Hope you can join us at our monthly NASA Retirees luncheon tomorrow, Thursday,,June 7th at Hibachi Grill, Bay Area Blvd., at 11:30 . as usual, we have the party room in the back left side of the restaurant.
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
JSC TODAY HEADLINES
1. African American Employee Resource Group (AAERG) Juneteenth Fish Fry
2. Shuttlebration Continues at Starport With the Arrival of Explorer
3. NASA Night at the Houston Dynamo
4. SAIC/S&MA Innovation Speaker Forum - Nick Skytland - TODAY
5. Free Professional Development Opportunity: HSI Brown Bag Discussion
6. The Impact of Geomagnetic Storms on the Power Grid
7. Law Enforcement Training
8. Starport Boot Camp -- Kick Your Workout into a New Gear
9. Starport Introduces Parent's Night Out
10. Johnson Space Center Astronomy Society (JSCAS) Meeting
11. Situational Leadership
12. System Safety Seminar ViTS: July 13, Noon to 3 p.m. - Building 17, Room 2026
13. Do You Know What's Going on Around the Space Industry?
________________________________________ QUOTE OF THE DAY
“ Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again more intelligently.”
-- Henry Ford
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1. African American Employee Resource Group (AAERG) Juneteenth Fish Fry
The JSC Prairie View A&M University Chapter is sponsoring the 2012 Juneteenth Celebration in conjunction with the AAERG, Boeing's Black Employee Association and the National Society of Black Engineers on Tuesday, June 19, from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. at the Gilruth Center Live Oak Pavilion. The program will start at 4 p.m. with the history of Juneteenth and a Buffalo Soldiers storytelling. Donation: $10 per person. All tickets must be purchased in advanced; no walk-ups allowed. Come enjoy great food, networking and mentoring opportunities with civil servant and contractor employees.
Carla Burnett x41044
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2. Shuttlebration Continues at Starport With the Arrival of Explorer
Stop by the Starport Gift Shop and play shuttle trivia now through Friday for your chance to win a Shuttlebration prize. Purchase shuttle launch pens at a special price of $7.50 or two for $14. "Wings In Orbit" books are still available at $65 for hardcover or $45 for soft cover. Also, there's 10 percent off all other shuttle items, including shirts, models, pens, toys, patches, commemorative items and more. Shuttle up at Starport!
Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus tickets available through June 20, with three price levels to fit any budget. Pre-sale tickets are $20 for July 14 to 15; $13 for July 21 to 22; and $27 for July 28 to 29. Don't miss the chance to take your family to this world-famous event.
Save on summer fun! Discount tickets available at Buildings 3 and 11 for Space Center Houston, AMC movies, Kemah Boardwalk, Schlitterbahn, SplashTown, Six Flags, Fiesta Texas and Sea World.
Lorie Shewell x30308 http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/
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3. NASA Night at the Houston Dynamo
Calling all soccer fans! Invite family and friends to the Houston Dynamo vs. FC Dallas on Saturday, June 16, at 4 p.m. at the new BBVA Compass Stadium. Make plans to come early to the SoccerFest Fan Zone and visit NASA's exhibit.
To purchase discounted tickets, go to: http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/Events/
Click the link for the Houston Dynamo vs. FC Dallas game and follow the remaining instructions to purchase tickets with the pass code: nasa
JSC team members, family and friends are encouraged to wear NASA shirts to the game.
Shelly Haralson x39168 http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/Events/
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4. SAIC/S&MA Innovation Speaker Forum - Nick Skytland - TODAY
The SAIC/Safety and Mission Assurance Innovation Speaker Forum hosts Program Manager of NASA's Open Government Initiative Nick Skytland TODAY, June 6, from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in Building 1, Room 966.
Topic: OpenGov
- Social Media
- Citizen Engagement Project
- Technology Accelerators
- Open Government Plan v2.0
- Open Source
- Open Data
- International Space Approval Challenge
- RHOK (Random Hacks of Kindness)
Skytland is responsible for directing the agency's Open Government Plan, with goals toward 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. He has experience planning galactic-sized hackathons, envisioning future space exploration missions, designing next generation spacesuits, training astronauts, developing open source software and encouraging new partnerships between government and industry, academia and organizations.
Joyce Abbey 281-335-2041
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5. Free Professional Development Opportunity: HSI Brown Bag Discussion
Please join the JSC Human Systems Integration (HSI) Employee Resource Group in a brown bag discussion sponsored by the JSC National Management Association.
HSI is the process by which human considerations are incorporated into the full design, development and operations life cycle. Studies have shown that this reduces design rework and significantly reduces maintenance and operations cost. We have assembled a panel of HSI practitioners to relay their experiences, successes and failures in applying HSI to NASA projects and programs of varying scope and size.
The brown bag discussion will be held on June 20 from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in Building 1, Room 360. Bring your lunch and be prepared for a relaxed and interactive discussion.
For additional information and for onsite badging assistance, please contact Carolyn Fritz at carolyn.g.fritz@nasa.gov or 281-483-2017.
Carolyn Fritz x32017
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6. The Impact of Geomagnetic Storms on the Power Grid
The electric power grid is vulnerable to fluctuations of the geomagnetic field produced when solar material interacts with the Earth's magnetosphere. This talk reviews the physics of the interaction and effects on the "smart grid."
Dr. Alfonso G. Tarditi does research in the field of plasma physics. Since 2000, he has been a contractor with JSC working on electromagnetic environmental effects and advanced space propulsion and power. He is currently project manager at the Electrical Power Research Institute in Knoxville, Tenn.
The presentation will start at noon and finish by 1 p.m. on June 22 in the Gilruth Center Rio Grande Room. We will offer lunch at 11:30 a.m. for $8; there is no charge for the presentation. Please RSVP by Friday, June 15, to George May at george.c.may@boeing.com and specify whether you are ordering lunch.
George May 281-226-8543
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7. Law Enforcement Training
A local law enforcement agency will be using building T-585 periodically between the hours of 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. for training purposes. No participants or observers are needed at this time.
Russ Tucker x38311
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8. Starport Boot Camp -- Kick Your Workout into a New Gear
Starport's incredibly popular boot camp filled up in under two weeks last session, so don't wait to sign up!
Our GREAT instructor is back, and we're keeping our phenomenally REDUCED price structure.
Early Registration (ends June 15):
- $90 per person (just $5 per class!)
Regular Registration (June 16 to 24):
- $110 per person
The workout begins on June 25. Are you ready for 18 hours of intense workouts with an amazing personal trainer to get you to your fitness goal? Don't wait!
Sign up today and take advantage of this EXTREME discount while it lasts. Register now at the Gilruth Center information desk, or call 281-483-0304 for more information.
Steve Schade x30304 http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/Fitness/RecreationClasses/RecreationProgram...
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9. Starport Introduces Parent's Night Out
Enjoy a night out on the town while your kids enjoy a night with Starport! We will entertain your children at the Gilruth Center with a night of games, crafts, a bounce house, pizza, a movie and dessert.
When: June 29 (and the last Friday of every month through September)
Where: Gilruth Center
Ages: 5 to 12
Cost: $20/first child and $10/each additional sibling if registered by the Wednesday prior to event. If registered after Wednesday, the fee is $25/first child and $15/additional sibling.
Register at the Gilruth Center front desk. Visit http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/Youth/PNO.cfm for more information.
Shelly Haralson x39168 http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/
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10. Johnson Space Center Astronomy Society (JSCAS) Meeting
In the Houston suburbs, amateur astronomers (and likely YOU) constantly fight a winged menace in the form of mosquitoes. This month's guest speaker, Robert Rodgers, a Harris County Mosquito Control Officer, will provide us with hints, tips and tricks to avoid donating blood while at the eyepiece.
Other topics covered at the meeting will include: "What's Up in the Sky this Month?" with suggestions for beginner observing; "Astro Oddities;" dates for upcoming star parties; and the always popular novice question-and-answer session. We will also share our observations and results of the June 5 Venus transit.
Our meetings are held on the second Friday of each month at 7:30 p.m. in the auditorium of the USRA building (3600 Bay Area Blvd. at Middlebrook Drive).
Membership to the JSCAS is open to anyone who wants to learn about astronomy. There are no dues, no-by laws -- you just show up to our meeting.
Jim Wessel x41128 http://www.jscas.net/
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11. Situational Leadership
When:
Session I - July 12 from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Session II - July 12 from 1 to 4 p.m.
Description: Be introduced to the concept of "Situational Leadership." This is the sanctioned approach to leadership at JSC and is taught at the "Seminar in Leadership" course. Develop a shared understanding and common vocabulary necessary for effective leadership. Gain insight into effective leadership skills. This course was designed from the Situational Leadership module taught at the "Seminar in Leadership." The objective of this course is to acquaint you with the JSC approach to leadership.
Direct links:
Session I: https://satern.nasa.gov/plateau/user/deeplink.do?linkId=REGISTRATION&schedule...
Session II: https://satern.nasa.gov/plateau/user/deeplink.do?linkId=REGISTRATION&schedule...
Derek D. Carter x46386
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12. System Safety Seminar ViTS: July 13, Noon to 3 p.m. - Building 17, Room 2026
This seminar provides an overview of system safety origins, definitions, principles and practices. It includes a discussion of NASA requirements for both the engineering and management aspects of system safety and answers the questions: Why do we do system safety? What is system safety? How do we do system safety? What does it mean to me?
Engineering aspects will include a brief discussion of three typically used analytical techniques: Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA); Fault Tree Analysis (FTA); and Probabilistic Risk Assessment (PRA). This course will not prepare attendees to manage or perform system safety, only to introduce them to the concepts. Students who have taken NASA Safety Training Center courses System Safety Fundamentals or System Safety Special Subjects should not take this course. Contractors, note: Update your SATERN profile with a current email, phone, supervisor and NASA organization code your contract supports before registering. SATERN registration required. https://satern.nasa.gov/plateau/user/deeplink.do?linkId=SCHEDULED_OFFERING_DE...
Polly Caison x41279
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13. Do You Know What's Going on Around the Space Industry?
Each day, you can keep up with all the news affecting NASA by reading the NASA News Summary. It is available on the Web at: http://www.bulletinnews.com/nasa/
It contains full-text links so that clicking the hypertext links in the write-ups will take you to the newspapers' original full-text articles. It also contains an interactive table of contents, so clicking a page number on the table of contents page will take you directly to that story. In addition to reading today's NASA news, you can also find older stories through the searchable archive of past editions. The website will also let you subscribe to receive a daily email of all the day's space news.
JSC External Relations, Office of Communications and Public Affairs x35111
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________________________________________
JSC Today is compiled periodically as a service to JSC employees on an as-submitted basis. Any JSC organization or employee may submit articles. To see an archive of previous JSC Today announcements, go to http://www6.jsc.nasa.gov/pao/news/jsctoday/archives.
NASA TV:
· 1:30 pm Central (2:30 EDT) – Exp 31 with Junction Avenue K-8 School in Livermore, CA
Human Spaceflight News
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
HEADLINES AND LEADS
Lawmaker Drops Objections to NASA's Private Space Vehicles
Andy Pasztor - Wall Street Journal
Plans to launch U.S. astronauts aboard private spacecraft got a significant boost on Tuesday as the most important Republican critic in the House of Representatives dropped objections that threatened to derail the effort. Rep. Frank Wolf, a Virginia Republican, reversed his opposition to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's plan to fund multiple developers of manned vehicles, saying in a statement he now supported the agency's basic strategy. NASA hopes to provide at least two companies with a total of more than $1 billion through 2014.
