Voice of America: Japan's Space Exploration Plan Takes Off
An expert advisory panel is urging the Japanese government to move forward with its $2-billion moon exploration program.
The plan includes sending wheeled robots to the moon within the next five years and creating an unmanned space station on the moon by 2020.
The robots would have solar panels, an observation device and be able to gather geological samples. The materials would then be sent back to Earth by rocket.
The robots would work from the lunar base, which will be located at the moon's south pole.
The expert panel approved the recommendations Thursday after a one-year study. They say the program is needed, despite government budget cuts, in order for Japan to be a leader in the space race.
Japan has already made strides in space exploration with a satellite that has successfully returned high-definition images of the entire moon. It also sent out an unmanned probe that recently returned to Earth from a seven-year journey to an asteroid.
Friday, July 30, 2010
Thursday, July 29, 2010
USA Clips Space Shuttle Workforce
From Aviation Week: USA Clips Space Shuttle Workforce
CAPE CANAVERAL — While Congress mulls conflicting blueprints for NASA’s human space program, 1,394 space shuttle workers in Florida, Texas and Alabama got notice this week of what their future looks like — no job.
Following through on an initiative announced earlier this month, prime shuttle contractor United Space Alliance (USA) notified 902 employees in Florida, 478 workers in Texas and 14 in Alabama that Sept. 30 will be their last day of work.
The layoff notification marked the third and largest wave of workforce cutbacks enacted by USA in less than a year, with more employees expected to get pink slips next year as the final shuttle missions are completed.
NASA plans to fly two more flights – shuttle Discovery’s STS-133 mission in November and Endeavour’s STS-134 flight in February. Draft legislation pending in both the House and Senate proposes adding an extra shuttle flight to the International Space Station in the second half of 2011 using Atlantis, the Launch-On-Need vehicle configured to support Endeavour’s final flight.
The company, which is jointly owned by Lockheed Martin and Boeing, currently employs about 8,100 people under its shuttle processing contract with NASA.
USA is looking for new work in human space ventures, said spokesperson Kari Fluegel, adding that “a number of contracts we’re pursuing are still in the competition phase.”
The company remains a subcontractor to Lockheed Martin on the Orion capsule project, one element of the Constellation Moon program that seems likely to survive in some form in the new space exploration initiatives under discussion.
USA also holds the three-year, $207 million Integrated Mission Operations Contract with NASA’s Johnson Space Center and is a major subcontractor to Lockheed on JSC’s $667-million Facilities Development and Operations Contract.
“Certainly as we win new work and staff back up, even though we don’t expect that to happen overnight, we certainly will give consideration to our previous employees,” Fluegel said.
CAPE CANAVERAL — While Congress mulls conflicting blueprints for NASA’s human space program, 1,394 space shuttle workers in Florida, Texas and Alabama got notice this week of what their future looks like — no job.
Following through on an initiative announced earlier this month, prime shuttle contractor United Space Alliance (USA) notified 902 employees in Florida, 478 workers in Texas and 14 in Alabama that Sept. 30 will be their last day of work.
The layoff notification marked the third and largest wave of workforce cutbacks enacted by USA in less than a year, with more employees expected to get pink slips next year as the final shuttle missions are completed.
NASA plans to fly two more flights – shuttle Discovery’s STS-133 mission in November and Endeavour’s STS-134 flight in February. Draft legislation pending in both the House and Senate proposes adding an extra shuttle flight to the International Space Station in the second half of 2011 using Atlantis, the Launch-On-Need vehicle configured to support Endeavour’s final flight.
The company, which is jointly owned by Lockheed Martin and Boeing, currently employs about 8,100 people under its shuttle processing contract with NASA.
USA is looking for new work in human space ventures, said spokesperson Kari Fluegel, adding that “a number of contracts we’re pursuing are still in the competition phase.”
The company remains a subcontractor to Lockheed Martin on the Orion capsule project, one element of the Constellation Moon program that seems likely to survive in some form in the new space exploration initiatives under discussion.
USA also holds the three-year, $207 million Integrated Mission Operations Contract with NASA’s Johnson Space Center and is a major subcontractor to Lockheed on JSC’s $667-million Facilities Development and Operations Contract.
“Certainly as we win new work and staff back up, even though we don’t expect that to happen overnight, we certainly will give consideration to our previous employees,” Fluegel said.
Monday, July 26, 2010
Amelia Earhart's watch brought to International Space Station
Amelia Earhat's watch, which the famed aviator wore on two trans-Atlantic flights was brought aboard the International Space Station 82 years to the day after her first flight.
By Robert Z. Pearlman, CollectSPACE.com / June 18, 2010
The watch that aviatrix Amelia Earhart wore while making history on two trans-Atlantic flights was brought onboard the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday, 82 years to the day after its historic first flight. The timepiece was among a few mementos — including a medal of honor — that flew to orbit with the outpost's three newest crewmembers.
Amelia Earhart's watch is now orbiting the Earth aboard the International Space Station. It was brought there 82 years to the day after her first historic trans-Atlantic flight.
Earhart's watch arrived at the station onboard the Russian Soyuz TMA-19 spacecraft, which docked at the aft port of the Zvezda service module at 5:21 p.m. CDT as the two vehicles were, coincidentally, flying over the Atlantic.
The hatches between the two spacecraft were then opened at 7:52 p.m., allowing NASA astronaut Shannon Walker, who was entrusted with the watch, and her fellow crewmates U.S. astronaut Doug Wheelock and Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin to join their three counterparts onboard the ISS to form the six-person Expedition 24 crew.
Walker's own arrival on the station made a bit of women's flight history of her own. Launched 47 years after the first woman entered space and joining the station's crew one day shy of the 27th anniversary of the first U.S. woman in space, Walker — who is the world's 55th female spaceflier — became part of the largest contingent of women serving on a long duration mission with Tracy Caldwell Dyson.
Time and time again
"Amelia crossed the Atlantic twice, once as a passenger and once as the pilot in command, flying solo, and she wore this watch both times," said Joan Kerwin, director of The Ninety-Nines, an international organization for women pilots.
Earhart became the first female trans-Atlantic passenger on June 17, 1928, departing Newfoundland and landing in Wales in the United Kingdom almost 21 hours later. Her historic solo flight began May 20, 1932 and touched down 15 hours later in Northern Ireland.
Before her disappearance in-flight on July 2, 1937, Earhart gifted the watch she wore on both trans-Atlantic trips to H. Gordon Selfridge Jr., who later gave it to Fay Gillis Wells, a charter member of The Ninety-Nines.
Kerwin, who acquired the timepiece from Wells at auction, presented it in October 2009 to Walker, a member of The Ninety-Nines, to fly to space.
"Amelia is such an icon with women in aviation and now with women in space. We are thrilled that Shannon is a Ninety-Nine and will be taking Amelia into space with her," Kerwin said last year.
Although the watch still runs, Walker won't use it to keep time but will keep it with her during the flight.
"I am very honored to take this watch," Walker said after accepting it from Kerwin, "because to me it represents the continuation of women in aviation and the field of aviation and how we continue to push boundaries and farther than ever before."
In addition to Earhart's watch, Walker selected a few other mementos to bring to the station, which relate to her being the first native Houstonian to fly in space. Houston, Texas hosts Johnson Space Center, where Mission Control and NASA's astronaut training facilities are based.
By Robert Z. Pearlman, CollectSPACE.com / June 18, 2010
The watch that aviatrix Amelia Earhart wore while making history on two trans-Atlantic flights was brought onboard the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday, 82 years to the day after its historic first flight. The timepiece was among a few mementos — including a medal of honor — that flew to orbit with the outpost's three newest crewmembers.
