lies down the road.
"I believe this pivotal week will be dwarfed by future accomplishments," he said. "I think this industry is still driving around in first gear."
Sierra Nevada completes Dream Chaser flight test, landing test expected this summer
Mike Killian - AmericaSpace.org
Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) reached another milestone last week in its efforts to become the next commercial company to venture into space and provide NASA crew transport capabilities to low-Earth orbit, or “LEO” as it is more commonly called. The NewSpace firm successfully completed a “captive carry” flight test of a full scale version of their Dream Chaser spacecraft in the skies over the Rocky Mountains of Jefferson County, Colorado last week.
The full-scale flight test, conducted on May 29, 2012, was the first of the company’s Dream Chaser Space System’s flight test program. The vehicle was carried under an Erickson Air-Crane helicopter to assess the vehicle’s aerodynamic flight performance, laying the foundation for additional flight tests to take place in the future.
Data from the test will help SNC to evaluate and prove hardware, facilities, and ground operations in preparation for an autonomous Approach and Landing Test, or ALT, later this summer at Edwards Air Force Base in California in cooperation with NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center.
“The successful Captive Carry flight test of the Dream Chaser full scale flight vehicle marks the beginning of SNC’s flight test program; a program that culminates in crewed missions to the International Space Station for NASA,” said five-time Space Shuttle Commander and Pilot Steve Lindsey, who joined Sierra Nevada Corporation in 2011 to run the company’s Dream Chaser flight operations.
Dream Chaser has been described by many as a “mini space shuttle”, designed to carry as many as seven astronauts into LEO. It is the only spacecraft under the Commercial Crew Development Round 2 (CCDev2) agreement with NASA’s Commercial Crew Program (CCP) that is winged and designed to land on a conventional runway. It is expected that the Dream Chaser will launch on a human-rated United Launch Alliance Atlas-V 402 rocket and return to Earth in much the same way as the space shuttle did. Like NASA’s shuttle, Dream Chaser will be designed to glide through the atmosphere, but will be able to land on any runway capable of handling commercial air traffic. Sierra Nevada plans on building a fleet of Dream Chaser vehicles.
“This is a very positive success for the Dream Chaser team and their innovative approach,” said Ed Mango, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program Manager. “I applaud and encourage the designers and engineers to continue their efforts in meeting the objectives of the rest of their CCDev2 milestones.”
To date, Sierra Nevada has completed all CCDev milestones on schedule, stating in a press release last February that they were “on time and on budget.” The company conducted three successful test firings of a single hybrid rocket motor in one day in October 2010. Other important milestones accomplished thus far include a System Requirements Review, a new cockpit simulator, and completion of their functional Vehicle Avionics Integration Laboratory (VAIL) – which will be used to test Dream Chaser computers and electronics in simulated space mission scenarios for developmental testing, and later will be used as a key tool for Dream Chaser certification. Wind tunnel testing of a full scale model Dream Chaser vehicle was completed successfully in late April, leading to their full scale flight test last week.
Additional milestones which led up to last week’s successful flight test included performance evaluation of the main landing gear, interface tests to demonstrate the release mechanism between the test vehicle and the helicopter which flew it, and a thorough flight test readiness review by SNC and NASA officials. The separation system compatibility between Dream Chaser and its future Atlas-V rocket launch vehicle has also successfully been evaluated.
“The success of the Dream Chaser Program is a result of the hard work of an expansive team, which now includes over twelve industrial partners, seven NASA centers, and three universities, all representing more than twenty-five states,” said Mark Sirangelo, Corporate Vice President and head of SNC’s Space Systems. “I would like to thank them, our terrific SNC employees, as well as the Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport and Erickson Air-Crane for their contributions to the success of this test. It is through partnerships like these that Dream Chaser continues on the path to filling the crew transportation capabilities lost with the retirement of the Space Shuttle Program.”
Sierra Nevada is one of several companies currently competing to develop commercial crew transportation capabilities in cooperation with NASA – with the goal of achieving safe, reliable, and cost effective access to and from LEO and the International Space Station (ISS). Eventually, NASA intends on choosing at least two providers to deliver crews to the ISS.
The other companies currently designing both spacecraft and launch vehicles to accomplish these goals – and not necessarily under the CCDev2 program – include Blue Origin, Boeing, United Launch Alliance, Alliant Techsystems (ATK), and Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX).
SpaceX has earned a place at the top of the list of competitors NASA will use to carry out operational supply missions to the ISS, having launched their Dragon spacecraft into LEO twice – most recently delivering supplies to the ISS and splashing down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California after flying a nearly flawless demonstration mission last month.
Spaceships will follow Dragon's trail
Alan Boyle - MsNBC.com's Cosmic Log
SpaceX's scorched Dragon cargo capsule is on a ship making its way back to Los Angeles after Thursday's historic descent from orbit.
The California-based company reported that the 14.4-foot-high (4.4-meter-high) spacecraft and its more than 1,300 pounds (620 kilograms) of cargo were in good shape, despite its plunge from the International Space Station. On the way down, the Dragon weathered re-entry temperatures in excess of 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit (1,650 degrees Celsius). At a height of 40,000 feet, the Dragon started deploying its parachutes and drifted into the Pacific, about 560 miles west of Baja California. A recovery team got to the craft, towed it to the ship and used a crane to hoist it aboard, as planned.
SpaceX spokeswoman Kirstin Brost Grantham told me that a few items will be delivered to NASA officials with a 48-hour turnaround, as a demonstration of the procedure for returning time-sensitive cargo from orbit. But the Dragon itself and most of its payload will be taking a slower ride to the port of Los Angeles. Arrival is expected around June 6, depending on weather.
From California, the craft and cargo will be trucked to SpaceX's rocket test facility in MacGregor, Texas, for postflight processing. Then the cargo will be turned over to NASA.
The handover of the Dragon's contents will be the last item to check off on NASA's list of requirements. That should clear the way for a $1.6 billion series of 12 Dragon cargo flights, with the first launch probably scheduled sometime in September.
Eventually, SpaceX is aiming for extensive reusability of its spaceship components, including a first stage that can fly itself back to the launch pad and a "Dragon 2.0" spacecraft that can do propulsive soft landings.
"That's how spaceships land in sci-fi movies," SpaceX's billionaire founder, Elon Musk, told me during a post-splashdown news conference. "And that's what also enables landing in other parts of the solar system. ... It's the way spacecraft ought to land."
But NASA won't be using this particular Dragon again. The space agency is buying a fresh spaceship for each of the 12 cargo supply missions. Musk speculated that SpaceX might send the scarred spacecraft on "a little tour of the country and show it to people around the country, [to] get students excited about space." In the future, Dragons could be refurbished for return trips to space.
Meanwhile, SpaceX is working to make the Dragon suitable for carrying astronauts as well as cargo. The development of the SuperDraco thruster system is a key part of that plan, because it fits into the propulsive-landing strategy as well as the launch escape system that NASA will require for safe human spaceflight. Musk said the system could go into operation in three years if the development effort goes well, "maybe four or five if we encounter some challenges along the way."
Other spaceship companies are making strides as well, with advice and financial support from NASA. Here's a quick progress report:
Orbital Sciences Corp., like SpaceX, has been receiving hundreds of millions of dollars to support the development of an unmanned cargo resupply system. Orbital is developing a new rocket called the Antares as well as its Cygnus cargo capsule to do the job. Last month, Orbital, Aerojet and NASA oversaw a full-duration hot-fire test of the AJ26 engine that will be used on the Antares. The first test launch from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport in Virginia is planned sometime in the next few months, and if all goes according to plan, cargo flights to the space station could begin by early next year under the terms of a $1.9 billion contract.
Blue Origin, the company founded by Amazon.com billionaire Jeff Bezos, is working on a spacecraft that could carry astronauts to the space station, with United Launch Alliance's Atlas 5 rocket to be used as the launch vehicle. On Thursday, Blue Origin reported that it successfully completed a systems requirement review of its orbital Space Vehicle. Blue Origin's president and program manager, Rob Meyerson, said in a statement that the review "paves the way to finalize our Space Vehicle design." Representatives from NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration took part in the review.
The Boeing Co. is developing its CST-100 capsule for NASA's potential use as a taxi for space station astronauts, to be launched by the Atlas 5. The company carried out drop tests in April and May to check the workability of its parachute-plus-airbag landing system. The most recent test involved dropping a CST-100 test vehicle from a helicopter, 14,000 feet above Nevada's Delamar Dry Lake Bed. Boeing's John Mulholland said the test validated the landing system design. Further ground tests of CST-100 components lie ahead, and test flights could begin in 2015-2016, Boeing says.
Sierra Nevada Corp. is developing a mini-shuttle known as the Dream Chaser, to be launched atop an Atlas 5 as a taxi for space station astronauts. This week, Sierra Nevada put the Dream Chaser through its first full-scale, captive-carry flight test. For this test, the space plane was suspended by cables beneath a heavy-lift helicopter. The first free-gliding drop tests are planned for later this year, and Sierra Nevada says the Dream Chaser could be operational by 2016.
SpaceX, Blue Origin, Boeing and Sierra Nevada, along with other aerospace players such as ATK, Lockheed Martin and Astrium, are expected to compete for further funding from NASA later this year. Which means it's not likely to be a slow summer in the aerospace business.
Update for 6:55 p.m. June 2: In a Twitter update, SpaceX confirms that it has delivered some cargo items to NASA in an effort to demonstrate 48-hour rush processing after splashdown. You could call this the first commercial express delivery from outer space.
Boeing provides NASA with flight computer software for Space Launch System
Tiffany Kaiser - DailyTech.com
Boeing gave NASA's new Space Launch System (SLS) a huge boost by delivering the first three flight computer software test beds needed for launch vehicle control.
NASA's SLS is an advanced heavy lift vehicle that was designed to carry the Orion Multi-purpose Crew Vehicle and cargo. It will also be used as a backup for commercial and international partner transportation to the International Space Station (ISS).
Boeing delivered the three flight computer software test beds on April 25, which was ahead of schedule. This flight software is needed to control the launch vehicle both during flight and preflight tanking operations.
There are three processors within each flight computer to analyze data. They then vote on a response before sending it from the computer, and from there, the three flight computers compare the answers to a solution and send commands to the launch vehicle.
"These are the most capable flight computers ever developed for human spaceflight," said Dane Richardson, manager for the Boeing SLS Avionics and Software Team. "They have the highest processing capability available in a flight computer and triple modular redundant processors. The technology is proven from years of satellite applications, and it's reliable enough to take SLS beyond Earth's orbit.
"The triple redundant processors make each computer reliable in the harsh radiation environment. Similarly, the three computers working in concert make the vehicle reliable. The configuration is called the flight computer operating group."
Boeing is playing a critical role in NASA's SLS development. Boeing is designing the two cryogenic stages in order to make rocket development and operations affordable. The two-stage vehicle configuration will offer a lift capability of over 130 metric tons, allowing NASA to delve into deep space exploration.
An initial flight-test configuration, which uses only the first stage with a 70-metric ton lift capacity, will take place in 2017.
Just last month, NASA announced that it was starting its second round of tests for the J-2X engine, which is the next generation liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen rocket engine modeled after the J-2 engine that carried astronauts to the moon during the 1960s and 1970s. The J-2X engine is designed to power deep space missions and will be used for NASA's SLS.
