One more added to the prospective losses list…
RETIREMENT JSC CB111 FTP LOCKE, SHERYL 06/28/14
| | JSC TODAY CATEGORIES - Headlines
- The SCA: Coming to a Roadway Near You
- JSC to Celebrate 'Earth Right Now' April 22
- April is JSC's High Injury Month
- Flight Controllers Needed for Stress Study
- New Release of JKO and Recovered Materials Call - Organizations/Social
- Mark Your Calendars: AAPI Heritage Month Events
- INCOSE Monthly Meeting: April 17, 11:30-12:30
- Starport's Spring Fest: Fun, Shopping, Crawfish
- Youth Sports Camps
- JSC Praise and Worship Club Meeting
- Starport Adult Soccer League
- Starport Summer Camp Registration Now Open - Jobs and Training
- HTC Lunch and Learn Tomorrow
- ISS EDMS User Forum
- Electronic Document System (EDS) 2.0
- NESC/NEN Webcast Today - Community
- Blood Drive - April 16 and 17 |  |
| Headlines - The SCA: Coming to a Roadway Near You
Here's more on how it will go down: A 1,000-foot convoy will journey home on an eight-mile trek through the bay area during the nights of April 28 to 29, arriving the morning of April 30. Roads will close so workers can dismantle streetlights, signs and utility poles as the convoy approaches. The portion of Highway 3 (Old Galveston Road) between its intersections with Scarsdale and NASA Parkway, will close from 9 p.m. to 4:30 a.m. Monday, April 28. Then, on Tuesday, April 29, NASA Parkway from Highway 3 to Saturn Lane will close from 9 p.m. to 4:30 a.m. (See Route Map.) No utilities are expected to be interrupted. The convoy will travel at night for the safety of our neighbors and the workers involved in this complex transfer, as well as to minimize the impact on local residents, the traveling public and businesses. However, as a caution, be aware that there may be traffic impacts and plan accordingly. April 28
9 p.m.: The convoy of 747 sections will depart Ellington Field via the gate at Dixie Farm Road and Highway 3.
April 29
Early morning: The convoy is scheduled to park on E. Commerce Street near NASA Parkway.
9 p.m.: The convoy will resume, moving east on the westbound lane of NASA Parkway.
April 30
Early morning: The convoy is scheduled to arrive at Space Center Houston. For more information on The Big Move, contact 281-244-2119. Also visit Space Center Houston's The Big Move website. JSC External Relations, Office of Communications and Public Affairs x35111
[top] - JSC to Celebrate 'Earth Right Now' April 22
JSC will mark Earth Day with a host of activities. View Amazing Astronaut Images of Earth Enjoy watching a compilation of time-lapse videos of Earth. Show time is from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Teague Auditorium. Take an Earth Day Selfie Five NASA missions designed to gather data about Earth are launching to space this year. NASA is marking this big year for Earth science with a campaign called Earth Right Now. On Earth Day, step outside and take a picture of yourself wherever you are on Earth. Then post it to social media using the hashtag #GlobalSelfie. You can find out more info here. Wear a NASA Earth Shirt and Save at Starport The Starport Gift Shops are offering 10 percent off recycled products and an additional 10 percent of your entire purchase if you're wearing a NASA Earth shirt. - April is JSC's High Injury Month
Did you know that JSC has more slip, trip and fall incidents in April than any other time of the year? In just the first two weeks of this month, employees have reported three slip/trip close calls. For the month of April 2013, we had nine reported close calls. So far, we seem to be doing better - let's keep it up! Don't be a statistic. Focus on where you're going and refrain from texting while walking. Consider "Eyes on path" to be our April motto. - Flight Controllers Needed for Stress Study
Test Subject Screening seeks flight controllers to evaluate a self-guided, multimedia stress management and resilience training computer program called SMART-OP, which will be compared to an attention control group who will watch videos and read information on stress management. Volunteers will be randomly assigned to one of the two groups and be asked to do the following: - Attend one informational session
- Complete two pre- and post-test assessments (60 to 90 minutes) involving questionnaires, neuropsychological tasks, physiological data and biomarker assays
- Six weekly stress-management training sessions (30 to 60 minutes)
- And a three-month follow-up, equaling a total of 10 contact sessions
Volunteers must be healthy non-smokers taking no medications. Individuals must pass or have a current Category I physical. Volunteers will be compensated. (Restrictions apply to NASA civil servants and some contractors. individuals should contact their local Human Resources department.) Please email or call both Linda Byrd, x37284, and Rori Yager, x37240. - New Release of JKO and Recovered Materials Call
Multimedia lectures and training videos, including an additional 250 videos from the Mission Operations Directorate (MOD), are now available at the JSC Knowledge Online (JKO) website. Otherwise known as "MOD Online Lessons," JSC can now access training for an array of topics! Additionally, content from the EVA Lessons Learned and historical archive has now moved to JKO. Continuous additions, such as new historical records and videos from various sources around the agency, can also be accessed. We've improved the performance of the site and look forward to your feedback on JKO. That old report in the bottom drawer of your filing cabinet or quietly musting away in your attic might be just the information needed to fill in the gaps of JSC community knowledge. Current and former employees have contributed videos, org charts, still images and documents of historical interest. Consider sharing your center or agency experiences with the JSC community! Contact the Knowledge Management Office for assistance. Organizations/Social - Mark Your Calendars: AAPI Heritage Month Events
Look out for events for the Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month, sponsored by the ASIA Employee Resource Group, coming up in May! Donna Fujimoto Cole, president and CEO of Cole Chemical, will be our keynote speaker on May 14 , followed by an exciting martial arts performance from Bushi Ban. A second not-to-be-missed event will take place on May 29, where the JSC community will be able to try delicacies from different countries represented by our members, along with a second performance by Bushi Ban and a photography/art exhibit and music from different regions of Asia. Watch for more information on times and venues and join us for our May celebrations! We always welcome new members and helping hands, so if you would like to help organize this event or have questions , please contact Jennifer Turner. - INCOSE Monthly Meeting: April 17, 11:30-12:30
Please join your local INCOSE chapter for a presentation on INCOSE's Certification Program for systems engineers. This meeting is over lunch at Jacobs Engineering in Conference Room 103 (2224 Bay Area Blvd. - Bay Area and Space Center). We are pleased to have Courtney Wright present the advantages of INCOSE certification and the process for it. Wright is the INCOSE certification manager. After the presentation, the chapter will solicit input for study groups. The Texas Gulf Coast Chapter of INCOSE will provide lunch, so please RSVP so we can get a head count. RSVP to Ben Edwards. We are not yet sure if we can host a remote access, so keep checking for more details. If you are not a JETS contract employee or civil servant, please sign in at the front desk. If you are a foreign national, please inform Ben Edwards when you RSVP. Event Date: Thursday, April 17, 2014 Event Start Time:11:30 AM Event End Time:12:30 PM
