U.S. Seeks Global Cooperation on Outer Space
The Obama administration as early as Monday is expected to call for significantly greater international cooperation than ever before in outer space, covering a wide range of civilian and military programs.
The new policy, according to industry and government officials familiar with the details, also envisions stepped-up U.S. government efforts to bolster domestic rocket and satellite manufacturers, making them more economically viable and competitive overseas.
The principles, according to these officials, reflect President Barack Obama's desire to have Washington and various foreign governments increasingly share funding and expertise on major projects, while exchanging more data about orbiting debris and other hazards in space.
Breaking sharply from earlier White House policies that relied largely on all-U.S. solutions, the latest document envisions international ventures spanning everything from environmental and other types of earth-observation satellites to critical space-based navigation systems previously considered off-limits to foreign partnerships.
For the first time, Mr. Obama's space and national-security advisers have opened the door to possible international cooperation on the existing Global Positioning System, or GPS, satellite constellation.
Faced with mounting GPS program costs and escalating demands to transfer dollars from Pentagon space accounts to other U.S. defense programs, Air Force officials have been quietly mulling postponing some GPS satellite launches, according to people familiar with the details. The new policy, one Obama administration official said over the weekend, allows foreign navigation satellites "to augment but not replace" GPS capabilities. Europe is currently building its own independent navigation system, while Russian officials have talked about improving their rival system and perhaps teaming up with a foreign partner.
Months overdue, the policy document also aims to better coordinate the sprawling web of military, spy, and scientific satellite projects, along with NASA's manned and unmanned space exploration efforts.
Though many of the Pentagon's satellite programs are classified and show up primarily in so-called "black" intelligence budgets, by some estimates the U.S. government spends more than $100 billion a year on the full gamut of space endeavors. A series of high-level reports and studies over the years has criticized duplication and urged program and agency consolidations.
Monday's announcement is expected to steer clear of recommending specific bureaucratic shakeups. Rather, the policy paper presents a high-level, long-range view of ways to foster greater innovation among U.S. space companies, making make them more competitive globally.
As congestion increases in orbit and satellites become more vulnerable to collisions, interference and possible hostile acts, the policy also aims to harness military and commercial fleets to collaborate in providing better space situation awareness. Some of the points were first reported by Space News, an industry publication
It may be too late, however, to coordinate some important issues. The White House five months ago proposed that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration outsource some of its core functions to private space-transportation companies. The concept was developed without the benefit of a comprehensive and updated government-wide space policy.
Some Air Force officials complained at the time that they weren't consulted about NASA's revised priorities. Since then, Pentagon brass have agreed to support proposed NASA changes. That's partly because the Air Force stands to benefit from a total of roughly $2 billon in NASA funds the White House wants to shift to develop enhanced military rocket engines and for launch-site improvements in Florida.
The latest principles differ markedly from those announced four years ago under then-President George W. Bush. The 2006 policy rejected future diplomatic agreements that could limit U.S. flexibility in space, and asserted the right to punish any space entity deemed "hostile to U.S. interests." President Bush also stressed "assured access" to space on U.S. boosters. And he projected that by 2010, the Pentagon might be willing to choose a single heavy-lift rocket design.
The Bush plan sparked controversy on Capitol Hill and elsewhere by unilaterally rejecting arms control or international treaties outlawing offensive as well as defensive weapons in space.
The latest policy shifts stress cooperation across national borders. And now, the White House doesn't seek to identify a preferred rocket option, according to people familiar with the details.
Gen. Robert Kehler, the head of U.S. Space Command, made it clear earlier this year that the Pentagon wasn't ready to choose between its Atlas V and Delta IV launch systems. "We want to make sure we don't go off the track," he said, by prematurely selecting a single type of rocket. Both families of rockets are manufactured and launched by a joint venture between Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp.
Gen. Kehler also told journalists in April at a government-industry conference in Colorado that "we want to foster the growth of commercial activities" in space.
The White House is still waiting for completion of other military studies of U.S. space capabilities and vulnerabilities. The Pentagon's space ambitions are partly stalled due to budget pressures, which already have killed or curtailed proposed acquisition of some big-ticket satellite projects. Congressional opposition also has stalled NASA's proposed spending and strategic priorities.
The current White Hose stance on space security stresses the importance of all countries retaining free and undisputed access to space. Some industry official and outside policy analysts said the latest policy changes could set the stage for the White House to eventually embrace the concept of a global treaty barring deployment or use of weapons in space.
Sunday, June 27, 2010
What Happened in Space News June 27
NEAR - USA Asteroid Orbiter - 805 Kg was launched on February 17, 1996. After its launch, it was renamed NEAR Shoemaker in honor of planetary scientist Eugene M. Shoemaker.
The main scientific purpose of NEAR (Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous) was to orbit near-Earth asteroid 433 Eros.
The spacecraft studied the asteroid for one year after entering orbit in February 1999. NEAR imaged Comet Hyakutake in March 1996 and flew within 1,200 kilometers of asteroid 253 Mathilde on June 27, 1997.
On July 3, 1997 NEAR executed the first major deep space maneuver, a two-part burn of the main 450 N thruster. The Earth gravity assist swingby occurred on January 23, 1998 at 7:23 UT. The closest approach was 540 km, altering the orbital inclination from 0.5 to 10.2 degrees, and the aphelion distance from 2.17 to 1.77 AU, nearly matching those of Eros. Instrumentation was active at this time.
This was the first of NASA's Discovery missions.
The main scientific purpose of NEAR (Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous) was to orbit near-Earth asteroid 433 Eros.
The spacecraft studied the asteroid for one year after entering orbit in February 1999. NEAR imaged Comet Hyakutake in March 1996 and flew within 1,200 kilometers of asteroid 253 Mathilde on June 27, 1997.
On July 3, 1997 NEAR executed the first major deep space maneuver, a two-part burn of the main 450 N thruster. The Earth gravity assist swingby occurred on January 23, 1998 at 7:23 UT. The closest approach was 540 km, altering the orbital inclination from 0.5 to 10.2 degrees, and the aphelion distance from 2.17 to 1.77 AU, nearly matching those of Eros. Instrumentation was active at this time.
This was the first of NASA's Discovery missions.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
NASA may delay dates of final space shuttle flights
NASA may delay dates of final space shuttle flights
CAPE CANAVERAL — NASA is considering new target launch dates for its last two scheduled shuttle missions to give engineers more time to prepare equipment for the International Space Station and avoid heavy traffic around the outpost.
--Launch of Discovery carrying a station warehouse module would be targeted for Oct. 29.
--Endeavour would aim for liftoff on Feb. 28.
Senior managers are expected to approve the new dates at a meeting on July 1.
The Oct. 29 date for Discovery would give engineers more time to load a modified Italian cargo carrier with as much gear as possible before Discovery blasts off.
"It gives them a longer period of time to certify more equipment to fly on that mission," NASA spokesman Kyle Herring said Tuesday.
"It makes better sense for the station program so they can load up as much equipment as possible before launch."
NASA is modifying a cylindrical cargo carrier dubbed Leonardo to take up permanent residence at the station.
Originally designed for short rather than long stays at the station, the module is being equipped with additional orbital-debris shielding. Some of its systems are being upgraded for long-term duty on the outpost.
It also will enable engineers to complete work on equipment that would not have been ready for a Sept. 16 launch. Among that gear: "Robonaut," an American android designed to do work outside the outpost.
The expected delay in the Discovery mission will bump Endeavour back behind a period of heavy traffic at the station.
A Russian Soyuz crew transport will be flying back to Earth and robotic space freighters from Russia, Europe and Japan will be flying up to the station during December and January.
The sun angle on the station during much of January and February also will be such that the outpost could not generate enough energy or dispel enough heat to support a docked shuttle mission.
So Feb. 28 would be the first available target date for Endeavour.
NASA is deferring until August a decision on whether Atlantis would fly one last supply run to the station next June.
Atlantis and an external tank, solid rocket booster stack will be readied for launch on a rescue mission should Endeavour sustain critical damage on NASA's last currently scheduled shuttle mission.
NASA and supporters in Congress are lobbying to launch Atlantis on an additional station-outfitting mission before the shuttle fleet is retired.
CAPE CANAVERAL — NASA is considering new target launch dates for its last two scheduled shuttle missions to give engineers more time to prepare equipment for the International Space Station and avoid heavy traffic around the outpost.
--Launch of Discovery carrying a station warehouse module would be targeted for Oct. 29.
--Endeavour would aim for liftoff on Feb. 28.
Senior managers are expected to approve the new dates at a meeting on July 1.
The Oct. 29 date for Discovery would give engineers more time to load a modified Italian cargo carrier with as much gear as possible before Discovery blasts off.
"It gives them a longer period of time to certify more equipment to fly on that mission," NASA spokesman Kyle Herring said Tuesday.
"It makes better sense for the station program so they can load up as much equipment as possible before launch."
NASA is modifying a cylindrical cargo carrier dubbed Leonardo to take up permanent residence at the station.
Originally designed for short rather than long stays at the station, the module is being equipped with additional orbital-debris shielding. Some of its systems are being upgraded for long-term duty on the outpost.
It also will enable engineers to complete work on equipment that would not have been ready for a Sept. 16 launch. Among that gear: "Robonaut," an American android designed to do work outside the outpost.
The expected delay in the Discovery mission will bump Endeavour back behind a period of heavy traffic at the station.
A Russian Soyuz crew transport will be flying back to Earth and robotic space freighters from Russia, Europe and Japan will be flying up to the station during December and January.
The sun angle on the station during much of January and February also will be such that the outpost could not generate enough energy or dispel enough heat to support a docked shuttle mission.
So Feb. 28 would be the first available target date for Endeavour.
NASA is deferring until August a decision on whether Atlantis would fly one last supply run to the station next June.
Atlantis and an external tank, solid rocket booster stack will be readied for launch on a rescue mission should Endeavour sustain critical damage on NASA's last currently scheduled shuttle mission.
NASA and supporters in Congress are lobbying to launch Atlantis on an additional station-outfitting mission before the shuttle fleet is retired.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
STS-131 crew visits Marshall Space Flight Center
STS-131 crew visits Marshall Space Flight Center
HUNTSVILLE, AL. - With only two shuttle missions to the International Space Station remaining till the retirement of NASA's three current spacecrafts - Atlantis, Endeavour and Discovery - Tuesday's visit to Marshall Space Flight Center to recap highlights from their April flight was bittersweet experience for the crew of STS-131.
"It felt like we were reaching the peak of its (NASA's space shuttle program) capability, but all good things come to an end," STS-131 Commander Alan Poindexter said during a question-and-answer session with high school students.
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"The other viewpoint is that we need to look back at what was done with the shuttle throughout the years, including what we have learned and these magnificent achievements from Hubble to the construction of ISS.
"We all will be sad to see it go, but we are looking forward to the next platform and keeping human beings flying in space," Poindexter said.
The purpose of the 13-day mission aboard space shuttle Discovery, which will have its final flight in September, was to transport 3,800-pounds of cargo from "Leonardo," a multi-purpose logistics module that's housed in Discovery's payload bay.
The crew also performed three challenging spacewalks - exchanging a gyroscope on the truss of the station, installing a spare ammonia storage tank and retrieving a Japanese experiment, Poindexter said.
Attending the briefing with Poindexter was pilot Jim Dutton and mission specialists Rick Mastracchio and Stephanie Wilson. Other members of the seven-person crew included mission specialists Dottie Metcalf-Lindenburger, Clay Anderson and Japanese astronaut Naoko Yamazaki, also a mission specialist.
Wilson said there's still work left to do aboard the station, but the final two missions will be devoted to those tasks.
"Leonardo will permanently be housed on ISS and the experiment racks will be repositioned," said Wilson, who is a veteran of two spaceflights. "Remaining mission details and spacewalks are still being worked out."
HUNTSVILLE, AL. - With only two shuttle missions to the International Space Station remaining till the retirement of NASA's three current spacecrafts - Atlantis, Endeavour and Discovery - Tuesday's visit to Marshall Space Flight Center to recap highlights from their April flight was bittersweet experience for the crew of STS-131.
"It felt like we were reaching the peak of its (NASA's space shuttle program) capability, but all good things come to an end," STS-131 Commander Alan Poindexter said during a question-and-answer session with high school students.
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0
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"The other viewpoint is that we need to look back at what was done with the shuttle throughout the years, including what we have learned and these magnificent achievements from Hubble to the construction of ISS.
"We all will be sad to see it go, but we are looking forward to the next platform and keeping human beings flying in space," Poindexter said.
The purpose of the 13-day mission aboard space shuttle Discovery, which will have its final flight in September, was to transport 3,800-pounds of cargo from "Leonardo," a multi-purpose logistics module that's housed in Discovery's payload bay.
The crew also performed three challenging spacewalks - exchanging a gyroscope on the truss of the station, installing a spare ammonia storage tank and retrieving a Japanese experiment, Poindexter said.
Attending the briefing with Poindexter was pilot Jim Dutton and mission specialists Rick Mastracchio and Stephanie Wilson. Other members of the seven-person crew included mission specialists Dottie Metcalf-Lindenburger, Clay Anderson and Japanese astronaut Naoko Yamazaki, also a mission specialist.
Wilson said there's still work left to do aboard the station, but the final two missions will be devoted to those tasks.
"Leonardo will permanently be housed on ISS and the experiment racks will be repositioned," said Wilson, who is a veteran of two spaceflights. "Remaining mission details and spacewalks are still being worked out."
Monday, June 21, 2010
John Glenn: Keep space shuttles flying
John Glenn: Keep space shuttles flying
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Mercury astronaut John Glenn wants NASA's space shuttles to keep flying until a reliable replacement is ready, no matter how long it takes.
Glenn joined the national debate Monday over America's future in space and became the latest ex-astronaut to speak out on the matter. He issued a nine-page statement in which he questioned the decision to retire the shuttle fleet and rely on Russia to take astronauts to the International Space Station.
"We have a vehicle here, why throw it away? It's working well," the first American to orbit Earth said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press.
Glenn said he's against paying the Russians $55.8 million per person to fly U.S. astronauts to the space station and back. That's the price for a single ticket starting in 2013; right now, it's costing NASA $26.3 million and will jump to $51 million next year.
Glenn doesn't believe the general public realizes what's happening on the space front.
"Going to Russia and being, in effect, under control of Russia for our space program just doesn't sit right with me and I don't think it sits well with the American people, or won't, either," said Glenn, a former U.S. senator who rode the shuttle into orbit in 1998 at age 77. He turns 89 next month.
Glenn said little if any money will be saved by canceling the shuttle program, considering all the millions of dollars going to Russia for rocket rides. At least two shuttle flights a year could keep the station going and the work force employed, until something new comes along, he said.
The former astronaut wonders what will happen if there's an accident and Soyuz rockets are grounded. He supposes the space station — a $100 billion investment — would have to be abandoned. He also worries scientific research at the station will take a hit if experiments have to be launched from Russia and have no way of getting back to Earth in bulk.
Only two shuttle missions remain on the official lineup; the second almost certainly will be delayed into early next year. NASA is hoping the White House will add an extra flight next summer before ending the 30-year shuttle program.
Glenn supports President Barack Obama's plan, announced earlier this year, to keep the space station going until 2020 and to give up on a moon base for now. But the original Mercury 7 astronaut said the nation needs a rocketship capable of lifting heavy payloads — whether it's part of NASA's Constellation program or something else — if astronauts are ever to reach asteroids and Mars.
Private companies, meanwhile, interested in carrying astronauts back and forth to the space station need to first prove their capability and reliability, Glenn noted. "I'm very leery of this rush to commercialization," he said.
Glenn — a Democrat — said he waited to go public because he thought "people would see the wisdom" of keeping the shuttle going.
"If we're going to do anything, if has to be done pretty quick," he said.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Mercury astronaut John Glenn wants NASA's space shuttles to keep flying until a reliable replacement is ready, no matter how long it takes.
Glenn joined the national debate Monday over America's future in space and became the latest ex-astronaut to speak out on the matter. He issued a nine-page statement in which he questioned the decision to retire the shuttle fleet and rely on Russia to take astronauts to the International Space Station.
"We have a vehicle here, why throw it away? It's working well," the first American to orbit Earth said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press.
Glenn said he's against paying the Russians $55.8 million per person to fly U.S. astronauts to the space station and back. That's the price for a single ticket starting in 2013; right now, it's costing NASA $26.3 million and will jump to $51 million next year.
Glenn doesn't believe the general public realizes what's happening on the space front.
"Going to Russia and being, in effect, under control of Russia for our space program just doesn't sit right with me and I don't think it sits well with the American people, or won't, either," said Glenn, a former U.S. senator who rode the shuttle into orbit in 1998 at age 77. He turns 89 next month.
Glenn said little if any money will be saved by canceling the shuttle program, considering all the millions of dollars going to Russia for rocket rides. At least two shuttle flights a year could keep the station going and the work force employed, until something new comes along, he said.
The former astronaut wonders what will happen if there's an accident and Soyuz rockets are grounded. He supposes the space station — a $100 billion investment — would have to be abandoned. He also worries scientific research at the station will take a hit if experiments have to be launched from Russia and have no way of getting back to Earth in bulk.
Only two shuttle missions remain on the official lineup; the second almost certainly will be delayed into early next year. NASA is hoping the White House will add an extra flight next summer before ending the 30-year shuttle program.
Glenn supports President Barack Obama's plan, announced earlier this year, to keep the space station going until 2020 and to give up on a moon base for now. But the original Mercury 7 astronaut said the nation needs a rocketship capable of lifting heavy payloads — whether it's part of NASA's Constellation program or something else — if astronauts are ever to reach asteroids and Mars.
Private companies, meanwhile, interested in carrying astronauts back and forth to the space station need to first prove their capability and reliability, Glenn noted. "I'm very leery of this rush to commercialization," he said.
Glenn — a Democrat — said he waited to go public because he thought "people would see the wisdom" of keeping the shuttle going.