House Subcommittee Chairman Eases Commercial Crew Restriction
Frank Morring, Jr. - Aviation Week
NASA will get a little slack from Congress on how it may procure commercial crew transportation for astronauts headed to the International Space Station (ISS), but apparently no more money. Administrator Charles Bolden and Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.), who chairs the House Appropriations subcommittee that handles NASA funding, have negotiated a deal that lets the U.S. space agency pick “2.5 program partners” — two proposals for a full share of federal seed money to develop commercial crew vehicles, plus another company that will receive a “partial award.”
Lawmaker backs off plan to oppose 2nd crew craft
Next round of NASA funding this summer
James Dean - Florida Today
A senior House member dropped a demand that NASA cut short its competition to develop commercial space taxis and quickly pick a single partner to fly astronauts to the International Space Station. U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf, head of the subcommittee that oversees NASA’s budget, said Tuesday he would support full funding for two crew systems and partial funding for a third when the agency awards its next round of development funding in July or August. Those awards, expected to total $300 million to $500 million per system over nearly two years, are intended to complete designs of vehicles that could fly crews to the outpost by 2017.
Wolf Gives Ground on Commercial Crew
Brian Berger - Space News
A key congressional critic of NASA’s commercial crew acquisition strategy has backed away from his insistence that the agency truncate the ongoing competition and proceed immediately with the selection of a single contractor. Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) announced June 5 that he had reached a deal with NASA Administrator Charles Bolden that clears the agency to sign funded Space Act Agreements this summer with multiple companies developing privately operated crew transportation systems for the international space station (ISS).
Wolf announces deal with NASA on commercial crew awards
SpacePolitics.com
Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA), chairman of the Commerce, Justice, and Science subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee, has been critical of NASA’s commercial crew program, expressing his concerns about the program during hearings about the administration’s fiscal year 2013 budget proposal. In his role as subcommittee chairman, he incorporated language into the report accompanying the House version of his spending bill that would require NASA to use FAR-based contracts for future awards, and also require NASA to select either a single company in that next phase or two companies in a “leader-follower” relationship where one company got the bulk of the funding. That language was criticized by both industry and the Obama Administration as being too limiting. However, Wolf is now backing away from those provisions, announcing on Tuesday an agreement with NASA on the future administration of the commercial crew program. Wolf said NASA agreed to make no more than “2.5 awards under CCiCap (two “full” awards and one “partial” one), which can be done as SAAs.
Congress and NASA reach deal on space taxis
Orlando Sentinel's The Write Stuff
Top officials at NASA and in Congress have reached an accord on how the agency should proceed in developing “space taxis” to service the International Space Station. At issue has been the number of companies NASA would pay in order to develop rockets and capsules that could ferry NASA astronauts to the floating observatory by the end of the decade. NASA has pushed to pay four companies for the service, but the U.S. House balked at that idea earlier this year, saying that was too many, and passed legislation that would cap the number at two — with most of the money likely going to one provider. Last year, NASA doled out $269 million among four companies, including SpaceX.
Wolf Statement On Future Of Commercial Crew Program
As chairman of the appropriations subcommittee that funds NASA, I want to see America continue to be the world leader in exploration and spaceflight. Our country needs an exceptional program to return American astronauts to the moon, and ultimately beyond. Space is the ultimate 'high ground' for a nation and will play an increasingly critical role in our national security and economic growth in the 21st Century. Given recent advances in space capabilities by foreign competitors, it is essential that the U.S. move quickly to restore its domestic crew access to the International Space Station (ISS) and focus on the successful completion of our unique exploration systems, including the Space Launch System and Orion crew vehicle. During this current "gap" in U.S. access to both low earth orbit and beyond, it is imperative that NASA focus its limited resources on these critical human spaceflight missions.
Astronauts Debate Future of U.S. Space Program
Andrea Kelly - Arizona Public Media
Former NASA astronauts say the space industry needs a lofty goal in order to achieve new, great things. Apollo 17 astronaut Gene Cernan and space shuttle astronaut Mike Mullane were glad to see the success of the SpaceX Dragon capsule in launching, traveling to the International Space Station, and returning to Earth last week. But in order for the space industry to capture American interest and advance international science and technology, there has to be a goal, they say. “Forty, 50 years ago, the headlines of the newspaper said ‘Americans land on the moon.’ Here we are half a century later, headlines in the newspapers say, ‘we delivered clean laundry to the space station’” said Cernan, the last man to walk on the moon in 1972.
Path to Mars begins at Michoud
Bill Capo - WWL TV (New Orleans)
The path to the planet Mars is beginning at the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. The green, cone-shaped metal structure is the pressure hull, the metal frame, for the new Orion space capsule. A Lockheed Martin team is assembling what is described as the first spacecraft designed to take humans to another planet.
Do Budget Cuts Mean and End to Flagship Programs?
Marcia Smith - Space Quarterly
The Obama Administration's decision to cut NASA's planetary exploration budget for FY2013 and beyond generated howls of protest. The action forced the United States to shelve planned cooperation with the European Space Agency (ESA) on two Mars probes in 2016 and 2018 that were the beginning of a string of missions to fulfill the holy grail of Mars scientists - returning a sample of Mars to Earth for analysis. As the weeks have passed, however, the news turns out to be not nearly as dire as first imagined. While the future of Mars cooperation with ESA remains unclear, a smaller U.S. mission in 2016 is a possibility and NASA is working to define a mid-sized mission that it hopes to launch in 2018 or 2020.
SpaceX brings Dragon capsule through the Port of Los Angeles
Muhammed El-Hasan - Torrance Daily Breeze
Hawthorne rocket developer SpaceX brought its Dragon capsule through the Port of Los Angeles on Tuesday on its way to Texas for examination of the spacecraft and its cargo. On May 25, Dragon became the first commercially developed and built capsule to berth with the International Space Station, achieving a feat previously reserved for governments. On Thursday, Dragon disembarked from the space station and returned to Earth with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean several hundred miles from Mexico's Baja California.
SpaceX flight opens door for U.S. military payloads
Irene Klotz - Reuters
Space Exploration Technologies' unmanned Dragon capsule arrived in Los Angeles on Tuesday following a test flight for NASA that could open the door to a long-desired and more elusive customer - the U.S. military. The cargo capsule blasted off May on 22 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Base in Florida and three days later became the first privately owned spaceship to reach the International Space Station, a $100 billion project of 15 nations that flies some 240 miles above Earth. Dragon splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on May 31 and was returned by barge to the Port of Los Angeles before dawn on Tuesday.
LA prepares for big job:
Moving Space Shuttle Endeavour to the California Science Center
Associated Press
The Space Shuttle Endeavour is expected to arrive soon at its permanent home at the California Science Center in Exposition Park, but the logistics to deliver it there could be almost as complicated as any of its missions. The shuttle is more than five stories high and has a wingspan of 78 feet. Transporting the shuttle from Los Angeles International Airport to the Science Center will require developing a special route to downtown, with the possibility of needing to shut off power and other utilities along the way as well as the removal of trees to provide the space that will be needed.
Nothing like a shuttle to bring out the crowds
Bay Area Citizen
Talk about an exciting weekend! Shuttlebrations just don’t come our way very often, and about everyone in the Bay Area lined up to see our newest resident, the Space Shuttle replica, now at Space Center Houston. Including a paddle boat and a wind surfer. Thousands more lined the shores of Clear Lake, from the Kemah Boardwalk to Seabrook to Nassau Bay, all wearing big smiles and waving as the massive shuttle sailed by. We were all little kids again!
Denham and Hernandez win in Central Valley congressional race
Los Angeles Times
Central Valley voters were choosing Republican Rep. Jeff Denham and former NASA astronaut Jose Hernandez, a Democrat, to compete for a newly drawn congressional district this fall. Although the 10th Congressional District leans Republican because of its conservative voting patterns, Democrats enjoy a small registration edge. The district was expected to become a battleground as the two parties fight for control of the House of Representatives. There was no incumbent House member living within the district until Denham changed residences to seek reelection there. Democrats recruited Hernandez, who drew a lot of attention when he returned to the district to announce his run.
Cosmonaut, astronaut touching down outside parks office
Chris Moran - Houston Chronicle
Russian benefactors are bestowing upon Houston a bronze statue of cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, his arms stretched toward the heavens, as a tribute in Space City USA to the first man to orbit the Earth. Houston officials in charge of receiving the gift did so with a caveat: They asked the Russians to pay for an accompanying monument to John Glenn, the second man to achieve orbit. Gagarin made it to Houston first. He's packed in a crate at Nassau Bay. The Americans still are working on getting Glenn ready.
McDonnell Douglas Phase B 12-Man Space Station (1970)
David Portree - Wired.com
In the autumn of 1966, NASA asked President Lyndon Baines Johnson’s Bureau of the Budget (BOB) for $100 million in Fiscal Year (FY) 1968 to begin Phase B contractor studies of Earth-orbital space stations. With the Apollo Program’s culmination drawing near, the U.S. civilian space agency was eager to establish post-Apollo goals, and topping its wish-list was a space station – an Earth-orbiting laboratory for testing the effects on men and machines of long-term exposure to space conditions and for performing scientific and technological experiments and Earth and space observations. NASA had performed internal Phase A space station studies almost since it opened its doors in October 1958. If NASA had had its way, a space station would have preceded Apollo’s reach for the moon. President John F. Kennedy’s May 1961 call for a man on the moon ahead of the Russians and before the end of the 1960s had, however, preempted space station development. The FY 1968 funding request was in some sense a plea to restore NASA’s program to the traditional space station/moon/Mars progression spaceflight thinkers had promoted since the 1920s.
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COMPLETE STORIES
Lawmaker Drops Objections to NASA's Private Space Vehicles
Andy Pasztor - Wall Street Journal
Plans to launch U.S. astronauts aboard private spacecraft got a significant boost on Tuesday as the most important Republican critic in the House of Representatives dropped objections that threatened to derail the effort.
Rep. Frank Wolf, a Virginia Republican, reversed his opposition to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's plan to fund multiple developers of manned vehicles, saying in a statement he now supported the agency's basic strategy. NASA hopes to provide at least two companies with a total of more than $1 billion through 2014.
The agreement, which came after NASA conceded on some issues, is "an effort to prevent any disruption in the development of [privately owned] crew vehicles" able to shuttle crews into orbit as quickly as possible, Rep. Wolf said.
Rep. Wolf, who chairs a House appropriations panel responsible for NASA, previously included provisions in a pending bill that rejected the agency's plans for competition in this arena, while reducing funding and restricting the agency's flexibility in other ways. He argued that NASA's plans were likely to waste taxpayer dollars.
The 2011 retirement of the U.S. space-shuttle fleet left NASA totally dependent on Russian vehicles to take American astronauts to and from the international space station. A private domestic alternative isn't expected to be available until the second half of this decade.
In a detailed letter to NASA chief Charles Bolden, also released Tuesday, Rep. Wolf said the agreement with NASA represents "a path forward that partially addresses significant concerns" of the panel. Rep. Wolf agreed that as many as three rival designs could receive some NASA funding.
