Hope to see you this Thursday at our monthly retirees luncheon at Hibachi Grill at 11:30. Lets plan to go walk around the Explorer at Space Center Houston after our luncheon fellowship.
Jerry Goodman would appreciate suggestions from our retiree/coworkers on a contractor to redo his home shower stall, replace shower pan/retile. So if you have a good reliable person/company that has redone one of your shower stalls recently please send suggestions on to Jerry.
By the way ,,,I heard on local TV news this morning that Space Center Houston needs more $’s to refurbish our new addition to make it presentable to the Public—surprise surprise. I guess no transition and retirement funds were slated towards transition and retiring the Explorer Orbiter from KSC. Thank you KSC!
Also the morning news reported, the Orbiter Enterprise sustained wing damage on its way to the Intrepid Museum----awe shucks.
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
JSC TODAY HEADLINES
1. Bring Our Children to Work (BOCTW) Day -- Registration is Officially Open!
2. Tune in to ISS Update This Week
3. JSC: See the Space Station
4. White Sands Test Facility (WSTF): See the Space Station
5. Learn about NASA's OpenGov Initiative on June 6 With Nick Skytland
6. Recent JSC Announcement
7. System Safety Fundamentals Class: July 16 to 20 - Building 226N, Room 174
________________________________________ QUOTE OF THE DAY
“ Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together.”
-- Vincent van Gogh
________________________________________
1. Bring Our Children to Work (BOCTW) Day -- Registration is Officially Open!
To register, please send an email to jsc-eduoutre@mail.nasa.gov with the following information:
- Parent name
- How many kids
- Their age(s)
- Work email
- Work phone
- Special assistance needed (if any)
The date for the event is June 14. Registration will close at close of business on Tuesday, June 12. We will be able to take the first 500 kids that sign up for the event. If we reach that goal before registration closes, you will be put on the waiting list.
Please note: The event is for kids in K-12. The event itinerary will be posted soon on the InsideJSC home page. We are still working a few more details, and then you'll have a chance to view it before the event and pick out with your child what activities interest you most.
Offsite contractor employees should contact their company representative for information regarding their company's participation in BOCTW.
JSC Outreach
[top]
2. Tune in to ISS Update This Week
Tune in to ISS Update at 10 a.m. on NASA TV this week, where astronomy buffs can learn more about the Venus transit.
Today at 10 a.m.
Catch astronaut Mario Runco as he talks about the Venus transit coming up this evening.
Thursday at 11:05 a.m.
Following ISS Update, Runco will inspire the next generation of explorers (K-8th grade students at the Newell School District in South Dakota) via a Digital Learning Network event.
Friday at 10 a.m.
Don't miss the follow-up on-console interview discussing how the Venus transit went on Tuesday and highlighting any imagery captured of it by the space station crew.
Check the latest ISS Update programming at: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/update/index.html
If you missed the ISS Updates from last week, tune in to REEL NASA at http://www.youtube.com/user/ReelNASA to get the full videos. Or, view the videos at NASA's video gallery: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html
For the latest NASA TV scheduling info, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/MM_NTV_Breaking.html
JSC External Relations, Communications and Public Affairs x35111
[top]
3. JSC: See the Space Station
Viewers in the JSC area will be able to see the International Space Station this week.
Wednesday, June 6, 9:44 p.m. (Duration: 6 minutes)
Path: 10 degrees above SW to 11 degrees above NE
Maximum elevation: 59 degrees
Thursday, June 7, 5:52 a.m. (Duration: 6 minutes)
Path: 11 degrees above NW to 12 degrees above SE
Maximum elevation: 86 degrees
Thursday, June 7, 8:49 p.m. (Duration: 6 minutes)
Path: 10 degrees above SSW to 10 degrees above NE
Maximum elevation: 49 degrees
Friday, June 8, 4:58 a.m. (Duration: 6 minutes)
Path: 10 degrees above NNW to 12 degrees above ESE
Maximum elevation: 36 degrees
Saturday, June 9, 5:40 a.m. (Duration: 5 minutes)
Path: 11 degrees above WNW to 10 degrees above S
Maximum elevation: 27 degrees
Saturday, June 9, 8:40 p.m. (Duration: 3 minutes)
Path: 51 degrees above NW to 10 degrees above NNE
Maximum elevation: 51 degrees
Sunday, June 10, 4:45 a.m. (Duration: 6 minutes)
Path: 10 degrees above NW to 12 degrees above SE
Maximum elevation: 74 degrees
The International Space Station Trajectory Operations Group provides updates via JSC Today for visible station passes at least two minutes in duration and 25 degrees in elevation. Other opportunities, including those with shorter durations and lower elevations or from other ground locations, are available at the website below.
Joe Pascucci x31695 http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/cities/view.cgi?country=U...
[top]
4. White Sands Test Facility (WSTF): See the Space Station
Viewers in the WSTF area will be able to see the International Space Station this week.
Tuesday, June 5, 9:37 p.m. (Duration: 6 minutes)
Path: 10 degrees above SSW to 10 degrees above ENE
Maximum elevation: 49 degrees
Wednesday, June 6, 10:19 p.m. (Duration: 5 minutes)
Path: 11 degrees above W to 11 degrees above NNE
Maximum elevation: 25 degrees
Thursday, June 7, 4:49 a.m. (Duration: 6 minutes)
Path: 10 degrees above NNW to 11 degrees above ESE
Maximum elevation: 38 degrees
Thursday, June 7, 9:24 p.m. (Duration: 6 minutes)
Path: 10 degrees above WSW to 11 degrees above NE
Maximum elevation: 54 degrees
Friday, June 8, 5:32 a.m. (Duration: 3 minutes)
Path: 11 degrees above WNW to 28 degrees above SSW
Maximum elevation: 29 degrees
Friday, June 8, 8:34 p.m. (Duration: 2 minutes)
Path: 33 degrees above ENE to 12 degrees above NE
Maximum elevation: 33 degrees
Saturday, June 9, 4:37 a.m. (Duration: 6 minutes)
Path: 10 degrees above NW to 12 degrees above SE
Maximum elevation: 76 degrees
Sunday, June 10, 3:43 a.m. (Duration: 6 minutes)
Path: 11 degrees above NNW to 12 degrees above ESE
Maximum elevation: 43 degrees
The International Space Station Trajectory Operations Group provides updates via JSC Today for visible station passes at least two minutes in duration and 25 degrees in elevation. Other opportunities, including those with shorter durations and lower elevations or from other ground locations, are available at the website below.