"If we're going to do anything, if has to be done pretty quick," he said.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Russian capsule carrying 3 docks at space station
News from June 17: Russian capsule carrying 3 docks at space station
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The International Space Station received three new residents with Thursday's arrival of a Russian capsule, doubling the size of its female crew to an all-time high.
NASA, meanwhile, was keeping close watch on three pieces of space junk that could come uncomfortably close to the orbiting outpost this weekend. They are old Russian and Chinese satellite and rocket parts.
The Soyuz spacecraft — launched two days earlier from Kazakhstan — docked at the orbiting outpost as the vessels zoomed 220 miles above the Atlantic near Argentina.
It's NASA's method of getting U.S. astronauts to and from the space station for lengthy missions, and will become the only means of getting people there, period, once the shuttles stop flying late this year or next. Private companies like Space Exploration Technologies, which successfully launched a test rocket into orbit from Cape Canaveral two weeks ago, hope to pick up the slack.
Russian space officials said the docking went exactly as planned and demonstrated the reliability of the Soyuz.
The early evening arrival of the latest Soyuz means there are now two women living full time at the space station for the first time ever. No previous space station ever had two female residents at the same time, so the docking marked a historic first.
Shannon Walker, a physicist from Houston, joins Tracy Caldwell Dyson, a California-born chemist on board the space station since April. Walker took Amelia Earhart's watch into orbit. Four men also are on board now: three Russians and one American. Each will stay for six months and return via a Soyuz.
All six took part in a group hug once the hatches swung open, then accepted a stream of congratulations from space agency managers, families and friends gathered in Russia's Mission Control outside Moscow. Nine minutes into the back-and-forth radio conversation, a Russian official urged, "OK, the best half of ISS, would you like to say something? Because only men are talking."
When reminded that Walker had already talked — though briefly — the official said: "Well, if there is nobody else, try to find a third woman if you have one up there."
Wednesday, by coincidence, marked the 47th anniversary of the launch of the first spacewoman, Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova.
And Friday is the 27th anniversary of the launch of America's first woman in space, Sally Ride.
Four women were at the space station in April, but only for 1 1/2 weeks. Three of them were brief shuttle visitors.
NASA wants to re-evaluate the orbit of the space station Friday — taking into account any changes as a result of the Soyuz docking — before deciding whether to move the outpost away from three pieces of worrisome space junk.
Mission managers decided there was no need to dodge a fourth piece of junk, which was expected to pass the station at a safe distance early Friday. That, too, was a chunk of an old Russian satellite.
Arriving with Walker was American Douglas Wheelock and Russian Fyodor Yurchikhin, both of whom visited the space station before. Walker is making her first spaceflight ever; she is married to NASA astronaut Andrew Thomas.
Her mother, Sherry Walker, watched the docking from Russia's Mission Control.
"I can see the big grin on your face," Sherry Walker radioed, "so I know you're having a good time."
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The International Space Station received three new residents with Thursday's arrival of a Russian capsule, doubling the size of its female crew to an all-time high.
NASA, meanwhile, was keeping close watch on three pieces of space junk that could come uncomfortably close to the orbiting outpost this weekend. They are old Russian and Chinese satellite and rocket parts.
The Soyuz spacecraft — launched two days earlier from Kazakhstan — docked at the orbiting outpost as the vessels zoomed 220 miles above the Atlantic near Argentina.
It's NASA's method of getting U.S. astronauts to and from the space station for lengthy missions, and will become the only means of getting people there, period, once the shuttles stop flying late this year or next. Private companies like Space Exploration Technologies, which successfully launched a test rocket into orbit from Cape Canaveral two weeks ago, hope to pick up the slack.
Russian space officials said the docking went exactly as planned and demonstrated the reliability of the Soyuz.
The early evening arrival of the latest Soyuz means there are now two women living full time at the space station for the first time ever. No previous space station ever had two female residents at the same time, so the docking marked a historic first.
Shannon Walker, a physicist from Houston, joins Tracy Caldwell Dyson, a California-born chemist on board the space station since April. Walker took Amelia Earhart's watch into orbit. Four men also are on board now: three Russians and one American. Each will stay for six months and return via a Soyuz.
All six took part in a group hug once the hatches swung open, then accepted a stream of congratulations from space agency managers, families and friends gathered in Russia's Mission Control outside Moscow. Nine minutes into the back-and-forth radio conversation, a Russian official urged, "OK, the best half of ISS, would you like to say something? Because only men are talking."
When reminded that Walker had already talked — though briefly — the official said: "Well, if there is nobody else, try to find a third woman if you have one up there."
Wednesday, by coincidence, marked the 47th anniversary of the launch of the first spacewoman, Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova.
And Friday is the 27th anniversary of the launch of America's first woman in space, Sally Ride.
Four women were at the space station in April, but only for 1 1/2 weeks. Three of them were brief shuttle visitors.
NASA wants to re-evaluate the orbit of the space station Friday — taking into account any changes as a result of the Soyuz docking — before deciding whether to move the outpost away from three pieces of worrisome space junk.
Mission managers decided there was no need to dodge a fourth piece of junk, which was expected to pass the station at a safe distance early Friday. That, too, was a chunk of an old Russian satellite.
Arriving with Walker was American Douglas Wheelock and Russian Fyodor Yurchikhin, both of whom visited the space station before. Walker is making her first spaceflight ever; she is married to NASA astronaut Andrew Thomas.
Her mother, Sherry Walker, watched the docking from Russia's Mission Control.
"I can see the big grin on your face," Sherry Walker radioed, "so I know you're having a good time."
Saturday, June 19, 2010
What Happened in Space News June 19
Viking 1 - USA Mars Orbiter/Lander - 3,399 kg was launched on August 20, 1975.
Both Viking 1 and 2 were designed after the Mariner spacecraft, and consisted of an orbiter (900 kg) and lander (600 kg).
Viking 1 went into orbit about Mars on June 19, 1976. The lander touched down on July 20, 1976 on the western slopes of Chryse Planitia.
Both landers had experiments to search for Martian micro-organism. The results of these experiments are still being debated. The landers provided detailed color panoramic views of the Martian terrain. They also monitored the Martian weather. The orbiters mapped the planet's surface, acquiring over 52,000 images.
The Viking 1 orbiter was deactivate on August 7, 1980 when it ran out of altitude-control propellant.
The Viking 1 lander was accidentally shut down on November 13, 1982, and communication was never regained.
Both Viking 1 and 2 were designed after the Mariner spacecraft, and consisted of an orbiter (900 kg) and lander (600 kg).
Viking 1 went into orbit about Mars on June 19, 1976. The lander touched down on July 20, 1976 on the western slopes of Chryse Planitia.
Both landers had experiments to search for Martian micro-organism. The results of these experiments are still being debated. The landers provided detailed color panoramic views of the Martian terrain. They also monitored the Martian weather. The orbiters mapped the planet's surface, acquiring over 52,000 images.
The Viking 1 orbiter was deactivate on August 7, 1980 when it ran out of altitude-control propellant.
The Viking 1 lander was accidentally shut down on November 13, 1982, and communication was never regained.
Friday, June 18, 2010
What Happened in Space News June 18
The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter , an American project, was launched on June 18, 2009.
This is the first mission of NASA's Robotic Lunar Exploration Program, and is designed to map the surface of the Moon and characterize future landing sites in terms of terrain roughness, usable resources, and radiation environment.
This is the first mission of NASA's Robotic Lunar Exploration Program, and is designed to map the surface of the Moon and characterize future landing sites in terms of terrain roughness, usable resources, and radiation environment.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
New crew heads to space station
New crew heads to space station
Three new crewmembers have launched to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
Americans Doug Wheelock and Shannon Walker and Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin will form part of the Expedition 24 team on the platform.
Their Soyuz TMA-19 blasted away from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 2135 GMT on Tuesday.
The ship is due to dock with the ISS's Zvezda service module at 2225 GMT on Thursday.
A hatch opening will take place some hours later to allow them to join fellow Expedition 24 crewmates Commander Alexander Skvortsov and flight engineers Mikhail Kornienko and Tracy Caldwell Dyson already aboard the platform.
Doug Wheelock is a US Army colonel who is making his second trip into space. Shannon Walker is making her first spaceflight.
Fyodor Yurchikhin the most experienced of the three. He is making his third trip to orbit having already spent six months aboard the station in 2007 as commander of Expedition 15.
Three new crewmembers have launched to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
Americans Doug Wheelock and Shannon Walker and Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin will form part of the Expedition 24 team on the platform.
Their Soyuz TMA-19 blasted away from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 2135 GMT on Tuesday.
The ship is due to dock with the ISS's Zvezda service module at 2225 GMT on Thursday.
A hatch opening will take place some hours later to allow them to join fellow Expedition 24 crewmates Commander Alexander Skvortsov and flight engineers Mikhail Kornienko and Tracy Caldwell Dyson already aboard the platform.
Doug Wheelock is a US Army colonel who is making his second trip into space. Shannon Walker is making her first spaceflight.
Fyodor Yurchikhin the most experienced of the three. He is making his third trip to orbit having already spent six months aboard the station in 2007 as commander of Expedition 15.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Russian rocket to launch new station crew
Russian rocket to launch new station crew
A Russian Soyuz spacecraft is poised to launch toward the International Space Station Tuesday to deliver three new members of the orbiting laboratory's multi-cultural crew.
The Soyuz TMA-19 spacecraft is set to lift off at 5:35 p.m. ET from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan in Central Asia carrying two American astronauts and one veteran Russian cosmonaut toward the the space station.
"The station has grown magnificently. You can't believe it," said cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin, who is returning to the space station on the Soyuz for the first time since 2007, in a prelaunch press conference.
Yurchikhin will launch alongside NASA astronauts Douglas Wheelock and Shannon Walker to join three other crewmates already aboard the International Space Station for the joint Expedition 24 mission at the nearly complete orbiting lab.
It will actually be 3:35 a.m. local time on June 16 when Yurchikhin and his crewmates blast off, placing their liftoff on the 47th anniversary of the launch of the first woman in space – cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova – in 1963.
"It's an honor to launch on her date, as well," Walker said.
Over the next six months, the astronauts and cosmonaut expect to perform several spacewalks to maintain the $100 billion space station. They also expect to host NASA's two final space shuttle missions – currently scheduled for mid-September and late November – before the U.S. space agency retires the shuttles for good.
"It's a big change in our program...but change is not always bad," Wheelock told reporters.
And while the new station astronauts may be present for the end of space shuttle era, their mission to prime the outpost for another decade in orbit is also exciting, he added.
"It's actually bittersweet to see the shuttle go but it's really an exciting time as well," Wheelock said. "We're also going to be the first increment to really go to full utilization of the space station as an orbiting laboratory."
Once the space shuttles retire, NASA will rely on Russian Soyuz vehicles to ferry American astronauts to and from the space station until new commercial spacecraft are available under a new space plan announced this year by U.S. President Barack Obama.
Space station crew spotlight
Yurchikhin, 51, is a veteran cosmonaut with Russia's Federal Space Agency making his third trip to the space station. He commanded the orbiting laboratory for six months in 2007 during the Expedition 17 mission and flew on NASA's STS-112 shuttle flight to the station in 2002. For this mission, he is commanding the Soyuz treks to and from the orbiting laboratory.
"It should be very great Expedition, I hope, like any Expedition on space station," Yurchikhin said in a NASA interview.
Yurchikhin is a mechanical engineer with a Ph.D. in economics who joined the Russian Space Corporation (RSC) Energia's cosmonaut corps in 1997 following a series of flight controller and engineering jobs. He served as the lead engineer for the joint Shuttle-Mir space station and NASA-Mir programs, ultimately flying on the shuttle Atlantis in 2002 before his first space station flight.
He and wife Larisa have two daughters. Yurchikhin is from Batumi in the Autonomous Republic of Ajara in Georgia.
"Wheels" in space
Like Yurchikhin, Wheelock – who goes by the call sign "Wheels" – is making a return to the International Space Station.
A colonel in the U.S. Army, Wheelock last flew to the space station during a 15-day mission aboard the shuttle Discovery in late 2007. This flight, however, he is ready for the long haul and has been posting updates and photos from his mission on Twitter under the name Astro_Wheels.
"Our chariot awaits! The Soyuz TMA-19 rocket standing ready at the launch pad," he wrote on Sunday after the rocket was hoisted into launch position.
Wheels is expecting to pull double-duty aboard the space station, first as a flight engineer with the Expedition 24 crew and later in command of the station's Expedition 25 mission in about three months. He has been working hard to hone his leadership skills.
"So that's my primary task, and I'm very much looking forward to flying aboard this marvelous machine," Wheelock said in a NASA interview.
Wheelock, 50, is from Windsor, New York and is veteran test pilot and spacewalker who joined NASA's astronaut corps in 1998. This is his second space mission.
Houston's hometown astronaut
Walker, 45, is the only rookie on this Soyuz launch, but she's no stranger to human spaceflight.
She was born and raised in Houston – the Texas-home to NASA's space station and space shuttle mission control centers – and is the first-ever Houston native astronaut to earn her spaceflight wings as a professional NASA spaceflyer.
Walker joined NASA's ranks in 1987 as a space shuttle flight engineer after earning a doctorate in physics from Rice University. She was accepted to the astronaut corps in 2004 and spent much of her time since learning how to help fly Russia's Soyuz spacecraft.
"Only a handful of us have been trained as the co-pilots on the Soyuz, and it's quite an extensive training process. I've spent the better part of the last three years over in Russia working with my Russian colleagues and my Russian instructors to learn how to be the co-pilot," Walker said in a NASA interview. "So it's quite an endeavor."
And Walker is not the only member of her family to fly in space. Her husband is Andrew Thomas, a veteran NASA astronaut who has flown three short-duration missions on space shuttles and one months-long trip to Russia's Mir space station.
Busy time in space
Yurchikhin, Wheelock and Walker are launching to the station during a busy time for the orbiting lab.
Earlier this month, June 2, the station's former Expedition 23 crew returned to Earth in a picture-perfect landing on the steppes of Kazakhstan. Since then, the station's crew size has been at half-strength.
But that will change Thursday evening when the Soyuz TMA-19 docks at the station and its three-person crew joins the current Expedition 24 mission team commanded by Alexander Skvortsov of Russia, with cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko and American astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson as flight engineers.
An unmanned Russian cargo ship is also slated to launch toward the space station later this month.
A Russian Soyuz spacecraft is poised to launch toward the International Space Station Tuesday to deliver three new members of the orbiting laboratory's multi-cultural crew.
The Soyuz TMA-19 spacecraft is set to lift off at 5:35 p.m. ET from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan in Central Asia carrying two American astronauts and one veteran Russian cosmonaut toward the the space station.
"The station has grown magnificently. You can't believe it," said cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin, who is returning to the space station on the Soyuz for the first time since 2007, in a prelaunch press conference.
Yurchikhin will launch alongside NASA astronauts Douglas Wheelock and Shannon Walker to join three other crewmates already aboard the International Space Station for the joint Expedition 24 mission at the nearly complete orbiting lab.
It will actually be 3:35 a.m. local time on June 16 when Yurchikhin and his crewmates blast off, placing their liftoff on the 47th anniversary of the launch of the first woman in space – cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova – in 1963.
"It's an honor to launch on her date, as well," Walker said.
Over the next six months, the astronauts and cosmonaut expect to perform several spacewalks to maintain the $100 billion space station. They also expect to host NASA's two final space shuttle missions – currently scheduled for mid-September and late November – before the U.S. space agency retires the shuttles for good.
"It's a big change in our program...but change is not always bad," Wheelock told reporters.
And while the new station astronauts may be present for the end of space shuttle era, their mission to prime the outpost for another decade in orbit is also exciting, he added.
"It's actually bittersweet to see the shuttle go but it's really an exciting time as well," Wheelock said. "We're also going to be the first increment to really go to full utilization of the space station as an orbiting laboratory."
Once the space shuttles retire, NASA will rely on Russian Soyuz vehicles to ferry American astronauts to and from the space station until new commercial spacecraft are available under a new space plan announced this year by U.S. President Barack Obama.
Space station crew spotlight
Yurchikhin, 51, is a veteran cosmonaut with Russia's Federal Space Agency making his third trip to the space station. He commanded the orbiting laboratory for six months in 2007 during the Expedition 17 mission and flew on NASA's STS-112 shuttle flight to the station in 2002. For this mission, he is commanding the Soyuz treks to and from the orbiting laboratory.
"It should be very great Expedition, I hope, like any Expedition on space station," Yurchikhin said in a NASA interview.
Yurchikhin is a mechanical engineer with a Ph.D. in economics who joined the Russian Space Corporation (RSC) Energia's cosmonaut corps in 1997 following a series of flight controller and engineering jobs. He served as the lead engineer for the joint Shuttle-Mir space station and NASA-Mir programs, ultimately flying on the shuttle Atlantis in 2002 before his first space station flight.
He and wife Larisa have two daughters. Yurchikhin is from Batumi in the Autonomous Republic of Ajara in Georgia.
"Wheels" in space
Like Yurchikhin, Wheelock – who goes by the call sign "Wheels" – is making a return to the International Space Station.
A colonel in the U.S. Army, Wheelock last flew to the space station during a 15-day mission aboard the shuttle Discovery in late 2007. This flight, however, he is ready for the long haul and has been posting updates and photos from his mission on Twitter under the name Astro_Wheels.
"Our chariot awaits! The Soyuz TMA-19 rocket standing ready at the launch pad," he wrote on Sunday after the rocket was hoisted into launch position.
Wheels is expecting to pull double-duty aboard the space station, first as a flight engineer with the Expedition 24 crew and later in command of the station's Expedition 25 mission in about three months. He has been working hard to hone his leadership skills.
"So that's my primary task, and I'm very much looking forward to flying aboard this marvelous machine," Wheelock said in a NASA interview.
