Happy Friday everyone.
It was great to see so many of you that were able to join us at our monthly NASA Retirees Luncheon yesterday. Especially good to see Dave and Linda O’Brien, Larry Schmidt and his wife, Deane Schwartz and his wife, Lee Reutz and his wife, Bill Reed and his wife, Alex Pope and his wife Barbara, etc. (many of you couples are becoming regulars and we are so glad to have you both join us), Mac Henderson, Marion Coody, Charlie Harlan, Gerald Reuter and many more of you regulars who we enjoy having fellowship with monthly. Thanks again to Jan Fearer for sharing her collection of NASA photos with us.
Next month --our monthly Retirees Luncheon will fall on the day after July 4th, so I am contemplating cancelling our luncheon for July or moving it to the following Thursday, July 12th. Please let me know what your preference is for our monthly Retirees luncheon.
Thanks
Have a great weekend everyone.
Friday, June 8, 2012
JSC TODAY HEADLINES
1. Invitation to Join Employee Resource Groups
2. Get Your Family Involved in a Summer Mars Challenge
3. NMA June Luncheon Program: Dr. William A. Staples, President, UHCL
4. Expedition Crew Debrief and Awards Ceremony -- Thursday, June 14, at 7:30 p.m.
5. New on I&I Website: George Takei Photos and More
6. Extensive Computer and Network Outage at JSC -- June 15 to 17
7. Reminder: JSC Siemens Desk Phone Voicemail Outage Tonight
8. POWER of One Winners Announced
9. NASA Night at the Paint Pub
10. Summer Sport Leagues -- Time is Running Out
11. Space Serenity Al-Anon Meeting Tuesday, June 12
12. Just for the Guys
13. For Parents of High School Students
14. Human Systems Academy Lecture Series
15. APPEL -- Risk Management
________________________________________ QUOTE OF THE DAY
“ It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.”
-- Eleanor Roosevelt
________________________________________
1. Invitation to Join Employee Resource Groups
The ASIA and Out & Allied Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) would like to thank the JSC community for the outstanding attendance to the George Takei event on May 29. We have received many praises for the accomplishment of the event. We would like to remind everyone that there is an open invitation to all JSC civil servants to become members of any of the five ERGs chartered at JSC, regardless of affinity or ethnicity. Participation in ERG events is open to the entire JSC community (contractors should consult with their management regarding time charges). Inclusion of a variety of perspectives and people will increase collaboration, enhance creativity and lead to the development of innovative solutions to our challenges. For more information, contact Sophia LeCour (ASIA) at 281-226-4997 or Steve Riley (Out & Allied) at 281-483-7019.
Sophia LeCour 281-226-4997 https://inclusionandinnovation.jsc.nasa.gov/employeeResourceGroups.cfm
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2. Get Your Family Involved in a Summer Mars Challenge
For 10 weeks in June, July and August, the Office of Education will share a variety of activities and online resources for JSC team members to do with kids focused on a mission to Mars, in celebration of the Mars Science Laboratory's arrival to the Red Planet later this summer. JSC families are encouraged to complete weekly activities that illustrate what's needed for a mission to Mars. Look for information on the first activity in JSC Today next Wednesday, June 13!
The hands-on activities will be fun, dynamic lessons that a parent, aunt, uncle or grandparent and a child can do together, and the online resources will be interactive experiences fit for middle school students. The activities will revolve around an aspect of the mission and, each week, a new activity and online resource will be shared.
All JSC families will be invited to the Voyage Back to School event at Space Center Houston on Aug. 16 to celebrate their summer science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) experiences and Mars challenge results.
JSC External Relations, Office of Education x40331
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3. NMA June Luncheon Program: Dr. William A. Staples, President, UHCL
The JSC National Management Association (NMA) Chapter presents Dr. William A. Staples, president, University of Houston-Clear Lake (UHCL). Dr. Staples will share details about UHCL's transformation to a four-year university.
Date: June 28
Time: 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Location: Gilruth Alamo Ballroom
Cost for members: $0
Cost for non-members: $20
RSVP due date and instructions: Close of business on June 22 at http://www.jscnma.com/Events (Click on June 28 event). Guests can register using "Click here to Register as a Guest."
For membership information and RSVP assistance, please contact Lorraine Guerra (x34262) or visit: http://www.jscnma.com/Members (Click on "Join NMA")
Cassandra Miranda x38618
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4. Expedition Crew Debrief and Awards Ceremony -- Thursday, June 14, at 7:30 p.m.
The International Space Station Expedition special event featuring Dan Burbank, Expedition 29 flight engineer and Expedition 30 commander, will be held Thursday, June 14, at 7:30 p.m. in the Space Center Houston theater. The event will consist of awards, slides, a video presentation and question-and-answer session. This event is free and open to JSC employees, contractors, friends, family members and public guests.
Jessica Ocampo 281-792-7804
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5. New on I&I Website: George Takei Photos and More
If you missed last week's visit by George Takei (Sulu from the acclaimed "Star Trek" series), you can view some of the photos that were taken during his visit here to JSC on the Inclusion and Innovation (I&I) website.
And, while you're in the website, check out Deputy Director of Engineering Steve Poulos' video as he shares a unique innovation success story.
Also, have you had questions about I&I initiatives, the newly established Employee Resource Groups or other I&I-related topics? Then, submit a question in "Ask the I&I Council" on the website for a timely response.
Visit the I&I website at:
https://inclusionandinnovation.jsc.nasa.gov/index.cfm
Sylvia Stottlemyer x39757
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6. Extensive Computer and Network Outage at JSC -- June 15 to 17
There will be extensive center computer and network service outages from 10 p.m. CDT Friday, June 15, through 3 p.m. CDT Sunday, June 17, due to a full power and cooling outage of Building 46. All Building 46 systems without an alternative, redundant or fail over capability outside Building 46 will be disrupted. A large number of services will not be available during the outage. For a full list of impacts, go to: http://ird.jsc.nasa.gov/ComputerServices/datacenter/Lists/Data%20Center%20Eve...
Impacts include loss of connectivity to several NASA and contractor offsite facilities:
- Sonny Carter Training Facility (SCTF)
- Ellington Field
- Source Evaluation Board (SEB) Network
- Gilruth Center
- Child Care Center
- SAIC (2450 NASA Parkway)
- Jacobs
- JAXA
- Raytheon
- Boeing
- Lockheed
- Honeywell
- Oceaneering
- And more. For a full list, please go to: http://ird.jsc.nasa.gov/ComputerServices/datacenter/Lists/Data%20Center%20Eve...
However, several services WILL REMAIN AVAILABLE during the outage:
- NOMAD - email system
- Remote network access via Virtual Private Network (VPN), and R2S
- VOIP (Voice over IP) phones
- JSC Internal Network (Intranet)
- Public Internet access
This outage is necessary to upgrade the third floor chilled water distribution system (in support of the new air handlers that will be installed) and to perform maintenance on the facility power distribution system.
For information on this specific activity, contact Bob Brasher at x36465.
JSC IRD Outreach x36465 http://ird.jsc.nasa.gov/
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7. Reminder: JSC Siemens Desk Phone Voicemail Outage Tonight
Voicemail for JSC's Seimens desktop phones (white phones) will be unavailable from 6 to 8 p.m. CDT tonight.
During this quarterly routine maintenance period, callers will not be able to leave voicemails and employees will not be able to access their voicemail if they use this system. All recorded messages prior to the outage will be saved and available when the voicemail system is back online. This outage does not affect the Cisco VoIP phones or voicemail.
For more on this maintenance activity by JSC's Information Resources Directorate, please contact MaryAnn Murphy at x39901.
JSC IRD Outreach x39901 http://ird.jsc.nasa.gov/
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8. POWER of One Winners Announced
Congratulations to JSC's newest POWER of One winners!
GOLD: Michael E. Fowler - ES
GOLD: Charles S. Hill - ES
GOLD: Robert R. Kowalski - RD - White Sands Test Facility
GOLD: Jennifer B. Price - DO471
SILVER: Kenneth Johnson - JS
SILVER: Carol J. McDonald - LF
SILVER: Lisa Roberts - AD
SILVER: Donn Sickorez - AH
BRONZE: Marie E. Anderson - LO
BRONZE: Paul D. Dum - DX
The POWER of One award was established to award and recognize JSC employees for their exemplary performance and direct contributions to either their organization, JSC or NASA at the agency level. Congratulations and thank you for all your hard work! If you would like to nominate someone for the POWER of One Award, visit: http://powerofone.jsc.nasa.gov/
Jessica Ocampo 281-792-7804 http://powerofone.jsc.nasa.gov/
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9. NASA Night at the Paint Pub
Since our first NASA Night at the Paint Pub filled up to maximum capacity, a second night has been scheduled. So, let your inner artist shine as you paint, drink and be merry. An artist is provided to guide you and the group to create your own piece of art.