Joe Pascucci x31695 http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/cities/view.cgi?country=U...
[top]
5. Learn about NASA's OpenGov Initiative on June 6 With Nick Skytland
The SAIC/Safety and Mission Assurance Innovation Speaker Forum will host 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. International Space Approval Challenge
8. RHOK (Random Hacks of Kindness)
Skytland has experience planning galactic-sized hackathons, envisioning future space exploration missions, designing next-generation spacesuits, training space-bound astronauts, developing open source software and encouraging new partnerships between government and industry, academia and organizations. Combining elements of space exploration, science, technology, visual art and storytelling, 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
[top]
6. Recent JSC Announcement
Please visit the JSC Announcements Web page to view the newly posted announcement:
JSCA 12-014: Key Personnel Assignment - Annette M. Moore
Linda Turnbough x36246 http://ird.jsc.nasa.gov/DocumentManagement/announcements/default.aspx
[top]
7. System Safety Fundamentals Class: July 16 to 20 - Building 226N, Room 174
This course instructs students in fundamentals of system safety management and the hazard analysis of hardware, software and operations. Basic concepts and principles of the analytical process are stressed. Students are introduced to NASA publications that require and guide safety analysis, as well as general reference texts on subject areas covered. Types and techniques of hazard analysis are addressed in enough detail to give the student a working knowledge of their uses and how they're accomplished. Skill in analytical techniques is developed through the use of practical exercises worked by students in class. This course establishes a foundation for the student to pursue more advanced studies of system safety and hazard analysis techniques while allowing students to effectively apply their skills to straightforward analytical assignments. This is a combination of System Safety Workshop and System Safety Special Subjects. Students who've taken those classes shouldn't take this class. SATERN Registration Required. https://satern.nasa.gov/plateau/user/deeplink.do?linkId=SCHEDULED_OFFERING_DE...
Polly Caison x41279
[top]
________________________________________
JSC Today is compiled periodically as a service to JSC employees on an as-submitted basis. Any JSC organization or employee may submit articles. To see an archive of previous JSC Today announcements, go to http://www6.jsc.nasa.gov/pao/news/jsctoday/archives.
NASA TV:
4:30 pm Central (5:30 EDT) – Venus Transit Special live from Mauna Kea, Hawaii
4:55 pm Central (5:55 EDT) – NASA Edge live coverage - Venus transit from Mauna Kea
Human Spaceflight News
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
HEADLINES AND LEADS
Blue Origin completes system requirements review of reusable capsule
Zach Rosenberg - FlightInternational.com
Commercial space company Blue Origin has completed the system requirements review (SRR) of its reusable Space Vehicle, which will earn the company $900,000 from NASA. The company, founded by internet billionaire Jeff Bezos, is building Space Vehicle under a milestone-based contract with NASA, one of four awarded under the second round of commercial crew development (CCDev2) contracts.
The “naysayers” respond
SpacePolitics.com
Unlike the launch of Dragon two weeks ago, or its berthing with the International Space Station three days later, the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) did not issue a statement about the successful splashdown of the Dragon last Thursday. However, speaking last Thursday morning at the World Science Festival in New York—a few hours after Dragon left the ISS and a few hours before its reentry and splashdown—OSTP director John Holdren did mention the mission as an example of innovation and public-private partnerships that the administration is trying to support.
NASA heroes, SpaceX still at odds. Can’t we reach a detente here?
Eric Berger - Houston Chronicle's SciGuy
As noted here and elsewhere, SpaceX had a brilliant success last week in completing a successful cargo spaceflight to and from the International Space Station. Following the mission CBS’s 60 Minutes included a long segment on the company and its founder, Elon Musk, on Sunday night. Today some of America’s Apollo heroes are taking exception with the segment, particularly the spot about 13 minutes in when Scott Pelley asks Musk about the cool reception that some of these NASA vets have given toward commercial space.
Kent Rominger, Vice President and Liberty Program Manager, Alliant Techsystems
Irene Klotz - Space News
After the 2003 Space Shuttle Columbia accident, it was clear to NASA chief astronaut Kent Rominger and his colleagues that the shuttle’s days were numbered. Some wanted to retire the ships immediately. Others lobbied for a fix. But all agreed it was time to get to work on a new system. Out of that, the Ares rocket was born. It didn’t last long as a government program, but that didn’t mean it was gone. Rominger, now a vice president with Alliant Techsystems (ATK), is leading the charge for a new human space transportation system built on not just the Ares launcher but also a NASA-developed prototype Orion capsule and a European second-stage rocket motor originally designed to launch the Hermes spaceplane. With these packaged together in a program called Liberty, ATK is among the contenders for the next phase of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. Rominger recently spoke with Space News correspondent Irene Klotz in Cocoa Beach, Fla.
Dozens of KSC contracted workers' IRS refunds stolen
Kevin Oliver - WFTV TV (Orlando)
Dozens of people went to file their taxes in Brevard County only to find out someone had already filed in their names and stole their refunds, WFTV learned on Monday. Authorities said many of the victims, at least 27, worked for a contractor at Kennedy Space Center. The victims either worked for or applied to G4S, which is a government contractor that employs the firefighters who work at the Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
Environmental group starts petition against SpaceX project
Sergio Chapa - KGBT TV (Rio Grande Valley)
Plans to build a spaceport in Cameron County is now facing opposition from an environmental group and the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department. Environment Texas launched a on-line petition on Friday to halt the project to build a rocket launching pad near Boca Chica Beach. The company said the SpaceX project will have a negative impact on endangered species such as the ocelot, jaguarondi, sea turtles and aplomado falcon.