Wheelock, 50, is from Windsor, New York and is veteran test pilot and spacewalker who joined NASA's astronaut corps in 1998. This is his second space mission.
Houston's hometown astronaut
Walker, 45, is the only rookie on this Soyuz launch, but she's no stranger to human spaceflight.
She was born and raised in Houston – the Texas-home to NASA's space station and space shuttle mission control centers – and is the first-ever Houston native astronaut to earn her spaceflight wings as a professional NASA spaceflyer.
Walker joined NASA's ranks in 1987 as a space shuttle flight engineer after earning a doctorate in physics from Rice University. She was accepted to the astronaut corps in 2004 and spent much of her time since learning how to help fly Russia's Soyuz spacecraft.
"Only a handful of us have been trained as the co-pilots on the Soyuz, and it's quite an extensive training process. I've spent the better part of the last three years over in Russia working with my Russian colleagues and my Russian instructors to learn how to be the co-pilot," Walker said in a NASA interview. "So it's quite an endeavor."
And Walker is not the only member of her family to fly in space. Her husband is Andrew Thomas, a veteran NASA astronaut who has flown three short-duration missions on space shuttles and one months-long trip to Russia's Mir space station.
Busy time in space
Yurchikhin, Wheelock and Walker are launching to the station during a busy time for the orbiting lab.
Earlier this month, June 2, the station's former Expedition 23 crew returned to Earth in a picture-perfect landing on the steppes of Kazakhstan. Since then, the station's crew size has been at half-strength.
But that will change Thursday evening when the Soyuz TMA-19 docks at the station and its three-person crew joins the current Expedition 24 mission team commanded by Alexander Skvortsov of Russia, with cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko and American astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson as flight engineers.
An unmanned Russian cargo ship is also slated to launch toward the space station later this month.
What Happened in Space News June 15
Vega 2 - USSR Venus/Comet Halley Probe - 4,000 kg was launched on December 21, 1984.
Vega 2 flew past Venus on June 15, 1985 on its way for a flyby with comet Halley.
Like its sister probe Vega 1, t dropped off a Venera-type lander and a balloon to investigate the Venusian middle cloud layer.
The lander's soil experiment sampled anorthosite-troctolite which is found in the lunar highlands but is rare on Earth.
The balloon floated in the atmosphere for about 48 hours at an altitude of 54 kilometers.
Between Vega 1 and 2, downward gusts of 1 meter/second were encountered and wind velocities of up to 240 kilometers/hour. The Comet Halley flyby took place on March 9, 1986.
Like Vega 1, Vega 2 probe is now in a solar orbit.
Vega 2 flew past Venus on June 15, 1985 on its way for a flyby with comet Halley.
Like its sister probe Vega 1, t dropped off a Venera-type lander and a balloon to investigate the Venusian middle cloud layer.
The lander's soil experiment sampled anorthosite-troctolite which is found in the lunar highlands but is rare on Earth.
The balloon floated in the atmosphere for about 48 hours at an altitude of 54 kilometers.
Between Vega 1 and 2, downward gusts of 1 meter/second were encountered and wind velocities of up to 240 kilometers/hour. The Comet Halley flyby took place on March 9, 1986.
Like Vega 1, Vega 2 probe is now in a solar orbit.
Monday, June 14, 2010
Hayabusa asteroid-sample capsule recovered in Outback
(I reported on this news yesterday - here is more info)
Hayabusa asteroid-sample capsule recovered in Outback
Shades of The Adromeda Strain. A craft lands on an asteroid - some bits of it other than the collection horn must have touched the surface of the legs, or what have you... if there are space-germs on those legs...?
I doubt that these germs - if any - would have the same impact as The Adromeda Strain (and I'm talking about the classic book by Michael Crichton, not the abominable mini-series that aired a couple of years ago)but who knows?
Hayabusa asteroid-sample capsule recovered in Outback
The Japanese space capsule which landed in the Australian Outback on Sunday night (local time) has been recovered.
The Hayabusa pod was picked up by a helicopter team and transferred to a control centre on the Woomera Prohibited Area.
The canister, which is believed to hold the first samples ever grabbed from the surface of an asteroid, will now be shipped to Tokyo.
The Japanese space agency (Jaxa) says the capsule looks to be intact.
The return was the culmination of a remarkable seven-year adventure, which saw Hayabusa visit asteroid Itokawa in 2005 and attempt to pluck dust from its surface before firing its engines for home.
The $200m mission encountered many technical problems, from being hit by a solar flare to experiencing propulsion glitches. But each time an issue came up, the Japanese project team found an elegant solution to keep Hayabusa alive and bring it back to Earth - albeit three years late.
Continue reading the main story We're pretty confident there'll be something inside the spacecraft
Dr Michael Zolensky
Nasa Johnson Space Center
The re-entry on Sunday, at 1351 GMT, produced a spectacular fireball in the Australian night sky.
The main spacecraft broke apart in a shower of light.
As these bright streaks faded, a single point could then be seen racing to the ground. This was the capsule protected against the 3,000-degree heat generated in the fall by its carbon shield.
It took about an hour to locate the capsule by helicopter, its position tracked by radar and a beacon that was transmitting from inside the canister.
It was only when daylight came up on Monday, however, that a recovery team began to approach the 40cm-wide pod which was lying on the ground still attached to its parachute.
A helicopter found the capsule about an hour after the return The heat-shield, which was dumped by the canister in the final moments before touch-down, was also located. Engineers will be keen to see how well it stood up to the 12km/s descent.
In the coming days, the capsule will be prepared for its transfer out of the country. Japanese, American and Australian scientists will open the canister in an ultra-clean, evacuated environment.
"The retrieved capsule will be transported to the Jaxa Sagamihara Campus in Kanagawa," Dr Keiji Tachikawa, the president of Jaxa, said in a statement.
"First, the sample container will be inspected, and then the content will be extracted for analysis. We hope to find the Itokawa's surface material in the capsule, and contribute to understanding the origin and evolution of the Solar System."
Even now, there is still some uncertainty as to whether the capsule really does contain pieces of Itokawa.
The Hayabusa spacecraft's capture mechanism was supposed to shoot a ball bearing at Itokawa when it landed to kick up rock inside a collection horn. An analysis of telemetry data suggests this mechanism may have malfunctioned at the crucial moment.
Nonetheless, scientists connected with the mission remain confident of success.
"It may have worked, it may not; we just don't know," said Dr Michael Zolensky from Nasa's Johnson Space Center.
"But even if it didn't work, the spacecraft landed for half an hour on the surface, and during that landing - it was a hard landing - it should have collected a sample even without firing anything. So, we're pretty confident there'll be something inside the spacecraft," he told BBC News.
Shades of The Adromeda Strain. A craft lands on an asteroid - some bits of it other than the collection horn must have touched the surface of the legs, or what have you... if there are space-germs on those legs...?
I doubt that these germs - if any - would have the same impact as The Adromeda Strain (and I'm talking about the classic book by Michael Crichton, not the abominable mini-series that aired a couple of years ago)but who knows?
What Happened in Space News June 14
Two events on a June 14
______________________________________
Mariner 5 - USA Venus Flyby - 244 kg - was launched on June 14, 1967.
Mariner 5 arrived at Venus on October 19, 1967, one day after Venera 4. It passed within 3,900 kilometers of the planet's surface.
It studied the Venusian magnetic field and found that its atmosphere was composed of 85-99% carbon dioxide. It is now in a solar orbit.
_______________________________________
Venera 10 - USSR Venus Orbiter and Lander - 5,033 kg was launched on June 14, 1975 (7 days after its sister spacecraft, Venera 9).
Venera 10 arrived at Venus on October 25, 1975, three days after its sister spacecraft Venera 9.
Both orbiters photographed the clouds and looked at the upper atmosphere. Differences in cloud layers were discovered at 57-70 kilometers, 52-57 kilometers, and 49-52 kilometers from the surface. The lander arrived on the Venusian surface on November 25, 1975. During a period of 65 minutes, it transmitted black and white images of the planets surface.
______________________________________
Mariner 5 - USA Venus Flyby - 244 kg - was launched on June 14, 1967.
Mariner 5 arrived at Venus on October 19, 1967, one day after Venera 4. It passed within 3,900 kilometers of the planet's surface.
It studied the Venusian magnetic field and found that its atmosphere was composed of 85-99% carbon dioxide. It is now in a solar orbit.
_______________________________________
Venera 10 - USSR Venus Orbiter and Lander - 5,033 kg was launched on June 14, 1975 (7 days after its sister spacecraft, Venera 9).
Venera 10 arrived at Venus on October 25, 1975, three days after its sister spacecraft Venera 9.
Both orbiters photographed the clouds and looked at the upper atmosphere. Differences in cloud layers were discovered at 57-70 kilometers, 52-57 kilometers, and 49-52 kilometers from the surface. The lander arrived on the Venusian surface on November 25, 1975. During a period of 65 minutes, it transmitted black and white images of the planets surface.
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Japanese Space Probe Returns After 7 Years and Asteroid Landing
ABC news: Space Probe Returns After 7 Years and Asteroid Landing
SYDNEY, Jun (Reuters) - A Japanese space probe, which scientists hope is carrying a sample from an asteroid, has returned to Earth, blazing a spectacular trail across the sky in the Australian outback, witnesses said Monday.
The Hayabusa probe is returning home after a seven-year mission which took it to the near-Earth asteroid Itokawa, on which it landed in 2005. Scientists hope it has brought back a sample, the first time one has come back to Earth from any other world, except our own Moon.
An Australian defense official speaking from the area told Reuters Monday the probe lit up the sky as it returned on schedule around midnight local time (1430 GMT) over the Woomera weapons testing range in South Australia state.
"It was like a shooting star with a starburst behind it. It was fantastic," the official told Reuters by telephone, saying officials were on their way to discover its exact landing site and retrieve its contents.
Teams from NASA in a flying laboratory have been deployed to watch the craft's arrival, along with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), which sent the 500-kilogram probe on its mission in 2003.
Stretches of central Australia's main north-south Stuart Highway were closed for the probe's return. The first people to see it will include local Aboriginal elders, who will make sure it has not damaged any sites sacred to the area's indigenous people.
Itokawa is an irregularly shaped asteroid which measures just over 500 meters at its longest.
Scientists hope Hayabusa - whose name means "falcon" in Japanese - will give them information about the formation of asteroids, while it is also a test for new technology which could be used to return other space samples to Earth in the future.
After recovery, the contents of a capsule thought to contain the asteroid sample are later to be moved to Japan for analysis.
SYDNEY, Jun (Reuters) - A Japanese space probe, which scientists hope is carrying a sample from an asteroid, has returned to Earth, blazing a spectacular trail across the sky in the Australian outback, witnesses said Monday.
The Hayabusa probe is returning home after a seven-year mission which took it to the near-Earth asteroid Itokawa, on which it landed in 2005. Scientists hope it has brought back a sample, the first time one has come back to Earth from any other world, except our own Moon.
An Australian defense official speaking from the area told Reuters Monday the probe lit up the sky as it returned on schedule around midnight local time (1430 GMT) over the Woomera weapons testing range in South Australia state.
"It was like a shooting star with a starburst behind it. It was fantastic," the official told Reuters by telephone, saying officials were on their way to discover its exact landing site and retrieve its contents.
Teams from NASA in a flying laboratory have been deployed to watch the craft's arrival, along with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), which sent the 500-kilogram probe on its mission in 2003.
Stretches of central Australia's main north-south Stuart Highway were closed for the probe's return. The first people to see it will include local Aboriginal elders, who will make sure it has not damaged any sites sacred to the area's indigenous people.
Itokawa is an irregularly shaped asteroid which measures just over 500 meters at its longest.
Scientists hope Hayabusa - whose name means "falcon" in Japanese - will give them information about the formation of asteroids, while it is also a test for new technology which could be used to return other space samples to Earth in the future.
After recovery, the contents of a capsule thought to contain the asteroid sample are later to be moved to Japan for analysis.
What Happened in Space News June 13
Pioneer 10 - USA Jupiter Flyby - 259 kg - was launched on March 3, 1972.
Pioneer 10 flew by Jupiter on December 1, 1973, passing 132,250 kilometers from the planet's cloud tops. It returned over 500 images of Jupiter and its moons, and collected information on Jupiter's magnetic field, trapped charged particles, and solar wind interactions.
Pioneer 10 crossed the orbit boundary of Pluto on June 13, 1983.
It has now left the solar system.
Pioneer 10 flew by Jupiter on December 1, 1973, passing 132,250 kilometers from the planet's cloud tops. It returned over 500 images of Jupiter and its moons, and collected information on Jupiter's magnetic field, trapped charged particles, and solar wind interactions.
Pioneer 10 crossed the orbit boundary of Pluto on June 13, 1983.
It has now left the solar system.
Saturday, June 12, 2010
What Happened in Space News June 12
Venera 4 - USSR Venus Atmospheric Probe - 1,104 kg - was launched om June 12, 1967.
It would arrive at Venus on October 18, 1967.
This was the first probe to be placed directly into the atmosphere and to return atmospheric data. It showed that the atmosphere was 90-95% carbon dioxide. It detected no nitrogen. The surface temperature reading was 500°C and pressure reading was 75 bar. It was crushed by the pressure on Venus before it reached the surface.
It would arrive at Venus on October 18, 1967.
This was the first probe to be placed directly into the atmosphere and to return atmospheric data. It showed that the atmosphere was 90-95% carbon dioxide. It detected no nitrogen. The surface temperature reading was 500°C and pressure reading was 75 bar. It was crushed by the pressure on Venus before it reached the surface.
Friday, June 11, 2010
Outback landing ends seven-year space odyssey for Hayabusa
Outback landing ends seven-year space odyssey for Hayabusa
Around midnight on Sunday, in a sparse desert in the middle of the Outback in South Australia, a small capsule is expected to drop from the sky, ending a 3 billion-mile (4.8 billion km), seven-year odyssey to bring a piece of space rock to Earth.
Scientists from around the world have been gathering all week at the Woomera Test Range, an area roughly the size of England, which is the anticipated landing point for a capsule from the Hayabusa, a Japanese space probe launched in 2003 with the aim of collecting samples from an asteroid and bringing them back to Earth for testing.
If successful it will be the first probe to bring asteroid dust to Earth, the first spacecraft to successfully land on and lift off a celestial body other than the Moon, and the first space landing in Australia.
It will also end a remarkable journey for the Hayabusa, which has been so fraught with drama, including technical troubles, broken engines and dysfunctional batteries, that some scientists have dubbed the mission the “robotic equivalent of Apollo 13”.
Related Links
Mission to Mars: crew to simulate space flight
Countdown to last mission for Atlantis
The Hayabusa is a car-sized spacecraft with solar paddles. It weighs 510kg (1,125lb) and cost 12.7 billion yen (£94 million) to develop.
The unmanned mission was launched by the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (Jaxa) in 2003 in the hope of returning a sample of material from a small, potato-shaped asteroid, named Itokawa, to Earth for analysis.
The Hayabusa reached Itokawa, a 540m (1,770ft) wide lump orbiting 3 billion km from Earth, in late 2005. After an unsuccessful attempt to collect samples of the asteroid Jaxa scientists sealed the probe’s sampling chamber in the hope that it might collect dust that floated up when the probe touched the asteroid.
Scientists said that they hope these raw samples will help them to learn more about how the solar system was created and how to reduce the threat of any celestial object on a collision course with Earth.
Nasa and Jaxa scientists have arrived in South Australia to help to recover the capsule from the Hayabusa probe, which will burn up on re-entry. The capsule is expected to land around midnight on Sunday (3pm Sunday GMT).
Michael Zolensky, a Nasa scientist, said that the dust sample, if any, would be small, but significant for being able to reduce the threat of an asteroid impact.
“If you want to mitigate that hazard you have to know about the physical properties of asteroids, what they are made of, so they are important for that reason as well,” Dr Zolensky said this week before heading out to the Woomera site.
“It probably is going to return less than a gram of sample, at the most a couple of grams, possibly much less than that.”
Dr Zolensky said that it was unknown whether the unmanned mission had succeeded in collecting any samples from the asteroid, but scientists were confident that they would find at least some particles to analyse.
“Even if the sampler did not work ... as it was planned to do, there is good reason to expect that just the process of landing on the asteroid would have coated the inside of the spacecraft with dust,” he said. “When we open it up I think it is not going to be empty.”
The journey has captured the imagination of the people of Japan, who have followed the plight of the Hayabusa, which means falcon, as if it were a real person.
Thousands of supporters have left messages on the mission’s website, with many referring to the probe as if it was a human boy and cheering him on the final approach back to Earth.
“What’s special to Hayabusa is it has enthusiastic fans,” Makoto Yoshikawa, a Jaxa associate professor, said. “I believe ordinary people love it because it tried what is unprecedented.
As well as hopefully collected samples from Itokawa, Hayabusa left a piece of Earth on the asteroid — a metal ball wrapped in a thin plastic film that bears the names of 880,000 people from 149 countries, among them Steven Spielberg, the American film-maker, and the British science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke, who had all responded to Jaxa’s public invitation to be listed.
Around midnight on Sunday, in a sparse desert in the middle of the Outback in South Australia, a small capsule is expected to drop from the sky, ending a 3 billion-mile (4.8 billion km), seven-year odyssey to bring a piece of space rock to Earth.
Scientists from around the world have been gathering all week at the Woomera Test Range, an area roughly the size of England, which is the anticipated landing point for a capsule from the Hayabusa, a Japanese space probe launched in 2003 with the aim of collecting samples from an asteroid and bringing them back to Earth for testing.
If successful it will be the first probe to bring asteroid dust to Earth, the first spacecraft to successfully land on and lift off a celestial body other than the Moon, and the first space landing in Australia.
It will also end a remarkable journey for the Hayabusa, which has been so fraught with drama, including technical troubles, broken engines and dysfunctional batteries, that some scientists have dubbed the mission the “robotic equivalent of Apollo 13”.