Amelia Earhart's watch is now orbiting the Earth aboard the International Space Station. It was brought there 82 years to the day after her first historic trans-Atlantic flight.
Earhart's watch arrived at the station onboard the Russian Soyuz TMA-19 spacecraft, which docked at the aft port of the Zvezda service module at 5:21 p.m. CDT as the two vehicles were, coincidentally, flying over the Atlantic.
The hatches between the two spacecraft were then opened at 7:52 p.m., allowing NASA astronaut Shannon Walker, who was entrusted with the watch, and her fellow crewmates U.S. astronaut Doug Wheelock and Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin to join their three counterparts onboard the ISS to form the six-person Expedition 24 crew.
Walker's own arrival on the station made a bit of women's flight history of her own. Launched 47 years after the first woman entered space and joining the station's crew one day shy of the 27th anniversary of the first U.S. woman in space, Walker — who is the world's 55th female spaceflier — became part of the largest contingent of women serving on a long duration mission with Tracy Caldwell Dyson.
Time and time again
"Amelia crossed the Atlantic twice, once as a passenger and once as the pilot in command, flying solo, and she wore this watch both times," said Joan Kerwin, director of The Ninety-Nines, an international organization for women pilots.
Earhart became the first female trans-Atlantic passenger on June 17, 1928, departing Newfoundland and landing in Wales in the United Kingdom almost 21 hours later. Her historic solo flight began May 20, 1932 and touched down 15 hours later in Northern Ireland.
Before her disappearance in-flight on July 2, 1937, Earhart gifted the watch she wore on both trans-Atlantic trips to H. Gordon Selfridge Jr., who later gave it to Fay Gillis Wells, a charter member of The Ninety-Nines.
Kerwin, who acquired the timepiece from Wells at auction, presented it in October 2009 to Walker, a member of The Ninety-Nines, to fly to space.
"Amelia is such an icon with women in aviation and now with women in space. We are thrilled that Shannon is a Ninety-Nine and will be taking Amelia into space with her," Kerwin said last year.
Although the watch still runs, Walker won't use it to keep time but will keep it with her during the flight.
"I am very honored to take this watch," Walker said after accepting it from Kerwin, "because to me it represents the continuation of women in aviation and the field of aviation and how we continue to push boundaries and farther than ever before."
In addition to Earhart's watch, Walker selected a few other mementos to bring to the station, which relate to her being the first native Houstonian to fly in space. Houston, Texas hosts Johnson Space Center, where Mission Control and NASA's astronaut training facilities are based.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Laser system tracks growing threat of space junk
Laser system tracks growing threat of space junk
Australian researchers say they have developed a laser tracking system that will stop chunks of space debris from colliding with spacecraft and satellites in the earth's orbit.
Electro Optic Systems, an aerospace company based in Canberra, has received a $3.5 million grant from the Australian government to develop the world's first automated, high-precision, laser tracking technology, Voice of America reported on its website Saturday. It would replace existing radar networks that currently monitor debris floating in space.
An estimated 500,000 pieces of debris litter the Earth's orbit as a result of space exploration. The space junk ranges from old rocket parts the size of a bus to paint chips the size of a finger nail. Another 200,000 pieces of junk measuring less than a centimetre across — and thus not a serious threat or even possible to track — add to the space junk pile.
Most of the debris is in LEO — low earth orbit — within 2,000 km of the earth's surface.
Some satellites have been hit by pieces of man-made space junk, some hurtling at speeds over 35,000 km/h. Several space shuttle missions have also been endangered by the fast-moving veil of debris.
Dr. Craig Smith, CEO of Electro Optic Systems, said the goal of the new system is to track small objects with great accuracy, Voice of America reported.
"They are all hurtling around in space at 36,000 kilometres per hour and so even a 1mm piece of space junk can destroy or damage a satellite because it all comes from either dead satellites, satellites which have broken up, satellites which had fuel left in them and exploded," Smith told VOA. "It is really pollution from our own use of space. Over the last 50 years we have been a bit careless, just as we have been careless with our oceans and rivers over centuries and polluted them. Now we have done it to space as well and created our own problem because all this stuff is man-made."
The laser tracking system would work by giving spacecraft and satellites, which are able to be maneuvered, time to move out of the way of an incoming chunk of debris.
The project is one aspect of aerospace work by a larger international consortium, VOA said. Other members of the consortium include the Australian National University and scientific institutions in Germany and the United States. The tracking system can work from one laser base in Australia but the group's ultimate aim is to build a series of laser tracking stations around the world to provide an interconnecting defensive shield for activity in space.
Australian researchers say they have developed a laser tracking system that will stop chunks of space debris from colliding with spacecraft and satellites in the earth's orbit.
Electro Optic Systems, an aerospace company based in Canberra, has received a $3.5 million grant from the Australian government to develop the world's first automated, high-precision, laser tracking technology, Voice of America reported on its website Saturday. It would replace existing radar networks that currently monitor debris floating in space.
An estimated 500,000 pieces of debris litter the Earth's orbit as a result of space exploration. The space junk ranges from old rocket parts the size of a bus to paint chips the size of a finger nail. Another 200,000 pieces of junk measuring less than a centimetre across — and thus not a serious threat or even possible to track — add to the space junk pile.
Most of the debris is in LEO — low earth orbit — within 2,000 km of the earth's surface.
Some satellites have been hit by pieces of man-made space junk, some hurtling at speeds over 35,000 km/h. Several space shuttle missions have also been endangered by the fast-moving veil of debris.
Dr. Craig Smith, CEO of Electro Optic Systems, said the goal of the new system is to track small objects with great accuracy, Voice of America reported.
"They are all hurtling around in space at 36,000 kilometres per hour and so even a 1mm piece of space junk can destroy or damage a satellite because it all comes from either dead satellites, satellites which have broken up, satellites which had fuel left in them and exploded," Smith told VOA. "It is really pollution from our own use of space. Over the last 50 years we have been a bit careless, just as we have been careless with our oceans and rivers over centuries and polluted them. Now we have done it to space as well and created our own problem because all this stuff is man-made."
The laser tracking system would work by giving spacecraft and satellites, which are able to be maneuvered, time to move out of the way of an incoming chunk of debris.
The project is one aspect of aerospace work by a larger international consortium, VOA said. Other members of the consortium include the Australian National University and scientific institutions in Germany and the United States. The tracking system can work from one laser base in Australia but the group's ultimate aim is to build a series of laser tracking stations around the world to provide an interconnecting defensive shield for activity in space.
60 Years of Rocket Launches: The Rise of America's Spaceport
60 Years of Rocket Launches: The Rise of America's Spaceport
By Robert Z. Pearlman
Published July 23, 2010| Space.com
Sixty years ago Saturday morning, a rocket stood ready to launch from the east coast of Florida, destined to make history – not so much for where it was going, but for where it was departing.
Bumper 8, a two-stage vehicle built from a U.S.-modified, World War II-captured German V-2 missile and a sounding rocket upper-stage, became the first to liftoff from what is now known as Cape Canaveral.
A ceremony to mark the 60th anniversary of Bumper 8's historic flight will take place today at the Florida launching pad. [Photo: Florida's first rocket launch.]
Florida's first rocket
The launch, which took place on July 24, 1950 at 9:28 a.m. EDT (1428 GMT), established the Florida spaceport long before space was the objective.