Wasn’t enough ‘space’: Enterprise damaged on barge journey
Kate Sheehy - New York Post
Uh, oh, better get Maaco. The space shuttle Enterprise was involved in a fender bender when its wing struck a piling as it was being moved by barge in Jamaica Bay, officials said yesterday. The retired NASA spacecraft was traveling to a Jersey City marina on Sunday for a brief stay when its right wing tip was damaged by wooden pilings under a railroad bridge a few hundred
Space shuttle Enterprise damaged at sea, delivery to Intrepid delayed
Robert Pearlman - collectSPACE.com
Space shuttle Enterprise suffered minor wing damage on Sunday when it collided with the navigation guides for a New York railroad bridge during the first half of its sea trek to a Manhattan museum for display. Mounted atop an open-air, flat-bed barge, Enterprise was on its way from John F. Kennedy (JFK) International Airport in New York to Weeks Marine in Jersey City, NJ when the accident occurred.
Money issue hinders Space Shuttle mock up’s needed makeover
Jeremy Desel - KHOU TV (Houston)
The Space Shuttle mock up is on its final perch, but don’t expect to do more than look at it from the outside anytime soon. The shuttle mockup is poised for its new mission and is already drawing a crowd. “It is a landmark. We read a book and it says that landmarks are usually on a map,” said 9-year-old Sofia Hernandez on her visit to Space Center Houston. It is not transportation that is the issue now, it is all about cash.
Private-sector propulsion
If a privately owned company can launch a rocket, why shouldn’t one handle the mail?
John E. Sununu - Boston Globe (Opinion)
(Sununu is a former US senator from New Hampshire)
If a private rocket docks in space, can anyone hear the noise? That was the operative question as Dragon, the capsule manufactured by the company SpaceX, delivered a few odds and ends to the International Space Station and returned safely to the confines of earth late last week. Privately built and operated, it was the first of its kind. It will not be the last. Rockets don’t capture America’s imagination the way they did during the Apollo era. But the concept of privately funded space travel has, understandably, raised a few eyebrows. In any other country, and in the minds of many Americans, such an achievement was unimaginable. Making widgets is one thing, this thinking goes, but only governments can do the big stuff. Roads, bridges, airports, and even spaceships are the province of the politician, the bureaucrat, and the taxman.
SpaceX Delivers
Space News (Editorial)
One intangible that has long been missing from the U.S. human spaceflight program is audacity, a quality that can make the difference between mundane and breathtaking achievements. It’s what led, to cite the most obvious example, a U.S. president to declare, in 1961, that the nation would put a man on the Moon before the decade was out. In doing so, John F. Kennedy handed NASA a mandate to engineer what endures to this day as the crowning achievement of the Space Age. Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) is nothing if not audacious, a trait drawn directly from its founder, Internet billionaire Elon Musk. The company burst on the scene a decade ago with plans to develop a small rocket, a lofty ambition given the track record of startups in that business. SpaceX took its lumps early, suffering failures in three of five launches of its now-shelved Falcon 1 small rocket, but on May 25, it made history by becoming the first private company to build, launch and dock its own capsule to the international space station.
__________
COMPLETE STORIES
Blue Origin completes system requirements review of reusable capsule
Zach Rosenberg - FlightInternational.com
Commercial space company Blue Origin has completed the system requirements review (SRR) of its reusable Space Vehicle, which will earn the company $900,000 from NASA.
The company, founded by internet billionaire Jeff Bezos, is building Space Vehicle under a milestone-based contract with NASA, one of four awarded under the second round of commercial crew development (CCDev2) contracts.
CCDev was conceived to develop crew transportation to the International Space Station (ISS). Currently, the only human-rated transportation is provided by the Russian Soyuz, for which Roscosmos charges $60 million per seat. NASA will award $900,000 to Blue Origin for hitting the checkpoint.
The Space Vehicle (as it is formally named), a biconic capsule, will initially launch aboard the United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V, but Blue Origin plans to launch using its own launch vehicle. The company is also building a reusable suborbital vehicle called New Shepherd, at least one of which was built and flown.
New Shepherd will be launched using a proprietary reusable launch vehicle, at least one of which has been built but was destroyed during a 2011 accident. No other launch vehicles are known to have flown, though as a blanket rule the company declines to comment on its programmes.
The “naysayers” respond
SpacePolitics.com
Unlike the launch of Dragon two weeks ago, or its berthing with the International Space Station three days later, the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) did not issue a statement about the successful splashdown of the Dragon last Thursday.
However, speaking last Thursday morning at the World Science Festival in New York—a few hours after Dragon left the ISS and a few hours before its reentry and splashdown—OSTP director John Holdren did mention the mission as an example of innovation and public-private partnerships that the administration is trying to support.
“This represents an entirely new model for the American space program,” he said in comments starting at the 15:15 mark of the video, “one initiated by this administration and one that, despite the handwringing of naysayers who said it would never work, now promises to change forever the nature of US space exploration and human spaceflight.”
Although one can quibble with Holdren’s claim that this model was initiated by the current administration—the SpaceX mission is part of the COTS program, which NASA started in 2005 during the George W. Bush Administration—the mission did appear to disprove Holdren’s unnamed “naysayers” who may have been skeptical about the capabilities of commercial operators.
Then, on Sunday, CBS’s “60 Minutes” reaired a segment about SpaceX that the show first broadcast in March. “60 Minutes” did include an update about the Dragon flight to the ISS, but the core of the segment was the same, including an interview with Elon Musk where he regretted that “American heroes” had been critical of the company. “You know, those guys are heroes of mine, so it’s really tough. You know, I wish they would come and visit, and see the hard work that we’re doing here. And I think that would change their mind,” Musk said.
One of “those guys”, former NASA flight director and JSC director Chris Kraft, objected to the characterization of himself as well as former astronauts Neil Armstrong and Gene Cernan in the “60 Minutes” segment.
In a statement Kraft provided to the Houston Chronicle on the behalf of all three, Kraft said that “60 Minutes” presented “a distortion of the facts and the truth regarding SpaceX and people such as Neil Armstrong, Eugene Cernan and those of us that have been criticizing the present game plan of the U.S. Space Program.”
