Houston, Curiosity has landed! NASA's most advanced Mars rover, Curiosity, has landed on the Red Planet. The one-ton rover, hanging by ropes from a rocket backpack, touched down onto Mars early Monday EDT to end a 36-week flight and begin a two-year investigation.
Monday, August 6, 2012
JSC TODAY HEADLINES
1. Job Opportunities
2. Feds Feed Families -- Halfway to Our Goal
3. Come Learn About NASA JSC Knowledge Management and Resources Available
4. Spacecraft Docks Under Six Hours After Launch
5. Training on Green Purchasing for JSC
6. Starport Gift Shops: Back-to-School Sale
7. Lean Six Sigma -- Overview Training -- Today and Tomorrow
8. Making Your Favorite Recipes Healthier
9. Time: As Precious as Our Health
10. JSC Astronomy Society (JSCAS) Meeting
11. Project Asset and Lifecycle Management System (PALMS) Training Available
12. Lunarfins JSC SCUBA Club Meeting
13. Crane Operations & Rigging Safety Refresher: Aug. 20, 8 a.m., Building 226, Room 174
14. Confined Space Entry - 8:30 a.m.; and Lockout/Tagout - 1 p.m. -- Aug. 21, Building 226N, Room 174
15. Demolition ViTS -- 8 a.m., Aug. 24
________________________________________ QUOTE OF THE DAY
“ Determine that the thing can and shall be done, and then we shall find the way. ”
-- Abraham Lincoln
________________________________________
1. Job Opportunities
Where Do I Find Job Opportunities?
Both internal Competitive Placement Plan (CPPs) and external JSC job announcements are posted on both the HR Portal and USAJOBS(www.usajobs.gov) website. Through the HR portal, civil servants can view summaries of all the agency jobs that are currently open at https://hr.nasa.gov/portal/server.pt/community/employees_home/239/job_opportu...
To help you navigate to JSC vacancies, use the filter drop down menu, and select JSC HR. The "Jobs link", will direct you to the USAJOBS website for the complete announcement and the ability to apply online. If you have questions about any JSC job vacancies, please call your Human Resources Representative.
Lisa Pesak x30476
[top]
2. Feds Feed Families -- Halfway to Our Goal
We had a strong finale to the July collections last week, crossing the 25,000-pound mark late on Tuesday. AM champion Carolyn Wall inspired her team to donate 124 pounds per person, with a donation of over 2,725 pounds! Thanks to AM, HA, DS, OD and JA for last week's donations and to all organizations and individuals who have donated generously to reach the July totals.
There's one more month to go with many organizations still actively collecting, including the International Space Station Program, EA, AH, JA, BA and the White Sands Test Facility.
With our incredibly generous team at JSC, our 50,000-pound goal is well within our reach!
Karen Schmalz x47931 http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/Events/
[top]
3. Come Learn About NASA JSC Knowledge Management and Resources Available
"NASA JSC's Approach to Knowledge Management (KM)"
Aug. 8 from 11:30 a.m.to 12:30 p.m.
Building 1, Room 360
Join JSC's SAIC and the Safety & Mission Assurance Speaker Forum featuring Jeanie Engle, JSC Chief Knowledge Officer. Engle is responsible for the development of an integrated knowledge management plan across JSC, as well as collaborating with other NASA centers and industry to identify and utilize best practices. This program began with the simple concept of identifying, capturing, maintaining, retrieving and sharing of critical knowledge. Existing projects include explicit knowledge capture through lessons learned, case studies, our quality management system and a robust taxonomy/semantic search capability. Under her leadership, JSC KM continues to develop and expand our organizational learning approach to include implicit knowledge capture through JSC storytelling and JSC Voices. Through these varied diverse projects and approaches, JSC KM is inclusive of all technical and administrative disciplines at JSC.
Learn more at: https://knowledge.jsc.nasa.gov
Joyoce Abbey 281-335-2041
[top]
4. Spacecraft Docks Under Six Hours After Launch
The unpiloted Progress 48 Russian cargo ship docked at 8:18 p.m. CDT on Aug. 1 to the Pirs docking compartment of the International Space Station. The resupply spacecraft launched at 2:35 p.m. and performed a same-day rendezvous and docking to the station. Check out the video: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?media_id=149684581
JSC External Relations, Office of Communications and Public Affairs x35111
[top]
5. Training on Green Purchasing for JSC
Involved in purchasing? You no longer need to dig through databases and websites to determine the latest recycled or bio-based content requirements to make sure you are making the best purchasing decisions and meeting JSC green-purchasing requirements. If you are responsible for compiling information for an annual report to NASA's Environmental Office, this meeting will review those requirements, too. To learn more, plan to attend the one-hour training session at 10 a.m. on Thursday, Aug. 16, in Building 45, Room 451.
Environmental Office x36207
[top]
6. Starport Gift Shops: Back-to-School Sale
There will be a back-to-school sale starting today, Aug. 6, until Aug. 17. Backpacks, totes, pens, journals, sharpeners, school kits, notebooks, books (excluding "Wings In Orbit") and more are 20 percent off. Reminder: The Dog Days of Summer Contest is still open! See details at the stores. Contest ends Aug. 10.
Lorie Shewell x30308 http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/
[top]
7. Lean Six Sigma -- Overview Training -- Today and Tomorrow
The principles of Lean and Six Sigma have become an industry standard practice in continual improvement over the last couple of decades. They are frequently combined using complementary approaches to both improve efficiency and reduce variation and defects. NASA began its Lean Six Sigma program in early 2000 by benchmarking the training and implementation methods of its contractors and industry partners, resulting in a NASA Lean Six Sigma approach of rapid process improvement. JSC offers periodic training provided by the agency's Master Black Belt. Civil servants and contractors are invited to attend a one-hour overview training session provided by the agency's expert in an informal question-and-answer format. This one-hour overview also serves as a prerequisite for the NASA Green Belt training class (offered in SATERN). Today, Aug. 6: Building 1, Room 360, from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m.; Tuesday, Aug. 7: Building 30 Auditorium, from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m.
No registration is required.
Cheryl Andrews x35979
[top]
8. Making Your Favorite Recipes Healthier
This nutrition class will help you give your recipes a healthy makeover! In this class we will cover how to make your favorite dishes a little better for you with a few easy modifications. We will discuss how to decrease the overall calorie and fat content of recipes without taking away the taste. Participants are encouraged to bring their own recipes to share. The presentation will be held tomorrow, Aug. 7, at 4:30 p.m. in Building 8, Room 248.
You can sign up for this class and other upcoming nutrition classes online at: http://www.explorationwellness.com/WellnessCSS/CourseCatalogSelection/
If you're working on improving your approach to healthy nutrition but can't attend a class, we offer free one-on-one consultations with Glenda Blaskey, the JSC Registered Dietitian.
Glenda Blaskey x41503 http://www.explorationwellness.com/Web/scripts/Nutrition.aspx
[top]
9. Time: As Precious as Our Health
If you only have one hour, we've got a lineup of one-hour classes to improve your health and well-being. Grab your lunch and join us in a conference room nearby.
Wednesday: Managing Stress and Resiliency
An important tool in a healthy toolbox is resiliency. Being resilient won't eliminate problems, but it can help you to see past them and better handle stress. Learn about stress and the role resiliency plays on managing it.
Thursday: Dining Out - Can it Be Part of a Healthy Lifestyle?
Zipping through the take-out window a lot these days and making the best choices when dining out? With hectic schedules, dining out is a big part of our lives. Learn how to keep healthy habits intact when dining away from home.
More coming next week:
- Metabolic Syndrome
- Fiber and Whole Grains
- Financial classes about investing, retirement, taxes and estate planning
See link for details!
Jessica Vos x41383 http://www.explorationwellness.com/rd/AE108.aspx?Aug_Signup.pdf
[top]
10. JSC Astronomy Society (JSCAS) Meeting
This Friday, JSCAS' own Paul Maley will cover two informative and entertaining topics. The first is a trip to see the recent annular eclipse of the sun, and the second is on upcoming asteroid occultations. Don't know what an annular eclipse or asteroid occultations are? This is your golden opportunity find out more about these fascinating astronomical observations.
We'll also have several other short presentations like: the novice question-and-answer session; "What's Up in the Sky this Month?" with suggestions for beginner observing; the always-intriguing "Astro Oddities;" and dates for upcoming star parties.
Our meetings are held on the second Friday of each month at 7:30 p.m. in the auditorium of the USRA building (at 3600 Bay Area Blvd. at Middlebrook Drive).
Membership to the JSCAS is open to anyone who wants to learn about astronomy. There are no dues, no by-laws; you just show up to our meeting.
Jim Wessel x41128 http://www.jscas.net/
[top]
11. Project Asset and Lifecycle Management System (PALMS) Training Available
PALMS is the Engineering Directorate's new Project Management tool for online project planning, scheduling and tracking. Closely integrated with Oasis, PALMS enables Web-based project collaboration, management and publishing of project schedules, resources and associated data products. To register for one of the monthly PALMS classroom training sessions, simply access SATERN and select one of these available courses:
PALMS Project Server Training for Team Members and Project Managers
SATERN Course ID: PALMS-01
The next session is available for self registration in SATERN through Monday, Aug. 13, for all EA civil-servants and contractors.
Date: Tuesday, Aug. 14
Location: Building 20, Room 204
Stacey Zapatka x34749
[top]
12. Lunarfins JSC SCUBA Club Meeting
The next meeting of the Lunarfins JSC SCUBA Club will be held Wednesday, Aug. 8, at 7 p.m. at the Clear Lake Park building (5001 NASA Parkway). The Clear Lake Park building entrance is at the park traffic light on the lake-side. Our speakers for this month will be long-time Lunarfins members and past officers Paul and Ann Herring. They will tell us all about their recent dive trip to Roatan along with several other of our club members. You really need to attend this presentation if you have never been diving Roatan's West End. All are welcome to attend - guests and visitors.
Mike Manering x32618 http://www.lunarfins.com
[top]
13. Crane Operations & Rigging Safety Refresher: Aug. 20, 8 a.m., Building 226, Room 174
SMA-SAFE-NSTC-0028 - This course serves as a refresher in overhead crane safety and awareness for operators, riggers, signalmen, supervisors and safety personnel and to update their understanding of existing Federal and NASA standards and regulations related to such cranes. Areas of concentration include: general safety in crane operations, testing, inspections, pre-lift plans and safe rigging. This course is intended to provide the classroom training for re-certification of already qualified crane operators, or for those who have only a limited need for overhead crane safety knowledge. There will be a final exam associated with this course that must be passed with a 70 percent minimum score to receive course credit.
Registration in SATERN is required.
Shirley Robinson x41284
[top]
14. Confined Space Entry - 8:30 a.m.; and Lockout/Tagout - 1 p.m. -- Aug. 21, Building 226N, Room 174
SMA-SAFE-NSTC-0806 - Confined Space Entry
The purpose of this course is to provide employees with the standards, procedures and requirements necessary for safe entry to and operations in confined spaces. OSHA standard 29 CFR 1910.146, "Confined Space," is the basis for this course. The course covers the hazards of working in or around a confined space and the precautions you should take to control these hazards. A comprehensive test will be offered at the end of the class.
SMA-SAFE-NSTC-0814 - Lockout/Tagout
The purpose of this course is to provide employees with the standards, procedures, and requirements necessary for the control of hazardous energy through lockout and tagout of energy-isolating devices. OSHA standard 29 CFR 1910.147, "The Control of Hazardous Energy (Lockout/Tagout)," is the basis for this course. A comprehensive test will be offered at the end of the class.
Registration in SATERN is required.
Shirley Robinson x41284
[top]
15. Demolition ViTS -- 8 a.m., Aug. 24
SMA-SAFE-NSTC-0068: This three-hour course is based on OSHA CFR 1926.850 through 1926.859 Subpart T, Demolition. The student will cover Preparatory Operations (1926.850); Chutes (1926.852); Material Removal (1926.853); Removal of Walls, Masonry Sections and Chimneys (1926.854); Manual Removal of Floors (1926.855); Storage (1926.857); and Mechanical Demolition (1926.859). During the course, the student will receive an overview of those topics needed to work safely in accomplishing demolition activities and will be shown the working guidelines, training requirements and inspection to be accomplished before demolition is started. There will be a final exam associated with this course that must be passed with a 70 percent minimum score to receive course credit.
Shirley Robinson x41284
[top]
________________________________________
JSC Today is compiled periodically as a service to JSC employees on an as-submitted basis. Any JSC organization or employee may submit articles. To see an archive of previous JSC Today announcements, go to http://www6.jsc.nasa.gov/pao/news/jsctoday/archives.
NASA TV:
· 11 am Central (Noon EDT) – MSL/Curiosity post-landing Briefing - Recap & Sol 1 Outlook
· 6 pm Central (7 EDT) – MSL/Curiosity post-landing Briefing - Sol 1 Mid-Day Update
Human Spaceflight News
Monday – August 6, 2012
HEADLINES AND LEADS
Boeing, SpaceX, Sierra Nevada win manned space contracts
William Harwood - CBS News
After an intense competition, NASA announced contracts Friday totaling up to $900 million to be divvied up between three companies -- SpaceX, Boeing and Sierra Nevada -- to continue development of commercial manned spacecraft to ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station. While it is far from clear whether Congress will provide enough funding to keep all three companies in the mix, NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden, a former shuttle commander, said the program was critical to America's future in space.
NASA awards space contracts to private companies
W.J. Hennigan - Los Angeles Times
On a cloudless morning Friday, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden stood at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. — where the U.S. dominated human spaceflight for half a century — and revealed plans for the space agency's next chapter. NASA handed out $1.1 billion in contracts to three companies to privately develop a new generation of spacecraft that could one day ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station. Now that the space shuttle fleet has been retired, NASA has no way to travel to the space station other than shelling out $63 million each time one of its astronauts rides on a Russian Soyuz rocket.
NASA bucks push 3 closer to flight
$1 billion award aids building of diverse craft
James Dean - Florida Today
NASA on Friday awarded three companies $1.1 billion to complete designs of commercial spacecraft and rockets that could launch astronauts on orbital flights from Florida as soon as 2015. The winners — The Boeing Co., SpaceX and Sierra Nevada Corp. — each expect gradually to ramp up hiring on the Space Coast as they compete for contracts to fly NASA crews to the International Space Station by 2017. The awards represent “important progress toward ending the outsourcing of American aerospace jobs and bringing them right back here to Florida, and other states all across this country,” NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden said at Kennedy Space Center.
NASA 'space taxi' will result in Space Coast jobs
Mark Matthews - Orlando Sentinel
Three companies with ties to Cape Canaveral were selected by NASA on Friday as the winners of a $1.1 billion competition to build so-called "space taxis" to ferry NASA astronauts to the International Space Station, a decision that could result in 1,500 or more new jobs on the Space Coast. The award -- split among Boeing of Texas, SpaceX of California and Sierra Nevada of Colorado -- puts NASA on track to meet its goal of using a domestic rocket company to blast astronauts to the station as early as 2017, a vital objective as the 2011 retirement of the space shuttle has forced the agency to rely on Russia to launch U.S. spacefarers. "By investing in American companies, and American ingenuity, we're spurring free market competition to give taxpayers more bang for the buck while enabling NASA to do what we do best -- reach for the heavens," said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, who announced the winners at Kennedy Space Center.
NASA picks 3 private firms to develop space taxis
Seth Borenstein - Associated Press
NASA picked three aerospace companies Friday to build small rocketships to take astronauts to the International Space Station. This is the third phase of NASA's efforts to get private space companies to take over the job of the now-retired space shuttle. The companies will share more than $1.1 billion. Two of the ships are capsules like in the Apollo era and the third is closer in design to the space shuttle. Once the spaceships are built, NASA plans to hire the private companies to taxi astronauts into space within five years. Until they are ready, NASA is paying Russia about $63 million per astronaut to do the job.
Three firms share $1.1 billion of NASA space taxi work
Irene Klotz - Reuters
NASA will pay more than $1 billion over the next 21 months to three companies to develop commercial spaceships capable of flying astronauts to the International Space Station, the agency said Friday. The lion's share of the $1.1 billion allotted for the next phase of NASA's so-called "Commercial Crew" program will be split between Boeing and Space Exploration Technologies, a privately held firm run by Internet entrepreneur Elon Musk. Privately held Sierra Nevada Corp received a partial award of $212.5 million for work on its Dream Chaser, a winged vehicle that resembles a miniature space shuttle which also launches on an Atlas 5 rocket.
