Keep the shuttle flying: Fwd: Training to Fly on Boeing’s 1st Private CST-100 ‘Space Taxi’: One-on-One Interview with Chris Ferguson

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From: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Date: June 6, 2014 9:44:16 AM CDT
To: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Subject: FW: Training to Fly on Boeing's 1st Private CST-100 'Space Taxi': One-on-One Interview with Chris Ferguson

AmericaSpace
For a nation that explores
May 29th, 2014
Who Will Fly Aboard Boeing's First Private CST-100 'Space Taxi'? One-on-One Interview With Chris Ferguson, Last Shuttle Commander
By Ken Kremer

Chris Ferguson, NASA's last space shuttle commander, works at consoles testing on-orbit, docking, and entry scenarios on the Boeing CST-100 capsule, which can fly U.S. astronauts to the International Space Station in 2017. Ferguson is now Boeing's director of Crew and Mission Operations for the Commercial Crew Program vying for NASA funding. Credit: NASA/Boeing
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL — A two-person crew comprising "one NASA astronaut and one Boeing test pilot will fly aboard the first orbital test flight of our commercial CST-100 manned capsule in 2017." Chris Ferguson, commander of NASA's final shuttle flight and now director of Boeing's Crew and Mission Operations, told AmericaSpace in an exclusive one-on-one interview about Boeing's human spaceflight efforts to build a private and efficient "space taxi" for American astronaut crews.
"The first manned test flight could happen by the end of summer 2017 with a two person crew," Ferguson told me during a detailed conversation about Boeing's push to restore an indigenous U.S. capacity for launching our astronauts to low-Earth orbit (LEO) and the International Space Station (ISS).
The CST-100 is Boeing's entry into NASA's Commercial Crew program aimed at fostering the development of a next-generation crewed vehicle to replace the space shuttle after its forced retirement following wheel stop in July 2011. Three-time space flying veteran Chris Ferguson commanded the last shuttle flight, STS-135.
Since that day, no American astronauts have launched to space from American soil on American rockets seated inside American spaceships.
They have been totally dependent on the Russian Soyuz capsule for tickets to space and back—at a cost of over $70 million per seat under the latest contract with Roscosmos.
Boeing's philosophy is to make the CST-100 a commercial endeavor, as simple and cost effective as possible to kick start U.S. human spaceflight efforts as soon as possible—especially given the meager Commercial Crew budgets approved by a reluctant Congress.
"The CST-100 is a cheap, cost effective vehicle that doesn't need to be luxurious because it only needs to hold people for 48 hours. It's a simple ride up to and back from space," Ferguson emphasized.
Boeing CST-100 commercial crew capsule approaches the ISS in this artist's concept. Credit: Boeing
I asked Ferguson: "Who will fly on the maiden CST-100 orbital test flight? Will it be a mixed NASA/Boeing astronaut crew?"
"From the latest NASA contracts regarding the test flight, NASA apparently wants to fly one of their astronauts aboard. So our assumption now is that there it will be one Boeing test pilot and one NASA astronaut," Ferguson said.
"A year ago, NASA officials specifically told me that no NASA astronauts would be allowed to fly on the first test mission until the spaceship was basically proven to be flight worthy."
"That's a clear change from NASA's earlier plan calling strictly for two company test pilots, is that right?"
"Yes, that's a change and the premise we are now operating under," Ferguson confirmed.
"Who will pick the crew?"
"Boeing will pick the test pilot. NASA will pick the astronaut."
"When will Boeing and NASA select the crew? Are we getting close to selection time?"
"The announcement of who is on the crew will come closer to when they are ready to start training for the flight."
"It's prudent to wait like NASA did [previously] because sometimes people develop health problems. It's much easier to wait until later and put someone on a crew, rather than announce it [too] early and have things move and change around."
"Where will Boeing look for a qualified test pilot?"
"Boeing will reach out to see who out there is qualified and wants to do this."
"The smartest thing would be to pick an old NASA astronaut!"
"So how about you? Would you like to do it?" I quickly inquired.