Kraft said they “commend” SpaceX on their recent achievement and their concerns are instead “the lack of recognition that unless the U.S. continues to advance the state of the art and invest the taxpayers money in a rational and affordable Space Program we will become a second rate nation and be left behind by those who recognize what is required.”
The statement doesn’t indicate why they waited until the second airing of the “60 Minutes” segment—after the SpaceX flight—to complain about that mischaracterization.
NASA heroes, SpaceX still at odds. Can’t we reach a detente here?
Eric Berger - Houston Chronicle's SciGuy
As noted here and elsewhere, SpaceX had a brilliant success last week in completing a successful cargo spaceflight to and from the International Space Station.
Following the mission CBS’s 60 Minutes included a long segment on the company and its founder, Elon Musk, on Sunday night.
Today some of America’s Apollo heroes are taking exception with the segment, particularly the spot about 13 minutes in when Scott Pelley asks Musk about the cool reception that some of these NASA vets have given toward commercial space.
Here’s the relevant transcript:
There are American heroes who don’t like this idea. Neil Armstrong, Gene Cernan have both testified against commercial spaceflight and the way that you’re developing it.
I was very sad to see that because those guys are heroes of mine. It’s really tough. I wish they would come and visit, and see the hardware we’re doing here. And I think that would change their mind.
They inspired you do to this, didn’t they?
Yes.
And to see them casting stones in your direction.
It’s difficult.
Did you expect them to cheer you on?
Certainly hoping they would.
What are you trying to prove to them?
What I’m trying to do is to make a significant difference in spaceflight and help make spaceflight accessible to almost anyone. And I would hope for as much support in that direction that we could receive.
What’s the problem? I received an e-mail from Chris Kraft, NASA’s first flight director, saying the 60 Minutes piece is a distortion of history and doesn’t reflect the views of those, including Kraft, Armstrong and Cernan, who have been editorializing about the Space Program.
Here’s the statement Kraft sent me on behalf of himself, Armstrong and Cernan:
What CBS and 60 Minutes did on Sunday evening was a distortion of the facts and the truth regarding SpaceX and people such as Neil Armstrong, Eugene Cernan and those of us that have been criticizing the present game plan of the U.S. Space Program.
We did not condemn the COTS Program. We commend SpaceX for their accomplishments and wish them every success in the future.
However, what they did — NASA and the US Space Industry did 50 years ago and without a road map. SpaceX had the benefit of all of this investment of the taxpayers money and without the taxpayers money today could not have accomplished the goals set by NASA — not by SpaceX.
But that is not the real story. The real story is what the U.S. did in the 1960’s revolutionized the space industry and not only Space but the entire U.S.Industry. Indeed the ROI of the taxpayers money and the resulting explosion of technology provided by this investment revolutionized the entire world.
What we (The past leaders of the U.S. Space Program) are concerned about is the lack of recognition that unless the U.S. continues to advance the state of the art and invest the taxpayers money in a rational and affordable Space Program we will become a second rate nation and be left behind by those who recognize what is required.
That’s a reasonable viewpoint, and there’s no question these spaceflight luminaries have every reason to be concerned about the direction of NASA.
But to be equally fair they have said some not very nice things about SpaceX. Here’s what Cernan had to say about the company a year ago in an interview I conducted:
Do you have any hope for commercial space efforts, like SpaceX?
It has been the commercial space industry, under NASA’s leadership and guidance, that has allowed us to get to the moon and build a shuttle and everything that has happened in the last 50 years. To entirely turn it over without any oversight to the commercial sector, which is a word I question anyway, is going to take a long time. Some of these guys are highly qualified, but some are young entrepreneurs with a lot of money, and for them it’s kind of like a hobby. Not all of them. But some of them are making claims to get into space in five years for $10 billion, and even the Russians say it’s going to take twice as long if we put our eggs into that basket. I don’t have a lot of confidence in that end of the commercial space spectrum getting us back into orbit any time soon. I’d like to hear all these folks who call themselves commercial space tell me who their investors are. Tell me where their marketplace is. A commercial venture is supposed to use private money. And who are their users? Suppose we, NASA, have no need for their services. There’s no other marketplace for them. So is it really a commercial venture, or is it not? Is it a group of guys who have stars in their eyes and want to be a big space developer? I don’t know.
I don’t think they’ll come anywhere near accomplishing what they’ve said they can do. I said before Congress, and it’s still true today, they don’t yet know what they don’t know. We, if you’ll allow me to include myself with NASA, have been doing this for half a century. We have made mistakes. We’ve lost colleagues. Don’t you think we’ve learned from some of those mistakes? You bet your life we have. They have yet to learn from those mistakes. And I’m not willing as a taxpayer to sit here and pay them to make those mistakes before they can ever get where they think they can go. Now the good news side of this is there are some of the larger aerospace companies looking into getting into it, the Boeings, the Lockheed Martins, the ATKs, are now looking to compete in the commercial side of the business. That’s a little more encouraging. Those are the folks who have been working on everything we’ve done for the last 50 years. They know how it can be done.
Well, SpaceX knows how it can be done now, too.
What would be really constructive here would be for Armstrong, Cernan and Kraft to take Elon up on his offer of a visit to the company’s rocket-building facilities. That would generate a lot of positive buzz for everyone involved, and also give them a more powerful platform from which to make comments about what NASA is doing with the rest of its budget.
Kent Rominger, Vice President and Liberty Program Manager, Alliant Techsystems
Irene Klotz - Space News
After the 2003 Space Shuttle Columbia accident, it was clear to NASA chief astronaut Kent Rominger and his colleagues that the shuttle’s days were numbered. Some wanted to retire the ships immediately. Others lobbied for a fix. But all agreed it was time to get to work on a new system.
Out of that, the Ares rocket was born. It didn’t last long as a government program, but that didn’t mean it was gone. Rominger, now a vice president with Alliant Techsystems (ATK), is leading the charge for a new human space transportation system built on not just the Ares launcher but also a NASA-developed prototype Orion capsule and a European second-stage rocket motor originally designed to launch the Hermes spaceplane. With these packaged together in a program called Liberty, ATK is among the contenders for the next phase of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.