Local tourism, business leaders to lobby Congress
Officials will emphasize space efforts
Dave Berman - Florida Today
A group of about a dozen local tourism and business leaders are heading to Washington on Tuesday to participate in a few days of lobbying in the halls of Congress as part of a trip organized by Citizens for Space Exploration.
The Space Coast participants will seek congressional support for the space program, tourism and the fishing industry.
Pat Looney, general manager of the Residence Inn by Marriott Cape Canaveral/Cocoa Beach, said a strong space industry is vital for the local tourism industry. For example, Looney said about 60 percent of the business at his 150-room hotel involves either employees of aerospace companies or tourists in town to visit the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.
“While the senators and representatives from Florida are very much aware of the importance of space exploration and its benefits, we find that those from some other states might not be as knowledgeable about the space program,” Looney said.
As a result, the group might spend more effort lobbying a congressman from Kansas, for example, than Florida Sen. Bill Nelson, who flew on a space shuttle mission when he was a congressman.
Looney said his group will emphasize that NASA funding in recent years has accounted for less 0.5 percent of 1 percent of the federal budget, whereas it was about 4 percent of the federal budget during the time of the Apollo missions to the moon.
“We hope that we can impress on them the need to increase the budget for space exploration from its current one-half of 1 percent of the federal budget to a full 1 percent,” Looney said, by emphasizing the scientific and health care advances and the job-creating businesses that a strong space program would support.
The Space Coast contingent will be part of a Citizens for Space Exploration group of about 100 people, mostly from states with a significance space industry presence, such as Florida, Alabama, Ohio and Texas. They will break off into 24 teams and visit about 350 congressional offices on Wednesday and Thursday. After their discussions with members of Congress or their staffers, the Citizens for Space Exploration teams will leave behind information about NASA spinoffs, NASA spending within a particular state of congressional district and on how NASA technology is being used in businesses the home state of the member of Congress they visit. The group also is holding a congressional reception on Wednesday evening that is expected to be be attended by NASA officials.
Another local participant in the trip to Washington, Space Coast Office of Tourism Executive Director Rob Varley, said some members of the group from the Space Coast also will be lobbying on tourism issues. This will includes strong funding for Brand USA, the tourism marketing entity responsible for promoting the United States to world visitors, as well as appropriate levels for the U.S. General Services Administration per-diem reimbursement rates, which is tied to what hotels can charge federal government employees and some government contractors who stay at local hotels.
Varley said other Brevard County participants on the trip will be focus on fishing issues, including what they perceive as overregulation of commercial fishing off the Atlantic coast.
Enterprise passes World Trade Center on barge trip toward USS Intrepid
David Li - New York Daily News
The Space Shuttle Enterprise has gone from spaceship to sea ship.
The historic NASA craft floated through New York Harbor and past the World Trade Center yesterday, making its way past some of the city’s sights before it reaches its final home.
The Enterprise was loaded onto a barge at John F. Kennedy Airport early in the morning and set sail for Port Elizabeth, NJ.
That’s where it will be until tomorrow, when the shuttle is scheduled to float off to the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, on Pier 86, at the end of West 46th Street in Manhattan.
The public gets its first up-close look at the Enterprise on July 19.
Shuttle towed to NJ before final NYC stop
Associated Press
The prototype space shuttle Enterprise has arrived in New Jersey, the first half of its trip to the flight deck of a decommissioned aircraft carrier in New York City.
The shuttle left Kennedy Airport Sunday morning on a barge and was towed past thousands of spectators to Jersey City. The shuttle had been at JFK since it flew from Washington atop a 747 jet earlier this spring.
A spokeswoman for the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum says the shuttle's wingtip sustained light cosmetic damage during the trip when a gust of wind caused it to graze a wood piling. No other damage was reported.
On Tuesday, the Enterprise is to be taken to the Intrepid on Manhattan's West Side where a crane will lift it onto the flight deck.
Space Shuttle at Sea: Enterprise Sails for NYC's Intrepid
Robert Pearlman - collectSPACE.com
NASA's space shuttle Enterprise launched on a voyage Sunday (June 3), going where no space shuttle has gone before: New Jersey.
The space agency's original prototype orbiter, Enterprise is scheduled to arrive at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum on the west side of Manhattan on Tuesday (June 5). Leaving Sunday from New York's John F. Kennedy (JFK) International Airport where it was delivered atop a jumbo jet in late April, the shuttle was barged to Bayonne, N.J., as a layover on its way up the Hudson River.
Enterprise, having first arrived in the Big Apple by air and setting sail Sunday by sea, is only missing the experience of traveling through space to complete the Intrepid's three modal themes. The first of NASA's space shuttles, Enterprise did not fly in orbit but instead was used for a series of approach and landing tests in the late 1970s.
Enterprise embarks
On Saturday, a large crane was used to load the 57,000 pound (26,000 kilogram) prototype shuttle onto the open air flat bed barge, which, towed by tugboat, made the trip to the Garden State the next day. Spectators in Queens, Staten Island and Brooklyn, including at Coney Island, lined the shores to watch as Enterprise floated by.
Along the way, the space shuttle Enterprise passed under several crossings, its vertical stabilizer, or tail, clearing the Verrazano Bridge, for example, by a good margin. At others, including the Gil Hodges Memorial, the bridges needed to be raised to allow the shuttle to pass.
The shuttle will stay in Bayonne through Tuesday. On Monday, it'll be hoisted off its barge onto one equipped with a crane.
Enterprise arrives
On Tuesday (June 5), at 9:15 a.m. EDT (1315 GMT), Enterprise is scheduled to depart the Jersey shore to sail for the Intrepid, which is docked at Pier 86 at W. 46th Street and 12th Avenue in New York City.
The shuttle is expected to float past the Statue of Liberty at about 9:50 a.m. EDT (1350 GMT) and the World Trade Center about 50 minutes later prior to traveling the rest of its way up the Hudson River to complete its journey by 11:30 a.m. EDT (1530 GMT).
Once positioned alongside the Intrepid, a converted aircraft carrier, Enterprise will be hoisted off the barge and onto the museum's flight deck.
Starting Wednesday, a climate-controlled steel and fabric shelter will begin being erected over Enterprise, to protect it while on display. The Intrepid's new "Space Shuttle Pavilion" is scheduled to open to the public on July 19. Tickets for the Enterprise display are on sale now through the museum's box office and website.
The Intrepid plans to exhibit Enterprise on its flight deck until a permanent display home can be built. The museum is currently accepting donations and soliciting sponsors to create a facility to showcase the shuttle and enhance its other space-related exhibits and educational curriculum.
Shuttle replica arrives amid fanfare
Harvey Rice - Houston Chronicle
The shuttle replica that arrived at the NASA barge dock Friday may be a consolation prize, but it's a welcome one.
"The replica will help us remember and commemorate 30 years of shuttle flight," Houston Mayor Annise Parker said at a news conference after the full-size spacecraft mockup arrived at the NASA Road 1 Barge dock.
"I'd like to have a shuttle that flew," Parker admitted, but "Houston doesn't look back - we always look forward."
NASA distributed its retired space shuttle fleet to cities on the East and West coasts last year, much to the disappointment of Houston officials and residents. Instead, Houston was awarded a shuttle replica that was on display in front of the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for 18 years.
The 62-ton replica will be moved onto a 144-wheel trailer Saturday and slowly moved more than a mile Sunday to its new home at the Space Center Houston museum.
Although Houston won't get the real thing, there are strong advantages to having the replica, according to Harvin Moore, a member of the Space Center Houston board of directors.
"The more I think about it, the more I realize this is the most practical solution for Houston," Moore said.
Unlike the real shuttles, the replica's cockpit will be open to visitors, he said. They also will be able to look into the cargo bay. The replica is indistinguishable from the real thing because it was built from the original plans.
Less costly alternative
The replica will also cost a lot less. Space Center Houston is trying to raise $3 million to pay for parts of the shuttle display it wants to erect and the $600,000 cost of shipping it by barge from Florida.
Moore said cities like New York and Los Angeles that got real shuttles must pay NASA about $30 million to make them ready for transport, then millions more for transportation and structures to house them.
Astronaut Rex Walheim, who flew three shuttle missions during his 16 years with the space program, said he, too, was disappointed when he learned that Houston wouldn't get a shuttle. But he sees the advantage of having a replica.
"The main thing about it is you can go inside it," Walheim said.
The replica impressed Melissa Kirkland, 33, of League City, one of hundreds who flocked to the hotel next to the barge dock to watch the docking. Kirkland brought her son, Aiden, 2, and her 9-month-old daughter, Elizabeth.
"It proved our superiority in the space race years ago, and unfortunately we are losing that," Kirkland said.
Fireboats and fireworks
Walheim was aboard a yacht that greeted the replica as it entered Clear Lake pushed by a tug. As the barge and replica came into view, he said, the distinctive shape evoked memories.
"It's an impressive vehicle," Walheim said. "Even a model can give you an impression of the size."
The yellow barge, surrounded by a dozen law enforcement patrol boats, slowly crossed the lake amid a flotilla of small boats, jet skis, wind surfers - and one man on a paddle board.
The tug gave way to push boats that maneuvered the barge to a dock while two fireboats formed an arch with streams of water and fired red, white and blue confetti into the air.
When the barge docked at 3:12 p.m., fireworks went off on a nearby dock.
It's not a shuttle, but Houston will take it
Juan Lozano – Associated Press
It's not the space shuttle Houston was hoping to get. Actually, it's not even a space shuttle.
But that didn't dampen the excitement by officials and hundreds of residents who gathered Friday to welcome a full-sized shuttle replica. It arrived in suburban Houston after an eight-day trip aboard a barge that began from Kennedy Space Center in Florida and went across the Gulf of Mexico.
"It's still cool," 9-year-old Cesar Alanis said after he and his family took photographs of the 122-foot long replica, dubbed "Explorer," once it had been moored to a dock near Johnson Space Center.
Houston last year was unsuccessful in its bid to land one of the agency's four retired space shuttles. Lawmakers and officials from Houston had viewed NASA's decision not to award the Texas city a shuttle as a slap in the face to a place with deep ties to the nation's space program and home to Johnson Space Center and Mission Control. The space industry provides about 14,400 jobs in the Houston area.
Texas officials alleged NASA and Democratic President Barack Obama's administration excluded the city because of the state's Republican leanings. In an August report, NASA's watchdog group said the decision was not politically motivated.
The feeling of being slighted seemed to be gone Friday as people on boats and jets skis and along the shore welcomed the replica as it entered Galveston Bay and then snaked its way into Clear Lake before ending up at the dock. The replica's arrival was being celebrated with a series of events, including a street party, called "Shuttlebration Weekend."
Houston Mayor Annise Parker said while the city would have loved to have a real shuttle, it is grateful for the replica.
"We don't need an artifact to remind us of the space program," she said. "We've lived the space program. Our neighbors are the space program. Our history is the space program. Houston doesn't look back. We always look forward."
The replica had been at Kennedy Space Center since 1993. Kennedy parted with Explorer because it is getting one of the retired shuttles — Atlantis. The other space shuttles are going to the California Science Center in Los Angeles, the Smithsonian Institution's hangar near Washington Dulles International Airport and New York City's Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum.