Boeing, SpaceX, Sierra Nevada Make The Cut For Commercial Crew
Jefferson Morris - Aviation Week
NASA plans to spread $1.1 billion in seed money among Boeing, SpaceX and Sierra Nevada to continue the development of commercial spacecraft to launch crews to the International Space Station as early as 2017. The three companies, all chosen to negotiate Space Act Agreements (SAAs) for the Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) seed-money effort, have very different approaches to the task of transporting up to seven astronauts to and from orbit. Boeing’s relatively simple, battery-powered CST-100 capsule would launch on an Atlas V — which still must be human-rated for the task — and return for a ground landing slowed by parachutes and cushioned by airbags. SpaceX is developing a human-rated version of its Dragon capsule, which already visited the station for an unmanned cargo delivery demonstration earlier this year, boosted by the company’s Falcon 9 rocket, and returned for an ocean splashdown. Sierra Nevada has the most ambitious concept — a lifting body spaceplane that also would be boosted on an Atlas V, but would return for a runway landing.
Boeing, SpaceX and Sierra Nevada Stay in Race for Commercial Crew
Dan Leone - Space News
Boeing and Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) are now the clear frontrunners in the race to provide commercial crew taxi services to NASA, with Sierra Nevada Corp. waiting in the wings in case one of the other two falters. NASA on Aug. 3 announced its selection of Boeing Space Exploration of Houston and SpaceX of Hawthorne, Calif., for final-phase development funding under its Commercial Crew Program, designed to provide domestic astronaut transportation services to and from the international space station. Boeing will receive $460 million during the 21-month performance period of its Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) Space Act Agreement; SpaceX garnered $440 million.
NASA’s CCiCap: Can Space Taxis Help the Pentagon?
Defense Industry Daily
With the retirement of the Space Shuttle in 2011, American manned missions to the International Space Station have mostly involved Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft, which costs about $63 million per seat. The lone exception has involved the commercial space innovator SpaceX, whose unmanned Dragon capsule docked at the ISS in May 2012. NASA continues to pursue its own Space Launch System heavy rocket and Orion capsule for manned spaceflight, but in the mean time, its Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) program aims to spur development of lower-cost American options that could supplant or supplement Soyuz. These “space taxis” will rely on heavy-lift rockets to make it into space. Their purpose isn’t military, but their configurations are good news for the USA’s space industrial base. SpaceX has a slot, of course, and the other 2 winning entries will use Lockheed Martin’s Atlas V EELV.
NASA cash boosts efforts for shuttle successor
Agence France Presse
Three aerospace firms have scored a total of $1.1 billion in NASA contracts to compete to build the next spacecraft to carry astronauts to the International Space Station after the shuttle program's end. The awards, announced Friday, went to SpaceX, Boeing and Sierra Nevada Corporation, and aim to support efforts to return astronauts to space via US-made transport in the next five years. The retirement of the US space shuttle fleet last year left Russia as the sole nation capable of transporting astronauts to the ISS, three at a time aboard its Soyuz capsules.
NASA Picks the Private Firms That Will Shuttle Americans Into Space
Will Oremus - Slate Magazine
Since shutting down its space shuttle program last summer, NASA has been relying on the Russians to blast its astronauts to the International Space Station. Eventually, though, it wants private companies to take over. Today it announced a big step toward that, handing out $1.1 billion in funding to three U.S.-based firms, led by Boeing and SpaceX. Boeing will get $460 million to work on its CST-100 spacecraft, while SpaceX will receive $440 million to develop its Dragon capsule and Falcon 9 rocket. A third company, Nevada-based Sierra Nevada, will receive another $212 million to develop its Dream Chaser craft.
NASA awards over $1 billion In contracts to develop commercial spaceflight
Alex Knapp - Forbes
Friday NASA announced that it has awarded over $1.1 billion in contracts to the Sierra Nevada Corporation, Boeing, and SpaceX as part of its Commercial Crew Integrated Capability initiative. The goal of the Initiative has been to develop crewed flight capabilities as a means to provide both government and commercial entities the ability to travel to the International Space Station and to low Earth orbit. Each of the three companies is heavily involved in developing manned flight capabilities.
NASA awards SpaceX, Boeing, Sierra Nevada $1.1B to develop manned space flight
Damon Poeter - PC Magazine
NASA is turning to the private sector to resume manned flights into space from U.S. soil following the end of its storied space shuttle program. On Friday, the space agency awarded $1.1 billion to Boeing, SpaceX, and Sierra Nevada Corporation to design and develop vehicles that could carry astronauts into space within the next five years. "Today, we are announcing another critical step toward launching our astronauts from U.S. soil on space systems built by American companies. We have selected three companies that will help keep us on track to end the outsourcing of human spaceflight and create high-paying jobs in Florida and elsewhere across the country," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said at a media event at Florida's Kennedy Space Center.
Louisville-based Sierra Nevada reaps $212.5M from NASA for Dream Chaser
Funding could add immediate jobs to company's HQ in Colorado Technology Center
John Aguilar - Daily Camera (Louisville, CO)
NASA announced Friday that it will award $212.5 million to Louisville-based Sierra Nevada Space Systems to continue work on the company's Dream Chaser space vehicle, which is being developed with the initial aim of ferrying astronauts to and from the International Space Station. The funding round should lead to immediate hiring by the company, including at its headquarters in the Colorado Technology Center in Louisville. "We'll be starting within days to enhance employment," Sierra Nevada Space Systems head Mark Sirangelo said, without offering specifics.
POWAY: NASA awards $212.5M space contract to local company
Bradley Fikes - North County Times (San Diego)
NASA awarded $1.1 billion in contracts Friday for what could be the next step in manned spaceflight: development of a full-fledged private space industry. Of that total, $212.5 million will go to a company with offices in Poway and a long history of enabling space flight, adding engineering jobs to the area. NASA is providing seed money to three companies to compete with each other and create a new private space race. With the space shuttle fleet retired, the U.S. has no way to travel to the International Space Station other than shelling out $63 million for rides on a Russian Soyuz rocket.
NASA contracts benefit North Las Vegas outfit
Jennifer Robison - Las Vegas Review-Journal
The private space race is affecting a small Las Vegas company. NASA on Friday announced that it will give three aerospace companies more than $1.1 billion to build small spacecraft to take astronauts to the International Space Station. Two of those businesses - Boeing Co. of Houston and Space Exploration Technologies of California - have partnered with North Las Vegas-based Bigelow Aerospace on orbit-related projects. Robert Bigelow, owner and president of Bigelow Aerospace, called the funding "more aggressive" than prior NASA contracts and said he was "very happy" about the ramped-up investment, which will nearly double the workforce at his North Las Vegas plant.
NASA awards Boeing, SpaceX & Sierra Nevada Corp. with contracts for Space Shuttle replacements
Timothy Stenovec - Huffington Post
If all goes according to plan over the next five years, NASA will no longer have to rely on Russia to get Americans to the International Space Station. The space agency announced on Friday that it has awarded three companies -- Sierra Nevada Corporation, SpaceX, and Boeing -- contracts totaling over $1.1 billion "to design and develop the next generation of U.S. human spaceflight capabilities."
Private Space Taxis: Spaceflight Leaders Hail NASA's Funding Picks
Space.com
NASA announced Friday that three companies have won contracts under the third phase of a project to develop private space taxis capable of carrying astronauts to Earth orbit. Those companies — Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX), Boeing, and Sierra Nevada Corp. — will share $1.1 billion in funding under NASA's Commercial Crew integrated Capability program (CCiCap) program. In response to the news, leaders throughout the private space industry and Congress have spoken out about this public-private partnership:
Step aside Russia
NASA contracts with US companies to build spacecraft to service space station
Houston Chronicle's Texas on the Potomac
The Obama administration has contracted with U.S. aerospace companies – including a start-up – to build spacecraft to deliver U.S. astronauts to the orbiting space station by 2016. The move spells an eventual end to U.S. reliance on Russia to ferry astronauts and cargo to the $100 billion orbiting laboratory, using the venerable Soyuz capsule. NASA has awarded a total of $1.1 billion to the Boeing Company’s Houston operation; Space Exploration Technologies Corp., known as SpaceX based in Hawthorne, Calif; and Sierra Nevada Corp., of Louisville, Colo.
Nasa announces space shuttle replacement shortlist
Jonathan Amos - BBC News
We now have a much clearer idea of how American astronauts will get into orbit in the coming years. Nasa has selected three companies to help develop launch systems that can take people to the space station. They include the SpaceX firm, which recently sent an unmanned cargo capsule to the 400km-high outpost. But agreements have also been signed with aerospace giant Boeing and the Sierra Nevada Corporation. The latter has a design for a mini-shuttle.
'Mini shuttle' among NASA crewed spacecraft winners
Paul Marks - New Scientist
Three companies were Friday charged with developing crewed spacecraft that will take American astronauts to low-Earth orbit, replacing the NASA space shuttle, which was retired last year. NASA chose SpaceX of Hawthorne, California; Boeing of Chicago, Illinois; and Sierra Nevada Corporation of Louisville, Colorado to develop commercial crewed spacecraft that must be ready to fly within five years. A major aim of the commercial crewed spaceflight program is to end NASA outsourcing of human spaceflight and create high-paying jobs across the country, says NASA chief Charles Bolden. Right now, NASA has to buy seats to the International Space Station from its space race arch rival, Russia.
NASA Plans to Return to Space with SpaceX
Jason CranfordTeague - Wired.com
Here’s some good news for kids worried that their dreams of being an astronaut had been dashed with the cancellation of the Space Shuttle program last year: NASA has selected Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) as one of three vendors to test ships that will transport American Astronauts back to “space,” or at least into low Earth orbit. The first crewed flight is planned to be launched three years from now, in 2015. The new rockets will combine SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft, which is currently used to ferry supplies to the International Space Station, and Falcon 9 vehicle, which has been designed as a crew capsule. The new crew ships will be able to carry up to seven astronauts into orbit, and then return them using a propulsive landing system that touches down using landing legs on solid ground rather than a splash down.
NASA bypasses Utah’s ATK for post-shuttle vehicle contract
Project could have sustained “thousands of jobs”
Steven Oberbeck & Vince Horiuchi - Salt Lake Tribune
Alliant Techsystems’ plan to use its Liberty rocket to eventually transport astronauts and cargo to the International Space Station was left unfunded on the launch pad Friday. Instead, NASA announced Boeing Co. received a $460 million award; Space Exploration Technologies Corp., a Hawthorne, Calif.-based company also known as SpaceX and led by billionaire Elon Musk, got a $440 million contract to develop spacecraft capable of carrying astronauts into orbit; and Sierra Nevada Corp., based in Sparks, Nev., won a contract valued at $213 million. "We were disappointed we were not selected," said ATK spokesman George Torres. "We really can’t say much more until we meet with NASA and receive a de-brief on their selection criteria."
ATK left out of NASA contract awards
Charles Trentelman - Ogden Standard-Examiner
ATK Space Systems in Box Elder County was bypassed Friday in its bid to win part of nearly $1.2 billion from NASA to develop a new commercial space launch system to carry American astronauts into space. The decision leaves the future of hundreds of jobs in Box Elder County in doubt. ATK already laid off more than 2,000 employees as the space shuttle program wound down. It hoped to avoid further layoffs by building more solid-rocket motors for its proposed manned launch system, called Liberty.
ATK loses out in high-stakes race for space money
John Hollenhorst - Deseret News
NASA committed more than a billion dollars to three companies Friday to help get the U.S. back into the manned space program. But the big player in Utah was left out in the cold. Zero dollars for Alliant Techsystems Inc. and its Liberty rocket project. "This is very disappointing and it comes from an administration, to be honest, that has been disappointing," said Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, injecting the possibility that politics played a role in the selection of the companies competing with ATK.
NASA turns down ATK for massive space flight contract
Matthew Jensen - Logan Herald Journal
News from NASA on Friday came as a disappointment to the aerospace giant, Alliant Techsystems, as well as to residents throughout Northern Utah. The company behind the ambitious Liberty commercial space vehicle program — and the former manufacturer of space shuttle rocket boosters — was bumped from a list of companies hoping for major grants to continue developing the next generation of human space flight technology. Representatives from ATK gave only a brief statement after the announcement at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. “ATK and the Liberty Team are disappointed that we were not selected by NASA for a Commercial Crew Integrated Capability Space Act Agreement,” the statement said. “We continue to believe Liberty provides the safest, most cost-effective crew and cargo transportation systems, as well as the fastest path to recover America’s human launch capability and engage the workforce and facilities at Kennedy Space Center, Johnson Space Flight Center and others. We look forward to a debriefing from NASA.”
NASA turns down Utah firm to develop space taxis
Associated Press
An aerospace company that employs hundreds of people in northern Utah has reacted with disappointment to NASA's selection of three competitors to build small rocketships to take astronauts to the International Space Station. NASA did not specify why it rejected Alliant Techsystems Inc.'s proposed Liberty rocket project when it announced the selections Friday. ATK is headquartered in Arlington, Va., with its aerospace division based in Magna. In a statement obtained by Logan's Herald Journal, the company made no mention of how Friday's decision could impact jobs in Utah.
NASA Saves Big on Fuel in ISS Rotation
Ariel Bleicher - IEEE Spectrum
Thursday afternoon, at 13:25 Greenwich Mean Time, the International Space Station finished re-orienting itself in preparation to dock with an unmanned Russian resupply ship. At 1:24 this morning, the Progress ship docked. And by 5:45, the ISS had rotated back to its original alignment in orbit. Typically, these two 180-degree maneuvers would cost roughly 320 kilograms of propellant, about one-fifth the total fuel brought by the Progress—a delivery with a multi-million dollar price tag. But this time, NASA tried a new method for turning the ISS that makes optimal use of the station’s thrusters. The maneuver, developed by engineers at the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory in Houston, Texas and dubbed the “optimal propellant maneuver” (OPM), cut total fuel use to just 20 kilograms—a whopping 94 percent savings.
Schiff fighting for Mars exploration, robotic and human
SpacePolitics.com
Congressman Adam Schiff (D-CA), whose current district includes JPL and Pasadena, has been a strong advocate for NASA’s planetary science program and, specifically, Mars exploration. On Saturday, he reiterated his desire to see to reverse cuts to those programs while also pushing for better goals for the nation’s space program. “We have too long drifted without a strategic vision for space that can survive changes of administration as well as congressional appropriations cycles,” Schiff told attendees of the International Mars Society Convention in Pasadena. “Now, as we prepare to celebrate Curiosity’s arrival on Mars, we face the urgent need to set new goals and reinvigorate the space program.”
NASA takes more than a year to provide shuttle decision documents
John Nolan - Dayton Daily News
After the National Aeronautics and Space Administration chose not to assign a retired space shuttle last year to the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, the Dayton Daily News filed a Freedom of Information Act request asking NASA to provide documents supporting its decisions on where to send the orbiters. NASA initially took 13 months to deny in full the newspaper’s request, then partially granted an appeal by providing a package of dozens of essentially identical letters that had been sent to members of Congress, governors and big-city mayors to state reasons for the space agency’s allocation of the orbiters.
Hollywood stars light up U.S. Space & Rocket Center
Rebecca Shlien - WAAY TV (Huntsville)
On Sunday, the U.S. Space and Rocket Center was filled with stars—Hollywood stars, that is. The movie “Space Warriors” is being filmed on site in Huntsville this summer. It stars Danny Glover, Mira Sorvino, Josh Lucas and Thomas Horn. It's about kids who attend Space Camp, but end up on a real mission to the International Space Station. WAAY31 caught up with several of the film's actors, who say they've been enjoying their time in Huntsville. Thomas Horn, who also starred in the 9/11 drama “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close,” says he's explored downtown Huntsville and the Botanical Garden.