Event Location: Jacobs Engineering
Add to Calendar
Ben Edwards 828-371-0018
[top] - Starport's Spring Fest: Fun, Shopping, Crawfish
On April 19, Starport will have one big spring event at the Gilruth Center. Bring the kiddos out for our Children's Spring Fling, complete with a bounce house, face painting, petting zoo, Easter-egg hunt and hot dog lunch! Tickets for kids ages 18 months to 12 years old are on sale in the Buildings 3 and 11 Starport Gift Shops, Gilruth Center and online. Tickets are $8 each through April 11, or $10 the day of. Plus, be sure to do some shopping at our outdoor flea market for some hidden treasures and great finds. Then, visit our indoor craft fair for homemade crafts and goodies. Also enjoy some tasty mudbugs at our crawfish boil! The cost is $7 per pound with corn and potatoes. Hot dogs, chips and drinks will also be available. A nine-hole disc golf course will also be set up and available for play for free. Find out more. - Youth Sports Camps
Starport is now offering youth sports camps. We are offering three different sports camps: baseball, basketball and a multi-sport camp. All camps are a week long. Sign up early online, as spots are going fast! Ages: 6 to 12 Times: 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Dates: July 14 to 19 (basketball) July 21 to 25 (baseball) Aug. 4 to 8 (multi-sport) Fee per session: $150 per child | $50 per week extended care Register online or at the Gilruth Center information desk. - JSC Praise and Worship Club Meeting
Join with the praise and worship band "Allied with the Lord" for a refreshing set of praise and worship songs (the theme for this session will be "Resurrection Day") tomorrow, April 17, from 11:15 a.m. to noon in Building 29, Room 237 (also called Creative Sp.ace). Prayer partners will be available for anyone who has need. All JSC civil servants and contractors are welcome. Event Date: Thursday, April 17, 2014 Event Start Time:11:15 AM Event End Time:12:00 PM
Event Location: Bulding 29 Room 237
Add to Calendar
Mike FitzPatrick x30758
[top] - Starport Adult Soccer League
Sign up today for our summer adult soccer league. Registration is now open! Registration ends May 8. - Starport Summer Camp Registration Now Open
Summer is fast approaching, and Starport will again be offering summer camp for youth at the Gilruth Center all summer long. We have tons of fun planned, and we expect each session to fill up, so get your registrations in early! Weekly themes are listed on our website, as well as information regarding registration. Ages: 6 to 12 Times: 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Dates: June 9 to Aug. 22 in one-week sessions Fee per session: $140 per child | $125 per sibling Register for all sessions and receive a DISCOUNT! Register online or at the Gilruth Center information desk. Jobs and Training - HTC Lunch and Learn Tomorrow
Ever thought about starting your own business? Do you have an idea or technology that you think has potential as a commercial product? Then bring your bagged lunch and join the Houston Technology Center (HTC) in the HTC Conference Center, located on the second floor of Building 35, from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. tomorrow and for the next three Thursdays for a series of lectures on how to launch, fund and sustain a new business. Event Date: April 17 Event Start Time: 11:30 a.m. Event End Time: 12:30 p.m. Event Location: Building 35, Conference Room 212 - ISS EDMS User Forum
The International Space Station (ISS) Electronic Document Management System (EDMS) team will hold the monthly General User Training Forum tomorrow, April 17, at 9:30 a.m. in Building 4S, Conference Room 5315. Lync meeting and telecom will be provided. If you use EDMS to locate station documents, join us to learn about basic navigation and searching. Bring your questions, concerns and suggestions, and meet the EDMS Customer Service team. The agenda is located here. - Electronic Document System (EDS) 2.0
The EDS 2.0 document type Task Performance Sheet (TPS) is preparing for centerwide deployment. This intuitive and simple system will enable TPS's to be generated and approved electronically. If you are a frequent user of JSC Form 1225, please sign up for one of the scheduled training sessions in SATERN. Course Name: EDS Electronic Task Performance Sheet (eTPS) Training Course Number: JSC-NT-SAIC-EDS Two sessions are offered on the following days from 9 to 11 a.m. and 1 to 3 p.m. - April 22
- April 23
- May 8
- May 12
- May 21
- May 29
For more information, contact Regina Senegal at 281-483-2686 or James A. Campbell at 281-483-9291. - NESC/NEN Webcast Today
The NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC) and NASA Engineering Network (NEN) will be hosting the following webcast today, April 16, at 1 p.m. CDT. GNC/NESC Lecture Series presents: Title: Fundamentals of Image Processing for Terrain Relative Navigation Speaker: Dr. Andrew E. Johnson Date/Time: April 16, 1 p.m. CDT Registration is easy. Please click the "Sign In to Register" button, and you will be redirected to LaunchPad to enter your user name and password. After a successful authentication, click the "Register Now" button. You will receive a confirmation email. If you can't attend the live webcast, please register anyway and we will notify you when the recorded (on-demand) version is available online. Community - Blood Drive - April 16 and 17
There is no substitute for blood. It has to come from one person in order to give it to another. Will there be blood available when you or your family needs it? A regular number of voluntary donations are needed every day to meet the needs for blood. Make the "Commitment to Life" by taking one hour of your time to donate blood. Your blood donation can help as many as three patients. You can donate at one of the following locations: - Teague Auditorium lobby - 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- Building 11 Starport Café donor coach - 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- Gilruth Center donor coach - Noon to 4 p.m. (Thursday only)
Criteria for donating can be found at the St. Luke's link on our website. There will be T-shirts, snacks and drinks for all donors. | |
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| JSC Today is compiled periodically as a service to JSC employees on an as-submitted basis. Any JSC organization or employee may submit articles. Disclaimer: Accuracy and content of these notes are the responsibility of the submitters. |
NASA and Human Spaceflight News
Wednesday – April 16, 2014
HEADLINES AND LEADS
Bolden: Congress should invest in NASA, commercial space program
Kristi Nix - Bay Area Citizen (TX)
Strained relations with Russia created new concerns for National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) officials recently, who are calling for measures to end dependence on the Soyuz rocket to get American astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS).