Rominger recently spoke with Space News correspondent Irene Klotz in Cocoa Beach, Fla.
What do you think about Space Exploration Technologies Corp.’s (SpaceX) Dragon demo flight?
A private company doing what SpaceX has done is very impressive. And when you look at what we’re doing with Liberty, we’re really trying to do the same thing. If you boil it down to the differences, with ATK and our partners — Astrium and Lockheed Martin — we’re very experienced. We’re more what’s referred to as “old space.” Now, given a different set of rules, a commercial set of rules, how well does “old space” compete with SpaceX, which is kind of leading the charge in “new space?” I think that’s really what it boils down to.
We have transitioned. We’re turning over the space station to-and-from transportation and low Earth orbit missions to industry, rather than the classic NASA way, so we have to do it well. Even folks who thought that maybe that wasn’t the best thing to do initially, at this point that’s irrelevant.
With Liberty we have a whole different set of rules than we’ve had under traditional government cost-plus contracts and it’s very exciting to see what we can do. I believe Liberty will be very, very competitive.
Liberty draws on heritage components, such as the solid-rocket boosters ATK built for the space shuttle. What drove you to the choice of the composite prototype Orion capsule?
The composite pressure shell started as a research project back in 2007. NASA’s Langley Research Center led the charge. We were part of that industry team. We continued to work on it and there’s a test article that’s still going through testing to date at Marshall Space Flight Center, and it’s proven out. Composites are absolutely the way of the future and that’s our core competency at ATK. We built this test article. We have a 55,000-square-meter facility in Utah we just stood up as a composite center for the Airbus work that we do. We also do the F-35 military composites, so it just makes sense.
Our philosophy is to give the taxpayers the best value for the dollar. We want to minimize all development costs, because development can be expensive, particularly when you want a human-rated system. The requirements, the certification procedures for a human-rated system can be very, very expensive. And they need to be very thorough, is the bottom line.
Will work on Liberty capsule feed back into NASA’s Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle program?
That will be interesting to see because there are definitely synergies. I’m leveraging billions of dollars of work, but at some point my systems will change and I may be in the lead. My life-support system, for example, I probably will need before NASA needs theirs. The difference is my life-support system only needs to go to low Earth orbit. It doesn’t need to do a deep-space mission. So we have a little bit different missions that drive those systems.
How much do you intend to parallel efforts with NASA’s Space Launch System-Orion program?
Synergy is big for both NASA and Liberty. Either one alone will pay more than if we combine our efforts. When I look at the heat shield, for example, the design for NASA has to be more capable than what I need coming in from low Earth orbit. But when I look at the trades, it looks like the amount of weight I save from making it a little thinner isn’t worth the development and certification costs, so I’m just going to go with the more capable heat shield. Our idea is to take advantage of every system out there that’s been developed for humans.
Are there any intellectual property issues with the use of the Orion prototype capsule?
It’s public domain. My whole rocket is. When commercial space was rolled out, NASA basically said, “OK, industry, we’re turning over low Earth orbit to you, but you’re not on your own. Everything we have done for the last 50 years is available to you.” So, everything I’m doing with the first stage, SpaceX has the same rights to that intellectual property. Everything I’m doing with the capsule, working with Lockheed, they have the same rights. All the government hardware that we’re using and the design, it’s available to whoever would like it.
The one thing about this capsule is it’s heavy and that’s one reason there weren’t people knocking NASA down for this design. Most launchers can’t lift it.
What’s the lift capacity of Liberty compared with Falcon 9?
We’re about twice that right now. A Delta 2 was about 3,600 to 6,300 kilograms. An Atlas 5 has a wide variance as well, but probably starts at about 9,000 kilograms and winds up around 16,000 kilograms or so. Liberty can lift about 20,000 kilograms, about what a Delta 4 Heavy can put into low Earth orbit. It’s maybe a little bit more.
How does Liberty compare cost-wise?
It’s kind of interesting. A Liberty rocket can do about what a Delta 4 Heavy can do for about half the price. If you stand back and look at the two rockets, you’ll see ours is very simple. It’s one first stage, one second stage. The Delta 4 Heavy effectively has three core stages for lifting off, so there’s a lot more hardware on it, and then it has its second stage. But the truth is the vehicles were designed for totally different missions. The Delta 4 Heavy is a way better rocket for satellites and it does that very well. Liberty was designed to take humans to space station and my design does that better than any other design I’ve seen.
Can Liberty be evolved to take people and cargo beyond station orbit?
It is not being designed that way to date.
Yes, but you said the rocket is evolvable. If Liberty is selected to become a station taxi, what would need to be done to have it go beyond?
The missions I really want to target are the satellites, so I would need a third-stage, which is not in my initial plan, and I need a West Coast launch site. Those are down the road because both of those take development money and time.
Would you continue on Liberty design whether or not you’re selected for NASA funding in the next round of Commercial Crew?
ATK is absolutely committed to Liberty. The schedule I can meet is much, much better with the NASA award. The money is one thing, but as important is NASA saying, “We like that system enough to invest in it.” That’s huge. Whom NASA picks is very important in industry. It’s kind of like Consumer Reports magazine saying, “Hey, here are the ones.” NASA, they’re the experts, so who they choose is very important.
If we don’t get an award, we’ll continue at the level of funding we are today, which is a modest level. With the NASA award, then we step up big, because that’s all part of our business case.
Do you feel the Liberty system is at a disadvantage because it wasn’t selected for a funded Space Act Agreement?
Particularly in the second round what became evident is that NASA didn’t pick any launch vehicles, and what we came in with was a launch vehicle. We came out with the highest ratings of any launch vehicle in that round, but NASA came back and said they really wanted to concentrate their efforts on the spacecraft because the spacecraft have a longer way to go. It was a mixed emotion. Disappointed that we didn’t get an award? Yes. When I read the debrief, I said, “Wow. NASA loved Liberty.” NASA ranked us the highest launch vehicle, high level of confidence in our business plan and our launch vehicle.