NASA choices bode well for Space Coast jobs
John Kelly - Florida Today (Commentary)
All three of the privatized systems that would launch NASA astronauts to space will blast off from Florida’s Space Coast. The news Friday that NASA would provide seed money for continued development of commercial crew ships to The Boeing Co., SpaceX and Sierra Nevada was good news for Brevard County. The good news stretches beyond just knowing that the Cape Canaveral spaceport will continue to be America’s launch base for human missions to space. It’s important that each of the three firms the space agency chose has strong ties to the Space Coast already and has big plans here if successful.
__________
COMPLETE STORIES
Boeing, SpaceX, Sierra Nevada win manned space contracts
William Harwood - CBS News
After an intense competition, NASA announced contracts Friday totaling up to $900 million to be divvied up between three companies -- SpaceX, Boeing and Sierra Nevada -- to continue development of commercial manned spacecraft to ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station.
While it is far from clear whether Congress will provide enough funding to keep all three companies in the mix, NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden, a former shuttle commander, said the program was critical to America's future in space.
"Today we are announcing another critical step towards launching our astronauts from U.S. soil on space systems built by American companies," Bolden said. "We have selected three companies to develop crew transportation capabilities as a fully integrated system and keep us on track to end the outsourcing of our human spaceflight program."
The Commercial Crew Integrated Capability Initiative -- CCiCap -- is the third round of post-shuttle contracts aimed at spurring private industry to develop a low-cost manned spacecraft to carry crews to and from the space station and end the agency's reliance on Russian Soyuz ferry flights that cost U.S. taxpayers more than $60 million a seat.
The new spacecraft also could be flown for purely commercial purposes with seats or entire flights booked by other governments or companies for research, Earth observation or yet-to-be-defined objectives if a commercial market emerges.
"This is a diverse and dynamic mix of companies, each with unique experiences and proven track records in the aerospace industries," Bolden said. "By keeping these three companies in the mix, we not only ensure competition, which is good for taxpayers, but we're also guaranteeing that we never find ourselves in the situation we're in today -- depending on a sole provider to get our crews to space."
Going into the latest round of contracts, four companies were executing initial spacecraft design studies -- SpaceX of Hawthorne, Calif., a fast-moving startup owned and operated by internet entrepreneur Elon Musk; Boeing Corp. of Houston, a company with extensive experience in the U.S. space program; Sierra Nevada of Louisville, Colo.; and Blue Origin of Kent, Wash., a secretive company owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
Three other companies were developing concepts through unfunded Space Act Agreements.
But on Friday, NASA narrowed the list of funded companies to three: SpaceX, Boeing and Sierra Nevada. Unlike the earlier design studies, the CCiCap contracts require the participants to develop an integrated solution that includes ground infrastructure, launch vehicles and spacecraft.
SpaceX was awarded a $440 million contract to continue development of a manned version of the company's Dragon cargo ship, which completed its first test flight to the International Space Station in May.
The SpaceX manned capsule will seat up to seven astronauts and rely on an upgraded version of the company's home-grown Falcon 9 rocket to reach orbit. Company engineers planning a rocket-assisted ground landing system. Initial test flights could come as early as 2015, depending on funding and engineering progress.
"This is a decisive milestone in human spaceflight and sets an exciting course for the next phase of American space exploration," SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said in a statement. "SpaceX, along with our partners at NASA, will continue to push the boundaries of space technology to develop the safest, most advanced crew vehicle ever flown
Boeing won a contract valued at $460 million to develop its CST-100 capsule, The spacecraft will seat up to seven astronauts and fly atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket. The CST-100 will make a parachute descent to a ground landing. Barring technical problems or budget issues, the first manned test flight is expected in 2016.
Sierra Nevada of was awarded a $212.5 million control to continue developing the winged "Dreamchaser," a small spaceplane originally developed by NASA as a space station lifeboat. The Dreamchaser lifting body will seat seven and launch atop an Atlas 5. Like the now-retired space shuttle, it would land on a runway at the end of a mission.
The CCiCAP contracts will run between now and May 31, 2014. While manned test flights could begin as early as 2015, agency officials say operational NASA flights to and from the space station will not begin until 2017 thanks to previous budget shortfalls.
"This is a diverse and dynamic mix of companies, each with unique experiences and proven track records in the aerospace industries," Bolden said. "By keeping these three companies in the mix, we not only ensure competition, which is good for taxpayers, but we're also guaranteeing that we never find ourselves in the situation we're in today -- depending on a sole provider to get our crews to space.
"For the next 21 months, these partners will perform tests and complete designs. Through this initiative, NASA will help the private sector design and develop the human spaceflight capability that could ultimately lead to the availability of human spaceflight services for both government and commercial customers."
In 2004, the Bush administration ordered NASA to complete the International Space Station and retire the shuttle by the end of 2010 to free up money for a new initiative to establish Antarctica-style bases on the moon. But the administration never fully funded its Constellation moon program and President Obama opted for a drastic change of course.
The moon program was canceled and NASA was ordered to take a two-pronged approach to manned spaceflight. The Orion capsule originally envisioned for Constellation flights to the moon would be used by NASA for eventual flights to a variety of deep space targets with the ultimate goal of reaching Mars in the 2030s.
The Obama administration initially deferred development of the heavy-lift rocket needed for deep space missions, but congressional space supporters successfully lobbied to accelerate the rocket's development. An initial test flight is planned for 2014.
NASA also was directed to fund a commercial initiative to develop new manned spacecraft to service the space station in low-Earth orbit. But congressional support of the commercial initiative has been decidedly mixed.
The administration asked for $800 million for commercial manned spaceflight in its fiscal 2012 budget request, but Congress approved just $400 million, a cut that pushed the first NASA flight to the station back one year to 2017.
This year, the administration requested $830 million in its fiscal 2013 budget. Early debate in the House called for limiting the scope of the contract to a single company but a compromise eventually was reached that would provide $500 million.
But the full $900 million needed for the three CCiCap contracts is required if all three companies are to proceed with development. If a budget including full funding is not approved, or if a continuing resolution is required because of a budget impasse, one of the companies likely would fall by the wayside.
NASA awards space contracts to private companies
W.J. Hennigan - Los Angeles Times
On a cloudless morning Friday, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden stood at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. — where the U.S. dominated human spaceflight for half a century — and revealed plans for the space agency's next chapter.
NASA handed out $1.1 billion in contracts to three companies to privately develop a new generation of spacecraft that could one day ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station.
Now that the space shuttle fleet has been retired, NASA has no way to travel to the space station other than shelling out $63 million each time one of its astronauts rides on a Russian Soyuz rocket.
"By investing in American companies and American ingenuity, we're spurring free-market competition to give taxpayers more bang for the buck," Bolden said during the news conference. "We're also making important progress toward ending the outsourcing of American aerospace jobs and bringing them right back to Florida and other states all across this country."
Hawthorne, Calif.-based rocket maker Space Exploration Technologies Corp., or SpaceX, won $440 million from NASA to develop its hardware. Boeing Co. won $460 million.
And $212.5 million went to Sierra Nevada Corp. of Sparks, Nev., which is building a space plane.
The awards are part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program, which lays the groundwork for a new reliance on private companies to transport astronauts.
NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver, who was visiting Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Canada Flintridge, Calif., in anticipation of Sunday's Mars rover landing, said the companies have plenty of work ahead.
"We anticipate a lot of exciting things from these companies over the next 21 months," she said. "NASA is ready to loosen its grip and let these companies take over."
The overall design of NASA's previous space-going vehicles and their missions were tightly controlled by the government and contracted to aerospace giants.
This time, Boeing engineers in Huntington Beach, Calif., and Houston are working on their own to develop a seven-person spaceship, dubbed the Crew Space Transportation-100, that is designed to fly atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket.
The company, which has built nearly every manned spacecraft in U.S. history, expects the space capsule to be ready for test flights by 2016.
John Elbon, Boeing vice president and general manager of space exploration, said in a teleconference that the company would be celebrating its 100-year anniversary in 2016.
"It will be really sweet to celebrate 100 years as a company with the first flight of CST-100," he said.
Of the three contract winners, though, SpaceX is the only company to have its new technology proved in space.
In May, SpaceX became the first private company to launch an unmanned spacecraft into orbit and have it dock with the International Space Station. The Dragon capsule was carrying only supplies at the time, but only the world's most powerful government entities had previously accomplished the technological and financial feat.
In a teleconference, SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk said that the Dragon could have carried an astronaut during the mission, but that it still needed "upgrades to take safety to a whole new level."
SpaceX engineers are designing an abort system for the capsule that would enable astronauts to escape injury if a launch went wrong. The company is also adding more advanced oxygen systems, temperature controls and other life-sustaining instruments.
The Dragon capsule is designed to carry seven astronauts. The company is aiming for a manned test flight by 2015.
With about 1,800 employees, SpaceX is a fraction of the size of competitor Boeing, which has 170,000 people across the U.S. and about 70 other countries.
Musk, 41, said he didn't get much sleep Thursday night because he didn't know what NASA was going to reveal Friday.
"I was quite keen to see the announcement made this morning," he said.
NASA bucks push 3 closer to flight
$1 billion award aids building of diverse craft
James Dean - Florida Today
NASA on Friday awarded three companies $1.1 billion to complete designs of commercial spacecraft and rockets that could launch astronauts on orbital flights from Florida as soon as 2015.
The winners — The Boeing Co., SpaceX and Sierra Nevada Corp. — each expect gradually to ramp up hiring on the Space Coast as they compete for contracts to fly NASA crews to the International Space Station by 2017.
The awards represent “important progress toward ending the outsourcing of American aerospace jobs and bringing them right back here to Florida, and other states all across this country,” NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden said at Kennedy Space Center.
Since the shuttle’s retirement last summer, the U.S. has relied on Russian rides to the station.
Boeing and SpaceX won the largest amounts during the contracts’ 21-month base period: $460 million and $440 million, respectively. Sierra Nevada was awarded $212.5 million.
NASA said the awards gave taxpayers “bang for the buck” by preserving competition to develop commercial systems and offered a variety of potential spacecraft and rockets for its crews.
“The portfolio that was selected is really all about diversity – diversity of launch vehicles and diversity of spacecraft,” said Ed Mango, manager of NASA’s KSC-based Commercial Crew Program.
Boeing’s CST-100 spacecraft and SpaceX’s Dragon are capsules, and Sierra Nevada’s Dream Chaser is a winged mini-shuttle.
The CST-100 and Dream Chaser plan to launch atop United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rocket, while Dragon would fly on SpaceX’s Falcon 9.
All plan to launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
NASA selected the winners from seven proposals, of which three did not meet requirements: American Aerospace, Space Design and Space Operations & Co.
Of the remaining four, ATK’s proposed Liberty system, which leveraged a first-stage solid rocket booster initially designed for NASA’s canceled Ares I rocket, was the loser.
The winners’ proposals met the development program’s objectives “in a much stronger fashion than ATK’s did,” said Bill Gerstenmaier, associate administrator of NASA’s Human Exploration and Operations directorate.
The new awards follow two earlier funding rounds supporting the development of privately operated space taxis, which totaled $365 million since 2010.
The next round should enable Boeing and SpaceX to complete designs of fully integrated systems, including the spacecraft, rocket and ground and mission operations.
Sierra Nevada is not expected to advance quite as far, but officials said the Dream Chaser would get “substantially down the road.”
“I wouldn’t read too much into numbers,” said Mark Sirangelo, head of SNC’s Space Systems division. “With this money plus what we’re contributing, it’s a very robust (amount).”
Working under non-traditional contracts called Space Act Agreements, the three companies will contribute unspecified amounts of their own money and will earn fixed payments from NASA after achieving technical milestones.
Each company proposed additional optional milestones that would culminate in a crewed orbital demonstration flight.
Under “optimal” future funding conditions that were not disclosed, SpaceX said it could fly the mission by late 2015, while Boeing is targeting 2016. Sierra Nevada previously also targeted 2016.
Local hiring by the firms is expected to start slowly, but could potentially approach 2,000 jobs over time.
Boeing expects to add roughly 50 commercial crew jobs in Florida over the next year, and work could begin this month to renovate a former shuttle hangar for future CST-100 work. The company projects 550 local jobs if it wins a NASA contract to fly crews to the station.
“We’re going to be expanding rapidly across the board to be able to support the aggressive schedule that we’ve laid out,” said John Mulholland, head of CST-100 development.
Sierra Nevada plans to base Dream Chasers operations in Brevard County, launching from the Cape and landing on the shuttle runway. The company has said it could eventually hire roughly 200.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said Friday he expects hiring in Florida to increase to about 1,000 employees over the next four or five years, from less than 100 now. The increase would result from an overall higher flight rate, including launches of commercial satellites, unmanned space station cargo missions and preparations for the crewed flights.
“I think there’s reason to be very optimistic about the economic situation in the Kennedy and Canaveral area,” he said.
NASA 'space taxi' will result in Space Coast jobs
Mark Matthews - Orlando Sentinel
Three companies with ties to Cape Canaveral were selected by NASA on Friday as the winners of a $1.1 billion competition to build so-called "space taxis" to ferry NASA astronauts to the International Space Station, a decision that could result in 1,500 or more new jobs on the Space Coast.
The award -- split among Boeing of Texas, SpaceX of California and Sierra Nevada of Colorado -- puts NASA on track to meet its goal of using a domestic rocket company to blast astronauts to the station as early as 2017, a vital objective as the 2011 retirement of the space shuttle has forced the agency to rely on Russia to launch U.S. spacefarers.
"By investing in American companies, and American ingenuity, we're spurring free market competition to give taxpayers more bang for the buck while enabling NASA to do what we do best -- reach for the heavens," said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, who announced the winners at Kennedy Space Center.
The winners were:
· Boeing, awarded $460 million to help the defense giant build an Apollo-like capsule designed to carry seven astronauts and launch aboard an Atlas V rocket. Boeing plans to use an empty shuttle garage at KSC to assemble the capsule, a move expected to bring an estimated 550 jobs to the Space Coast. "Today's award demonstrates NASA's confidence in Boeing's approach to provide commercial crew transportation services for the ISS," said John Elbon, Boeing general manager of space exploration, in a statement.
· SpaceX of California, an industry upstart run by Internet tycoon Elon Musk, awarded $440 million for its Dragon capsule and Falcon 9 rocket; it also is expected to carry up to seven astronauts. The company, which already has launch facilities at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, made history in May when it became the first to dock a commercial spacecraft to the station, and executives hope more missions will increase its Space Coast presence. "I'm expecting hiring in Florida to increase quite dramatically in coming years," said Musk, who estimates the company eventually would employ 1,000 workers at the Cape.
· Sierra Nevada, awarded $212.5 million for its "Dream Chaser" spacecraft. Resembling a miniature space shuttle orbiter, it also is designed to carry seven crew members and would launch on an Atlas V rocket from Florida."We expect that sometime in a year we will open our KSC facility," said Jim Voss, Dream Chaser program manager, who did not provide estimates on future employment figures.
Though the awards announced Friday give the three companies a tremendous financial advantage, they do not guarantee a contract. Each company must first meet several milestones over the next 21 months to get the full amount of money.
Even then, NASA plans another round of competition to determine which design -- or designs -- ultimately are deemed safe enough to carry NASA astronauts to the station.
NASA's announcement was roundly applauded in Florida, which saw its KSC workforce decimated by thousands following the shuttle's retirement.
"This is great news for Florida, given the three companies' commitments to doing work on the Space Coast where a highly skilled workforce already exists," said U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, in a statement.
NASA's efforts to develop a commercial "space taxi" service are intended to free its own workforce to concentrate on a larger rocket, known as the Space Launch System, that ultimately could return U.S. astronauts to the moon or carry them to nearby asteroids. Crewed flights for that program aren't expected before 2021, though KSC already has been chosen as the launch site.
NASA picks 3 private firms to develop space taxis
Seth Borenstein - Associated Press
NASA picked three aerospace companies Friday to build small rocketships to take astronauts to the International Space Station.
This is the third phase of NASA's efforts to get private space companies to take over the job of the now-retired space shuttle. The companies will share more than $1.1 billion. Two of the ships are capsules like in the Apollo era and the third is closer in design to the space shuttle.
Once the spaceships are built, NASA plans to hire the private companies to taxi astronauts into space within five years. Until they are ready, NASA is paying Russia about $63 million per astronaut to do the job.
