Tuesday, July 3, 2012
7/3/12 news
Early Happy 4th of July everyone! Remember, our next monthly NASA retirees luncheon is next Thursday, July 12th at Hibachi Grill at 11:30.
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
JSC TODAY HEADLINES
1. 'Summer of Curiosity' Mission To Mars - Rocket and CEV Design
2. It Does Take a Rocket Scientist! Stan Love Explains Why Mars is Hard
3. Fawn at JSC
4. Building 30 Mission Control Center Security Office is Moving Temporarily to Building 110
5. STS-4: "A Fourth of July to Remember"
6. Celebrate 50 Years of JSC Co-ops on July 25
7. AIAA-Houston Section Horizons Newsletter
8. NASA Night at the Paint Pub
________________________________________ QUOTE OF THE DAY
“ The breakfast of champions is not cereal; it's the opposition. ”
-- Nick Seitz
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1. 'Summer of Curiosity' Mission To Mars - Rocket and CEV Design
Week four of the Summer of Curiosity Mission to Mars Challenge will challenge your engineering skills, as you apply your knowledge of rockets and Newton's Laws of Motion to design and build a model of the rocket and crew exploration vehicle that will take astronauts to Mars!
Before you begin collecting paper towel rolls, 2 liter bottles, cardboard, paper and markers, you need to do a little research. Visit the website below to view the videos and web resources that will help you create a model of a Mars rocket and a crew exploration vehicle.
Please visit http://www.nasa.gov/offices/education/centers/johnson/student-activities/summ... for more information
JSC External Relations, Office of Education x36686
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2. It Does Take a Rocket Scientist! Stan Love Explains Why Mars is Hard
Astronaut, physicist and, well, rocket scientist Stan Love will present his powerful and very entertaining presentation on "Why It's SOOOOOO Hard to Get to Mars." Like Stan says, it does take a rocket scientist. Lots of rocket scientists. And other really cool stuff that we are working on. Join Love in the B. 30 Auditorium Monday, July 9, at 8:30 a.m. for his 40 minute presentation and stay to ask questions, really tough questions. If you require special accommodation for a specific disability please contact TQ Bui at x40266 no later than 5 p.m. on Tuesday, July 3rd.
JSC External Relations, Office of Communications and Public Affairs X35111
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3. Fawn at JSC
It's the time of year when doe give birth to fawn and when you see fawn resting around buildings and under cars. These fawn have NOT been abandoned. They have been left for the day while the doe is foraging. Unless the fawn is injured, do not remove the fawn from its location. Do not pet, handle or harass fawn. It's also a good idea to check under your car when leaving site this time of year. Enjoy wildlife from a distance and please respect all JSC wildlife. You can report any injured or orphaned fawn to extension 32038.
Merrell Skipper x37570
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4. Building 30 Mission Control Center Security Office is Moving Temporarily to Building 110
The Building 30 Mission Control Center (MCC) Security will be getting a renovation. The office will be closed in the MCC main lobby from July 4 through end of Sept. 2012.
Mission Operations Directorate (Buildings 30, 9, 5) badging (escort required, official visitors, etc.) will now be handled through Building 110 Security Office, located at the front Gate, until renovations are complete.
For more information, call the Security Office at x32119.
Tiffany Sowell x32119 http://www6.jsc.nasa.gov/ja/js/js4/external/badpro.cfm
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5. STS-4: "A Fourth of July to Remember"
The end of STS-4 became a uniquely picturesque moment in space history, when on July 4, 1982, a crowd of 50,000 people, along with President Ronald Reagan and his wife, Nancy, watched as Commander T.K. Mattingly and pilot Hank Hartsfield landed Columbia at Edwards AFB.
From beneath the wing of the Enterprise, the President congratulated the crew on its successful mission and announced the shuttle program was ready to move to its operational phase. Then, he set forth a new American space policy by adding the nation must look at "establishing a more permanent presence in space." As he finished his speech, Challenger aboard the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft taxied down the runway, then lifted on its way to become the newest addition to the shuttle fleet.
Read selected oral history interview excerpts that reflect on this most unique time thirty years ago: http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/history/special_events/STS-4.htm
Provided by JSC's Information Resources Directorate.
JSC IRD Outreach 281-990-0007 http://ird.jsc.nasa.gov/
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6. Celebrate 50 Years of JSC Co-ops on July 25
Are you a current or former NASA Co-op? Please join us for the 50th Anniversary Celebration for the NASA/JSC Co-op Program at the Gilruth Alamo Ballroom July 25th, 4:30 to 7 p.m. There will be speakers, refreshments, heavy hors d'oeuvres, fun activities and nostalgia. Tickets are $15 and are now on sale at the Building 3 and 11 Starport gift shops as well as the Gilruth front desk. Tell all your NASA civil servant (former or current) Co-op friends! Limited to 250 guests. Please visit http://tinyurl.com/coop50th for a questionnaire about your time as a Co-op!
Randy Eckman x48230
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7. AIAA-Houston Section Horizons Newsletter
The AIAA Houston Section is proud to present its latest issues - including a special edition highlighting the section's 50th Anniversary gala - of Horizons, the award-winning bi-monthly newsletter publication. These can be viewed at: http://www.aiaahouston.org
Stories include cover story Project Morpheus by Dr. Jon B. Olansen, the celebration of the 50th anniversary of AIAA Houston Section, the Annual Technical Symposium 2012 article by Dr. Steven E. Everett, an editorial about Planetary Resources by Shen Ge, an article about possible European participation in the Orion MPCV program by Philippe Mairet and Douglas Yazell, an article about Ellington Field, Airport, Spaceport & The Lone Star Flight Museum, results from Yuri's Night Houston 2012 5 km Fun Run and Space Day by Michael Frostad, and Space Fighter: 1963 by Scott Lowther.
Eryn Beisner x40212
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8. NASA Night at the Paint Pub
Let your inner artist shine as you paint and be merry. An artist will be provided to guide you and the group to create your own piece of art. A special shuttle painting has been designed for each artist to paint and each person will get to take their masterpiece home! No experience necessary and all art supplies will be provided. Beverages will be available for purchase for your enjoyment.
Sunday, July 8 at 6 p.m. $30/person. Reserve your spot today: 281-333-2200 or 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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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
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
HEADLINES AND LEADS
NASA shows off first Orion capsule with KSC ceremony
William Harwood - CBS News
The first space-bound Orion capsule, the centerpiece of NASA's post-shuttle push to break out of low-Earth orbit for eventual manned flights to a variety of deep space targets, was officially unveiled at NASA's Florida spaceport Monday. The spacecraft will be outfitted for an unmanned test flight in 2014. "As KSC celebrates its 50th anniversary this month, I can't think of a more appropriate way to celebrate than by having the very first Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle here at KSC," center Director Robert Cabana, a former shuttle commander, told more than 400 managers, engineers and technicians gathered at Kennedy's Operations and Checkout Building.