How much is your business plan dependent on NASA?
Initially that is the business case. Without NASA we don’t go. NASA is coming up with the development dollars and they are the legitimate business in the first five years for humans. The other ones, I haven’t seen other stations developed to the point where I would invest the kind of money I’m going to if it weren’t for NASA.
Whom do you consider your closest competitor?
It’s an impressive field. All of my colleagues and friends are involved. We all care about the same thing. If you really stand back and look, SpaceX and Liberty are two that both have the entire stack. The rocket tip-to-tail is ours, so that gives us a business case that’s robust because it’s not just crew, it’s not just cargo, it’s not just satellites. It’s the combination of all three. I think that distinguishes us from the field. If you’re really looking at who’s going to be there over the long haul, who has the most control over the business case, it’s the folks who have control over the entire system, from a business point of view.
The other thing is my system was designed to carry humans, with the reliability to meet that kind of safety requirement. I think that is a discriminator for Liberty.
Dozens of KSC contracted workers' IRS refunds stolen
Kevin Oliver - WFTV TV (Orlando)
Dozens of people went to file their taxes in Brevard County only to find out someone had already filed in their names and stole their refunds, WFTV learned on Monday.
Authorities said many of the victims, at least 27, worked for a contractor at Kennedy Space Center.
The victims either worked for or applied to G4S, which is a government contractor that employs the firefighters who work at the Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
They are specially trained firefighters equipped to handle accidents and catastrophes around launch pads, but the crisis they are now trying to cope with is who stole their personal information.
Lt. Gary Sallee filed his taxes only to have his paperwork rejected because a tax return under his name and social security number was already filed.
"As time went on more and more people were getting popped and the only equation we have is the company we work for," Sallee said.
Sheriff's investigators said representatives from the company told them there has been no breach in their employee database.
Investigators said it appears the thief or thieves used an Internet tax preparer to get the stolen refunds quickly. Sheriff's agents said even the collective stolen amount doesn't meet federal standards for the FBI or other federal agencies to step in.
Authorities said they must wait until subpoenas and warrants go through with the IRS to find out where the money went and who took it.
The West Palm Beach company did not return WFTV's calls.
Workers said they are not certain it was an inside job.
"We can't blame them. We just have to work with them to find out whose to blame or where it came from," said Sallee.
Their union president said there may be other workers who still don't know if their information has been compromised, particularly those who mailed in their tax returns.
An investigator told WFTV part of the problem is the IRS gives back some refunds on credit cards, so, instead of returns going into a checking account, which can be tracked, thieves can get the refund on cards and never get caught.
Environmental group starts petition against SpaceX project
Sergio Chapa - KGBT TV (Rio Grande Valley)
Plans to build a spaceport in Cameron County is now facing opposition from an environmental group and the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department.
Environment Texas launched a on-line petition on Friday to halt the project to build a rocket launching pad near Boca Chica Beach.
The company said the SpaceX project will have a negative impact on endangered species such as the ocelot, jaguarondi, sea turtles and aplomado falcon.
In an open letter to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department (TPWD) voiced similar concerns for the project.
Cameron County Judge Carlos Cascos supports the spaceport project and spoke to Action 4 News about the petition.
Cascos and other local officials want the jobs and investment in the area.
Some opposition from environmental groups was expected for the project, he said.
“Only time will tell,” Cascos said. “The environmental impact study still has to be completed.”
Wasn’t enough ‘space’: Enterprise damaged on barge journey
Kate Sheehy - New York Post
Uh, oh, better get Maaco.
The space shuttle Enterprise was involved in a fender bender when its wing struck a piling as it was being moved by barge in Jamaica Bay, officials said yesterday.
The retired NASA spacecraft was traveling to a Jersey City marina on Sunday for a brief stay when its right wing tip was damaged by wooden pilings under a railroad bridge a few hundred yards from the Cross Bay Bridge.
“A sudden microburst of wind, measured at 35 knots, caused the . . . protective [foam] layer of the wing tip of the Enterprise to graze the protective wood piling bumpers in the water,’’ said Luke Sacks, a spokesman for the Intrepid Air and Space Museum, where the shuttle is headed.
“There was no damage to the bridge and light cosmetic damage to the protective layer.”
He said the accident would not impact the shuttle’s delivery.
An engineer aboard the barge transporting the craft to Weeks Marina called its passage by the bridge “narrow, with only a few feet clearance on each wing tip.”
“Mother Nature did not smile on us. Just as the barge entered the railroad bridge, the wind caught it,” the consulting engineer, Dennis Jenkins, said on the Web site collectSPACE.
The shuttle had been set to make its final trip to the Intrepid today, but bad weather has delayed it, officials said. It is now set to be transferred tomorrow.
Space shuttle Enterprise damaged at sea, delivery to Intrepid delayed
Robert Pearlman - collectSPACE.com
Space shuttle Enterprise damaged at sea, delivery to Intrepid delayed
Robert Pearlman - collectSPACE.com
Space shuttle Enterprise suffered minor wing damage on Sunday (June 3) when it collided with the navigation guides for a New York railroad bridge during the first half of its sea trek to a Manhattan museum for display.
Mounted atop an open-air, flat-bed barge, Enterprise was on its way from John F. Kennedy (JFK) International Airport in New York to Weeks Marine in Jersey City, NJ when the accident occurred. The shuttle, NASA's prototype for its orbiter fleet, was making the first leg of its trip to the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum, a converted World War II aircraft carrier that is docked on Manhattan's west side.
The shuttle, which never flew in space but was used for a series of approach and landing tests in the late 1970s, was originally scheduled for delivery to the Intrepid on Tuesday (June 5) but poor weather conditions have delayed its departure until at least Wednesday, the museum said in a statement posted to its website.
Scraping by the bridge
It wasn't weather but a different type of hurdle that slowed the shuttle's arrival in the Garden State on Sunday. The shuttle needed to pass under several waterway crossings to reach Jersey City, including the South Channel Subway Bridge, as well as the Cross Bay Veterans Memorial, Gil Hodges Memorial, and Verrazano- Narrows bridges.