Related Links
Mission to Mars: crew to simulate space flight
Countdown to last mission for Atlantis
The Hayabusa is a car-sized spacecraft with solar paddles. It weighs 510kg (1,125lb) and cost 12.7 billion yen (£94 million) to develop.
The unmanned mission was launched by the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (Jaxa) in 2003 in the hope of returning a sample of material from a small, potato-shaped asteroid, named Itokawa, to Earth for analysis.
The Hayabusa reached Itokawa, a 540m (1,770ft) wide lump orbiting 3 billion km from Earth, in late 2005. After an unsuccessful attempt to collect samples of the asteroid Jaxa scientists sealed the probe’s sampling chamber in the hope that it might collect dust that floated up when the probe touched the asteroid.
Scientists said that they hope these raw samples will help them to learn more about how the solar system was created and how to reduce the threat of any celestial object on a collision course with Earth.
Nasa and Jaxa scientists have arrived in South Australia to help to recover the capsule from the Hayabusa probe, which will burn up on re-entry. The capsule is expected to land around midnight on Sunday (3pm Sunday GMT).
Michael Zolensky, a Nasa scientist, said that the dust sample, if any, would be small, but significant for being able to reduce the threat of an asteroid impact.
“If you want to mitigate that hazard you have to know about the physical properties of asteroids, what they are made of, so they are important for that reason as well,” Dr Zolensky said this week before heading out to the Woomera site.
“It probably is going to return less than a gram of sample, at the most a couple of grams, possibly much less than that.”
Dr Zolensky said that it was unknown whether the unmanned mission had succeeded in collecting any samples from the asteroid, but scientists were confident that they would find at least some particles to analyse.
“Even if the sampler did not work ... as it was planned to do, there is good reason to expect that just the process of landing on the asteroid would have coated the inside of the spacecraft with dust,” he said. “When we open it up I think it is not going to be empty.”
The journey has captured the imagination of the people of Japan, who have followed the plight of the Hayabusa, which means falcon, as if it were a real person.
Thousands of supporters have left messages on the mission’s website, with many referring to the probe as if it was a human boy and cheering him on the final approach back to Earth.
“What’s special to Hayabusa is it has enthusiastic fans,” Makoto Yoshikawa, a Jaxa associate professor, said. “I believe ordinary people love it because it tried what is unprecedented.
As well as hopefully collected samples from Itokawa, Hayabusa left a piece of Earth on the asteroid — a metal ball wrapped in a thin plastic film that bears the names of 880,000 people from 149 countries, among them Steven Spielberg, the American film-maker, and the British science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke, who had all responded to Jaxa’s public invitation to be listed.
Space Systems/Loral files for $100M IPO
Space Systems/Loral files for $100M IPO
Satellite maker Space Systems/Loral Inc. said it plans to raise $100 million in an initial public offering.
The company's services help provide access to Internet, mobile video, TV and radio feeds and communications products. It also works with government customers.
Space Systems/Loral said it expects growth from increasing consumer use of high-definition and 3-D TV and broadband Internet, military needs and demand in emerging markets lacking communications infrastructures.
It has delivered more than 230 satellites and had a backlog of 19 satellites, worth $1.6 billion, in December 2009.
Space Systems/Loral said in a regulatory filing that it will use net proceeds from the offering for working capital.
In the first quarter of 2010, the company posted net income of $1.8 million, compared to a loss of $2.5 million in the first three months of 2009. Revenue rose 6.7 percent to $230.9 million.
The company did not say how many shares it expected to sell in the IPO or offer a prospective price range for shares.
Credit Suisse and JPMorgan are managing the IPO.
Satellite maker Space Systems/Loral Inc. said it plans to raise $100 million in an initial public offering.
The company's services help provide access to Internet, mobile video, TV and radio feeds and communications products. It also works with government customers.
Space Systems/Loral said it expects growth from increasing consumer use of high-definition and 3-D TV and broadband Internet, military needs and demand in emerging markets lacking communications infrastructures.
It has delivered more than 230 satellites and had a backlog of 19 satellites, worth $1.6 billion, in December 2009.
Space Systems/Loral said in a regulatory filing that it will use net proceeds from the offering for working capital.
In the first quarter of 2010, the company posted net income of $1.8 million, compared to a loss of $2.5 million in the first three months of 2009. Revenue rose 6.7 percent to $230.9 million.
The company did not say how many shares it expected to sell in the IPO or offer a prospective price range for shares.
Credit Suisse and JPMorgan are managing the IPO.
Future of space rocket (South Korean rocket exploded on launch)
Future of space rocket
Failure is stepping stone to success
Korea suffered another setback in its ambitious space rocket program since its first aborted bid to put its scientific research satellite into orbit last August. On Thursday, the second blastoff of the Korea Space Launch Vehicle (KSLV-I) ended in failure with an explosion after 137.19 seconds.
The higher the people's expectations were, the greater their disappointment became. But they soon had to reconcile with the grim reality that Korea still has a long way to go to realize its space dream. The country currently lacks expertise and technology to launch a space rocket.
That's why the nation has teamed up with Russia to experiment with its first space rocket since 2004. It paid 250 billion won ($200 million) to the Russian side for the 800-billion-won project, which called for the world's space power to make the main, first-stage while Korea assembled the second-stage and satellite.
The big-budget project is not merely a matter of money but also a symbol of Korea's pride and its challenging spirit. Thus, the second failure is certainly frustrating to the public as well as scientists, engineers and officials who had worked hard to produce successful results. But now, we don't have much time to spend crying over spilled milk. What's for sure is that Korea can never give up its dream toward space.
Now, the first thing is to find the exact cause of the midair explosion of the rocket. The first indications suggest a failure of the main RD-151 rocket engine developed by Russia's NPO Energomash. Determining the cause is important as it will dictate the future course of the project. But it is not easy for Korean engineers to actively participate in investigations into the explosion because the Russian side has monopolized all the data on the main rocket.
If Russia is found to be responsible for the failure, it would be obliged to accept Korea's demand for a third rocket. Under the agreement with the Russian side, Korea may ask for a third launch if the first two rockets fail to place a satellite into orbit. But it is not mandatory for Russia to automatically provide another space launch vehicle to Korea.
The first launch of the KSLV-I, or better known as the Naro-1 space rocket, was described as a ``half success" because the rocket reached orbit with both first- and second-stage rockets functioning without a glitch. But, the malfunctioning of the fairing assembly system for the 100kg satellite was attributed to the failure. In the second launch, the Korean researchers even had no chance of testing their second-stage rocket and satellite.
Korea should draw a lesson from the two rocket launches that it should develop its own technology to put together all the parts of the launch vehicle. The nation cannot join the group of the world's 10 space powers without achieving technology independence. We hope that the country will use its failure as a stepping stone to success.
Failure is stepping stone to success
Korea suffered another setback in its ambitious space rocket program since its first aborted bid to put its scientific research satellite into orbit last August. On Thursday, the second blastoff of the Korea Space Launch Vehicle (KSLV-I) ended in failure with an explosion after 137.19 seconds.
The higher the people's expectations were, the greater their disappointment became. But they soon had to reconcile with the grim reality that Korea still has a long way to go to realize its space dream. The country currently lacks expertise and technology to launch a space rocket.
That's why the nation has teamed up with Russia to experiment with its first space rocket since 2004. It paid 250 billion won ($200 million) to the Russian side for the 800-billion-won project, which called for the world's space power to make the main, first-stage while Korea assembled the second-stage and satellite.
The big-budget project is not merely a matter of money but also a symbol of Korea's pride and its challenging spirit. Thus, the second failure is certainly frustrating to the public as well as scientists, engineers and officials who had worked hard to produce successful results. But now, we don't have much time to spend crying over spilled milk. What's for sure is that Korea can never give up its dream toward space.
Now, the first thing is to find the exact cause of the midair explosion of the rocket. The first indications suggest a failure of the main RD-151 rocket engine developed by Russia's NPO Energomash. Determining the cause is important as it will dictate the future course of the project. But it is not easy for Korean engineers to actively participate in investigations into the explosion because the Russian side has monopolized all the data on the main rocket.
If Russia is found to be responsible for the failure, it would be obliged to accept Korea's demand for a third rocket. Under the agreement with the Russian side, Korea may ask for a third launch if the first two rockets fail to place a satellite into orbit. But it is not mandatory for Russia to automatically provide another space launch vehicle to Korea.
The first launch of the KSLV-I, or better known as the Naro-1 space rocket, was described as a ``half success" because the rocket reached orbit with both first- and second-stage rockets functioning without a glitch. But, the malfunctioning of the fairing assembly system for the 100kg satellite was attributed to the failure. In the second launch, the Korean researchers even had no chance of testing their second-stage rocket and satellite.
Korea should draw a lesson from the two rocket launches that it should develop its own technology to put together all the parts of the launch vehicle. The nation cannot join the group of the world's 10 space powers without achieving technology independence. We hope that the country will use its failure as a stepping stone to success.
What Happened in Space News June 11
Vega 1 - USSR Venus/Comet Halley Flyby - 4,000 kg was launched on December 15, 1984.
Vega 1 flew past Venus on June 11, 1985 on its way for a flyby with comet Halley. It dropped off a Venera-type lander and a balloon to investigate the Venusian middle cloud layer.
The lander's soil experiment failed. The balloon floated in the atmosphere for about 48 hours at an altitude of 54 kilometers.
The Comet Halley flyby took place on March 6, 1986.
Both Vega 1 and Vega 2 are currently in heliocentric orbits.
Vega 1 flew past Venus on June 11, 1985 on its way for a flyby with comet Halley. It dropped off a Venera-type lander and a balloon to investigate the Venusian middle cloud layer.
The lander's soil experiment failed. The balloon floated in the atmosphere for about 48 hours at an altitude of 54 kilometers.
The Comet Halley flyby took place on March 6, 1986.
Both Vega 1 and Vega 2 are currently in heliocentric orbits.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Bulk of $40M Promised for Fla. Will Foster New Jobs
From Space News: Bulk of $40M Promised for Fla. Will Foster New Jobs
A White House-appointed task force established to pump $40 million into central Florida’s space economy will not deliver a detailed spending plan for the money until Aug. 15, but NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said the bulk of it would be used to attract new jobs to the Kennedy Space Center region while providing training and other employment services for workers facing layoffs when the space shuttle retires later this year.
“Our plan is to devote approximately $30 million to spur regional economic growth in the area surrounding the Kennedy Space Center and $10 million for job training activities in this area,” Bolden said during a June 4 panel discussion in Orlando, Fla.
Bolden, who co-chairs the task force with Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, said 324 Kennedy Space Center employees, almost all contractors, have received job-search counseling from four area work force transition offices the agency established in March. But while the task force continues short-term efforts to match aerospace contractors with new employment opportunities, its primary goal is to promote sustainable job growth in central Florida.
“The long-term solution is to spur economic growth and diversification in the areas affected by ending the space shuttle and Constellation programs and ensure that the workers are suited to perform new work that results,” Bolden said.
A White House-appointed task force established to pump $40 million into central Florida’s space economy will not deliver a detailed spending plan for the money until Aug. 15, but NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said the bulk of it would be used to attract new jobs to the Kennedy Space Center region while providing training and other employment services for workers facing layoffs when the space shuttle retires later this year.
“Our plan is to devote approximately $30 million to spur regional economic growth in the area surrounding the Kennedy Space Center and $10 million for job training activities in this area,” Bolden said during a June 4 panel discussion in Orlando, Fla.
Bolden, who co-chairs the task force with Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, said 324 Kennedy Space Center employees, almost all contractors, have received job-search counseling from four area work force transition offices the agency established in March. But while the task force continues short-term efforts to match aerospace contractors with new employment opportunities, its primary goal is to promote sustainable job growth in central Florida.
“The long-term solution is to spur economic growth and diversification in the areas affected by ending the space shuttle and Constellation programs and ensure that the workers are suited to perform new work that results,” Bolden said.
What Happened in Space News June 10
Two events on a June 10
_______________________________________________
Explorer 49 - USA Solar Probe - 328 kg - was launched on June 10, 1973.
Explorer 49 (RAE-B) was a 328 kilogram satellite intended for longwave radio astronomy research. It had four 230-meter long X-shaped antenna elements, which made it one of the largest spacecraft ever built.
This mission was the second of a pair of Radio Astronomy Explorer (RAE) satellites, Explorer 38 (RAE-A) being the first. Explorer 49 was placed into lunar orbit to provide radio astronomical measurements of the planets, the sun, and the galaxy over the frequency range of 25 kHz to 13.1 MHz. Becauses the spacecraft's design used gravity gradient booms, the lumpy lunar gravity field caused problems for the mission scientists.
Explorer 49 was launched after the termination of the Apollo program, and although it did not examine the Moon directly, it became the last American lunar mission until the launch of Clementine spacecraft in 1994.
_______________________________________
Spirit (MER-A) - USA Mars Rover was launched on 10 June 2003
_______________________________________________
Explorer 49 - USA Solar Probe - 328 kg - was launched on June 10, 1973.
Explorer 49 (RAE-B) was a 328 kilogram satellite intended for longwave radio astronomy research. It had four 230-meter long X-shaped antenna elements, which made it one of the largest spacecraft ever built.
This mission was the second of a pair of Radio Astronomy Explorer (RAE) satellites, Explorer 38 (RAE-A) being the first. Explorer 49 was placed into lunar orbit to provide radio astronomical measurements of the planets, the sun, and the galaxy over the frequency range of 25 kHz to 13.1 MHz. Becauses the spacecraft's design used gravity gradient booms, the lumpy lunar gravity field caused problems for the mission scientists.
Explorer 49 was launched after the termination of the Apollo program, and although it did not examine the Moon directly, it became the last American lunar mission until the launch of Clementine spacecraft in 1994.
_______________________________________
Spirit (MER-A) - USA Mars Rover was launched on 10 June 2003
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Johnson Space Center's future relies on moon program compromise
Johnson Space Center's future relies on moon program compromise
WASHINGTON — The political potshots have subsided and the serious horse-trading lies ahead as the White House and Congress grind toward a compromise to salvage parts of the NASA moon program crucial to Houston's Johnson Space Center.
The legislative end-game is up in the air, as is any clear date to declare success or defeat. But the mood surrounding the space program in the nation's capital has shifted from seizing partisan advantage to pursuing at least some political pragmatism.
The predictable uproar in NASA-dependent states that greeted President Barack Obama's proposal to cancel the $108 billion Constellation program and the jobs that go with it has broadened geographically into a both a Republican and Democrat drive on Capitol Hill to protect features of the nation's legendary program of manned space exploration.
Obama critics have gained momentum by seizing on NASA's sacking of outspoken Constellation program manager Jeff Hanley, rumors of NASA attempting to cancel existing contracts in violation of congressional language, and the administration's targeted workforce transition assistance for the electoral battleground of Florida rather than all states potentially affected by NASA layoffs.
Schizoid situation feared
“What's changed is that lawmakers without a direct constituent stake in the space program now want a deal with the White House,” says space program historian John Logsdon, former head of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University. “Everyone recognizes that it's untenable to have a schizoid situation where the White House wants to kill the moon program and Congress wants to save it. They're searching for common ground.”
Reps. Gene Green, D-Houston, and John Culberson, R-Houston, are helping to orchestrate the effort by 33 House members from eight states urging Obama to abandon cancellation of the back-to-the-moon program.
Lawmakers' conciliatory approach contrasts with catcall rhetoric initially unleashed by disappointed space-state Republicans who accused Obama of imperiling national security and control of the high ground in space. The shuttle fleet is expected to retire this year, leaving NASA to rely on Russians to ferry astronauts into orbit.
Obama proposed shifting NASA's marquee mission from a return to the moon to fostering a commercial spacecraft industry with $6 billion in taxpayers' money.
“We look forward to working with you in the coming weeks to make the necessary changes (to the White House budget proposal) in order to support an exploration program that continues our elite astronaut corps, preserves an irreplaceable workforce, protects our defense industrial base and ensures that the U.S. will leave low-earth orbit within the decade,” the lawmakers tell the president in a letter to be delivered to the White House Friday.
‘A good response'
The letter signed by lawmakers from Texas, Virginia, Maryland, Florida, Colorado, Louisiana, Ohio and Missouri is “getting a good response” because it lays out both a bipartisan and a multi-state perspective, says Rep. Kevin Brady, R-The Woodlands.”
Richard Weiss, spokesman for the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, did not return a phone call seeking comment. Officials at NASA headquarters declined to discuss potential bargaining with Congress.
So far, the White House and Congress are sketching trade-offs from afar.
Obama has adjusted the plan he unveiled in February to cancel Constellation and the deep-space Orion crew capsule. He has suggested the crew capsule serve as a stand-by rescue vehicle attached to the orbiting space station as work continues on a deep space vehicle to reach asteroids by 2025 and to orbit Mars in the 2030s.
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden has responded to pressure from Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Dallas, and Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., for a two-year extension of shuttle operations beyond scheduled retirement in November by signaling NASA's willingness to convert an emergency stand-by shuttle mission into an add-on cargo flight to the station next year.
More worker assistance
Bolden also hinted that the $40 million in workforce transition assistance promised workers along Florida's Space Coast could be expanded to include other NASA facilities facing potential layoffs or contract cancellations.
The Obama administration also may become flexible on the proposal for a commercial spacecraft industry in the face of congressional resistance. The president has suggested using private spacecraft built by entrepreneurs such as Elon Musk or space contractors like Boeing and Lockheed Martin, instead of NASA spacecraft, to ferry crew and cargo to the orbiting space station through 2020.
Scott Pace, a former NASA official directing the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University, says he can foresee a compromise in which Congress maintains development of NASA's Ares I system to reach low Earth orbit and simultaneously underwrites efforts for rockets built by private firms.
For all the wrangling ahead, outside experts say Congress will not have easy time of overturning Obama's vision for NASA.