On Saturday, Houston's shuttle replica will be loaded onto a mobile transfer vehicle, a process expected to take all day. On Sunday, Explorer was to make a 1.5 mile trek to its new home, Space Center Houston, Johnson Space Center's official visitor center.
The replica will be more valuable as a tourist attraction because people will be able to go inside Explorer, said Bob Mitchell, president of the Bay Area Houston Economic Partnership, which had led the city's bid to secure an orbiter. People won't be able to do that with the retired shuttles, he said.
The unsuccessful bid to get a shuttle was part of a bad year for the space industry in Houston that coincided with the end of the 30-year space shuttle program after its last flight in July. Locally, the industry had about 3,200 layoffs in 2011, Mitchell said.
But he pointed to the success of the private company SpaceX and its successful launch of a cargo carrier to the International Space Station and its return to Earth this week, as well as to NASA's ongoing work on a new heavy-lift rocket and the Orion space capsule as signs things are looking up.
"In general the space industry has stabilized," Mitchell said.
Visitors to be able to walk inside shuttle mock-up
By Christopher Smith Gonzalez - Galveston Daily News
Clear Lake was crowded with boats, the banks were lined with people and traffic at the intersection of Space Center Boulevard and East NASA Parkway slowed to a crawl Friday afternoon.
Everyone had their eyes out on the water as the 122-foot-long mock-up of Space Shuttle Explorer finished its eight-day trip to Houston.
And while Houston might not have gotten one of the four retired NASA shuttles, those in the bay area are going to get something from the replica that no one will from the real ones, said Rex Walheim, a NASA astronaut who flew in the last shuttle mission.
“Obviously, we’d all love to have a shuttle to show here in Houston, but the nice thing about mock-ups is you can go inside,” Walheim said.
Whenever he brings people to the Johnson Space Center, Walheim said he likes to take them to mock-ups so they can see what it’s like to live and work in space.
While other shuttles will be sealed up and the most people will be able to do is look at it, visitors to Space Center Houston, where the shuttle eventually will be housed, actually will be able to walk inside and look around.
The Explorer will be unloaded today at the NASA Road 1 barge dock and will be moved to the space center Sunday.
Visitors will be able to take a tour of the mock up by late fall, said Richard Allen, president and CEO of Space Center Houston.
“Our goal is to tell the story of Johnson Space Center’s part in flying the shuttle missions,” Allen said.
The latest generation glass cockpit will be installed in the mock-up, and visitors will get a chance to get a feel for how large a shuttle actually is when they walk up to it, Allen said.
“The enormity of that is really going to strike a chord with folks when they come to see it,” he said.
At the Shuttlebration to welcome Explorer to its new home, Mike Coats, Johnson Space Center Director, joked that if given the choice, he would have liked to have a replica and one of the retired shuttles.
But the mock-up will be realistic enough for visitors to get an idea of what those at NASA and the Johnson Space Center were doing during the 30 years shuttles were used, Coats said.
“That’s the important thing for me,” Coats said. “I want to inspire young people. I think that’s what the space program does first and foremost, inspire young people about the future.”
And while he is proud of the NASA’s past and of the shuttle program, Coats said he hoped the mock-up also would help people look forward to future space exploration.
Houston Mayor Annise Parker agreed it would have been nice to get a retired shuttle as well as the mock-up. But, she said, having a shuttle or not will not change Houston’s role in the space program.
“We don’t need an artifact to remind us of the space program,” Parker said. “We’ve lived the space program.”
The Explorer will be just the kind of reminder of past successes that will help keep people inspired and looking to the future, Walheim said.
Transitions are always difficult, but he pointed to the recent success of the SpaceX mission, the first commercial vehicle to visit the International Space Station, and the potential of deep space exploration when NASA new space craft, the Orion Multi Purpose Crew Vehicle, comes on line as examples of what’s to come.
The mock-up will be a reminder of what the country can do when it puts its mind to it, he said.
“We are in a cross roads where we are entering a new era of the space program,” Walheim said. “Something like this can (remind us) that, hey, we’ve done it in the past, we can do it in the future.”
Shuttle replica completes tedious trek to new museum home
Robert Stanton - Houston Chronicle
The long-awaited shuttle replica arrived safely Sunday at Space Center Houston after a five-hour, mile-long journey along Nasa Road 1.
Houstonians young and old arrived before the break of dawn Sunday to watch the shuttle replica make its trek to its new home aboard a 144-wheel trailer. Scores of onlookers lined the roadway to watch the move, many walking alongside the shuttle replica on its tedious trip.
"It's a cool thing," said Nassau Bay resident Scott Tenney, who was accompanied by his wife and her two great-nieces. "We live nearby and it's happening so we thought we'd come to watch.
"I wish we were getting the real one (shuttle), though," he said.
Many Houstonians were disappointed last year when NASA distributed its retired space shuttle fleet to cities on the East and West coasts. Instead, Houston was awarded a shuttle replica that had been on display in front of the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for 18 years.
The move began smoothly just before 7 a.m., but the shuttle didn't get far. It stalled at Space City Boulevard and NASA Road 1 while workers removed a stoplight pole. It was still stalled at 8 a.m.
Utility crews worked feverishly to dismantle the stoplight poles along the route. Once the shuttle replica passed, another utility crew reinstalled the light poles, Nassau Bay Fire Department Capt. Brian Webb said.
Days before, he said, crews trimmed the tree tops along Nasa Road 1 to accommodate the shuttle replica's wing span.
Anita Nentesi, who lives a block away from NASA Road 1, could barely contain her excitement as the shuttle passed by her. She arrived at 5 a.m. to stake out a spot.
"It's a once-in-a-lifetime experience and that's why everyone is out here, to support their community, she said. "It's very exciting."
Nasa Road 1 reopened around noon. It had been closed for most of the morning.
A wooden ramp constructed to help the 62-ton vehicle cross the museum's lawn worked like a charm and after taking a short lunch break, work crews were using a crane to lift the shuttle replica onto its permanent spot at the space museum, said Jack Moore, spokesman at Space Center Houston.
About 300 Girl Scouts welcomed the shuttle replica to the space museum by joining together to sing "God Bless America."
A "Shuttlebration" followed in the parking lot that included music, face painting, an inflatable jumping castle and a mobile interactive display about the future of space travel.
Shuttle replica arrives at Space Center Houston
Christine Dobbyn – KTRK TV (Houston)
The space shuttle replica 'Explorer' finally arrived at its new home Sunday after a week-long trek from the Kennedy Space Center and a slow ride from Clear Lake to Space Center Houston.
NASA's mock shuttle arrived in one piece, but the road was paved with obstacles.
The shuttle took nearly six hours to get to its destination -- twice as long as expected.
SkyEye13 HD was overhead as the shuttle left the NASA dock at 6:30am Sunday, which was already a little behind schedule.
People started lining up at 3am to watch.
"It looks awesome. A perfect replica," Nomar Lebron said. "It looks exactly the same [as a real shuttle]."
Workers struggled to maneuver the 122-foot, 130,000-pound wooden replica. Space Center Houston Operations Manager Anson Brantley says workers knew it would be difficult to get something so large down the street. That's why they brought along construction workers and tree trimmers.
"Everything's been measured by the centimeter, basically, as we planned for this event," Brantley said.
But he says no one expected it would take so long to get rid of the obstructions along the way. Removing a traffic light pole took nearly an hour, and then they had to push back dozens of palm trees one by one.
"Just making sure we don't hurt the wings or hurt the shuttle," Brantley said.
Once the shuttle stopped moving and all eyes were on it, the people we spoke to had mixed emotions.
There was a bit of sadness. On everyone's minds was the fact that it's a replica and not a real shuttle that went into space.
"It just kind of reminds you of the good times and the bad times. We've had some triumphs and some sadness here," said Ange Martens, daughter of a NASA contractor. "We didn't get the real one and people are upset about that, but I said I want to see it anyway."
But there was also a sense of pride.
"It's something we are proud of," said Sally Landis, a NASA contractor. "We work on this at NASA. It's pride more than anything else."
"It's something we need down here," NASA contractor Justin Medellin said. "I'm really glad we got something to show for it after all those years of supporting it."
The shuttle's arrival was followed by a "Shuttlebration" at Space Center Houston. The free, family-oriented public celebration offered viewing opportunities of the replica, NASA space exploration exhibits and other fun activities for the entire family.
And the journey isn't over yet. NASA workers still have some work to do.
Once 'Explorer' is fully installed and prepared for visitors, the public will be able to go inside the full-size replica as part of a behind-the-scenes look at life inside a space shuttle. It's an experience that will only be available at Space Center Houston.
The exhibit is currently under construction and is anticipated to open this fall.
The long-term vision calls for a world-class education center to be built that provides historical context and a hands-on educational experience.
The board of Space Center Houston has launched a $3 million capital campaign to fund the transportation costs and underwrite the necessary facilities improvements for the new exhibits, including a dedicated plaza and ramp.
Although the exhibit is not open yet, you can visit Space Center Houston to see the shuttle from the outside if you missed it during its journey. Discount admission is available online.
Shuttle mock-up's final 1.4 miles a test
T.J. Aulds & Jennifer Reynolds – Galveston Daily News
The 1,273-mile journey for the space shuttle replica once called Explorer, for the most part, went off without a hitch. It was the final 1.4-mile journey from Clear Lake to Space Center Houston that didn’t go exactly as planned.
It took crews about seven hours to get the mock-up from the NASA dock to the parking lot of its new home at Space Center Houston. It was thought the process would take four hours, but the removing of traffic lights along the route took more time than originally planned.
Still, the mock-up’s trip drew thousands of onlookers as the 130,000-pound shuttle replica inched its way down NASA Parkway aboard a 144-wheeled Goldhofer trailer.
Traffic lights weren’t the only obstacle crews had to contend with. The mock up’s 78-foot wingspan was, at times, too wide to fit on the road without the possibility of crashing into clumps of palm trees that lined the medians of the road.
Crews actually used heavy equipment to bend the trees to help the replica pass by.
Before Sunday’s final trek, the shuttle mock-up made a six-day journey from the Kennedy Space Center tied to a barge.
In charge of getting the replica safely around the tip of Florida, across the Gulf of Mexico and into Clear Lake was the Kirby Corp., a Houston-based barge and tug company that spent a year planning the move.
The project was a bit more personal for the company’s president and chief operating officer Greg Binion, who lives in Clear Lake Shores across the water from the Johnson Space Center.
“I’m a local boy,” Binion said while out on the water Friday as his crews guided the shuttle mock-up through Clear Creek Channel. “My parents live out there, too, and are watching the shuttle (replica) go by from their house.”
He said the project “enjoyed widespread interest” within the company.
“It was really a great source of pride for the entire Kirby Corp.,” Binion said.
The company had about 18 workers on the water with the mock-up during its journey.
“It was unusual cargo,” Binion said. “All of our employees enjoyed being a part of this really historic occasion.”
While the replica arrived at its new home Sunday, it’s not yet ready for visitors.
Richard Allen, the president and CEO of Space Center Houston, said the mock-up would undergo some updating.
The cockpit, for one, will be updated to the type used by astronauts when the shuttle program was retired last year.
Space Center Houston and NASA officials, while expressing disappointment that one of the remaining real shuttles didn’t find a home here, said the advantage of the replica is that it is designed to welcome visitors onboard.