NASA has been basking in the success of last month's pioneering mission by Space Exploration Technologies Corp., which sent and successfully returned the first private spacecraft to visit the international space station. The feat by SpaceX, as the Southern California company is known, previously prompted accolades from other NASA critics on Capitol Hill.
Until Tuesday, however, NASA officials had been preparing for a tough legislative battle over funding levels for the program and their desire to maintain competition among prospective partners. The truce with Rep. Wolf is the most important step yet to avoid a potential legislative logjam.
To gain Rep. Wolf's support, NASA agreed to a number of procedural and oversight changes in the program, including verifying the financial health of competitors and keeping closer budget and technical controls over their performance. Some of NASA's compromises were partly symbolic, such as language specifying that crew transportation rather job creation is the primary goal of the program.
In recent months, NASA's leadership has stressed the importance of using NASA dollars to nurture a budding commercial-space industry.
In another letter released by Rep. Wolf's office, Mr. Bolden on Monday expressed his appreciation to the lawmaker for supporting "the safe and effective program we both wish to see." Reflecting the newfound harmony after months of clashes, the NASA chief scrawled a handwritten note on the bottom: "Thank you for your willingness to take a risk in trusting our team," it says, adding that "your staff has been superb."
Rep. Wolf wrote NASA's leader that concerns initially raised by his subcommittee—ranging from potential waste to possibly inadequate agency safety oversight—prompted extensive debate and now "are broadly shared" by experts. Once development work is completed, the agreement requires NASA to use traditional procurement rules and procedures to certify the safety of winning designs and then contract for specific transportation services.
The next development awards could be announced in the next few months. Multiple winners could provide an important advantage for SpaceX, because many inside and outside NASA have predicted the company would face a difficult challenge trying to snare a single award. According to some industry officials, Boeing Co. may have had the best chance of emerging as the sole winner in such a competition. Others vying for the same NASA development dollars include Sierra Nevada Corp. and Blue Origin, a start-up created and run by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos.
House Subcommittee Chairman Eases Commercial Crew Restriction
Frank Morring, Jr. - Aviation Week
NASA will get a little slack from Congress on how it may procure commercial crew transportation for astronauts headed to the International Space Station (ISS), but apparently no more money.
Administrator Charles Bolden and Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.), who chairs the House Appropriations subcommittee that handles NASA funding, have negotiated a deal that lets the U.S. space agency pick “2.5 program partners” — two proposals for a full share of federal seed money to develop commercial crew vehicles, plus another company that will receive a “partial award.”
That is a change from earlier language from Wolf’s panel directing NASA to pick one competitor and at most a partially funded backup, in an effort to save money. But the new agreement — reflected in an exchange of letters released June 5 — does not include more money for the work.
Wolf’s letter to Bolden proposes a slight boost in fiscal 2013 funding for the commercial crew program (CCP) from the $500 million the House approved, but only to the $525 million level set by the Senate. Bolden’s response urges the Senate-House conference committee that will reconcile the two NASA funding bills to approve “a conference funding outcome for the CCP above the Senate-proposed level and closer to the president’s FY 2013 request.” That request called for $836 million in CCP funds for the coming fiscal year, and Bolden told Wolf in his June 4 letter that “it is important to note that the CCP will require increased annual funding in future years to accomplish the current program plan.”
The lawmaker and the NASA administrator also agreed that future commercial crew contracting will be handled under Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) rules instead of less-restrictive Space Act Agreements (SAAs). Last year NASA shifted gears and opted for SAAs instead of FAR procurements for the Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) phase of the commercial crew development that NASA is evaluating.
Under the agreement, the 2.5 CCiCap winners announced this summer will work under FAR rules, and NASA will handle the FAR procurements “in a manner that will minimize substantive delays and programmatic risks.” The agreement, as stated by Wolf in a May 31 letter to Bolden, calls for the space agency to collect and evaluate financial data on CCiCap winners “to provide confidence that these partners are capable of meeting their obligations under the program.”
Wolf’s letter was dated the day a Space Exploration Technologies Inc. (SpaceX) Dragon cargo carrier splashed down safely in the Pacific Ocean with a load of cargo from the ISS after becoming the first commercial vehicle to reach the orbiting laboratory. In his response to Wolf, Bolden said NASA is at work planning the transition to FAR-based contracts and expects to have it “substantively complete” before the CCiCap awards are announced.
Lawmaker backs off plan to oppose 2nd crew craft
Next round of NASA funding this summer
James Dean - Florida Today
A senior House member dropped a demand that NASA cut short its competition to develop commercial space taxis and quickly pick a single partner to fly astronauts to the International Space Station.
U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf, head of the subcommittee that oversees NASA’s budget, said Tuesday he would support full funding for two crew systems and partial funding for a third when the agency awards its next round of development funding in July or August.
Those awards, expected to total $300 million to $500 million per system over nearly two years, are intended to complete designs of vehicles that could fly crews to the outpost by 2017.
“This downselect will reduce taxpayer exposure by concentrating funds on those participants who are most likely to be chosen to eventually provide service to ISS,” Wolf said in a statement.
In a June 4 letter responding to one from Wolf, NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden confirmed that Wolf’s new proposal “reflects NASA’s intentions for the Commercial Crew Program.”
In April, the House Appropriations Committee recommended NASA quickly select a single crew transportation provider to speed up its availability.
The committee said continued funding for multiple competitors — NASA this year is funding development of four spacecraft — risked wasting money in an attempt to create a commercial market for crewed orbital spaceflight.
Local leaders and commercial space advocates panned the idea, saying vehicle designs weren’t mature enough to pick a winner now, and that a longer competition would produce the best system at the best price.
The proposal was even cited in a White House threat to veto the committee’s spending plan if it reached the president.
While the Senate might not have accepted the House recommendation, Wolf’s shift ensures NASA won’t announce its awards this summer under a cloud of uncertainty as budget negotiations continue.
Wolf also said he would support the Senate’s slightly higher suggested program budget in 2013 of $525 million instead of $500 million.
Both amounts are well below the $830 million the Obama administration requested.
In his response to Wolf, Bolden said the program would need more funding in future years to stay on schedule.
He also assured Wolf that after the next development phase ends, NASA would certify and eventually procure the commercial crew services under traditional contracts.
Wolf asked NASA to assess commercial partners’ finances, management and business viability to limit the risk to taxpayers, and requested an updated multi-year “roadmap” for the program.
The Obama administration’s strategy to fly both cargo and crews commercially gained momentum last month when SpaceX successfully flew an unmanned cargo capsule to the space station and returned it to Earth, becoming the first private company to do so.
After the shuttle’s retirement last year, the U.S. must pay Russia for rides to the station until the commercial systems are ready.
Wolf Gives Ground on Commercial Crew
Brian Berger - Space News
A key congressional critic of NASA’s commercial crew acquisition strategy has backed away from his insistence that the agency truncate the ongoing competition and proceed immediately with the selection of a single contractor.
Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) announced June 5 that he had reached a deal with NASA Administrator Charles Bolden that clears the agency to sign funded Space Act Agreements this summer with multiple companies developing privately operated crew transportation systems for the international space station (ISS).
As chairman of the House appropriations subcommittee that funds NASA, Wolf authored a spending measure calling for the agency to immediately narrow the field of commercial crew competitors, either by picking a single provider now or adopting a so-called leader-follower strategy where the bulk of the money goes to the most promising company. The spending measure — the 2013 Commerce, Justice, Science Appropriations bill (H.R. 5326) approved May 10 in the House — also rejected NASA’s request for $830 million for the Commercial Crew Program, providing just $500 million for a condensed effort. Companion legislation now before the Senate would provide $525 million for commercial crew.
“I remain convinced that the approach outlined in the committee’s report is the most appropriate way forward for the program,” Wolf said in a June 5 statement. “However, in an effort to prevent any disruption in the development of crew vehicles to return U.S. astronauts to ISS as quickly as possible, I have reached an understanding with NASA Administrator Charles Bolden in an exchange of letters that will allow the upcoming Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCAP) phase to proceed under a revised, more limited management roadmap and with an [sic] fiscal year 2013 funding level at or near the Senate Appropriations Committee approved amount.”
In a letter to Bolden dated May 31 — the same day commercial crew contender Space Exploration Technologies Corp. completed its historic cargo-delivery demonstration mission to the ISS — Wolf outlined several elements of this revised approach, including:
· NASA will award Space Act Agreements “to no more than 2.5 program partners (i.e., two full awards and one partial award), with the final number of awards made representing the minimum necessary to ensure the successful achievement of the [Commercial Crew Program’s] primary objective.”
· The upcoming CCiCap awards — which NASA has said will fund a 21-month-effort to take the competing concepts through critical design review — will be “the final phase of general development funding” for commercial crew contenders. Any follow-on money will be provided only for Federal Acquisition Regulation-type certification and service contracts.
Bolden, in a June 4 letter to Wolf, confirmed those and other points and made an appeal for more commercial crew money.
“I would emphasize that it is very important that the final FY2013 funding for the [Commercial Crew Program] be as robust as possible,” he said. He said a final appropriation closer to the president’s request is “highly desirable, in that it will increase NASA’s ability to deliver the safe and effective program we both wish to see accomplished.”
He added that even more funding will be required in later years to effectively carry out the commercial crew plan.
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.), one of the more outspoken commercial crew advocates in the House, issued a statement praising the compromise.
“I am pleased that [Commercial, Justice, Science] Appropriations Chairman Frank Wolf and NASA Administrator Bolden were able to come to an agreement ensuring that the Commercial Crew Program will move forward quickly while preserving competition in the program,” Rohrabacher said. “This leadership will help bring about safe, reliable, domestic access to space for our astronauts on commercial vehicles, saving money, creating jobs in America, and leveraging our greatest strengths to maintain our international leadership in space.”
Wolf announces deal with NASA on commercial crew awards
SpacePolitics.com
Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA), chairman of the Commerce, Justice, and Science subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee, has been critical of NASA’s commercial crew program, expressing his concerns about the program during hearings about the administration’s fiscal year 2013 budget proposal.
In his role as subcommittee chairman, he incorporated language into the report accompanying the House version of his spending bill that would require NASA to use FAR-based contracts for future awards, rather than the Space Act Agreements (SAAs) NASA was planning to use for the next phase, called Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap), and also require NASA to select either a single company in that next phase or two companies in a “leader-follower” relationship where one company got the bulk of the funding. That language was criticized by both industry and the Obama Administration as being too limiting.
However, Wolf is now backing away from those provisions, announcing on Tuesday an agreement with NASA on the future administration of the commercial crew program. Wolf said NASA agreed to make no more than “2.5 awards under CCiCap (two “full” awards and one “partial” one), which can be done as SAAs. NASA agreed to vet the companies’ “financial health and viability” before making the CCiCap awards, and to ensure it has a “first right of refusal” for property developed under those awards. Future phases of the commercial crew program would be done as FAR-based contracts and not SAAs. Funding for the program would be “at or near” the $525 million in the current Senate version of the appropriations bill, up from the $500 million in the House bill.