Each artist will paint a specially designed NASA-themed portrait and get to take their masterpiece home! No experience necessary, and all art supplies are provided. Beverages are available for purchase for your enjoyment.
- June 10 at 6 p.m.
- $30/person
- Reserve your spot by June 9 by calling 281-333-2200 or going to: http://www.thepaintpub.com
Visit http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/Events/ for more information.
Shelly Haralson x39168 http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/
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10. Summer Sport Leagues -- Time is Running Out
Don't miss all the action this summer! Sign your team up at the Gilruth Center today.
2012 Summer Leagues:
- Softball registration closes on Friday, June 8 (Leagues begins June 12, 13 and 14)
- Kickball registration closes on Thursday, June 14 (League begins June 18)
- Ultimate Frisbee registration closes on Thursday, June 14 (League begins June 18)
- Soccer registration closes on Monday, June 18 (League begins June 20)
Free agent registration: (OPEN NOW) http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/Fitness/Sports/FreeAgents.cfm
Starport's league sports are open to all NASA employees, contractors, friends, family and surrounding community members.
For dates, times, divisions and prices, please visit: http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/Fitness/Sports/
Steve Schade x30304 http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/Fitness/Sports/
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11. Space Serenity Al-Anon Meeting Tuesday, June 12
"Keep it simple" is a slogan Al-Anon members use to chill out during busy, fun days of summer. Our 12-step meeting is for co-workers, families and friends of those who live with the family disease of alcoholism. We will meet Tuesday, June 12, in Building 32, Room 146, from 11 to 11:50 a.m. Visitors are welcome.
Employee Assistance Program x36130 http://sashare.jsc.nasa.gov/EAP/Pages/default.aspx
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12. Just for the Guys
This is a meeting for the male population at JSC to discuss ideas and suggestions on issues related to male stereotypes. On Thursday, June 14, at 12 noon in Building 32, Room 132, Takis Bogdanos, LPC of the JSC Employee Assistance Program, will facilitate the meeting and offer tools. Through discussion and feedback, we can expand our view of the male role on how to manage life more resourcefully. Some of the "men's issues" discussed include work and responsibility, relationships and parenting.
Takis Bogdanos x36130
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13. For Parents of High School Students
Come gain the knowledge to not only keep your students safe, but also to teach them safety measures that will reduce their risk of involvement in violence. The Employee Assistance Program is happy to present Heather Kerbow, Violence Prevention coordinator of the Bay Area Turning Point. She will present "Safety Information for Parents of High School Students" on Wednesday, June 13, at 12 noon in the Building 30 Auditorium.
Gay Yarbrough x36130
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14. Human Systems Academy Lecture Series
The Space Life Sciences Human Systems Academy is sponsoring guest lecturer Dr. Jonathan Clark, space medicine advisor and former NASA flight surgeon, who will speak on the "Human Risks of Spaceflight" on June 12 in the Building 30 Auditorium from 11 a.m. to noon. Join us and learn about the hazards associated with spaceflight. This lecture is open to the JSC community and offered as a part of the Human Systems Academy Research and Operations Integration Certification. More information on the course, including WebEx details, can be found at: http://go.usa.gov/dP0
Register through SATERN at: http://go.usa.gov/dVw (Log in to register for lecture.)
Kevin Rosenquist 281-204-1688
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15. APPEL -- Risk Management
This two-day course builds on the knowledge of NASA's approach to managing risk. It provides an opportunity to evaluate and practice application of the Risk Informed Decision Making (RIDM) and Continuous Risk Management (CRM) in the context of NASA projects and programs.
This course is designed for NASA's technical workforce, including systems engineers and project personnel who seek to develop the competencies required to succeed as a leader of a project team, functional team or small project.
This course is available for self-registration in SATERN until Monday, June 11, and is open to civil servants and contractors on a space-available basis.
Dates: Tuesday to Wednesday, June 20 to 21
Location: Building 226N, Room 174
Zeeaa Quadri x39723 https://satern.nasa.gov/learning/user/deeplink_redirect.jsp?linkId=SCHED...
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________________________________________
JSC Today is compiled periodically as a service to JSC employees on an as-submitted basis. Any JSC organization or employee may submit articles. To see an archive of previous JSC Today announcements, go to http://www6.jsc.nasa.gov/pao/news/jsctoday/archives.
Human Spaceflight News
Friday, June 8, 2012
HEADLINES AND LEADS
New Private Space Plane Passes Key Design Review
Space.com
A private space plane developer has passed a key design test, checking off another milestone on the vehicle's path toward carrying astronauts into space. The aerospace firm Sierra Nevada Corp. completed a preliminary design review (PDR) of its Dream Chaser space plane, NASA officials announced Wednesday (June 6). The review vetted the planned spacecraft's entire orbital flight program, including its mission and ground systems. The design review comes just a week after the Dream Chaser's first flight test, during which a heavy-lift helicopter carried a full-scale model of the vehicle through the skies near Denver to test its aerodynamic performance.
United Launch Alliance ready to meet competition in launch business
Mike Kelley - Huntsville Times
The third successful flight of its Falcon 9 rocket has focused attention on the capabilities of the Space X to launch major payloads, which could open launch possibilities to other customers, such as the U.S. military, according to a recent story in Space News. But United Launch Alliance, the Boeing - Lockheed Martin joint venture formed in 2005 to provide launch services to U.S. military, reconnaissance community, and other customers, sees little immediate threat to its business, according to statements from ULA spokespersons Chris Chavez and Jessica Rye. The Denver-based company, which has a major presence in north Alabama with its Decatur manufacturing, assembly, and integration facility, says it will retain its near-term monopoly on U.S. military launches.
U.S. Congress Urged To Renew Launch Liability Shield
Debra Werner - Space News
The U.S. government’s top commercial launch regulator and space industry officials urged lawmakers to support an extension of at least five years for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) launch indemnification program during a June 6 hearing of the House Science space and aeronautics subcommittee. Unless Congress acts, the FAA program created in 1988 to shield launch providers from the cost of a catastrophic accident that exceeds the amount of insurance coverage operators are required to carry is set to expire Dec. 31. Witnesses urged lawmakers to extend the liability shield saying that it provides important protection for the growing field of U.S. companies developing orbital and suborbital vehicles.
Elon Musk: The Man Who's Leading America's Charge Back to Space
Jeffrey Kluger - Time Magazine (Excerpt)
If you're looking for a way to lose billions of dollars, blow up a lot of expensive hardware and possibly even kill people in the bargain, you couldn't pick a better field than rocketry. There's a reason only governments have space programs, and that's because they've got the cash to burn and the time to waste and nobody's asking them where the profits went. That, at least, is how things were — but it's surely not how they are anymore. On May 31, the brand new Dragon spacecraft splashed down in the Pacific after a nine-day mission during which it flew to orbit, rendezvoused with the International Space Station, exchanged cargo and then made its way home without incident.
Can jumping spiders kill in space? Student’s experiment set for orbit
Jon Jensen & Rima Maktabi - CNN
Can jumping spiders still hunt for their prey in space? It may sound like science fiction or the start of a bad joke, but this is an experiment that will be carried out on the International Space Station later this year, thanks to Egyptian teenager Amr Mohamed. Mohamed, 19, from Alexandria, came up with one of the two winning entries from around the world for the YouTube Space Lab competition, backed by Professor Stephen Hawking, which asked students to design experiments for space scientists. The idea behind Mohamed’s experiment is to study how the zebra spider, which jumps on its prey rather than building a web, will hunt when it is in zero gravity.
Orbital gains after SpaceX success: Washington Mover
Kathleen Miller - Bloomberg News
Orbital Sciences Corp. (ORB) shares rose for a second day amid speculation the company would follow Space Exploration Technologies Corp.’s success in launching a capsule to the International Space Station. Shares of Dulles, Virginia-based Orbital rose 45 cents, or 4 percent, to close at $11.78 in New York. They gained 59 cents, or 5.5 percent, yesterday. The two-day increase is the biggest since April 2009. “The company could be experiencing a bit of afterglow from the recent success of SpaceX,” said Chris Quilty, an analyst with Raymond James & Associates Inc. in St. Petersburg, Florida. He has an outperform rating on the stock.