Allen said he expects the mock-up to be ready for its first visitors in the fall.
At A Glance
WHAT: Space shuttle mock-up stats
LENGTH: 122 feet
WINGSPAN: 78 feet
HEIGHT OF TAIL FROM GROUND: 57 feet
HEIGHT OF WINGS: 12 feet
WEIGHT: 130,000 pounds
MATERIALS: Carbon steel mainframe structure, steel landing gear and steel substructures, which support fiberglass exterior skin panels. With help from cable tie downs, the model is built to handle 135 mph winds. Exterior is finished with a simulated thermal protection system, including simulated thermal blankets and about 22,000 tiles.
ARTIFACTS: The shuttle replica contains the following artifacts:
· Landing gear tires are from actual shuttle missions into space.
· Payload bay contains a model of a Hughes communications satellite perigee kick motor similar to the one carried on the STS-49 mission. Cradle holding the motor is the actual flight hardware from STS-49. That mission attached the new kick motor to an Intelsat VI (F-3) satellite, which was stranded in an unusable orbit. The satellite was captured by crew members during an extravehicular activity and equipped with a new perigee kick motor. The satellite was subsequently released into orbit and the new motor fired to put the spacecraft into a geosynchronous orbit for operational use.
Thousands greet shuttle’s arrival in Clear Lake
Mary Alys Cherry - Bay Area Citizen
As thousands lined the streets and shores of Clear Lake to greet her, the Bay Area’s Space Shuttle finally took up residency Friday -- sailing through an arch of water sprayed by area fireboats and tying up at the NASA dock next to the Hilton on NASA Parkway.
Then, on Sunday, she moved into her new home at Space Center Houston.
Her journey here ended after an eight-day trip around the tip of Florida and across the Gulf of Mexico and an overnight stop in Galveston so Johnson Space Center officials could repair some of the dings she suffered during her journey from Kennedy Space Center.
While some expressed a touch of bitterness that the home of the NASA center that directed the Space Shuttle Program for 30 years and 135 missions did not receive one of the retired shuttles, most were happy to have the full-size shuttle replica that had greeted Kennedy Space Center visitors for many years.
MAYOR ATTENDS
Mayor Annise Parker alluded to the shuttle snub when she addressed the crowd at the Hilton.
“While the city would have loved to have a real shuttle, it is grateful for the replica. Our history is the space program,” she reminded the crowd.
“Houston doesn’t look back. We always look forward.”
The 130,000-pound replica was built in Apopka, Fla., by Guard-Lee, using shuttle blueprints and installed at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in 1993. It is 122 feet long, 56 feet tall and has a wing span of 78 feet.
With her arrival, the Shuttlebration began at the Hilton with the biggest turnout since the community celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing on the moon there with Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Mike Collins in July 1989.
Much bigger than when a shuttle atop a 747 landed at Ellington Field back in the 90s.
FIREWORKS LIGHT UP THE SKY
The festivities continued the rest of the day and evening with a number of activities, including NASA exhibits, a fireworks display and entertainment by the astronaut band, Max Q.
Then on Sunday the giant shuttle began a very slow trek — much slower than expected — down NASA Parkway to its permanent home at Space Center Houston Sunday, June 3, where a crowd celebrated the end of its 10-day journey to its new home.
The journey took twice as long as expected as the caravan hit several unexpected snags -- trees and traffic lights -- but finally came to an end about noon.
Once at Space Center Houston, the Shuttlebration continued and public had another chance to see the new attraction up close, along with a full-scale mockup of NASA’s new Orion spacecraft.
Those attending also got to meet an astronaut and touch a moon rock during the free public celebration in the Space Center Houston parking lot.
Shuttle Replica Takes Sunday Drive to Space Center Houston
Robert Pearlman - collectSPACE.com
A replica space shuttle went on a Sunday morning (June 3) road trip, making its way from the lakeside dock here where it arrived on Friday to the NASA visitor center where it will go on public display.
The 1-mile (1.6-kilometer) trek was originally scheduled to take just three hours to complete, but obstacles along the way doubled that time . The mockup, loaded atop a 144-wheel transporter, was slowly and methodically trucked down NASA Parkway — also known as NASA Road 1 — to Space Center Houston, the official visitor center for the Johnson Space Center (JSC).
The full-size replica, which was known as "Explorer" during the 18 years it was at NASA's Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida, sailed into Houston's Clear Lake after an 8 day journey by barge. Space Center Houston is planning a contest to select a Texas-appropriate new name for the high-fidelity space shuttle mockup.
How to snag a shuttle
The replica's road trip, which got underway at 7:39 a.m. EDT (1139 GMT), quickly encountered its first snag. The truck and mock shuttle-topped trailer were too long to navigate the turn off the dock onto the parkway.
After several tries by the driver to angle the transporter, technicians went to work hoisting a traffic light out of the way. Finally, unhitching the truck, maneuvering, and re-connecting it to the trailer got the shuttle moving again after a 45 minute delay.
That was just the first of the blockades the 122.7 foot long by 54 foot tall (37.4 by 16.5 meter) replica needed to navigate around and under. Its 78-foot (24-meter) wingspan extended from the road's shoulder to the median, stretching over three car lanes, requiring workers to swing more street lights out of the way and trim too tall foliage — trees — lining the route.
The transporter also had the ability to raise and lower the mockup, or just one of its sides, and at times it appeared as if the shuttle was banking over the trees.
"If you look at it from here, it looks big," Space Center Houston president Richard Allen said on Friday, looking at the replica from a few hundred yards away. "But if you start walking toward it, it gets bigger and bigger and bigger. It's a huge vehicle and I think that the enormity of that is really going to strike a chord when [visitors] come to see it."
Shuttle spectacle
Hundreds of spectators lined the road to see the shuttle, while more gathered at Space Center Houston for a free, family-friendly display of space exhibits. For the last leg of its short trip, the replica bypassed the visitor center's entrance and cut across the grass, which had been lined with wooden planks.
Space Center Houston has cleared an area, where the mockup will be mounted on a concrete base and pedestals. By this fall, the center plans to have a rampway erected to allow visitors to walk through the replica's crew compartment and view down the length of its payload bay.
Built in the early 1990s by Melbourne, Fla.-based aerospace replica manufacturer Guard-Lee, Inc., the mockup is considered to be the highest fidelity model of the shuttle ever created. Built using schematics, blueprints and archived documents lent by NASA and its shuttle contractors, some of the replica's parts, including the tires used on its landing gear, are authentic to the now retired space shuttle program.
Space Shuttle Replica Docks in Houston Lake, Launches 'Shuttlebration'
Robert Pearlman - collectSPACE.com
A full-scale space shuttle replica came into dock on Friday (June 1), but rather than pull into an orbiting space station, it arrived at port in a Texas lake near NASA's Houston space center.
The high-fidelity space shuttle mockup, which was known as "Explorer" for the 18 years it was at NASA's Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida, sailed into Houston's Clear Lake to a dock opposite the Johnson Space Center (JSC), where it will be offloaded for display.
"Though this is not a space flown orbiter," JSC director Michael Coats said, "it is the only one we know that is seaworthy."
The replica left the Florida spaceport on May 24 atop an open-air, flat-bed barge and made its way around the Florida peninsula and through the Gulf of Mexico. It entered Galveston Bay on Thursday (May 31).
Its arrival at the Clear Lake dock, which occurred at 4:12 p.m. EDT (2012 GMT), kicked off a weekend "Shuttlebration" that culminates in an early Sunday morning parade to move the mockup 1-mile (1.6-kilometer) to Space Center Houston, the official visitor center for Johnson.
Shuttle Impossible: LAX to Expo Park
Curbed LA (la.curbed.com)
So what will it take to get the space shuttle Endeavour from LAX to it's new home in Exposition Park this fall? Wide streets, no overpasses, and oodles (TBD) of dollars.
The City's Transportation Committee issued a report (PDF) on the task at hand, and the herculean challenge to accomplish the 10 mile trek.
"...after being flown to Los Angeles International Airport, the shuttle will travel roughly ten miles on city streets to its new home at the California Science Center. To be transported on its belly, the shuttle will exceed five stories high and boast a wingspan of 78 feet. Detailed planning and coordination will be required to find an appropriate route that will avoid freeway overpasses and identify streets that are both wide enough and strong enough to support the Endeavour. It will be necessary for City crews to temporarily relocate overhead wires, street signs and traffic control devices to allow the shuttle to move safely through city streets. Additionally, traffic officers will need to be deployed at various locations along the route to assist motorists where traffic signal equipment has been removed."
Thankfully we've had practice with the boulder.
Spaceport plan in Texas raises wildlife concerns
Matthew Tresaugu - Houston Chronicle
A proposed spaceport in South Texas could harm endangered falcons, ocelots and sea turtles, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department told federal officials this week — a concern echoed by environmentalists who say the project should not be built on land bounded on three sides by a state park and national wildlife refuge.
The Texas agency raised the environmental concerns with the Federal Aviation Administration, which has the permitting authority for the private spaceport, even as state officials stepped up efforts to lure the SpaceX project.
Despite the concerns, Parks and Wildlife spokesman Tom Harvey said the agency does not have a position on the project or the suitability of the proposed location.
Environmentalists, however, expressed their own concerns over the state agency's anxieties Friday.
"It's a terrible idea, and SpaceX needs to find another place for their spaceport," said Luke Metzger, director of Environment Texas, which has launched a petition drive to stop the project.
SpaceX, a California company, has proposed to build a launch area and control center on the Gulf Coast, about 20 miles east of Brownsville and three miles north of Mexico. The private spaceport would launch up to 12 rockets a year, initially carrying cargo payloads, but eventually including passengers.
Last week, SpaceX's capsule became the first commercial spacecraft to travel to and dock with the International Space Station, making the company a hot property among Texas officials still smarting from the end of NASA's space shuttle program.
Texas is developing a multimillion-dollar offer to encourage SpaceX to build the spaceport in Cameron County. The company also is looking at launch sites in Florida and Puerto Rico.
All three possibilities would launch to the east, over water. Launch sites closer to the equator also require less fuel to reach orbit, said Bob Lancaster, president of the Texas Space Alliance, which is pushing for commercial space development in the state.
"That is why you want a spaceport as far south in Texas as you can get it," he said. "It's basic math."
SpaceX had asked Parks and Wildlife if the company could build the spaceport at Boca Chica State Park, but the agency said no.
Harvey said Texas acquired the parkland, which includes one of the state's best beaches, in part to protect "its unique and sensitive biological values." The state has leased it to the federal government as part of the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge.
With the spaceport now proposed for private property, the state agency says it has concerns about the impact noise, heat and vibration from launches, fencing and possible spills of hazardous materials may have on endangered and threatened species.
The agency says the area is home to 34 species protected under state or federal law.
SpaceX spokeswoman Kirstin Brost Grantham said other launch sites are located near wildlife refuges, including Cape Canaveral in Florida and Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
"This provides general isolation and protection for both the launch site and the preserve," she said, adding that studies of SpaceX's other sites have found no significant environmental impacts.
Proposed SpaceX launch site in state draws concerns
Lubbock Avalanche-Journal
The company behind the commercial spacecraft that landed successfully in the Pacific Ocean on Friday after a mission to the International Space Station wants to come to the Rio Grande Valley. But the launch pad it is considering building has raised concerns among environmentalists and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department because of the proposed site’s proximity to endangered animals and other wildlife.