NASA's Orion spacecraft: Built here, flown here
First space-bound Orion showcased, some assembly required
Todd Halvorson - Florida Today
NASA offered a peek at the future of Kennedy Space Center on Monday, unveiling the first space-bound Orion spacecraft while marking a huge economic development victory for Florida and the Space Coast. “This is a milestone moment for the Space Coast, NASA and America’s space program,” NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver told 450 people at a ceremony to celebrate the arrival of the spacecraft. It’s scheduled to blast off on a test flight in 2014 aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The rocket will propel the unmanned spacecraft into an elliptical orbit with a high point of 3,600 miles – 15 times farther from the Earth than the International Space Station.
New NASA spaceship arrives in Florida for test flight
Irene Klotz - Reuters
An Orion space capsule being developed to fly astronauts to asteroids, the moon and eventualy to Mars arrived at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for a 2014 test flight, NASA said on Monday. The spacecraft, built by Lockheed-Martin is targeted for launch aboard an unmanned Delta 4 Heavy rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, adjacent to the NASA spaceport. Though designed to carry a crew of four, Orion will make its first two flights unmanned. "It's not a PowerPoint chart. It's a real spacecraft," Kennedy Space Center director Bob Cabana said during a ceremony Monday marking the capsule's arrival.
Orion Flight Test Capsule Arrives at Kennedy
Dan Leone - Space News
The first Orion Multi-purpose Crew Vehicle that will fly in space arrived July 2 at the Kennedy Space Center, Fla., where it will undergo final assembly in preparation for a 2014 test flight atop a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta 4 rocket. At Kennedy, engineers with NASA and prime contractor Lockheed Martin Space Systems of Denver, will add heat shielding thermal protection systems, avionics and other subsystems to the Lockheed-built capsule, a test article that will not carry astronauts.
Orion's first test flight offers Space Launch System a first look at hardware operation, integration
Klaus Schmidt - SpaceFellowship.com
when NASA conducts its first test launch of the Orion spacecraft in 2014, the crew module’s designers will record invaluable data about its performance — from launch and flight, to re-entry and landing. Orion will carry astronauts farther into space than ever before, sustaining the crew during space travel and providing emergency abort capability and safe re-entry from deep space. Orion will launch atop the Space Launch System (SLS), NASA’s next flagship rocket currently under design. The SLS will power the Orion spacecraft on deep space missions to asteroids, the moon, Mars and other destinations in our solar system. The first flight test of the full-scale SLS is planned for 2017.
First space-bound Orion crew capsule arrives at NASA's launch site
Robert Pearlman - collectSPACE.com
Without a heat shield or wiring, and with only welded metal panels to see, NASA's new spacecraft designed to take astronauts out beyond Earth and into the solar system doesn't look like much yet. But to NASA, congressional and space industry leaders, the capsule's olive-green pressure shell is an exciting sight to behold. The capsule, NASA's first space bound Orion crew module, was unveiled on Monday (July 2) to mark its arrival at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, the site of the spacecraft's planned 2014 launch on an unmanned test flight.
Fledgling NASA Nonprofit Starts To Liftoff
Nell Greenfieldboyce - National Public Radio
A new nonprofit organization that's supposed to take charge of expanding scientific research on the international space station has had a rocky first year, but now is starting to show what it can do. The Center for the Advancement of Science in Space just signed one agreement with a company not traditionally linked to research in space: the sporting goods company Cobra Puma Golf. With the space station now complete after more than a decade of construction at a cost of around $100 billion, attention has turned to how to best use the station.
Private company will work with NASA equipment
Scott Powers - Orlando Sentinel
Melbourne-based Craig Technologies and NASA have reached agreement on a deal that will allow the company to take possession of 1,600 pieces of machine shop and lab equipment used in the space shuttle program. The company intends to use it to service private companies' space ventures. The deal, reached last week, gives the company full use privileges of the equipment currently housed at the 160,000-square-foot NASA Shuttle Logistics Depot that was run by United Space Alliance in Cape Canaveral.
America, area loses 'great hero' in astronaut Alan Poindexter
Troy Moon - Pensacola News Journal
“You Can Get There From Here” has long been a marketing slogan for Pensacola State College. But no one embodied that more than astronaut and retired Navy Capt. Alan Poindexter, whose engineering education at PSC helped launch his military and space career. Poindexter, 51, died Sunday afternoon after a personal watercraft crash in Little Sabine Bay at Pensacola Beach.
Bill Nye: U.S. risks losing its space edge
Richard Galant - CNN
Years before Bill Nye became the Science Guy, he was a mechanical engineering student at Cornell University, where he took a course with astronomer Carl Sagan. Sagan, who was instrumental in the planning of NASA missions to other planets and became widely known for his research, writing and public television series, was one of the founders of the Planetary Society. And his student dutifully signed up to become a member.
Even brighter future ahead for KSC
Lori Garver - Orlando Sentinel (Commentary)
(Garver is NASA's deputy administrator)
"Lift off." For 50 years those words have not only signaled another launch from Kennedy Space Center, they have symbolized America's unquestioned leadership in the exploration of our solar system. Since its formal opening on July 1, 1962, NASA’s John F. Kennedy Space Center has served as the departure gate for every American manned mission and hundreds of advanced scientific spacecraft. From Project Mercury to the Apollo moon missions, from our 30-year space shuttle program and International Space Station to the Hubble Space Telescope and Mars rovers, KSC has served as NASA's premier space launch center.
A U.S. Department of Space?
Madhu Thangavelu - Space News (Opinion)
(Thangavelu is conductor of the ASTE527 Graduate Space Concepts Studio in the Department of Astronautical Engineering and graduate thesis adviser in the School of Architecture at the University of Southern California.)
A few weeks ago the hatch opened into the interior of the Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) Dragon capsule, and crew members from the international space station (ISS) unloaded cargo from the first private spacecraft docked at station. The crew noted that upon entering Dragon, it smelled like the interior of a new car. I don’t recall any such comment when logistics crafts built and serviced by multinational and defense corporations of other ISS partner nations docked with station for the first time. Once unloaded, Dragon returned to Earth precisely on target in the Pacific near Baja California. NASA Administrator Charles Bolden noted that a new era in space activity had begun.
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COMPLETE STORIES
NASA shows off first Orion capsule with KSC ceremony
William Harwood - CBS News
The first space-bound Orion capsule, the centerpiece of NASA's post-shuttle push to break out of low-Earth orbit for eventual manned flights to a variety of deep space targets, was officially unveiled at NASA's Florida spaceport Monday. The spacecraft will be outfitted for an unmanned test flight in 2014.
"As KSC celebrates its 50th anniversary this month, I can't think of a more appropriate way to celebrate than by having the very first Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle here at KSC," center Director Robert Cabana, a former shuttle commander, told more than 400 managers, engineers and technicians gathered at Kennedy's Operations and Checkout Building.
"Orion is ushering in a new era of space exploration beyond our home planet, enabling us to go farther than we've ever gone before. The future is here, now, and the vehicle we see here today is not a Powerpoint chart. It's a real spacecraft, moving toward a test flight in 2014."
Sen. Bill Nelson, the Florida Democrat who has led the congressional effort to build a new heavy lift rocket that will boost Orion into deep space, said the arrival of the first capsule is a symbol of things to come.