U.S. pushes for more global cooperation in space
Andrea Shalal-Esa - Reuters
The United States wants more global cooperation in space including joint war games and combined operations with allies, and is pushing for data-sharing deals with France, Japan and other countries, a U.S. defense official said in an interview. Greg Schulte, deputy assistant secretary of defense for space policy, said in an interview on Wednesday that it made sense for countries to work together in space given tight defense budgets and the increasingly congested and contested nature of space. The growing amount of space debris is also fostering cooperation in space. The U.S. Air Force is tracking 1,100 active satellites, plus 21,000 pieces of debris, about 14 percent of which stem from China destroying one of its weather satellites in 2007. Even small pieces of fast-traveling debris can damage or destroy spacecraft and the International Space Station, which is about 240 miles above Earth.
Scaled Composites Conducts SpaceShipTwo Taxi Test
Douglas Messier - Parabolic Arc
There has been renewed activity out here in Mojave on the SpaceShipTwo program as Scaled Composites gears up for a busy summer of flight testing. Scaled Composites conducted a taxi test on SpaceShipTwo on June 1 (see summary below), with the space plane spend three hours out on the runway. Three different pilots were at the controls as they tested new higher capacity brakes. WhiteKnightTwo was also flying solo over Mojave on Sunday. That is believed to be the 81st flight of SpaceShipTwo’s carrier aircraft. Scaled has not posted a test flight summary on its website yet.
Virgin Galactic shows off Las Cruces office; hopes to start flights in 2013
Brook Stockberger - Las Cruces Sun-News
Virgin Galactic has landed in Las Cruces. Well, the company already has been working in town for a coupe of years and opened an office here in February, but it held an open house event on Thursday for its Las Cruces facility, located in the building known as the Green Offices at 166 S. Roadrunner Parkway, the building with a curved bluish-green glass exterior. "We opened an office here to have a presence," said Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides. "The spaceport isn't ready yet (so operations are based in Las Cruces)." Whitesides said that the company hopes to start space flights in the second half of next year.
Virgin Galactic’s New Offices Bustling
Rene Romo - Albuquerque Journal
Virgin Galactic welcomed visitors to its new offices on the city’s East Mesa on Thursday as the pioneering company gears up for the home stretch of flight testing. Sitting in a meeting room in the company’s second-floor office in a Roadrunner Parkway building with a clear view of the Organ Mountains, Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides said the company expects to start powered test flights of its six-passenger spaceship by the end of this year. The company’s first official flight from state-built Spaceport America in southern Sierra County could occur in late 2013, with Virgin Galactic founder Sir Richard Branson and his family on board, Whitesides said.
Virgin Galactic Brings Jobs, Tourists To Las Cruces
Vanessa de la Vina - KVIA TV (El Paso)
Virgin Galactic officially opened the doors to its office in Las Cruces on Thursday. Company representatives said the office could bring in hundreds of thousands of dollars to the area. They told ABC-7 this is just the beginning of stimulating the local economy with jobs and tourism. "The attention of the world is going to be focused on those flights (into space) when we get going," George Whitesides, chief executive officer of Virgin Galactic, said.
Success of Virgin Galactic test flights will affect Space Coast
John Kelly - Florida Today (Commentary)
SpaceX grabbed the big headlines the past two weeks, launching its new space capsule to the International Space Station and returning it safely to Earth. Quietly, another company took a big step toward private flights to space. Virgin Galactic, which plans a spaceline for tourists, and Scaled Composites, its spaceship maker, got a permit from the government to begin flights from Mojave Air and Space Port in California. You’ll remember the companies as the team that won the X Prize in 2004 as the innovators who were first to fly a piloted, but wholly private spaceship beyond Earth’s atmosphere twice in two weeks.
NASA's future is a future worth funding
Houston Chronicle (Editorial)
Call it giving hand-me-downs to a younger brother, or charity to the needy, but we're glad to see NASA get some help from the Department of Defense, which donated two unused space telescopes to the cash-strapped space agency. NASA will likely use the Hubble-like telescopes, which were originally built for the National Reconnaissance Office, to study dark energy - the theoretical force that explains why the universe seems to be expanding faster, rather than being slowed by gravity. But these telescopes are also a study in another kind of unexpected expansion: that within the military budget. While NASA has suffered from budget woes over the last several years, the National Reconnaissance Office has two space satellites it doesn't need. Something is wrong with the way Congress is funding projects, and it doesn't take an infrared telescope to see it.
“Examinations of Some Kind:” The Walk of Ed White
Ben Evans - AmericaSpace.org
Forty-seven years ago, this week, the United States took a huge step forward in its drive to land a man on the Moon. Aboard Gemini IV, astronauts Jim McDivitt and Ed White spent four days in orbit – longer than any previous American crew – and supported their nation’s first ‘spacewalk’. Neither accomplishment was a true ‘first’, for the Soviets had already done both, but for a relieved America the mission offered tangible proof that the lunar goal was in sight. McDivitt and White’s voyage is a case of being in the right place at the right time. When their names were announced in July 1964, Gemini Deputy Manager Kenneth Kleinknecht mentioned that one of them might perform a ‘stand-up EVA’, by opening the hatch and poking his head into the void of space. Yet it would take several months, and no small amount of lobbying by the astronauts, before such plans bore fruit.
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COMPLETE STORIES
New Private Space Plane Passes Key Design Review
Space.com
A private space plane developer has passed a key design test, checking off another milestone on the vehicle's path toward carrying astronauts into space.
The aerospace firm Sierra Nevada Corp. completed a preliminary design review (PDR) of its Dream Chaser space plane, NASA officials announced Wednesday (June 6). The review vetted the planned spacecraft's entire orbital flight program, including its mission and ground systems.
The design review comes just a week after the Dream Chaser's first flight test, during which a heavy-lift helicopter carried a full-scale model of the vehicle through the skies near Denver to test its aerodynamic performance.
"Our program includes 12 industrial partners, seven NASA centers and three universities from over 20 states who helped us achieve two major program milestones this week," said Mark Sirangelo, head of Sierra Nevada's Space Systems group, in a statement. "With the completion of PDR and the beginning of our vehicle's flight test program, the Dream Chaser program has now entered the next phase of its development."
The Dream Chaser, which looks like a miniature version of NASA's space shuttle, is designed to carry up to seven astronauts. It will launch vertically atop an Atlas 5 rocket and land horizontally on a runway, like a plane.
Sierra Nevada officials are hoping to conduct the first approach and landing tests with the Dream Chaser later this summer, and they've said the vehicle should be operational by 2016.
The Colorado-based Sierra Nevada is one of four companies that have received funding over the last two years from NASA's Commercial Crew Program (CCP), which seeks to spur the development of private American spacecraft capable of carrying astronauts to the International Space Station. The other three firms to get money are Blue Origin, Boeing and SpaceX.
NASA hopes at least two of these companies can have vehicles up and running by 2017. After the retirement of the space shuttle program last year, the agency became dependent on Russian Soyuz vehicles to ferry its spaceflyers to and from low-Earth orbit.
Blue Origin is developing a biconic craft called the Space Vehicle, while Boeing and SpaceX are working on capsules, called the CST-100 and Dragon, respectively.
Last month, Dragon became the first private vehicle to dock with the space station during a historic demonstration mission that aimed to determine if the capsule was ready to start making a series of 12 robotic cargo runs to the orbiting lab for NASA.
SpaceX is also developing a manned version of Dragon, which it hopes will start carrying astronauts within the next three years or so. Blue Origin and Boeing are also making good progress, NASA officials said.
"As CCP's partners meet these critical milestones, we are moving in the right direction in our combined effort to advance commercial capabilities that could eventually transport NASA astronauts," NASA CCP program manager Ed Mango said.
United Launch Alliance ready to meet competition in launch business
Mike Kelley - Huntsville Times
The third successful flight of its Falcon 9 rocket has focused attention on the capabilities of the Space X to launch major payloads, which could open launch possibilities to other customers, such as the U.S. military, according to a recent story in Space News.
But United Launch Alliance, the Boeing - Lockheed Martin joint venture formed in 2005 to provide launch services to U.S. military, reconnaissance community, and other customers, sees little immediate threat to its business, according to statements from ULA spokespersons Chris Chavez and Jessica Rye.