The 50-acre site in southern Cameron County scouted by SpaceX, a commercial space transport company, is surrounded by Boca Chica State Park where animals listed under the Endangered Species Act such as ocelots, jaguarundi, piping plovers and green sea turtles have been sighted.
“TPWD is especially concerned with the direct impact noise, heat, vibration, fencing, and hazardous material spills may have on federally-listed species,” the parks department wrote Tuesday in a letter to the Federal Aviation Administration.
Bob Lancaster, the president of Texas Space Alliance, said he attended a May 15 meeting that the FAA held in Brownsville and saw a “great deal of public support from local residents” for a launch pad beside the state park. It would be the biggest in Texas. Blue Origin, founded by Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos, has a spaceport in West Texas.
Launch pads are typically built close to the equator to give spacecraft maximum speed from the rotation of the earth, Lancaster said. Cameron County is the southernmost county in Texas.
SpaceX, a California-based company founded in 2002 by PayPal co-founder Elon Musk, proposes to build a launch pad that would support up to 12 commercial space vehicle launches per year, according to TPWD’s letter to the FAA. The launch area would include the launch pad, a hangar, light towers, fuel storage tanks, a warehouse for parts storage and an elevated water storage tank, the letter says. SpaceX also proposes to build a control center 1.5 miles west of the launch site. The company did not return a call seeking comment.
The site under consideration by SpaceX is a privately owned area bounded on three sides by Boca Chica State Park. SpaceX had inquired about using the park as a project site but was told it was “not a viable option,” TPWD spokesman Tom Harvey said.
“This property was acquired to be protected for its unique and sensitive biological values, and to provide public recreational use,” Harvey said.
Harvey noted that the park property is under a 50-year lease to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which is managing the land as part of a program aimed at preserving and restoring habitat for wildlife, including threatened and endangered species.
The FAA is assessing the environmental impacts of the area and will continue to provide opportunities to the public to comment as it did with the meeting in May, said Hank Price, an FAA spokesman.
The state of Texas has been in talks with SpaceX about building its site here and not in Florida or Puerto Rico, sites the company is also considering for its launch area, the Houston Chronicle reported last Friday.
Environment Texas launched a petition drive on Friday to persuade Musk to choose another site in Texas. Director Luke Metzger said he has also contacted other environmental organizations to join him in urging the company to choose another site.
“I love the space program as much, if not more, than anyone,” Metzger said in a news release. “But launching big, loud, smelly rockets from the middle of a wildlife refuge will scare the heck out of every creature within miles and sprays noxious chemicals all over the place. It’s a terrible idea, and SpaceX needs to find another place for their spaceport.”
Are We Really Surprised When Private Companies Do Great Things?
Richard Grant - Forbes (Commentary)
When things have been done a particular way for a long time, it is often difficult to imagine them being done any other way. This was evident in the apparent amazement that a private company might be capable of successfully launching a spacecraft capable of docking with the International Space Station.
The private company, Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX), has now done just that. This is a great achievement for any organization, even for government agencies, which until now had an apparent monopoly on such missions. Clearly the founder and chief executive of SpaceX, Elon Musk, was able to imagine that things could be different. He also had the wherewithal and the will to succeed.
The United States government, now burdened by other political priorities and the debt that it has used to finance them, seems to have lost that will. By outsourcing its launch and delivery capability to SpaceX, NASA has found a way to cut costs and continue its missions while reducing its dependence on foreign systems.
Mr. Musk has compared these first steps toward commercialization of space travel to a similar transition of the Internet from its development in a US defense research agency (DARPA) to its now commercial ubiquity. Others, with big-government political agendas, have pointed to the beginnings of the Internet as if it proves that government investment is essential for such innovations.
Often the implication is that without government there might not be an Internet. But why stop there? The internet did not spring from nothing. Suppose there had been no Alexander Graham Bell. Although Bell exhibited creative genius, he was not the only one. Others had similar ideas and motivations, as well as the freedom to act.
The lives of Bell and Musk have parallels. Both came to North America via Canada. Musk made his fortune in the creation of Internet-based businesses and then moved into electric cars and space travel. Bell made his name in, and gave it to, the first telephone company. He later turned his attention to the invention of the photo-phone (which transmitted sound through a light beam rather than wires), experimented with metal detection and composting toilets, attempted to develop magnetic storage media, and speculated on the possibility of solar panels. Bell also worked directly in hydrofoil design and aircraft development, both of which attracted serious military interest.
Those of us who grew up with the Mercury and Gemini programs were able to recite the names of the private contractors that built and helped design the spacecraft. With the addition of SpaceX to that list, we come closer to the realization of what was always possible.
It is also worth noting in which country this occurred. Such innovations and development occur in countries where the people have not only the imagination and drive, but also the decency and self-restraint to allow their fellow citizens the freedom to live and let live.
Provision for the common defense led to the creation of both DARPA and the ostensibly civilian NASA. Concentration of resources in these agencies and regulatory restrictions on private-sector alternatives increased the probability that these would be the home of future inventions such as the Internet. Beyond that, randomness might be all we have to explain the specific inventions of DARPA and NASA. But it was not mere randomness that determined in which country these agencies could realize those achievements.
It was the land where people are the least surprised when private companies do great things.
“Attitude-Control Game:” The Fateful Launch of Skylab
Ben Evans - AmericaSpace.org
Nearly four decades have passed since America almost lost its first space station. On the morning of 14 May 1973, the last in a generation of Saturn V boosters sat on Pad 39A, ready for its journey into space.
Visually, it was quite distinct from its predecessors, possessing two stages, instead of three, and in place of what would have been the final propulsive stage was Skylab, capped off by a bullet-like aerodynamic shroud.
To this day, the Saturn V remains the largest and most powerful rocket ever brought to operational status and as it entered the final hours before its last launch it could enjoy an almost unblemished reputation: its 12 previous missions had never failed to complete their primary objectives.
The ominous, brewing clouds at Cape Kennedy carried much menace, but everyone knew the Saturn’s reliability: its muscle had sent men to the Moon on nine occasions and for its final swan song there was every expectation that it would perform with perfection.
The behemoth Saturn had been sitting on the pad for a month, undergoing checks and countdown simulations. NASA was keenly aware that the success of Skylab was totally dependent upon the success of the launch and if anything went awry it was unlikely that Congress would stump up the $250 million needed for another attempt.
The station’s first crew – Pete Conrad, Joe Kerwin and Paul Weitz – were on hand to watch the station spear for the heavens and tomorrow, on 15 May, they would blast off atop a Saturn IB rocket for a 28-day mission. Precisely at 1:30 pm EST, the five mighty F-1 engines of the Saturn V’s first stage thundered to life, raising the question in everyone’s mind: had the rocket risen or had Florida sunk?
Conrad had flown one of these mechanised monsters to the Moon and instinctively braced himself for the immense wave of sound that washed over him, the pummelling of the soles of his feet and the intense vibration. At length, the lumbering Saturn cleared the tower and vanished into a deck of thick, iron-grey cloud, trailing an immense tongue of golden flame.
Skylab was on its way.
“It looked great,” Kerwin wrote in his book, Homesteading Space, and fellow Skylab astronauts Owen Garriott and Jack Lousma quickly headed to Patrick Air Force Base to pick up a T-38 jet for their return to Houston. Garriott and Lousma were due to fly the second mission to the space station in the late summer of 1973. As they walked towards their rental car, they happened to meet Rocco Petrone, the head of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, who advised them of “a few telemetry glitches”. The two astronauts did not ponder on Petrone’s words and as they left Patrick and gained altitude, they had every hope that Skylab would soon be ready to accept its first astronaut visitors.
A minute after launch, the Saturn had gone supersonic and, shortly thereafter, passed through a period of maximum aerodynamic turbulence – nicknamed ‘Max Q’ – during which atmospheric forces on the vehicle reached their most severe. It was a few seconds later that telemetry data indicated something was not right. The data almost went unnoticed, but indicated a premature deployment of Skylab’s protective micrometeroid shield and its No. 2 solar array. If the telemetry was for real, and was not an instrumentation error, it signalled very bad news and meant that both shield and array were as good as lost and the future of the mission thrown into doubt. For now, however, the assumption was made that it was nothing more than a spurious signal.
For a while, it seemed that the assumption was correct. The Saturn was flying perfectly, its second stage picking up the thrust for the final boost into low-Earth orbit, and at 1:40 pm the space station was released at an altitude of 430 km, about 1,800 km downrange of the Cape, high above the Atlantic Ocean. The bullet-like shroud separated and at 1:47 pm electric motors rotated Skylab’s massive Apollo Telescope Mount (ATM) out 90 degrees, locking it into place and deploying its windmill of four solar arrays. Before the mission, the successful deployment of the ATM had been a lingering concern…and it had been executed without a whimper. In the euphoria of those first few minutes in orbit, the mysterious bit of telemetry about the micrometeoroid shield and No. 2 solar array almost went unnoticed.
Almost…
An hour later, Flight Director Don Puddy noticed erratic signals from the station. By that time, the solar arrays should have unfurled, but the data was confusing. Controllers expected their monitors to show both arrays producing around 12.4 kW – about 60 percent of Skylab’s electricity – but were dismayed to learn that power levels were much, much lower…a mere 25 watts! The data indicated that the arrays had released, but had not fully extended, whilst temperature levels implied that one of them had either been torn away or had suffered severe structural failure. A virtual absence of voltage supported this nightmare scenario. As engineers watched their data over the next few hours, they concluded that, indeed, the micrometeoroid shield had failed and a malfunctioning solar array had led to a power outage. Off-duty flight director Phil Shaffer quickly set to work on a ‘malfunction list’ to handle all the problems which were now flooding into Mission Control…and quickly found himself with nearly 50 items, all of which were critical to the survival of Skylab!
The micrometeoroid shield had a secondary duty to provide thermal control; its external face carried a black and white pattern to absorb heat, whilst its internal face and the hull of the station itself were covered with gold foil to regulate the heat flow between them. As long as the shield stayed in place, the system would have kept Skylab on the cool side of the comfort zone…but now that it was gone, or disabled, the gold would begin to absorb heat and render the station uninhabitable. Sensors indicated external temperatures of 82 degrees Celsius and, inside, around 38 degrees Celsius. Thermal engineers were already predicting that these would soon climb further to 165 and 77 degrees Celsius, respectively, endangering the astronauts’ food stocks, camera film and perhaps even the structure of Skylab itself.
There were other dangers, too. Under such high temperatures, materials inside the station could ‘outgas’, producing contaminants which might suffocate a crew of astronauts. Lining the interior walls was a thick layer of polyurethane foam and fibreglass, one of whose constituents was a particularly nasty chemical, known as ‘toluene diisocynate’, which is today listed as one of the dozen most hazardous substances to human health. At temperatures of around 199 degrees Celsius, it would begin to break down and release toxicity into Skylab’s atmosphere. In the days that followed, a set of gas-sampling tubes were prepared for Pete Conrad’s crew to measure the levels of toluene before entering the station.