Space shuttle carrier 747 prepares for 8-mile move
Aubrey Cohen - Seattle Post-Intelligencer
A Boeing 747 would normally fly the eight miles from Ellington Field to Space Center Houston in just a couple of minutes. But a very special 747 will take two nights to make that trip.
Commercial crew, Crimea, and Congress
Jeff Foust – The Space Review
The ongoing crisis in Ukraine and the resulting tensions between Russia and the United States have put a new spotlight on NASA's current dependence on its Russian counterpart, Roscosmos, for sending crews to and from the International Space Station (ISS). The crisis hasn't affected that access, as even NASA's largely symbolic ban on NASA-Russian government cooperation explicitly excluded ISS operations from the outset. And, given the mutual reliance the ISS partners have (Roscosmos depends on NASA for some ISS resources, including power and communications), that cooperation for now seems safe, unless the crisis dramatically deepens.
Full lunar eclipse delights Americas, 1st of year
Associated Press
Sky-gazers in North and South America were treated to a full lunar eclipse — at least those fortunate enough to have clear skies.
Blood Moon lunar eclipse wows sky-watchers
Reuters
Parts of the world saw a rare celestial event Tuesday when the Earth's shadow fell across the moon, turning it orange.
CSA head says business as usual on space station, despite sanctions against Russia
The Canadian Press
The head of the Canadian Space Agency says sanctions taken against Russia for its invasion of Crimea are not affecting operations on the International Space Station.
Sen. Tim Kaine tours Newport News Shipbuilding and NASA Langley in Hampton
Hugh Lessig and Tamara Dietrich - Newport News (VA) Daily Press
Newport News Shipbuilding and NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton are feeling the pinch of budget uncertainty in Washington, but Sen. Tim Kaine says Congress might clear that up in the coming weeks.
Two Companies Take Radically Different Approaches to Launcher Reusability
Peter B. de Selding – Space News
Two companies actively working on reusable launch vehicles on April 11 described their strategies, with one starting in small increments of reusability and the other beginning with a fully formed — if untested — spaceplane.
Tax Day in Space: How NASA Astronauts Pay Uncle Sam
The Tax Man cometh for Americans today (April 15), and not even astronauts in space can escape their annual terrestrial taxes.
Is the SpaceX Spark Fading Out?
Peter Barreda – Guardian Liberty Voice
In the race to fill the space-transport vacuum left by NASA when it suddenly decommissioned the shuttle, SpaceX has pulled pretty far ahead of the competition. It has enjoyed one success after another, and seems to be receiving service contracts left and right. However in light of yesterday's cancellation, it is fair to ask, "Is the SpaceX spark already beginning to fade?"
COMPLETE STORIES
Bolden: Congress should invest in NASA, commercial space program
Kristi Nix - Bay Area Citizen (TX)
Strained relations with Russia created new concerns for National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) officials recently, who are calling for measures to end dependence on the Soyuz rocket to get American astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS).
At a Johnson Space Center news conference Thursday (April 10), NASA Administrator Charles Bolden faced questions from reporters about the issue and his recent testimony before the U.S. House Committee on Appropriations.
"Have tensions in Russia shifted the tone you're getting from lawmakers who have been recalcitrant to fully fund commercial crews in the last four or five years?" one reporter asked.
"It's shifted the tone. But as I said during the hearings, budgets are about choices. We in the Obama administration have made the choice; we're going with American industry and a commercial crew," Bolden said. "Congress has to decide where they agree and whether they are going to trust industry and get us a commercial capability, a national capability as soon as possible."
Bolden lobbied lawmakers for NASA's $848 million budget request at last week's hearing, which he said would fund commercial space partnerships to enable American spacecraft to fly crews to low Earth orbit by 2017.
Since the Space Shuttle program ended in 2011, NASA has paid Russia $70 million a seat to take U.S. astronauts to the ISS.
Bolden's news conference was held at JSC's newly remodeled Mission Control where flight engineers were conducting the first series of simulations for the Orion spacecraft mission scheduled later this year. If the program proves successful, NASA can begin sending crews to low Earth orbit from American soil by 2017, Bolden told reporters and congressional staffers.
"To the representatives of the two senators and the congressman, I would say they should encourage their members to come to JSC and take a look at what's going on. It would have been incredible to have had some actual members of Congress here today for the first simulation of the first Orion launch," Bolden said. "It is a physical display to the American public and their constituents that they really believe in the space program. If you really believe in American industry, you need to come out and show them that you support them by being there when they do something."
Pointing to successful partnership with private companies such as Space X, Bolden said it was time for lawmakers to invest in NASA and the U.S. commercial space industry.
"We demonstrated that we knew what we were talking about with cargo. So have some faith and show that you really do believe in American industry and fund the president's request for commercial crew," he said. "We really do need commercial crew to be available by 2017 so that we don't have to rely on any other country to get our own astronauts into space."
Space shuttle carrier 747 prepares for 8-mile move
Aubrey Cohen - Seattle Post-Intelligencer
A Boeing 747 would normally fly the eight miles from Ellington Field to Space Center Houston in just a couple of minutes. But a very special 747 will take two nights to make that trip.
"Even in a state as big as Texas, a move of this size is unprecedented," Houston Mayor Annise Parker said in a Space Center Houston news release about the "big move" Tuesday.
The 318,000-pound aircraft is one of two 747-100s that were adapted to ferry the space shuttle orbiters between landing sites and the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Houston didn't win a competition for one of the retired orbiters. In fact, it had to send the full-fuselage mockup used to train astronauts to Seattle's Museum of Flight. So it plans to mount the space shuttle replica Independence atop the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft to create an attraction that will be taller than an eight-story building, featuring interactive exhibits inside the jet and shuttle replica. It's scheduled to open next year.