"I don't know. Sure I'd like to go to space again, who wouldn't like to go to space," Ferguson mused, as we chuckled.
"But it's a business for young, steely eyed missile men," he replied, taking himself out of the running. … Maybe …
"I think we could pry someone out of NASA and convince them to work for Boeing to fly a test flight. I wouldn't be surprised if the phone starts ringing here in the next few months looking for someone."
"I imagine you'd have at least 20 or 30 quick volunteers!"
"Yes, and Bob Cabana [Kennedy Space Center (KSC) director and former shuttle commander] is one of them. He's made that very public, although he knows it couldn't possibly happen!"
"So we are thinking about the crew."
Boeing's strategy for the first manned orbital flight test is exciting and ambitious and is sure to attract numerous applicants.
"We may go all the way to the space station. We want to dock and maybe spend a couple weeks there."
"SpaceX did it [as well as Orbital Sciences for their first unmanned cargo dockings]. So we think we can too."
"The question is can we make the owners of the space station comfortable with what we are doing. That's what it really comes down to."
"But our focus right now is making sure we build the vehicle the right way," Ferguson said.
Boeing plans to assemble and manufacture the CST-100 crew and service modules in Florida at KSC inside an old space shuttle hangar now sitting idle and undergoing refurbishment with funding from Space Florida.
"The CST-100 will be manufactured at the Kennedy Space Center inside a former shuttle hanger known as Orbiter Processing Facility 3, or OPF-3, which is now [transformed into] a Boeing processing facility," Ferguson told me.
Boeing will assume the lease to OPF-3 from Space Florida by late June 2014 and the project will bring jobs back to KSC.
"Over 300 people will be employed."
Early version of Boeing CST-100 pressure vessel mockup inside OPF-3 and surrounded by shuttle-era scaffolding at the Kennedy Space Center, FL. Credit: Ken Kremer – kenkremer.com
Boeing is one of three American aerospace firms vying to restore America's capability to fly astronauts to the space station by late 2017, using seed money from NASA's Commercial Crew Program (CCP) in a public/private partnership.
The other competitors are the SpaceX Dragon and Sierra Nevada Dream Chaser. The next round of commercial crew contracts will be awarded by NASA around late summer.
The CST-100 is being designed at Boeing's Houston Product Support Center in Texas and is comprised of a crew module (CM) and service module (SM).
The combined CM/SM stands some 5.03 meters (16.5 feet) high. The capsule itself is 4.56 meters (175 inches) in diameter.
The reusable capsule will launch atop a man rated United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket and carry a mix of cargo and astronauts to the ISS. It must meet NASA's stringent safety and reliability standards.
"What is the crew size that can fly aboard CST-100?"
"The crew size will be five. We can go to seven if we have to. But NASA only wants four. Their requirement says four. We sell NASA the seats," said Ferguson.
"So will you carry some cargo up too if you aren't bringing up seven crewmembers?"
"Yes. We will take up come cargo. It's really up to what NASA wants and decides. If they want some cargo in addition to people."
"So in place of the astronauts seats would you have some type of storage lockers or compartments?"
"Yes, you could. Although that's not part of what we are designed to or for. So even if we carry five crewmembers we will also carry some cargo."
Therefore, the ISS crew size will increase to at least seven depending on how many seats NASA procures.
NASA's final shuttle crew on STS-135 mission greets the media and shuttle workers during Atlantis rollover from the OPF-1 processing hanger to the VAB at KSC during May 2011. From left: Rex Walheim, Shuttle Commander Christopher Ferguson, Douglas Hurley, and Sandra Magnus. The all veteran crew delivered the Raffaello multipurpose logistics module (MPLM), science supplies, provisions, and space parts to the International Space Station (ISS). Credit: Ken Kremer – kenkremer.com
All three companies currently receiving funding from NASA's Commercial Crew Program are making excellent progress in achieving the agency's mandated milestones in the current contract period known as Commercial Crew Integrated Capability initiative (CCiCAP).