Wolf said he reached this understanding with NASA administrator Charles Bolden “to prevent any disruption in the development of crew vehicles to return U.S. astronauts to ISS as quickly as possible”. However, this deal is clearly a win for NASA: it seemed unlikely NASA would make more than three CCiCap awards regardless of report language given the available funding, and it had already planned to transition from SAAs to FAR-based contracts in future phases of the program. The additional funding is also helpful, but as Bolden notes in a letter to Wolf on Monday confirming their understanding, funding for the program should be “as robust as possible” and closer to the administration’s request of nearly $830 million for FY13.
Bolden added a handwritten note to the end of his letter to Wolf: “Thanks for your willingness to take a risk in trusting our team. We have to maintain open lines of communication to move the nation forward. Your staff has been superb!” Those lines will likely remain open: Wolf says in his statement he will “continue to follow up with NASA to monitor the implementation of these understandings” for the remainder of this fiscal year and beyond.
Congress and NASA reach deal on space taxis
Orlando Sentinel's The Write Stuff
Top officials at NASA and in Congress have reached an accord on how the agency should proceed in developing “space taxis” to service the International Space Station.
At issue has been the number of companies NASA would pay in order to develop rockets and capsules that could ferry NASA astronauts to the floating observatory by the end of the decade.
NASA has pushed to pay four companies for the service, but the U.S. House balked at that idea earlier this year, saying that was too many, and passed legislation that would cap the number at two — with most of the money likely going to one provider. Last year, NASA doled out $269 million among four companies, including SpaceX.
In response to the House, NASA and the White House have pressed to keep their options open on the grounds that reducing the field would stifle competition.
Now it appears as if the two sides have come to a deal.
U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf, the Virginia Republican who heads the House appropriation subcommittee with NASA oversight, said today that the program would fully fund two companies — and could partially fund a third.
That’s down from as many as four companies, according to Wolf.
“This downselect will reduce taxpayer exposure by concentrating funds on those participants who are most likely to be chosen to eventually provide service to ISS,” he said in a statement.
The deal also would lay the groundwork for NASA to impose stiffer regulations on the companies competing to develop the rockets and capsules — a priority for Wolf — while giving NASA more leeway to nix contracts if it thinks aspiring companies are overselling their capability and financial health.
The accord comes at an interesting time for NASA and the commercial space business.
The agency plans to dole out the next round of awards for space taxis this summer; an effort that got a boost last week when SpaceX of California — working with NASA funds — made history when it became the first commercial company to berth a spacecraft to the station and return it safely.
Wolf Statement On Future Of Commercial Crew Program
As chairman of the appropriations subcommittee that funds NASA, I want to see America continue to be the world leader in exploration and spaceflight. Our country needs an exceptional program to return American astronauts to the moon, and ultimately beyond. Space is the ultimate 'high ground' for a nation and will play an increasingly critical role in our national security and economic growth in the 21st Century.
Given recent advances in space capabilities by foreign competitors, it is essential that the U.S. move quickly to restore its domestic crew access to the International Space Station (ISS) and focus on the successful completion of our unique exploration systems, including the Space Launch System and Orion crew vehicle. During this current "gap" in U.S. access to both low earth orbit and beyond, it is imperative that NASA focus its limited resources on these critical human spaceflight missions.
For these reasons, I have had serious concerns about NASA's management of the commercial crew program over the last two years. That is why I included language in the report accompanying the fiscal year 2013 Commerce-Justice-Science Appropriations bill, H.R. 5326, to address these concerns and direct a new management paradigm for the program. I remain convinced that the approach outlined in the committee's report is the most appropriate way forward for the program.
However, in an effort to prevent any disruption in the development of crew vehicles to return U.S. astronauts to ISS as quickly as possible, I have reached an understanding with NASA Administrator Bolden in an exchange of letters that will allow the upcoming Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCAP) phase to proceed under a revised, more limited management roadmap and with an fiscal year 2013 funding level at or near the Senate Appropriations Committee-approved amount.
As part of this understanding, NASA and the committee have affirmed that the primary objective of the commercial crew program is achieving the fastest, safest and most cost-effective means of domestic access to the ISS, not the creation of a commercial crew industry.
Additionally, NASA has stated that it will reduce the number of awards anticipated to be made this summer from the 4 awards made under commercial crew development round 2 to not more than 2.5 (two full and one partial) CCiCAP awards. This downselect will reduce taxpayer exposure by concentrating funds on those participants who are most likely to be chosen to eventually provide service to ISS.
NASA also has stated that, after the CCiCAP phase, future program funding will only come in the form of FAR-based certification and service contracts. Further, to help prevent a problematic logistical "choke point" at the beginning of the certification phase, NASA will also produce an important new procurement strategy for awarding these FAR-based contracts, which will be substantively complete prior to the awarding of CCiCAP funds.
Finally, NASA has specified that it will vet commercial crew participants' financial health and viability before providing CCiCAP funds and ensure the government's "first right of refusal" to acquire property developed under or acquired as part of the commercial crew program at a price that reflects the taxpayers' existing investment in its development.
Should any of NASA's plans and intentions change from what was agreed to in the exchange of letters, I will reevaluate the situation. I will continue to follow up with NASA to monitor the implementation of these understandings in fiscal year 2012 - both through committee actions and through appropriate outside oversight - and to ensure that these principles are reflected in any final appropriations legislation for fiscal year 2013.
Astronauts Debate Future of U.S. Space Program
Andrea Kelly - Arizona Public Media
Former NASA astronauts say the space industry needs a lofty goal in order to achieve new, great things.
Apollo 17 astronaut Gene Cernan and space shuttle astronaut Mike Mullane were glad to see the success of the SpaceX Dragon capsule in launching, traveling to the International Space Station, and returning to Earth last week. But in order for the space industry to capture American interest and advance international science and technology, there has to be a goal, they say.
The two were among nearly two dozen astronauts at Spacefest IV in Tucson. The group represented several generations of the space program, from people who walked on the moon or went on preparatory missions before that, to those who flew more recently on space shuttle missions.
They were in Tucson for the Spacefest event after the first commercial flight to the International Space Station successfully returned. Developed by SpaceX along with NASA, the Dragon craft was designed to carry crew, but took only cargo on its first flight.
It marks a change in the American space industry: NASA partnering with the private sector.
“Forty, 50 years ago, the headlines of the newspaper said ‘Americans land on the moon.’ Here we are half a century later, headlines in the newspapers say, ‘we delivered clean laundry to the space station’” said Cernan, the last man to walk on the moon in 1972.
Mullane, a three-time shuttle astronaut on Discovery and Atlantis, retired in 1990. His thinking has evolved on the topic of commercial space flight, he says.
“Initially I was a critic of it, but given how efficient they’ve been, like SpaceX has been, at developing that rocket and the capsule and the success they’ve had, I’m warming up to the idea,” he says.
The two express similar concerns about what’s next for the American space program.
“The thing that I don’t like is there’s no next great plan. I mean what we’re developing right now is technology that was developing in the '60s. We’re putting a capsule in space that can parachute back into the water," Mullane says.
The industry needs a specific goal, like the goal President John F. Kennedy set when he challenged NASA to put a man on the moon, Cernan says.
“I don’t think we have any direction in the space program today, that’s why I call it a mission to nowhere. We’re building hardware and putting people in rooms and supposedly creating technology to do what? And go where?” he asks.
Still, he says that’s not a step backward because the industry remains a place to challenge scientific and technological advances.
“It inspires young people to dream and to do things that they didn’t think they were capable of doing, and it doesn’t make any difference who’s doing it," Cernan says.
Mullane has his own story of being inspired by the unknown of space, and the prospect of being one of a select group of people who’ve been there.
“I’m a classic example of that. As a child, I was a child of the space race, I was 12 years old when Sputnik was launched, and then NASA comes along and starts launching those rockets," Mullan says. "I wanted to be an engineer, I wanted to be an astronaut someday."
But since the Apollo moon missions, and the development of a reusable space shuttle that helped build the Hubble Telescope and the International Space Station, Cernan wonders what’s next.
“I was the last man to walk on the moon 40 years ago," he says. "We don’t even have the capability to put an American on an American piece of hardware to get into low Earth orbit today.”
In his opinion, it’s not about money. By Cernan's calculation, people pay about one half of one percent of their taxes to the space program. He thinks, given a choice, maybe in a special box on their tax return, people would opt to give more money to NASA.
Both say they would support programs to send people back to the moon. NASA and all its past successes are something to be proud of, Mullane says, even as he wonders about the space program’s future.
“It is the definition of American exceptionalism and now it’s fading, it’s a dimming jewel," Mullane says."We don’t have it out there now to inspire the next generation."
Path to Mars begins at Michoud
Bill Capo - WWL TV (New Orleans)
The path to the planet Mars is beginning at the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans.
The green, cone-shaped metal structure is the pressure hull, the metal frame, for the new Orion space capsule.
A Lockheed Martin team is assembling what is described as the first spacecraft designed to take humans to another planet.
"It's great. It's great," smiled Orion Principal Engineer Joe Arves. "I can't wait to see it fully outfitted. I don't think they'll let us sit in it, but I'll at least get the chance to look in it."
Lockheed Martin designed Orion for long space missions to eventually fly to Mars, to explore asteroids and even give us a look at the far side of the moon.
"It's designed for deep space," said Arves. "The basic design originally was for a 210-day mission around the moon."
Orion sits in two pieces right now. The halves will be welded together in a high-tech process that literally mixes the metals together into one piece.
Though it looks like the Apollo capsule, Orion is one third larger, has computers 4,000 times faster than those in Apollo and 400 times faster than the Space Shuttle's computers. Orion has six windows and two hatches, and can carry four to six astronauts.
"It has all modern displays," said Arves. "It's tight. They're going to be sitting down. They can get up. We have a bathroom station in there. They have a place where they can eat."
"It's exciting, a challenge, but it's also exciting too," said Orion Manufacturing Supervisor Todd Surla, smiling.
A crew of 200 Lockheed Martin employees are building Orion. Many are from New Orleans, and some helped build the Space Shuttle external tanks, like 30-year veteran Todd Surla.
"It starts out on paper, you know, kind of in theory, you know, and then here we are, we're getting ready to fly this thing," said Surla.
"Our plan is to get through the build of this first flight, and then to start the design, the Delta design, work we have to do for the second vehicle," added Arves.
"It's nice to have a job, for one, but the transition over from the ET program on to the Orion program was pretty good," said Surla.
This is the fourth Orion capsule built by Lockheed Martin, but it is the first one that will actually fly in space, this very one.
It's called EFT-1, for Exploration Flight Test One, and when it is launched in 2014, it will be unmanned, but will be designed to test to see how well it withstands anything that astronauts on future missions might encounter.
"The first flight will reach an altitude of 3000 miles," explained Arves. "And it goes typically 150 miles to the Space Station."
Orion's Crew Module and Service Module are being built at Michoud, and the Spacecraft Adapter will be assembled here.
When welding is complete, EFT-1 will be shipped to Kennedy Space Center, where the outer skin and instruments will be added to prepare Orion for the first launch.
Do Budget Cuts Mean and End to Flagship Programs?
Marcia Smith - Space Quarterly
The Obama Administration's decision to cut NASA's planetary exploration budget for FY2013 and beyond generated howls of protest. The action forced the United States to shelve planned cooperation with the European Space Agency (ESA) on two Mars probes in 2016 and 2018 that were the beginning of a string of missions to fulfill the holy grail of Mars scientists - returning a sample of Mars to Earth for analysis.