"Isn't this beautiful?" he said, standing before the empty pressure shell of the first test capsule. "I know there are a lot of people here who can't wait to get their hands and their fingers on this hardware. And ladies and gentlemen, we're going to Mars. Without question, the long-term goal of our space program, human space program right now is the goal of going to Mars in the decade of the 2030s.
"We still need to refine how we're going to go there, we've got to develop a lot of technologies, we've got to figure out how and where we're going to stop along the way. The president's goal is an asteroid in 2025. But we know the Orion capsule is a critical part of the system that is going to take us there."
The green interior pressure vessel that will make up the core of the first Orion capsule was delivered to Kennedy last week. Over the next year of so, engineers will attach a heat shield, install avionics systems and flight computers, along with other critical components. If all goes well, the capsule will be launched on an unmanned test flight -- Exploration Flight Test 1, or EFT-1 -- in 2014.
NASA is designing a new Saturn 5-class heavy-lift rocket known as the Space Launch System, or SLS, for future manned exploration missions into deep space using Orion capsules. But the first test flight in 2014 will be launched using a Delta 4 rocket built by United Launch Alliance.
The flight plan calls for the Delta 4 to put the Orion MPCV on a trajectory carrying it to an altitude of some 3,600 miles before it slams back into the atmosphere at more than 20,000 mph, roughly comparable to the velocities that will be experienced by astronauts returning from deep space missions.
"It's basically our very first uncrewed test," said astronaut Rex Walheim, a member of the final shuttle crew. "They're going to send it out to about 15 times the altitude of the space station so they can get a really good high re-entry velocity. Obviously, the farther you send something out, the faster it comes back. And that will really help us test out its heat shield and all the other systems that are on board to give us an idea about what we need to tweak, maybe, before the next flight test."
If that mission goes well, NASA managers hope to launch another unmanned Orion atop an SLS rocket in 2017 to characterize the performance of the system in an integrated test. A third flight in the 2021 timeframe will include a crew of up to four astronauts.
"I probably won't get a chance to fly (aboard Orion), but I just love being part of it," Walheim said. "It really inspires people, to talk about going beyond low-Earth orbit. It's something I really want to see us do."
But the Orion schedule assumes steady funding by Congress, which is an open question given the current debate over federal budget deficits, taxes and a general push to reduce federal spending.
"We have to be concerned about that because we are in an era of government spending where you have to do more with a limited amount," Nelson said. "That, of course, is going to be one of the main things we're going to have to look at in the future."
Along with developing new rockets and capsules for deep space missions, NASA also is funding development of commercial manned spacecraft intended to ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station. The first manned test flight of a commercial spacecraft could come as early as 2015. But the first crewed NASA flight to the space station is not expected until 2017 at the earliest.
NASA's Orion spacecraft: Built here, flown here
First space-bound Orion showcased, some assembly required
Todd Halvorson - Florida Today
NASA offered a peek at the future of Kennedy Space Center on Monday, unveiling the first space-bound Orion spacecraft while marking a huge economic development victory for Florida and the Space Coast.
“This is a milestone moment for the Space Coast, NASA and America’s space program,” NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver told 450 people at a ceremony to celebrate the arrival of the spacecraft.
It’s scheduled to blast off on a test flight in 2014 aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The rocket will propel the unmanned spacecraft into an elliptical orbit with a high point of 3,600 miles – 15 times farther from the Earth than the International Space Station.
That test flight and others should keep NASA on track for a human expedition to an asteroid by 2025 and missions to Mars in the mid-2030s.
“Orion is ushering in a new era of space exploration beyond our home planet, enabling us to go further than we’ve gone before. The future is here, now,” said KSC Director Robert Cabana.
It also is ushering in a whole new industrial base at KSC – aerospace manufacturing in addition to traditional launch operations.
“It really is a home run. I hope people know what this means,” said Lynda Weatherman, president and CEO of the Economic Development Commission of Florida’s Space Coast.
Rockets and spacecraft have been launched from KSC for 45 years. Assembly and integration work also has been done here.
“But we’ve never built them before,” said Lee Solid, a longtime launch operations manager and adviser to the EDC.
A $35 million state grant enabled Orion manufacturer Lockheed Martin to convert an old Apollo processing facility into a new state-of-the-art spacecraft production line.
The company and its subcontractors employ about 300 people at KSC. That number is expected to grew to 350 or 400 by the end of 2013.
“It’s nice to see 350-plus jobs,” said Marshall Heard, a former NASA contractor program manager and an EDC adviser. “It’s nice to see real hardware. It’s great to see exploration getting off the ground, no pun intended.”
The gleaming olive green capsule is the shell of the crew module for an Orion spacecraft. It was fabricated in a factory in New Orleans and shipped to KSC.
The Orion production line at KSC will operate somewhat like a high-tech automobile assembly line, where the bare chassis comes in one end of the building and a fully equipped car drives out of the other.
Here at KSC, the crew module shell will be outfitted with critical flight control computers, electrical power, environmental control, guidance and navigation systems, reaction control jets, shuttle-like thermal blankets and tiles, and landing system parachutes, among other things.
The spacecraft service module will be built and equipped in the KSC factory. The crew module will be joined with its domed heat shield, and those components will be integrated with the service module. And then in another building here at KSC, the Orion spacecraft will be equipped with a launch-abort system that would pull the vehicle away from a rocket in an emergency.
Its first test flight will send Orion “father into space than any spacecraft designed for humans has flown in 40 years,” Garver said.
The goal is to test the Orion heat shield and other critical systems during the type of high-speed atmospheric reentry a vehicle would make on a return from an asteroid, the moon, or Mars.
An unmanned in-flight abort test is targeted for launch from Cape Canaveral in 2016. NASA’s new heavy-lift Space Launch System is slated to fly an unmanned debut in 2017.
NASA hopes to launch Orion on its first piloted flight before 2020. The mission: Send an astronaut crew on a test flight around the moon.
NASA astronaut Nicole Stott says she would hop onboard if she had the chance.
“I would love to fly on that spacecraft. Wouldn’t you like to fly on that spacecraft?” Stott said.
New NASA spaceship arrives in Florida for test flight
Irene Klotz - Reuters
An Orion space capsule being developed to fly astronauts to asteroids, the moon and eventualy to Mars arrived at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for a 2014 test flight, NASA said on Monday.
The spacecraft, built by Lockheed-Martin is targeted for launch aboard an unmanned Delta 4 Heavy rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, adjacent to the NASA spaceport.
Though designed to carry a crew of four, Orion will make its first two flights unmanned.
"It's not a PowerPoint chart. It's a real spacecraft," Kennedy Space Center director Bob Cabana said during a ceremony Monday marking the capsule's arrival.
The 2014 launch is intended to test Orion's heat shield, parachutes and other systems.
It is expected to reach about 3,450 miles above Earth - more than 10 times beyond where the International Space Station flies - then slam back into the planet's atmosphere with 84 percent of the force that a spaceship returning from the moon would have.
"It's really going to stress the heat shield, which is exactly what we're trying to do," said NASA program manager Mark Geyer.