A Boeing team is now disassembling the 747 into nine big pieces (and many smaller bits) for the trip to the space center. Even so, the journey will require a 1,000-foot convoy, moving at walking speed. The largest piece will be the fuselage, which is 25 feet wide, 35 feet tall and 190 feet long.
The move is scheduled to start at 9 p.m. on April 28, pause early the following morning and resume at 9 that night.
Once at Space Center Houston, the same Boeing team will reassemble the aircraft, a process expected to take 44 days.
Click through the gallery above to see images of the disassembly work, the space shuttle replica Independence and the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft during its heyday.
Commercial crew, Crimea, and Congress
Jeff Foust – The Space Review
The ongoing crisis in Ukraine and the resulting tensions between Russia and the United States have put a new spotlight on NASA's current dependence on its Russian counterpart, Roscosmos, for sending crews to and from the International Space Station (ISS). The crisis hasn't affected that access, as even NASA's largely symbolic ban on NASA-Russian government cooperation explicitly excluded ISS operations from the outset. And, given the mutual reliance the ISS partners have (Roscosmos depends on NASA for some ISS resources, including power and communications), that cooperation for now seems safe, unless the crisis dramatically deepens.
What the events of the last several weeks have done, though, is provide another reminder of NASA's ongoing efforts to develop an alternative to the Soyuz for crew access to the ISS. Much of that attention has been instigated by NASA itself, reminding people of its Commercial Crew Program to develop vehicles that can transport NASA astronauts to the ISS and serve other commercial markets as well. However, the program is not a near-term solution to current tensions, and Congress, so far, does not seem motivated to better support the program despite its concerns about reliance on Russia.
Commercial crew status report
For now, commercial crew efforts are in something of an extended period of transition. The three companies that currently have funded agreements with NASA as part of the Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) program—Boeing, Sierra Nevada, and SpaceX—are currently carrying out those agreements, with many of the milestones of those awards already completed. Meanwhile, those companies await NASA's decision on proposals they submitted early this year for the next phase of the commercial crew effort, Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap).
Boeing is down to the last three milestones in its CCiCap award, said Chris Ferguson, director of crew and mission operations for the CST-100 spacecraft, in a presentation at the Space Tech Expo conference in Long Beach, California, on April 1. "We are on a path to critical design review coming up in July of this year," he said, the final milestone in its CCiCap award.
Boeing has leveraged a considerable amount of flight-proven components for the CST-100 spacecraft, he said, aiding its development. "The spacecraft itself has a lot of legacy in space," citing in particular space-tested and -qualified components of the CST-100's avionics system. "It's been really nice to pull an awful lot from off the shelf for the avionics suite."
One tweak to the CST-100 design is the addition of solar cells to the base of the service module. Originally, Ferguson said, Boeing designed the spacecraft to be powered entirely by batteries, given its short free flight times—less than a day—to and from the ISS. Adding the solar panels to the base "allows us to tread water from an electrical perspective" and keep the batteries charged.
One other upcoming change with the CST-100 has to do with the spacecraft's name itself. "We have absolutely wonderful ideas for a creative name," he said. "I think you'll see that after [CCtCap] contract award."
Sierra Nevada, widely seen as the underdog in the commercial crew competition since it received a CCiCap award half the size of Boeing and SpaceX, is pressing ahead with development of its Dream Chaser lifting body vehicle. At Space Tech Expo, John Curry, senior director and Dream Chaser co-program manager, said the company had achieved 27 milestones total in its various commercial crew awards, from its initial Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) award to its ongoing CCiCap agreement.
One of those milestones was a free flight of a full-scale engineering test article of Dream Chaser last October at Edwards Air Force Base in California, the final milestone in its CCDev-2 agreement. While the vehicle skidded off the runway upon landing when one of the vehicle's landing gear elements failed to deploy, both the company and NASA declared that test a success as the glide flight was intended to test the vehicle's flight characteristics, and the landing gear used on it was different from that planned for the actual flight vehicle.
That test article is back at the company's facilities in Colorado being upgraded for a new series of free flights. "We're going to fly it again this coming fall with the orbital vehicle avionics, software, and guidance, navigation, and control, which is a big upgrade for us and accelerates the development of those systems," Curry said. The first orbital Dream Chaser vehicle is currently under construction at the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, under an agreement between Sierra Nevada and Lockheed Martin.
Sierra Nevada has been aggressive in seeking out new partnerships with companies and organizations. In January, it announced agreements with ESA and the German space agency DLR to study technologies that could be incorporated into Dream Chaser, and even look at launching the vehicle on an Ariane 5 (see "Commercial crew's critical year", The Space Review, January 27, 2014). Last week, the company announced an agreement with the Houston Airport System to being studying what it would take to use Ellington Airport, a facility not far from NASA's Johnson Space Center that airport managers are seeking to turn into a spaceport, as an alternative landing site for Dream Chaser.
SpaceX, perhaps the most visible of the three commercial crew contenders, is also approaching the end of its CCiCap award. "We have just four milestones left, only four, but they're big ones," said Garrett Reisman, DragonRider program manager for SpaceX, at Space Tech Expo. Two of those remaining milestones are technical reviews, including an integrated critical design review planned for next month.
The other two, though, are hardware flight tests of the Dragon's launch escape system. "Those are the two big E-ticket items that are going to be super exciting," he said. The first, planned for this summer, is a pad abort test, where a Dragon lifts off the pad at Cape Canaveral using its thrusters. The second, planned for later this year, will be an in-flight abort test where a Falcon 9 lifts off from Vandenberg Air Force Base and the Dragon separates around the time of maximum aerodynamic pressure on the vehicle.
Those tests, he said, will be among the final major tests needed before the crewed version of Dragon will be ready. "When we get that done, we're pretty close to being there," he said. "NASA has a goal of having certification complete in 2017, and we definitely intend to meet that goal."
Getting the program funded
While Boeing, Sierra Nevada, and SpaceX all work to complete their CCiCap awards this year, they're also playing a waiting game on the next phase, CCtCap. The companies submitted proposals in January for contracts that would cover development of spacecraft and initial test flights to the station, although awards are not expected from NASA until August.