The Denver-based company, which has a major presence in north Alabama with its Decatur manufacturing, assembly, and integration facility, says it will retain its near-term monopoly on U.S. military launches.
"What they've accomplished is commendable," Chavez said. "However, United Launch Alliance has always been committed to mission success. ULA has more than 100 years combined experience with two heritage providers which lowers cost, increases mission assurance and enables operational flexibility. With more than 60 successful launches in just over five years, we are confident ULA's proven system. We're ready to compete on a level playing field with anyone. "
Space X, as Space Exploration Technologies is popularly known, succeeded last week in sending its Dragon cargo capsule to a rendezvous with the International Space Station, launched by its Falcon 9 heavy-lift rocket. The May 31 splashdown of the capsule in the Pacific Ocean marked the end of a successful mission that has boosted Space X's national launch stature.
However, Rye says any new entrant into the field has a several major hurdles to clear before being certified by the military for launch missions.
"Our customers, including the Air Force, National Reconnaissance Office and NASA, have a rigorous process to evaluate and select a new entrant to support their critical missions. ULA is not aware of any new entrant that is required to meet all the requirements that were defined in the original EELV program and that ULA is compliant with. 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 â?? none of which is part of a commercial business plan," Rye wrote in an email.
Chavez said the Air Force requires a mix of government, commercial and civilian launches before a company can be completely certified to perform government launches. He doesn't see Space X or other newcomers becoming serious competitors to ULA "until at least 2015 or 2016."
"We've got a full (launch) manifest, and we've been in this business for awhile as a reliable launch service provider for the nation. It's always been that you have to prove yourself in this business. We are certainly prepared for competition," Chavez said. "We also have a full portfolio of rockets, including the Delta IV, the largest rocket in the U.S. fleet."
Chavez also cites the limited U.S. launch market, which he says makes it difficult to economically support several launch companies and could reduce the incentives for new companies to pursue launch certification.
"Is there a need for more launch capability? The government decided years ago there was not. In the private space arena, the market has not changed. Now it may materialize, but it is too soon to tell. There is talk of space tourism and other things, but it comes down to whether the market will support several competitors."
U.S. Congress Urged To Renew Launch Liability Shield
Debra Werner - Space News
The U.S. government’s top commercial launch regulator and space industry officials urged lawmakers to support an extension of at least five years for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) launch indemnification program during a June 6 hearing of the House Science space and aeronautics subcommittee.
Unless Congress acts, the FAA program created in 1988 to shield launch providers from the cost of a catastrophic accident that exceeds the amount of insurance coverage operators are required to carry is set to expire Dec. 31. Witnesses urged lawmakers to extend the liability shield saying that it provides important protection for the growing field of U.S. companies developing orbital and suborbital vehicles.
The U.S. launch market is beginning to re-emerge after years of decline, J. Alison Alfers, DigitalGlobe vice president for defense and intelligence, said. As a U.S. company seeking space access for its commercial imaging satellites, Longmont, Colo.-based DigitalGlobe would prefer to rely on U.S. rocket manufacturers. “Foreign launches, especially for our type of payload, come with significant complexities including export control requirements, payload transport, and uncertain insurance costs,” Alfers told members of the subcommittee. “Unfortunately, the current status of reduced competitiveness of the U.S. launch providers combined with the increased availability and reliability of foreign providers mandates that in the best interest of our business and our shareholders we seriously consider foreign providers for future launch requirements.”
While DigitalGlobe ultimately decided to launch its WorldView-3 satellite on the United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket because of its record of reliability, the company came close to sending the payload on one of the rockets built by foreign manufacturers who offered bids that were 35-40 percent lower than the cost of the Atlas. An end to the U.S. government’s launch indemnification program would force U.S. launch providers to insure against additional risk and probably would raise rocket costs further, harming the competitive position of U.S. companies and discouraging new providers from entering the launch market, Alfers said.
George Nield, FAA associate administrator for commercial space transportation, told lawmakers that a five-year extension of the indemnification program “will provide an environment favorable to industry growth amidst highly competitive foreign launch service providers.” Businesses and investors favor stability and predictability. As a result, launch providers would welcome congressional action to make the indemnification program permanent, Nield said. However, the FAA and White House officials understand that lawmakers may want “to periodically examine the program to see if any changes are necessary,” he added.
Foreign governments already indemnify their national launch providers under programs that generally are more favorable than the U.S. program because most other nations do not place a ceiling on the amount of indemnification they offer, witnesses told the House panel. Frank Slazer, vice president of space systems at the Arlington, Va.-based Aerospace Industries Association (AIA), said Europe’s Arianespace is required by the French government to purchase insurance up to 60 million Euros. “Any damages above this cap are the guaranteed responsibility of the French government,” Slazer told lawmakers.
In contrast, the FAA requires companies to obtain their own insurance to cover the maximum cost of any probable loss to people or property as a result of their launch program up to a maximum of $500 million. In the unlikely event that liability claims from an accident exceeded that amount, the U.S. government offers additional indemnification for launch providers to cover claims with a maximum value of $2.7 billion, Nield said. When the Commercial Space Launch Act was passed in 1988, the maximum indemnification was $1.5 billion, however, that amount has been adjusted for inflation. Since 1988, Congress has extended that risk sharing arrangement five times, most recently passing a three-year extension in 2009.
By repeatedly extending the indemnification program, Congress has created the “the reasonable expectation that it will be renewed in the future without completely eliminating the business uncertainty,” Slazer said. Since it often takes five years or longer to develop a new launch vehicle, companies need to know what costs will be associated with insuring a new rocket once it has been built. “AIA believes the sunset provision of this law should be eliminated thereby increasing business confidence and promoting additional new investment,” Slazer told the House panel.
Elon Musk: The Man Who's Leading America's Charge Back to Space
Jeffrey Kluger - Time Magazine (Excerpt)
If you're looking for a way to lose billions of dollars, blow up a lot of expensive hardware and possibly even kill people in the bargain, you couldn't pick a better field than rocketry. There's a reason only governments have space programs, and that's because they've got the cash to burn and the time to waste and nobody's asking them where the profits went.
That, at least, is how things were — but it's surely not how they are anymore. On May 31, the brand new Dragon spacecraft splashed down in the Pacific after a nine-day mission during which it flew to orbit, rendezvoused with the International Space Station, exchanged cargo and then made its way home without incident.
It wasn't NASA that built the ship and it wasn't Russia or China or the European Space Agency either. It was Elon Musk, private citizen, owner of the California-based Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX), and the current best bet to get Americans back into space in a big way — first to orbit and then maybe beyond.
Musk, 41, is a native South African and the inventor of what was once a little-known e-commerce service called PayPal. PayPal made him a rich man, and in 2002, he rolled part of that fortune into a new company designed to reinvent the rocketry field — building simpler, more streamlined boosters to provide for-profit satellite launching services, as well as an Apollo-like spacecraft (which he dubbed Dragon, as an homage to the magical Puff), that could accommodate up to seven people.
In the past decade, the fever-dream of having your own little space program has not been all that uncommon — at least if you're very, very rich. What buying a sports team once was to the .0001%, going to space — and charging to take other people here — has become for the likes of Paul Allen, Richard Branson and others.
But Musk's plan was different. He wasn't interested in marketing suborbital joyrides to people who could afford $250,000 for a 20-minute flight. He wanted to build real real-live rockets and real-live spacecraft, for the purpose of doing long-term work in real-live space. And as it turned out, NASA actually needed the help.
In 2004, the George W. Bush Administration announced that the shuttles would be retired by 2010 and that NASA would have to come up with a new way to get Americans to space. In 2006, with work on a new booster underfunded and behind schedule, the space agency decided to throw the doors open to the private sector, accepting bids from companies that wanted become the country's taxi service to low-Earth orbit. SpaceX and a Virginia-based company called Orbital Sciences made the cut, and both are now under contract to make at least 12 resupply trips to the ISS from 2012 to 2015, with more flights to come — perhaps carrying astronauts — if NASA likes what it sees.
NASA had to like what it saw in May, when Dragon performed so flawlessly, and SpaceX is now the it company in the aerospace community (though Orbital Sciences still has its own flight planned for later this year). Musk has already inked billions of dollars worth of deals with both the public and private sectors and is proceeding apace with his eventual plans to fly people (including non-NASA crews) to orbit, to the moon, maybe to Mars.