Within eight hours, NASA cancelled the scheduled 15 May launch of the first crew. The countdown clock, which had been halted at T-minus 14 hours and 35 minutes, was recycled to T-59 hours and held there, indefinitely. Based on Skylab’s orbital geometry, launch opportunities arose every five days and Conrad’s crew was rescheduled to fly no earlier than the 20th. The primary option at this stage was for the astronauts to fly a 17-day ‘nominal’ mission and spend the final 11 days performing ‘minimal activity’ to gather the required four weeks of medical data.
Yet even this plan was fraught with risk, as the situation aboard Skylab worsened. In order to produce electricity, the station had to remain in a ‘solar inertial’ attitude, with the Sun’s rays perpendicular to the ATM panels…but this exposed the full length of the hull to excessive overheating. Mission Control reduced the problem for a while, by pointing the front end of the station directly towards the Sun, which lowered temperatures…but also caused power levels to drop precipitously. The best compromise, it was found, was to pitch Skylab ‘upwards’, by about 45 degrees, towards the Sun. This allowed just enough sunlight to illuminate the ATM panels and charge their batteries, whilst also stabilising internal temperatures at a balmy 42 degrees Celsius. Conversely, temperatures in Skylab’s airlock now dropped and threatened to freeze heat exchangers and coolant loops by 18 May. Manoeuvres to warm the airlock were successful, but at the expense of overheating the rest of the station.
The resultant problem of maintaining a fine balance between temperature and power proved incredibly difficult and intricate. Several of Skylab’s rate gyroscopes – needed for basic attitude control – overheated, whilst others produced random errors, and propellant was being used in far larger quantities than intended. “They played this attitude-control game for ten days,” wrote Joe Kerwin of the thermal engineers’ sterling efforts, “and hosed out a lot of the precious propellant on the workshop, which could not be replenished. I think we had used 60 percent of it by the time we arrived, after ten days.” To the astronauts, that was a scary prospect, for Skylab was designed to spend a year in orbit, and support three crews.
The arrival of Conrad and his men could not come soon enough…but before they could go anywhere, the first days of their mission and a whole plethora of repair methods would have to be developed and extensively tested. The speed and excellence with which that work was conducted transformed May 1973 from a month of despair into a shining example of NASA’s can-do spirit.
“Get Me Up There:” The Plan to Save Skylab
The month of May 1973 quickly turned from one of euphoria into, potentially, one of the darkest in NASA’s history. After closing out its Apollo lunar landing programme in spectacular style, the space agency turned to the launch of the Skylab orbital station…a gigantic workshop which would support three crews of astronauts for up to three months at a time. Skylab would seize the long-duration experience crown from the Soviet Union and the station’s first crew – Pete Conrad, Joe Kerwin and Paul Weitz – were destined to spend a record-breaking 28 days in space. On 14 May, they watched in awe as Skylab rose to orbit and looked forward to their own launch, early the following day. Those plans ground to an unfortunate halt when Skylab encountered its first difficulties: at some stage during ascent, the micrometeoroid shield and one of two power-producing solar arrays had somehow failed, causing the station to overheat and placing the entire mission in mortal danger.
The launch of Conrad and his men was rescheduled for no earlier than the 20th, as engineers dug in with the details to save Skylab. One saving grace was that not all of the station’s exterior required protection from the onslaught of the Sun and a makeshift ‘shade’ would not necessarily needed to be tied down or composed of strong or rigid material. Proposals included spray paints, inflatable balloons and wallpapers to window curtains and extendable metal panels, but at length ten options were short-listed for inspection. All had to be compact and lightweight, sufficient to fit inside the cabin of Conrad’s Apollo command module for the ride into orbit. At length, three final options for a protective sunshade were considered: one to be extended across Skylab’s exposed hull by means of a long pole, another deployed from the command module’s hatch, whilst station-keeping, or a third which would be deployed through the station’s solar-facing scientific airlock.
Of these, the second was the least complex, although it meant that Conrad would be forced to hold the Apollo spacecraft in position, alongside Skylab, whilst Kerwin and Weitz opened the hatch to install the sunshade. As for the other choices, the first option meant extensive EVA training and the third meant building something compact enough to fit through a small aperture, then unfurling to cover an area of several square metres. Although they were happy with the second option, Conrad’s crew had done enough EVA training to feel confident about the first option, and even the third option was ‘doable’, because it permitted them to work from the pressurised – but very hot – safety of Skylab itself. However, no one knew if the scientific airlock was clogged with debris, so the third option was ranked last and teams from the Johnson Space Center (JSC) focused on Option 2 and teams from the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) explored Option 1.
In the JSC group’s plan, Paul Weitz would perform a stand-up EVA (‘SEVA’) in the command module’s open hatch and attach the sunshade in two places along Skylab’s aft section. Conrad would then manoeuvre his ship to the forward end of the station, deploying the sunshade in the process, and Weitz would finally make a third attachment at the Apollo Telescope Mount (ATM). Nicknamed the ‘SEVA Sail’, the development of the sunshade was complex: for several solid days, seamstresses stitched the orange material, parachute packers folded it for deployment, engineers attended to its fasteners…and a steady stream of public tours gaped at it from a mezzanine gallery. As for the MSFC group, their plan revolved around an EVA from the ATM itself. Their sunshade looked very much like an oversized window blind and its design was finished by the evening of 15 May. Joe Kerwin and the backup commander for the mission, Rusty Schweickart, participated in extensive underwater EVA trials.
“We had to answer certain very basic questions,” Schweickart later told the NASA oral historian. “Could we get physically around to where we had to be? Could we see certain things? These were questions which you couldn’t answer just looking at drawings. We had to get into the water, get on the real vehicle and see whether certain things could be done.” Schweickart and Kerwin also verified the usefulness of hand-holds and foot restraints and identified any sharp edges upon which their suits could snag or tear.
During their time underwater, the two men evaluated the two sunshades and were able to determine the practicalities of what a spacewalker could physically see, taking into account the restricted field of view of their helmets. A debriefing was then held with the prime crew and 75 engineers, all clad in blue face masks to uphold pre-flight quarantine rules. “One by one,” recalled Schweickart of the two-hour-plus session, “we eliminated things and by about midnight…we basically had the outlines of what we were going to do.” The MSFC sunshade needed further work and the eventually produced a configuration of two 14 m poles, to be ‘cantilevered’ from the ATM. The poles were assembled from a dozen small sections, allowing them to fit inside the command module, with a rope running along their length, through a series of eyelets. It would be unfurled by tugging on the rope in a similar fashion to hoisting a ship’s sail. This design came to be known as the ‘twin-pole’ sail.
An underwater test by Schweickart and Kerwin on 18 May showed that it would work, but that its pole sections might separate under stress. A locking nut was modified, the shade’s weight was reduced and Teflon inserts were placed into the eyelets to reduce friction. Thereafter, the remainder of the work ran without a hitch.
Meanwhile, the option to deploy a sunshade from the scientific airlock had been revived and was gaining momentum, with a concept known as ‘the parasol’. Tests showed that a combination of coiled springs and telescoping rods could fit inside a standard airlock canister and could be deployed smoothly. Jack Kinzler, chief of JSC’s Technical Services Division and a close friend of Pete Conrad, jury-rigged it from a parachute canopy and telescoping glass-fibre fishing rods in hub-mounted springs.
A technician bought the fishing poles in Houston and Kinzler himself requested a tube from the sheet-metal shop and a large section of parachute material. “The machine shop fastened the four fishing rods to my base,” Kinzler told the NASA oral historian. “I fastened the base to the floor of our big high-bay shop area. We fastened the cloth to the rods and long lines to the tips of each rod. I lowered the big overhead crane to floor level and swung my four lines over the crane hook. Everybody came over for a demonstration…I raised the crane back up, letting out excess line, ‘til I had enough clearance, then let the crane pull all four lines simultaneously. It looked like a magician’s act because our came these fishing rods, getting longer and longer. They’re dragging with them fabric. They get all the way to where they’re fully out and all I did was let go and it went sshum. So the springs were on each corner and they came down and laid out right on the floor just perfectly. Everybody was impressed!”
It was decided to use standard space suit material – nylon, Mylar and aluminium – for the shade itself, although little data existed on the performance of nylon when exposed to long-term vacuum and solar ultraviolet radiation. A decision was taken to cover all three sunshade types with an ultraviolet-resistant material, known as ‘Kapton’, but this proved problematic, because its weight might make it more difficult to stow and deploy properly.
Senior managers were in disagreement. Skylab Program Manager Bill Schneider felt that MSFC’s twin-pole sail was most likely to succeed, although JSC Director Chris Kraft thought it was too heavy. Kraft felt the development of the SEVA sail should continue, in case the twin-pole should fail its tests. During a final review at the Kennedy Space Center on 19 May, Kinzler’s parasol was chosen as the primary method (he would later receive a Distinguished Service Medal from NASA for his work) and on the 24th, the flight readiness review endorsed it. Having an astronaut standing in the hatch on an EVA was undesirable, since it would come at the end of a long, 22-hour day for the crew and the contamination effects of the command module’s thrusters on the ATM were unknown. Equally, the twin-pole concept did not meet with the approval of flight surgeons, who were aghast at the prospect of such a complex task so early in the mission. They also felt that the work might jeopardise Skylab’s medical objectives. For his part, Pete Conrad felt that Kinzler’s design was the simplest, safest and quickest method…and hence most likely to succeed.
It was expected to be more than sufficient for the 28-day mission of Conrad, Kerwin and Weitz, although the twin-pole and SEVA sails would be carried as a backup and deployed at a later date if the condition of the parasol deteriorated. The review also postponed the launch by five days, until 25 May, thereby allowing JSC and MSFC engineers to apply finishing touches to their hardware.
Years later, Schweickart praised the efforts of the industrial and NASA workforces to save Skylab during those frantic days. “I probably got a little bit of sleep,” he recalled, “but most of the team who worked with me at Huntsville never slept for four days! It was totally round-the-clock and it was not just the resources of the centre; it was all of the resources of the whole aerospace industry. Anything that we wanted, you simply called somebody and they turned inside out. Three different suppliers would manufacture some thermal material or some device overnight. They would work on it 24 hours themselves. It would be there on the company’s private Learjet the next morning. It was unbelievable how hard people worked.”
‘Borrowing’ aircraft – and cars – got a few engineers and branch chiefs into hot water. Bob Schwinghamer, head of the materials lab at MSFC, remembered lending the keys of a centre director’s car to a colleague…and then promptly forgetting to return it and receiving a severe verbal roasting the following morning. On another occasion, Schwinghamer was working late, until after the security staff had locked the perimeter gates. “If I call these damn security guys, they’ll be here in two hours,” he recalled. He decided to climb the fence, almost twice his height and topped by an ominous overhang of barbed wire. “I cut a big gash in my butt,” he concluded, “and fell off the fence and fell to the ground. Just when I hit the ground, two headlights came on. These darned security guys drove up and slammed up the brakes and jumped out.” One of the guards, who had previously nailed Schwinghamer for speeding, recognised him, grinned and let him go.
To sum up: “We didn’t let anything deter us. A lot of funny stuff happened on our way to the Skylab…I was getting in hot water all the time and it was day and night. We did all kinds of stuff like that at that time, but we got [the parasol] built.”