What's not clear, though, is how many contracts NASA will award. (Unlike previous phases, done under more flexible funded Space Act Agreements, the CCtCap program will use conventional contracts under Federal Acquisition Regulations.) While NASA officials, including administrator Charles Bolden, have emphasized the desire of the agency to maintain competition, it's unlikely given the program's funding profile that all three companies can win contracts. The question will be whether NASA can afford two fully-funded contracts, or instead award "one and a half" contracts—a full-sized contract to one company and a smaller contract to a second company to allow them to continue work, but at a slower pace.
Bolden and others have offered few details about those awards, citing the "blackout" during the ongoing CCtCap procurement. Bolden, testifying before the Commerce, Justice, and Science (CJS) subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee on April 8, said the selections would be based in part on how much funding is available. Although the final fiscal year 2015 appropriations bills won't be done by the time of contract awards, Bolden said they hope to have a good idea by August of what they can expect based on the draft House and Senate versions of that bill.
"Just to be very candid, generally the House number [for commercial crew] is a little bit lower than the Senate number," Bolden said at the hearing, "so if I get a good number from the House, no matter what it is, then we will take a look at that number, added to what we have for 2014, and that will help us determine how many we can select, whether it's one, or one and a half, or two, or whatever."
Since the rollout of NASA's fiscal year 2015 budget proposal in early March—which coincided with the heightening of the Ukraine crisis—NASA has been emphasizing the importance for fully funding commercial crew in order to keep the program on track for 2017. Most of NASA's statement on its ban of non-ISS cooperation with the Russian government, issued late April 2, actually dealt with commercial crew.
"This has been a top priority of the Obama Administration's for the past five years, and had our plan been fully funded, we would have returned American human spaceflight launches – and the jobs they support – back to the United States next year," the NASA statement read. "With the reduced level of funding approved by Congress, we're now looking at launching from U.S. soil in 2017. The choice here is between fully funding the plan to bring space launches back to America or continuing to send millions of dollars to the Russians. It's that simple."
That message—funding commercial crew to end reliance on Russia—hasn't yet resonated with many members of Congress. At last week's appropriations hearing, as well as a March 27 hearing by the House Science Committee's space subcommittee, members continued to express skepticism about whether commercial crew really needed the $848 million requested for 2015.
This led to some contentious moments in those hearings between members and NASA administrator Bolden. At the March hearing, Rep. Steven Palazzo (R-MS), chairman of the space subcommittee, questioned how critical full funding was given that NASA had been sticking to a 2017 date for some time despite not getting as much funding as requested. Bolden noted that the commercial crew program originally had a goal of 2015 for beginning such flights. "We would now find ourselves months away from launching Americans from American soil, and I would not have to worry about paying the Russians another $450 million," had the program been fully funded from the outset, he argued. "If we don't get what the President requested, I can't guarantee 2017, I can't guarantee competition, and we will continue to pay the Russians."
Bolden argued that the slip in schedule from 2015, as originally proposed for the program when it was introduced in 2010, to 2017 was the fault of Congress. "This committee, this Congress, chose to rely on the Russians because they chose not to accept the President's recommendation and request for full funding for commercial crew. You can't have it both ways."
Bolden had an even sharper argument last week with Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA), chairman of CJS appropriations subcommittee, over funding for the program. After Bolden again argued that full funding was needed to avoid further slips, Wolf countered that Congress had, in fact, provided the program with plenty of funding. "Congress has provided a lot of funding for commercial crew, particularly once you take into account the larger fiscal situation. There's never been a year that it was zero," he said. "The appropriation has been at or above the authorized level in all the years but one."
"I'm not sure where the [committee] staff says that you've given us more than we've asked. That's just inaccurate." Bolden responded, who appeared to take Wolf's criticism personally. "Every time I come here, my integrity is impugned," he said. "I am tired of having my integrity impugned by members of the committee and the staff."
The dispute between Bolden and Wolf appeared to be rooted in a misunderstanding. Wolf was referring to levels authorized for commercial crew funding in the 2010 NASA authorization act: $312 million for fiscal year 2011, and $500 million each in fiscal years 2012 and 2013. Those amounts are close to what was actually appropriated: $307 million in 2011, $406 million in 2012, and $525 million in 2013. However, those figures were significantly below the administration's original request, which in recent years have been in excess of $800 million, which Bolden argued led to the delays in the program from 2015 to 2017.
Later in the appropriations hearing, Bolden was more conciliatory. "Mr. Chairman, I apologize for losing my temper," he said to Wolf. "I get hot sometimes and I think I misunderstood you."
While NASA has used the current crisis to press for commercial crew funding, the agency has acknowledged it's not a near-term solution should Russia cut off NASA's access to Soyuz spacecraft in the near future. Bolden called commercial crew the backup to Soyuz at the Science Committee hearing, but said it was a three-year backup. That's the same, he argued, as the Air Force's backup plans should Russia cut off access to the RD-180 engine used by the Atlas V first stage: it is studying domestic production, but acknowledges it would take as long as five years to develop a domestic RD-180 production line.
Some in the space community have argued that, in an emergency, the existing cargo version of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft could be pressed into service to carry crews. However, asked about this at Space Tech Expo, SpaceX's Reisman argued that while Dragon was designed from the outset to carry people, it would not be that simple to quickly convert the cargo version to carry people.
"There are significant upgrades that would need to be made before you could even entertain the idea of putting crew on there," he said. Besides no launch escape system on the cargo version of Dragon, he said, there's no life support system capable of supporting crews, and no displays or controls in the spacecraft for those crews. "I think the way we're heading, and meeting all of the NASA requirements, is the right thing to do to have a vehicle we're going to strap people into."
This all suggests that Congress's decision on funding for commercial crew will be largely decoupled from the current state of US-Russian relations, despite the best efforts of NASA to play up the program as an alternative to reliance on Russia's Soyuz. Given the congressional track record of funding past budget requests for the program, NASA shouldn't count on getting the $848 million it requested for the program, which will, in turn, have implications for how many of the three companies currently in the program will proceed to the next phase.