A second test flight in 2017 using NASA's planned heavy-lift Space Launch System rocket, is intended to put an unmanned Orion capsule around the moon. The third test flight, targeted for 2021, is expected to include astronauts.
By 2025, NASA intends to send astronauts to explore a near-Earth asteroid and then head on to Mars in the 2030s.
Humans have not flown beyond a few hundred miles above Earth since 1972 when the Apollo missions to the moon ended.
With the retirement of the space shuttles last summer, NASA is dependent on Russia to fly crews to the space station, a $100 billion project of 15 countries that orbits about 240 miles above the planet.
In hopes of breaking Russia's monopoly, NASA is partnering with four companies interested in developing spaceships to fly government astronauts, as well as private researchers and tourists to the station and other planned outposts in orbits close to Earth.
A new round of partnership agreements is expected to be announced this month, said NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden.
The Obama administration's budget request for the deep-space Orion capsule and NASA's heavy-lift, shuttle-derived rocket is $2.3 billion for the year beginning October 1. It also requested $830 million for the Commercial Crew program.
Legislators are leaning toward increasing the amount spent on the government program and shaving about $300 million off NASA's investment in commercial spaceships.
The Delta 4 rocket which will be used for Orion's second test flight is made by United Launch Alliance, a partnership of Lockheed-Martin and Boeing. Boeing also is the prime contractor for the Space Launch System core stage, which consists of a modified space shuttle fuel tank.
Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, a division of United Technologies Corp is developing the rocket's J-2X upper stage.
ATK is manufacturing a variant of the shuttle's solid-fuel booster rockets for the heavy-lift follow-on program.
Orion Flight Test Capsule Arrives at Kennedy
Dan Leone - Space News
The first Orion Multi-purpose Crew Vehicle that will fly in space arrived July 2 at the Kennedy Space Center, Fla., where it will undergo final assembly in preparation for a 2014 test flight atop a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta 4 rocket.
At Kennedy, engineers with NASA and prime contractor Lockheed Martin Space Systems of Denver, will add heat shielding thermal protection systems, avionics and other subsystems to the Lockheed-built capsule, a test article that will not carry astronauts.
U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) was on hand for the capsule’s arrival at Kennedy, as were staff members from Florida’s mostly Republican congressional delegation, including representatives from the offices of Sen. Marco Rubio and Reps. Sandy Adams and Bill Posey. NASA officials also attended, including Lori Garver, the deputy administrator, and Dan Dumbacher, the agency’s deputy associate administrator for exploration systems.
The capsule that arrived in Florida will be used for an October 2014 test mission called Exploration Flight Test-1. Orion will be launched to an altitude of 5,800 kilometers, orbit the Earth, then re-enter the atmosphere at speeds approaching those it would experience during a return from lunar space, NASA said in a July 2 press release.
Lunar space is so far the only destination NASA has proposed for a funded Orion mission. The agency arranged the 2014 test flight to get data about critical Orion safety systems prior to sending the capsule around the Moon and back in a pair of missions planned for 2017 and 2021. Both of those missions are to be launched by the heavy-lift Space Launch System NASA is developing. Only the 2021 mission will be crewed.
NASA is paying Lockheed $6.23 billion to build Orion, Trent Perrotto, an agency spokesman, said. Lockheed won the contract in 2006 as part of the defunct Constellation Moon-exploration program and has collected $4.68 billion of the award to date, including $372.6 million in the first five months of this year.
NASA added $375 million to Lockheed’s Orion contract in December so that the company could buy a Delta 4 and run the 2014 test.
“The objectives of this test [are] to stress the heat shield, and stress the exploration functions of Orion,” Mark Geyer, NASA’s Orion project manager, said July 2. Geyer and other project officials fielded questions submitted by the public over the Internet.
Geyer said Lockheed chose the Delta 4 because it would need fewer modifications than other rockets capable of launching the 2014 test mission. ULA, the primary launch services provider to the U.S. military, is a joint venture of Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin.
Orion's first test flight offers Space Launch System a first look at hardware operation, integration
Klaus Schmidt - SpaceFellowship.com
when NASA conducts its first test launch of the Orion spacecraft in 2014, the crew module’s designers will record invaluable data about its performance — from launch and flight, to re-entry and landing.
Orion will carry astronauts farther into space than ever before, sustaining the crew during space travel and providing emergency abort capability and safe re-entry from deep space. Orion will launch atop the Space Launch System (SLS), NASA’s next flagship rocket currently under design. The SLS will power the Orion spacecraft on deep space missions to asteroids, the moon, Mars and other destinations in our solar system. The first flight test of the full-scale SLS is planned for 2017.
In 2014, NASA will fly the Orion module on Exploration Flight Test 1 (EFT-1). Perched on top of a Delta IV rocket operated by United Launch Alliance at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Fla., the Orion capsule will travel 3,000 miles into space – 15 times farther away from Earth than the International Space Station. Because the Delta rocket was not originally designed and built to launch Orion, engineers at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., are building innovative adapter hardware to connect the two. This same hardware design eventually will be used on the flexible configurations of SLS flights.
“While this is an SLS design, we have the unique opportunity to design the hardware early and provide it for Exploration Flight Test 1, saving time and money,” said David Beaman, spacecraft and payload integration manager for NASA’s SLS Program. “By designing the adapter for both missions, we provide an affordable solution to keep our human exploration mission moving forward. EFT-1 becomes a test flight for the crew spacecraft and our adapter elements. Our designers and machinists are hard at work, fabricating the large aluminum rings needed to support the test flight, and we will deliver this hardware ahead of schedule.”
EFT-1 also will benefit the SLS program by flight-testing two elements similar to the top portion of the initial SLS vehicle: Orion itself and the EFT-1 cryogenic propulsion stage, or kick stage. The kick stage will be similar to the SLS Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage used for the initial rocket missions slated for 2017 and 2021.
“When you fly a vehicle for the first time you want to know as much as possible and the EFT-1 mission will allow our SLS team to learn about the structural, mechanical and electrical interfaces — the internal environment between Orion and the launch vehicle,” said Garry Lyles, chief engineer for the Space Launch System at Marshall. “Our team will capture flight data that will be useful to calibrate guidance, navigation and control algorithms and structural loads for SLS; separation dynamics between Orion and the launch vehicle; and overall vehicle stability — all vital data to reduce risk and increase reliability and sustainability for America’s next launch vehicle.”
The first SLS mission, Exploration Mission 1, in 2017 will launch an uncrewed Orion to demonstrate the integrated system performance of the SLS rocket and spacecraft prior to a crewed flight. The second SLS mission, Exploration Mission 2, is targeted for 2021 and will launch Orion and a crew of up to four American astronauts.
The Orion Program is managed by NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. The SLS Program is managed by the Marshall Center. Both programs are managed by the Explorations Systems Development Division within the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
First space-bound Orion crew capsule arrives at NASA's launch site
Robert Pearlman - collectSPACE.com
Without a heat shield or wiring, and with only welded metal panels to see, NASA's new spacecraft designed to take astronauts out beyond Earth and into the solar system doesn't look like much yet.