Such comic anecdotes did not detract from the physical consequences of such a punishing workload. Ed Smylie, head of the Crew Systems Division, remembered one of his branch chiefs literally collapsing with exhaustion as he left work late one evening. Yet the sense of teamwork and camaraderie was unmistakable. Joe Kerwin felt the same. “It was a great team,” he reflected. “I look on Apollo 13 as the supreme test…for the Mission Control team. The Skylab problem was the supreme test for the engineering team. Both the contractors and the civil servants joined together, as one, and they figured out what the problem was.” To illustrate his nostalgia for the good old days, Kerwin recalled the motel accommodation during their time at MSFC, which charged seven dollars per night for a room with black and white television and eight dollars for colour…
As NASA approached resolution on the question of how to repair the workshop, a formal inquiry into the cause of the Skylab mishap was set in motion by NASA Administrator Jim Fletcher on 22 May. He asked Bruce Lundin, head of the Lewis Research Center, to lead the investigation board. Reviews of launch data had already shed light on what had transpired. Sixty-three seconds into the Saturn V’s ascent, when it was obscured from the tracking cameras by thick cloud, the micrometeoroid shield had prematurely deployed, ‘standing out’ a few centimetres from the hull of the workshop, and had very quickly been ripped off, like the skin of a banana, in the supersonic airflow. “At this time,” noted Lundin’s report, published on 30 July 1973, “vehicle dynamic measurements, such as vibration, acceleration, attitude error and acoustics indicated strong disturbances. Measurements which are normally relatively static at this time, such as torsion rod strain gauges, tension strap breakwires, temperatures and [solar array] position indicators, indicated a loss of the [shield].”
As a result of this failure, others followed: the separation of the micrometeoroid shield caused part of it to wrap around the No. 2 solar array and break the latches on the No. 1 array. Ten minutes into the flight, as planned, the second stage of the Saturn separated, firing its retrorockets to withdraw from the payload…and the plumes of those retrorockets quickly impinged on the No. 1 array, breaking its hinge and totally shearing it off. This incident was noted in Lundin’s report as ‘the 593 Second Anomaly’. Telemetry from this point showed a sudden loss of temperature readings and inexplicable voltage dropouts, which the board took as indicators that the array had physically separated from the workshop. “The effect of retrorocket plume impingement was observed almost immediately,” the report continued, “on the [No. 2 array] temperature and on vehicle body rates.” Under normal circumstances, the two arrays would have been freed from their attachments by a small explosive charge and spring-loaded hinges would have automatically unfurled them. Unfortunately, the No. 1 array was gone and its companion was so clogged with debris as to be effectively ‘pinned’ to the side of the workshop and could only partially open.
In its concluding remarks, Lundin’s report settled on a number of possible causes for the failure of the micrometeoroid shield. The most likely one was an internal pressurisation of its ‘auxiliary tunnel’ – a tunnel which served as a wiring conduit and was designed to vent pressure as the Saturn V rose through the atmosphere – due to imperfect seals and fittings. Pressures may have become high enough, about a minute after launch, to slightly raise the shield into the supersonic flow, ripping it off, with the result that it broke the latches on the No. 1 array and part of it became wrapped around the No. 2 array. When the second stage’s retrorockets fired, their exhaust finally tore the No. 1 array from its hinge.
The fundamental ‘human’ cause, Joe Kerwin told the NASA oral historian, was that the designers of the micrometeoroid shield did not communicate effectively with the aerodynamicists and properly protect it from the supersonic airstream. In fact, failure to recognise such issues during half a decade of development was blamed on a decision to treat the micrometeoroid shield as a subsystem of the Saturn V, based on a flawed presumption that it would be structurally integral to the rocket. “As a result,” noted Joe Kerwin, David Hitt and Owen Garriott in Homesteading Space, “the shield was not assigned its own project engineer, who could have provided greater project leadership. In addition, testing focused on deployment, rather than performance during launch.” One of the recommendations made by Lundin’s board was for more effective and comprehensive project oversight.
Of course, the state of the arrays and the reason for the No. 2 array being unable to properly unfurl could only be speculated until the arrival of Conrad’s crew and the presence of human eyes to physically see what was amiss. If debris was the problem, a repair method was acutely needed and engineers from MSFC set to work on a cable cutter (which looked like a large set of tree loppers) and a universal tool with prongs to pry and pull open the jammed array. Both tools came from A.B. Chance Company, a manufacturer of equipment for power companies, and both were designed to operate on the end of a 3 m pole.
In Homesteading Space, an interview was noted with NASA systems engineer Chuck Lewis, who made the initial contact with A.B. Chance and secured the rapid delivery of the tools aboard a light aircraft. When the A.B. Chance product manager, Cliff Bosch, arrived at MSFC, he was joined by Lewis and backup crewmen Schweickart and Story Musgrave to begin sorting out the most effective tools. “The one thing they had that was really neat,” Lewis recounted, “was this scissor-like cutter that they used to clip electrical cables. The guys at re-engineered that in about a day and a half to provide some extra mechanical advantage because…we knew what sort of load it was going to take for those jaws to get through that and whether they were going to be able to pull on it.”
On 19 May, the tools were successfully tested in MSFC’s water tank, with the Skylab mockup specially ‘modified’ with fragments of metal wire bundles, shards of bolts and other objects representative of a failed micrometeoroid shield. Conrad, Kerwin and Weitz took their turns underwater, evaluating the tools, prying debris away from the array and completing the whole procedure safely. The tools had already left for the Kennedy Space Center when a certification review ruled that the pointed tips of the cutter were hazardous. New heads with blunt tips were quickly prepared and change were made at the launch site.
Now, however, the time for talking was over. Years later, in her book Rocketman, Nancy Conrad related that her late husband’s response to the seemingly endless testing was typically direct and to the point: “Just get me up there, goddamn it!”
“With Flying Colours:” The Revival of Skylab
Almost four decades have passed since one of the most dramatic reversals in fortune in American space history: the salvation of Skylab. On 14 May 1973, America’s first space station was launched into orbit atop the final Saturn V booster, but an unfortunate sequence of events led to the premature deployment of its micrometeoroid shield, which was promptly ripped away in the supersonic airstream, together with one of two solar arrays. The other solar array was so clogged with debris that it was ‘pinned’ to the side of the station. For ten days, engineers battled to come up with a workable plan whereby Skylab’s first crew – astronauts Pete Conrad, Joe Kerwin and Paul Weitz – could effect a successful repair and keep the crippled station on the straight and narrow.
Before the rescue could get underway, Skylab had to be depressurised and repressurised with nitrogen four times over three days in order to purge any toxic gases from its atmosphere. One of the most hazardous materials was a heavy layer of polyurethane foam, bonded to the internal walls, and Conrad, Kerwin and Weitz would wear masks upon entering Skylab and perform checks to ascertain the station’s environment. As their scheduled 25 May launch date neared, the storage lockers of the command module were filled with additional items: extra cameras, new medical supplies, film cassettes, tools to free the jammed solar array and equipment to detect poisonous gas.
For Gene Kranz, who had sweated out the traumatic days of Apollo 13 from the flight director’s console, Skylab was no less exciting than going to the Moon. Years later, he related that people often refused to believe him. “Skylab to me was a different type of focus,” he told the NASA oral historian, “as a leader and focus as a team. The Apollo missions were all short, on the order of ten days or so, and it’s one thing to hold a team together and…keep the quality for ten days, even though it’s very intense. It’s another thing to keep this team together for the best part of a year and to hand over not tens, but literally hundreds of problems, every shift, without a glitch!”
With their launch scheduled for the stroke of 9:00 am EST, the morning of 25 May was particularly peaceful for the three astronauts. “This was the least well-attended Apollo launch in history,” Joe Kerwin recalled, “because everybody had to go home and put the kids back in school. We arrived at the command module and looked inside and it was a sea of brown rope under the seats and under the brown ropes were all these different umbrellas and parasols and sails and also the equipment that we had selected to try and free up the solar panel, which was a pretty eclectic collection of aluminium poles that could be connected together, and a Southwestern Bell Telephone Company tree-lopper with brown ropes to open and close the jaws. Some of it we’d seen, some of it we hadn’t!”
The astronauts were unperturbed. Indeed, as the Saturn IB cleared the tower and roared into the clear morning sky, Conrad declared that his crew could fix anything. Launch came precisely on time and kicked off an eight-hour orbital ballet to rendezvous with the crippled Skylab later that same afternoon. An initial orbit of 357 x 156 km was gradually refined by four manoeuvres to fly a near-circular, 424 x 415 km path to intercept the space station on their fifth orbit. “Up until this time,” recalled trajectory and rendezvous specialist Cathy Osgood in a NASA oral history, “our rendezvous [procedure] had been to rendezvous the first day, after about five orbits. If you didn’t rendezvous by about the fifth orbit, the astronauts’ work day had been so long that they’d have to be facing a docking situation when they were just absolutely exhausted; so, all up until this time, the astronauts themselves wanted to get it all done the first day.”
Little did anyone know that the first day in space for Pete Conrad and his crew would run to no less than 22 hours.
Conrad’s call of “Tally-ho the Skylab!” as a steadily brightening star on the horizon drew closer masked, at first, the seriousness of what the astronauts were about to face. The micrometeoroid shield was gone, as was one of the two solar arrays, whilst the second was so jammed with debris that it could not deploy properly. “When Pete finally got a good look at Skylab,” Nancy Conrad wrote, “he got the same feeling as you would when seeing a classic car you’d invested four years of your life in restoring now mangled in a heap in the town junk yard.” As Weitz took pictures, Conrad performed a flyaround inspection of the station, quickly ascertaining that the scientific airlock was not cluttered with debris, thereby making the deployment of the Johnson Space Center’s parasol a realistic option, and asserting his conviction that a stand-up EVA with the cable cutter should be enough to free the jammed solar array.
The first order of business was a ‘soft docking’ at Skylab’s forward port at 5:56 pm, engaging capture latches but not retracting the command module’s docking probe to ensure a firm metallic embrace. For a few minutes, the astronauts ate a quick dinner and prepared for the stand-up EVA. “A full hard dock wasn’t desirable at this point,” wrote David Hitt, Owen Garriott and Joe Kerwin in their book Homesteading Space, “because of the likelihood that they’d undock again shortly. The docking system needed to be dismantled and reset after a hard dock.” With all three men fully suited, Conrad undocked from Skylab at 6:45 pm, depressurised the cabin and opened the side hatch. With Kerwin hanging onto his ankles to provide stability, Weitz reached out and used the modified tree loppers and a kind of ‘shepherd’s crook’ to free the jammed array. It should have been an occasion of euphoria for Weitz, who had not been scheduled to perform an EVA at all on this mission. Unfortunately, despite his sterling efforts, it did not go well.
At first, he positioned himself with his upper body poking through the hatch. Kerwin passed him three sections to assemble a 4.5 m pole with the loppers at the end, whilst Conrad kept the spacecraft steady. “We had seen…that there was a piece of bolted L-section from the thermal shield that had been wrapped up around the top of the solar wing,” Weitz recalled in his oral history, “and apparently the bolt heads were driven into the aluminium skin. We thought maybe we’d just break it loose, so we got down near the end of the solar array and I got a hold of it with the shepherd’s crook.” However, as Weitz heaved on it, he was actually pulling the command module towards Skylab. In the meantime, Conrad had the unenviable task of keeping the spacecraft a mere 60 cm from the station…and preventing the unwanted oscillations from causing a collision. The work was harder because a third of his field of view was blocked by the command module’s open hatch.