The direction and look of America's future crewed spaceship(s) for ISS operations will become clearer later this year, when NASA down selects to one or more vehicles in the next round of funding dubbed CCtCAP.
Stay tuned here for continuing developments.
Ken Kremer

Copyright © 2014 AmericaSpace - All Rights Reserved

AmericaSpace
For a nation that explores
June 5th, 2014
Training to Fly on Boeing's 1st Private CST-100 'Space Taxi': One-on-One Interview with Chris Ferguson, Last Shuttle Commander; Part 2
By Ken Kremer
Boeing CST-100 manned space capsule in free flight in low Earth orbit will transport astronaut crews to the International Space Station. Credit: Boeing
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL – Boeing's CST-100 commercial 'space taxi' will be capable of flying to the space station "as a single piloted vehicle" starting from the first manned orbital test flight in 2017, Chris Ferguson, commander of NASA's final shuttle flight and now director of Boeing's Crew and Mission Operations told AmericaSpace in an exclusive one-on-one interview about Boeing's human spaceflight efforts to build a private and efficient transporter for American astronaut crews under the auspices of NASA's Commercial Crew program.
In part 1 of this series, Ferguson described who will fly aboard the maiden orbital test flight to the ISS in 2017 – here.
In part 2, we focus our discussion on the design and training philosophy behind Boeing's CST-100 capsule.
"The CST-100 is a cheap, cost effective vehicle, Ferguson explained. "It's a simple ride up to and back from space."
The CST-100 crew capsule is a truly commercial space endeavor – with significant funding from NASA – aimed at restoring an indigenous US capacity for launching US astronauts to low Earth orbit (LEO) and the International Space Station (ISS) from American soil atop American rockets and seated inside American made spaceships.
Boeing is designing the CST-100 so that it requires minimal crew training since it will have a very short flight time and a very simple mission of flying crews to the ISS and back.
"How autonomous will the CST-100 be," I asked Ferguson.
"We are largely autonomous," Ferguson explained. "It's a very simple idea to get the astronauts back and forth because it only needs to hold people for 48 hours."
Where did that notion of simplicity in transporting crews to orbit come from?
"After Columbia, we [NASA] did a crew survivability study in the astronaut office from the crews perspective," he stated.
Chris Ferguson, last Space Shuttle Atlantis commander, tests the Boeing CST-100 capsule aiming to fly US astronauts to the International Space Station in 2017. Ferguson is now Boeing's director of Crew and Mission Operations for the Commercial Crew Program vying for NASA funding. Credit: NASA/Boeing
"We concluded that the safest way to fly astronauts in the coming decades is to go to a strategy where you separate the people from the payload."
"The 50,000 pounds of payload part really doesn't need human rating. So it drives up cost and complexity."
"The best way, I think even today, is something like the Soyuz concept, where you have a small, cheap, highly reliable vehicle that gets you back and forth to low-Earth orbit (LEO)."
"And then once you are in LEO then go do what you need to do – whether it's to service something or rendezvous with something like the ISS or an interplanetary vehicle."
"So let's get that cheap, cost effective vehicle that doesn't need to be luxurious because it only needs to hold people for 48 hours. It's a very simple idea to get the astronauts back and forth."
"It's an ascent and reentry vehicle – and that's all!"
So the CST-100 is basically a taxi up and a taxi down from LEO. NASA's complementary human space flight program involving the Orion crew vehicle is designed for deep space exploration.
"Then build your exotic trans lunar vehicle or asteroid vehicle or Mars vehicle and launch that on a separate unmanned booster, and then rendezvous and dock with it and do your mission."
"The CST-100, it's a simple ride up to and back from space," Ferguson emphasized to me. "So its doesn't need to be luxurious."
Boeing CST-100 commercial crew capsule approaches the ISS in this artists concept. Credit: Boeing
The CST-100 is Boeing's entry into NASA's high priority Commercial Crew effort aimed at fostering the development of a safe and reliable, next generation crewed vehicle to replace the Space Shuttle after its forced retirement following the final mission in July 2011.