"The railroad bridge and the Cross Bay Bridge, each presented challenges," said Dennis Jenkins, who was aboard the barge with Enterprise. "The passage through the railroad bridge was narrow with only a few feet of clearance on each wingtip, while the Cross Bay was only a few feet higher than the vertical stabilizer," he wrote in an e-mail that was shared with collectSPACE.
"Mother nature did not smile on us. Just as the barge entered the railroad bridge, the wind caught it and pushed the right wing into the bridge abutment. Fortunately, the damage seems to be cosmetic, limited to the foam that covered the wingtip. No structure or mechanisms appear to have been damaged," Jenkins wrote.
Jenkins' photos of the damage, which were also shared with collectSPACE, show Enterprise as it neared the bridge's navigation aid wooden bumpers. The shuttle's right wing scraped along the bridge barrier, which caused wood chunks to break away from the leading edge of Enterprise's elevon, or flap.
The Intrepid confirmed the damage in a statement released late Sunday.
"A sudden microburst of wind, measured at 35 knots, caused the rub panel foam protective layer of the wingtip of Enterprise to graze the protective wood piling bumpers in the water designed to bumper vessels," the museum said.
Despite the damage, the space shuttle continued on its way to New Jersey with little pause.
"The Cross Bay provided a few heart-stopping seconds, but that was mostly because we were gun-shy after the incident at the railroad bridge (the two bridges are only a few hundred yards apart)," Jenkins wrote. "The rest of the journey was completed without incident."
Enterprise arrived at Weeks Marine on Sunday evening, after it was already dark.
"We will [on Monday be able to] better assess the wingtip damage (it was late by the time we docked, with almost no light available)," Jenkins wrote.
Delayed departure
Enterprise was originally scheduled to switch barges on Monday, to one equipped with a crane to hoist the shuttle onto Intrepid's flight deck. The weather however, did not cooperate with moving the orbiter.
"The planned final leg of the journey of space shuttle Enterprise to its new home at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum has been postponed due to inclement weather which is delaying the prep work necessary to ferry and crane the shuttle to its final destination," the Intrepid advised in a statement. "A new moving date has been tentatively set for Wednesday, June 6."
Enterprise's moves, whether it is between barges or to the Intrepid, are dependent on weather and tidal conditions, the museum said.
The delay to Enterprise's arrival is not expected to affect the public opening of the Intrepid's new "Space Shuttle Pavilion," which remains set for July 19.
Money issue hinders Space Shuttle mock up’s needed makeover
Jeremy Desel - KHOU TV (Houston)
The Space Shuttle mock up is on its final perch, but don’t expect to do more than look at it from the outside anytime soon.
The shuttle mockup is poised for its new mission and is already drawing a crowd.
“It is a landmark. We read a book and it says that landmarks are usually on a map,” said 9-year-old Sofia Hernandez on her visit to Space Center Houston.
It is not transportation that is the issue now, it is all about cash.
“We still (are) needing to raise about a million eight, and as that money comes we will start the work to refurbish the outside, redo the cockpit on the inside, and make the area (is) nice down here so people can visit it,” said Richard Allen, the CEO of Space Center Houston.
That was the pitch this mockup could make up for the snub of not getting one of the three space flown craft by a higher level of visitor involvement.
That’s what 9-year-old Mary Kate Velek wants.
“In the inside there is like all the buttons and seats and cooler stuff than the outside,” she said.
The nearly 20-year-old mock up is showing its age, in Florida it was an outdoor exhibit and birds have called it home for years.
Inside the orbiter is outdated and needs to be worked on to allow people in through the access doors to both the cockpit area and the cargo bay.
Just getting the mockup to Houston cost more than a million dollars and that is all that Space Center Houston has.
“Before we do any of that construction we are going to have to raise a little bit of that $1.8 million,” Allen said.
Private-sector propulsion
If a privately owned company can launch a rocket, why shouldn’t one handle the mail?
John E. Sununu - Boston Globe (Opinion)
(Sununu is a former US senator from New Hampshire)
If a private rocket docks in space, can anyone hear the noise? That was the operative question as Dragon, the capsule manufactured by the company SpaceX, delivered a few odds and ends to the International Space Station and returned safely to the confines of earth late last week. Privately built and operated, it was the first of its kind. It will not be the last.
Rockets don’t capture America’s imagination the way they did during the Apollo era. But the concept of privately funded space travel has, understandably, raised a few eyebrows. In any other country, and in the minds of many Americans, such an achievement was unimaginable. Making widgets is one thing, this thinking goes, but only governments can do the big stuff. Roads, bridges, airports, and even spaceships are the province of the politician, the bureaucrat, and the taxman.
Credit Elon Musk, SpaceX’s CEO, with turning that view on its head. The PayPal billionaire sees a clear business opportunity built around private-sector cargo operations, satellite launches, and personal space travel. His appetite for risk may be higher than yours and mine, but he is not alone. Orbital Sciences Corporation will launch its own Antares rocket in August with a space station docking scheduled for December. Partnerships that include big firms like Boeing and Lockheed Martin aren’t far behind.
It’s not quite a space race, but it is a new era, famously initiated by the $20 million “X Prize” offered to the first private company to put a man in space. Microsoft founder Paul Allen and astronaut Burt Rutan claimed the prize in 2004. Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic anticipates that the successor craft — called SpaceShipTwo — will take paying customers aloft in 2013. To its credit, NASA has welcomed the competition, signing a $1.6 billion deal with SpaceX for a dozen more deliveries.
As a human endeavor, space flight is relatively young. But relentless innovation in computing, materials, and propulsion will continue to improve the safety, reliability, and costs of these ventures. If the private sector can conquer the boundaries of space, why can’t it be trusted to deliver first class mail? And which other areas that were once the sole purview of government could be let go as well?
While there may be many things that government should do, there are just a few, like national security, that only government should do. SpaceX reminds us how short that list really is, just as a trip to the local DMV reminds us that government doesn’t do anything especially well.