"It was only about missile research," Michael Neufeld, chair of the National Air and Space Museum's Space History Division, told SPACE.com. "The Cape as a launch site emerged in the late '40s when the armed services were looking at developing missiles longer than the White Sands [New Mexico] range could accommodate."
"There was an inter-service examination where an appropriate long-range proving ground – that was what it was called, the first iteration [of Cape Canaveral] was called the Long Range Proving Ground – where it could be," Neufeld said.
Bumper 8, the seventh in a test series of launches that was named after the way the two stages separated – or bumped apart – at altitude, picked up at the Cape where the earlier tests in New Mexico had left off.
"What the 1950 tests were about, which is something that very few people know, is that these Bumper launches were not altitude-launches, like the Bumper that went to 250 miles after multiple failures," described Neufeld. "These Bumper launches were designed to go on a much flatter trajectory and gather some data about hypersonic flight more in the upper atmosphere. And that was explicitly connected to trying to develop long-range cruise missiles."
60 years of rocket history
As rocket launches go – or went in the six decades that followed – Bumper 8's two-minute flight was not a total success. [NASA's Most Memorable Missions]
"Bumper 8 did not meet all its objectives," explained veteran space journalist Jim Banke, who will address an invited audience of Cape Canaveral personnel at a 60th anniversary ceremony this morning at the launch site.
"By and large, it was a successful mission in that it launched, it staged – which was the whole point of the flight to prove that staging could work and that the benefits of staging were real – but then after they staged they lost almost immediate contact and track with the WAC Corporal upper stage and they think that it basically broke apart," he added.
"Because of that – the mission did not meet all of its objective – so a lot of people used to call it a failure," said Banke. "But now it seems like we want to call it a success only it didn't meet all of its objectives."
Though it was impossible for the Bumper 8 team to know then, their 'successful failure' entered the history books for something other than own test objectives.
"I think that Bumper 8's real significance is that it was simply the first launch [from Cape Canveral]. I don't think the Bumper launches were even successful at the Cape. But that launch certainly places that significant marking point when the Cape began," Neufeld said.
"Bumper 8 was the first launch from Cape. It was the beginning of a 60-year now long tradition of excellence, of teamwork, or people doing miraculous things for the good of all. That's why it was important and that's why it is important here. It's usually a local legacy, a heritage thing, something we are proud of in own our backyard," said Banke.
Since Bumper 8, more than 3,000 rockets, missiles and manned spacecraft have followed its path skyward from the Florida launch-site. It was the latter though, that captured the public's imagination and really put Cape Canaveral on the map.
"In the '60s of course, it became the human spaceflight center and that is what everybody thought about, knew about. The fact that military activity continued there was increasingly obscured by the overwhelming focus on the human spaceflight program," Neufeld said. "I don't think most of the people are aware that most of the territory is in the Air Force side and that's where most of the launches are because [NASA's] Kennedy Space Center has all the visibility."
Out of space shuttles, out of sight?
"I think if you look to the non-space buff crowd, nobody knows about what is going on [at Cape Canaveral] except that the space shuttle is launched. They may have the vaguest knowledge that other rockets are launched there, but the overwhelming public image is that of the shuttle and that's where the shuttles are launched. So I wonder what people think is going to happen to the place," said Neufeld.
"The impression that I get is that if the public thinks of it all, it is when the shuttle launches and those are technically not even at Cape Canaveral," said Joel Powell, author of the 2006 book, "Go For Launch: An Illustrated History of Cape Canaveral." "The public doesn't really take a lot of notice [of rocket launches] – even when the Mars Exploration Rovers were launched to Mars or even the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter – they really don't notice them anymore."
"The shuttle is still capturing their attention but of course the shuttle is going away," he remarked.
As for the site itself, Powell said that Cape Canaveral is also losing much of its landscape to the passage of time. "The impression that I get when I visit recently is that it is slowly reverting back to its natural state, except for the active launch pads."
"I am a little bit saddened that most of the older launch pads have really been demolished and obliterated so that slowly, all the historical facilities are being literally plowed into the ground," said Powell, who added that Pad 3, where Bumper 8 lifted off, is now little more than a slab of concrete.
Launch site markers
Although Banke agreed that many of the historic sites are now shells of their former selves – 'ruins of Canaveral,' as Powell phrased it in his book – he feels the Cape is still adapting to fit the needs of those seeking to reach space.
"As the old stuff kind of fades away and almost disappears into the soil, new stuff is coming up, new pads, new prospects, new offices are being built to replace them as the Cape continues to meet the needs of the launch community," said Banke.
"We continue to be a launch site, we continue to be a gateway to Earth orbit and whatever happens at Kennedy Space Center in the near future in terms of NASA's space exploration agenda, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station is going to continue to be the major site in the United States for launching large cargo and satellites into orbit."
By Robert Z. Pearlman
Published July 23, 2010| Space.com
Sixty years ago Saturday morning, a rocket stood ready to launch from the east coast of Florida, destined to make history – not so much for where it was going, but for where it was departing.
Bumper 8, a two-stage vehicle built from a U.S.-modified, World War II-captured German V-2 missile and a sounding rocket upper-stage, became the first to liftoff from what is now known as Cape Canaveral.
A ceremony to mark the 60th anniversary of Bumper 8's historic flight will take place today at the Florida launching pad. [Photo: Florida's first rocket launch.]
Florida's first rocket
The launch, which took place on July 24, 1950 at 9:28 a.m. EDT (1428 GMT), established the Florida spaceport long before space was the objective.
"It was only about missile research," Michael Neufeld, chair of the National Air and Space Museum's Space History Division, told SPACE.com. "The Cape as a launch site emerged in the late '40s when the armed services were looking at developing missiles longer than the White Sands [New Mexico] range could accommodate."
"There was an inter-service examination where an appropriate long-range proving ground – that was what it was called, the first iteration [of Cape Canaveral] was called the Long Range Proving Ground – where it could be," Neufeld said.
Bumper 8, the seventh in a test series of launches that was named after the way the two stages separated – or bumped apart – at altitude, picked up at the Cape where the earlier tests in New Mexico had left off.
"What the 1950 tests were about, which is something that very few people know, is that these Bumper launches were not altitude-launches, like the Bumper that went to 250 miles after multiple failures," described Neufeld. "These Bumper launches were designed to go on a much flatter trajectory and gather some data about hypersonic flight more in the upper atmosphere. And that was explicitly connected to trying to develop long-range cruise missiles."
60 years of rocket history
As rocket launches go – or went in the six decades that followed – Bumper 8's two-minute flight was not a total success. [NASA's Most Memorable Missions]
"Bumper 8 did not meet all its objectives," explained veteran space journalist Jim Banke, who will address an invited audience of Cape Canaveral personnel at a 60th anniversary ceremony this morning at the launch site.
"By and large, it was a successful mission in that it launched, it staged – which was the whole point of the flight to prove that staging could work and that the benefits of staging were real – but then after they staged they lost almost immediate contact and track with the WAC Corporal upper stage and they think that it basically broke apart," he added.
"Because of that – the mission did not meet all of its objective – so a lot of people used to call it a failure," said Banke. "But now it seems like we want to call it a success only it didn't meet all of its objectives."
Though it was impossible for the Bumper 8 team to know then, their 'successful failure' entered the history books for something other than own test objectives.
"I think that Bumper 8's real significance is that it was simply the first launch [from Cape Canveral]. I don't think the Bumper launches were even successful at the Cape. But that launch certainly places that significant marking point when the Cape began," Neufeld said.