But to NASA, congressional and space industry leaders, the capsule's olive-green pressure shell is an exciting sight to behold. The capsule, NASA's first space bound Orion crew module, was unveiled on Monday (July 2) to mark its arrival at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, the site of the spacecraft's planned 2014 launch on an unmanned test flight.
"Isn't this beautiful," Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL) told an audience of more than 450 Orion team members looking at the spacecraft behind him. "I know there is a lot of people here who can't wait to get their hands and fingers on this hardware."
"We're really proud of it," NASA deputy administrator Lori Garver told SPACE.com and collectSPACE.com. "It is going to start looking more like the shape of capsule soon. But to me, it looks like the future."
The Orion capsule, which arrived in Florida from the Michoud Assembly Facility in Louisiana last week, now sits inside Kennedy's Operations and Checkout (O&C) building. It is in here, the same high bay where more than 40 years ago NASA readied similarly-shaped capsules for launches to the moon, that Lockheed Martin engineers and technicians will conduct the final preparations to launch this Orion higher and faster than any capsule since the Apollo missions.
"The future is here, now," Kennedy Space Center's director Robert Cabana said. "The vehicle we see here today is not a Powerpoint chart. It is a real spacecraft moving toward a test flight in 2014."
"This is a milestone moment for the Space Coast, NASA and America's space program," Garver said. "It is a new and exciting chapter in America's great space exploration story, one that will see more discoveries, more scientific return, and more people and Americans going into space and going places that have never before been visited."
To space and back
The unmanned test flight, which NASA calls the Orion Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1), is slated to launch in spring 2014 atop a United Launch Alliance Delta 4 Heavy rocket from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. After reaching orbit, the capsule will circle Earth twice, rising to more than 3,600 miles (5,800 kilometers) from the planet — 15 times higher than the International Space Station.
The Orion will then turn around and come home, re-entering the atmosphere at a blazing speed of more than 20,000 miles per hour (32,000 kilometers per hour) in an attempt to prove that its heat shield is capable of protecting the capsule — and its future crews — after missions out to an asteroid, the moon, and ultimately Mars.
"We're going to get about 84 percent of a lunar entry velocity, which is really going to stress the heat shield, which is exactly what we're trying to do," NASA's Orion program manager Mark Geyer said.
The EFT-1 mission will end with the Orion splashing down in the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of the United States.
Before all of that can occur however, the bare pressure vehicle now at Kennedy Space Center needs to be outfitted for flight.
Building the future
By the fall of 2013, Lockheed Martin, NASA's lead contractor for Orion, plans to have the 16-foot wide (5-meter) capsule completed and looking more like a typical spacecraft. Its welded metal panels will be covered by an advanced version of the thermal protection tiles used on the space shuttle, and the capsule's belly will be covered with a modern variant of the ablative heat shield used on NASA's Apollo spacecraft.
"There are people ready with drill bits, and tubes, and pipes to start assembly of this vehicle as soon as we're out of here and out of their way," said John Karas, Lockheed Martin's vice president for human space flight.
The Orion will also be equipped with avionics systems and other instrumentation to fly and record the data from the flight test.
What the EFT-1 capsule will not have is the digital glass cockpit, crew seats, life support systems (including a planned toilet), or the solar panel wings that future, manned Orion capsules will require. These systems will be included on later test vehicles set to launch on NASA's next heavy-lift booster.
The Space Launch System (SLS), which was authorized by Congress last year and is under development now, is being designed to support both crew and cargo launches to destinations beyond Earth orbit. NASA is targeting its first uncrewed Space Launch System flight for 2017, with the first manned Orion flight to follow four years later.
Fledgling NASA Nonprofit Starts To Liftoff
Nell Greenfieldboyce - National Public Radio
A new nonprofit organization that's supposed to take charge of expanding scientific research on the international space station has had a rocky first year, but now is starting to show what it can do.
The Center for the Advancement of Science in Space just signed one agreement with a company not traditionally linked to research in space: the sporting goods company Cobra Puma Golf.
With the space station now complete after more than a decade of construction at a cost of around $100 billion, attention has turned to how to best use the station.
CASIS was established to drum up interest in doing experiments by folks outside of NASA, including people who work at private companies, universities, or other federal agencies.
Or, as CASIS puts it in a promotional video, the mission is to "seek out those ready to put their ideas into orbit and to get them there."
How CASIS can work
"There's some things that a nonprofit organization can do that NASA as a government entity can't do," says Marybeth Edeen, a manager at NASA's space station program.
A nonprofit can go out and talk with companies and make a case for how research in orbit could potentially help their bottom line, Edeen says. A nonprofit can also raise money from investors or charities.
The idea is that NASA will provide $15 million a year to get CASIS started, Edeen says, and then "they go out and get funding from other sources to stimulate and use [the] station in ways that currently aren't possible given the NASA budget."
Congress told NASA to set up this kind of nonprofit a couple of years ago. Different groups submitted proposals, and NASA announced last July that it had picked CASIS. But on March 5, CASIS announced that its director had resigned after just months on the job.
Congressional scrutiny
Some lawmakers have been wondering what's going on.
At a hearing later in March, Congressman Frank Wolf, R-Va., asked the head of NASA, Charles Bolden, what grade he would give CASIS on its progress so far. Bolden said it was too soon to tell.
"I'd give them a D-plus overall," says Keith Cowing, who runs the website NASAwatch.com. He worked for the agency in the early days of the space station program, and has been a persistent critic of CASIS.
"They're making incremental progress, but I just don't think they're going fast enough," he says. "I don't think that they've engaged the people who have decades of experience in doing research in space. And I'm a little frustrated that they haven't gotten that message."
But the leadership at CASIS says the organization has actually accomplished a lot. Jim Royston, who serves as its interim director while a search goes on to fill the position permanently, says CASIS has hired more than 30 people, set up a website and talked to more than 100 companies about space station research.
"So we did all these things in parallel," Royston says.
As far as the criticism goes, he says, "there was some pressure in the beginning, and I think, you know, that's a growing pain that many, many, many start-up organizations actually have."
Much at stake
Royston says CASIS is now moving beyond the startup phase. Just last week, it issued its first call for research proposals.
And the agreement with Cobra Puma Golf shows that CASIS can interest companies that make everyday consumer products, says Bobby Block, a CASIS spokesman.
A lot of advanced materials are already used in golf balls and clubs, he says.
"Most of them are made from materials that actually come from the aerospace industry," he says.
Block says Cobra Puma Golf "wanted to take an active role and get closer to research to kind of push the materials and see how space could develop them further."
Alan Stern, a planetary scientist and former NASA official who recently became a scientific adviser for CASIS, says people need to give this new organization a fair chance.
"CASIS has to succeed. Because for it not to succeed would be a huge setback for the international space station program," he says.
Stern recently wrote a commentary defending CASIS from critics who want it replaced with some other organization. Stern says if NASA pulled the plug on CASIS, it would waste precious time that would be better spent bringing new research to the international space station.
Private company will work with NASA equipment
Scott Powers - Orlando Sentinel
Melbourne-based Craig Technologies and NASA have reached agreement on a deal that will allow the company to take possession of 1,600 pieces of machine shop and lab equipment used in the space shuttle program. The company intends to use it to service private companies' space ventures.