Congress routinely overrides presidential decisions to cancel cherished Pentagon weapons programs but it “has never before gotten into this degree of specifics on the technical content of the space program,” says Logsdon, a long-time NASA adviser. “This is unprecedented.”
WASHINGTON — The political potshots have subsided and the serious horse-trading lies ahead as the White House and Congress grind toward a compromise to salvage parts of the NASA moon program crucial to Houston's Johnson Space Center.
The legislative end-game is up in the air, as is any clear date to declare success or defeat. But the mood surrounding the space program in the nation's capital has shifted from seizing partisan advantage to pursuing at least some political pragmatism.
The predictable uproar in NASA-dependent states that greeted President Barack Obama's proposal to cancel the $108 billion Constellation program and the jobs that go with it has broadened geographically into a both a Republican and Democrat drive on Capitol Hill to protect features of the nation's legendary program of manned space exploration.
Obama critics have gained momentum by seizing on NASA's sacking of outspoken Constellation program manager Jeff Hanley, rumors of NASA attempting to cancel existing contracts in violation of congressional language, and the administration's targeted workforce transition assistance for the electoral battleground of Florida rather than all states potentially affected by NASA layoffs.
Schizoid situation feared
“What's changed is that lawmakers without a direct constituent stake in the space program now want a deal with the White House,” says space program historian John Logsdon, former head of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University. “Everyone recognizes that it's untenable to have a schizoid situation where the White House wants to kill the moon program and Congress wants to save it. They're searching for common ground.”
Reps. Gene Green, D-Houston, and John Culberson, R-Houston, are helping to orchestrate the effort by 33 House members from eight states urging Obama to abandon cancellation of the back-to-the-moon program.
Lawmakers' conciliatory approach contrasts with catcall rhetoric initially unleashed by disappointed space-state Republicans who accused Obama of imperiling national security and control of the high ground in space. The shuttle fleet is expected to retire this year, leaving NASA to rely on Russians to ferry astronauts into orbit.
Obama proposed shifting NASA's marquee mission from a return to the moon to fostering a commercial spacecraft industry with $6 billion in taxpayers' money.
“We look forward to working with you in the coming weeks to make the necessary changes (to the White House budget proposal) in order to support an exploration program that continues our elite astronaut corps, preserves an irreplaceable workforce, protects our defense industrial base and ensures that the U.S. will leave low-earth orbit within the decade,” the lawmakers tell the president in a letter to be delivered to the White House Friday.
‘A good response'
The letter signed by lawmakers from Texas, Virginia, Maryland, Florida, Colorado, Louisiana, Ohio and Missouri is “getting a good response” because it lays out both a bipartisan and a multi-state perspective, says Rep. Kevin Brady, R-The Woodlands.”
Richard Weiss, spokesman for the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, did not return a phone call seeking comment. Officials at NASA headquarters declined to discuss potential bargaining with Congress.
So far, the White House and Congress are sketching trade-offs from afar.
Obama has adjusted the plan he unveiled in February to cancel Constellation and the deep-space Orion crew capsule. He has suggested the crew capsule serve as a stand-by rescue vehicle attached to the orbiting space station as work continues on a deep space vehicle to reach asteroids by 2025 and to orbit Mars in the 2030s.
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden has responded to pressure from Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Dallas, and Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., for a two-year extension of shuttle operations beyond scheduled retirement in November by signaling NASA's willingness to convert an emergency stand-by shuttle mission into an add-on cargo flight to the station next year.
More worker assistance
Bolden also hinted that the $40 million in workforce transition assistance promised workers along Florida's Space Coast could be expanded to include other NASA facilities facing potential layoffs or contract cancellations.
The Obama administration also may become flexible on the proposal for a commercial spacecraft industry in the face of congressional resistance. The president has suggested using private spacecraft built by entrepreneurs such as Elon Musk or space contractors like Boeing and Lockheed Martin, instead of NASA spacecraft, to ferry crew and cargo to the orbiting space station through 2020.
Scott Pace, a former NASA official directing the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University, says he can foresee a compromise in which Congress maintains development of NASA's Ares I system to reach low Earth orbit and simultaneously underwrites efforts for rockets built by private firms.
For all the wrangling ahead, outside experts say Congress will not have easy time of overturning Obama's vision for NASA.
Congress routinely overrides presidential decisions to cancel cherished Pentagon weapons programs but it “has never before gotten into this degree of specifics on the technical content of the space program,” says Logsdon, a long-time NASA adviser. “This is unprecedented.”
Your Face In Space?
Your Face In Space?
CYBERSPACE (AP) -- OK, chances are you won't be able to head off into space. But you can get your face up there -- through a new program NASA is launching.
The space agency is inviting people to send their portrait into space aboard one of the two remaining space shuttle flights.
To do so, upload your picture to a NASA website. You can even pick which shuttle to fly -- Discovery in September, or Endeavour, set for the following month.
Camera shy? You can add just your name to the site, without a photo -- and it will be sent up, too. After the flight, participants can download a special certificate.
CYBERSPACE (AP) -- OK, chances are you won't be able to head off into space. But you can get your face up there -- through a new program NASA is launching.
The space agency is inviting people to send their portrait into space aboard one of the two remaining space shuttle flights.
To do so, upload your picture to a NASA website. You can even pick which shuttle to fly -- Discovery in September, or Endeavour, set for the following month.
Camera shy? You can add just your name to the site, without a photo -- and it will be sent up, too. After the flight, participants can download a special certificate.
In a new type of space race, museums vie for items as shuttle program nears end
In a new type of space race, museums vie for items as shuttle program nears end
The Kansas City Star
Chris O'Meara
Shuttle Atlantis completed its final mission two weeks ago, beginning its path toward becoming a museum attraction someday. More News
Charities see an overall decline in giving, but not in all categories Not just blowing smoke: Use of diesel-powered vehicles is in decline In a new type of space race, museums vie for items as shuttle program nears end Sources: Grand jury meets on KU ticket scandal One dead in KC building collapse Reputed KC gang leader loses appeal GM recalling 1.5M vehicles over fire concerns KU’s Finley finds his place in the throwing circle Danial Rinehart gets life prison sentence in murder and incest case Local stylists want their hair to get oily cleaning up the Gulf of Mexico spill New generation of vending machines now fulfills more than food cravings Rinehart sentenced to life for incest, baby deaths January trial date set for Jared Mohler in sex case Cancer survivors gather to show resolve, hope Children's Campus gets ready to open in KCK Hot dog! It's safety first for American wurst Behind strong start by Bannister, Royals beat Tigers 7-2, win series The Kansas City School District works to erase a tragic history On 16th annual Day of Caring, 3,050 volunteers work to improve the city Memorial fund set up after Stilwell 4-year-old killed by falling TV Chris Orwoll did the math.
When NASA puts three space orbiters up for grabs, that’s what a president of one of the nation’s space museums does. Look to see if the cost numbers work.
They didn’t.
“We stopped counting at over $80 million,” said Orwoll, CEO of the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center in Hutchinson. “And to raise that kind of money?”
Orwoll laughs at the thought. “That would be tough.”
So the Cosmosphere, which draws about 150,000 visitors a year, won’t be getting one of the flown orbiters NASA plans to retire at the end of the year when the shuttle program is discontinued.
Neither will the Stafford Air and Space Museum in Oklahoma nor the Strategic Air and Space Museum in Nebraska. They’re leaving the orbiters for bigger museums in larger metro areas.
But there’s so much more to choose from in what some are calling a mammoth garage sale of shuttle program artifacts. NASA isn’t “selling” the items, so to speak, but museums, institutions and schools have to cover costs for shipping and handling, which includes getting items ready to be sent.
With space equipment, that can get pricey.
Yet the takers are lining up, eager to get a spacesuit, orbiter engine, a training simulator or even some dehydrated food that made it into space.
Once they request an item, they wait for notification whether eventually they’ll receive it. The dispersing of artifacts is now in round three, museum directors said.
The Cosmosphere has requested several items in the first two rounds that Orwoll has been notified it should be getting. Those include a launch pad escape basket, an orbiter escape system, a water dispenser and camera equipment.
His wish list is ever growing.
“We’re requesting a lot of items to do with mission accomplishment,” Orwoll said. “… I want a full cockpit trainer.”
Added Bob Fee, board chairman for the Cosmosphere: “We’ll get whatever we’re able to get to help us tell the story on man’s space exploration.”
Obviously the flown shuttles would be a huge draw. Some estimate that having one on display could double attendance in the first year.
NASA first put out feelers for the orbiters — Discovery, Endeavour and Atlantis — in December 2008. The initial asking price was about $42 million.
A year later, NASA knocked the price to $28.8 million. The money covers costs to clean the orbiters, make them safe to display and transport them aboard the 747 transport jet.
NASA will remove the engines from all the orbiters before they’re given out.
“We’re not only hoping for one, we’re building a building to put one in,” said Mike Bush, director of marketing and public relations for the Museum of Flight in Seattle. “The not knowing — it’s kind of a roll of the dice.”
About two dozen museums and institutions have applied for an orbiter. Those include the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in New York; the Johnson Space Center outside Houston; and the Air Force National Museum in Ohio.
The privately owned Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex has money ready to spend. And it’ll need it because on top of the initial fee for shipping and handling, NASA requires a climate-controlled facility for an orbiter.
The Cosmosphere would have needed a new building, but the costs did not stop there. On the 60-mile road trek from the Salina airport to Hutchinson, a bridge would have needed reconstructing to hold the roughly 170,000-pound machine that’s 122 feet long, 56 feet high and 78 feet wide. Utility lines along the route would have been taken down and put back up.
If an orbiter goes to either the Seattle museum or the National Air and Space Museum outside of Washington, D.C. — it has the Enterprise test orbiter but may want to trade it for the Discovery — at least it would be next door to airports.
Sure, Orwoll wishes the Cosmosphere could have applied for an orbiter. But it helps that the museum already has a full-scale replica of the shuttle Endeavour.
Now, the goal is to obtain a slew of artifacts to complement it.
“This is an opportunity for our collection here to be complete,” Orwoll said. “We will get more than our fair share of artifacts coming out of this.”
The Kansas City Star
Chris O'Meara
Shuttle Atlantis completed its final mission two weeks ago, beginning its path toward becoming a museum attraction someday. More News
Charities see an overall decline in giving, but not in all categories Not just blowing smoke: Use of diesel-powered vehicles is in decline In a new type of space race, museums vie for items as shuttle program nears end Sources: Grand jury meets on KU ticket scandal One dead in KC building collapse Reputed KC gang leader loses appeal GM recalling 1.5M vehicles over fire concerns KU’s Finley finds his place in the throwing circle Danial Rinehart gets life prison sentence in murder and incest case Local stylists want their hair to get oily cleaning up the Gulf of Mexico spill New generation of vending machines now fulfills more than food cravings Rinehart sentenced to life for incest, baby deaths January trial date set for Jared Mohler in sex case Cancer survivors gather to show resolve, hope Children's Campus gets ready to open in KCK Hot dog! It's safety first for American wurst Behind strong start by Bannister, Royals beat Tigers 7-2, win series The Kansas City School District works to erase a tragic history On 16th annual Day of Caring, 3,050 volunteers work to improve the city Memorial fund set up after Stilwell 4-year-old killed by falling TV Chris Orwoll did the math.
When NASA puts three space orbiters up for grabs, that’s what a president of one of the nation’s space museums does. Look to see if the cost numbers work.
They didn’t.
“We stopped counting at over $80 million,” said Orwoll, CEO of the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center in Hutchinson. “And to raise that kind of money?”
Orwoll laughs at the thought. “That would be tough.”
So the Cosmosphere, which draws about 150,000 visitors a year, won’t be getting one of the flown orbiters NASA plans to retire at the end of the year when the shuttle program is discontinued.
Neither will the Stafford Air and Space Museum in Oklahoma nor the Strategic Air and Space Museum in Nebraska. They’re leaving the orbiters for bigger museums in larger metro areas.
But there’s so much more to choose from in what some are calling a mammoth garage sale of shuttle program artifacts. NASA isn’t “selling” the items, so to speak, but museums, institutions and schools have to cover costs for shipping and handling, which includes getting items ready to be sent.
With space equipment, that can get pricey.
Yet the takers are lining up, eager to get a spacesuit, orbiter engine, a training simulator or even some dehydrated food that made it into space.
Once they request an item, they wait for notification whether eventually they’ll receive it. The dispersing of artifacts is now in round three, museum directors said.
The Cosmosphere has requested several items in the first two rounds that Orwoll has been notified it should be getting. Those include a launch pad escape basket, an orbiter escape system, a water dispenser and camera equipment.
His wish list is ever growing.
“We’re requesting a lot of items to do with mission accomplishment,” Orwoll said. “… I want a full cockpit trainer.”
Added Bob Fee, board chairman for the Cosmosphere: “We’ll get whatever we’re able to get to help us tell the story on man’s space exploration.”
Obviously the flown shuttles would be a huge draw. Some estimate that having one on display could double attendance in the first year.
NASA first put out feelers for the orbiters — Discovery, Endeavour and Atlantis — in December 2008. The initial asking price was about $42 million.
A year later, NASA knocked the price to $28.8 million. The money covers costs to clean the orbiters, make them safe to display and transport them aboard the 747 transport jet.
NASA will remove the engines from all the orbiters before they’re given out.
“We’re not only hoping for one, we’re building a building to put one in,” said Mike Bush, director of marketing and public relations for the Museum of Flight in Seattle. “The not knowing — it’s kind of a roll of the dice.”
About two dozen museums and institutions have applied for an orbiter. Those include the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in New York; the Johnson Space Center outside Houston; and the Air Force National Museum in Ohio.
The privately owned Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex has money ready to spend. And it’ll need it because on top of the initial fee for shipping and handling, NASA requires a climate-controlled facility for an orbiter.
The Cosmosphere would have needed a new building, but the costs did not stop there. On the 60-mile road trek from the Salina airport to Hutchinson, a bridge would have needed reconstructing to hold the roughly 170,000-pound machine that’s 122 feet long, 56 feet high and 78 feet wide. Utility lines along the route would have been taken down and put back up.
If an orbiter goes to either the Seattle museum or the National Air and Space Museum outside of Washington, D.C. — it has the Enterprise test orbiter but may want to trade it for the Discovery — at least it would be next door to airports.
Sure, Orwoll wishes the Cosmosphere could have applied for an orbiter. But it helps that the museum already has a full-scale replica of the shuttle Endeavour.
Now, the goal is to obtain a slew of artifacts to complement it.
“This is an opportunity for our collection here to be complete,” Orwoll said. “We will get more than our fair share of artifacts coming out of this.”
What Happened in Space News June 9
Luna 6 - USSR Lunar Soft Lander - 1,440 kg - that was launched on June 8, 1965, proceeded as planned until the major midcourse correction late on June 9.
Although the main retro-rocket engine (the S5.5A) ignited on time, it failed to cut off and continued to fire until propellant supply was exhausted.
An investigation later indicated that the problem had been due to human error; a command had been mistakenly sent to the timer that ordered the main engine to shut down.
Although the spacecraft was sent on a completely wrong trajectory, ground controllers put the spacecraft through a series of steps to practice an actual landing, all of which were satisfactorily accomplished.
Luna 6 passed by the Moon late on 11 June at a range of 161,000 kilometers and eventually entered heliocentric orbit.
Contact was maintained to a distance of 600,000 kilometers from Earth.
Although the main retro-rocket engine (the S5.5A) ignited on time, it failed to cut off and continued to fire until propellant supply was exhausted.
An investigation later indicated that the problem had been due to human error; a command had been mistakenly sent to the timer that ordered the main engine to shut down.
Although the spacecraft was sent on a completely wrong trajectory, ground controllers put the spacecraft through a series of steps to practice an actual landing, all of which were satisfactorily accomplished.
Luna 6 passed by the Moon late on 11 June at a range of 161,000 kilometers and eventually entered heliocentric orbit.
Contact was maintained to a distance of 600,000 kilometers from Earth.
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
In New Space Race, Enter the Entrepreneurs
From the New York Times: In New Space Race, Enter the Entrepreneurs
At the Bigelow Aerospace factory here, the full-size space station mockups sitting on the warehouse floor look somewhat like puffy white watermelons. The interiors offer a hint of what spacious living in space might look like.
“Every astronaut we have come in here just says, ‘Wow,’ ” Robert T. Bigelow, the company founder, told Kenneth Chang of The New York Times. “They can’t believe the size of this thing.”
Four years from now, the company plans for real modules to be launched and assembled into the solar system’s first private space station. Paying customers — primarily nations that do not have the money or expertise to build a space program from scratch — would arrive a year later.
In 2016, a second, larger station would follow. The two Bigelow stations would then be home to 36 people at a time — six times as many as currently live on the International Space Station.
If this business plan unfolds as it is written — the company has two fully inflated test modules in orbit already — Bigelow will be buying 15 to 20 rocket launchings in 2017 and in each year after, providing ample business for the private companies that the Obama administration would like to finance for the transportation of astronauts into orbit — the so-called commercial crew initiative.
President Obama’s budget proposal for 2011 calls for investing $6 billion over five years for probably two or more companies to develop spacecraft capable of carrying people into space. Then, instead of operating its own systems, like the space shuttles, NASA would buy rides for its astronauts on these commercial space taxis.
“This represents the entrance of the entrepreneurial mind-set into a field that is poised for rapid growth and new jobs,” Maj. Gen. Charles F. Bolden Jr., the administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, said in February. “And NASA will be driving competition, opening new markets and access to space and catalyzing the potential of American industry.”
Officials have been careful not to say their commercial crew plan relies on a market beyond NASA, but for now, Bigelow appears to be the only non-NASA buyer for commercial crew services.
“Nobody,” Mr. Bigelow said of competition he sees on the horizon.