The success — so far — of SpaceX is due as much to the perfect convergence of government, industry and history as to the singular personality of Musk himself. He is equal parts Gates and Jobs, engineer and visionary, industrialist and, yes, egotist. "In terms of things that are actually launching," he says, "We are the American space program." The thing is, he's kind of right.
Can jumping spiders kill in space? Student’s experiment set for orbit
Jon Jensen & Rima Maktabi - CNN
Can jumping spiders still hunt for their prey in space?
It may sound like science fiction or the start of a bad joke, but this is an experiment that will be carried out on the International Space Station later this year, thanks to Egyptian teenager Amr Mohamed.
Mohamed, 19, from Alexandria, came up with one of the two winning entries from around the world for the YouTube Space Lab competition, backed by Professor Stephen Hawking, which asked students to design experiments for space scientists.
The idea behind Mohamed’s experiment is to study how the zebra spider, which jumps on its prey rather than building a web, will hunt when it is in zero gravity.
It was conceived through Mohamed’s fascination with both science and spiders.
“I’m just interested in how things work, and science seems to answer all my questions,” said Mohamed. “For example, physics can explain the world with just a handful of equations. And biology tells you how your body works. I’m just interested in that stuff.”
Mohamed only heard about the Space Lab competition three days before the deadline, so he designed and made a YouTube video of his idea in a single day.
He said he was reading about which animals had been in space, and discovered orb weaver spiders among them.
“They were very interesting because they build the knots differently,” said Mohamed. “So I say, OK, they can survive, let’s make things a little harder. Let’s get a kind of spider that can’t build webs in space and that actually gravity is a factor in the way it hunts, so that’s how the idea came.
“I just started writing a script and turned the camera on and explained my experiment and edited the video and it was online before the day was over.”
Mohamed was announced as a regional finalist and after a week of public voting was invited to Washington DC as a regional winner to experience a zero-gravity flight.
During the trip, Mohamed and a two-girl team from Troy, Michigan, were announced as global winners whose experiments will be taken to the International Space Station.
Mohamed is currently taking a gap year before studying at Stanford University, California, in the fall.
He said: “Before the competition, I was just a kid struggling with my A-levels. Out of the huge ocean of the internet, the tide brought me Space Lab. So right now, I know where I want to be. I know who I want to be.”
Mohamed’s achievement is particularly impressive as Egypt’s math and science education came 125th out of 139 nations in a World Economic Forum survey.
“There’s not many Egyptians in the field of science and technology,” said Mohamed. “Egypt is not at the front of innovation. When it comes to technology or science, we’re always consumers, we’re never producers.”
Mohamed’s education was disrupted during last year’s revolution, when his school was closed for several months.
“There was so much stress and nobody knew where this was going,” he said. “We had to protect the streets, so we formed committees to protect the streets.
“I had a curriculum to study, and we didn’t know when the revolution was going to end or when this is going to stop, or when the school is going to get back. So we had to go on. I had to study and do the patrolling and and from time to time join the protests.”
Mohamed hopes one day to help change Egyptian attitudes to science through his passion.
“If I’m going to work in the field of science or technology, I might be able to bring the cultural or regional problems that people of the Middle East have into the field for tackling to solve them,” said Mohamed.
Mohamed’s mother, Safaa El Badbooly, saw his potential early. “Each person rises in a certain field, but for Amr it was reading all along. He read a lot and in everything. He was reading books at age three,” she said.
She, too, hopes that after her son has studied abroad, he will return to Egypt to create a better future. “To benefit his country and maybe start a project like many others who came back and developed Egypt to benefit their own people,” she said.
Orbital gains after SpaceX success: Washington Mover
Kathleen Miller - Bloomberg News
Orbital Sciences Corp. (ORB) shares rose for a second day amid speculation the company would follow Space Exploration Technologies Corp.’s success in launching a capsule to the International Space Station.
Shares of Dulles, Virginia-based Orbital rose 45 cents, or 4 percent, to close at $11.78 in New York. They gained 59 cents, or 5.5 percent, yesterday. The two-day increase is the biggest since April 2009.
“The company could be experiencing a bit of afterglow from the recent success of SpaceX,” said Chris Quilty, an analyst with Raymond James & Associates Inc. in St. Petersburg, Florida. He has an outperform rating on the stock.
SpaceX, controlled by billionaire Elon Musk, on May 25 became the first company to dock a private supply ship at the International Space Station.
A successful launch and docking may help Orbital reverse a 40 percent slide in the past year, according to a Bloomberg story yesterday. Shares of Orbital on June 4 closed at $10.70, the lowest since July 19, 2005.
“It’s been quite surprising to me that they didn’t benefit from all of the positive press that SpaceX has received,” Quilty said in a phone interview. “Most investors seem to have missed the point that Orbital is the other company that has a contract to carry cargo.”
Orbital plans to test a rocket in August, followed by liftoff of a spacecraft to supply the station in October or December.
“There’s no other defense company with better top-line and earnings potential than Orbital,” Patrick McCarthy, an analyst with Arlington, Virginia-based FBR Capital Markets & Co., said in yesterday’s Bloomberg story.
All nine analysts monitored by Bloomberg who cover Orbital recommend the stock.
The first flight of Antares, Orbital’s newest and biggest rocket, has been repeatedly postponed because of delays in construction of a launch pad at Wallops Island, Virginia. The liftoff was previously scheduled for 2011.
U.S. pushes for more global cooperation in space
Andrea Shalal-Esa - Reuters
The United States wants more global cooperation in space including joint war games and combined operations with allies, and is pushing for data-sharing deals with France, Japan and other countries, a U.S. defense official said in an interview.
Greg Schulte, deputy assistant secretary of defense for space policy, said in an interview on Wednesday that it made sense for countries to work together in space given tight defense budgets and the increasingly congested and contested nature of space.
He said even joint ownership of satellites would strengthen U.S. national security. The Obama administration has focused heavily on cooperation with allies as part of its approach to national security, but restrictions on sharing data from U.S. government satellites have complicated joint operations in Afghanistan and Iraq with even the closest U.S. allies.
Schulte said the Pentagon had already signed agreements with 30 satellite operators and companies to expand its knowledge of what is happening in space. General Robert Kehler, commander of U.S. Strategic Command, is reaching out to other countries to sign similar deals, Schulte said.
The growing amount of space debris is also fostering cooperation in space. The U.S. Air Force is tracking 1,100 active satellites, plus 21,000 pieces of debris, about 14 percent of which stem from China destroying one of its weather satellites in 2007. Even small pieces of fast-traveling debris can damage or destroy spacecraft and the International Space Station, which is about 240 miles above Earth.
Schulte, who is leaving his post at the end of June to teach at the National Defense University, said General Kehler was also turning the U.S. Joint Space Operations Center at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, into a center that would allow participation by some U.S. allies, much like combined air operations centers.
Such centers could be used for operations such as when the U.S. military worked with Russia, France and other countries to track the re-entry of Russia's failed Mars probe, Phobos-Grunt, into the earth's atmosphere in January, Schulte said.
He said he and his staff were encouraging U.S. lawmakers to enact proposed export control changes required to allow some of the data-sharing wanted by the United States.
Until now, Washington has operated largely on its own in space, but the growing number of countries with satellite and space capabilities has changed that, Schulte said.
The United States is also working with the European Union to modify its proposed global code of conduct for space to preserve Washington's ability to defend its satellites, he said.
More than 100 participants from 40 countries met in Vienna on Tuesday to begin negotiations on the code of conduct. The next meeting is scheduled to be held in New York in October.
Cooperation was critical given actions by China, Russia, and Iran to develop weapons that could target Western satellites, Schulte said. In a recent speech, Schulte observed that Russia has talked about deploying anti-satellite weapons; Iran and Syria have jammed commercial communications satellites; and North Korea recently jammed signals from satellites.
"If you operate together you develop collective deterrence. An attack on one becomes an attack on many," Schulte said in the interview.
Last month, the United States signed a long-term partnership agreement with Canada that will give the United States access to data from a new space surveillance system Canada is building to track objects in deep space. In return, the United States will share its surveillance data with Canada, which is also one of six countries that have invested in the new Wideband Global System satellites built by Boeing Co and operated by the U.S. Air Force.
Washington wants similar agreements with France and Japan, and other countries willing to share data from surveillance satellites.