In a statement, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said the move "will help keep us on track to tend the outsourcing of human spaceflight."
NASA hopes that by having private firms ferry astronauts into low Earth orbit, it can focus on larger long-term goals, like sending crews to a nearby asteroid and eventually Mars. The private companies can also make money in tourism and other non-NASA business.
The three companies are the Boeing Co. of Houston, Space Exploration Technologies, called SpaceX, of Hawthorne, Calif., and Sierra Nevada Corp. of Louisville, Colo.
They are quite different companies. Boeing is one of the oldest and largest space companies with a long history of building and launching rockets and working for NASA, going back to the Mercury days. SpaceX is a relatively new company started by Elon Musk, who helped create PayPal and runs the electric car company Tesla Motors. Sierra Nevada has been in the space business for 25 years but mostly on a much smaller scale than Boeing.
NASA's commercial crew development program started with seven companies. The other companies that were not chosen can still build private rocketships and NASA still has the option to hire them to ferry astronauts at a later date, NASA spokesman Trent Perrotto said.
Boeing is slated to get the most money, $460 million for its seven-person CST-100 capsule. It would launch on an Atlas rocket, with the first test flight 2016. The company won't say how much it would charge NASA per seat, but it will be "significantly lower" than the Russian price, said John Mulholland, Boeing vice president. He said Boeing's long experience in working with NASA on human flight gives it a "leg up" on its competitors.
SpaceX is already in the lead in the private space race. The company earlier this year used their Falcon rocket to launch their Dragon capsule into orbit. It docked with the space station and successfully delivered cargo. NASA plans to give the company $440 million. The capsule holds seven people and will have its first test launch with people in 2015, said spokeswoman Kirstin Brost Grantham. The company will charge NASA about $20 million per seat, she said.
Sierra Nevada's mini-shuttle crew vehicle called Dream Chaser carries seven people and could be flown without a pilot. NASA would give them $212.5 million. The ship is based on an old NASA test ship design but hasn't flown as much as SpaceX's Dragon. "It may appear as though we are behind but in many ways we are more mature," said Sierra Nevada space chief Mark Sirangelo. Like Boeing's Mulholland, he said his firm will charge NASA less than the Russians, but won't give a specific price.
Three firms share $1.1 billion of NASA space taxi work
Irene Klotz - Reuters
NASA will pay more than $1 billion over the next 21 months to three companies to develop commercial spaceships capable of flying astronauts to the International Space Station, the agency said Friday.
The lion's share of the $1.1 billion allotted for the next phase of NASA's so-called "Commercial Crew" program will be split between Boeing and Space Exploration Technologies, a privately held firm run by Internet entrepreneur Elon Musk.
Boeing will receive $460 million to continue developing its CST-100 capsule, which is intended to fly aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket. ULA is a partnership of Boeing and Lockheed Martin.
Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, was awarded $440 million to upgrade its Dragon cargo capsule, which flies on the firm's Falcon 9 rocket, to carry people.
In May, a Dragon capsule became the first privately owned spacecraft to reach the station, a $100 billion outpost that flies 240 miles above Earth. The test flight was part of a related NASA program to hire commercial companies to fly cargo to the station.
Privately held Sierra Nevada Corp received a partial award of $212.5 million for work on its Dream Chaser, a winged vehicle that resembles a miniature space shuttle which also launches on an Atlas 5 rocket.
All three firms are prior recipients of NASA space taxi development work. The new awards will more than triple NASA's investments in commercial crew programs, which so far total $365 million.
Unlike previous NASA development programs, costs are shared between the government and its selected partners.
"The companies also are bringing money to the table. This is a way of allowing the United States to lead in the development of new space systems that are human-capability and then taking those systems for commercial purposes, as well as for NASA purposes in the future," program manager Ed Mango said.
Since the space shuttles were retired last year, NASA is dependent on partners Russia, Europe and Japan to reach the station. Russia will remain the sole entity capable of flying crew until U.S. companies develop systems, which NASA hopes will be within five years.
Shut out of the competition was Alliant Techsystems which hoped to parlay an ongoing unfunded NASA partnership agreement into a paying contract.
Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos's startup Blue Origin, which won $25.7 million during two predecessor programs, did not bid for the integrated design contracts awarded Friday.
Three other firms - Space Operations, American Aerospace and Space Design - submitted proposals but were eliminated for not meeting requirements, NASA's associate administrator for space operations Bill Gerstenmaier said during a conference call with reporters.
Boeing, SpaceX, Sierra Nevada Make The Cut For Commercial Crew
Jefferson Morris - Aviation Week
NASA plans to spread $1.1 billion in seed money among Boeing, SpaceX and Sierra Nevada to continue the development of commercial spacecraft to launch crews to the International Space Station as early as 2017.
The three companies, all chosen to negotiate Space Act Agreements (SAAs) for the Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) seed-money effort, have very different approaches to the task of transporting up to seven astronauts to and from orbit. Boeing’s relatively simple, battery-powered CST-100 capsule would launch on an Atlas V — which still must be human-rated for the task — and return for a ground landing slowed by parachutes and cushioned by airbags. SpaceX is developing a human-rated version of its Dragon capsule, which already visited the station for an unmanned cargo delivery demonstration earlier this year, boosted by the company’s Falcon 9 rocket, and returned for an ocean splashdown.
Sierra Nevada has the most ambitious concept — a lifting body spaceplane that also would be boosted on an Atlas V, but would return for a runway landing.
Congress has been somewhat leery of the Obama administration’s push to cede responsibility for low-Earth-orbit (LEO) transportation to industry rather than develop a government-led space shuttle successor, while NASA focuses its efforts on the Orion multipurpose crew vehicle and Space Launch System heavy-lift rocket for deep-space missions. This has resulted in a cautious, “two-and-a-half” funding formula for CCiCap worked out with lawmakers worried about schedule slips and cost growth.
The two companies receiving full support under this scheme — enough to carry their concepts to critical design review (CDR) — are Boeing, with $460 million, and SpaceX, with $440 million. Sierra Nevada is the “half,” receiving only $212.5 million, which will not get its Dream Chaser concept as far as CDR but will allow for significant further development to take place.
Funding will be doled out over the 21-month base period of the SAA as the teams complete specific milestones, but each team is also contributing its own funds to the development. The expectation is for demonstration missions to occur by the middle of the decade, with NASA purchasing commercial orbital transportation services by 2017. But that schedule is dependent on whether an already skittish Congress fully backs the program.
William Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate, says NASA hopes to carry at least two providers all the way through to operational service contracts, although that will depend on congressional funding and the performance of the teams.
The commercial crew program has been planning for a fiscal 2013 appropriation of $525 million, although it could survive a continuing resolution in Congress — which would limit funding to prior-year levels — for a certain period of time without losing schedule. However, to fund all three teams, the program must get new appropriations for fiscal 2014.
Following a captive-carry test earlier this year, Sierra Nevada is now eyeing the final milestone of its previous CCDev-2 contract: an autonomous drop test of a full-size Dream Chaser prototype at Edwards AFB, Calif., set for the fourth quarter of this year. If all of the companies CCICap milestones, including optional milestones, are funded, Sierra Nevada could conduct both manned and unmanned orbital demonstration missions in 2016, according to Mark Sirangelo, head of the company’s Space Systems division.
Sierra Nevada has wider commercial ambitions for the vehicle, Sirangelo tells Aviation Week. One potential market is servicing other spacecraft in LEO, “very similar to how the shuttle repaired the Hubble telescope,” he says. Another would be long-duration, autonomous orbital stays of months or years that would allow for the testing and return of delicate scientific experiments or hardware. “Because our vehicle comes home and lands on a runway, unlike capsules we have a very soft, very low-g reentry,” he says.
The three CCiCap companies have received Space Act funding under two previous rounds of competition, as have others that did not receive CCiCap monies. Among the serious contenders in previous rounds were the Blue Origin startup endowed by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, the ATK/Astrium joint venture that has received technical help but no funding for its Liberty Launch Vehicle concept, and Houston-based Excalibur Almaz, which is getting technical help from NASA for its plan to recycle Russian military-space hardware into crew transport vehicles and space habitats. ATK applied for CCiCap but did not make the cut.
At an Aug. 3 press conference at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said, “The ultimate goal of our commercial crew space program is to bring human spaceflight launches right back here to American soil, and end the outsourcing of these important jobs,” referring to the current U.S. reliance on Russian Soyuz vehicles for crew transport to and from orbit. Sustaining multiple providers also will ensure NASA is not dependent on any one single provider of crew transport going forward, Bolden said.
Boeing, SpaceX and Sierra Nevada Stay in Race for Commercial Crew
Dan Leone - Space News
Boeing and Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) are now the clear frontrunners in the race to provide commercial crew taxi services to NASA, with Sierra Nevada Corp. waiting in the wings in case one of the other two falters.
NASA on Aug. 3 announced its selection of Boeing Space Exploration of Houston and SpaceX of Hawthorne, Calif., for final-phase development funding under its Commercial Crew Program, designed to provide domestic astronaut transportation services to and from the international space station. Boeing will receive $460 million during the 21-month performance period of its Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) Space Act Agreement; SpaceX garnered $440 million.
Whereas Boeing and SpaceX are developing wingless capsules, Sierra Nevada Space Systems of Louisville, Colo., is offering a more maneuverable lifting body design borrowed from an old NASA program dubbed HL-20. Sierra Nevada’s Space Act Agreement is valued at $212.5 million.
Passed over for a CCiCap award was ATK Aerospace of Magna, Utah, the longtime supplier of solid rocket motors for NASA’s now-retired space shuttle fleet.
If Boeing and SpaceX meet all of their self-imposed, NASA-approved milestones in the 21-month CCiCap base period, their designs for astronaut taxi systems will undergo a critical design review, the final hurdle to clear before construction can begin. Sierra Nevada’s crew transportation system would not undergo a critical design review at the end of its Space Act Agreement.
William Gerstenmaier, NASA associate administrator for human exploration and operations, said the agency could not afford to bring three commercial crew systems all the way to critical design review. But he said it was in the government’s best interest to have a fallback option in case one of the two systems being fast-tracked encountered problems.
Sierra Nevada’s award will allow the company “to remove, I would say, a large amount of technical risk” in the design of its Dream Chaser vehicle, Gerstenmaier said in an Aug. 3 conference call with reporters. “That lets us see, once the technical risk is removed, if that is something we might want to continue to pursue to critical design review level if one of the others has some problems.”
All of the companies that bid for CCiCap awards had to propose a complete system, including launch and crew vehicles, capable of carrying astronauts to and from the international space station. NASA wants at least one of these systems to be ready by 2017.
Currently NASA relies on Russia for space station crew transport services.
All three CCiCap winners have previously received NASA funds to work on elements of their crew transportation systems. Boeing is developing a capsule called the CST-100, which the company plans to launch aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket.
During a post-award conference call with reporters, Boeing officials said the CST-100 leverages not only the company’s heritage as major contractor on the U.S. human spaceflight program throughout its history but also Boeing’s experience as a leading provider of commercial aircraft and satellites. They said the combined experience will enable Boeing to realize production efficiencies on the CST-100 without compromising reliability or crew safety.
John Elbon, vice president and general manager of Boeing Space Exploration, said the company was able to leverage some of its NASA-funded design work on the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle, which was the subject of a two-way competition to build a lunar excursion vehicle that ultimately went to rival Lockheed Martin Space Systems of Denver. But the Crew Exploration Vehicle had different requirements in terms of size and mission duration, he said.
Numerous components on the CST-100, including its propulsion systems, parachutes and flight computers, have been flight proven under other government programs, allowing the company to minimize risk while bringing a high level of maturity to the vehicle’s design, said John Mulholland, vice president and program manager for commercial programs at Boeing Space Exploration.
Many of these systems, including landing airbags, also were tested under previous funded phases of the Commercial Crew Program and will undergo further testing under the initial CCiCap effort, Mulholland said. Boeing laid out 19 test milestones during the 21-month performance period, including additional wind tunnel and propulsion system testing, he said.
Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne is supplying the launch abort and orbital maneuver and control thrusters for the CST-100’s service module, which will burn up in the atmosphere following each flight. The capsule’s pressurized crew module is reusable, with each certified for up to 10 flights.
The CST-100 module is designed to land on the ground, with the primary landing sites at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., and Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., Mulholland said. Boeing is looking for a third landing site as well, he said.
Sierra Nevada’s Dream Chaser will also launch on an Atlas 5.
“We are now the only lifting body in this competition and you’ve heard multiple times during the course of the discussion that NASA was seeking diversity in vehicles,” Mark Sirangelo, executive vice president of Sierra Nevada’s Space Systems Group, said in an interview with Space News. “There are two capsules and there’s one lifting body, so we feel very strongly that by NASA making this choice, it was sending a very strong signal that they would like to see a shuttle-like lifting body continue in the program.”
Sirangelo would not quantify Sierra Nevada’s financial contribution to Dream Chaser development, nor say what the company planned to charge NASA for rides to the space station. He did say that Dream Chaser would be cheaper than Soyuz seats, which the Russian government sells to NASA for about $60 million each.
SpaceX, meanwhile, is adapting its flight-tested Dragon cargo capsule for crewed missions. The craft will be launched atop the company’s Falcon 9 rocket. SpaceX founder and Chief Executive Elon Musk said in a post-award conference call that the crewed version of Dragon will make propulsive ground landings — on legs — at a yet-to-be-determined site. The current Dragon, a cargo-only vehicle, is limited to water landings. The passenger-carrying Dragon will seat seven, SpaceX said.
Besides upgrading Dragon, SpaceX also plans to field a more powerful Falcon 9 for the commercial crew missions. The company has been working on a new engine, the Merlin 1-D, to replace the Merlin 1-C engines that powered the company’s May cargo demonstration mission to the space station.
Musk said SpaceX will probably be able to fly a demonstration mission to orbit “later in 2015. We would go up, do a few orbits of the Earth and then return,” Musk said. Before any of the three systems are cleared to carry astronauts, NASA will have to certify that they meet the agency’s safety standards. This work will be done under separate contracts to be awarded at or near the end of the base CCiCap performance period. NASA will reveal more details about the certification process in an Aug. 8 Commercial Crew Program Forum, to be hosted at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
All three winners have said they can stage their first demonstration flights — which will not carry astronauts — by 2015 or 2016, but construction and flight tests are not funded under the initial CCiCap awards. Boeing officials said the CST-100 will be ready to conduct its first two flights, the second with a crew aboard, in 2016.
NASA’s selections, meanwhile, delivered a major if not fatal blow to ATK’s hopes for its proposed Liberty crew transportation system. ATK, whose Liberty design has not been funded in previous rounds of the Commercial Crew Program, nonetheless had announced in May that it would compete for a CCiCap award.
The Liberty rocket would have used an ATK-built solid-fuel core stage and the first stage of Europe’s Ariane 5 rocket as an upper stage. ATK proposed capping the rocket with a composite crew module.
ATK was working with NASA through unfunded Space Act Agreements to refine Liberty’s design.
Gerstenmaier confirmed that Blue Origin, the secretive space startup bankrolled by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, did not submit a CCiCap proposal. Blue Origin had been involved in NASA’s Commercial Crew Program since the first round of funding was awarded in 2010. The Kent, Wash., company has received a total of $25.7 million in NASA funding, some of which it put toward a crew escape system for its New Shepard vertical-takeoff, vertical-landing suborbital vehicle.
NASA’s CCiCap: Can Space Taxis Help the Pentagon?
Defense Industry Daily
With the retirement of the Space Shuttle in 2011, American manned missions to the International Space Station have mostly involved Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft, which costs about $63 million per seat. The lone exception has involved the commercial space innovator SpaceX, whose unmanned Dragon capsule docked at the ISS in May 2012. NASA continues to pursue its own Space Launch System heavy rocket and Orion capsule for manned spaceflight, but in the mean time, its Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) program aims to spur development of lower-cost American options that could supplant or supplement Soyuz.
These “space taxis” will rely on heavy-lift rockets to make it into space. Their purpose isn’t military, but their configurations are good news for the USA’s space industrial base. SpaceX has a slot, of course, and the other 2 winning entries will use Lockheed Martin’s Atlas V EELV.