“It made for some dicey times,” Weitz later recalled. As the two vehicles entered orbital darkness, he paused in his work, then resumed as they flew within range of the tracking station. The shepherd’s crook was getting him nowhere and the torrent of four-letter words from all three astronauts even prompted the capcom in Mission Control to ask them to modify their language; for they were on an ‘open mike’.
The main problem, Conrad explained, was that a strip of metal had become wrapped across the solar array during the separation of the micrometeoroid shield. Its bolts had tangled themselves in the array and none of Weitz’ actions to cut the strap, even with the loppers, were having any effect. “Rather than cutting it across the short way, we were trying to cut along the long way,” Weitz said, “and didn’t have enough muscle with that thing, because it was six or eight feet out ahead of me and I was pulling on a line to try to do it.” The metal strap, ironically, was only a few centimetres wide, but it was riveted fast and Conrad knew they did not have a hope of breaking it using the tools in the command module.
The attempt was scrapped and, after 40 minutes, the astronauts were instructed to close the hatch and re-dock with Skylab. Even this proved easier said than done: getting the pole, loppers and shepherd’s crook back inside in a safe and speedy manner led to an inadvertent thump to Conrad’s helmet and an accidental kick to Kerwin. The capcom’s advice to modify their language again fell on deaf ears, as a few more ‘unscientific’ words were uttered…
Docking, wrote Nancy Conrad (probably selecting a few of her late husband’s words), “was a bitch”. On their first attempt, the probe did not engage with the drogue and no fewer than three further tries were also fruitless. “Pete gave Weitz the controls,” Nancy continued, “depressurised the command module and opened the tunnel hatch. He and Joe dove head-first into the bank of circuits and gizmos, Pete cussing a blue streak as he sorted through wires, cutting and splicing like a pissed-off Maytag repairman trying to get a dryer to work again.” Weitz then set about rewiring in the right-hand equipment bay, removing the electrical inter-lock which prevented the main latches from actuating until the capture latches were secure. After an hour or so of re-routing and connecting wires, bypassing electrical relays for the capture latches on the tip of the probe, skinning knuckles – and another bout of undesirable vocabulary – Conrad used the service module’s thrusters to bring the two collars into direct contact, triggering a dozen capture latches in a cacophony like machine gunfire.
They were at Skylab to stay.
In their oral histories, both Kerwin and Weitz paid tribute to a conversation with their rendezvous instructor, Jake Smith, in February 1973, in which the minutiae of how to accomplish this kind of ‘backup docking procedure’ – which wires to cut and which to splice together – had been explored. Had it failed, there was a very real possibility that the mission would have ended. Now, though, with Apollo safely docked, an ecstatic Mission Control were able to advise the crew to grab a bite to eat and some sleep before entering Skylab the following morning. It was 11:50 pm EST. Their first day in space had been a long one – more than 22 hours, prompting Paul Weitz to quip that “union rules wouldn’t allow us to work that long anymore!” Surprisingly, neither of the rookies had gotten sick. Joe Kerwin had taken a pill shortly after reaching orbit, determined that he would not throw up and would not screw up the mission…but, despite the tense nature of those 22 hours, both he and Weitz adapted well to the weightless environment. Making his fourth space mission, Pete Conrad had no problems whatsoever.
Next morning, the crew opened the hatch and Weitz, as the systems specialist, was the first to enter Skylab. Pressure checks and air sampling gave the atmosphere a clean bill of health. The multiple docking adaptor and airlock were cool, at just 13 degrees Celsius, but all three men knew that the unprotected interior of the station would be hotter and less comfortable. Conrad and Weitz stripped “down to our skivvies” and opened the hatch into the darkened workshop at 3:30 pm EST to deploy the parasol through the scientific airlock. “It didn’t take very long until we figured out why people in the Sahara Desert wear a lot of loose clothing,” reflected Weitz, “because…soon we had long trousers on and shirts and jackets and hats and gloves and the whole thing.” The temperature was 55 degrees Celsius – “rather warm,” the two men noted – and although there was no evidence of toxic gas and the air was safe to breathe, Skylab’s humidity was low and they could only remain inside the stifling oven for 15 minutes at a time. Periodically, they had to retreat back to the relative comfort of the multiple docking adaptor for a breather.
At length, the parasol was assembled and at 7:30 pm, its rods were threaded through the aperture of the scientific airlock into vacuum. Next, the parasol emerged, folding out like a big patio umbrella. However, one of its four folded arms did not swing out properly and Kerwin, watching from inside the command module, expressed dismay when he saw it had only deployed to cover two-thirds of its required area. “It’s not laid out the way it’s supposed to be,” a dejected Conrad told Mission Control. The parasol was askew and crinkled in places. Nevertheless, Houston assured the astronauts that the wrinkles had probably set in during the coldness of the lengthy deployment, which took place during orbital ‘night-time’, and, as the material heated up in sunlight, it would spread out fully.
“I think the ground noticed the temperatures coming down,” Weitz recalled. “Within an hour, they could tell.” Overnight on 26/27 May, temperatures on the exterior of Skylab dropped by 55 degrees Celsius and the interior by 11 degrees Celsius. Eventually, the interior temperature stabilised at around 30 degrees (close to a normal day in Houston) and the astronauts could even tell where the parasol lay on the outer hull, by running their hands along the inner wall and feeling the difference in temperature. For the first couple of nights, Conrad and Kerwin elected to sleep in the command module, whilst Weitz tied his sleeping bag in the multiple docking adaptor, “because it was cooler there and you had a lot more room besides”. Scientific work could now begin, although electrical power remained an issue and was rendered more acute when the ATM arrays were taken out of direct sunlight on 30 May, leaving Skylab reliant upon battery power.
An EVA was needed to fix the clogged array. Under the direction of backup commander Rusty Schweickart, a repair scenario was devised. It required Conrad and Kerwin to move to the antenna boom at the forward end of Skylab and attach a cable cutter to the debris; this would serve as a makeshift ‘hand rail’ to enable them to reach the jammed solar array and cut the metal strap. Once there, they would have to break a frozen hydraulic ‘damper’ on the array. The damper’s purpose had been to prevent the array from deploying too fast, but when it partially unlatched after launch, the hydraulic fluid quickly froze solid. Conrad and Kerwin would connect a Beam Erection Tether (BET, effectively a nylon rope with hooks on each end) between the array and the airlock. When the debris had been removed, it was hoped that pulling on the tether would break the damper. During a series of simulations on 2 June, Schweickart and fellow astronaut Ed Gibson practiced the procedure and found that, aside from a lack of foot restraints, it was workable.
The lack of foot restraints, and lights, hand-holds and visual aids, was not an oversight; it reflected the fact that there had never been any intention to perform maintenance on Skylab. There were several planned EVAs, for example, to replace film cassettes, but actual repairs were considered too dangerous. “I had been working a lot of the spacewalk procedures for the film retrieval,” Gibson told the NASA oral historian, “so it was natural to then start developing procedures for the repair of the station.”
However, some managers remained jittery about the idea of attaching a cable cutter to debris, and eight metres away, at that, but there was little alternative. On the evening of 4 June, Schweickart talked Conrad through the task and, as the astronauts slept, a list of tools and assembly instructions were transmitted to Skylab’s teleprinter. The crew reviewed these procedures and rehearsed the steps inside the station on 6 June, with a suited Kerwin, minus his helmet, practicing the movement of the poles and grabbing a mock target with the cutters, before finally venturing outside in the early hours of the following morning.
Since the airlock was in the middle of the Skylab ‘cluster’, the fully-suited Weitz had to ensure that Conrad and Kerwin had all of their tools and tethers before he depressurised them. Weitz then retreated into the multiple docking adaptor. The hatch was opened at 10:23 am, just before the station entered the dark portion of its orbit. Conrad assembled the tools – six 1.5 m rods screwed together, the cable cutter fitted and several metres of rope from the backup SEVA sail tied to the cutter’s pull rope – and then he and Kerwin moved into position alongside the antenna boom. The unlikely contraption thus enabled them to operate the cutter from several metres away…just enough to reach the jammed array.
As Kerwin tried to close the cutters against the debris, it became apparent that he was ‘slipping’, because he could not establish a secure position for himself. For half an hour, with one hand steadying himself and the other trying to close the cutters, he struggled fruitlessly to complete the work. As his pulse rate began to climb, he decided on an alternative course of action and shortened his own tether, in an effort to steady himself against the edge of the station. It worked and after ten minutes he was able to tell ground controllers that the cutters were securely fastened to the debris. Next, he pulled on the lanyard to operate them…but nothing happened. Conrad inched his way, hand-over-hand, along the length of the beam to see what was amiss, and precisely as he reached the cutter ‘end’, the jaws snapped shut, freeing some of the metal strap at 2:01 pm and hurling him “ass over teakettles” into space. Fortunately, Conrad’s tether restrained him from moving far from Skylab, and the jammed array now stood at 20-degrees-open.
The frozen damper, however, still resisted normal deployment and the holes on the solar array were smaller than on the ground model, so he could only attach one of the two hooks on the BET. The two men heaved on the tether, but without success, until Conrad placed his feet on the frozen hinge, stooped to fit the tether over his shoulder and ‘stood up’. Kerwin pulled on the tether and, this time, the solar array suddenly released and sprang into its full, 90-degrees-open position. Both astronauts were flung outwards by the catapult-like effect and arrested by their tethers. After three hours and 25 minutes, the two laughing astronauts re-entered Skylab…and the needles of the electricity meters dramatically jumped, signalling success. By the next day, 8 June, solar heating had fully extended the array and it was generating 7 kW of much-needed power. From just 40 percent power, the station’s output suddenly increased to around 70 percent.
NASA’s confidence in the abilities of spacewalking astronauts increased substantially. “Before that, there was still the legacy of problems with EVA during Gemini,” recalled Rusty Schweickart. “Apollo, of course, made a big difference, but that was sort of running around on the [lunar] surface in gravity again; so here was EVA of a massive scale in weightlessness that we never anticipated; [we] did it with flying colours, everything worked just fine, never had a problem and saved the mission.” For Kerwin, his first spacewalk was electrifying – there was nothing, he said later, which could possibly compare to looking at the Earth through the visor of a space suit – but also demonstrated that the underwater training on the ground was harder than the real thing in orbit. “No matter how well they weight you out” in the water tank, he said, “you’re not really weightless. If your body is turned upside down, yes, the suit is neutrally buoyant, but you’re jammed up against the shoulders and the blood is rushing to your head. If you can do it under those circumstances, you’re going to find that it’s a piece of cake in zero-G.”
Saving Skylab was a personal triumph for Pete Conrad. Between May 1973 and February 1974, three crews would occupy the station for as long as three months at a time and would contribute enormously to humanity’s understanding of the weightless environment and the influence of the Sun upon our planet. Conrad’s first three space missions had each been filled with drama – a record-breaking Gemini flight, which exceeded the Soviets for the first time, an intricate orbital rendezvous and an adrenaline-charged lunar landing – but it was for none of these that he received the Congressional Space Medal of Honor in 1978. It was Skylab which propelled him to his greatest professional height and his greatest personal accomplishment…and the Congressional accolade paid tribute to Conrad’s devoted command of the singular mission which saved America’s first space station.
END
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