"Bumper 8 was the first launch from Cape. It was the beginning of a 60-year now long tradition of excellence, of teamwork, or people doing miraculous things for the good of all. That's why it was important and that's why it is important here. It's usually a local legacy, a heritage thing, something we are proud of in own our backyard," said Banke.
Since Bumper 8, more than 3,000 rockets, missiles and manned spacecraft have followed its path skyward from the Florida launch-site. It was the latter though, that captured the public's imagination and really put Cape Canaveral on the map.
"In the '60s of course, it became the human spaceflight center and that is what everybody thought about, knew about. The fact that military activity continued there was increasingly obscured by the overwhelming focus on the human spaceflight program," Neufeld said. "I don't think most of the people are aware that most of the territory is in the Air Force side and that's where most of the launches are because [NASA's] Kennedy Space Center has all the visibility."
Out of space shuttles, out of sight?
"I think if you look to the non-space buff crowd, nobody knows about what is going on [at Cape Canaveral] except that the space shuttle is launched. They may have the vaguest knowledge that other rockets are launched there, but the overwhelming public image is that of the shuttle and that's where the shuttles are launched. So I wonder what people think is going to happen to the place," said Neufeld.
"The impression that I get is that if the public thinks of it all, it is when the shuttle launches and those are technically not even at Cape Canaveral," said Joel Powell, author of the 2006 book, "Go For Launch: An Illustrated History of Cape Canaveral." "The public doesn't really take a lot of notice [of rocket launches] – even when the Mars Exploration Rovers were launched to Mars or even the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter – they really don't notice them anymore."
"The shuttle is still capturing their attention but of course the shuttle is going away," he remarked.
As for the site itself, Powell said that Cape Canaveral is also losing much of its landscape to the passage of time. "The impression that I get when I visit recently is that it is slowly reverting back to its natural state, except for the active launch pads."
"I am a little bit saddened that most of the older launch pads have really been demolished and obliterated so that slowly, all the historical facilities are being literally plowed into the ground," said Powell, who added that Pad 3, where Bumper 8 lifted off, is now little more than a slab of concrete.
Launch site markers
Although Banke agreed that many of the historic sites are now shells of their former selves – 'ruins of Canaveral,' as Powell phrased it in his book – he feels the Cape is still adapting to fit the needs of those seeking to reach space.
"As the old stuff kind of fades away and almost disappears into the soil, new stuff is coming up, new pads, new prospects, new offices are being built to replace them as the Cape continues to meet the needs of the launch community," said Banke.
"We continue to be a launch site, we continue to be a gateway to Earth orbit and whatever happens at Kennedy Space Center in the near future in terms of NASA's space exploration agenda, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station is going to continue to be the major site in the United States for launching large cargo and satellites into orbit."
What will inspire tomorrow's rocket scientists?
What will inspire tomorrow's rocket scientists?
By Lauren Russell, CNN
July 23, 2010 8:42 a.m. EDT
CNN) -- Chris Ferguson remembers being 9 years old, watching astronaut Neil Armstrong take man's first steps on the moon on July 20, 1969.
Like thousands in his American generation, Ferguson dreamed in his childhood of becoming an astronaut.
"I was very interested in the space program," Ferguson. "It was something that gripped the world, something that all of the world was talking about."
And unlike all but a very, very few in his generation, he realized his childhood goal.
iReport: What did you want to be when you grew up
As an American astronaut, he has logged a total of 28 days in space to date. After receiving his master's degree in aeronautical engineering at the Naval Postgraduate School, Ferguson flew for the U.S. Navy as a pilot, officer and instructor.
But his ambitions stretched far beyond the clouds.
Ferguson said he tried not to get his hopes too high, and he persistently turned in his forms when NASA accepted astronaut applications.
The first three times Ferguson applied, he didn't make the cut. On the fourth try, he was selected as a member of the NASA Astronaut Class of 1999, and he now holds the title of deputy chief of NASA's Astronaut Office.
But with no set plans of launching astronauts into orbit from U.S. soil after the final trip to the International Space Station slated for February 2011, Ferguson and others in the space world are anxious.
Video: Astronauts talk to CNN from space
Video: Behind the scenes: Shuttle launch
Video: NASA vet frustrated about future In addition to fretting about funding and jobs, they wonder if the government is losing an initiative that engages the next generation of engineers and mathematicians.
"If we aren't doing things that inspire them, we'll suffer from the creative standpoint," he said.
Teresa Gomez, assistant manager for NASA's Astronaut Selection Office, said that most applicants who make it to the interview rounds have been grooming themselves their entire lives for the job.
In past years, candidates said it was the first lunar landing that sparked their interest in space. More recently, astronaut hopefuls said it was the first shuttle landing they saw that hooked them on aeronautics, Gomez said.
Many number-crunchers and rocket builders in the space exploration field also say they were space junkies in their younger years.
"It appeared as pure magic to see something so massive lift off the Earth," said Brad Toellner, an aerospace engineer major who has been working at NASA as a part of its Cooperative Education Program for the past four years. "It seemed so different from everyday life."
NASA and the commercial space community are waiting to hear the hard federal funding numbers to determine if, when and how American astronauts can go back into space.
President Barack Obama's NASA proposal currently being scrutinized by Congress focuses on researching propulsion for deep space and asteroid landings. It scraps the Constellation Project, which was launched six years ago with the aim of sending humans to Mars and back to the moon.
The proposal would also halt NASA shuttle launches to the International Space Station. Instead, federal funds would be used to help send U.S. commercial shuttles to the station.
Clark Moody, who remembers watching NASA videos with his dad in the 1980s, is a graduate student in aerospace engineering at Texas A&M University. He worries that NASA's other feats could be lost on the general public without the highly visible human spaceflight endeavors.
"When most people think of NASA, they think of NASA spaceflight and don't know 99 percent of what (else) it does," Moody said. "That's what gets people really excited when they're younger."
Others think there are cheaper ways to inspire young scientists than with NASA manned space missions.
"What are we trying to do here?" asked Roger Launius, the senior curator of the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum. "If we're trying to inspire kids, is this the way to do it, at $20 billion a year?" he questioned, referring to the cost of sending humans to the moon.
He said NASA's Mars Exploration Rovers -- active twin robots that were launched in 2003 to research the planet's water history -- should also grab young people's interest.
Robert Cort, the acting deputy manager of White Sands Test Facility in southern New Mexico, said he and others reach out to elementary and middle school children in the area to tell them that with hard work, they can be a part of the local space program efforts. The facility conducts safety tests for NASA, but most children say they want to be flying, not testing.
He's also worried that the manned spaceflight hiatus could damper children's interest in NASA. Cort said many students tell him they'll be astronauts when they grow up.
In return, he said, he tells them, "Hey, that's great, and if you do, we'll work to protect you," so as not to give them false hope.
The odds have historically been against those whose ambitions are out of this world. Since 1978, only .6 percent of astronaut applicants have been hired, according to NASA statistics.
Launius said there's potential for humans to travel farther with NASA's new vision, including turning shuttles over to commercial organizations.
"I'm not anxious," he said, "I'm curious as to where it'll go."
He said he's hopeful that commercial space entities will be successful and progress human space travel more efficiently than NASA's past vision.
Many others involved in aerospace, while holding their breath as Congress holds the American space program in limbo, are excited about the prospects of more people having the chance to travel into space -- including NASA's chief deputy astronaut.
If we're trying to inspire kids, is this the way to do it?