Thus, the rosier promises of the president’s plan rest on this enigmatic, 100-employee company located on 50 acres of desert not far from the casinos and strip clubs and the ability of Mr. Bigelow, an iconoclast who made his fortune in real estate including the Budget Suites of America hotel chain, to get his dreams off the ground.
He has spent about $180 million of his own money so far and has said he is willing to spend up to $320 million more. An expansion of the factory will double the amount of floor space as the company begins the transition from research and development to production.
Mr. Bigelow only occasionally gives interviews, and except for Michael N. Gold, the director of Bigelow’s Washington office, the employees almost never speak publicly. A company document titled “Some Important Bigelow Aerospace Cultural Values” implores employees, “Keep your work and the work of your co-workers very private from people outside the company.” (Mr. Gold said that the confidentiality stems from federal regulations designed to protect technological information and that the engineers are busy working.)
The Las Vegas site is hemmed by barbed wire and patrolled by armed guards.
The soundness of the business case is unknown to outsiders. Mr. Bigelow declines to say if he has firm commitments from any countries or companies to rent space on his space stations. In recent years, he has played down the notion that he is building a space hotel for rich tourists, although he says space tourism could provide a part of his business.
Over the past year, Mr. Gold visited countries like Japan, South Korea, Singapore, the Netherlands, England and Sweden to gauge interest. A stay on a Bigelow station, including transportation, is currently priced at just under $25 million a person for 30 days. That is less than half the more than $50 million a seat that NASA is paying for rides alone on Soyuz spacecraft to the International Space Station. Doubling the stay to 60 days adds just $3.75 million more.
For a country or company willing to sign up for a four-year commitment, the lease for an entire six-person module would cost just under $395 million a year, and that would include transportation for a dozen people each year. “You see why this is attractive for the sovereign client market,” Mr. Gold said.
The Bigelow prices are good through 2018, and Mr. Bigelow said the prices would drop by then if, as he expects, rocket prices drop.
“We’re very comfortable with our numbers,” he said, although he declined to discuss the details. Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, or SpaceX, which is the most optimistic in reducing launching costs, estimates that rides to space on its Falcon 9 rockets would be $20 million a seat.
“You have to trust a little bit that we’re making these investments because we think it’s going to make sense economically at the end of the day,” Mr. Bigelow said. “We won’t execute our business plan if those numbers aren’t there.”
His space stations are not his only interest in space. “I’ve been a researcher and student of U.F.O.’s for many, many years,” Mr. Bigelow said. “Anybody that does research, if people bother to do quality research, come away absolutely convinced. You don’t have to have personal encounters.”
He added: “People have been killed. People have been hurt. It’s more than observational kind of data.”
Other views that run counter to mainstream science include a belief in the power of prayer and a disbelief in the Big Bang theory.
The idea of inflatable spacecraft dates back almost to the beginning of the space age, solving a stubborn conundrum with putting stuff in space. Rockets are tall, but not particularly wide. With inflatable spacecraft, the structure can be packed tightly into the payload and then filled with air once in orbit.
NASA’s Echo I and Echo II satellites, launched in 1960 and 1964, were large Mylar balloons. NASA commissioned Goodyear to build prototypes of an inflatable space station, which looked like a big rubber inner tube.
The rubber space stations never flew, in part because of an obvious design weakness — they could pop if hit by meteoroids.
The idea remained dormant until the 1990s, when NASA started exploring how to build living quarters for a human mission to Mars. William C. Schneider, then the senior engineer at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, returned to the inflatable design.
Instead of rubber like the 1960s Goodyear design, Dr. Schneider used an airtight bladder surrounded by Kevlar straps. “It dumps its pressure load into the straps,” Dr. Schneider said. “Those two together make a very efficient design.”
Outside the straps, alternating layers of aluminized fabric and foam absorb and disperse the impacts of micrometeoroids, providing better protection than metal structures, Dr. Schneider said.
Even though he was sure the design was sound, he built two prototypes of the TransHab module and demonstrated their resilience in a swimming pool and a vacuum chamber. “People would think of it as a balloon,” said Dr. Schneider, who now is a visiting professor at Texas A&M University. “In cases, it was six times as good as needed. It’s absolutely verified.”
In the meantime, the Mars plans were shelved as too expensive, and TransHab was reimagined as a crew quarters module for the International Space Station. Then the space station costs grew, and in 2000, Congress prohibited NASA from spending any more money on TransHab.
Mr. Bigelow, 66, said that he was inspired by NASA’s successes of the 1960s, culminating with the Moon landings, and that he always hoped to invest in space someday. He read about TransHab in 1998, and learning of the project’s imminent demise, he established Bigelow Aerospace in 1999 and bought an exclusive license to the NASA patents.
Dr. Schneider joined Bigelow as a consultant. The Bigelow designs are essentially very close to his NASA work, Dr. Schneider said, with some changes like replacing the Kevlar with Vectran, another bullet-resistant fabric. There are also some notable improvements like the addition of small windows, already tested on the Genesis I and II test modules that were successfully launched from Russia using converted ballistic missiles.
“He had great manufacturing capability,” Dr. Schneider said. “They have some real good engineers as well. I’m sure they will be very successful.”
The biggest hole in his plans, Mr. Bigelow said, is the one not entirely in his control: getting to and from the space stations.
For a while, Bigelow and Lockheed Martin were collaborating on a small capsule that would launch on an Atlas V rocket, which currently launches Air Force satellites and other payloads. Lockheed Martin won the NASA contract for building the Orion crew capsule for NASA’s Constellation program and dropped out of the work with Bigelow.
Mimicking the $10 million X Prize that spurred the development of the suborbital spaceplane SpaceShipOne, Mr. Bigelow offered $50 million to anyone who could build an orbital spacecraft. No one tried to claim the prize before it expired in January.
Bigelow is collaborating with Boeing using $18 million that NASA has provided for preliminary design of a commercial crew capsule.
Keith Reiley, the program manager at Boeing for the capsule, said he was not very familiar with Bigelow’s space station plans, but was impressed with what Bigelow has contributed to Boeing’s capsule. “They’re a lot more entrepreneurial than we are,” Mr. Reiley said, “and it’s refreshing for us.”
If the Boeing spacecraft is ready by 2014, that is when the dance of Bigelow space station modules will begin.
A habitat called Sundancer, with an inflated volume of about 6,400 cubic feet, would launch first. A separate rocket would then carry two Bigelow astronauts to take up residence in Sundancer as additional pieces — a second Sundancer, a larger habitat of about 11,700 cubic feet, and a central connecting node — are launched. The modules are to dock by themselves with the astronauts present to fix any glitches.
Once the stations are up, Bigelow still needs to demonstrate that it can juggle the logistics of supplying food, water and air, as well as fix the inevitable glitches that will arise. Mr. Bigelow said that he would hire people with the needed experience and skills, and that space stations were not all that different from hotels.
“I’ve had four decades of serving people, tens and tens and tens of thousands of people, all over the southwest part of the United States,” he said. “I have four decades of building all kinds of things. The principles are the same.”
As a private company, Bigelow can operate space stations much more efficiently than NASA and its governmental partners can operate the International Space Station, Mr. Bigelow said. (Another of the company values declares: “Make up your mind quickly. Don’t take forever, people are waiting, the company is waiting, the future is waiting and time costs money.”)
NASA’s interest in inflatables has also been revived once again. Among several large technology demonstration projects proposed in the president’s 2011 budget is an inflatable module for the International Space Station. Bigelow is currently talking to NASA about that.
Mr. Bigelow envisions variations of the inflatable modules being used for a Moon base or a mission to Mars.
“Our hope is that we can serve NASA,” he said. “Because we can do it so much more economically.”
At the Bigelow Aerospace factory here, the full-size space station mockups sitting on the warehouse floor look somewhat like puffy white watermelons. The interiors offer a hint of what spacious living in space might look like.
“Every astronaut we have come in here just says, ‘Wow,’ ” Robert T. Bigelow, the company founder, told Kenneth Chang of The New York Times. “They can’t believe the size of this thing.”
Four years from now, the company plans for real modules to be launched and assembled into the solar system’s first private space station. Paying customers — primarily nations that do not have the money or expertise to build a space program from scratch — would arrive a year later.
In 2016, a second, larger station would follow. The two Bigelow stations would then be home to 36 people at a time — six times as many as currently live on the International Space Station.
If this business plan unfolds as it is written — the company has two fully inflated test modules in orbit already — Bigelow will be buying 15 to 20 rocket launchings in 2017 and in each year after, providing ample business for the private companies that the Obama administration would like to finance for the transportation of astronauts into orbit — the so-called commercial crew initiative.
President Obama’s budget proposal for 2011 calls for investing $6 billion over five years for probably two or more companies to develop spacecraft capable of carrying people into space. Then, instead of operating its own systems, like the space shuttles, NASA would buy rides for its astronauts on these commercial space taxis.
“This represents the entrance of the entrepreneurial mind-set into a field that is poised for rapid growth and new jobs,” Maj. Gen. Charles F. Bolden Jr., the administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, said in February. “And NASA will be driving competition, opening new markets and access to space and catalyzing the potential of American industry.”
Officials have been careful not to say their commercial crew plan relies on a market beyond NASA, but for now, Bigelow appears to be the only non-NASA buyer for commercial crew services.
“Nobody,” Mr. Bigelow said of competition he sees on the horizon.
Thus, the rosier promises of the president’s plan rest on this enigmatic, 100-employee company located on 50 acres of desert not far from the casinos and strip clubs and the ability of Mr. Bigelow, an iconoclast who made his fortune in real estate including the Budget Suites of America hotel chain, to get his dreams off the ground.
He has spent about $180 million of his own money so far and has said he is willing to spend up to $320 million more. An expansion of the factory will double the amount of floor space as the company begins the transition from research and development to production.
Mr. Bigelow only occasionally gives interviews, and except for Michael N. Gold, the director of Bigelow’s Washington office, the employees almost never speak publicly. A company document titled “Some Important Bigelow Aerospace Cultural Values” implores employees, “Keep your work and the work of your co-workers very private from people outside the company.” (Mr. Gold said that the confidentiality stems from federal regulations designed to protect technological information and that the engineers are busy working.)
The Las Vegas site is hemmed by barbed wire and patrolled by armed guards.
The soundness of the business case is unknown to outsiders. Mr. Bigelow declines to say if he has firm commitments from any countries or companies to rent space on his space stations. In recent years, he has played down the notion that he is building a space hotel for rich tourists, although he says space tourism could provide a part of his business.
Over the past year, Mr. Gold visited countries like Japan, South Korea, Singapore, the Netherlands, England and Sweden to gauge interest. A stay on a Bigelow station, including transportation, is currently priced at just under $25 million a person for 30 days. That is less than half the more than $50 million a seat that NASA is paying for rides alone on Soyuz spacecraft to the International Space Station. Doubling the stay to 60 days adds just $3.75 million more.
For a country or company willing to sign up for a four-year commitment, the lease for an entire six-person module would cost just under $395 million a year, and that would include transportation for a dozen people each year. “You see why this is attractive for the sovereign client market,” Mr. Gold said.
The Bigelow prices are good through 2018, and Mr. Bigelow said the prices would drop by then if, as he expects, rocket prices drop.
“We’re very comfortable with our numbers,” he said, although he declined to discuss the details. Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, or SpaceX, which is the most optimistic in reducing launching costs, estimates that rides to space on its Falcon 9 rockets would be $20 million a seat.
“You have to trust a little bit that we’re making these investments because we think it’s going to make sense economically at the end of the day,” Mr. Bigelow said. “We won’t execute our business plan if those numbers aren’t there.”
His space stations are not his only interest in space. “I’ve been a researcher and student of U.F.O.’s for many, many years,” Mr. Bigelow said. “Anybody that does research, if people bother to do quality research, come away absolutely convinced. You don’t have to have personal encounters.”
He added: “People have been killed. People have been hurt. It’s more than observational kind of data.”
Other views that run counter to mainstream science include a belief in the power of prayer and a disbelief in the Big Bang theory.
The idea of inflatable spacecraft dates back almost to the beginning of the space age, solving a stubborn conundrum with putting stuff in space. Rockets are tall, but not particularly wide. With inflatable spacecraft, the structure can be packed tightly into the payload and then filled with air once in orbit.
NASA’s Echo I and Echo II satellites, launched in 1960 and 1964, were large Mylar balloons. NASA commissioned Goodyear to build prototypes of an inflatable space station, which looked like a big rubber inner tube.
The rubber space stations never flew, in part because of an obvious design weakness — they could pop if hit by meteoroids.
The idea remained dormant until the 1990s, when NASA started exploring how to build living quarters for a human mission to Mars. William C. Schneider, then the senior engineer at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, returned to the inflatable design.
Instead of rubber like the 1960s Goodyear design, Dr. Schneider used an airtight bladder surrounded by Kevlar straps. “It dumps its pressure load into the straps,” Dr. Schneider said. “Those two together make a very efficient design.”
Outside the straps, alternating layers of aluminized fabric and foam absorb and disperse the impacts of micrometeoroids, providing better protection than metal structures, Dr. Schneider said.
Even though he was sure the design was sound, he built two prototypes of the TransHab module and demonstrated their resilience in a swimming pool and a vacuum chamber. “People would think of it as a balloon,” said Dr. Schneider, who now is a visiting professor at Texas A&M University. “In cases, it was six times as good as needed. It’s absolutely verified.”
In the meantime, the Mars plans were shelved as too expensive, and TransHab was reimagined as a crew quarters module for the International Space Station. Then the space station costs grew, and in 2000, Congress prohibited NASA from spending any more money on TransHab.
Mr. Bigelow, 66, said that he was inspired by NASA’s successes of the 1960s, culminating with the Moon landings, and that he always hoped to invest in space someday. He read about TransHab in 1998, and learning of the project’s imminent demise, he established Bigelow Aerospace in 1999 and bought an exclusive license to the NASA patents.
Dr. Schneider joined Bigelow as a consultant. The Bigelow designs are essentially very close to his NASA work, Dr. Schneider said, with some changes like replacing the Kevlar with Vectran, another bullet-resistant fabric. There are also some notable improvements like the addition of small windows, already tested on the Genesis I and II test modules that were successfully launched from Russia using converted ballistic missiles.
“He had great manufacturing capability,” Dr. Schneider said. “They have some real good engineers as well. I’m sure they will be very successful.”
The biggest hole in his plans, Mr. Bigelow said, is the one not entirely in his control: getting to and from the space stations.
For a while, Bigelow and Lockheed Martin were collaborating on a small capsule that would launch on an Atlas V rocket, which currently launches Air Force satellites and other payloads. Lockheed Martin won the NASA contract for building the Orion crew capsule for NASA’s Constellation program and dropped out of the work with Bigelow.
Mimicking the $10 million X Prize that spurred the development of the suborbital spaceplane SpaceShipOne, Mr. Bigelow offered $50 million to anyone who could build an orbital spacecraft. No one tried to claim the prize before it expired in January.
Bigelow is collaborating with Boeing using $18 million that NASA has provided for preliminary design of a commercial crew capsule.
Keith Reiley, the program manager at Boeing for the capsule, said he was not very familiar with Bigelow’s space station plans, but was impressed with what Bigelow has contributed to Boeing’s capsule. “They’re a lot more entrepreneurial than we are,” Mr. Reiley said, “and it’s refreshing for us.”
If the Boeing spacecraft is ready by 2014, that is when the dance of Bigelow space station modules will begin.
A habitat called Sundancer, with an inflated volume of about 6,400 cubic feet, would launch first. A separate rocket would then carry two Bigelow astronauts to take up residence in Sundancer as additional pieces — a second Sundancer, a larger habitat of about 11,700 cubic feet, and a central connecting node — are launched. The modules are to dock by themselves with the astronauts present to fix any glitches.
Once the stations are up, Bigelow still needs to demonstrate that it can juggle the logistics of supplying food, water and air, as well as fix the inevitable glitches that will arise. Mr. Bigelow said that he would hire people with the needed experience and skills, and that space stations were not all that different from hotels.
“I’ve had four decades of serving people, tens and tens and tens of thousands of people, all over the southwest part of the United States,” he said. “I have four decades of building all kinds of things. The principles are the same.”
As a private company, Bigelow can operate space stations much more efficiently than NASA and its governmental partners can operate the International Space Station, Mr. Bigelow said. (Another of the company values declares: “Make up your mind quickly. Don’t take forever, people are waiting, the company is waiting, the future is waiting and time costs money.”)
NASA’s interest in inflatables has also been revived once again. Among several large technology demonstration projects proposed in the president’s 2011 budget is an inflatable module for the International Space Station. Bigelow is currently talking to NASA about that.
Mr. Bigelow envisions variations of the inflatable modules being used for a Moon base or a mission to Mars.
“Our hope is that we can serve NASA,” he said. “Because we can do it so much more economically.”
What Happened in Space News June 8
Two events on a June 8
__________________________________
The Russian spacecraft Luna 6 (USSR Lunar Soft Lander) was launched on June 8, 1965.
It was intended to travel to the Moon, but, after the failure of a midcourse correction, it missed the Moon by 159,612.8 km.
This was the ninth Soviet attempt at a lunar soft-landing. The mission proceeded as planned until the major midcourse correction late on 9 June.
Although the main retro-rocket engine (the S5.5A) ignited on time, it failed to cut off and continued to fire until propellant supply was exhausted.
An investigation later indicated that the problem had been due to human error; a command had been mistakenly sent to the timer that ordered the main engine to shut down.
Although the spacecraft was sent on a completely wrong trajectory, ground controllers put the spacecraft through a series of steps to practice an actual landing, all of which were satisfactorily accomplished.
Luna 6 passed by the Moon late on 11 June at a range of 161,000 kilometers and eventually entered heliocentric orbit.
Contact was maintained to a distance of 600,000 kilometers from Earth.
The Russian spacecraft Venera 9 (USSR Venus Orbiter and Lander) was launched on June 8, 1975. (It's sister spaceraft, Venera 10, will be launched on June 14, 1975.)