This issue — when do we need government? — reflects a recurring point of contention in the presidential campaign. In President Obama’s vision, we are a nation (like Julia, his “everywoman” campaign stand-in) whose prosperity flows from government programs like Head Start, college loans, and subsidized healthcare. When Mitt Romney argues that the country thrives on the success of companies large and small — owned by shareholders, entrepreneurs, and, yes, private-equity firms — he’s articulating a profoundly different worldview.
The point here isn’t that the private sector could have put a man on the moon in 1969. It couldn’t — and still can’t. But once an economic activity is well enough understood to predict costs, potential revenues, and risks, the door should be opened to competition. Uncle Sam’s sacred cows shouldn’t be so sacred any more.
Some of the cows are very middle-class: Even in good times, special interests argued that mortgage markets couldn’t operate without the subsidies provide by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The consequences have been disastrous. Some cows, like the federal government’s deep and complex intervention in American farming, serve more targeted interests. And some, like Amtrak and the Postal Service, are just big and fat.
Change is hard. In the end, you may find yourself defending the status quo, which is always easier. But don’t say that the private sector “can’t,” and don’t say that the private sector “won’t.” It just put a rocket in space. It can run a train cheaper, finance a decent mortgage, or deliver your mail on time. It just needs someone to give it the chance.
SpaceX Delivers
Space News (Editorial)
One intangible that has long been missing from the U.S. human spaceflight program is audacity, a quality that can make the difference between mundane and breathtaking achievements. It’s what led, to cite the most obvious example, a U.S. president to declare, in 1961, that the nation would put a man on the Moon before the decade was out. In doing so, John F. Kennedy handed NASA a mandate to engineer what endures to this day as the crowning achievement of the Space Age.
Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) is nothing if not audacious, a trait drawn directly from its founder, Internet billionaire Elon Musk. The company burst on the scene a decade ago with plans to develop a small rocket, a lofty ambition given the track record of startups in that business. SpaceX took its lumps early, suffering failures in three of five launches of its now-shelved Falcon 1 small rocket, but on May 25, it made history by becoming the first private company to build, launch and dock its own capsule to the international space station. The Dragon capsule even delivered some nonessential cargo to the station; its subsequent atmospheric re-entry, splashdown and recovery less than a week later — no small set of accomplishments — was almost anticlimactic.
The fact that Dragon and its Falcon 9 launcher were developed commercially — albeit with considerable financial assistance and incentive from the government — made the docking an event of global proportions, in contrast to the several space station visits paid each year by government-owned and -operated capsules like Russia’s venerable Progress. On a purely practical level, NASA now has a demonstrated capability at its disposal to resupply the space station; SpaceX can now begin executing on its $1.6 billion NASA contract to deliver cargo to the orbital outpost on a regular basis.
But the mission arguably carried greater significance as a symbolic victory for U.S. President Barack Obama’s embattled plan to outsource astronaut crew transportation to and from low Earth orbit. Supporters of the president’s plan were quick to identify it as such, while some prominent congressional critics tiptoed around that elephant in congratulatory statements issued during and after the mission.
One lawmaker who stood out in refusing to acknowledge SpaceX’s accomplishment was Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), who clearly views commercial crew as a threat to the heavy-lift Space Launch System (SLS) being developed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in his home state. As quoted in the Huntsville Times while the mission was in progress, Sen. Shelby said SpaceX spent “hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to launch a rocket nearly three years later than planned” and that the commercial spaceflight industry was off to a “dilatory start at best.”
Sen. Shelby’s remark — confirmed by his office — was far less damning to SpaceX than it was an indication that he’s feeling the heat. It’s true that SpaceX was 32 months late in demonstrating its cargo delivery capability, and that NASA’s financial aid to the company increased by more than 40 percent. But to put it in perspective, NASA, for an investment of less than $400 million, now has a viable space station logistics system in place, with a crew taxi service — provided by SpaceX or some other company — now looking plausible in the next few years.
Since Sen. Shelby all but invited the comparison, consider that the SLS — a rocket for which NASA and the White House have yet to identify a firm exploration requirement, never mind the funding needed to carry out such a mission — consumes nearly $2 billion per year and isn’t scheduled to make its first unmanned test flight until 2017. As a means of crew access to the space station — it was justified by lawmakers as a NASA-owned backup to commercial crew taxis — the SLS is akin to keeping an 18-wheeler in the driveway for the occasional family outing.
SpaceX has drawn a chorus of criticism over the years, much of it brought on by Mr. Musk’s brash style: He has sounded almost dismissive at times about the challenges inherent in rocketry — the Falcon 1 failures attest to the difficulty — and has a tendency to foster unrealistic expectations. There also are legitimate concerns that SpaceX is taking on too much too soon, about its ability to fly out its existing manifest on the schedule it has promised, and about its long-term financial sustainability. Audacity has its pitfalls. But one can also see an orchestrated, Washington-style campaign to discredit a company that has become the poster child for President Obama’s controversial human spaceflight policy and a threat to the entrenched contractor establishment. This was to be expected.
Even Mr. Musk’s most ardent detractors, though, would be hard pressed to question his commitment to spaceflight or SpaceX’s technical chops: The company’s track record with Falcon 9, which has logged three successes in three flights, and Dragon, which is two for two, speaks with far more authority than any commentary. SpaceX also has made it more difficult to challenge, before the fact, the viability of NASA’s crew transportation outsourcing strategy. Flying cargo and flying human beings are two different things, but the evidence is mounting that NASA is correct in saying there are multiple credible contenders for the job, even if questions persist about the affordability of keeping more than one in the game.
Now more than ever, Congress must take this into consideration in deciding how best to apportion taxpayer funds between competing yet completely different human spaceflight programs: commercial crew, which is focused on near-term access to the space station; and SLS and the Orion crew capsule, which would support deep space missions further out in the future. With SpaceX’s latest flight demonstration, in no small part a product of Mr. Musk’s audacity, the argument has tilted in favor of investing more in the president’s plan.
END
avast! Antivirus: Outbound message clean.
Virus Database (VPS): 6/5/2012
Tested on: 6/5/2012 7:06:22 AM
avast! - copyright (c) 1988-2012 AVAST Software.
No comments:
Post a Comment