--Roger Launius, National Air and Space Museum curator
RELATED TOPICS
NASA
Manned Space Flight
Ferguson and most other astronauts paid for their shuttle tickets with post-graduate degrees and years in the military.
But, if commercial organizations take over NASA's suborbital shuttle missions, the next generation's astronauts might purchase their ticket as they would a bus or plane ticket.
For his entire life, Ferguson said, he had imagined watching a sunrise from space. He finally had the chance as pilot of the STS-115 shuttle mission to the International Space Station in 2006.
Watching the sun light up the underside of Earth, staining the ocean blue and the land green, was what he called a "gee-whiz moment."
"Space shouldn't just be reserved for those who've taken 10 years learning how to work a rocket," Ferguson said.
Instead, as the space program evolves, it could be reserved for those willing to put a couple hundred thousand dollars down as soon as the next decade, according to John Gedmark, executive director of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation.
By Lauren Russell, CNN
July 23, 2010 8:42 a.m. EDT
CNN) -- Chris Ferguson remembers being 9 years old, watching astronaut Neil Armstrong take man's first steps on the moon on July 20, 1969.
Like thousands in his American generation, Ferguson dreamed in his childhood of becoming an astronaut.
"I was very interested in the space program," Ferguson. "It was something that gripped the world, something that all of the world was talking about."
And unlike all but a very, very few in his generation, he realized his childhood goal.
iReport: What did you want to be when you grew up
As an American astronaut, he has logged a total of 28 days in space to date. After receiving his master's degree in aeronautical engineering at the Naval Postgraduate School, Ferguson flew for the U.S. Navy as a pilot, officer and instructor.
But his ambitions stretched far beyond the clouds.
Ferguson said he tried not to get his hopes too high, and he persistently turned in his forms when NASA accepted astronaut applications.
The first three times Ferguson applied, he didn't make the cut. On the fourth try, he was selected as a member of the NASA Astronaut Class of 1999, and he now holds the title of deputy chief of NASA's Astronaut Office.
But with no set plans of launching astronauts into orbit from U.S. soil after the final trip to the International Space Station slated for February 2011, Ferguson and others in the space world are anxious.
Video: Astronauts talk to CNN from space
Video: Behind the scenes: Shuttle launch
Video: NASA vet frustrated about future In addition to fretting about funding and jobs, they wonder if the government is losing an initiative that engages the next generation of engineers and mathematicians.
"If we aren't doing things that inspire them, we'll suffer from the creative standpoint," he said.
Teresa Gomez, assistant manager for NASA's Astronaut Selection Office, said that most applicants who make it to the interview rounds have been grooming themselves their entire lives for the job.
In past years, candidates said it was the first lunar landing that sparked their interest in space. More recently, astronaut hopefuls said it was the first shuttle landing they saw that hooked them on aeronautics, Gomez said.
Many number-crunchers and rocket builders in the space exploration field also say they were space junkies in their younger years.
"It appeared as pure magic to see something so massive lift off the Earth," said Brad Toellner, an aerospace engineer major who has been working at NASA as a part of its Cooperative Education Program for the past four years. "It seemed so different from everyday life."
NASA and the commercial space community are waiting to hear the hard federal funding numbers to determine if, when and how American astronauts can go back into space.
President Barack Obama's NASA proposal currently being scrutinized by Congress focuses on researching propulsion for deep space and asteroid landings. It scraps the Constellation Project, which was launched six years ago with the aim of sending humans to Mars and back to the moon.
The proposal would also halt NASA shuttle launches to the International Space Station. Instead, federal funds would be used to help send U.S. commercial shuttles to the station.
Clark Moody, who remembers watching NASA videos with his dad in the 1980s, is a graduate student in aerospace engineering at Texas A&M University. He worries that NASA's other feats could be lost on the general public without the highly visible human spaceflight endeavors.
"When most people think of NASA, they think of NASA spaceflight and don't know 99 percent of what (else) it does," Moody said. "That's what gets people really excited when they're younger."
Others think there are cheaper ways to inspire young scientists than with NASA manned space missions.
"What are we trying to do here?" asked Roger Launius, the senior curator of the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum. "If we're trying to inspire kids, is this the way to do it, at $20 billion a year?" he questioned, referring to the cost of sending humans to the moon.
He said NASA's Mars Exploration Rovers -- active twin robots that were launched in 2003 to research the planet's water history -- should also grab young people's interest.
Robert Cort, the acting deputy manager of White Sands Test Facility in southern New Mexico, said he and others reach out to elementary and middle school children in the area to tell them that with hard work, they can be a part of the local space program efforts. The facility conducts safety tests for NASA, but most children say they want to be flying, not testing.
He's also worried that the manned spaceflight hiatus could damper children's interest in NASA. Cort said many students tell him they'll be astronauts when they grow up.
In return, he said, he tells them, "Hey, that's great, and if you do, we'll work to protect you," so as not to give them false hope.
The odds have historically been against those whose ambitions are out of this world. Since 1978, only .6 percent of astronaut applicants have been hired, according to NASA statistics.
Launius said there's potential for humans to travel farther with NASA's new vision, including turning shuttles over to commercial organizations.
"I'm not anxious," he said, "I'm curious as to where it'll go."
He said he's hopeful that commercial space entities will be successful and progress human space travel more efficiently than NASA's past vision.
Many others involved in aerospace, while holding their breath as Congress holds the American space program in limbo, are excited about the prospects of more people having the chance to travel into space -- including NASA's chief deputy astronaut.
If we're trying to inspire kids, is this the way to do it?
--Roger Launius, National Air and Space Museum curator
RELATED TOPICS
NASA
Manned Space Flight
Ferguson and most other astronauts paid for their shuttle tickets with post-graduate degrees and years in the military.
But, if commercial organizations take over NASA's suborbital shuttle missions, the next generation's astronauts might purchase their ticket as they would a bus or plane ticket.
For his entire life, Ferguson said, he had imagined watching a sunrise from space. He finally had the chance as pilot of the STS-115 shuttle mission to the International Space Station in 2006.
Watching the sun light up the underside of Earth, staining the ocean blue and the land green, was what he called a "gee-whiz moment."
"Space shouldn't just be reserved for those who've taken 10 years learning how to work a rocket," Ferguson said.
Instead, as the space program evolves, it could be reserved for those willing to put a couple hundred thousand dollars down as soon as the next decade, according to John Gedmark, executive director of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation.
Friday, July 23, 2010
House committee supports additional shuttle flight
CNet News: House committee supports additional shuttle flight
A House committee on Thursday approved an amendment to a bill that would clear NASA to launch an additional shuttle flight next summer to deliver critical supplies and equipment to the International Space Station.
The move came as the House Committee on Science and Technology was reviewing its version of NASA's $19 billion 2011 funding package. The Senate version of the appropriations legislation already included the additional flight. But major differences remain in other key areas, including how much money goes to support development of a new private-sector manned launch industry, the timetable for development of a NASA heavy-lift rocket for deep space exploration, and plans for a new government-designed manned spacecraft.
Even so, Science and Technology Committee Chairman Bart Gordon (D-Tenn.) said in a statement that the House legislation "sets a clear, sustainable, and executable path for NASA, especially in the area of human space flight."
An engine is removed from the shuttle Atlantis earlier this month as part of normal post-flight processing. NASA hopes to launch Atlantis on one final mission to the International Space Station next June.
(Credit: NASA) The Obama administration earlier this year proposed canceling NASA's Constellation moon program, including the Ares I and Ares V rockets the agency had planned to build to replace the shuttle. The Orion crew capsule that would have been launched atop the Ares I rocket would be converted into a space station crew lifeboat.