As the weeks have passed, however, the news turns out to be not nearly as dire as first imagined. While the future of Mars cooperation with ESA remains unclear, a smaller U.S. mission in 2016 is a possibility and NASA is working to define a mid-sized mission that it hopes to launch in 2018 or 2020. Simultaneously, the agency is reformulating its overall Mars exploration strategy to create an integrated approach that responds to the needs of both the science and the human exploration goals of the agency.
With Congress preparing to restore $100-150 million of the money the President proposed to cut in FY2013, one almost has to ask what the fuss is all about. The series of missions leading to a Mars sample return in the next decade recommended by the National Research Council (NRC) in last year's planetary science Decadal Survey and NASA's reputation as a partner in international science projects remain at risk, but even those may survive.
The Budget Cut Heard 'Round the World
The Obama Administration's fiscal year (FY) 2013 budget request for NASA is $17.71 billion, a slight decrease from the $17.77 billion it received for FY2012. Of that, the request for the Science Mission Directorate (SMD) is $4.91 billion, a little less than the $5.07 billion it got for FY2012. With determination to cut the federal deficit driving everything in Washington, austerity is the watchword amid widespread sentiment that NASA did not fare badly at all.
The ruckus is because the cut to the SMD was directed at planetary science rather than spread over all the SMD disciplines, including astrophysics, heliophysics and earth science. The request for planetary science is $1.2 billion, a 21 percent cut from the $1.5 billion it got for FY2012, while the other areas get increases. Aggravating planetary scientists in particular is the increased spending on the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) with its severe cost overruns. An often heard complaint is that the money from planetary science was used to pay for those overruns though NASA officials decline to make that connection.
NASA and White House officials insist that they have nothing against planetary exploration generally or Mars specifically. Instead, the reasons for cutting that part of NASA's science program were two-fold, they say. First, with a rover (Opportunity) and two U.S. orbiters (Mars Odyssey and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter) already investigating Mars, another rover (Mars Science Laboratory/Curiosity) on the way, and another orbiter (MAVEN) scheduled for launch next year, Mars exploration is doing fine. Second, the United States is not in a financial position to commit to the long term series of expensive "flagship" missions planned for Mars sample return, of which the 2016 and 2018 missions with ESA were the first. The 2016 ESA-led ExoMars mission is an orbiter that was to include a demonstrator to test entry-descent-and-landing (EDL), while the 2018 NASA-led mission was to be a rover.
Flagships or No Flagships?
During a briefing to the NASA Advisory Council's Science Committee March 6, SMD chief John Grunsfeld said that the Obama Administration did not want to approve any more flagship missions until NASA had completed its current flagships, JWST and the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) and its rover, Curiosity. MSL also overran its budget and suffered a two-year launch delay because of technical problems.
Grunsfeld's comment prompted speculation about whether an anti-flagship sentiment was resurfacing. In the 1990s, overruns, delays and failures on large science missions led to their being derisively referred to as "Battlestar Gallaticas" after a sci-fi television show of that era. Then-NASA Administrator Dan Goldin instituted a "faster, better, cheaper" philosophy of launching smaller missions more frequently instead of large, complex flagship missions.
With the passage of time, however, it became apparent that some scientific questions could not be answered with the smaller missions and flagships returned. For Mars, it was MSL, which launched in 2011, two years late and well over budget. It will land on Mars on August 6 EDT (August 5 PDT) using a technically challenging "sky crane" design that will have mission managers holding their breath until a signal is received that it is safely on the surface.
Despite the problems with JWST and MSL, however, Paul Shawcross, Branch Chief for Science and Space at the White House's Office of Management and Budget (OMB), denies that the White House opposes flagships. He told the National Research Council's (NRC's) Space Studies Board on April 4 that "we're not against flagships" and there was no "bias against Mars." He insisted that the decision to cut Mars funding was budget-based.
Indeed, the "bible" of the planetary science community, the NRC's 2011 planetary science Decadal Survey, gave just that advice to NASA - if money becomes tight, cut flagships first.
The NRC, part of the National Academies, conducts Decadal Surveys at NASA's request for each of NASA's science disciplines every 10 years (hence the name "decadal"). These highly respected documents usually are faithfully followed by NASA and Congress because they represent a hard-won consensus of the scientists most directly involved in a scientific discipline, whether planetary science, astrophysics, heliophysics or earth science. The studies prioritize the most important scientific questions and identify missions to answer them.
The 2011 planetary science Decadal Survey, for the first time, not only identified priorities, but provided decision rules to guide NASA in the event budgets were less than expected. The study was chaired by Cornell University's Steve Squyres, best known as the "father" of the Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity. At a February meeting of NASA's Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group (MEPAG), he stressed that the overarching consensus of the planetary science community was to protect the smaller missions in the Discovery and New Frontiers programs, along with Research and Analysis (R&A) and technology development. If anything had to be cut, the Decadal Survey's advice was to go after flagships first, exactly the path the Obama Administration followed.
A New Plan for Mars Exploration
Although the Administration decided against the Mars flagship missions planned with ESA for 2016 and 2018, at his February 13 budget briefing, Grunsfeld announced that he was initiating an effort to define a more affordable mission for launch in 2018. Mars and Earth are properly aligned in their orbits around the Sun every 26 months and some of those alignments are better than others. Grunsfeld calls 2018 a "sweet spot" and does not want to waste it. He concedes, however, that budgets may mean the mission will have to wait until the next opportunity in 2020.
He is not ruling out a mission in 2016 either. One of three missions competing in the Discovery category of smaller missions for launch in 2016 is a Mars mission called Geophysical Monitoring Station (GEMS). With MAVEN getting ready for launch in 2013, it may turn out that NASA does not miss any of the planetary alignment opportunities. NASA has launched probes to Mars at every opportunity since 1996 with one exception - 2009 - and only then because MSL was not ready.
Grunsfeld created the Mars Program Planning Group (MPPG) to define options for an affordable mission for 2018. MPPG is led by former NASA Mars Exploration Program Director Orlando Figueroa and is due to make its recommendations in August. The figure of $700 million has been mentioned as a target cost for the mission. At an April 13 teleconference updating MPPG's progress, Doug McCuistion, current Mars Exploration Program Director, revealed that the money for this new Mars mission is already in his budget. Granted, budget projections beyond the current year are just that, projections, not promises, but it is a strong indication that the Obama Administration supports the idea.
One question is whether that $700 million is best spent on a Mars mission that was not identified as a priority in the Decadal Survey, but is only now being conceptualized. The whole point of the Decadal Survey is to look at all the scientific priorities for solar system exploration - not only Mars - and decide what should be done first. Squyres said at the MEPAG meeting that under the Decadal Survey's decision rules, new missions to Mars "that lead directly to sample return" have very high priority, but any mission that does not should be openly competed in the Discovery program, not given an automatic nod. Thus, if whatever emerges from the MPPG does not "lead directly to sample return," it would be inconsistent with the Decadal Survey, even though the money apparently already has been put in the Mars budget line.
Congress is very supportive of Mars exploration - and of Decadal Survey recommendations. On April 19, the House Appropriations Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS) subcommittee approved its version of the bill that will fund NASA for FY2013, adding $150 million for planetary exploration. It stipulates that the money be used for a Mars mission, but only if the NRC certifies that it is consistent with the Decadal Survey. If not, the money will go to the Decadal Survey's second priority for flagship missions, a probe to study Jupiter's moon Europa. The same day, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved its version of the bill, adding $100 million for a Mars mission, without the conditions included by the House subcommittee.
Meanwhile, Grunsfeld, a former astronaut as well as a scientist, is leading a makeover of NASA's overall Mars exploration strategy. NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden tapped Grunsfeld to lead an intra-agency NASA team to reformulate the agency's strategy for exploring Mars. The new plan is intended to address the needs of both SMD and the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate (HEOMD). Grunsfeld, HEOMD Associate Administrator Bill Gerstenmaier, Chief Scientist Waleed Abdalati and Chief Technologist Mason Peck are devising an "integrated strategy" of robotic and human space exploration to meet President Obama's mandate to send people to the vicinity of Mars in the 2030s.
International Cooperation
What does all this mean for international cooperation? NASA has a rich history of international cooperation dating back to its origin in 1958. The poster child is the 15-nation International Space Station (ISS) that brings together the United States, Russia, Canada, Japan and 11 European countries acting through ESA.
ESA is NASA's closest international partner, particularly in space science. In 2009, NASA and ESA signed an agreement to essentially merge their Mars exploration programs. As Obama Administration officials carefully point out, the agreement did not commit either side to participate in any joint missions. Rather it was a framework for ESA and NASA to work together to define "the most viable joint mission architectures." Still, the intent was clear - not simply choosing a single mission on which the two agencies would cooperate as done so many times in the past, but a new approach, joint planning for a series of missions over many years leading to a sample return from Mars.
NASA informally signaled ESA last summer that budget constraints might require a change in plans, but formal notification had to await release of the FY2013 budget in February. ESA had discussions with Russia's space agency, Roscosmos, last year to determine its level of interest in joining ExoMars. ESA and Russia also have a history of cooperation. Russia lost its Mars probe, Phobos-Grunt, in a November 2011 mishap, and was open to the possibility. It now has replaced the United States as ESA's partner on ExoMars.
NASA officials insist that international cooperation is essential to its programs and certainly wants to continue working with ESA. Jim Green, Director of NASA's Planetary Science Division, publicly praises ESA for responding "with vision and not with anger" at NASA pulling out of ExoMars. ESA's Rolf deGroot, who heads the ExoMars program, was gracious at the February MEPAG meeting. When asked if ESA might be interested in participating in whatever program emerges from the MPPG deliberations, de Groot said "We are open to discuss any opportunities for cooperation."
NASA's international partners are accustomed to the zigs and zags of the U.S. space program, not that it makes such changes any easier to digest. One may wonder why any country chooses to cooperate with us at all. The answer probably lays in the fact even at a reduced level of $1.2 billion, the NASA planetary science budget dwarfs that of any other space agency and NASA's technical prowess is unmatched.
So despite the need for extreme flexibility when cooperating with the United States, many countries do and the majority of NASA's science missions involve international cooperation. Grunsfeld estimated at the April 13 MPPG update that three quarters of NASA's science missions are international. As for the international ramifications of walking away from the 2016 and 2018 Mars missions, OMB's Joydip (JD) Kundu told the NRC Space Studies Board on April 3 that budget constraints demanded that something in SMD be cut, and whatever mission was chosen probably would have involved reneging on an international commitment.
What's Next?
The MPPG report is due in August, the same month that MSL's rover, Curiosity, will land on Mars. Whether that landing succeeds or fails could be a factor in support for future Mars probes. As noted, the $2.5 billion mission is relying on a technically challenging system called a sky crane that looks precarious in a YouTube video animation.
Though public fascination with Mars seems to transcend failures like the three that occurred in the 1990s (Mars Observer, Mars Climate Orbiter and Mars Polar Lander), prognosticating on what will happen if Curiosity fails is itself a risky business. In today's environment with every penny being counted, enthusiasm for the increases currently included in the House subcommittee and Senate committee versions of NASA's funding bill could evaporate. A successful landing, conversely, could fuel subsequent Mars budget increases.
Mars is not the only fascinating object in the solar system and scientists advocating missions to the outer planets are vying for the same pot of money. Whatever happens with Mars this year, the budget wars are far from over.