Full lunar eclipse delights Americas, 1st of year
Associated Press
Sky-gazers in North and South America were treated to a full lunar eclipse — at least those fortunate enough to have clear skies.
The moon was eclipsed by the Earth's shadow early Tuesday, beginning around 1 a.m. EDT for 5½ hours. The total phase of the eclipse lasted just 78 minutes.
For some, the moon appeared red-orange because of all the sunsets and sunrises shimmering from Earth, thus the name "blood moon."
It's the first of four eclipses this year and the first of four total lunar eclipses this year and next. The latter is a rare lineup; the next so-called tetrad of total lunar eclipses won't occur until 2032-2033. In the meantime, get ready for a solar eclipse in two weeks.
NASA got good news Tuesday: Its moon-orbiting spacecraft, LADEE (LA'-dee) survived the eclipse. Scientists had feared LADEE might freeze up in the cold darkness.
"Keep little LADEE in your prayers as you gaze up at the beautiful eclipsing moon late Monday night!" NASA wrote on its LADEE website prior to the eclipse.
The end is near, however, for plucky, little LADEE.
The spacecraft is circling the moon ever lower and, by Monday, is expected to crash as planned into the back side of the moon, far from any historic artifacts from the Apollo era.
LADEE — short for Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer — was not designed to withstand a prolonged eclipse. It completed its science-collecting mission in March and has been on overtime ever since.
NASA launched LADEE last September from Virginia.
Blood Moon lunar eclipse wows sky-watchers
Reuters
Parts of the world saw a rare celestial event Tuesday when the Earth's shadow fell across the moon, turning it orange.
The lunar eclipse unfolded over three hours beginning at about 1 a.m. CT, when the moon began moving into the Earth's shadow. A little more than an hour later, the moon could be seen eclipsed and bathed in an orange, red or brown glow.
Depending on local weather conditions, the eclipse was visible across a swath of the United States.
Viewers from Florida to California and beyond went to viewing parties and social media and other websites to gawk and share photos of the so-called "blood moon."
A small crowd of stargazers who gathered on a roadside north of Los Angeles saw a sliver of still-illuminated moon and a reddish shadow cast across the lunar orb.
Others who were not so lucky took to Twitter to complain about cloud cover in New Jersey and Pittsburgh. An image of rain-streaked windows under impenetrable Atlanta skies could be seen. In the Pacific Northwest city of Seattle the skies were equally overcast.
The eclipse also was visible from Australia, New Zealand and all of the Americas.
Precise coloring depends primarily on the amount of volcanic ash and other aerosols floating in the atmosphere, SpaceWeather.com reports. The celestial show was over by over by 4:30 a.m. CT, NASA said on Twitter.
Eclipses occur two or three times per year when the sun, Earth and the full moon line up so that the moon passes through Earth's shadow.
Tuesday's eclipse will be the last full lunar eclipse visible from the United States until 2019, NASA said.
CSA head says business as usual on space station, despite sanctions against Russia
The Canadian Press
The head of the Canadian Space Agency says sanctions taken against Russia for its invasion of Crimea are not affecting operations on the International Space Station.
NASA is continuing co-operation related to the space station but has severed its ties with Russia and forbidden its employees from travelling to the country.
Canadian Space Agency president Walt Natynczyk says Canada continues to work with all its partners involved in the space station, which include the United States, Russia, Europe and Japan.
"The space station is fully functioning and we have people living aboard," he told reporters on Tuesday. "So, as part of that international partnership, Canada works with all partners."
Natynczyk noted that Canada currently does not have any of its own astronauts on board, but it is still involved daily in operating the Canadarm on the space station and Dextre, a two-armed $200-million robotic mobile servicing system.
Dextre performs tasks including changing batteries and handling experiments outside the space station.
"But beyond that, it's always on a case-by-case basis," Natynczyk said of Canada's co-operation.
The CSA president made his comments after a luncheon speech to the Montreal Council on Foreign Relations.
He would not comment when asked whether the Canadian Space Agency was consulted by NASA before it decided to cut off some links with the Russians, deferring to the Foreign Affairs Department.
He also would not speculate when asked what would happen if Canada decided to cut ties with Russia.
Since the retirement of the U.S. space shuttles in 2011, astronauts have been transported to the space station and back to Earth on Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
But Natynczyk did not appear concerned about the possibility that astronauts could be left marooned because of tensions with Russia.
"We're just going to focus on continued success with the responsibilities that Canada has," he said.
NASA has said that it will continue to work with the Russian space agency to maintain continuous operation of the space station.
But in a memo sent to workers, it has barred its employees from emailing or holding teleconferences with their Russian counterparts.
Canada's former top general also would not respond when asked by one reporter about Russia's military intervention in Eastern Ukraine.
"My thoughts are my own and I won't share that with you," Natynczyk said.
He was also non-committal when asked about future visits to the space station by Canadian astronauts.
CSA officials have said in the past that the next Canadian will travel to the orbiting space laboratory somewhere between 2016 and 2019.That trip would go to one of Canada's two astronauts, who are David Saint-Jacques and Jeremy Hansen.
All Natynczyk would say is that the pair continue to work on their training.
"They want to be ready, so (at) that time where Canada decides to move forward with the next mission, they're ready to go," he said. "And they're being very patient.
"He noted that Hansen has been working in Northern Canada analyzing craters where meteorites have hit, developing skills that would be useful if astronauts ever travel to an asteroid.
Back in 2010, U.S. President Barack Obama challenged NASA to send astronauts to an asteroid.
But reaction in the American Congress to such a mission has been lukewarm at best.
Sen. Tim Kaine tours Newport News Shipbuilding and NASA Langley in Hampton
Hugh Lessig and Tamara Dietrich - Newport News (VA) Daily Press
Newport News Shipbuilding and NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton are feeling the pinch of budget uncertainty in Washington, but Sen. Tim Kaine says Congress might clear that up in the coming weeks.
The Virginia Democrat toured both facilities Tuesday, and at the shipyard brought an influential colleague to share the sights. Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., chairs the seapower panel of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Kaine is member of that panel, and they spent four hours at the sprawling yard, looking at aircraft carrier construction and maintenance, submarine programs and the apprentice school, Kaine said.