Overall, 7 firms entered, and the 3 winners are:
Boeing in Houston, TX. $460 million for their CST-1000 capsule. It will launch using Lockheed Martin’s Atlas V rocket, rather than Boeing’s own Delta IV. Their capsule has 19 milestones to meet en route to its complete critical design review, the most of any winning design. Even so, The company is aiming for its 1st manned test flight by 2016.
Sierra Nevada Corporation in Louisville, CO. $212.5 million for their Dream Chaser space plane, an evolution of a NASA’s former HL-20 test vehicle that’s boosted into orbit on an Atlas V. The on-board propulsion system also has a heritage: it’s derived from SNC’s hybrid rocket motor technology, which flies on Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipOne & SpaceShipTwo. Dream Chaser has already been through a full system Preliminary Design Review and 1st captive carry flight, and is aiming for its 1st manned test flight by 2016.
SpaceX in Hawthorne, CA. $440 million for a manned version of the Dragon capsule that recently docked at the International Space Station. They’ll continue to use their own Falcon 9 booster, and are aiming for a 2015 test flight. They’re also promising powered crew escape ability from launch pad to orbit, and a landing system that would let the capsule touch down on land.
NASA’s 3 CCiCap winners will also be investing company funds in their projects, which will push the total investment well north of $1 billion.
These wins won’t benefit the Pentagon directly, but the fact that 2 of the winners will use the same Atlas V EELV that launches some of the USA’s military satellites will be welcome news, amidst official reports that are expressing deep concern about the American space rocket industrial base. Thanks to a new Open Launch Framework, NASA launches involving SpaceX’s Falcon 9 will also make a contribution, by moving them closer to certification for higher-risk payloads.
Beyond the winning firms, 2 other firms have investment decisions of their own to make.
ATK’s Liberty system was the only other qualifying bid, but their partnership with EADS-Astrium didn’t make the final 3 for NASA funding. The partners could decide to continue with their capsule, which would launch aboard a fusion of Space shuttle booster rockets (1st stage) and Astrium’s Arianne 5 (2nd stage), with Safran’s Vulcan 2 engine as the capsule’s final propulsion. NASA has engaged with ATK in unfunded projects before, but the firms would need to either put up private funds, or find other public funding sources, such as European governments or the ESA.
The other firm with a decision to make is Blue Origin, backed by Amazon.com’s founder Jeff Bezos. Their craft’s chosen booster rocket is the Atlas V, and lower-cost manned access to space is their core mission, but their key question revolves around timing and ambition. Absent any injection of extra government funds, the firm could decide that it’s best to keep to their own schedule, rather than taking on the extra risk of trying to meet all of NASA’s priorities by 2016.
NASA cash boosts efforts for shuttle successor
Agence France Presse
Three aerospace firms have scored a total of $1.1 billion in NASA contracts to compete to build the next spacecraft to carry astronauts to the International Space Station after the shuttle program's end.
The awards, announced Friday, went to SpaceX, Boeing and Sierra Nevada Corporation, and aim to support efforts to return astronauts to space via US-made transport in the next five years.
The retirement of the US space shuttle fleet last year left Russia as the sole nation capable of transporting astronauts to the ISS, three at a time aboard its Soyuz capsules.
The latest three grants are part of NASA's Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) initiative, "intended to ultimately lead to the availability of commercial human spaceflight services for government and commercial customers," the US space agency said in a statement.
The awards amounted to $460 million for Boeing, $440 million for SpaceX and $212.5 million for Sierra Nevada, based in Colorado.
SpaceX is the leader of the pack so far, having successfully sent its Dragon capsule on the first private cargo mission to the ISS earlier this year.
The California-based company is working to refine the Dragon capsule so it can carry seven astronauts to the ISS by 2015.
Meanwhile, NASA is developing a multi-purpose crew vehicle and space launch system that may one day carry humans to deep space destinations like Mars or an asteroid.
NASA Picks the Private Firms That Will Shuttle Americans Into Space
Will Oremus - Slate Magazine
Since shutting down its space shuttle program last summer, NASA has been relying on the Russians to blast its astronauts to the International Space Station. Eventually, though, it wants private companies to take over. Today it announced a big step toward that, handing out $1.1 billion in funding to three U.S.-based firms, led by Boeing and SpaceX.
Boeing will get $460 million to work on its CST-100 spacecraft, while SpaceX will receive $440 million to develop its Dragon capsule and Falcon 9 rocket. A third company, Nevada-based Sierra Nevada, will receive another $212 million to develop its Dream Chaser craft.
Over the next 21 months, the companies will try to complete a series of milestones as they compete for the next round of funding. The ultimate goal is to get privately owned craft in shape to ferry both NASA crew and commercial customers into low-earth orbit within the next five years.
In Boeing and SpaceX, NASA is hedging its bets between the establishment and the new wave in the aerospace industry. A big government contract for Boeing, the nearly century-old Chicago-based giant, is no surprise. But this is a big vote of confidence in Los Angeles-based startup SpaceX, launched just a decade ago by PayPal co-founder Elon Musk, who also runs the electric car company Tesla.
On the other hand, you could make the case that SpaceX should have gotten even more of the pie. Its Dragon, after all, is the only one of the competing craft that has actually completed a NASA space mission, carrying a load of supplies to the International Space Station in May.
It’s a shame that NASA’s own shuttle program was deemed expendable by the government. But outsourcing the job to companies like Boeing and SpaceX sounds a lot better than outsourcing it to Russia.
NASA awards over $1 billion In contracts to develop commercial spaceflight
Alex Knapp - Forbes
Friday NASA announced that it has awarded over $1.1 billion in contracts to the Sierra Nevada Corporation, Boeing, and SpaceX as part of its Commercial Crew Integrated Capability initiative. The goal of the Initiative has been to develop crewed flight capabilities as a means to provide both government and commercial entities the ability to travel to the International Space Station and to low Earth orbit. Each of the three companies is heavily involved in developing manned flight capabilities.
Boeing’s $460 million contract is geared towards development of its commericial spaceflight systems, particularly its CST-100 spacecraft, in order to get them ready for certification and operations. The CST-100 is a 7-man capsule designed for multiple journeys into low Earth orbit. The development is to take place over the next 21 months, and a first test flight of the CST-100 on a ULA Atlas V rocket is tentatively scheduled for early 2016.
The Sierra Nevada Corporation’s $212.5 million contract is to further the development of its Dream Chaser commercial space system. The Dream Chaser is a winged spaceship that bears some resemblance to the space shuttle. Right now it’s also planned to be launched with an Atlas V rocket. Several tests of the Dream Chaser have been successful, and its contract with NASA is geared towards more design and test flights. It’s scheduled to have an Approach and Landing test later this year, and the funds from NASA will hopefully get the company to the point that it will make its first crewed flight in 2016.
SpaceX, whose Dragon space capsule has already successfully docked with the International Space Station in an unmanned flight, has received a $440 million contract from NASA to further develop the Dragon to the point where it can send up to seven astronauts to the International Space Station. Dragon flies to space on SpaceX’s own Falcon 9 rocket, and both craft have been designed to work with crew from the very beginning. Dragon has already met several key milestones for crewed flight, and its first trip with astronauts could take place as early as 2015.
“This is a decisive milestone in human spaceflight and sets an exciting course for the next phase of American space exploration,” said SpaceX CEO and Chief Designer Elon Musk in a company press release. “SpaceX, along with our partners at NASA, will continue to push the boundaries of space technology to develop the safest, most advanced crew vehicle ever flown.”
“For 50 years American industry has helped NASA push boundaries, enabling us to live, work and learn in the unique environment of microgravity and low Earth orbit,” said William Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate in the NASA press release. “The benefits to humanity from these endeavors are incalculable. We’re counting on the creativity of industry to provide the next generation of transportation to low Earth orbit and expand human presence, making space accessible and open for business.”
As NASA is providing contracts to commercial companies to develop spaceflight, its also developing its own next generation of crewed flight capability with the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle. The Orion is currently under development, but has already has several successful tests. Orion’s first orbital test flight is currently scheduled for 2014.
NASA awards SpaceX, Boeing, Sierra Nevada $1.1B to develop manned space flight
Damon Poeter - PC Magazine
NASA is turning to the private sector to resume manned flights into space from U.S. soil following the end of its storied space shuttle program. On Friday, the space agency awarded $1.1 billion to Boeing, SpaceX, and Sierra Nevada Corporation to design and develop vehicles that could carry astronauts into space within the next five years.
"Today, we are announcing another critical step toward launching our astronauts from U.S. soil on space systems built by American companies. We have selected three companies that will help keep us on track to end the outsourcing of human spaceflight and create high-paying jobs in Florida and elsewhere across the country," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said at a media event at Florida's Kennedy Space Center.
The space agency's Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) initiative and the Space Act Agreements with the three private companies are "intended to ultimately lead to the availability of commercial human spaceflight services for government and commercial customers," NASA said in a statement.
CCiCap is being administered by NASA's Commercial Crew Program (CCP) and is expected to produce testable integrated designs for crew transportation by May 31, 2014, the space agency said. After that, the program will launch crewed demonstration missions to low Earth orbit in the middle years of the decade.
The CCiCap program is the final phase of NASA's initiative to partner with private industry on manned spaceflight, following on from earlier phases like the Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) program. Since retiring its space shuttle fleet last year, NASA and other international space programs have relied on the Russian space agency to ferry crew to the International Space Station.
The three companies chosen for CCiCap, which are charged with designing and building both manned capsules and the rockets to launch them into space, beat out such private space ventures as ATK, Space Operations, American Aerospace, and Space Design. Blue Origin, the space startup backed by Amazon.com founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, didn't bid for a place in the initiative, according to Discovery News.
Boeing was awarded $460 million on Friday while SpaceX, which earlier this year became the first private company to orchestrate a successful cargo run to the International Space Station, will receive $440 million. Both companies are working on capsule-based designs for CCiCap, Discovery News reported.
SpaceX was also recently awarded an $82 million NASA contract to provide the launch vehicle for an unmanned scientific mission in 2014.
Sierra Nevada received $212.5 million to further develop its Dream Chaser space plane, a reusable space vehicle designed to ferry up to seven astronauts to low Earth orbit (artist's rendering pictured).
While its commercial partners develop their technologies, NASA will be concurrently working on its own Orion spacecraft for manned deep space missions. Unmanned tests of Orion are planned for 2014, but the first manned flight of the Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) isn't expected until after 2020.
Louisville-based Sierra Nevada reaps $212.5M from NASA for Dream Chaser
Funding could add immediate jobs to company's HQ in Colorado Technology Center
John Aguilar - Daily Camera (Louisville, CO)
NASA announced Friday that it will award $212.5 million to Louisville-based Sierra Nevada Space Systems to continue work on the company's Dream Chaser space vehicle, which is being developed with the initial aim of ferrying astronauts to and from the International Space Station.
The funding round should lead to immediate hiring by the company, including at its headquarters in the Colorado Technology Center in Louisville.
"We'll be starting within days to enhance employment," Sierra Nevada Space Systems head Mark Sirangelo said, without offering specifics.
NASA awarded a total of $1.1 billion Friday to companies developing spacecraft that will once again fly American astronauts into space. Boeing received $460 million and Hawthorne, Calif.-based SpaceX received $440 million.
NASA's space shuttle program was retired last year after 30 years and, without a commercial space effort to replace it, the United States will have to rely on the Russian Soyuz space capsule at $63 million a seat to get astronauts in and out of space.
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden hailed the step his agency took Friday as a major initiative toward rejuvenating manned space travel by the United States.
"Today, we are announcing another critical step toward launching our astronauts from U.S. soil on space systems built by American companies," Bolden said in a news release. "We have selected three companies that will help keep us on track to end the outsourcing of human spaceflight."
Orbital flight in 2016?
SpaceX made headlines earlier this year when it became the first commercial venture to send a capsule -- albeit cargo-only -- to the International Space Station and return it successfully to Earth. Boeing is working on a seven-person space capsule.
But Sirangelo, on a conference call with reporters Friday, said the seven-person vehicle that Sierra Nevada is developing is the only one in the commercial space industry
that would be capable of landing on a runway upon its return to Earth.
The Dream Chaser is a 40-foot-long and 25-foot-wide spacecraft that resembles a smaller version of the space shuttle. The competing vehicles under development are capsules.
And Dream Chaser will launch on the Atlas V rocket, which has been successfully used dozens of times, Sirangelo said. He hopes the company can make its first orbital test flight in 2016.
"It's a very strong validation of the concept we have with the Dream Chaser, which is a lifting-body concept," he said of NASA's decision to fund the company further. "NASA is seeking diversity in launch system and in vehicle."
Paul Guthrie, senior economist at space industry consulting firm The Tauri Group in Alexandria, Va., said the award Sierra Nevada got Friday "is a pretty significant chunk of money compared to what they've invested in the vehicle."
Sierra Nevada has scored $125 million in two previous NASA funding rounds and has, as a company, put in a little more than half that amount toward the Dream Chaser, Sirangelo said.
"This is certainly a huge enabler," Guthrie said. "And part of their promise is that they seek to do more with the money than has been done to this point in the space industry."
Guthrie said the Dream Chaser has certain advantages of flexibility, given its ability to land on any conventional runway and be quickly turned around for its next flight.
Sirangelo said the fact that Boeing and SpaceX each got more than double the funding from NASA than Sierra Nevada did is irrelevant, because each company is on its own development trajectory with different milestones behind and ahead.
He said Dream Chaser started out years ago as a NASA project -- the HL-20 -- that has been in Sierra Nevada's hands since 2004. That relationship, he said, removes a lot of the uncertainty in design and development that might still be present with other spacecraft concepts.
"We have a fairly mature design that has close to 15 to 20 years of work in it," Sirangelo said. "And we're sitting on a rocket that has flown more than 30 times."
Local impacts will be felt
Sirangelo said the money from NASA will allow Sierra Nevada to immediately start hiring dozens of people, a number that could mushroom to hundreds of new hires over the next few years.
The company has 250 employees in Louisville.
He said there are many people who were put on "contingent hire" who will now get a phone call from the company telling them they are part of the Sierra Nevada family.
U.S. Sen. Michael Bennett congratulated the company in a prepared statement Friday.
"Sierra Nevada and its team represents the best of Colorado's leading aerospace industry -- demonstrating not only our state's capacity for innovation but also serving as part of the foundation for strong and vibrant 21st century economy in this country," Bennett said. "This will also be a catalyst for Colorado kids' interest in studying science, technology, engineering, and math so that they can be part of this next generation of space travel."
Sierra Nevada will now ready the Dream Chaser for autonomous approach and landing tests at Edwards Air Force Base in California later this year. The spacecraft successfully passed a captive-carry test at the Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport in Broomfield in May.
POWAY: NASA awards $212.5M space contract to local company
Bradley Fikes - North County Times (San Diego)
NASA awarded $1.1 billion in contracts Friday for what could be the next step in manned spaceflight: development of a full-fledged private space industry.
Of that total, $212.5 million will go to a company with offices in Poway and a long history of enabling space flight, adding engineering jobs to the area.
NASA is providing seed money to three companies to compete with each other and create a new private space race. With the space shuttle fleet retired, the U.S. has no way to travel to the International Space Station other than shelling out $63 million for rides on a Russian Soyuz rocket.
Funding through NASA's Commercial Crew Development program is meant to "bring human spaceflight launches back to U.S. soil and end outsourcing of these important jobs," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said Friday.
Winners included Sierra Nevada Corp. of Sparks, Nev., which purchased Poway-based SpaceDev Inc. in 2008. The privately held company ---- not to be confused with the eponymous beer or mountain range in Northern California ---- kept SpaceDev's Poway location and continued development of a SpaceDev craft that closely resembles a mini-space shuttle, called the Dream Chaser.
Sierra Nevada says it plans to get people in space as early as 2016.
The two other winners are Hawthorne-based rocket maker Space Exploration Technologies Corp., or SpaceX, which got $440 million; and Boeing Co., which got $460 million. Boeing develops spacecraft in Huntington Beach, and uses rocket engines made by Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne in Canoga Park.
NASA has been trying to spur private space flight for several years. In 2006, it announced $500 million in grants as seed money for the purpose.