The deal, reached last week, gives the company full use privileges of the equipment currently housed at the 160,000-square-foot NASA Shuttle Logistics Depot that was run by United Space Alliance in Cape Canaveral.
Craig Technologies, founded by Carol Craig, intends to win contracts with the bevy of private companies now planning space programs from Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station as the Cape becomes the new "Space Port" for commercial space programs.
The equipment ranges from welding benches to high-tech vibration labs, and aeronautics electronics engineering stations to "clean room" assembly stations.
The company also is charged with preserving the equipment for "current and future mission support."
"Allowing the capability to be maintained and enhanced along with opening it to other industries ensures a long-term outlook that benefits all interested parties including new and existing businesses," Craig stated in a news release.
"When we opened our machine and tool division eighteen months ago, we saw the potential for high-tech manufacturing growth here in Brevard County. This agreement enhances and accelerates our plan and we look forward to playing a major role in the increased supply chain support for Central Florida's commercial aerospace, energy, manufacturing, and research sectors."
Craig Technologies will formally take possession of the equipment, all of it on loan from NASA, Jan. 1.
Company spokeswoman Carey Beam said future job growth will depend on what contracts Craig can win that will make use of the equipment. The Space Coast has lost thousands of jobs since the shuttle program was officially retired last summer.
First, Craig Technologies must secure a facility, The company is talking with USA about keeping the equipment in the current buildings but also may relocate it to a spot no farther than 50 miles from Cape Canaveral. The company has a small machine shop of its own in Cape Canaveral.
"The transformation of NSLD utilization from the space shuttle program to a more commercial marketplace focus reflects the type of diversification that will ensure continued high-tech growth on the Space Coast," said Frank DiBello, president of Space Florida, the state's aerospace economic development agency, in the release.
America, area loses 'great hero' in astronaut Alan Poindexter
Troy Moon - Pensacola News Journal
“You Can Get There From Here” has long been a marketing slogan for Pensacola State College.
But no one embodied that more than astronaut and retired Navy Capt. Alan Poindexter, whose engineering education at PSC helped launch his military and space career.
Poindexter, 51, died Sunday afternoon after a personal watercraft crash in Little Sabine Bay at Pensacola Beach.
Poindexter, known as “Dex,” lived in Monterrey, Calif., with his wife, Lisa. They and their two sons, Samuel, 22, and Zachary, 26, were here visiting Lisa’s parents, Ron and Carolyn Pfeiffer of Gulf Breeze.
In his decade-long career with NASA, Poindexter logged a total of nearly 28 days in space aboard two space shuttle flights — Atlantis in 2008 and Discovery in 2010.
As a military pilot, he flew missions in the Persian Gulf during operations Desert Storm and Southern Watch. He also had more than 4,000 hours in more than 30 aircraft types and logged more than 450 carrier landings.
Former PSC student-journalist Danica Spears, 23, interviewed Poindexter before the Atlantis mission, attended the launch, and then spent time with the astronaut when he returned to the college afterward.
He made arrangements for the school’s student newspaper staff to receive press credentials to cover the launch of the rocket, which delivered the European Space Agency’s $2 billion space lab to the International Space Station. He carried a school medallion into space with him.
“It was such an honor for me to meet Capt. Poindexter and have the chance to get to know him,” Spears said. “He met a lot of students, and he proved that they can start great careers at PSC. He showed that anything is possible.”
Poindexter’s death was noted nationwide late Sunday and on Monday. It was the top story online Monday at Space.com.
On the NASA Facebook page, an unnamed official posted this: “The NASA family was sad to learn of the passing of our former friend, and colleague Alan Poindexter who was killed today during a jet ski accident in Florida. Our thought and hearts are with his family.”
Current astronauts also paid tribute.
“He was a talented, courageous Navy veteran with gifts,” astronaut Greg Johnson wrote on Twitter. “Dex was a lovable guy with a strong work ethic.”
Clayton Anderson, his crewmate aboard Discovery, tweeted, “America lost a great hero yesterday; I lost my commander, my colleague and my friend. RIP Captain Poindexter.”
Capt. Poindexter was the son of retired Navy Rear Adm. John Poindexter, who was stationed in Pensacola from 1980 through 1981 and became national security adviser under President Ronald Reagan.
Retired Navy Capt. Robert Rassmussen, director of the National Naval Aviation Museum on Pensacola Naval Air Station, lived next to the Poindexters when the elder Poindexter served as deputy commander of the Naval Education and Training Command at NAS.
“I remember him as a teenager,” Rassmussen said of Capt. Poindexter. “He was very active, I know. He grew up to be a great success in the Navy and astronaut corps.”
Success at PSCThe younger Poindexter remained in Pensacola to start his college education after his father joined the Reagan administration. In 1983, he earned an associate’s degree in engineering from PSC, then known as Pensacola Junior College.
“I received a very good, quality education at PJC and it prepared me,” said Poindexter, who went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology in 1986 and a master’s degree from the Naval Postgraduate School in California in 1995. “PJC was a really good opportunity for me.”
At the time of his death, Poindexter was dean of students and executive director of programs at the Naval Postgraduate School.
After graduating from Georgia Tech, Poindexter was commissioned in the U.S. Navy. He returned to Pensacola for Navy flight training and also trained at Whiting Field near Milton.
Poindexter remains one of PSC’s most distinguished alumni, said PSC president Ed Meadows.
“Alan Poindexter was very important to this school,” Meadows said. “He was one of the most successful graduates of our college, so we mourn for him and his family.”
Meadows said the Poindexter family returned to Gulf Breeze each year to visit family.
“I was able to spend a good bit of time with Alan,” he said. “I can say, he had a true heart for the mission of NASA, a true heart for being helpful to the students ... a true gentleman in every regard.”
Motorcycle riding buddy and fellow pilot David C. Baker of Nashville said that during their 12-year friendship, there was rarely a time that Poindexter did not have a smile on his face.
“He was impetuously happy. I never saw him when he wasn’t happy,” Baker said. “He just enjoyed everything.”
But in 2010, that happiness was tested, Baker said.
Upon returning from his second space shuttle mission, Baker said Poindexter was hospitalized for several months with an infection.
It was then that Poindexter retired from his post at NASA and moved to California.
“Dex was a well-respected leader within our office,” Peggy Whitson, chief of the Astronaut Office at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, said in 2010, when Poindexter announced his retirement from the space agency.
Accident in bayThe Poindexter men were all riding personal watercraft on Sunday in Little Sabine Bay.
Poindexter and his son, Samuel, were sitting still on a personal watercraft when Zachary, who apparently did not see the two had stopped, crashed into them on a separate craft, knocking them into the water, according to Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officials.
Poindexter was conscious after the accident, able to speak and complaining of chest injuries, said Stan Kirkland, FWC spokesman.
He was driven to a nearby beach area, where friends performed CPR on him. He was then taken by Lifeflight helicopter to Baptist Hospital, where he died.
Poindexter’s sons were not injured, Kirkland said.