He said this spring the U.S. Air Force conducted a military space exercise with Britain, Canada, Australia and other members of NATO, the first international war game for space hosted by the United States.
"This was a real serious opportunity ... to think about how do we conduct coalition space operations in support of military operations on the ground," Schulte said.
Scaled Composites Conducts SpaceShipTwo Taxi Test
Douglas Messier - Parabolic Arc
There has been renewed activity out here in Mojave on the SpaceShipTwo program as Scaled Composites gears up for a busy summer of flight testing. Scaled Composites conducted a taxi test on SpaceShipTwo on June 1 (see summary below), with the space plane spend three hours out on the runway. Three different pilots were at the controls as they tested new higher capacity brakes.
WhiteKnightTwo was also flying solo over Mojave on Sunday. That is believed to be the 81st flight of SpaceShipTwo’s carrier aircraft. Scaled has not posted a test flight summary on its website yet.
Officials have said that engineers have been installing engine components on the spacecraft. Glide flights of the heavier configuration are set for this summer. Powered flights using a smaller “starter” engine toward the end of this year.
SpaceShipTwo has not flown since Sept. 29 when the ship experienced a dangerous stall and fell precipitously. The pilots regained control of the vehicle by using the ship’s feathered re-entry system.
At a meeting on Tuesday of the East Kern Airport District Board of Directors, Mojave Air & Space Port CEO Stu Witt said he expected to see a new round of flight testing to begin shortly. Witt didn’t mention any specific companies among the many that are located here.
Virgin Galactic shows off Las Cruces office; hopes to start flights in 2013
Brook Stockberger - Las Cruces Sun-News
Virgin Galactic has landed in Las Cruces.
Well, the company already has been working in town for a coupe of years and opened an office here in February, but it held an open house event on Thursday for its Las Cruces facility, located in the building known as the Green Offices at 166 S. Roadrunner Parkway, the building with a curved bluish-green glass exterior.
"We opened an office here to have a presence," said Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides. "The spaceport isn't ready yet (so operations are based in Las Cruces)."
Whitesides said that the company hopes to start space flights in the second half of next year.
He said that even when the company is employing 50 to 100 people at Spaceport America, it'll probably still maintain a Las Cruces office.
Virgin Galactic is part of Richard Branson's Virgin Group and plans to launch suborbital spaceflights from the $200-million Spaceport America north of Las Cruces. The Las Cruces office gives the company a place to meet with businesses, contractors and other local interests.
"There will always be a satellite office here to conduct sales and marketing (operations)," said Carolyn Wincer, head of travel and tourism. "We plan to hold a few of these things (open houses) for different community groups."
Currently, five staff members work out of the office.
Virgin Galactic’s New Offices Bustling
Rene Romo - Albuquerque Journal
Virgin Galactic welcomed visitors to its new offices on the city’s East Mesa on Thursday as the pioneering company gears up for the home stretch of flight testing.
Sitting in a meeting room in the company’s second-floor office in a Roadrunner Parkway building with a clear view of the Organ Mountains, Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides said the company expects to start powered test flights of its six-passenger spaceship by the end of this year.
The company’s first official flight from state-built Spaceport America in southern Sierra County could occur in late 2013, with Virgin Galactic founder Sir Richard Branson and his family on board, Whitesides said.
“Clearly we want things to go as fast as we can do them in a way that is safe. Certainly, things have gone slower than we would have liked, but, for better or worse, that is fairly common in the aerospace world,” Whitesides said.
Both Virgin Galactic and the New Mexico Spaceport Authority, which is building the spaceport in a remote spot about 24 miles southeast of Truth or Consequences, have key steps to complete before the startup of commercial suborbital flights.
Major pending projects for the Spaceport Authority include: extending a 10,000-foot runway at the site by an extra 2,000 feet at Virgin Galactic’s request for safety reasons; paying for the construction of a southern access route to the site; and overseeing the construction of tourist-oriented visitor centers in Hatch, Truth or Consequences and the Upham spaceport site.
Over the summer Virgin Galactic plans to complete another round of glide flights of its SpaceShipTwo craft with the full weight of its rocket engine, Whitesides said. Then, by the end of the year, a California-based contractor will begin powered test runs of Virgin Galactic’s two-stage flight system – a rocket-powered spacecraft that will zoom to the edge of space after detaching from a twin-fuselage aircraft at an elevation of 50,000 feet.
A handful of Virgin Galactic employees have been working out of the 2,500-square-foot Las Cruces office since April, and the firm is expected to have between 50 and 100 staffers working in New Mexico by the time commercial operations start. By the time suborbital flights begin, Whitesides said, the majority of the company’s New Mexico employees will be working out of the spaceport itself, with a small number remaining in Las Cruces. Virgin is hiring employees in engineering, customer hosting and administration.
The company has sold more than 500 tickets, costing $200,000, for the suborbital flights. The 500th ticket buyer, Branson blogged in late March, was actor Ashton Kutcher.
Virgin Galactic Brings Jobs, Tourists To Las Cruces
Vanessa de la Vina - KVIA TV (El Paso)
Virgin Galactic officially opened the doors to its office in Las Cruces on Thursday.
Company representatives said the office could bring in hundreds of thousands of dollars to the area. They told ABC-7 this is just the beginning of stimulating the local economy with jobs and tourism.
"The attention of the world is going to be focused on those flights (into space) when we get going," George Whitesides, chief executive officer of Virgin Galactic, said.
Whitesides said in the next year, the company will launch its first commercial flight into space, and that will boost the tourism in the state.
"My hope is that that has a lot of different benefits. It will drive tourism. It will drive education. People who want to go into aerospace sciences may come to (New Mexico State University) because it's right next door to the spaceport," Whitesides said.
Leading up to that launch, the company plans on hiring people in the area for all kinds of jobs.
"We have a wide breadth of activity happening out at the spaceport, so we'll need everybody, from the janitorial services, the hosting services, the catering services, right the way through to the rocket scientists, ultimately," said Virgin Galactic senior program manager Mark Butler.
Officials said the company is also collaborating with local businesses.
"We have a policy of, where possible, we like to use local services, and that's good for the economy. It's good for us," Butler told ABC-7.
Whitesides said this office is going to be a huge draw for the state of New Mexico.
"We're going to have millions of people over the course of a year come to New Mexico to see our spaceships, to visit Spaceport America and hopefully to visit some of the other things from White Sands (Missile Range) and Alamogordo to, who knows, the UFO museum in Roswell," Whitesides said.
Officials said they will be posting job openings soon.
The company's first commercial flight into space is scheduled to launch in 2013. Officials said it will be a historic event.
Success of Virgin Galactic test flights will affect Space Coast
John Kelly - Florida Today (Commentary)
SpaceX grabbed the big headlines the past two weeks, launching its new space capsule to the International Space Station and returning it safely to Earth. Quietly, another company took a big step toward private flights to space.
Virgin Galactic, which plans a spaceline for tourists, and Scaled Composites, its spaceship maker, got a permit from the government to begin flights from Mojave Air and Space Port in California. You’ll remember the companies as the team that won the X Prize in 2004 as the innovators who were first to fly a piloted, but wholly private spaceship beyond Earth’s atmosphere twice in two weeks.
Fronted by two famed aviation mavericks, Sir Richard Branson and Burt Rutan, the SpaceShipOne team went back to work on their real goal: a space tourism business that went beyond one-shot gimmicks, but instead drew in large crowds of well-heeled customers. They’ve developed SpaceShipTwo, and they’re building a tourist terminal at Spaceport America in the remote New Mexico desert.
The development of the football-shaped SpaceShipTwo and its White Knight Two carrier plane, which doubles as a launch platform, is far enough along now that the FAA has been convinced it’s safe for serious test flights and granted an experimental flight permit.
White Knight Two has flown 80 times now. SpaceShipTwo has finished 16 free flights, including early tests of its unique unpowered method of re-entering the atmosphere. Now, the permit authorizes Virgin and Scaled to conduct rocket-powered test flights, and the companies’ leaders say those could begin before the end of 2012, launching from Mojave over an Air Force test-flight range.
Before that, there are some flights coming to test integration of the rocket motor systems with the spacecraft as well as additional free flights with the ship carrying the full weight of its motors. As the tests proceed, Virgin and Scaled will have to continue keeping FAA informed of flight details, such as how the vehicle will avoid specific population areas, a flight plan regulators must sign off on. Prior to flights, the government is requiring Virgin and Scaled to identify the pilot who will be in control of the spaceship.