At the same time, the president called for a transition to private-sector rockets and capsules to ferry astronauts to and from the space station, allowing NASA to focus on development of new heavy-lift rockets and capsules for eventual flights to nearby asteroids and, eventually, to Mars.
But the president's plan would defer work on a heavy lifter until 2015, delaying deep space missions beyond low-Earth orbit until the middle of the 2020s in favor of near-term development of advanced technologies.
Supporters of the administration's space policy applauded the shift to private-sector launch services, arguing that increased efficiencies and innovation would open up the high frontier to more extensive--and routine--use. Under the administration's proposed budget, NASA would spend $6 billion over the next five years to spur development of private-sector launch services.
But critics decried the proposed write-off of some $9 billion already spent on the Constellation program, the long development cycle proposed for eventual deep space missions, and the reliance on as-yet-unproven commercial launchers and capsules.
The House and Senate versions of NASA's appropriations package both cut out the moon as NASA's next major goal and both extend space station operations through 2020 as requested by the president. But both reduce funding for commercial manned space initiatives. The Senate version provides $1.3 billion over the next three years while the president's initial proposal called for $3.3 billion. The House version would provide just $450 million over the next three years.
The Senate version also would accelerate development of a heavy lift rocket, using components of the Constellation program where possible, for initial flights as early as 2016. The House version would stretch out development to around 2020. Both versions also call for development of a government-sponsored crew capsule, based on the Orion design, for deep space exploration and possible space station support.
"I have the sense that the rest of the policy community thinks the Senate bill is a reasonable compromise we can live with," said a space policy analyst who asked not to be named.
In 2004, the Bush administration directed NASA to finish the space station and retire the shuttle fleet by the end of fiscal 2010. An additional $600 million later was promised to pay for shuttle operations through the end of calendar 2010 and shuttle program managers came up with additional savings to cover costs through early 2011.
NASA currently has just two flights on its shuttle manifest. First up is a mission by the shuttle Discovery, scheduled for launch November 1, to deliver spare parts and equipment to the station in a logistics module that will be permanently attached to the lab complex.
In keeping with NASA's post-Columbia safety policies, the shuttle Endeavour will be available for possible rescue duty if any major problems develop that might prevent a safe re-entry for Discovery's crew.
Assuming a rescue flight isn't needed, Endeavour will be launched February 26 to deliver the $1.5 billion Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer physics experiment to the space station along with additional supplies and spare parts.
The shuttle Atlantis is being processed to serve as the rescue vehicle for Endeavour's crew. NASA managers have been lobbying for months to win approval to actually launch Atlantis on a final flight next June to deliver one last load of equipment.
By launching Atlantis with a reduced crew of four, a second shuttle would not be required for rescue duty. If a problem prevented a safe re-entry, the yet-to-be-named Atlantis astronauts could seek safe haven aboard the space station and rotate home aboard Russian Soyuz capsules.
It would not be easy and it would take months to cycle all four crew members back to Earth aboard already planned Soyuz flights. But supporters believe the benefits of a final resupply mission outweigh the risks and justify the $1.6 billion needed to extend the shuttle program through mid-2011.
"This mission will help minimize the spaceflight gap by stretching out the human spaceflight capabilities into mid 2011," Rep. Suzanne Kosmas, a Florida Democrat, said Thursday, introducing an amendment for "contingent authorization." "This additional launch provides the most risk-free logistical support in the next year...I urge you to support my amendment and to authorize this critical shuttle mission in order to preserve our workforce and maximize the investments we've made in the International Space Station."
The amendment, which passed on a voice vote, would pay for the flight by transferring funds from NASA's space station and exploration budgets.
"I think the White House is on board with it," the policy analyst said.
A House committee on Thursday approved an amendment to a bill that would clear NASA to launch an additional shuttle flight next summer to deliver critical supplies and equipment to the International Space Station.
The move came as the House Committee on Science and Technology was reviewing its version of NASA's $19 billion 2011 funding package. The Senate version of the appropriations legislation already included the additional flight. But major differences remain in other key areas, including how much money goes to support development of a new private-sector manned launch industry, the timetable for development of a NASA heavy-lift rocket for deep space exploration, and plans for a new government-designed manned spacecraft.
Even so, Science and Technology Committee Chairman Bart Gordon (D-Tenn.) said in a statement that the House legislation "sets a clear, sustainable, and executable path for NASA, especially in the area of human space flight."
An engine is removed from the shuttle Atlantis earlier this month as part of normal post-flight processing. NASA hopes to launch Atlantis on one final mission to the International Space Station next June.
(Credit: NASA) The Obama administration earlier this year proposed canceling NASA's Constellation moon program, including the Ares I and Ares V rockets the agency had planned to build to replace the shuttle. The Orion crew capsule that would have been launched atop the Ares I rocket would be converted into a space station crew lifeboat.
At the same time, the president called for a transition to private-sector rockets and capsules to ferry astronauts to and from the space station, allowing NASA to focus on development of new heavy-lift rockets and capsules for eventual flights to nearby asteroids and, eventually, to Mars.
But the president's plan would defer work on a heavy lifter until 2015, delaying deep space missions beyond low-Earth orbit until the middle of the 2020s in favor of near-term development of advanced technologies.
Supporters of the administration's space policy applauded the shift to private-sector launch services, arguing that increased efficiencies and innovation would open up the high frontier to more extensive--and routine--use. Under the administration's proposed budget, NASA would spend $6 billion over the next five years to spur development of private-sector launch services.
But critics decried the proposed write-off of some $9 billion already spent on the Constellation program, the long development cycle proposed for eventual deep space missions, and the reliance on as-yet-unproven commercial launchers and capsules.
The House and Senate versions of NASA's appropriations package both cut out the moon as NASA's next major goal and both extend space station operations through 2020 as requested by the president. But both reduce funding for commercial manned space initiatives. The Senate version provides $1.3 billion over the next three years while the president's initial proposal called for $3.3 billion. The House version would provide just $450 million over the next three years.
The Senate version also would accelerate development of a heavy lift rocket, using components of the Constellation program where possible, for initial flights as early as 2016. The House version would stretch out development to around 2020. Both versions also call for development of a government-sponsored crew capsule, based on the Orion design, for deep space exploration and possible space station support.
"I have the sense that the rest of the policy community thinks the Senate bill is a reasonable compromise we can live with," said a space policy analyst who asked not to be named.
In 2004, the Bush administration directed NASA to finish the space station and retire the shuttle fleet by the end of fiscal 2010. An additional $600 million later was promised to pay for shuttle operations through the end of calendar 2010 and shuttle program managers came up with additional savings to cover costs through early 2011.
NASA currently has just two flights on its shuttle manifest. First up is a mission by the shuttle Discovery, scheduled for launch November 1, to deliver spare parts and equipment to the station in a logistics module that will be permanently attached to the lab complex.
In keeping with NASA's post-Columbia safety policies, the shuttle Endeavour will be available for possible rescue duty if any major problems develop that might prevent a safe re-entry for Discovery's crew.
Assuming a rescue flight isn't needed, Endeavour will be launched February 26 to deliver the $1.5 billion Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer physics experiment to the space station along with additional supplies and spare parts.
The shuttle Atlantis is being processed to serve as the rescue vehicle for Endeavour's crew. NASA managers have been lobbying for months to win approval to actually launch Atlantis on a final flight next June to deliver one last load of equipment.