Venera 9 arrived at Venus on October 22, 1975, three days before its sister spacecraft Venera 10.
Both orbiters photographed the clouds and looked at the upper atmosphere of the planet.
Differences in cloud layers were discovered at 57-70 kilometers, 52-57 kilometers, and 49-52 kilometers from the surface.
The lander arrived on the Venusian surface on November 22, 1975. During a period of 53 minutes, it transmitted the first black and white images of the planets surface. It showed sharp-edged flat rocks and a basaltic terrain. The probe in now in an orbit around Venus.
__________________________________
The Russian spacecraft Luna 6 (USSR Lunar Soft Lander) was launched on June 8, 1965.
It was intended to travel to the Moon, but, after the failure of a midcourse correction, it missed the Moon by 159,612.8 km.
This was the ninth Soviet attempt at a lunar soft-landing. The mission proceeded as planned until the major midcourse correction late on 9 June.
Although the main retro-rocket engine (the S5.5A) ignited on time, it failed to cut off and continued to fire until propellant supply was exhausted.
An investigation later indicated that the problem had been due to human error; a command had been mistakenly sent to the timer that ordered the main engine to shut down.
Although the spacecraft was sent on a completely wrong trajectory, ground controllers put the spacecraft through a series of steps to practice an actual landing, all of which were satisfactorily accomplished.
Luna 6 passed by the Moon late on 11 June at a range of 161,000 kilometers and eventually entered heliocentric orbit.
Contact was maintained to a distance of 600,000 kilometers from Earth.
The Russian spacecraft Venera 9 (USSR Venus Orbiter and Lander) was launched on June 8, 1975. (It's sister spaceraft, Venera 10, will be launched on June 14, 1975.)
Venera 9 arrived at Venus on October 22, 1975, three days before its sister spacecraft Venera 10.
Both orbiters photographed the clouds and looked at the upper atmosphere of the planet.
Differences in cloud layers were discovered at 57-70 kilometers, 52-57 kilometers, and 49-52 kilometers from the surface.
The lander arrived on the Venusian surface on November 22, 1975. During a period of 53 minutes, it transmitted the first black and white images of the planets surface. It showed sharp-edged flat rocks and a basaltic terrain. The probe in now in an orbit around Venus.
Monday, June 7, 2010
Space X Launches Rocket
Space X Launches Rocket
The successful launch of Falcon 9 rocket was a historical event for space entrepreneur Elon Musk. But he has admitted that he was worried some years ago that the project will be grounded due to lack of cash.
He revealed that Space Exploration Technologies Corp. faced a lot of challenges and was once even close to a partnership with Northrop Grumman Corp. He felt that privately funded space ventures are still very risky and have to overcome a lot of challenges.
The launch of the Flacon 9 rocket last Friday will add a historical chapter in the field of manned space exploration. The US Government wants NASA to outsource cargo and astronaut transportation to the international space station for the next decade.
Space Exploration Technologies Corp. along with other Companies is expected to compete for NASA’s manned space program. The US Government believes that encouraging competition in the sector will save it a lot of money and develop a competitive space industry in the US. However, the plan has still not been approved by the US Congress.
Critics of this plan stress that most of the money will come from the pockets of the US taxpayers. Space X still needs an infusion of more than $1 billion in the next few years. It will need the money to transport astronauts to the international space station.
The successful launch of Falcon 9 rocket was a historical event for space entrepreneur Elon Musk. But he has admitted that he was worried some years ago that the project will be grounded due to lack of cash.
He revealed that Space Exploration Technologies Corp. faced a lot of challenges and was once even close to a partnership with Northrop Grumman Corp. He felt that privately funded space ventures are still very risky and have to overcome a lot of challenges.
The launch of the Flacon 9 rocket last Friday will add a historical chapter in the field of manned space exploration. The US Government wants NASA to outsource cargo and astronaut transportation to the international space station for the next decade.
Space Exploration Technologies Corp. along with other Companies is expected to compete for NASA’s manned space program. The US Government believes that encouraging competition in the sector will save it a lot of money and develop a competitive space industry in the US. However, the plan has still not been approved by the US Congress.
Critics of this plan stress that most of the money will come from the pockets of the US taxpayers. Space X still needs an infusion of more than $1 billion in the next few years. It will need the money to transport astronauts to the international space station.
What Happened in Space News June 7
The Russian probe Venera 16 was launched on June 7, 1983.
Venera 16 arrived at Venus on October 14, 1983.
Its high-resolution imaging system produced images at 1-2 kilometers in resolution.
Venera 15 and 16 produced a map of the northern hemisphere from the pole to 30°N. They found several hot spots, possibly caused by volcanic activity.
Venera 16 arrived at Venus on October 14, 1983.
Its high-resolution imaging system produced images at 1-2 kilometers in resolution.
Venera 15 and 16 produced a map of the northern hemisphere from the pole to 30°N. They found several hot spots, possibly caused by volcanic activity.
Friday, June 4, 2010
One of 3 missing mini satellites detected
From Japan Today on June 3, 2010
One of 3 missing mini satellites detected
KAGOSHIMA —
A team led by Kagoshima University has reestablished contact with one of three mini satellites that have gone missing since their launch last month on an H-2A rocket, it said Wednesday. Professor Masanori Nishio, who leads the team, said it received radio signals from its KSAT satellite, dubbed Hayato, 17 times from about 9 p.m. Tuesday to 1:40 a.m. Wednesday, after losing contact with it after the May 21 launch.
A total of four mini satellites developed by university-led teams were launched into space on the H-2A, along with the Venus probe Akatsuki and a ‘‘space yacht’’ Ikaros, as part of experiments in the country’s space development program. Designed for pilot observations of vapor distribution in the air to help forecast local downpours, the Hayato ‘‘is working normally and managed to prove local technological competence,’’ Nishio, 55, said referring to the team that includes engineers from local businesses.
One of 3 missing mini satellites detected
KAGOSHIMA —
A team led by Kagoshima University has reestablished contact with one of three mini satellites that have gone missing since their launch last month on an H-2A rocket, it said Wednesday. Professor Masanori Nishio, who leads the team, said it received radio signals from its KSAT satellite, dubbed Hayato, 17 times from about 9 p.m. Tuesday to 1:40 a.m. Wednesday, after losing contact with it after the May 21 launch.
A total of four mini satellites developed by university-led teams were launched into space on the H-2A, along with the Venus probe Akatsuki and a ‘‘space yacht’’ Ikaros, as part of experiments in the country’s space development program. Designed for pilot observations of vapor distribution in the air to help forecast local downpours, the Hayato ‘‘is working normally and managed to prove local technological competence,’’ Nishio, 55, said referring to the team that includes engineers from local businesses.
Stakes Are High for New Falcon 9 Rocket's First Test Flight
From Fox News: Stakes Are High for New Falcon 9 Rocket's First Test Flight
Today's planned inaugural flight of the new private Falcon 9 rocket built by the entrepreneurial firm SpaceX is a high-stakes endeavor.
A successful liftoff of the private two-stage booster, planned for today at 11 a.m. EDT (1500 GMT) from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, would put oomph into President Barack Obama's plan to overhaul NASA by using commercial firms to send crew and cargo to the International Space Station.
But a Falcon 9 failure could be construed by some as a cautionary flag, calling to question the readiness of entrepreneurial "NewSpace" muscle to energize a commercial spaceflight industry.
The rocket's makers stress that this test flight should not come with too-high expectations.
"100 percent success would be reaching orbit," SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk told reporters during a Thursday teleconference. "Given that this is a test flight, whatever percentage of getting to orbit we achieve would still be considered a good day. If just the first stage functions correctly, it's a good day. It's a great day if both stages function."
SpaceX and others aim to take over launch duties after NASA's budget cuts ended its space program. SpaceX's Falcon 9 is the most promising -- and is scheduled to launch on June 5th.
With NASA confirming the end of its Constellation program, the space agency will rely on others for travel. Here are the leading companies and their current generation space taxi systems.
For promoters, the Falcon 9's maiden takeoff test signals a sea change. Yet there are those who suggest wearing life preservers.
Political support for Obama administration's push to rely on commercial space companies could be strongly affected by the success or failure of the Falcon 9 test, said Roger Handberg, a political scientist at the University of Central Florida who has written extensively on space policy.
"For Obama, there's a lot riding on it, as far as his credibility, because that's his big option," Handberg said. Obama visited SpaceX's Cape Canaveral launch site and toured the Falcon 9 rocket pad in April.
In fact, some say there's too much pressure for SpaceX to perform during this maiden launch.
"Certainly the future of the company and the future of the industry doesn't ride on this test," said Brett Alexander, president of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, a private industry group. "Some people are making it out to be that big, but it's not."
All in all, it's a touch of faith-based rocketry.
Space newbies
"We've waited long enough. The field now of NewSpace is broad enough that it would be foolish to hang everything on one launch," said Rick Tumlinson, co-Founder of the Space Frontier Foundation and a long-time space activist.
"We're newbies in a sense. We're going to have failures. Stuff is going to blow up," Tumlinson said. "Anybody on the NASA side who tries to pin it on us is being disingenuous...because all we have to do is roll their old tapes," he told SPACE.com.
Tumlinson portrays the coming of age of NewSpace as akin to barnstorming in early aviation. He stressed the need for the public to understand that this isn't rich boys and their toys – there are bigger things at stake.
"Whether one vehicle blows up or not...at least the SpaceX rocket is a real vehicle as opposed to a fake like the NASA's Ares [launch] was," Tumlinson said.
SpaceX has a $1.6 billion contract with NASA to deliver 20 tons of cargo to the International Space Station over 12 Dragon flights through 2016.
The company plans to offer Falcon 9 rocket flights at prices ranging between $45 million and $52 million. This SPACE.com graphic shows how the Falcon 9 rocket compares with NASA's shuttles and other spacecraft.
To date, the Hawthorne, Calif.-based company has invested about $400 million in its Falcon rockets (including the smaller Falcon 1) and the Dragon spacecraft, Musk said.
Lessons to be learned
Falcon 9 working correctly right out of the box is not likely, observes Tim Pickens, a commercial space advisor for the Huntsville, Ala.-based Dynetics and also the senior propulsion engineer for the company.
"I don't think a first-launch failure is the end of the world," Pickens said. "This is the launch business...and I'm rooting for these talented guys."
Pickens said that what SpaceX has on his side is history – a history of booster development over the decades that provide many lessons learned. Still, given the complexity of the Falcon 9, he said, there's likely to be more lessons to be learned lurking within the booster.
"The key thing is that there's enough instrumentation onboard. If something does happen, they can correctly fix it," Pickens added. "The biggest fear is not having the data to support whatever failure mode you did have... which could mean you end up in a pretty lengthy investigation."
With a vehicle the size of Falcon 9, particularly its nine main engines, "there are a lot of dynamic things happening. Of course the staging event is always the big one," Pickens noted.
Musk has said the first Falcon 9 rocket has about a 70 or 80 percent chance of success for its debut, but SpaceX can survive if it fails. A second Falcon 9 rocket is already being prepared for a follow-up test later this summer.
"They're smart people so they have a business plan that doesn't assume a 100 percent success," said John Logsdon, a space policy expert and professor emeritus of Political Science and International Affairs at the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., on Thursday. "So if tomorrow is not a total success, they will move on."
Faster and cheaper
Should the hopes of the entire industry and political survivability of President Obama's plan for NASA ride on one rocket flight?
"No... it's a test program," responded Michael Mealling, vice president of business development for Masten Space Systems in Mojave, Calif. The few flight anomalies that cropped up in NASA's Ares I-X flight in October of last year, Mealling said, didn't prove that Ares I is not a viable rocket. It was a learning experience, he said.
"If it goes right the first time, you actually didn't learn anything," Mealling told SPACE.com.
Regardless of what happens with the first flight of Falcon 9, SpaceX spent a tenth of the money doled out by NASA on its Ares booster, Mealling said. "Yes, I know that it's an apples-and-oranges comparison, but apples and oranges do generally cost the same amount at the grocery store."
"If Falcon 9 leaves the tower under its own propulsion, does even 75 percent of its goals, I think it will make a point that commercial companies can move faster...they can move cheaper...and that will start to make a point," Mealling advised.
Mealling said that there are people looking for a "Netscape Moment" in the commercial space industry, the equivalent of the first Internet investment boom for private spaceflight.
"Rocket engineering doesn't work that way. There's a lot of incremental stuff. You prove things out," he concluded.
Bigger picture
In terms of the bigger picture of upstart NewSpace ventures and the commercial space business, the future is indeed exciting - but also terrifying, insiders say.
That's the view of Jeff Greason, President of XCOR Aerospace in Mojave, Calif. "I'm not sure we're ready to do all the things that the U.S. government is now depending upon this industry to be able to do. That's just too bad, because we're going to have to do it anyway."
In remarks at the Space Access Society's Space Access '10 conference held in early April in Phoenix, Greason bluntly advised a room full of space entrepreneurs: "It is time to grow up."
Greason was a member of the recent White House-requested Review of U.S. Human Spaceflight Plans Committee. That review spotlighted the fact that there is now a burgeoning commercial space industry.
"If we craft a space architecture to provide opportunities to this industry, there is the potential – not without risk – that the costs to the government would be reduced," the report advised. "Commercial services to deliver crew to low-Earth orbit are within reach. While this presents some risk, it could provide an earlier capability at lower initial and life-cycle costs than government could achieve. A new competition with adequate incentives to perform this service should be open to all U.S. aerospace companies."
Speaking at the Space Access Society gathering, Greason made clear his vision of the United States having a successful commercial space industry and space transportation industry. That enterprise, he said, would move people and payloads to and from destinations in space with economics that make sense...with a level of safety and reliability that is associated with transportation and not ammunition.
"It's a hard road... it's a long road. But we're getting there. The size of the opportunity that we're faced with is terrifying... and wonderful," Greason said.
Today's planned inaugural flight of the new private Falcon 9 rocket built by the entrepreneurial firm SpaceX is a high-stakes endeavor.
A successful liftoff of the private two-stage booster, planned for today at 11 a.m. EDT (1500 GMT) from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, would put oomph into President Barack Obama's plan to overhaul NASA by using commercial firms to send crew and cargo to the International Space Station.
But a Falcon 9 failure could be construed by some as a cautionary flag, calling to question the readiness of entrepreneurial "NewSpace" muscle to energize a commercial spaceflight industry.
The rocket's makers stress that this test flight should not come with too-high expectations.
"100 percent success would be reaching orbit," SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk told reporters during a Thursday teleconference. "Given that this is a test flight, whatever percentage of getting to orbit we achieve would still be considered a good day. If just the first stage functions correctly, it's a good day. It's a great day if both stages function."
SpaceX and others aim to take over launch duties after NASA's budget cuts ended its space program. SpaceX's Falcon 9 is the most promising -- and is scheduled to launch on June 5th.
With NASA confirming the end of its Constellation program, the space agency will rely on others for travel. Here are the leading companies and their current generation space taxi systems.
For promoters, the Falcon 9's maiden takeoff test signals a sea change. Yet there are those who suggest wearing life preservers.
Political support for Obama administration's push to rely on commercial space companies could be strongly affected by the success or failure of the Falcon 9 test, said Roger Handberg, a political scientist at the University of Central Florida who has written extensively on space policy.
"For Obama, there's a lot riding on it, as far as his credibility, because that's his big option," Handberg said. Obama visited SpaceX's Cape Canaveral launch site and toured the Falcon 9 rocket pad in April.
In fact, some say there's too much pressure for SpaceX to perform during this maiden launch.
"Certainly the future of the company and the future of the industry doesn't ride on this test," said Brett Alexander, president of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, a private industry group. "Some people are making it out to be that big, but it's not."
All in all, it's a touch of faith-based rocketry.
Space newbies
"We've waited long enough. The field now of NewSpace is broad enough that it would be foolish to hang everything on one launch," said Rick Tumlinson, co-Founder of the Space Frontier Foundation and a long-time space activist.
"We're newbies in a sense. We're going to have failures. Stuff is going to blow up," Tumlinson said. "Anybody on the NASA side who tries to pin it on us is being disingenuous...because all we have to do is roll their old tapes," he told SPACE.com.
Tumlinson portrays the coming of age of NewSpace as akin to barnstorming in early aviation. He stressed the need for the public to understand that this isn't rich boys and their toys – there are bigger things at stake.
"Whether one vehicle blows up or not...at least the SpaceX rocket is a real vehicle as opposed to a fake like the NASA's Ares [launch] was," Tumlinson said.
SpaceX has a $1.6 billion contract with NASA to deliver 20 tons of cargo to the International Space Station over 12 Dragon flights through 2016.
The company plans to offer Falcon 9 rocket flights at prices ranging between $45 million and $52 million. This SPACE.com graphic shows how the Falcon 9 rocket compares with NASA's shuttles and other spacecraft.
To date, the Hawthorne, Calif.-based company has invested about $400 million in its Falcon rockets (including the smaller Falcon 1) and the Dragon spacecraft, Musk said.
Lessons to be learned
Falcon 9 working correctly right out of the box is not likely, observes Tim Pickens, a commercial space advisor for the Huntsville, Ala.-based Dynetics and also the senior propulsion engineer for the company.
"I don't think a first-launch failure is the end of the world," Pickens said. "This is the launch business...and I'm rooting for these talented guys."
Pickens said that what SpaceX has on his side is history – a history of booster development over the decades that provide many lessons learned. Still, given the complexity of the Falcon 9, he said, there's likely to be more lessons to be learned lurking within the booster.
"The key thing is that there's enough instrumentation onboard. If something does happen, they can correctly fix it," Pickens added. "The biggest fear is not having the data to support whatever failure mode you did have... which could mean you end up in a pretty lengthy investigation."
With a vehicle the size of Falcon 9, particularly its nine main engines, "there are a lot of dynamic things happening. Of course the staging event is always the big one," Pickens noted.