The flights will be the first piloted private spacecraft missions regulated by the FAA’s space wing and, as such, the way the oversight is handled is as ground-breaking and precedent-setting as the flights themselves. The regulatory environment for private space flights, according to those in the industry, can make or break the viability of the business model behind many private space ventures. But the government and the companies know an accident, or even a near accident, threatening people and property will get incredible scrutiny.
The success of these private endeavors will impact Florida’s Space Coast, even though they’re happening elsewhere. More flights are going to open the industry to new ideas, new companies and new reasons to go to space. The launch sites, expert personnel and the tradition here is going to attract some of that business. So, every new venture’s success is a win for space flight. And, every win for space flight is good for Brevard County’s long-term future as a space gateway.
NASA's future is a future worth funding
Houston Chronicle (Editorial)
Call it giving hand-me-downs to a younger brother, or charity to the needy, but we're glad to see NASA get some help from the Department of Defense, which donated two unused space telescopes to the cash-strapped space agency.
NASA will likely use the Hubble-like telescopes, which were originally built for the National Reconnaissance Office, to study dark energy - the theoretical force that explains why the universe seems to be expanding faster, rather than being slowed by gravity.
But these telescopes are also a study in another kind of unexpected expansion: that within the military budget. While NASA has suffered from budget woes over the last several years, the National Reconnaissance Office has two space satellites it doesn't need. Something is wrong with the way Congress is funding projects, and it doesn't take an infrared telescope to see it.
This isn't the only military expansion worth some study. For example, the House of Representatives has approved an extra $100 million funding for a missile defense program on the East Coast that the Pentagon has said is unnecessary.
The military budget all too often seems to be driven not by what our armed forces actually need, but by senators and representatives trying to win elections or push their agendas.
And when the Government Accountability Office tried to audit the military budget in 2010, the result was that "serious financial management problems at the Department of Defense" made its budget unauditable.
The United States should have the world's strongest military, but that is no excuse for irrational budget choices and fiscal waste.
While the military seems to be force-fed funds that it cannot track, NASA relies on Russia to transport astronauts to the International Space Station and our plans to go to the moon or Mars have generally stalled. NASA's acting deputy director for astrophysics, Michael Moore, sums up the problem succinctly: "We have no money."
The universe is teeming with questions begging to be answered, and NASA, which has long launched humanity's forays into the unknown, has to rely on the military's leftovers.
NASA's decades of exploration and discovery have been a light to the world of a more hopeful future, and that is a future worth funding.
“Examinations of Some Kind:” The Walk of Ed White
Ben Evans - AmericaSpace.org
Forty-seven years ago, this week, the United States took a huge step forward in its drive to land a man on the Moon. Aboard Gemini IV, astronauts Jim McDivitt and Ed White spent four days in orbit – longer than any previous American crew – and supported their nation’s first ‘spacewalk’. Neither accomplishment was a true ‘first’, for the Soviets had already done both, but for a relieved America the mission offered tangible proof that the lunar goal was in sight. McDivitt and White’s voyage is a case of being in the right place at the right time. When their names were announced in July 1964, Gemini Deputy Manager Kenneth Kleinknecht mentioned that one of them might perform a ‘stand-up EVA’, by opening the hatch and poking his head into the void of space. Yet it would take several months, and no small amount of lobbying by the astronauts, before such plans bore fruit.
As early as January 1964, NASA had flagged Gemini IV as the earliest possible mission on which to perform some kind of ‘extravehicular activity’, although at the time the availability of the required life-support equipment was uncertain. Throughout the year, the situation steadily improved, with AiResearch building an astronaut’s chest-mounted control pack, the David Clark Company making the space suit and McDonnell modifying its Gemini spacecraft to accommodate an EVA. When Gemini sailed through altitude chamber tests in November, the likelihood of an EVA brightened significantly. Efforts gathered pace in the wake of Alexei Leonov’s triumph and in mid-May 1965 Bob Gilruth, head of the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston, received approval to proceed from NASA’s top managers, including Bob Seamans, Hugh Dryden and Administrator Jim Webb.
There were concerns, however. George Mueller, the head of manned spaceflight, doubted that the EVA hardware could be ready in time for an early June launch, whilst Dryden was worried that the spacewalk might be seen as a knee-jerk reaction to Leonov’s achievement. At length, Webb asked Seamans to produce a report on why an EVA was necessary and on 25 May – with nine days remaining before the flight – Dryden scribbled his signature of approval on it. By this time, NASA had referred to a “possible extravehicular activity” in its Gemini IV press kit, released on 21 May. With the approval of Webb and Dryden, it turned from possible into positive…and it would not be a simple case of Ed White standing on his seat to poke his helmeted head into space; he would physically leave Gemini IV and manoeuvre himself around outside.
The two men destined to make history shared close parallels. Barely a year separated White and McDivitt in age, both were married to women named Pat, both earned aeronautical engineering degrees from the same institution and in the same year, both completed test pilot training at Edwards Air Force Base in California and both had secured approximately the same amount (around 2,000 hours) of jet experience. In September 1962, both were chosen as members of NASA’s second astronaut class. “Jim and I have been following right along together,” White once said. “It seems that every time we got together we were taking examinations of some kind.” The ‘exam’ on Gemini IV would be their most difficult and challenging so far.
When the Gemini mission simulator became available in Houston in November 1964, the pair began actively lobbying for an EVA on their mission. It has been remarked that, without McDivitt and White’s tenacity, the ‘G4C’ extravehicular suit might otherwise have been too far down the line to have been ready for Gemini IV. According to Barton Hacker and James Grimwood, writing in On the Shoulders of Titans in 1977, the astronauts’ role in the decision-making process “went far beyond that of the normal test pilot in determining what was to be done and when”. Still, when the EVA plan was unveiled, some observers felt that it was little more than a ploy to keep up with the Soviet Union and others simply did not realise that spacewalking had always been a primary goal for Project Gemini.
Another primary goal was to increase endurance times, with a crew spending up to two weeks in orbit, to provide physiological and psychological data for a maximum-length journey to the Moon and back. As part of this goal, Gemini IV was originally scheduled to fly for seven days, but in August 1964 it was announced that problems and delays with certifying General Electric’s fuel cells would reduce it to four days. Before launch, McDivitt jokingly told journalists that there was only enough food aboard the spacecraft “for two normal people” for four days. Backup crewman Jim Lovell could not resist taking the bait; with perfect timing, he quipped: “And these two ain’t normal!”
For White – the son of a West Point graduate and Air Force major general – the values of self-discipline, persistence and a single-minded determination to achieve his goals were ingrained in his character. “Flying was his birthright,” wrote Mary C. White in her biography of him, available on NASA’s History website, and the future astronaut first took the controls of an old T-6 trainer with his father, aged 12. An excellent academic and athlete, White served on the Military Academy’s track team as a hurdler. In 1952, he narrowly missed selection (by just 0.4 seconds) to represent the United States in that year’s Olympic Games. Right up until the end of his life, White pursued physical exercise with a passion: volleyball, handball, squash and golf, together with daily long-distance jogging, bicycle riding and back-to-back marathons of sit-ups and press-ups. Doctors could hardly find the slightest hint of fat on him and, it is said, his appetite was such that he could put away two full-course dinners and ask for dessert, with a straight face. Without doubt, he was the most physically fit of all the astronauts…an attribute which would serve him well on his gruelling EVA.
Physical conditioning was critical for White and, during training, he spent 60 hours in vacuum chambers, rehearsing the opening of Gemini IV’s overhead hatch, pushing himself outside and moving around in a mockup space suit at simulated altitudes of 55 km. In addition to his 22-layer suit, which weighed just 14 kg, he would use a hand-held manoeuvring gun, equipped with two cylinders of compressed oxygen, to move around. Yet even in the final days before launch, there was scepticism in some areas of the press that this was little more than an attempt to keep up with the Soviets. At one press conference, Chris Kraft, the lead flight director, snapped: “We’re not trying to play Mickey Mouse with this thing! I don’t think it’s very fair to suggest we’re carrying out a propaganda stunt.”
Early on 3 June, McDivitt and White were awakened and began the process of medical checks, a steak-and-eggs breakfast, suiting-up and were at the foot of Pad 19 and their Gemini-Titan launch vehicle by 7:07 am EST. Since the EVA would require the depressurisation of Gemini IV’s entire cabin – thus exposing McDivitt to vacuum, as well as White – both men underwent a ‘pre-breathing’ exercise to flush nitrogen from their blood and avoid an attack of the ‘bends’. With a familiar high-pitched whine of its engines, the Titan II booster speared for the heavens at 10:16 am, to synchronised yells of “Beautiful!” from both astronauts.