The FWC has launched an investigation, as it does with any boating accident, Kirkland said. The investigation could last more than a month, he said.
PSC officials and instructors said Poindexter will remain an inspiration at the school.
“He proved, obviously, that we can get you anywhere from here,” said PSC astronomy professor Wayne Wooten, who did not teach Poindexter but came to know him as an astronaut. “He said we gave him a great foundation to start.”
Rassmussen said the military community is “shocked” by the loss.
“I heard it on the radio this morning,” he said. “What a tragedy.”
Bill Nye: U.S. risks losing its space edge
Richard Galant - CNN
Years before Bill Nye became the Science Guy, he was a mechanical engineering student at Cornell University, where he took a course with astronomer Carl Sagan.
Sagan, who was instrumental in the planning of NASA missions to other planets and became widely known for his research, writing and public television series, was one of the founders of the Planetary Society. And his student dutifully signed up to become a member.
"I've been a member for over 30 years. And now I'm the head guy. It's quite odd," a surprised-sounding Nye told CNN in an interview in March at the TED2012 conference in Long Beach, California.
So today, the bow-tied, jauntily professorial Nye has a new role aside from his television work as a popularizer of science: As the society's chief executive, he's become a leading voice against the Obama administration's proposed $300 million cut in NASA's planetary exploration budget. And it's a subject about which he's passionate.
"This is a deep, deep concern. All the budgets are being cut. We gotcha, budgets are being cut, budgets are being pulled back, yes, yes, all good," he says, acknowledging the pressure to cut spending.
"But investment in space stimulates society, it stimulates it economically, it stimulates it intellectually, and it gives us all passion. Everyone, red state, blue state, everyone supports space exploration. So I understand the budget has got to be cut, but something has gone a little bit wrong."
Nye says the planetary exploration budget, facing a reduction of 21% from this fiscal year's budget, is taking a deeper cut than other parts of NASA.
"This wouldn't matter. except it's not a faucet. It's not a spigot you can turn off and on. You stop planetary exploration, those people who do that extraordinary work are going to have to go do something else."
His worry is that the U.S. is in danger of losing its unmatched scientific expertise to plan and execute missions to other planets.
"To try to really land a spacecraft really on another world is really difficult, and if we lose that ability, it's going to be heartbreaking," says Nye, who adds that it could take decades to recoup.
Nye makes another argument for investing in exploring the solar system. He says there are two kinds of natural disasters that can be prevented: One is climate change, and the other is the Earth getting hit by an asteroid.
NASA's Curiosity rover heads for space November 26 atop an Atlas 5 rocket at Cape Canaveral, Florida."If the Earth gets hit by an asteroid, it's game over. It's control-alt-delete for civilization." Nye says he figures "sea jellies, squid, cockroaches will be fine," but an asteroid could wipe out humankind.
"So what we want to do is to develop the capability to redirect, to deflect an asteroid, ever so slightly. If you're going to do that, you've got to have space exploration. And sooner or later, you're going to want to send people out there to look around. It's just our nature, and one day it would be exciting to send people to Mars."
NASA is in the midst of active exploration of Mars.
In August, Curiosity, the Mars Science Laboratory rover, is due to land on the planet's surface. David Weaver, NASA's associate administrator for communications, says the rover is the "Hubble of Mars missions" and "the most sophisticated scientific system ever sent to another planet."
Its mission is to determine whether the red planet could have ever hosted life. Weaver said in June that the agency is reformulating its Mars strategy in light of budget constraints and scientific priorities and "the president's challenge of sending humans to Mars in the 2030s."
Nye says his concern isn't about current missions but about whether the next series of missions and the ones beyond that will have enough funds to proceed.
Taking a larger view, Nye says there are two questions everyone should ask themselves at some time in their lives: "Where did we come from? And are we alone?"
"To seek the real answers to those questions, you have to explore space, and if you stop exploring, if you say, 'I don't care; I'm not going to look up and out and beyond the horizon,' what does that say about you? It's not good," Nye said.
"If we found life on Mars, or evidence of life on Mars, it would change the way everybody thinks about everything. It would change the way you think about your place in space."
Even brighter future ahead for KSC
Lori Garver - Orlando Sentinel (Commentary)
(Garver is NASA's deputy administrator)
"Lift off." For 50 years those words have not only signaled another launch from Kennedy Space Center, they have symbolized America's unquestioned leadership in the exploration of our solar system.
Since its formal opening on July 1, 1962, NASA’s John F. Kennedy Space Center has served as the departure gate for every American manned mission and hundreds of advanced scientific spacecraft. From Project Mercury to the Apollo moon missions, from our 30-year space shuttle program and International Space Station to the Hubble Space Telescope and Mars rovers, KSC has served as NASA's premier space launch center.
This week, as KSC celebrates its 50th anniversary, we have more evidence that its future will be even brighter. On Monday, I joined Florida Sen. Bill Nelson and KSC Director Bob Cabana in a ceremony at the center celebrating the arrival of the Orion spacecraft, part of NASA's next generation exploration system. When Orion takes its first test flight in 2014, it will go farther than any spacecraft developed for human spaceflight has flown since astronauts returned from the moon.
President Obama has set a goal of sending humans to an asteroid by 2025 and to Mars in the 2030s. Congress agreed that the best way to do that was for NASA to let our industry partners take the lead on delivery of cargo and crew to the International Space Station and other low Earth orbit destinations so that we could concentrate on building America's next generation exploration system, the Orion spacecraft and the Space Launch System. It is estimated that final construction and integration work on Orion will support at least 350 Space Coast jobs.
Our new strategy is producing tangible results. In May, SpaceX became the first private company to launch from Cape Canaveral, dock to the space station and return its Dragon 9 capsule safely back to Earth. And President Obama has proposed $500 million in investments in NASA's 21st century Space Launch Complex, including millions to transform KSC's launch infrastructure for government and commercial users.
For 50 years, Kennedy has been America's gateway to space. With new missions and infrastructure improvements in the works, we are confident that the road to space will continue to go through KSC.
A U.S. Department of Space?
Madhu Thangavelu - Space News (Opinion)
(Thangavelu is conductor of the ASTE527 Graduate Space Concepts Studio in the Department of Astronautical Engineering and graduate thesis adviser in the School of Architecture at the University of Southern California.)
A few weeks ago the hatch opened into the interior of the Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) Dragon capsule, and crew members from the international space station (ISS) unloaded cargo from the first private spacecraft docked at station. The crew noted that upon entering Dragon, it smelled like the interior of a new car. I don’t recall any such comment when logistics crafts built and serviced by multinational and defense corporations of other ISS partner nations docked with station for the first time.
Once unloaded, Dragon returned to Earth precisely on target in the Pacific near Baja California. NASA Administrator Charles Bolden noted that a new era in space activity had begun.
