Fwd: Plans proceed for crew launches from KSC

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Begin forwarded message:

From: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Date: April 6, 2014 7:14:43 PM CDT
To: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Subject: FW: Plans proceed for crew launches from KSC

florida today

 

Notebook: Plans proceed for crew launches from KSC

James Dean, Brevard 7:25 p.m. EDT April 5, 2014

 

Space X reviews ground systems

 

Nearly three years after the final shuttle mission, NASA recently highlighted planning that could lead to a resumption of human launches from Kennedy Space Center in the not-too-distant future.

 

In an update on progress by its Commercial Crew Program partners, the agency said SpaceX in February completed an early design review of "ground systems it anticipates using at NASA's Kennedy Space Center" for crewed flights of Dragon capsules, including "plans to adapt existing structures at Kennedy to accommodate the (Falcon 9) rocket."

 

The review included ways astronauts would enter their capsule and evacuate the pad quickly in an emergency.

 

The planning isn't a big surprise, because NASA in December chose to negotiate with SpaceX for a lease of launch pad 39A, one of KSC's two pads, and SpaceX said it wanted to use the pad for crew launches.

 

But the recent ground systems review proceeded even though that lease is not a done deal. An agreement is said to be close.

 

NASA hopes to launch astronauts to the International Space Station commercially by 2017 but has warned that date will slip if Congress fails to fully fund the president's $848 million request for the KSC-led Commercial Crew Program in 2015.

 

If SpaceX doesn't win a commercial crew contract, United Launch Alliance would do the honors, lifting either a Boeing or Sierra Nevada spacecraft. Then NASA crews would launch not from KSC but just down the coast at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. NASA hopes to award more than one contract.

 

ISS cargo-flying contract extended

 

NASA action last week likely ensured SpaceX will continue local launches of cargo to the International Space Station through at least 2017.

 

The agency said it planned to extend existing resupply contracts with SpaceX and Orbital Sciences Corp., for up to 24 months, to December 2017.

 

NASA said the extension would give potential new providers the opportunity to compete later for a second round of cargo contracts, called Commercial Resupply Services 2.

 

SpaceX is nearing launch of its third ISS resupply mission planned under a $1.6 billion contract. The launch from Cape Canaveral was targeted for March 30 but postponed when an Air Force tracking radar suffered an outage.

 

NASA said the launch is now scheduled for April 14.

 

Morpheus flies again sucessfully

 

At Kennedy Space Center on Thursday, NASA's prototype Morpheus lander completed its first free flight carrying a sensor package designed to autonomously detect and avoid hazards on the ground.

 

The four-legged, liquid methane-fueled vehicle lifted off at 4:21 p.m., climbed 800 feet and flew down range 1,300 feet before touching down in a cloud of dust in a hazard field north of the shuttle runway.

 

The 96-second flight was Morpheus' first carrying expensive sensors and software called Autonomous Landing and Hazard Avoidance Technology, or ALHAT, and followed a series of test flights to prove the vehicle's flightworthiness.

 

The laser-guided system scanned the hazard field and ranked safe landing options, but did not control the vehicle as is planned in tests next month.

 

The next test flight, similar to the one just completed, is planned in late April The flights are streamed live online.

 

Rollins chief is new CASIS chair

 

Following France Cordova's departure to lead the National Science Foundation, the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space named an interim board chair with local roots.

 

Lewis Duncan, president of Rollins College in Winter Park, will lead the 11-member board.

 

Duncan is an internationally recognized scholar in the fields of space plasma physics, high-power radio wave propagation, and radar studies of the upper atmosphere, and a spokesperson for STEM educational reform, according to his CASIS biography.

 

Funded with $15 million annually from NASA, CASIS is responsible for managing non-NASA research performed in the International Space Station's National Lab. It is headquartered in Brevard.

 

Extended hours

 

The Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex will stay open a bit later through the summer. Check out space shuttle Atlantis and other exhibits from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily though Sept. 1.

 

Historic laptop up for auction

 

The computer used to send the first presidential email, delivered to then U.S. Sen. John Glenn as he orbitedaboard shuttle Discovery in 1998, is up for auction.

 

Responding to a Nov. 6 email Glenn sent from the shuttle, President Bill Clinton typed a note into a Toshiba Satellite Pro that referenced his experience watching the STS-95 mission's Oct. 29 launch from Kennedy Space Center.

 

The online sale of the laptop by Massachusetts-based RR Auction opened March 21 and runs through April 16.

 

Contact Dean at 321-242-3668 or jdean@floridatoday.com.