Achieving orbit shortly afterwards, McDivitt’s first task was to perform a station-keeping exercise with the second stage of the Titan…and it was here that the first difficulties arose. The stage had been fitted with flashing lights, but had never been designed as a rendezvous target and when it entered orbital nighttime, it was virtually invisible. Added to the confusion was its tumbling motion, which left the astronauts cautious about getting too close. Judging its distance by eyesight alone was problematic – McDivitt estimated it to be 130 m away, White thought it was about 70 m away – and as they fired Gemini IV’s thrusters to approach, it seemed, inexplicably, to move ‘away’ and ‘downward’. A few minutes later, the separation distance seemed to have increased…to around 600 m. Aware that he was wasting precious fuel, McDivitt asked for the recommendation of Chris Kraft: which objective was most important – the rendezvous test or White’s EVA? Since the latter was one of the main goals, the rendezvous attempt was abandoned.
Rendezvous was planned for a subsequent mission, Gemini VI, and its pilot, Tom Stafford, noted the difficulties in his autobiography, We Have Capture. “Jim’s instinctive move was to thrust toward it,” Stafford wrote, “as though he were flying formation in a jet airplane. By doing so, he increased the speed – and moved into a higher orbit, even further behind the booster. The only way to get even close to the Titan…would have been to fire thrusters ‘retrograde’ – against the direction of travel – slowing the Gemini down and dropping its orbit.” It was an early lesson in orbital mechanics: adding speed raises altitude, moving a spacecraft to a higher orbit than the target. However, paradoxically, a faster-moving vehicle actually slows in comparison to its quarry, since its orbital period – a function of distance from the centre of gravity – also decreases. To catch up with a target ‘ahead’ of them, astronauts needed to drop into a lower orbit, then rise back up in order to meet it. “It’s a hard thing to learn,” wrote Deke Slayton, “since it’s kind of backward from anything you know as a pilot.”
To be fair, both McDivitt and White had done very little rendezvous training. The station-keeping exercise had wasted 42 percent of their fuel supply. McDivitt knew that his partner was hot and tired and told mission controllers that he wanted the EVA postponed from the second to the third orbit. Chris Kraft agreed and the two men spent some time relaxing, watching the Gulf of Mexico drift ‘below’ them and chatting to fellow astronaut Gus Grissom. Next, they dived headfirst into the 54-item checklist to ready the EVA equipment. At the end of the process, White snapped a gold-tinted faceplate onto his helmet, hooked up the 7.4 m umbilical to provide oxygen and communications with McDivitt and strapped the chest pack onto his torso. He checked his camera three times, making sure he had not left the lens cap stuck on. “I knew I might as well not come back if I did,” he later quipped.
Depressurisation of Gemini IV’s cabin began over Australia, but hit a snag when White’s overhead hatch refused to unlatch. A spring had failed to compress properly. At length, four hours and 18 minutes after launch, at 2:34 pm, he cranked a ratchet handle to loosen a set of prongs lining the opening of the hatch, raised it to 50-degrees-open and poked his helmeted head into the fathomless void. White then pushed himself ‘upwards’ from his seat and caught his first awe-inspiring glimpse of Earth: the intense blue of the Pacific Ocean and, coming up to the east, Hawaii.
Losing no time, he tested the hand-held manoeuvring gun and found that it responded crisply, squirting bursts propel himself to the base of Gemini IV and then to its nose. Within minutes, its gas supply was gone and White spent the remainder of his 21 minutes outside twirling, twisting and hand-pulling himself backwards and forwards along his tether. Inside the spacecraft, McDivitt had the difficult task of keeping Gemini IV steady. The long tether was also troublesome, as it kept tugging America’s first spacewalker towards the rear of the spacecraft, whose thrusters periodically spurted a nasty mix of monomethyl hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide – ‘hypergolics’ which White definitely did not want on his suit.
Approaching the California coastline, Gus Grissom asked for photographs. “Get out in front where I can see you,” McDivitt called, and White complied. In less than a quarter of an hour, he had ‘walked’ from the central Pacific, crossed California, and, very soon, the two astronauts were gliding serenely over Houston, talking to Grissom. Suddenly, McDivitt’s voice burst with excitement. “There’s Galveston Bay, right there,” he yelled. “Hey, Ed, can you see it on your side of the spacecraft?” White certainly could and he snapped a photograph with the 35 mm camera. McDivitt was also taking pictures, although he admitted that “they’re not very good”. Ironically, those images of White, tumbling in space, turned out to be among the most iconic of the Sixties. A 16 mm movie camera also captured his tumble, backdropped by a cloud-studded, blue-and-white Earth.
Each time McDivitt or White spoke, the Gemini’s voice-activated system cut off messages from Mission Control…and since they spoke a lot during those exhilarating minutes, Grissom had a hard time trying to contact them. At length, with some urgency in his voice, he made himself heard.
“Got any messages for us?” asked McDivitt.
“Ed! Come in here!” yelled Grissom. “Gemini IV, get back in!”
Describing the end of his historic EVA as “the saddest moment of my life”, White brought his feet back down through the open hatch, onto his seat and finally below the instrument panel. To assist his partner, McDivitt turned up the cabin lights as a guide. Gemini IV had sailed over the eastern Atlantic Ocean into orbital darkness and White had ‘walked’ across most of the Pacific and all of the United States…in 21 minutes. His last view was of the entire southern portion of Florida, parts of Puerto Rico and Cuba.
His pulse of 50 beats per minute, though, soared to 178 in these final moments. He closed the hatch over his head and reached for the handle to lock it, realizing that it would be as hard to seal as it had been to open. As White pushed on the handle, McDivitt pulled onto him to offer him some leverage. Eventually, the hatch was secured. The official end time of the first American EVA was 3:10 pm, some 36 minutes between hatch opening and closure…and less than five hours into Gemini IV’s four-day mission. White had far exceeded his suit’s cooling capacity – producing severe condensation in his helmet and sweat streaming into his eyes – and the hatch problems prompted Mission Control to tell him not to re-open it to discard unwanted equipment.
In his post-flight debriefing, White recounted that his hand-held manoeuvring gun worked in pitch and yaw axes, but in roll it was more difficult, without using excessive fuel. He experienced no vertigo or disorientation, nor did he feel any inkling of the tremendous speed at which he was travelling. The next four days, however, would be anything but comfortable. Their freeze-dried or dehydrated food – beef pot roast, banana pudding, fruit cake and even ‘space sandwiches’ – sounded appealing, but the need to mix them with water and knead until mushy lessened their attractiveness. Spaghetti was rehydrated by water pistol. ‘Washing’ (if it could be described as such) was done with small, damp cloths, urine was dumped overboard and faeces were stored in self-sealing bags with disinfectant pills.
In the cramped confines, a bungee cord had been provided to keep the men’s fitness up, but even White found that his desire to do strenuous work dwindled as the mission dragged on, perhaps due to a lack of sleep. The men remained in good spirits, although on one occasion McDivitt told flight surgeon Chuck Berry that he felt “pretty darn woolly” and needed a bath. When the two men returned to Earth on 7 June 1965, they were described as heavily bearded and sweaty, their faces lined with tiredness, although that did not prevent McDivitt from letting out a whoop of joy on the deck of the recovery ship Wasp. Both astronauts had lost weight, but were in good physical shape after four days…to such an extent that, 24 hours after splashdown, White spotted a group of Marines and midshipmen having a game of tug-of-war and joined them for 15 minutes. Although ‘his’ team lost, White certainly appeared fit and healthy.
Congratulations from President Lyndon Johnson was accompanied by joint Air Force promotions from Major to Lieutenant Colonel and NASA’s Distinguished Service Medal. Elsewhere, the University of Michigan – both men’s alma mater – awarded them both doctorates in astronautical science. “I can hardly get used to people calling me Colonel,” joked White. “I know in a million years I’ll never get used to people calling me Doctor!” Before they could accept their new accolades, however, McDivitt and White needed to take a shower…but White wondered what all the fuss was about. “I thought we smelled fine,” he said of their ‘distinct aroma’, after four days without a proper wash. “It was all those people on the carrier that smelled strange!”
END
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