By launching Atlantis with a reduced crew of four, a second shuttle would not be required for rescue duty. If a problem prevented a safe re-entry, the yet-to-be-named Atlantis astronauts could seek safe haven aboard the space station and rotate home aboard Russian Soyuz capsules.
It would not be easy and it would take months to cycle all four crew members back to Earth aboard already planned Soyuz flights. But supporters believe the benefits of a final resupply mission outweigh the risks and justify the $1.6 billion needed to extend the shuttle program through mid-2011.
"This mission will help minimize the spaceflight gap by stretching out the human spaceflight capabilities into mid 2011," Rep. Suzanne Kosmas, a Florida Democrat, said Thursday, introducing an amendment for "contingent authorization." "This additional launch provides the most risk-free logistical support in the next year...I urge you to support my amendment and to authorize this critical shuttle mission in order to preserve our workforce and maximize the investments we've made in the International Space Station."
The amendment, which passed on a voice vote, would pay for the flight by transferring funds from NASA's space station and exploration budgets.
"I think the White House is on board with it," the policy analyst said.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
House Version of NASA Bill Puts Brakes on Commercial Spaceship Plan
From Space.com: House Version of NASA Bill Puts Brakes on Commercial Spaceship Plan
WASHINGTON — House lawmakers released a draft of NASA authorizing legislation Monday that would continue much of the work being done under the agency's Constellation program with a focus on fielding a government-owned system capable of ferrying crews to and from the International Space Station by the end of 2015.
The bill text, issued by the House Science and Technology Committee, backs U.S. President Barack Obama's proposal to spend $100 billion on NASA over the next five years. But whereas Obama's plan would allocate $5.9 billion over that time period to foster development of commercially operated space taxis, the House bill provides just $250 million, with an additional $500 million to come via a government-backed loan program.
In addition, the legislation would authorize $22.6 billion through 2015 to develop rockets and spacecraft that leverage NASA's roughly $10 billion investment in Constellation, a 5-year-old effort to build hardware optimized for lunar exploration that Obama proposed abandoning in his 2011 budget request.
Ads by GoogleiPage Free Domain HostingWhy use low quality free hosting? Get unlimited hosting for $42/year! www.ipage.com/special-offerThe Brown Bailout...Why Is Congress Playing Favorites? And How Does This Impact You? BrownBailout.com"This is a bipartisan bill that embraces many of the president's goals for our space program while also ensuring that we have an executable and fiscally responsible plan," Rep. Bart Gordon (D-Tenn.), chairman of the House Science and Technology Committee, stated in a joint news release issued late Monday.
"For too long, the tasks NASA has been asked to undertake haven't been matched to available resources," Gordon said, adding that his panel intends to mark up the bill July 22. "We are facing tough economic times that demand tough choices. We can't do it all. This bill makes those choices and provides the nation with a credible, sustainable, and worthy space and aeronautics program."
Although the bill supports elements of Obama's plan, including a plan to continue flying the space station through at least 2020 and a space technology program designed to spur innovation, it rebuffs the White House proposal to cancel Constellation and rely on commercially owned and operated vehicles to send astronaut crews to the orbiting outpost. It also contrasts with companion legislation approved by the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee July 15, touted as a compromise by its authors, that provides $1.3 billion for commercial crew initiatives over the next three years.
Both the House and Senate measures would require NASA to immediately begin work on a heavy-lift rocket that leverages the space shuttle solid-rocket motor technology that serves as the foundation of the Ares rockets designed as part of the Constellation program. Obama's plan is to scrap the Ares rockets and have NASA spend the next five years studying heavy-lift options utilizing engines fueled by kerosene and liquid oxygen.
Obama directed NASA to settle on a heavy-lift launcher design by 2015. The Senate bill calls for a heavy-lift vehicle and deep space capsule to be fully operational by the end of 2016; the House bill would give NASA six months from the date of enactment to select a launch vehicle design and sets a goal of fielding the rocket by "the end of the current decade."
Bretton Alexander, president of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation here, said the House bill would do little to narrow the gap between the space shuttle's scheduled retirement next year and a follow-on capability, forcing NASA to rely on Russia to deliver U.S. astronauts to the space station until a U.S. domestic capability is re-established.
"Based on the proposed levels of funding for Russian Soyuz flights versus commercial crew services, it would appear that the House Science Committee has more faith in Russian technology developed in the 1960s than in America's own aerospace industry," Alexander said in a July 19 e-mail, asserting that the bill fails to fund the goals it sets for the agency. "At a time when private companies are willing to invest their own money to help create jobs, the House Science Committee bill is a clear job destroyer."
WASHINGTON — House lawmakers released a draft of NASA authorizing legislation Monday that would continue much of the work being done under the agency's Constellation program with a focus on fielding a government-owned system capable of ferrying crews to and from the International Space Station by the end of 2015.
The bill text, issued by the House Science and Technology Committee, backs U.S. President Barack Obama's proposal to spend $100 billion on NASA over the next five years. But whereas Obama's plan would allocate $5.9 billion over that time period to foster development of commercially operated space taxis, the House bill provides just $250 million, with an additional $500 million to come via a government-backed loan program.
In addition, the legislation would authorize $22.6 billion through 2015 to develop rockets and spacecraft that leverage NASA's roughly $10 billion investment in Constellation, a 5-year-old effort to build hardware optimized for lunar exploration that Obama proposed abandoning in his 2011 budget request.
Ads by GoogleiPage Free Domain HostingWhy use low quality free hosting? Get unlimited hosting for $42/year! www.ipage.com/special-offerThe Brown Bailout...Why Is Congress Playing Favorites? And How Does This Impact You? BrownBailout.com"This is a bipartisan bill that embraces many of the president's goals for our space program while also ensuring that we have an executable and fiscally responsible plan," Rep. Bart Gordon (D-Tenn.), chairman of the House Science and Technology Committee, stated in a joint news release issued late Monday.
"For too long, the tasks NASA has been asked to undertake haven't been matched to available resources," Gordon said, adding that his panel intends to mark up the bill July 22. "We are facing tough economic times that demand tough choices. We can't do it all. This bill makes those choices and provides the nation with a credible, sustainable, and worthy space and aeronautics program."
Although the bill supports elements of Obama's plan, including a plan to continue flying the space station through at least 2020 and a space technology program designed to spur innovation, it rebuffs the White House proposal to cancel Constellation and rely on commercially owned and operated vehicles to send astronaut crews to the orbiting outpost. It also contrasts with companion legislation approved by the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee July 15, touted as a compromise by its authors, that provides $1.3 billion for commercial crew initiatives over the next three years.
Both the House and Senate measures would require NASA to immediately begin work on a heavy-lift rocket that leverages the space shuttle solid-rocket motor technology that serves as the foundation of the Ares rockets designed as part of the Constellation program. Obama's plan is to scrap the Ares rockets and have NASA spend the next five years studying heavy-lift options utilizing engines fueled by kerosene and liquid oxygen.
Obama directed NASA to settle on a heavy-lift launcher design by 2015. The Senate bill calls for a heavy-lift vehicle and deep space capsule to be fully operational by the end of 2016; the House bill would give NASA six months from the date of enactment to select a launch vehicle design and sets a goal of fielding the rocket by "the end of the current decade."
Bretton Alexander, president of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation here, said the House bill would do little to narrow the gap between the space shuttle's scheduled retirement next year and a follow-on capability, forcing NASA to rely on Russia to deliver U.S. astronauts to the space station until a U.S. domestic capability is re-established.