SpaceX brings Dragon capsule through the Port of Los Angeles
Muhammed El-Hasan - Torrance Daily Breeze
Hawthorne rocket developer SpaceX brought its Dragon capsule through the Port of Los Angeles on Tuesday on its way to Texas for examination of the spacecraft and its cargo.
On May 25, Dragon became the first commercially developed and built capsule to berth with the International Space Station, achieving a feat previously reserved for governments. On Thursday, Dragon disembarked from the space station and returned to Earth with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean several hundred miles from Mexico's Baja California.
The Dragon mission is part of NASA's strategy to depend on commercial enterprises to send supplies and eventually astronauts to the space station. Since retiring the space shuttle last summer, the space agency has depended on Russian Soyuz capsules to send supplies and people to the orbiting lab.
Dragon's safe return to Earth after a fiery descent through the atmosphere is significant for two main reasons. NASA hopes to use Dragon not only to send astronauts into orbit but to return them as well. Also, the space capsule would be the only vehicle that can return large quantities of experiments and other supplies from the space station.
Space Exploration Technologies Corp., as the company is officially known, plans to launch another Dragon capsule to the space station later this year.
SpaceX flight opens door for U.S. military payloads
Irene Klotz - Reuters
Space Exploration Technologies' unmanned Dragon capsule arrived in Los Angeles on Tuesday following a test flight for NASA that could open the door to a long-desired and more elusive customer - the U.S. military.
The cargo capsule blasted off May on 22 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Base in Florida and three days later became the first privately owned spaceship to reach the International Space Station, a $100 billion project of 15 nations that flies some 240 miles above Earth.
Dragon splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on May 31 and was returned by barge to the Port of Los Angeles before dawn on Tuesday.
The successful test flight not only means Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, can start working off a $1.6 billion contract with NASA to fly cargo to the space station. It also clears a key hurdle for SpaceX to compete for Department of Defense business as well, which would mean launching military satellites.
Dragon's launch was the third successive flight of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket, which debuted in June 2010.
Flying three times successfully was among the criteria the company needed to meet to become eligible to compete for military business under a new program designed to draw competition into a field now monopolized by United Launch Alliance, a partnership of Boeing and Lockheed Martin.
?"The new entrant criteria did say three launches are required (for Falcon 9) before certification can happen for national security payloads," said SpaceX Communications Director Kirstin Brost Grantham.
There are several paths toward certification, and the requirements can vary, Air Force spokeswoman Tracy Bunko said.
"?If the new entrant has a launch vehicle with a more robust, demonstrated successful flight history, then we may require less technical evaluation for certification. But, it also depends on the risk assessment of the mission," Bunko wrote in an email to Reuters.
Near term, United Launch Alliance, or ULA, will remain the sole provider of heavy- and medium-lift commercial launch services to the U.S. military with its Delta 4 and Atlas 5 rockets.
But the wall is cracking. The Air Force is expected to award a non-ULA launch services contract this year for the Deep Space Climate Observatory, a NASA Earth-monitoring satellite that is being repurposed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) into a solar observatory. The Air Force issued a request for bids on May 11.
A second satellite, the Air Force's Space Test Payload-2, also has been set aside for a new launch services provider.
ELUSIVE MARKET
In addition to 12 cargo-delivery flights for NASA, SpaceX has booked Falcon rocket flights for more than 28 other launches for a variety of companies, foreign governments and other customers.
"The one market that we have not yet been successful with is launching Defense Department satellites, although we're hopeful that we'll win one or two demonstration launches this year," Musk said after Dragon's return from orbit.
"Hopefully the successive flights of Falcon 9 in a row will give them the confidence they need to open up the defense contract for competition," he said.
Robert Bigelow, the president of privately owned Bigelow Aerospace, said the Falcon 9 would create a paradigm shift within the global launch industry.
"The Falcon 9 has clearly arrived and proven itself as a reliable and affordable launch system for NASA, the Air Force and commercial payloads," said Bigelow.
His company plans to build, fly and operate commercial space stations and habitats in orbit, and has a marketing agreement with SpaceX for flight services.
Last week, SpaceX added Intelsat as the first customer for its planned Falcon Heavy rocket, which is expected to have twice the lift capacity of ULA's Delta 4 Heavy, currently the biggest booster in the U.S. fleet.
A Falcon Heavy mission costs between $83 million and $128 million, according to SpaceX's website, a fraction of a Delta 4 Heavy rocket launch.
For now, ULA isn't worried.
"In order for a fair competition, a new entrant would need to support the full set of mission and technical requirements. In addition, entrants also will be faced with stringent government oversight, accounting and reporting requirements - none of which is part of a commercial business plan," ULA spokeswoman Jessica Rye wrote in an email to Reuters.
"ULA also understands that the issue is not about competition, but how can our customers enable the reliable delivery of important space capabilities that protect our nation and promote science at the most cost-efficient method," she added.
LA prepares for big job:
Moving Space Shuttle Endeavour to the California Science Center
Associated Press
The Space Shuttle Endeavour is expected to arrive soon at its permanent home at the California Science Center in Exposition Park, but the logistics to deliver it there could be almost as complicated as any of its missions.
The shuttle is more than five stories high and has a wingspan of 78 feet.
Transporting the shuttle from Los Angeles International Airport to the Science Center will require developing a special route to downtown, with the possibility of needing to shut off power and other utilities along the way as well as the removal of trees to provide the space that will be needed.
City Council President Herb Wesson on Tuesday brought in a motion to develop a working group of city agencies, under the Chief Legislative Analyst and City Administrative Office.
The working group will meet with California Science Center officials to look at options to minimize the environmental impact as well as disruptions to the public.
In addition, they will be tasked with finding money to cover the costs of moving the ship to its new permanent home.
Last month, it was announced the Samuel Oschin Family Foundation provided a "transformative" donation to build a facility to house the Endeavour. The foundation and Science Center officials would not say how large a donation was provided.
Endeavour was one of four shuttles retired by NASA last year. Delivery is scheduled for September or October.
Nothing like a shuttle to bring out the crowds
Bay Area Citizen
Talk about an exciting weekend!
Shuttlebrations just don’t come our way very often, and about everyone in the Bay Area lined up to see our newest resident, the Space Shuttle replica, now at Space Center Houston.
Including a paddle boat and a wind surfer.
Thousands more lined the shores of Clear Lake, from the Kemah Boardwalk to Seabrook to Nassau Bay, all wearing big smiles and waving as the massive shuttle sailed by.
We were all little kids again!
Some may grump that it’s not the real thing, but most seemed more than pleased we finally had a symbol of the space community’s 30 years of directing 135 shuttle missions.
And, most thought we might have come out best as we can climb up in this shuttle, whereas you can’t those that have flown in space.
So, take that, New York, Washington and Los Angeles!
Gwen Griffin and her crew at Griffin Communications helped organize the Weekend Shuttlebration, including a sail aboard the FantaSea with Greg Binion, the Clear Lake Shores resident and owner of the Kirby Co., which transported the mock shuttle from the shores of Kennedy Space Center to the shores of Johnson Space Center.
And swallowed the $600,000 cost. “It seemed like the right thing to do.”
At one point our yacht apparently got within 500 feet of the shuttle, which is a Coast Guard no-no. A police boat started broadcasting “You’re not to come within 500 feet of the shuttle.” Over and over and giving us very stern looks.
“You reckon they’re going to shoot us?” one camera man asked as our captain was able to speed up the boat and get within safe range.
Denham and Hernandez win in Central Valley congressional race
Los Angeles Times
Central Valley voters were choosing Republican Rep. Jeff Denham and former NASA astronaut Jose Hernandez, a Democrat, to compete for a newly drawn congressional district this fall.
Although the 10th Congressional District leans Republican because of its conservative voting patterns, Democrats enjoy a small registration edge. The district was expected to become a battleground as the two parties fight for control of the House of Representatives.
There was no incumbent House member living within the district until Denham changed residences to seek reelection there. Democrats recruited Hernandez, who drew a lot of attention when he returned to the district to announce his run.
Chad Condit, son of former Democratic Rep. Gary Condit, ran as an independent. He didn’t have nearly as much in his campaign treasury as Denham and Hernandez, but the former political consultant and state Senate aide had a good campaign organization and strong name recognition.
The other candidate running with no party affiliation was Troy McComak, a small business owner and former research and development scientist for an environmental cleanup firm. Another Democrat in the race was lawyer and certified public accountant Michael J. Barkley.
District registration is 41% Democratic, 38% Republican, and 16% of voters state no party preference.
Cosmonaut, astronaut touching down outside parks office
Chris Moran - Houston Chronicle
Russian benefactors are bestowing upon Houston a bronze statue of cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, his arms stretched toward the heavens, as a tribute in Space City USA to the first man to orbit the Earth.
Houston officials in charge of receiving the gift did so with a caveat: They asked the Russians to pay for an accompanying monument to John Glenn, the second man to achieve orbit.
Gagarin made it to Houston first. He's packed in a crate at Nassau Bay. The Americans still are working on getting Glenn ready.
Of course, this isn't a race.
The whole point, explained Minnette Boesel, Mayor Annise Parker's assistant for cultural affairs, is to honor international cooperation, not competition.
"It may have been a race to space back in 1961 and 1962, but now I think it's more about 'We're all in this together,'?" Boesel said. The United States and Russia are among the five nations operating the International Space Station.
Still, Wednesday's City Council agenda item to accept the Gagarin and Glenn gifts is the second reminder this week that Houston occasionally is a runner-up in flight. A replica space shuttle arrived at Space Center Houston on Sunday, a spectacular addition to the center, but also a consolation prize for the city after a lost political battle to secure one of the actual shuttles guided by Houstonians at Johnson Space Center during the program's 30-year history.
The works depicting the two pioneer spacefarers will be installed on a lawn in front of the city's Parks and Recreation Department office. Tranquillity Park across the street from City Hall is named for the Apollo 11 lunar landing site and features a replica of one of Neil Armstrong's footprints on the moon, but the parks office formerly was NASA headquarters. Gagarin is a 9-foot-tall bronze statue. Glenn will be portrayed on an 8-foot-6-inch tall steel panel. A dedication is tentatively scheduled for October.
The $87,000 cost of the works and their installation comes at no cost to taxpayers.
The Moscow-based International Charity Public Fund Dialogue of Cultures-United World is donating the works in celebration of the 50th anniversary of Gagarin's 1961 orbital flight that marked a triumph for the Soviet Union. It made Gagarin an international celebrity and prompted the United States to redouble its efforts to catch up to the Soviets, who launched the first satellite in 1957.
The year after Gagarin orbited Earth, Glenn made his historic orbital flight, and President John F. Kennedy delivered a speech at Rice University that reaffirmed the nation's commitment to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade.
Busts of Gagarin also have been dedicated in Chicago and Mumbai.
McDonnell Douglas Phase B 12-Man Space Station (1970)
David Portree - Wired.com
In the autumn of 1966, NASA asked President Lyndon Baines Johnson’s Bureau of the Budget (BOB) for $100 million in Fiscal Year (FY) 1968 to begin Phase B contractor studies of Earth-orbital space stations. With the Apollo Program’s culmination drawing near, the U.S. civilian space agency was eager to establish post-Apollo goals, and topping its wish-list was a space station – an Earth-orbiting laboratory for testing the effects on men and machines of long-term exposure to space conditions and for performing scientific and technological experiments and Earth and space observations.