It is rightly SpaceX’s time to shine. With a fraction of a fraction of the resources that governments and partner nations employ to create and support space missions, this small, can-do company in Southern California has made giant strides into a domain that was the monopoly of government-run space agencies of sovereign nations. A small business running out of a warehouse near Los Angeles is now able to support ISS logistics! Such are the true signs of progress in advancing life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
This “first mover” advantage should go a long way to establish SpaceX as the leader in private, commercial space activity. However, several small companies also are lining up hardware and operational flight plans. They include Virgin Galactic, Orbital Sciences, Blue Origin, XCOR, Bigelow Aerospace, Sierra Nevada Corp. and, most recently, Paul Allen’s new consortium to build and service an air-launched orbital vehicle called Stratolaunch.
NASA has been asked to do too much with too little for too long, and in keeping with the erratic budget trims and fixes, the agency’s vision has been badly warped over time. A clear vision is crucial for success. In the Kennedy directive to reach for the Moon, the choice of words articulating the vision were very clear. The NASA vision of today is nebulous and seems to pay lip service, catering to do all things for everyone.
NASA projects, by virtue of their one-of-a-kind, never-tried-before nature, must have open-ended budgets. But the agency has a history of being told by Congress to build projects with budgets that are insufficient, or worse, budgets that follow a rowdy on-again/off-again cycle rather than a steady flow of funds.
Visions and ideas are precious, irrespective of their origin. They help planners to choose between options to shape the way forward. NASA has been accused of the “not invented here” syndrome that seems to affect large agencies. However, it is good to see NASA fielding out visionary architecture studies to universities through programs like the NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts. It would be much better if all visionary studies were done that way.
Recent visions include a U.S. Air Force study to put up solar-powered satellites to bolster U.S. and global energy security, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology report that seeks to reinvigorate human spaceflight through renewed international collaboration, and a California Institute of Technology report on accessing the asteroid belt for resources. Large defense contractors like Boeing and Lockheed Martin also have proposed new concepts, such as orbital fuel depots and technology test bed missions to the Moon.
Government space projects, or programs (as they are more aptly called), are about building and maintaining very large and expensive infrastructures. Proposed projects include planetary defense infrastructures, orbital debris mitigation systems, climate change and pollution monitoring programs, large GPS and defense-related constellations and assets, and manned lunar, asteroid and Mars missions. Private space projects, like space tourism and ISS logistics support, cost orders of magnitude less.
Since the scope and budgets are very different, it goes without saying that the processes and mindset behind government and private space programs are very different as well. Government space programs have always been about national pride and international prestige, much like those evolving in China and Russia today, not to mention government jobs. It is not an economic matter as much as a policy-related one. The returns have been expected in broad international collaboration and results have been meant to steer and align administration policy to gain advantage in statecraft, both domestic and globally. Private space activity, on the other hand, is all about the profit-minded entrepreneur.
However, in the current economic climate, it is perhaps necessary to merge these philosophies and operate using synergies of both the public and private sector.
U.S. President Barack Obama is looking at restructuring his Cabinet to fit the needs of the 21st century, and perhaps now is the time to consider a U.S. Department of Space that can play a vital role in international policy. Besides helping to build up the infrastructure of friendly nations, align the projects and goals of various spacefaring nations and assist in global projects such as international manned missions and space debris mitigation, a Department of Space also would help to coordinate the activities of fledgling private space companies, which have a history of being squashed as NASA protects its charter and monopoly.
A range of options are available, from asking NASA to play the role of global coordinator to proposing a completely new organization and charter for space activity. NASA could, in theory, create a new division to coordinate such activity, evolving and extending the ISS model of international collaboration, but such activity would clearly distract resources and personnel from NASA’s leading-edge space technology and mission charter, and detract from the agency’s core competence. The creation of a U.S. Department of Space, however, might balance these two poles. And the private space sector could use a moderating, synergizing body between it and the government space sector.
Even before the imminent advent of routine suborbital space tourism flights by Virgin Galactic and others, the Federal Aviation Administration is involved, studying the potential impact and safety on airline traffic. As commercial spaceflight comes of age, we can expect the Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Occupational Safety and Health Administration to become important players as well. And the State Department already has played a notorious role in suppressing space commerce under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations and Missile Technology Control Regime.
NASA may not be able to handle all these auxiliary functions that will be thrust upon it soon without radical changes to the agency’s charter. It is perhaps better for the agency to stay close to its original charter, as the administrator has indicated, and provide leadership in its area of core competency: high-risk technology development and deep-space, endurance-class manned missions to destinations beyond Earth orbit.
A Department of Space must not be misconstrued as a threat to break up NASA or split up its stretched budget. Nor should it be portrayed as a stealthy effort by the Department of Defense (DoD) to exert influence globally.
A University of Southern California team project from last fall presented a case that the Department of Space should operate at a budget level of some $60 billion, consistent with other departments, of which NASA should have $20 billion to build, test and fly daring, leading-edge technology missions into deep space. An additional $40 billion is suggested for the department to handle all the coordination functions among large global infrastructure development projects, NASA and other partner nation agencies, and the private sector.
Government and private space activities are both necessary to keep the space industry in good competitive shape. Just as the Human Genome Project was accelerated by Celera Genomics, a small biotech company, large government-sponsored space programs can benefit from small space companies, acting as catalysts for quick results.
Large space infrastructure development projects that cannot be initiated or created by private investors alone, such as space solar power, orbital debris mitigation, fuel depots, interplanetary missions or even large space based observatories, remain the domain of NASA and the government. However, servicing these large systems, once put in place, could be a healthy sector for private participation in the near future.
The role of the Department of Space must be one of coordination between government and private space activity. Can NASA aspire to change its deeply ingrained culture and become such an entity? If we look at the history of failed private space efforts, the answer is no.
Should the 21st century creation and maintenance of national security infrastructure depend on obsolete DoD practices and a few established sole source suppliers, or should it be spread out over a much larger and more competitive commercial sector, including small business? If civil jobs protection is the goal, we might stay with status quo (though it is clearly unsustainable), but if true jobs expansion is what we seek, we might want a much more vigorous overhaul that includes the private sector at the core of all formulation plans.
New information and manufacturing technologies now clearly favor the latter, from both the agility and economic points of view. It is possible for small companies to innovate and field systems at a fraction of the cost and overhead of larger corporations. The same strategy that produced design results for complex protein folding methods in biology by presenting the problem to be solved over the Internet to a wide audience is now being probed to enhance and create national security projects. “Crowd sourcing” is seen as the next level of sophistication for designing and building complex systems, including space systems.
Human space activity remains a special endeavor that is able to bring the finest minds together in peaceful projects of progressive development. Spacefaring nations that once aimed their nuclear arsenals at each other have joined forces to support the buildup and operations of ISS. The next stage in this development is handing over the reins to global commerce and economic development.
Space remains the ultimate frontier. Among all spacefaring nations today, the U.S., with a Constitution that resonates with the freedom of mankind, is best suited for expanding activities. Can U.S. space policy be reshaped to encompass a globally inclusive, civilian paradigm? Can the U.S. shepherd the spacefaring nations of the world in undertaking visionary space infrastructure development projects? The answer for speeding up progress may lie in the creation of a U.S. Department of Space to combine the energies of the government space programs of the world and coordinate the various private space projects as well as assist in the pursuit of excellence in progressive, peaceful space activities.
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