Overall business has been healthy at the shipyard and its parent, Huntington Ingalls Industries. However, one cloud on the horizon has been the fate of the aircraft carrier USS George Washington.
The Navy wants to refuel the carrier in 2016, giving it another 25 years of life, but they haven't made a decision because sequestration-level budget cuts may return in 2016. If that happens, the Navy will move to retire the Washington because it won't have the money to refuel it. That indecision is already hampering the shipyard, which can't begin full preparations for the refueling. The delay threatens the schedule of future projects, which are lined up like dominoes in the coming years.
The Senate may provide some clarity in the coming weeks to speed up the decision process, Kaine said. The Senate Armed Services panel is prepared to take up the National Defense Authorization Act, which sets policies and guidelines for how the Defense Department spends its money.
The NDAA could include language specifying the intent to reduce the impact of sequestration in 2016, and that might be enough for the Navy to proceed with the refueling.
The committee hopes to finish the NDAA before Memorial Day, he said.
Tuesday was Kaine's first visit to NASA Langley, where he was bused around the expansive campus for two hours of rapid-fire updates by scientists and engineers eager to tout their work.
"NASA is such a great player for us in Virginia, especially as we're starting to see a growing aerospace and aviation industry, that I wanted to come down and have a sense of what's going on down here," Kaine said.
But among NASA Langley's ongoing missions in a continuing tough economy is justifying its portion of NASA's proposed $17.5 billion budget for fiscal year 2015.
With Kaine, however, its researchers were preaching to the choir.
"I'd like more," Kaine said of the budget allocation, touting his own battles in the Senate to "eliminate or, more realistically, reduce the effects of the sequester."
The sequester enacted by Congress in 2011 mandates automatic, across-the-board federal spending cuts every year for a decade. It exempts only a few areas, such as defense spending and Medicare.
"It's the wrong way to do cuts, and a lot of it has fallen upon research and development, whether it's at NASA, whether it's at the NIH or whether it's research … at the DOD," Kaine said. "They've been cut hard, and that's going to hurt us going forward." Research projects highlighted during the senator's visit include:
•Advanced laser technologies that can create 3-D wind images to better understand and forecast hurricanes or enable robotic landers to select safe landing sites on other planets;
•A new space-based laboratory that can measure the Earth while calibrating with other existing climate measurements, revolutionizing climate research and informing policy decisions. "This is more like a sports car — we're currently flying buses and trucks," climate expert Bruce Wielicki said as he showed the senator the cutting-edge CLARREO instrument. CLARREO stands for Climate Absolute Radiance and Refractivity Observatory.
•Sense-and-avoid technology that would enable UAS — unmanned aerial systems, or drones — to avoid collisions with other moving objects or with stationary objects such as buildings or radio towers.
•A variety of game-changing space technologies, from solar-electric propulsion to advanced radiation protection, entry and landing systems for spacecraft to lightweight materials for space structures.
•Robotic research and development of advanced composite materials for aircraft to help American industry retain their global competitive advantages in aircraft manufacturing.
Two Companies Take Radically Different Approaches to Launcher Reusability
Peter B. de Selding – Space News
Two companies actively working on reusable launch vehicles on April 11 described their strategies, with one starting in small increments of reusability and the other beginning with a fully formed — if untested — spaceplane.
Both companies — Space Exploration Technologies Corp. of Hawthorne, Calif., and Britain's Reaction Engines — said the goal is to reduce launch costs by developing reusable hardware.
U.S. and European government officials said they remain believers, if not currently big investors, in the two systems but stressed that the past 20 years of rocket history is littered with designs and flight vehicles — including the U.S. space shuttle — that never met the economic promise of reusable systems.
Dan Dumbacher, NASA deputy associate administrator for exploration systems development, whose background includes work on the shuttle and the NASA-backed X-33 VentureStar spaceplane developed by Lockheed Martin, said reusability presents more engineering and physics challenges than anyone expects.
Dumbacher also stressed the importance of economic considerations. He said the X-33 program, which collapsed following a fuel-tank failure on a test stand, likely would not have survived the changed expectations in the commercial launch market in any event.
The vehicle was developed in the mid-1990s at a time of what proved to be wildly optimistic projections of commercial launch demand.
Addressing the Space Access conference here organized by Astech Paris Region, Dumbacher said the annual flight rate of a reusable rocket, or one that includes major reusable components, is a key to managing the economics.
"The SSMEs were reusable," Dumbacher said of the space shuttle main engines. "We tried to make them reusable for 55 flights. Look how long and how much money it took for us to do that, and we still weren't completely successful for all the parts. I want to be realistic: We are not as smart as we think we are and we don't understand the environment as well as we think we do."
Christophe Bonnal, a senior expert in the technical division of the French space agency, CNES, recalled an earlier French-Russian joint effort to reuse large strap-on rocket boosters.
"These reusable stages at the start of our studies were just cylinders with engines and little wings," Bonnal said. "Three years later, they had become complete Airbuses in terms of size, with four engines on each of them. Our main problem was the impact reusability has on the design of the launcher. Safety factors have to be higher, and you need around 30 percent more propellant in the first stage to fly the stage back to the launch site."
Bonnal said CNES concluded that a reusable first stage could save about 10 percent in costs for a fully expendable rocket if the reusable vehicle flew 50 times per year and the engines could be used nine times on the rocket's boosters before being used a 10th time as an expendable engine on the rocket's second stage.
"Then we would save 10 percent — plus or minus 15 percent," Bonnal said. "We have more to learn."
Barry Matsumori, SpaceX vice president for commercial sales and business development, said SpaceX is proceeding in small steps by adding legs to the first stage of the company's currently expendable Falcon 9 rocket to test maneuvering, while continuing parallel testing through the company's Grasshopper program.
Grasshopper will be evolving into the F9R program, aimed at developing a partially reusable variant of the Falcon 9.
Matsumori said it is too soon to estimate how many flights per year would be required of the Falcon 9 with a reusable first stage to generate the savings SpaceX hopes to realize.
SpaceX has told its customers that the company's Falcon 9 commercial launch prices, already considered low when compared to other launch service providers, should drop further once the first stage is made reusable.
Reaction Engines' Skylon, meanwhile, is a single-stage-to-orbit rocket designed to take payloads into low Earth orbit before returning to the same aircraft-type landing strip from where it took off.