NASA had performed internal Phase A space station studies almost since it opened its doors in October 1958. If NASA had had its way, a space station would have preceded Apollo’s reach for the moon. President John F. Kennedy’s May 1961 call for a man on the moon ahead of the Russians and before the end of the 1960s had, however, preempted space station development. The FY 1968 funding request was in some sense a plea to restore NASA’s program to the traditional space station/moon/Mars progression spaceflight thinkers had promoted since the 1920s.
The BOB turned down NASA’s request; then, in Jan. 1967, the Apollo 1 fire profoundly altered the space policy environment. NASA came under increased scrutiny and funding for post-Apollo space goals became even more restricted. Congress dealt the only approved post-Apollo manned program – the Apollo Applications Program (AAP), which would reapply Apollo lunar mission hardware to new goals, including a series of Earth-orbiting laboratories based on spent S-IVB rocket stages – a nearly half-billion-dollar funding cut in Aug. 1967.
NASA recovered from the fire – in Nov. 1967, the successful first flight test of the three-stage Saturn V moon rocket did much to restore confidence – but funding for post-Apollo programs was still not forthcoming. When NASA Administrator James Webb, who had led the agency from Apollo’s beginning, announced in September 1968 that he would step down, he told journalists that NASA was “well prepared. . .to carry out the missions that have been approved.” He added, however, that “[w]hat we have not been able to do under the pressures on the budget has been to fund new missions. . .”
Webb’s deputy, Thomas Paine, became Acting NASA Administrator. Webb, whose earliest Federal government experience dated to 1932, had deftly piloted NASA through Washington’s political shoals; Paine, by contrast, had just seven months of experience in government service. Paine displayed his inexperience almost immediately by pressing President Johnson for a space station decision in the final weeks of his Administration. Johnson deferred the decision to the next President.
Soon after President Richard M. Nixon’s Jan. 1969 inauguration, Democrat Paine submitted his resignation as was customary; Republican Nixon, however, surprised everyone by keeping him on and appointing him as Webb’s formal replacement. Paine then made another Space Station pitch. He apparently hoped that Apollo Program successes would induce the new President to give NASA a blank check for future projects.
Though the Apollo 8 Command and Service Module (CSM) had triumphantly orbited the moon and returned its three-man crew safely to Earth less than a month before his inauguration, Nixon refused to commit to new NASA programs. Instead, he postponed any decision on NASA’s future direction at least until after the newly appointed Space Task Group (STG) completed its report in Sept. 1969. Paine was a voting member of the STG, which was chaired by Vice-President Spiro Agnew.
Paine chose not to await the outcome of the STG’s deliberations. In Jan.-Feb. 1969, he oversaw creation within NASA of a Space Station Task Force, a Space Station Steering Group, and an independent Space Station Review Group. These bodies prepared a Phase B Space Station Study Statement of Work (SOW), which NASA released to industry on Apr. 19, 1969.
The SOW solicited proposals to study a 12-man Space Station, the design of which would eventually serve as a building block for a 100-man Earth-orbital Space Base. The 12-man Space Station was to reach orbit on a Saturn V rocket in 1975 and to remain in operation for 10 years. Of the contract0r effort expended in the Phase B study, 60% was to be devoted to the 12-man Space Station, 15% to its future role as part of the 100-man Space Base, 15% to an interim logistics spacecraft for delivering early crews and supplies to the 12-man Space Station, and 10% to 12-man Space Station interfaces with an advanced logistics system (specifically, a winged, fully reusable Space Shuttle).
Grumman, North American Rockwell (NAR), and McDonnell Douglas Astronautics Company (MDAC) submitted proposals. On July 22, 1969 – two days after the successful Apollo 11 moon landing – NASA awarded to NAR and MDAC Phase B Space Station study contracts worth $2.9 million each. This was a far cry from the $100 million Webb had sought in late 1966 to fund Phase B studies.
Phase B study work began formally in Sept. 1969, though the contractors had begun to put together industry teams and spend their own money on the study even before NASA issued its SOW. The MDAC and NAR Phase B study teams each included more than 30 subcontractors. NAR and MDAC were eager to move forward at their own expense because they expected that the eventual Phase C/D Space Station development contract would be extremely lucrative.
NASA’s Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC) in Houston managed the NAR Phase B study, while Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville, Alabama, managed MDAC’s work. This division of labor reflected pre-existing center/contractor relationships. MSC managed NAR’s contract to manufacture Apollo CSMs, while MSFC managed MDAC, prime contractor for the S-IVB-based AAP Orbital Workshop.
In Mar. 1969, the U.S. Department of State had come out cautiously in favor of NASA’s proposed Space Station/Space Shuttle program because it expected that it might open up opportunities for international cooperation. With that in mind, NASA invited foreign representatives to participate in the Phase B study’s quarterly reviews. In early June 1970, as the Phase B study neared its planned conclusion, the European Space Research Organization (ESRO) returned the favor by inviting NAR and MDAC to present briefings on their Phase B studies in Paris.
AAP, meanwhile, was renamed the Skylab Program in Feb. 1970. The new name reflected AAP’s abandonment of all missions not related to the Orbital Workshop. The first of two planned Skylab Orbital Workshops was designated Skylab A.
C. J. Dorrenbacher, MDAC’s Vice President for Advance Systems and Technology, began his presentation by drawing links between his company’s 12-man Space Station design and Skylab A, which he said was scheduled to launch during 1972. The Skylab Program, he told the Paris meeting, would see NASA manned spaceflight evolve from “cockpit to space ship accommodations.” He explained that Skylab would contain “many systems that are prototypes of those to be used on the Space Station,” and added that “experience in the operation, maintenance, and habitability of [Skylab] will significantly extend our knowledge and, thus, our confidence in the Space Station Program.”
Like Skylab, MDAC’s Space Station would leave Earth on a two-stage Saturn V. Designated INT-21, the rocket would comprise S-IC and S-II stages measuring 9.2 meters in diameter. This established the maximum diameter of MDAC’s Space Station. The S-II second stage would inject the bullet-shaped 34-meter-long Station into a 456-kilometer-high circular orbit inclined 55° relative to Earth’s equator. Its labors completed, the S-II stage would then detach and deorbit itself over a remote ocean area.
MDAC’s Station would comprise two main modules: the two-deck, roughly conical artificial-gravity module at its front end and the four-deck, drum-shaped core module. The 15-meter-long core module would be divided into two independent sections, each with a research deck and a living deck. The artificial-gravity module would make up a third living deck/research deck combination. Each of the three sections would have independent life-support systems and could house the entire Station crew in an emergency. The artificial-gravity and core modules would also each include an unpressurized equipment compartment.
Soon after reaching orbit, MDAC’s Station would discard a streamlined nosecone covering its front docking port. A “telescoping spoke” linking the artifical-gravity and core modules would then extend to separate the two modules by a few meters. This would expose the core module’s equipment compartment, enabling four large radio dish antennas to deploy and exposing waste heat radiators for the Station’s twin Isotope/Brayton (I/B) nuclear power units. The I/B units, which would each produce 10 kilowatts of electricity, would be designed to jettison from the Station in an emergency and safely reenter Earth’s atmosphere.
By the time of the Paris briefings, NASA had pushed back the planned launch of the 12-man Space Station to 1977. Though this move was inspired by increasingly disheartening NASA budget projections, space agency officials hoped that the two-year slip would also help to ensure that the Shuttle would be ready to deliver astronauts, supplies, equipment, and experiment modules to the orbiting Station, eliminating any need for an interim logistics vehicle. For its study, MDAC assumed a Shuttle consisting of a piloted winged Booster and a piloted winged Orbiter with a 4.6-by-18.3-meter cargo bay.
Flight controllers on Earth would remotely check out the Station’s vital systems. If it checked out as habitable, then 24 hours after it reached orbit its first 12 residents would lift off from Cape Kennedy om board a Shuttle. Eight hours later, their Orbiter would rendezvous with the Station and open its cargo bay doors. The crew would depart the cargo bay inside an 18,000-kilogram Crew/Cargo Module (CCM). MDAC’s CCM, an Apollo-CSM-sized independent spacecraft, resembled designs for drum-shaped cargo spacecraft and small space station modules based on Gemini spacecraft hardware put forward by McDonnell Aircraft as early as 1962. Gemini, which carried 10 two-man crews into Earth orbit in 1965-1966, was manufactured by McDonnell before its April 1967 merger with Douglas Aircraft created MDAC. The company probably viewed the CCM as a way of salvaging its interim logistics vehicle design in a Shuttle-based logistics resupply system.
The CCM would deploy four side-mounted engine modules and maneuver to a docking at the Station’s aft port on the core module. The astronauts would then enter the Station and begin checking out its systems. If initial Station manning came off without a hitch, the Orbiter, which would remain close by the Station but would not dock, would commence its return to Earth twenty-five hours after the CCM bearing the Station crew left its cargo bay.
A Shuttle would subsequently deliver a CCM to MDAC’s Station every 90 days with fresh astronauts and supplies. Of the CCM’s mass, about 13,000 kilograms would comprise cargo. After a new CCM docked carrying a new crew, the crew already on board the Station would board their CCM, undock, maneuver to the waiting Orbiter, and enter its cargo bay. The Orbiter would then close its cargo bay doors and return to Earth.
The 1.5-meter hatch through which the first astronauts would enter their new home would open into the core module’s central “tunnel.” Besides forming the main “artery” linking the core module’s four pressurized decks, the three-meter-diameter cylinder would provide emergency living quarters for the entire crew, a 180-day supply of emergency food, a passageway for ducts and conduits, radiation-shielded photographic film storage, and space suit storage. MDAC thus rejected the concept of a separate Space Station life boat that could evacuate the crew in the event of trouble while a Shuttle Orbiter was not present in favor of a “fall-back” shelter where the crew could await rescue.
At the forward end of the four-level core module tunnel, a 1.5-meter hatch would open into a cylindrical airlock. The airlock would occupy the center of the core module’s unpressurized equipment compartment. A hatch in the airlock wall would open into the equipment compartment, which would contain liquid and gas tanks, the twin I/B units, their waste heat radiators and power conditioning and distribution subsystems, and unpressurized storage. A 1.5-meter hatch in the airlock ceiling would open into the telescoping spoke leading to the artificial-gravity module.
The telescoping spoke would link to a central tunnel connecting the artificial-gravity module’s two decks. A 1.5-meter hatch at the forward end of the tunnel would open into a cylindrical airlock at the center of the artificial-gravity module’s unpressurized equipment module. A hatch in the airlock’s side would provide access to unpressurized storage, gas and liquid tanks, and small thrusters and propellant tanks. The equipment compartment would also include a place for the eventual installation of a third I/B power unit. A hatch in the airlock ceiling would connect to the Station’s front docking port.
Dorrenbacher told his European audience that the Station’s first crew would almost immediately begin a 30-day artificial-gravity experiment. This would entail extending the telescoping spoke to its maximum length. Six crew members would take up residence in the artificial-gravity module, while “some” would occupy a small “zero-gravity cab” inside the spoke at the Station’s center of mass.