Musk has said the first Falcon 9 rocket has about a 70 or 80 percent chance of success for its debut, but SpaceX can survive if it fails. A second Falcon 9 rocket is already being prepared for a follow-up test later this summer.
"They're smart people so they have a business plan that doesn't assume a 100 percent success," said John Logsdon, a space policy expert and professor emeritus of Political Science and International Affairs at the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., on Thursday. "So if tomorrow is not a total success, they will move on."
Faster and cheaper
Should the hopes of the entire industry and political survivability of President Obama's plan for NASA ride on one rocket flight?
"No... it's a test program," responded Michael Mealling, vice president of business development for Masten Space Systems in Mojave, Calif. The few flight anomalies that cropped up in NASA's Ares I-X flight in October of last year, Mealling said, didn't prove that Ares I is not a viable rocket. It was a learning experience, he said.
"If it goes right the first time, you actually didn't learn anything," Mealling told SPACE.com.
Regardless of what happens with the first flight of Falcon 9, SpaceX spent a tenth of the money doled out by NASA on its Ares booster, Mealling said. "Yes, I know that it's an apples-and-oranges comparison, but apples and oranges do generally cost the same amount at the grocery store."
"If Falcon 9 leaves the tower under its own propulsion, does even 75 percent of its goals, I think it will make a point that commercial companies can move faster...they can move cheaper...and that will start to make a point," Mealling advised.
Mealling said that there are people looking for a "Netscape Moment" in the commercial space industry, the equivalent of the first Internet investment boom for private spaceflight.
"Rocket engineering doesn't work that way. There's a lot of incremental stuff. You prove things out," he concluded.
Bigger picture
In terms of the bigger picture of upstart NewSpace ventures and the commercial space business, the future is indeed exciting - but also terrifying, insiders say.
That's the view of Jeff Greason, President of XCOR Aerospace in Mojave, Calif. "I'm not sure we're ready to do all the things that the U.S. government is now depending upon this industry to be able to do. That's just too bad, because we're going to have to do it anyway."
In remarks at the Space Access Society's Space Access '10 conference held in early April in Phoenix, Greason bluntly advised a room full of space entrepreneurs: "It is time to grow up."
Greason was a member of the recent White House-requested Review of U.S. Human Spaceflight Plans Committee. That review spotlighted the fact that there is now a burgeoning commercial space industry.
"If we craft a space architecture to provide opportunities to this industry, there is the potential – not without risk – that the costs to the government would be reduced," the report advised. "Commercial services to deliver crew to low-Earth orbit are within reach. While this presents some risk, it could provide an earlier capability at lower initial and life-cycle costs than government could achieve. A new competition with adequate incentives to perform this service should be open to all U.S. aerospace companies."
Speaking at the Space Access Society gathering, Greason made clear his vision of the United States having a successful commercial space industry and space transportation industry. That enterprise, he said, would move people and payloads to and from destinations in space with economics that make sense...with a level of safety and reliability that is associated with transportation and not ammunition.
"It's a hard road... it's a long road. But we're getting there. The size of the opportunity that we're faced with is terrifying... and wonderful," Greason said.
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Vocabulary Builder #1: Anik (Canadian satellite series)
The Anik satellites, also called Telesat, are communication satellites for Canada.
There have been a series of these satellites launched since 1972.
Name -- Satellite type -- Launched -- Retired --Launch vehicle
Anik A1 -- Hughes Aircraft HS333 November 9, 1972 July 15, 1982 Delta 1914 rocket
Anik A2 -- Hughes Aircraft HS333 April 20, 1973 October 6, 1982 Delta rocket
Anik A3 -- Hughes Aircraft HS333 May 7, 1975 November 21, 1984 Delta rocket
Anik B1 -- RCA Astro Satcom December 15, 1978 December 1, 1986 Delta rocket
Anik C1 -- Hughes Aircraft HS376 April 12, 1985 May 5, 2003 Discovery
Anik C2 -- Hughes Aircraft HS376 June 18, 1983 January 7, 1998 Challenger
Anik C3 -- Hughes Aircraft HS376 November 11, 1982 June 18, 1997 Columbia
Anik D1 -- Hughes Aircraft HS376 August 26, 1982 December 16, 1991 Delta rocket
Anik D2 -- Hughes Aircraft HS376 November 8, 1984 January 31, 1995 Discovery
Anik E1 -- GE Astro 5000 Sept 26, 1991 January 18, 2005 Ariane 4
Anik E2 -- GE Astro 5000 April 4, 1991 November 23, 2005 Ariane 4
Anik F1 -- HS 702 (Boeing 702) November 21, 2000 Still in use Ariane 4
Anik F2 -- Boeing 702 July 17, 2004 Still in use Ariane 5G
Anik F1R -- ASTRIUM E3000 Sept 9, 2005 Still in use Proton/Breeze-M
Anik F3 -- ASTRIUM E3000 April 10, 2007 Still in use Proton/Breeze-M
There have been a series of these satellites launched since 1972.
Name -- Satellite type -- Launched -- Retired --Launch vehicle
Anik A1 -- Hughes Aircraft HS333 November 9, 1972 July 15, 1982 Delta 1914 rocket
Anik A2 -- Hughes Aircraft HS333 April 20, 1973 October 6, 1982 Delta rocket
Anik A3 -- Hughes Aircraft HS333 May 7, 1975 November 21, 1984 Delta rocket
Anik B1 -- RCA Astro Satcom December 15, 1978 December 1, 1986 Delta rocket
Anik C1 -- Hughes Aircraft HS376 April 12, 1985 May 5, 2003 Discovery
Anik C2 -- Hughes Aircraft HS376 June 18, 1983 January 7, 1998 Challenger
Anik C3 -- Hughes Aircraft HS376 November 11, 1982 June 18, 1997 Columbia
Anik D1 -- Hughes Aircraft HS376 August 26, 1982 December 16, 1991 Delta rocket
Anik D2 -- Hughes Aircraft HS376 November 8, 1984 January 31, 1995 Discovery
Anik E1 -- GE Astro 5000 Sept 26, 1991 January 18, 2005 Ariane 4
Anik E2 -- GE Astro 5000 April 4, 1991 November 23, 2005 Ariane 4
Anik F1 -- HS 702 (Boeing 702) November 21, 2000 Still in use Ariane 4
Anik F2 -- Boeing 702 July 17, 2004 Still in use Ariane 5G
Anik F1R -- ASTRIUM E3000 Sept 9, 2005 Still in use Proton/Breeze-M
Anik F3 -- ASTRIUM E3000 April 10, 2007 Still in use Proton/Breeze-M
European Space Agency Starts 18-Month Mars500 Mission Simulation
From E-week: European Space Agency Starts 18-Month Mars500 Mission Simulation
Working in conjunction with the Moscow-based Institute of Biomedical Problems, the European Space Agency "launched" an 18-month simulated manned mission to Mars, designed to test the psychological and physical stresses humans might encounter on such an endeavor.
The European Space Agency, working in collaboration with Institute of Biomedical Problems in Moscow, initiated Mars500, the first full-length simulated mission to Mars. The mission is to virtually fly to Mars in 250 days, divide in two groups, simulate a landing and exploration of the Martian surface for a month and then end with a simulated return to Earth in 230 days, in the team’s special facility imitating an interplanetary spacecraft, lander and Martian terrain. The experiment will end in November 2011, the space agency said.
Diego Urbina and Romain Charles from Europe, Sukhrob Kamolov, Alexey Sitev, Alexandr Smoleevskiy and Mikhail Sinelnikov from Russia and Wang Yue from China face a mission that is “as close as possible to a real space voyage,” the ESA said. They will live and work like astronauts, eat special food and exercise in the same way as crews aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Only electricity, water and some air will be fed into the compartments from outside.
The astronauts will normally have eight hours of work, eight hours of free time and eight hours of rest a day, with the “weekends” free. The ESA noted the physiological aspects of the experiments are of great interest to the experiment’s observers. Their bodies are expected to start to adapt to new conditions –the ESA said a closed environment with restricted space could quickly lead to poor physical condition. While the crew needs to exercise up to two hours a day, they can shower only once a week.
The agency is calling the experiment “the ultimate test of human endurance” and said the physiological challenges faced by humans trapped for almost 18 months in a small container would be a key part of the test. “The facility is not a spacecraft, but it uses many systems that will be used in some form when developing a real craft for a Mars mission,” a release from the ESA explained. “Testing these in realistic conditions is important. The crew has been trained to repair every single bolt of their ‘craft’ and outside help will be given only in extreme situations.”
Throughout their mission, Urbina and Charles, the ESA-selected crewmembers, will send diary updates and videos to ESA’s Mars500 site. Their first post, “Goodbye Sun, goodbye Earth, we are leaving for Mars!” finds both astronauts upbeat and excited about the experiment and the benefits it might bring to humankind. “We are so pleased to be part of such a nice crew and such an important experiment, and hope that some of you, among our readers, will actually be the ones who will step on Mars in the future,” wrote Urbina. “The internationalism of Mars500 does not only involve the crew, but also the researchers who come from so many countries that I could easily surpass the word limit in this blog post. This is for sure a strong point of Mars500, as no human flight to the Red Planet will be possible by one single Nation. Knowing how to collaborate at all levels is fundamental.”
Working in conjunction with the Moscow-based Institute of Biomedical Problems, the European Space Agency "launched" an 18-month simulated manned mission to Mars, designed to test the psychological and physical stresses humans might encounter on such an endeavor.
The European Space Agency, working in collaboration with Institute of Biomedical Problems in Moscow, initiated Mars500, the first full-length simulated mission to Mars. The mission is to virtually fly to Mars in 250 days, divide in two groups, simulate a landing and exploration of the Martian surface for a month and then end with a simulated return to Earth in 230 days, in the team’s special facility imitating an interplanetary spacecraft, lander and Martian terrain. The experiment will end in November 2011, the space agency said.
Diego Urbina and Romain Charles from Europe, Sukhrob Kamolov, Alexey Sitev, Alexandr Smoleevskiy and Mikhail Sinelnikov from Russia and Wang Yue from China face a mission that is “as close as possible to a real space voyage,” the ESA said. They will live and work like astronauts, eat special food and exercise in the same way as crews aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Only electricity, water and some air will be fed into the compartments from outside.
The astronauts will normally have eight hours of work, eight hours of free time and eight hours of rest a day, with the “weekends” free. The ESA noted the physiological aspects of the experiments are of great interest to the experiment’s observers. Their bodies are expected to start to adapt to new conditions –the ESA said a closed environment with restricted space could quickly lead to poor physical condition. While the crew needs to exercise up to two hours a day, they can shower only once a week.
The agency is calling the experiment “the ultimate test of human endurance” and said the physiological challenges faced by humans trapped for almost 18 months in a small container would be a key part of the test. “The facility is not a spacecraft, but it uses many systems that will be used in some form when developing a real craft for a Mars mission,” a release from the ESA explained. “Testing these in realistic conditions is important. The crew has been trained to repair every single bolt of their ‘craft’ and outside help will be given only in extreme situations.”
Throughout their mission, Urbina and Charles, the ESA-selected crewmembers, will send diary updates and videos to ESA’s Mars500 site. Their first post, “Goodbye Sun, goodbye Earth, we are leaving for Mars!” finds both astronauts upbeat and excited about the experiment and the benefits it might bring to humankind. “We are so pleased to be part of such a nice crew and such an important experiment, and hope that some of you, among our readers, will actually be the ones who will step on Mars in the future,” wrote Urbina. “The internationalism of Mars500 does not only involve the crew, but also the researchers who come from so many countries that I could easily surpass the word limit in this blog post. This is for sure a strong point of Mars500, as no human flight to the Red Planet will be possible by one single Nation. Knowing how to collaborate at all levels is fundamental.”
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
What Happened in Space News June 2
Venera 15 - USSR Venus Orbiter - 5,000 kg was launched on June 2, 1983.
Venera 15 arrived at Venus on October 10, 1983. Its high-resolution imaging system produced images at 1-2 kilometers in resolution. Venera 15 and 16 produced a map of the northern hemisphere from the pole to 30°N.
Several hot spots were found, possibly caused by volcanic activity.
Venera 15 arrived at Venus on October 10, 1983. Its high-resolution imaging system produced images at 1-2 kilometers in resolution. Venera 15 and 16 produced a map of the northern hemisphere from the pole to 30°N.
Several hot spots were found, possibly caused by volcanic activity.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Approaching Space Center, and End of Line for Shuttle Program
From New York Times: Approaching Space Center, and End of Line for Shuttle Program
NEAR KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — A train pulling the last set of space shuttle solid-fuel booster segments reached the Kennedy Space Center last Thursday — a day after the shuttle Atlantis completed its final planned mission — in a reminder that the program is nearing the end of the line.
Enlarge This Image
William Hardwood
Onward Resembling a wagon from the Old West, a rail car with booster segments neared the Kennedy Space Center.
Related
Times Topic: Space Shuttle“I remember when we heard about the last solid rocket booster test firing, the last main engine test firing, the last tank manufacturing and now the last set of boosters coming to K.S.C.,” said the shuttle’s launch director, Michael D. Leinbach. “Yeah, this has been 25 years of my life. It’s very, very touching, a lot of emotions kick in.”
Mr. Leinbach and about two dozen managers and engineers with NASA and Alliant Techsystems, which builds the huge shuttle boosters near Promontory, Utah, accompanied the segments for the final 120 miles of their cross-country journey, sharing memories tinged with pride and sadness.
“Melancholy kicks in, a little bit of denial, probably,” Mr. Leinbach said as the train rolled south from Jacksonville, Fla.
He expressed concern about looming layoffs — some 7,000 shuttle jobs are being eliminated at the space center alone — and said, “The thing that makes me most angry, and maybe ‘disappointed’ is a better word than ‘angry,’ is the fact that America’s not going to be able to launch American astronauts on American rockets for many, many years.”
Mr. Leinbach was referring to the gap between the end of shuttle operations after two final flights and the debut of commercially developed rockets and capsules that are at the heart of the Obama administration’s new space policy.
While supporters of the new plan believe private-sector rockets can be ready in three or four years, many agency insiders believe that such assessments are overly optimistic and that technical problems will inevitably delay whatever comes next.
In the meantime, NASA astronauts will be forced to hitch rides on Russian Soyuz spacecraft, at more than $50 million a seat, to reach the International Space Station.
NASA is preparing the shuttle Discovery for launch in September or October to deliver supplies and spare parts to the space station. Endeavour is to go on the final mission late this year or early next to deliver a $1.5 billion physics experiment to the lab complex.
The six booster segments delivered last week, along with two that arrived earlier, will be prepared for launch with Atlantis for an emergency rescue mission were Endeavour’s crew to run into a problem preventing safe re-entry.
NASA managers and supporters in Congress are lobbying the Obama administration to launch Atlantis on a final space station resupply mission next summer if a rescue flight is not needed. By launching Atlantis with a reduced crew of four, a backup shuttle would not be needed. The astronauts could instead seek safe haven on the space station until returning aboard Soyuz spacecraft.
“I think it makes sense,” said Michael J. Massimino, a veteran astronaut. “You’ve got to weigh it against the costs. So let the cost guys figure it out. But when they do, I think they’ll see that it’s worth it for us to fly it.”
NEAR KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — A train pulling the last set of space shuttle solid-fuel booster segments reached the Kennedy Space Center last Thursday — a day after the shuttle Atlantis completed its final planned mission — in a reminder that the program is nearing the end of the line.
Enlarge This Image
William Hardwood
Onward Resembling a wagon from the Old West, a rail car with booster segments neared the Kennedy Space Center.
Related
Times Topic: Space Shuttle“I remember when we heard about the last solid rocket booster test firing, the last main engine test firing, the last tank manufacturing and now the last set of boosters coming to K.S.C.,” said the shuttle’s launch director, Michael D. Leinbach. “Yeah, this has been 25 years of my life. It’s very, very touching, a lot of emotions kick in.”
Mr. Leinbach and about two dozen managers and engineers with NASA and Alliant Techsystems, which builds the huge shuttle boosters near Promontory, Utah, accompanied the segments for the final 120 miles of their cross-country journey, sharing memories tinged with pride and sadness.
“Melancholy kicks in, a little bit of denial, probably,” Mr. Leinbach said as the train rolled south from Jacksonville, Fla.
He expressed concern about looming layoffs — some 7,000 shuttle jobs are being eliminated at the space center alone — and said, “The thing that makes me most angry, and maybe ‘disappointed’ is a better word than ‘angry,’ is the fact that America’s not going to be able to launch American astronauts on American rockets for many, many years.”
Mr. Leinbach was referring to the gap between the end of shuttle operations after two final flights and the debut of commercially developed rockets and capsules that are at the heart of the Obama administration’s new space policy.
While supporters of the new plan believe private-sector rockets can be ready in three or four years, many agency insiders believe that such assessments are overly optimistic and that technical problems will inevitably delay whatever comes next.
In the meantime, NASA astronauts will be forced to hitch rides on Russian Soyuz spacecraft, at more than $50 million a seat, to reach the International Space Station.
NASA is preparing the shuttle Discovery for launch in September or October to deliver supplies and spare parts to the space station. Endeavour is to go on the final mission late this year or early next to deliver a $1.5 billion physics experiment to the lab complex.
The six booster segments delivered last week, along with two that arrived earlier, will be prepared for launch with Atlantis for an emergency rescue mission were Endeavour’s crew to run into a problem preventing safe re-entry.
NASA managers and supporters in Congress are lobbying the Obama administration to launch Atlantis on a final space station resupply mission next summer if a rescue flight is not needed. By launching Atlantis with a reduced crew of four, a backup shuttle would not be needed. The astronauts could instead seek safe haven on the space station until returning aboard Soyuz spacecraft.
“I think it makes sense,” said Michael J. Massimino, a veteran astronaut. “You’ve got to weigh it against the costs. So let the cost guys figure it out. But when they do, I think they’ll see that it’s worth it for us to fly it.”
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