Workforce boost
As a result of winning the NASA contract, Sierra Nevada will increase its Poway workforce of about 70 by 10 to 15 percent, said Mark Sirangelo, the company's corporate vice president and a SpaceDev veteran.
Companywide, Sierra Nevada employs about 2,200, and bills itself as the top female-owned federal contractor. It's owned by Eren Ozmen, chairman and president, and her husband, Fatih Ozmen, the CEO. The Ozmens bought the company in 1994, according to its website.
"We do a lot of our engineering still in San Diego," Sirangelo said. "It's an important center for us."
The company will add specialists in engineering, design and systems integration to develop the Dream Chaser's rocket motor, he said.
SpaceDev provided the rocket motor that in 2004 helped SpaceShipOne win the $10 million Ansari X-Prize for the first private craft to reach space.
Sirangelo said NASA will serve as the "anchor tenant" for the company's space business.
"We can do a lot of scientific work in space with this vehicle, where we can test things for an extended period of time," he said. "We can do servicing, where we go out and fix things, much like the shuttle fixed the Hubble (Space) Telescope."
The telescope was launched with an optical flaw that made it nearly useless. A shuttle mission retrofitted the telescope with corrective equipment that made it function as intended.
The company may also enter the space tourism business, Sirangelo said.
SpaceDev made quite a name for itself as a scrappy competitor while it was an independent company. Besides work on SpaceShipOne, it accomplished such feats as making very small satellites, called nanosatellites.
The company lost its founder, Jim Benson, in October 2008, when he died of brain cancer. Benson had resigned his operational role by then to take part in another venture, but he remained on SpaceDev's board.
Later that month, SpaceDev announced it had agreed to be acquired for $38 million by Sierra Nevada.
SpaceX was first
Of the winners, SpaceX is the only company whose contender is spaceflight-proven.
In May, SpaceX became the first private company to launch a spacecraft into orbit and have it dock with the International Space Station. The Dragon capsule was only carrying supplies at the time, but it was a technological and financial feat, previously accomplished only by the world’s most powerful government entities.
The Dragon capsule is designed to carry seven astronauts, but SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk said it still needed upgrades before an astronaut could strap in. The company is aiming for a manned test flight by 2015.
SpaceX will use its new NASA contract to develop its hardware. The space agency has also awarded the company a $1.6 billion contract to have SpaceX’s Dragon deliver cargo to the space station ---- with trips possibly starting later this year.
In May, Sierra Nevada's Dream Chaser was taken on a "captive carry" test flight to examine its aerodynamic properties. It didn't fly on its own, but was taken aloft and carried by a cable.
An approach and landing test with the Dream Chaser flying on its own is planned later this summer at Edwards Air Force Base.
NASA contracts benefit North Las Vegas outfit
Jennifer Robison - Las Vegas Review-Journal
The private space race is affecting a small Las Vegas company.
NASA on Friday announced that it will give three aerospace companies more than $1.1 billion to build small spacecraft to take astronauts to the International Space Station. Two of those businesses - Boeing Co. of Houston and Space Exploration Technologies of California - have partnered with North Las Vegas-based Bigelow Aerospace on orbit-related projects.
Robert Bigelow, owner and president of Bigelow Aerospace, called the funding "more aggressive" than prior NASA contracts and said he was "very happy" about the ramped-up investment, which will nearly double the workforce at his North Las Vegas plant.
Bigelow Aerospace began working with Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, in May to promote business and research space travel to governments and businesses that would use SpaceX's Dragon reusable spacecraft launched atop its Falcon rocket to reach Bigelow's orbiting BA 330 space habitat.
Bigelow Aerospace has also launched two of its Genesis satellites into orbit using Russian rockets. It's working with Boeing to develop a spacecraft to ferry crews to the International Space Station and, eventually, to Bigelow space stations. In May, the two companies conducted parachute drop tests of the spacecraft at the Delamar Dry Lake Bed near Alamo.
Bigelow Aerospace won't directly see any of the NASA funds, except "a very small fraction" as a Boeing testing and fabrication contractor. But the money will allow Boeing and SpaceX to perfect a way to get to Bigelow's space habitat, where governments and corporations could conduct space research and training if they fail to land a coveted seat on the six-person International Space Station.
Bigelow said NASA is to distribute additional funds from 2013 to 2015. Combine the possibility of sustained federal contracts for Bigelow Aerospace's partners with an increasing interest in space exploration among other nations and businesses, and Bigelow sees the need for new investments. The company just opened a 185,000-square-foot addition, bringing its North Las Vegas plant up to about 350,000 square feet. It slashed its work force from 150 before the recession to 50 during the downturn; now, it's looking to jump back up to 90 workers by Christmas. It's hiring structural, mechanical and electrical engineers, as well as chemists, molecular biologists and workers who craft composite spacecraft parts.
Bigelow said he has marked 2016 as a year when spacecraft availability will meet growing customer demand, and things really take off for the business.
"This is an embryonic situation where we've been in research-and-development mode for the last decade," Bigelow said. "As with anything you're trying to create from scratch, it takes a while to finally get to a point where you have something that's marketable. We are starting to approach that point in our little company."
Bigelow said the company has ambitions beyond low-Earth orbit: He's looking at getting involved in travel to the moon and even to Mars.
This is the third phase of NASA's efforts to get private space companies to take over the job of the now-retired space shuttle. Once the spaceships are built, NASA plans to hire the private companies to taxi astronauts into space within five years. Until they are ready, NASA is paying Russia to do the job
In addition to Boeing and SpaceX, NASA gave funding to SpaceDev, Inc., a Colorado-based wholly owned subsidiary of Sierra Nevada Corp. of Sparks.
NASA's commercial crew development program started with seven commercial companies.
NASA awards Boeing, SpaceX & Sierra Nevada Corp. with contracts for Space Shuttle replacements
Timothy Stenovec - Huffington Post
If all goes according to plan over the next five years, NASA will no longer have to rely on Russia to get Americans to the International Space Station.
The space agency announced on Friday that it has awarded three companies -- Sierra Nevada Corporation, SpaceX, and Boeing -- contracts totaling over $1.1 billion "to design and develop the next generation of U.S. human spaceflight capabilities."
"Today, we are announcing another critical step toward launching our astronauts from U.S. soil on space systems built by American companies," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said, according to press materials from NASA. "We have selected three companies that will help keep us on track to end the outsourcing of human spaceflight and create high-paying jobs in Florida and elsewhere across the country."
NASA has not had a way to transport astronauts into space since the retirement of the space shuttle last year. The agency pays Russia -- at a cost of about $63 million per round trip, according to Space.com -- to get Americans to and from the International Space Station.
The Boeing Company was awarded $460 million, the largest chunk of the prize. The aerospace and defense company said it will use the money to further develop the CST-100, a spacecraft that will carry astronauts to the ISS.
NASA awarded Space Exploration Technologies, also known as SpaceX, $440 million, which the company will use to further develop its Dragon spacecraft for astronaut transport. Earlier this year, SpaceX became the first private company to successfully dock a vehicle with the International Space Station.
According to the company, which is hoping to launch its first manned flights by 2015, the Dragon capsule will carry seven astronauts.
"This is a decisive milestone in human spaceflight and sets an exciting course for the next phase of American space exploration," Elon Musk, SpaceX's CEO and Chief Designer, said in a company statement. "SpaceX, along with our partners at NASA, will continue to push the boundaries of space technology to develop the safest, most advanced crew vehicle ever flown."
Sierra Nevada Corporation, a Nevada-based company, was awarded $212.5 million. The company said it will use the money to further develop its Dream Chaser Space System, a seven-person reusable space vehicle that launches atop an Atlas V rocket.
Private Space Taxis: Spaceflight Leaders Hail NASA's Funding Picks
Space.com
NASA announced Friday that three companies have won contracts under the third phase of a project to develop private space taxis capable of carrying astronauts to Earth orbit.
Those companies — Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX), Boeing, and Sierra Nevada Corp. — will share $1.1 billion in funding under NASA's Commercial Crew integrated Capability program (CCiCap) program.
In response to the news, leaders throughout the private space industry and Congress have spoken out about this public-private partnership:
Elliot Pulham, CEO of the Space Foundation, a non-profit group dedicated to space exploration
The Space Foundation is pleased that the U.S. is moving to the next phase in regaining human spaceflight capability. This is an absolutely critical component to rebuilding a robust space program and we're excited to see what happens next.
We congratulate Sierra Nevada Corporation, SpaceX and The Boeing Company -- all of which are Space Foundation partners -- and we look forward to what we hope will be a reinvigorated space environment.
Michael Lopez-Alegria, president of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, a private space industry group
Our congratulations to the winners of this round of competition. The Commercial Crew Program is a public-private partnership that provides big benefits for government, industry and the American people. With these awards, NASA gets an important service for significantly lower cost, the commercial spaceflight sector gets an anchor tenant, and Americans get our astronauts flying to space on American vehicles again. The last round of awards has been a big success, and I'm confident that the next two years will see great accomplishments as companies achieve the milestones announced today.
Eric Anderson, chairman of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation
These awards are the next step in bringing human spaceflight back to America. Through this competitive program, American companies will provide safe, reliable and routine flights to low-Earth orbit, allowing NASA to concentrate on deep space exploration.
It is important to keep in mind that the commercial space industry is much larger than just one NASA program. I anticipate that companies who did not compete or receive an award in this round will continue to pursue other markets for their services.
Patricia Hynes, director of the New Mexico Space Grant Consortium
From Capitol Hill to China, the space industry will be looking to this new group of leaders to deliver on the promise of increased access to space for mankind. We congratulate the winners. All Americans are winners today.
Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Tex.)
Today's announcement shows that NASA has put together a thoughtful selection of companies and capabilities that we anticipate will culminate in a domestic capability to launch astronauts to the International Space Station.
This is consistent with the approach several of us in the Congress urged NASA to take, to ensure that the limited funds available are spent on developments that have a strong probability of success.
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA)
These three companies are paving the way to ensure a safe, reliable, and cost-effective commercial crew transportation system so our astronauts can return to ISS on domestic launch vehicles as soon as possible. Through public-private partnerships, our country will restore its human spaceflight capability. With commercial providers and competition, NASA will soon be able to purchase safe, domestic, low-cost crew transportation.
I applaud NASA for their continued dedication to the commercial process which has already yielded great dividends for cargo transportation. By pursuing their plan for multiple industry partners to meet the ISS crew rotation and emergency return needs, NASA is unleashing the power of market competition to reduce reliance on Russia while fostering American innovation, economic growth, and job creation. With competing designs, NASA and these companies will assure the fastest and safest domestic space transportation for our nation’s astronauts.
Step aside Russia
NASA contracts with US companies to build spacecraft to service space station
Houston Chronicle's Texas on the Potomac
The Obama administration has contracted with U.S. aerospace companies – including a start-up – to build spacecraft to deliver U.S. astronauts to the orbiting space station by 2016.
The move spells an eventual end to U.S. reliance on Russia to ferry astronauts and cargo to the $100 billion orbiting laboratory, using the venerable Soyuz capsule.
NASA has awarded a total of $1.1 billion to the Boeing Company’s Houston operation; Space Exploration Technologies Corp., known as SpaceX based in Hawthorne, Calif; and Sierra Nevada Corp., of Louisville, Colo.
The Boeing Co., with a $460 million contract, and SpaceX, with a $440 million contract, are working to assemble and test commercially-owned and operated spacecraft capable of delivering astronauts to the manned U.S.-built laboratory in earth orbit.
Another $212.5 million is going to the Sierra Nevada Corp., to build a space plane.
SpaceX already has test flown a cargo capsule that docked with the space station.
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, a Dallas Republican, welcomed the announcement by NASA, calling it “a thoughtful selection of companies and capabilities that we anticipate will culminate in a domestic capability to launch astronauts to the International Space Station.”
“This is a step that should keep development of commercial crew capability on a schedule to launch as soon and as safely as possible while on a realistic budget,” Hutchison said. “There now is a sensible path forward to enable a U.S. launched crew capability for utilizing our investment in the space station.”
The announcement reflects the Obama administration’s decision to shift the servicing of the space station from NASA owned and operated spacecraft to commercial spacecraft.
The move freed the space agency to pour money into next-generation space exploration technology.
NASA hopes to test fly a deep-space exploration system in 2017 with a manned test flight in 2021 leading to astronauts landing on an asteroid in 2025.
Nasa announces space shuttle replacement shortlist
Jonathan Amos - BBC News
We now have a much clearer idea of how American astronauts will get into orbit in the coming years.
Nasa has selected three companies to help develop launch systems that can take people to the space station.
They include the SpaceX firm, which recently sent an unmanned cargo capsule to the 400km-high outpost.
But agreements have also been signed with aerospace giant Boeing and the Sierra Nevada Corporation. The latter has a design for a mini-shuttle.
The agency has been working with a number of partners in recent years to find spaceflight capabilities that could replace its own shuttle fleet, which retired last year.
Friday's announcement represented a reduction to concepts Nasa now thinks are best placed to deliver it a space transportation solution in the near-term.
The agency's intention is to eventually outsource its crew launch requirements to the private sector.
It hopes this will save it significant sums of money. At the moment, the US has no means of getting its own astronauts into orbit and purchases rides on Russia's Soyuz rockets at $60m a seat.
Refining designs
The US space agency is giving Friday's selected companies what amounts to 21 months of further seed funding under an initiative called CCiCap - its Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) programme.
This will help the firms refine the technologies needed to introduce their launch systems.
Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) of Hawthorne, California, will receive $440m to help it progress the design of the Dragon capsule. It launches on the company's Falcon rocket and made history in May by becoming the first commercially developed vehicle to visit the International Space Station.
But Dragon must have life-support systems put in it before it can carry people. SpaceX also needs to develop a safety abort mechanism that could push Dragon off and away from the Falcon if the rocket suffers a major malfunction.
The Sierra Nevada Corporation of Louisville, Colorado, will get $212.5m. It is developing an old Nasa design for a seven-seat, winged space vehicle. Although it resembles the old shuttles, it is much smaller.
Unlike SpaceX, which has its own rocket, SNC would use the Atlas 5 launcher, which has an excellent reliability record in putting up military and scientific satellites.
The Boeing Company, of Houston, Texas, has a long heritage in providing space technology for Nasa. It will receive $460m. It will use this to refine its CST-100 capsule concept. It too will use the Atlas 5 to get off Earth.
"We will not only have diversity in systems, but also redundancy and competition as we move forward," said Ed Mango, Nasa's commercial crew programme manager.
CCiCap was devised for the purpose of identifying a complete launch system - not just a crew "taxi", but a rocket to launch it, and all the necessary ground support operation.
The notable absentee in the list is the ATK-led consortium. Magna, Utah-based ATK has proposed a rocket and capsule system called Liberty.
With Lockheed Martin and Europe's biggest space company, Astrium, also involved - the consortium had appeared to be a strong contender for CCiCap support.
'Mini shuttle' among NASA crewed spacecraft winners
Paul Marks - New Scientist
Three companies were Friday charged with developing crewed spacecraft that will take American astronauts to low-Earth orbit, replacing the NASA space shuttle, which was retired last year. NASA chose SpaceX of Hawthorne, California; Boeing of Chicago, Illinois; and Sierra Nevada Corporation of Louisville, Colorado to develop commercial crewed spacecraft that must be ready to fly within five years.
A major aim of the commercial crewed spaceflight program is to end NASA outsourcing of human spaceflight and create high-paying jobs across the country, says NASA chief Charles Bolden. Right now, NASA has to buy seats to the International Space Station from its space race arch rival, Russia.
Boeing was granted $460 million by NASA for its crewed development program. The company is a trusted pair of hands with a spaceflight pedigree that dates back to the Apollo moon program. Boeing has developed a solid seven-person crewed capsule design, called the CST-100 (pictured above in an artist's rendering) based on its decades of experience.
The appointment of SpaceX, a spaceflight neophyte compared to Boeing - and run by Tesla Motors chief and PayPal co-founder Elon Musk - has been on the cards ever since the firm successfully launched and docked its Dragon cargo capsule at the space station in May. It was awarded $440 million by NASA. But SpaceX isn't waiting five years to get people into orbit, as its design is well advanced, and has even been pictured with a mock crew aboard.