The company, which labored for years with little government support, has recently received modest backing from the British and European space agencies.
Roger Longstaff, the Skylon project manager, said focusing on flight rate is only one way of solving the economics problems around reusable rockets. Reaction Engines, he said, is coming at the market from another angle.
"People ask us: 'With only 60-70 total launches per year, how can you justify spending admittedly much more than what is needed for an expendable rocket like Ariane 6 — two or three times as much?" Longstaff said, referring to ESA's proposed 4-billion-euro ($5.5 billion) future launcher now in design.
Longstaff said Reaction Engines proposes to adapt commercial airline industry practices, where Boeing and Airbus sell plans to multiple airlines that use the same airports.
Under this model, he said, even nations whose governments would launch only once or twice a year might find it valuable to purchase a Skylon and then share spaceport costs.
"It is much easier to buy a spaceplane for somewhere between $500 million and $1 billion than to develop your own system," Longstaff said. "If you can get sales of around 30 planes, then the business model closes and this can be developed using private funding. If there are fewer, then you are looking at some form of public-private partnership, and this is what we are going to talk to [the European Space Agency] about."
Tax Day in Space: How NASA Astronauts Pay Uncle Sam
The Tax Man cometh for Americans today (April 15), and not even astronauts in space can escape their annual terrestrial taxes.
American astronauts Rick Mastracchio and Steve Swanson are currently living on the International Space Station as part of its six-man crew, and it's a safe bet they took care of their taxes well before they ever launched into space, NASA says.
NASA astronauts typically file taxes before launching into space, according to agency spokesman Jay Bolden at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, the home of U.S. astronaut corps.
That forethought is something that NASA astronauts have not always had.
During NASA's Apollo 13 moon mission in April 1970, astronaut Jack Swigert found himself in the surprising position of being in space on Tax Day without having filed his taxes. Swigert, the command module pilot, was originally part of the backup crew for Apollo 13, and was unexpectedly bumped up to prime crew when the flight's original pilot Ken Mattingly was grounded after being exposed to the German measles (Mattingly never did get the measles).
"How do I apply for an extension?" Swigert radioed down to Mission Control when flight controllers asked the Apollo 13 crew if they'd filed their taxes before flight. "Things happened real fast down there and I do need an extension."
Swigert did get his extension, and likely a little more excitement then he bargained for on the Apollo 13 mission. NASA's Apollo 13 mission suffered a major malfunction en route to the moon when a liquid oxygen tank exploded, forcing Swigert, Apollo 13 commander Jim Lovell and lunar module pilot Fred Haise to scrap their moon landing plans while NASA engineers worked to get the trio back to Earth safely.
One tax-related luxury today's astronauts should not expect any time soon is something many Americans might be doing today: filing taxes online. Loading TurboTax or some other e-filing tax software on the space station is a bit trickier than you might think.
"While there are Internet capabilities aboard the ISS, and it is 'technically feasible' it's not especially practical," Bolden said in an email. "An action like that would require substantial forethought to preprogram laptop computer with tax software or have CD uploaded with tax software info."
Mastracchio and Swanson are part of a diverse Expedition 39 crew living and working aboard the International Space Station. Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata commands the mission, with Russian cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev, Alexander Skvortsov, Mikhail Tyurin rounding out the crew.
The station crew is preparing to welcome the arrival of an unmanned SpaceX Dragon cargo ship this month. The Dragon spacecraft was slated to launch toward the station on Monday (April 14), but SpaceX called off the attempt due to a helium leak on its Falcon 9 rocket. The mission is now slated to launch on Friday, April 18, at 3:54 p.m. EDT (1954 GMT).
Is the SpaceX Spark Fading Out?
Peter Barreda – Guardian Liberty Voice
In the race to fill the space-transport vacuum left by NASA when it suddenly decommissioned the shuttle, SpaceX has pulled pretty far ahead of the competition. It has enjoyed one success after another, and seems to be receiving service contracts left and right. However in light of yesterday's cancellation, it is fair to ask, "Is the SpaceX spark already beginning to fade?"
This particular launch has been a long time coming, with several stumbling blocks popping up for the space-transport company and forcing it to keep delaying its plans. SpaceX initially expected to launch this cargo mission over a month ago, on March 13. At the time, the launch was delayed two weeks in order to clear up a few last-minute concerns. When the new launch date arrived, however, SpaceX was forced to reschedule yet again when a fire caused damage to a radar system. The latest expected launch, scheduled to take off yesterday afternoon from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, was called off as a result of a helium leak detected on the Falcon 9 rocket. It has now been rescheduled for next Friday, April 18, though officials admit that the weather predicted for that date is far from ideal.
The cargo ship was supposed to carry over two tons of supplies and equipment to the International Space Station (ISS), as well as a number of scientific experiments. It was also to be a significant launch because it was an important step in SpaceX's experimental reusable rocket program. The rocket's first stage was going to attempt to return to Earth and be recovered somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean. Although the company only estimates a 30 to 40 percent chance of success for this part of the experiment, they say that any data gathered from the mission will help it to improve future attempts.
Elon Musk, entrepreneur and founder of SpaceX, has successfully placed his company in the forefront of the new, private space race. However is it possible that his shiny baby's spark is beginning to fade? Musk has seemingly done everything right, and has received accolades from all avenues of the space-tech field. The list of milestones and historic achievements attributed to his space industry darling is long and impressive: the first private, liquid-fueled rocket to reach orbit; the first private company to launch, orbit and recover a spacecraft; the first private company to successfully dock with the ISS; the first private company to launch a satellite into geosynchronous orbit. And as a clear sign that Musk has no intention of resting on his laurels, SpaceX is developing a new launch system, the Falcon Heavy. When completed, the Falcon Heavy will be the most powerful rocket engine since the Saturn V. Musk as even discussed his expectation that he will one day be involved in the establishment of the first permanent human colony on Mars.
The transition from a government-operated space industry to a privatized, profit-driven one is bound to be rocky. However SpaceX has proven a worthy competitor in the new race for space, and Musk is working hard to make sure that the gleaming spark that has graced just about all of his efforts will not fade out any time soon.
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