The astronauts would then ignite the small thrusters in the artificial-gravity module’s equipment compartment to set the Station spinning at a rate of four rotations per minute about its center of mass. This would produce acceleration which the crew would feel as gravity. On Deck 1 of the core module, 19.2 meters from the center of mass, the astronauts would feel acceleration equivalent to 0.35 Earth gravities. On the artificial-gravity module’s living deck (Deck 6), 39.3 meters from the center of mass, the astronauts would feel 0.7 Earth gravities.
After a month of artificial-gravity experimentation, the astronauts would halt the Station’s rotation using the small thrusters, restoring it to a zero-gravity condition. The artificial-gravity module thrusters would carry enough propellants to permit up to four similar experiments.
Dorrenbacher described the 12-man Space Station as “a research facility to accommodate all experiment disciplines. . .a general-purpose laboratory.” Of its three experiment decks, Deck 2 would at launch from Earth be dedicated to the study of living things in zero gravity. It would include the Station’s medical dispensary and isolation ward. Deck 4 would constitute a general purpose laboratory that would serve both scientific support and engineering roles. It would include a drum-shaped experiment & test isolation facility, a mechanical lab, an electronics/electrical lab, a hard-data processing facility, an optics facility, and a small experiment airlock. Deck 5 would include a centrifuge with a pair of cabs large enough to accommodate men and experiments.
Based on NASA input, MDAC defined eight experiment disciplines for its Station. These were astronomy, space physics, space biology, Earth survey, aerospace medicine, space manufacturing, engineering/operations, and advanced technology. Not all disciplines could be accommodated simultaneously; for example, the artificial-gravity experiment series would preclude experiments which needed a stable platform and zero gravity.
Dorrenbacher then provided a rough schedule of the Station’s experiment programs. Biomedical experimentation would begin with the arrival of the first crew and continue without pause throughout the Station’s planned 10-year operational lifetime, as would “man-system integration” experiments. In general, early research not associated with the artificial-gravity experiment series would focus on Station operations and habitability. “Component test” experiments would end in early 1978, “maintenance and logistic” experiments would conclude in late 1978, and “occupancy and space living,” “contamination,” and “exposure” research would end in mid-1979.
CCMs would deliver new experiment apparatus to replace and augment that launched with the Station, Dorrenbacher told the Paris meeting. Disused experiment hardware and other equipment and furnishings would be packed into CCMs for return to Earth. He suggested that, following the conclusion of the artificial-gravity experiment series in late 1978, furnishings on Deck 6 should be returned to Earth so that it could be converted into a physics & chemistry laboratory using new apparatus delivered by CCMs.
By then, the first Attached Modules (AMs) and Free-Flying Modules (FFMs) would arrive at MDAC’s Station in a Shuttle Orbiter cargo bay. One AM, devoted to Ultraviolet (UV) Stellar Astronomy, would dock with a port on the core module’s side linking it to the deck 4 general-purpose lab. Another AM, devoted to Earth Surveys, would dock either at Deck 4's second port or at a port on Deck 2. Two FFMs, devoted respectively to Solar Astronomy and High-Energy Stellar Astronomy, would dock with the Station’s front port when they needed servicing; for example, after they had expended their supplies of photographic film. AMs would rely on the Station for electrical power, while FFMs would each sport a pair of electricity-generating solar array wings.
CCMs, meanwhile, would deliver experiment subjects: besides a steady supply of new astronauts, beginning in early 1979 they would transport to the Station small vertebrates such as rats and invertebrates such as fruit flies. Vascular plants would first reach the Station late that same year.
Also in late 1979, the general Stellar Astronomy FFM would arrive near the Station. MDAC envisioned that UV Stellar Astronomy and High-Energy Stellar Astronomy would conclude at the beginning of 1981, while Solar Astronomy, general Stellar Astronomy, small vertebrate, invertebrate, and plant studies would continue until the Station reached its planned end-of-life in 1987. Biomedical centrifuge and fluid physics AMs would arrive in late 1981, with the former remaining with the Station until end-of-life and the latter departing in late 1985. Small Vertebrates Centrifuge and Infrared Stellar Survey AMs would arrive in late 1982 and remain docked until Station end-of-life.
Late 1983 would see arrival of the Remote Maneuvering Satellite (RMS), which would take up residence in a “hangar” in the airlock linked to the Station’s front port in the artificial-gravity module. Dorrenbacher called the RMS a “subsatellite,” but did not otherwise describe its role. At about the same time, the X-Ray Telescope FFM and advanced particle & plasma physics experiment apparatus would arrive. The X-Ray Telescope FFM would operate through Station end-of-life. Some advanced physics experiments would cease in early 1985, and RMS operations and the remaining advanced physics experiments would cease in late 1986. Late 1985 would see the arrival of materials science experiment apparatus and the Cosmic-Ray Physics FFM, both of which would remain in operation through Station end-of-life.
Dorrenbacher described how the vast quantity of data generated by Station experiments could reach Earth. MDAC estimated that 9070 kilograms of magnetic tape, microfilm, exposed photographic and X-ray film, and photographic plates would need to be returned to Earth each year. The Station’s four large dish antennas would enable continuous two-way television communication direct through ground stations or through relay satellites so that Station and Earth researchers could work together continuously in real time. The antennas would be capable of transmitting up to a trillion bits (one terabyte) of data to Earth each day.
The Station’s impressive experiment capability would demand careful management of crew time. MDAC assumed that the astronauts would work around the clock, with six men on duty and six men off duty at any one time. Each 12-man crew would include eight scientist/engineers and four Station flight-crew. Four scientist/engineers and two flight-crew would work during each 12-hour shift. One scientist/engineer would serve as principal scientist; he would work with the flight-crew commander, who would have responsibility for the safety of the entire crew, to ensure that science interests were taken into account during Station operations. Two scientist/engineers would serve as principal investigator representatives; they would work directly with scientists on Earth.
Off-duty crewmembers would spend most of their time on the living decks (Decks 1, 3, and – during the artificial-gravity experiment – 6). There, Dorrenbacher explained, they would have at their disposal private staterooms with 4.6 meters of floor space for “relaxation, recreation, study, and meditation.” Each living deck would include six staterooms, which together would take up about half the deck’s floor space. Staterooms would each include a small viewport, a folding bunk, a desk, and storage cabinets.
When not in their staterooms, off-duty crewmembers could hang out in the multi-purpose wardroom, which would include portable dining tables with zero-gravity restraints in place of conventional seats. Dorrenbacher explained that the wardroom could be “quickly and easily” converted into a gym, theater, meeting room, or recreation room.
Cabinets in the galley, adjacent to the wardroom, would be kept stocked with enough food for 90 days. Crewmembers could choose to serve themselves or could take it in turns to prepare meal trays for their crewmates. Dorrenbacher told his audience that meals would be “selected for maximum palatability with various degrees of wet and even fresh foods,” but provided few details about how the food would be handled in zero gravity.
The three living decks would each include a hygiene facility. Apparently configured for men only, these would each include a toilet, two urinals, two handwashing units, a shower, a clothes-washing machine, and a clothes dryer. Hygiene facilities would be located next to the water-recycling life-support machinery on each living deck.
MDAC proposed a novel approach to Station orbit maintenance. Some processed waste water would be electrolyzed (split into oxygen and hydrogen using electricity) and the hydrogen used to fuel low-thrust orbit-reboost resistojets on the Station’s hull. MDAC calculated that water delivered to the Station in food would be sufficient to maintain its orbital altitude.
MDAC placed the core module control consoles on the living decks adjacent to the wardrooms. The artificial-gravity module would include an identical control console on Deck 5. The primary control console – the Station’s “bridge” – would be located on Deck 3. The control consoles on Decks 1 and 5 would be considered secondary. They would serve as backups for the Deck 3 primary console, and would also support experiments: they might, for example, be used to monitor data arriving from the FFMs.
Dorrenbacher then described an arbitrarily selected moment in the MDAC Station’s 10-year career to illustrate possible activities of on-duty and off-duty crewmembers. At 2030 hours Greenwich Mean Time on March 26, 1985, the flight-crew commander would be at work conducting safety checks on space suits stored on level 3 of the core module central tunnel. The shift’s other on-duty flight-crew member would, meanwhile, sample the Deck 1 water system to ensure that it contained no harmful bacteria.
Two of the scientist/engineers would be at work in the Deck 2 labs and two elsewhere. The physician would analyze crew blood and urine samples in the biomedical lab, while the psychologist would analyze data on “crew skill retention in extended zero gravity” in the man/system integration lab. The geologist/photo-optical engineer, meanwhile, would install and align sensors in the Earth Survey AM docked to Deck 2, and the astronomer/systems engineer would monitor data from the X-Ray Telescope FFM at the secondary control console on Deck 5.
The six off-duty crewmembers, having just finished their late meal, would all be found on Deck 3. The operations director, a flight-crew member, would take a shower in the hygiene facility, while the physician, a scientist/engineer, would watch a video-taped television program in his stateroom before going to sleep. The other off-duty crewmembers would be in the wardroom. The station controller, a flight-crew member, would compete against the astrophysicist, a scientist/engineer, in a simulated time-distance race on stationary exercise bikes. Nearby, the biologist and the electro-mechanical engineer, both scientist/engineers, would compete at “computer football.”
Dorrenbacher concluded his presentation by assuring his audience that MDAC’s 12-man Space Station would be a “low-cost, flexible, international research facility” built using known technology (that is, mostly adaptations and upgrades of Skylab hardware). Furthermore, its modules would be readily adaptable to future NASA/ESRO missions: specifically, to serving as building blocks in the 100-man Space Base.
As noted earlier, NASA had instructed MDAC to design its 12-man Space Station to be launched on a Saturn V. Dorrenbacher failed to mention to his European hosts, however, that NASA Administrator Paine had announced on Jan. 13, 1970, six months before the Paris briefing, that Saturn V production, already on standby, would be permanently ended, and that the last Saturn V, previously assigned to the Apollo 20 moon mission, would be reassigned to launch Skylab A. He also neglected to mention that NASA had directed NAR and MDAC in early May to begin considering designs for Space Stations that could be assembled solely from modules launched in the Shuttle Orbiter’s cargo bay.
On June 30, 1970, NASA issued Phase B extension contracts to MDAC and NAR. Less than two months after the Paris meeting (July 29, 1970), NASA directed MDAC and NAR to study only Shuttle-launched modular stations. A week later, Paine announced that he would step down as NASA Administrator. Following his departure on September 15, 1970, NASA moved rapidly to toe the line on the Nixon Administration’s emerging space policy. That policy gave lukewarm support to the Space Shuttle and left the Space Station it was meant to serve in limbo.
On Jan. 5, 1972, NASA Administrator James Fletcher announced that President Nixon’s FY 1973 NASA budget request included modest funds to begin development of a partially reusable Space Shuttle. Though little mention was made of a Space Station, Phase B studies lingered on until late in the year. On November 29, 1972, Fletcher formally abolished NASA’s Space Station Task Force and established the Sortie Lab Task Force. The Sortie Lab was intended to ride in the Shuttle Orbiter’s cargo bay, providing an interim Space Station-type research capability during Shuttle missions (“sorties”) lasting up to 30 days. In Aug. 1973, NASA and ESRO agreed that the latter should develop the Sortie Lab, which became known subsequently as Spacelab.
END
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