"SpaceX expects to undertake its first manned flight by 2015," says the company in a press statement. "While Dragon is initially being used to transport cargo to the International Space Station, both Dragon and Falcon 9 were designed from the beginning to carry crew."
Sierra Nevada Corp was only offered half a development deal by NASA, getting $212.5 million to continue developing its Dream Chaser spacecraft, a reusable spaceplane not unlike a cutdown version of the space shuttle. It's a fascinating design and one NASA seems happy to have as a backup in case the SpaceX or Boeing crewed programs hit problems.
Like the shuttle, Dream Chaser is designed to land on a runway after a rocket-assisted launch to orbit. It has passed all its tests to date, including a captive carry test (pictured below) in which it was towed by an aircraft to test its aerodynamics.
Sierra Nevada also has another key role in civilian spaceflight: It's developing the hybrid rocket motor for SpaceShipTwo, Virgin Galactic's space tourism craft, which is due to begin powered test flights later this year. That motor burns a type of rubber called hydroxyl-terminated poly-butadiene in an oxidiser of nitrous oxide, or laughing gas.
Among the losers was Blue Origin of Kent, Washington, a spaceflight startup run by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Its website suggests that the firm will continue to develop a crewed space vehicle for "commercial purposes".
NASA Plans to Return to Space with SpaceX
Jason CranfordTeague - Wired.com
Here’s some good news for kids worried that their dreams of being an astronaut had been dashed with the cancellation of the Space Shuttle program last year: NASA has selected Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) as one of three vendors to test ships that will transport American Astronauts back to “space,” or at least into low Earth orbit.
The first crewed flight is planned to be launched three years from now, in 2015. The new rockets will combine SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft, which is currently used to ferry supplies to the International Space Station, and Falcon 9 vehicle, which has been designed as a crew capsule. The new crew ships will be able to carry up to seven astronauts into orbit, and then return them using a propulsive landing system that touches down using landing legs on solid ground rather than a splash down.
One great feature of the SpaceX rockets is also that they use all liquid fuel rockets, unlike the Space Shuttle booster rockets which were solid fuel. This not only makes for a much smoother ride for the passengers, but a much safer one as well. Once ignited solid rockets cannot be shut down. Liquid rockets, on the other hand, can be throttled and turned off completely in an emergency.
According to the NASA Web site, in addition to SpaceX, Sierra Nevada Corp. and The Boeing Company also won contracts to:
… perform tests and mature integrated designs. This would then set the stage for a future activity that will launch crewed orbital demonstration missions to low Earth orbit by the middle of the decade
But wait, there’s more! NASA is also still developing the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle spacecraft and Space Launch System which will transport earthlings beyond low Earth orbit for possible missions to the moon, asteroids, or other close-by heavenly bodies. This space race isn’t over yet!
NASA bypasses Utah’s ATK for post-shuttle vehicle contract
Project could have sustained “thousands of jobs”
Steven Oberbeck & Vince Horiuchi - Salt Lake Tribune
Alliant Techsystems’ plan to use its Liberty rocket to eventually transport astronauts and cargo to the International Space Station was left unfunded on the launch pad Friday.
Instead, NASA announced Boeing Co. received a $460 million award; Space Exploration Technologies Corp., a Hawthorne, Calif.-based company also known as SpaceX and led by billionaire Elon Musk, got a $440 million contract to develop spacecraft capable of carrying astronauts into orbit; and Sierra Nevada Corp., based in Sparks, Nev., won a contract valued at $213 million.
"We were disappointed we were not selected," said ATK spokesman George Torres. "We really can’t say much more until we meet with NASA and receive a de-brief on their selection criteria."
In a statement last month, ATK said the Liberty program could sustain "thousands of jobs" and create 600 new ones across the country. Torres said Friday it is too early to discuss the future of the Liberty project following news of losing the contract.
In a statement Friday, Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, said he was "disappointed and disheartened by the news."
"I have been concerned that favoritism may be playing far too prominent of a role in NASA’s decision-making process, especially with regards to companies closely tied to key NASA officials," he said. "ATK is a proven leader and their track record is beyond exemplary. It was my understanding that ATK’s Liberty proposal ranked very high in technical merit, and was the lowest-risk option."
Bishop’s concerns about favoritism stem from alleged relationships he says President Obama and NASA administrator Charles Bolden have with Musk.
In September, ATK said about 35-40 people at its Promontory Point plant west of Brigham City were working directly on its Liberty project but that many more were involved in the development of a new five-segment motor that the company intended to use on its new launch system.
ATK unveiled its Liberty project in early 2011 as its response to a request from NASA, which was looking for a commercial rocket system that it could contract to take its astronauts into space rather than buy rockets for its own use.
And in September of last year, NASA signed an "unfunded" agreement with ATK to further explore the capabilities of the Liberty system.
story continues belowstory continues below "We continue to believe Liberty provides the safest, most cost-effective crew and cargo transportation systems, as well as the fastest path to recover America’s human launch capability," Torres said.
ATK is perhaps best known in Utah for producing the solid-fuel rocket booster motors that for years helped put the space shuttle into orbit. And it was the proven technology that sat at the heart of those booster motors that ATK was hoping would give its Liberty system the edge in the competition to develop the next generation of human space flight vehicles.
The U.S. retired its shuttle fleet last year and now relies on countries such as Russia to ferry astronauts and supplies to the International Space Station. The Obama administration wants the private sector to take over those jobs so NASA can focus on missions to asteroids and Mars.
NASA pays about $63 million per seat on Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
"We have selected three companies that will help keep us on track to end the outsourcing of human spaceflight and create high-paying jobs in Florida and elsewhere across the country," NASA administrator Bolden said in a statement announcing the awarding of the contracts.
The latest funding is the third and final phase of a program to design and develop the privately operated vehicles. Before today, NASA since 2009 awarded $365 million for work under its commercial crew initiative.
NASA’s commercial crew development program started with seven companies. The other companies that were not chosen can still build private rocketships and NASA still has the option to hire them to ferry astronauts at a later date, NASA spokesman Trent Perrotto said.
Of the winning contracts, Boeing has designed its seven-person CST-100 capsule. It would launch on an Atlas rocket, with the first test flight in 2016. The company won’t say how much it would charge NASA per seat, but it will be "significantly lower" than the Russian price, said John Mulholland, Boeing vice president. He said Boeing’s long experience in working with NASA on human flight gives it a "leg up" on its competitors.
SpaceX is already in the lead in the private space race. The company earlier this year used its Falcon rocket to launch its Dragon capsule into orbit. It docked with the space station and successfully delivered cargo. NASA plans to give the company $440 million. The capsule holds seven people and will have its first test launch with people in 2015, said spokeswoman Kirstin Brost Grantham. The company will charge NASA about $20 million per seat, she said.
Sierra Nevada’s mini-shuttle crew vehicle called Dream Chaser carries seven people and could be flown without a pilot. NASA would give it $212.5 million. The ship is based on an old NASA test ship design but hasn’t flown as much as SpaceX’s Dragon. "It may appear as though we are behind but in many ways we are more mature," said Sierra Nevada space chief Mark Sirangelo. Like Boeing’s Mulholland, he said his firm will charge NASA less than the Russians, but won’t give a specific price.
ATK left out of NASA contract awards
Charles Trentelman - Ogden Standard-Examiner
ATK Space Systems in Box Elder County was bypassed Friday in its bid to win part of nearly $1.2 billion from NASA to develop a new commercial space launch system to carry American astronauts into space.
The decision leaves the future of hundreds of jobs in Box Elder County in doubt.
ATK already laid off more than 2,000 employees as the space shuttle program wound down. It hoped to avoid further layoffs by building more solid-rocket motors for its proposed manned launch system, called Liberty.
ATK spokeswoman Amanda Covington said Friday it was too early to tell what the decision means for the future of the Liberty program, which just a month ago announced major developments that ATK said made it more capable of delivering what NASA wants than anything other companies offer.
“We continue to believe Liberty provides the safest, most cost-effective crew and cargo transportation systems, as well as the fastest path to recover America’s human launch capability and engage the workforce and facilities at Kennedy Space Center, Johnson Space Flight Center and others,” said a statement from ATK released Friday.
“We look forward to a debriefing from NASA.”
U.S. Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, in whose congressional district ATK is located, said he and the rest of Utah’s congressional delegation will not take the decision lying down.
“I am disappointed and disheartened by the news that NASA has excluded ATK from the companies that were awarded the contract for the Commercial Crew Integrated Capability initiative,” Bishop said in a statement released by his office.
“I have been concerned that favoritism may be playing far too prominent a role in NASA’s decision-making process, especially with regard to companies closely tied to key NASA officials.”
Asked what favoritism Bishop is seeing, his spokeswoman, Melissa Subbotin, said Bishop was referring to a visit by President Barack Obama to Florida in November.
“On November 25, 2011, during a visit to Florida, the very first stop Obama made on his tour was a personal and private visit with Elon Musk,” she said.
“Elon Musk is also a contributor to the Obama campaign.”
In addition, she said, “Lori Garver and Charlie Bolden (NASA’s deputy administrator and administrator, respectively) visited Sierra Corporation and Elon Musk’s Hawthorne facility in the middle of sensitive source selection.”
She said those visits suggest that a favored few who received visits were among those awarded contracts Friday.
“No visit was made to ATK during the selection process, which is why Rob has concerns.”
Bishop said the Obama administration has been less than enthusiastic about the United States leading in manned space flight.
“Recently, NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden said that, ‘I have no desire to do a Mars landing on our own,’ and that ‘The U.S. cannot always be the leader, but we can be the inspiration leader through international cooperation in space exploration,’ ” Bishop said in the statement.
“Based on these comments, I remain concerned that space leadership remains a low priority for this administration. This is just another example of how this administration has been a total disappointment.”
Bishop said he and the rest of Utah’s delegation will “further investigate every detail of how NASA arrived at (this) disappointing decision.”
Subbotin said she is being asked by many media callers what the decision means for the workers at ATK who expected Liberty to provide them jobs.
She said only ATK can answer that question.
Covington said it is too early to tell.
Liberty is ATK’s replacement for the discontinued Ares rocket that was supposed to be part of NASA’s next manned space program but was canceled by the Obama administration.
Obama chose to direct the space program toward commercial providers competing to provide launch vehicles. As part of that competition, several companies have been working on proposals, hoping to win funding for research and development.
NASA signed an unfunded agreement with ATK in September to work on Liberty, but Friday’s announcement awards millions of dollars to three other companies to continue working on their proposals.
Those companies are the Sierra Nevada Corporation, of Louisville, Colo., the Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), of Hawthorne, Calif., and Boeing, of Houston.
Sierra Nevada will get $212.5 million, SpaceX will get $440 million, and Boeing will get $460 million.
SpaceX has successfully tested its launch vehicle and docked a capsule with the International Space Station.
Sierra Nevada Corporation is developing what it calls the Dream Chaser Orbital Space Vehicle, a piloted vehicle with on-board propulsion.
The Denver Post reported Friday that Sierra Nevada will immediately add several dozen jobs that had been contingent on Friday’s announcement, with the possibility of several hundred more to come.
Like SpaceX, Boeing is working on both a launch system and capsule. It is developing a seven-person capsule, dubbed the Crew Space Transportation-100, designed to fly on top of a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket.
ATK Space Systems hoped to get a chunk of that because it built solid-fuel booster motors for the space shuttle for more than 30 years. Liberty is based on that experience.
ATK loses out in high-stakes race for space money
John Hollenhorst - Deseret News
NASA committed more than a billion dollars to three companies Friday to help get the U.S. back into the manned space program. But the big player in Utah was left out in the cold.
Zero dollars for Alliant Techsystems Inc. and its Liberty rocket project.
"This is very disappointing and it comes from an administration, to be honest, that has been disappointing," said Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, injecting the possibility that politics played a role in the selection of the companies competing with ATK.
This is the third phase of NASA’s efforts to get private space companies to take over the job of the now-retired space shuttle. The companies, Boeing Co. of Houston; Space Exploration Technologies, called SpaceX, of Hawthorne, Calif.; and Sierra Nevada Corp. of Louisville, Colo., will share more than $1.1 billion.
Two of the ships are capsules like in the Apollo era and the third is closer in design to the space shuttle. Once built, NASA will hire the private companies to taxi astronauts into space within five years. Until they are ready, NASA is paying Russia about $63 million per astronaut to do the job.
Allard Beutel, NASA spokesman, said, "These three companies emerged as the ones that looked like the most viable."
He would not offer specific information about the selection process. But Bishop, Utah's 1st District congressman, wants to know more. He called ATK's Liberty rocket the least expensive, safest and most reliable of those proposed.
"The ATK proposal is exactly the kind of program they were requesting," Bishop said. He wants NASA officials to meet with the Utah delegation to explain its decision.
"I want to make sure that there were no political institutions or political considerations that took place in this, that the winning companies did not come from swing states, nor companies that have had prior relationships with this particular administration," Bishop said.
Charles P. Vick, senior analyst for Space, GlobalSecurity.org, said "ATK did not get the contract because generally speaking they were late in making their proposal." He also said ATK could be paying a price 25 years after the Challenger disaster was triggered by a Utah solid-rocket motor.
"And I also think that NASA has the feeling that solid motors are simply not the way to go. This comes out of the shuttle experience with the deaths of shuttle flyers," he said.
ATK officials would not comment Friday other than to say they're disappointed and hoping to hear an explanation from NASA.
NASA hopes that by having private firms ferry astronauts into low-Earth orbit, it can focus on larger long-term goals, like sending crews to a nearby asteroid and eventually Mars. The private companies can also make money in tourism and other non-NASA business.
Boeing will get $460 million for its seven-person CST-100 capsule. It would launch on an Atlas rocket, with the first test flight in 2016.
SpaceX will receive $440 million. Its capsule holds seven people and will have its first test launch with people in 2015, said spokeswoman Kirstin Brost Grantham.
Sierra Nevada’s mini-shuttle crew vehicle called Dream Chaser carries seven people and could be flown without a pilot.
NASA turns down ATK for massive space flight contract
Matthew Jensen - Logan Herald Journal
News from NASA on Friday came as a disappointment to the aerospace giant, Alliant Techsystems, as well as to residents throughout Northern Utah.
The company behind the ambitious Liberty commercial space vehicle program — and the former manufacturer of space shuttle rocket boosters — was bumped from a list of companies hoping for major grants to continue developing the next generation of human space flight technology.
Representatives from ATK gave only a brief statement after the announcement at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
“ATK and the Liberty Team are disappointed that we were not selected by NASA for a Commercial Crew Integrated Capability Space Act Agreement,” the statement said. “We continue to believe Liberty provides the safest, most cost-effective crew and cargo transportation systems, as well as the fastest path to recover America’s human launch capability and engage the workforce and facilities at Kennedy Space Center, Johnson Space Flight Center and others. We look forward to a debriefing from NASA.”
In its initial information, NASA did not specify why it declined ATK’s proposal. According to a media release from the space agency, ATK was not listed as one of the award recipients as part of the Commercial Crew Program.
The program is intended to bring commercial aerospace contractors together to develop privately operated crew vehicles, essentially creating a new way for U.S. astronauts to reach low-earth orbit.
ATK operates a large facility in Box Elder County, where hundreds of residents from nearby areas — including Cache County — are employed. The company made no mention of how Friday’s news could impact jobs in Utah or at its other locations.
Since last year, ATK has advertised Liberty as the safest and most economical commercial space transportation service available. The Liberty concept would have changed the way ATK does business in the space industry. Instead of building rocket motors designed specifically for NASA vehicles, the Liberty program offered an all-inclusive service, including motors, crew module and ground and mission support together in one complete package. ATK even offered its own astronauts.
For now, however, the industry’s attention will shift to the three companies that received NASA funding.
Boeing will get up to $460 million to continue the development of its crew capsule — the CST-100 spacecraft.
The Sierra Nevada Corp. will receive up to $212.5 million to further advance its Dream Chaser spacecraft, a vehicle that resembles a smaller version of the now-retired space shuttle.
SpaceX will receive up to $440 million for its crewed Dragon capsule and Falcon 9 rocket combination.
NASA officials said their decision to partner with the three firms will help advance its goal of returning American astronauts to space.