Three time space veteran Chris Ferguson commanded NASA's final shuttle flight, STS-135, aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis. It's now on public view as a museum piece at her final resting spot at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex (KSCVC) in Florida.
Three American aerospace firms – Boeing, SpaceX and Sierra Nevada – are all vying for NASA contracts to fly astronauts to the space station by late 2017, using seed money from NASA's Commercial Crew Program (CCP) in a public/private partnership.
The next round of commercial crew contracts will be awarded by NASA around late summer.
"Since the CST-100 will be largely autonomous, can you describe the level of astronaut training required?" I asked.
"We [Boeing] have a basic level of training we provide that will give the operator, a pilot, the knowledge that he needs to operate the spaceship – which is mostly autonomous.'
"They will have the ability to get to the space station and back. As well as the ability to deal with failures and the ability to take manual control if necessary. "
"It's a very short mission. Its only 48 hours tops."
"If we have our way we will be docked within six hours in our spacecraft and then be back home in six hours. So it could be tops twelve hours you spend in our spacecraft [including the return trip home]."
What's the requirement with regard to doing science and spacewalks?
"There will be no EVA's and no science to do. So it's a very simple mission."
Can you describe the crew training?
"So we will train the pilot to whatever level of proficiency he needs. And if NASA wants us to train someone else to a pilot level of proficiency, then we will be happy to do that.
"NASA wants a single piloted vehicle. Therefore you have to have some form of redundancy. We are largely autonomous."
"The crew size will be five. We can go to seven if we have to. But NASA only wants four ," said Ferguson.
What's the requirement with respect to a copilot? Doesn't it make sense to have one like on commercial airliners?
"NASA hasn't decided yet one way or the other."
"That being said we have factored into our design the ability for a copilot and train them perhaps to the same level of proficiency as the pilot. They would sit beside the pilot and do all of those types of crew resource management (CRM) types of things that NASA instilled in us shuttle astronauts over the years."
"That's what I think will happen as the prudent thing to do."
"So we will meet the requirements and capability for a single piloted vehicle. But we think NASA ultimately will say we also want someone else trained to the same level of proficiency as the pilot, to back the pilot up and act in the pilots capacity should something happen."
"So our plan is to train four passengers and one pilot. And the ability to have a second pilot."
NASA's 135th and final shuttle mission takes flight on July 8, 2011 at 11:29 a.m. from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida bound for the ISS and the high frontier with Chris Ferguson as Space Shuttle Commander. Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com
What is the designation for the other crew members?
"We are still trying to decide what to call the passengers. We don't know yet."
How about 'mission specialist' like on the shuttle?
"The term 'mission specialists' is not in NASA's vernacular now. NASA has called them passengers."
"The FAA calls them participants."
"We need a compact thing to call them. So I am advocating for mission specialists."
"We are getting to the point that we are developing our operational nomenclature and procedures and woven them into flight rules. So we have to make decisions."
What term does NASA want to use for the other crew members?
"We asked NASA but they haven't gotten back to us yet."
Early version of Boeing CST-100 pressure vessel mockup inside OPF-3 and surrounded by shuttle era scaffolding at the Kennedy Space Center, FL. Credit: Ken Kremer – kenkremer.com
Boeing expects to be ready to conduct the maiden crewed test flight around mid-2017 comprised of a mixed crew of Boeing and NASA astronauts.
"The first manned test flight could happen by the end of summer 2017 with a two person crew," Ferguson told me
"There will be one Boeing test pilot and one NASA astronaut," Ferguson explained. For further details, read part 1.
All three company's currently funded by NASA's Commercial Crew Program continue to make excellent progress in achieving the agency's mandated milestones in the current contract period known as the Commercial Crew Integrated Capability initiative (CCiCAP).
The direction and look of America's future crewed spaceship(s) for ISS operations will become clearer later this year when NASA down selects to one or more vehicles in the next round of funding known as Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap).
Stay tuned here for continuing developments.
Ken Kremer

Copyright © 2014 AmericaSpace - All Rights Reserved