“Today, we are announcing another critical step toward launching our astronauts from U.S. soil on space systems built by American companies,” said NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden. “We have selected three companies that will help keep us on track to end the outsourcing of human space flight and create high-paying jobs in Florida and elsewhere across the country.”
U.S. Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, reacted Friday to NASA’s decision to exclude ATK’s proposal.
“I am disappointed and disheartened by the news that NASA has excluded ATK from the companies that were awarded the contract for the Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) initiative,” Bishop said. “I have been concerned that favoritism may be playing far too prominent of a role in NASA’s decision making process, especially with regards to companies closely tied to key NASA officials.”
Bishop said ATK is a proven leader in the space industry and that the proposed Liberty program was ranked highly for its technical merit and low risk.
“I support NASA’s efforts to engage private industry as part of our efforts to develop the next generation of innovate cutting edge space travel and missile defense capabilities,” he added. “America was once recognized globally as the preeminent leader in exploration of the cosmos and it is my hope that one day we can regain that title.”
Bishop said he will team up with U.S. Sens. Orrin Hatch and Mike Lee to investigate how NASA arrived at its decision.
In a recent interview with The Herald Journal, ATK spokesperson Joe Oliva said if the Liberty project got a green light, ATK Launch Systems in Promontory would build the motors that power the vehicle and would likely add new talent to its staff in the coming years.
NASA turns down Utah firm to develop space taxis
Associated Press
An aerospace company that employs hundreds of people in northern Utah has reacted with disappointment to NASA's selection of three competitors to build small rocketships to take astronauts to the International Space Station.
NASA did not specify why it rejected Alliant Techsystems Inc.'s proposed Liberty rocket project when it announced the selections Friday. ATK is headquartered in Arlington, Va., with its aerospace division based in Magna.
In a statement obtained by Logan's Herald Journal, the company made no mention of how Friday's decision could impact jobs in Utah.
"ATK and the Liberty Team are disappointed that we were not selected by NASA," the statement says. "We continue to believe Liberty provides the safest, most cost-effective crew and cargo transportation systems, as well as the fastest path to recover America's human launch capability ... We look forward to a debriefing from NASA."
The three companies selected are the Boeing Co. of Houston, Space Exploration Technologies, called SpaceX, of Hawthorne, Calif., and Sierra Nevada Corp. of Louisville, Colo.
This is the third phase of NASA's efforts to get private space companies to take over the job of the now-retired space shuttle. The companies will share more than $1.1 billion. Two of the ships are capsules like in the Apollo era and the third is closer in design to the space shuttle.
Once the spaceships are built, NASA plans to hire the private companies to taxi astronauts into space within five years. Until they are ready, NASA is paying Russia about $63 million per astronaut to do the job.
U.S. Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, said he would team up with U.S. Sens. Orrin Hatch and Mike Lee to investigate how NASA arrived at its decision.
Bishop said ATK is a proven leader in the space industry and the proposed Liberty program was ranked highly for its technical merit and low risk.
"I am disappointed and disheartened by the news that NASA has excluded ATK from the companies that were awarded the contract," he told The Herald Journal. "I have been concerned that favoritism may be playing far too prominent of a role in NASA's decision-making process, especially with regards to companies closely tied to key NASA officials."
NASA Saves Big on Fuel in ISS Rotation
Ariel Bleicher - IEEE Spectrum
Thursday afternoon, at 13:25 Greenwich Mean Time, the International Space Station finished re-orienting itself in preparation to dock with an unmanned Russian resupply ship. At 1:24 this morning, the Progress ship docked. And by 5:45, the ISS had rotated back to its original alignment in orbit.
The rotations are standard procedure. Typically, these two 180-degree maneuvers would cost roughly 320 kilograms of propellant, about one-fifth the total fuel brought by the Progress—a delivery with a multi-million dollar price tag.
But this time, NASA tried a new method for turning the ISS that makes optimal use of the station’s thrusters. The maneuver, developed by engineers at the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory in Houston, Texas and dubbed the “optimal propellant maneuver” (OPM), cut total fuel use to just 20 kilograms—a whopping 94 percent savings.
So how did NASA and the Draper engineers pull the stunt? The trick relies on sophisticated algorithms that take into account all the various things that affect how the station moves—for example, the position of its thrusters and the effects of gravity and gyroscopic torque.
“Think if it like you’re kayaking down a river,” says Nazareth Bedrossian, the project’s group leader at Draper. “You could take the most direct route and tackle any obstacles in your way.” Or, he says, you could be clever and choose a route that, although longer, lets you ride the quickest currents.
To steer the ISS along an optimal path, the calculated rotation is divided into 55 coordinates—each with a time code and orientation—which are then beamed to the station’s avionics.
Executing all 55 commands to make a full rotation took the station 90 minutes, about twice the time the turn would take using just one command from its onboard software. Like most satellites, the ISS is programmed to follow the most direct route from one attitude to another. This “shortest angle rotation” is the easiest to calculate, though not always the most fuel-efficient.
Given the success of this week’s low-fuel rotations, NASA hopes to make OPM a standard approach to maneuvering the ISS, says Ken Longacre, an attitude determination and control officer for the mission. OPM could similarly benefit military, commercial and space satellites by reducing their operating cost and extending their lifespan, Bedrossian says.
Bedrossian is also the lead engineer behind the “Zero Propellant Maneuver” (ZPM), which NASA demonstrated on the ISS back in 2007. By harnessing gravity and aerodynamic drag, the maneuver avoided ever firing the station’s thrusters, and so used no fuel at all. A little artificial power came from the spacecraft’s control motion gyroscopes—spinning momentum storage devices that run on solar-powered batteries and are normally used to make small adjustments in orientation. The only disadvantage of this maneuver was that it took nearly three hours to complete.
Schiff fighting for Mars exploration, robotic and human
SpacePolitics.com
Congressman Adam Schiff (D-CA), whose current district includes JPL and Pasadena, has been a strong advocate for NASA’s planetary science program and, specifically, Mars exploration. On Saturday, he reiterated his desire to see to reverse cuts to those programs while also pushing for better goals for the nation’s space program.
“We have too long drifted without a strategic vision for space that can survive changes of administration as well as congressional appropriations cycles,” Schiff told attendees of the International Mars Society Convention in Pasadena. “Now, as we prepare to celebrate Curiosity’s arrival on Mars, we face the urgent need to set new goals and reinvigorate the space program.”
Schiff said he believes a logical long-term goal for NASA’s exploration efforts is Mars. He said he thinks the Mars Program Planning Group, commissioned by NASA earlier this year to review NASA’s Mars strategy, will recommend a path that calls for a human landing on Mars by the 2030s, a decade before a sample return mission. He called on attendees to petition their congressional representatives “for an increase in NASA’s budget as well as a national commitment to lead an effort to put humans on Mars by a date certain. Without persistence and clarity, we will continue to drift.”
Taking a more tactical approach, Schiff asked convention attendees to continue efforts to restore NASA’s planetary science budget, which have met with some success in the reduced cuts in the appropriations bills working through the House and Senate. “We still have a long way to go, and it is my hope that as we go to conference—if we go to conference—we can increase those numbers further,” he said. He warned, though, that the recent deal for a six-month continuing resolution could include some across-the-board budget cuts. “The impact on Mars will depend on how NASA allocates funds in its operating plans,” which in turn depends on guidance it receives from OMB.
“The immediate future is murky, and we need your help,” he said, suggesting that NASA was surprised by the reaction to the planned cuts since their announcement in February. “The only thing that has rescued us from the severity of what the administration proposed was the fact that planetary scientists like you have been making their voices heard and loudly,” he said. (Most of the audience of the Mars Society conference are better classified as enthusiasts and activists than as scientists, though.) “And I think frankly it has astounded the administration that you have spoken with such boldness and clarity.”
Schiff said he believes Mars was targeted for cuts because the administration thought there would be, at best, a muted reaction and little opposition. “They have been astounded by the fury of the pushback, and that is the only thing that has saved us so far.”
NASA takes more than a year to provide shuttle decision documents
John Nolan - Dayton Daily News
After the National Aeronautics and Space Administration chose not to assign a retired space shuttle last year to the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, the Dayton Daily News filed a Freedom of Information Act request asking NASA to provide documents supporting its decisions on where to send the orbiters.
NASA initially took 13 months to deny in full the newspaper’s request, then partially granted an appeal by providing a package of dozens of essentially identical letters that had been sent to members of Congress, governors and big-city mayors to state reasons for the space agency’s allocation of the orbiters.
NASA capped a two-year process in April 2011 by announcing a decision to assign the Endeavour orbiter to the California Science Center, Los Angeles; Atlantis to Florida’s Kennedy Space Center; Discovery to the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, Washington, D.C., and the full-scale test vehicle Enterprise to New York’s Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum.
The Air Force had requested assignment of an orbiter to the Air Force Museum, reminding NASA that the Air Force had worked closely with NASA from the start on the spacecraft’s design and function.
NASA’s April 2011 letters to political leaders noted that the agency followed terms of a “shuttle retirement plan” that had been submitted to Congress in 2008. NASA said it evaluated the competing sites’ ability to pay the multimillion-dollar cost of transferring the shuttles from NASA to the new homes; options for transporting the orbiters; potential attendance at each site, regional populations and the sites’ access to domestic and international transportation.
Anticipating the likelihood of questions about NASA’s decisions, agency official L. Seth Statler, author of the letters, concluded: “I would be happy to discuss this matter at your request.”
NASA’s decisions angered some officials in states that didn’t get orbiters, including Ohio and Texas.
The documents NASA provided to the Dayton Daily News included a letter from six members of the Ohio House of Representatives expressing disappointment with NASA’s decision not to send an orbiter to the Air Force Museum, which annually draws about 1.3 million visitors to its location on Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. The base is also home to Huffman Prairie, the field where Wilbur and Orville Wright perfected flying control of their pioneering aircraft.
The Ohio lawmakers asked NASA to provide a “review and cost justification” for its decisions on shuttle assignments. NASA never responded, said state Rep. Jim Butler, R-Oakwood, a co-signer of the Ohio letter.
“I was disappointed with their lack of response,” Butler said Friday. “I don’t think that shows any type of respect for the contribution that Ohio has made to aerospace and the space program.”
U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, criticized NASA’s decision, in particular the selection of New York City as an orbiter location over Dayton, with its history as the birthplace of aviation.
Brown requested a NASA inspector general’s review of the site selection process. Inspector General Paul Martin said he found that NASA officials’ top priority was to locate the retired spacecraft in places where the most people would have the opportunity to view them. Martin said he found no evidence that the process was tainted by political influence, and he concluded that NASA followed Congress’ direction in the 2010 NASA Authorization Act to consider whether the chosen locations had a connection to the human spaceflight program.
The inspector general’s report concluded that a NASA team that scored competing sites in various factors made several errors during the evaluation, including one that would have resulted in a “numerical tie” in the score among the Intrepid Museum, Kennedy (Fla.) Visitor Complex and the Air Force Museum.
NASA Administrator Charles F. Bolden Jr. said, however, that even if he had known of the tie, he would have made the same decisions about orbiter placements because he believed those locations “will best serve NASA’s goal to spur interest in science, technology and space exploration,” the inspector general wrote in his report.
NASA has since said the Air Force Museum will receive a crew compartment trainer used to train shuttle crews at the Johnson Space Center, Houston. The museum staff expects to receive the trainer unit by early September and develop it into a full-size shuttle display for visitors.
NASA said it identified potentially 2,161 records that could be covered under the Dayton Daily News’ FOI request. In a letter dated July 25, the agency indicated it would consider whether to release any other documents. NASA gave no indication what documents it withheld.
Alex Abdo, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer who has often sued the government under the FOI law to force release of documents pertaining to national security, said slow responses from federal agencies are typical.
“It’s unfortunately not uncommon for the government to take a year or more to provide documents to us, in response to our requests,” Abdo said. “We’ve found that, short of a lawsuit, there is little hope of getting documents from the government in a timely manner.”
According to NASA’s website, the agency has a full-time staff of 27 to handle FOI records requests and spent $2.3 million in 2011 to process those requests. It processed 1,131 requests, down from 1,307 the prior year, and ended the most recent year with a backlog of 34 cases, compared with 110 the year before, the agency reported.
Hollywood stars light up U.S. Space & Rocket Center
Rebecca Shlien - WAAY TV (Huntsville)
On Sunday, the U.S. Space and Rocket Center was filled with stars—Hollywood stars, that is. The movie “Space Warriors” is being filmed on site in Huntsville this summer. It stars Danny Glover, Mira Sorvino, Josh Lucas and Thomas Horn. It's about kids who attend Space Camp, but end up on a real mission to the International Space Station.
WAAY31 caught up with several of the film's actors, who say they've been enjoying their time in Huntsville. Thomas Horn, who also starred in the 9/11 drama “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close,” says he's explored downtown Huntsville and the Botanical Garden.
Booboo Stewart, who plays Seth Clearwater in the Twilight films, says he's particularly enjoyed dining at the local Ruby Tuesday, and has taken advantage of various Space Camp activities during his free time. He says, “I think that's one of the coolest things about this, is usually when you see a film you're like, where did they film that? And you can't really go there. But for this film, you can actually come here and go to camp where we filmed."
Director Sean McNamara says the film didn't require much set design, as the U.S. Space and Rocket Center provided so much to work with. He says, “In this room that we're here in right now, we are actually having the kids at Space Warriors connecting to the International Space Station and saving them from a catastrophic accident that happens. So every scene that I shoot in this room just gives me goose pimples."
The crew will be filming in Huntsville for another two to three weeks.
NASA choices bode well for Space Coast jobs
John Kelly - Florida Today (Commentary)
All three of the privatized systems that would launch NASA astronauts to space will blast off from Florida’s Space Coast.
The news Friday that NASA would provide seed money for continued development of commercial crew ships to The Boeing Co., SpaceX and Sierra Nevada was good news for Brevard County. The good news stretches beyond just knowing that the Cape Canaveral spaceport will continue to be America’s launch base for human missions to space. It’s important that each of the three firms the space agency chose has strong ties to the Space Coast already and has big plans here if successful.
The Boeing Co. already plans to assemble its spacecraft at the Kennedy Space Center, in one of the hangars once used by NASA’s space shuttle fleet. Boeing’s capsule, CST-100, would launch on an Atlas V rocket from the Cape. Boeing estimates that could bring 500 or so jobs to the Space Coast. Boeing’s experience with crewed spacecraft, including the space shuttles and space station, is a big advantage toward continued success.
SpaceX, of course, has its human launch base at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and has said its continued success could (someday) equate to as many as 1,000 space jobs here in Florida.
Even though most of its work happens at its headquarters in California, it has multiple launch sites and possible plans for alternate sites. Its missions to the space station will continue to lift off from here. SpaceX brings with it recent momentum and, quite frankly, speed. The company so far is blowing away — in terms of money and time invested — all recent government efforts to develop this kind of space transportation system.
Sierra Nevada, which got less funding than the two primary winners, also has designs on facilities here. Its Dream Chaser space plane would be processed locally, blast off from Cape Canaveral on Atlas V rockets, and return to the KSC runway used for decades by the space shuttles. The company’s already held a job fair, saying it would be ready then to hire local space workers if the funding materialized under the commercial crew program. Anywhere from 100 to 200 people might someday work for the company here.
All told, there are many hundreds, and perhaps more than 1,500, space jobs in the offing based on Friday’s big announcement from NASA. All along, those jobs forecasts were based on continued success of all three companies’ commercial crew proposals. Other companies in contention had ties of some sort to the Space Coast, but these three in particular had already made moves to cement key parts of the future operations here.
If the privatized delivery of crew to the space station proceeds on the same successful trajectory as the earlier cargo delivery program, then the Space Coast has much to gain. NASA’s new strategy to privatize the more routine elements of flights to and from low Earth orbit, and the funding mechanism under which companies are incentivized to take on some of the risk on their own, is working. So far, we’re seeing development work proceed far closer to schedule than under the government’s previous model for big space programs.
We’re seeing far less taxpayer money spent. Most of all, we’re seeing results. All of that builds political momentum for the broader space program at a critical time when competition for federal government funds is fierce.
END
No comments:
Post a Comment