"Based on the proposed levels of funding for Russian Soyuz flights versus commercial crew services, it would appear that the House Science Committee has more faith in Russian technology developed in the 1960s than in America's own aerospace industry," Alexander said in a July 19 e-mail, asserting that the bill fails to fund the goals it sets for the agency. "At a time when private companies are willing to invest their own money to help create jobs, the House Science Committee bill is a clear job destroyer."
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Historic Space Industry Deal Set for UK and Russia
From Fox News: Historic Space Industry Deal Set for UK and Russia
Britain and Russia’s space industries were due to sign an historic agreement on Wednesday for a new era of cooperation between the countries.
The deal, to be signed at the U.K.’s bi-annual international aerospace exhibition, the Farnborough International Airshow, in southern England, will enable British space companies to capitalize on an expected boom in Russian launches to orbit, following the imminent retirement of the U.S. space shuttle fleet.
“It [the agreement] will resolve some simple commercial issues about customs duties, so that if the Russians buy British space equipment, there be more favorable conditions under the agreement,” David Willetts, the U.K’s Science Minister, told The (London) Times.
Both countries’ space industries would be significantly boosted by the deal, which would also encourage collaboration between British and Russian scientists, Willetts said.
The agreement could also improve the chances that Britain’s first official astronaut, Major Tim Peake, will eventually fly to the International Space Station on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
British space scientists welcomed cooperation with Russia. Ken Pounds, Professor of Space Physics at the University of Leicester, said: “There’s a complementarity -- Russia is extremely proficient at getting stuff into space and we have a bit of a lead on the high tech equipment, detectors and computers so working together makes sense.”
Britain and Russia’s space industries were due to sign an historic agreement on Wednesday for a new era of cooperation between the countries.
The deal, to be signed at the U.K.’s bi-annual international aerospace exhibition, the Farnborough International Airshow, in southern England, will enable British space companies to capitalize on an expected boom in Russian launches to orbit, following the imminent retirement of the U.S. space shuttle fleet.
“It [the agreement] will resolve some simple commercial issues about customs duties, so that if the Russians buy British space equipment, there be more favorable conditions under the agreement,” David Willetts, the U.K’s Science Minister, told The (London) Times.
Both countries’ space industries would be significantly boosted by the deal, which would also encourage collaboration between British and Russian scientists, Willetts said.
The agreement could also improve the chances that Britain’s first official astronaut, Major Tim Peake, will eventually fly to the International Space Station on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
British space scientists welcomed cooperation with Russia. Ken Pounds, Professor of Space Physics at the University of Leicester, said: “There’s a complementarity -- Russia is extremely proficient at getting stuff into space and we have a bit of a lead on the high tech equipment, detectors and computers so working together makes sense.”
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
What Happened in Space News July 20
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.
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.
Monday, July 19, 2010
Senate Plan Approves Private Rockets for Space Travel
Information Week: Government -- Senate Committee Approves NASA Plan
The $19 billion bill authorizes private rockets for space travel and shifts focus from space exploration toward using space technology on environmental, geological, climate and other issues.
By Elizabeth Montalbano
InformationWeek
July 19, 2010 08:00 AM
The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation has approved a hotly debated $19 billion bill for NASA that for the first time authorizes private rockets to be used for space travel.
The NASA Authorization Act of 2010 is mostly in line with President Obama's plan for NASA's budget and future direction to shift in focus away from space exploration and more toward using space technology to focus on environmental, geological, climate and other issues on Earth.
More Government InsightsWhitepapersLaying the IT Security Foundation: Corralling Conficker and Other Threats in an Evolved Environment Six Critical Elements to Achieving Economies in FISMA Compliance Videos
The Friday ITch -- Season 2, Episode 4The administration has requested and the bill supports a budget of $19 billion for NASA in 2011, $19.45 billion in 2012 and $19.96 billion in 2013.
"NASA is an agency in transition," Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), said in a statement about the bill's passage. "We've had to take a clear, hard look at what we want from our space agency in the years and decades to come. I've made my views on this matter very clear: NASA's role cannot stay static. It must innovate and move in a new direction."
The legislation cuts the agency's moon program and sounds the official death knell for the space shuttle program, a move that has been expected. It authorizes one last shuttle flight to provide support to the International Space Station, the life of which it extends until 2020.
The bill's funding for commercial companies to build spacecraft -- which historically have been the sole domain of NASA -- has sparked much bipartisan debate. The idea behind the change is to support the development of rockets that can travel further into space than ones NASA has developed to date.
The bill likely will encounter changes from other committee debate before it is up for final passage by the Senate.
NASA's expanded mission is supported by other components of the bill. It supports new education initiatives -- such as teacher training programs -- to support the creation of a more skilled U.S. workforce in the areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
It also increases investment in NASA's EPSCoR (Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research) and Space Grant programs.
The $19 billion bill authorizes private rockets for space travel and shifts focus from space exploration toward using space technology on environmental, geological, climate and other issues.
By Elizabeth Montalbano
InformationWeek
July 19, 2010 08:00 AM
The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation has approved a hotly debated $19 billion bill for NASA that for the first time authorizes private rockets to be used for space travel.
The NASA Authorization Act of 2010 is mostly in line with President Obama's plan for NASA's budget and future direction to shift in focus away from space exploration and more toward using space technology to focus on environmental, geological, climate and other issues on Earth.
More Government InsightsWhitepapersLaying the IT Security Foundation: Corralling Conficker and Other Threats in an Evolved Environment Six Critical Elements to Achieving Economies in FISMA Compliance Videos
The Friday ITch -- Season 2, Episode 4The administration has requested and the bill supports a budget of $19 billion for NASA in 2011, $19.45 billion in 2012 and $19.96 billion in 2013.
"NASA is an agency in transition," Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), said in a statement about the bill's passage. "We've had to take a clear, hard look at what we want from our space agency in the years and decades to come. I've made my views on this matter very clear: NASA's role cannot stay static. It must innovate and move in a new direction."
The legislation cuts the agency's moon program and sounds the official death knell for the space shuttle program, a move that has been expected. It authorizes one last shuttle flight to provide support to the International Space Station, the life of which it extends until 2020.
The bill's funding for commercial companies to build spacecraft -- which historically have been the sole domain of NASA -- has sparked much bipartisan debate. The idea behind the change is to support the development of rockets that can travel further into space than ones NASA has developed to date.
The bill likely will encounter changes from other committee debate before it is up for final passage by the Senate.
NASA's expanded mission is supported by other components of the bill. It supports new education initiatives -- such as teacher training programs -- to support the creation of a more skilled U.S. workforce in the areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
It also increases investment in NASA's EPSCoR (Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research) and Space Grant programs.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
JSC rescue: Senate bill bolstering manned space flight welcome news for Houston
From the Houston Chronicle: JSC rescue: Senate bill bolstering manned space flight welcome news for Houston
With a strong push by Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, a compromise NASA funding bill won unanimous approval from a key committee and has good prospects for approval by Congress with support from the White House.
While it cancels a mission to the moon, it also would save key programs and thousands of jobs at Houston’s Johnson Space Center.
“The bill that we put out of committee today preserves our workforce, our creativity and the commitment to humans in space,” said Sen. Hutchison after the vote. The Texas Republican and Florida Sen. Bill Nelson, a Democrat, cosponsored the bipartisan effort to craft a budget with a more robust manned spaceflight component than that proposed by President Barack Obama.
There’s a lot for Houstonians to like in the $19 billion spending plan. While it cancels the Constellation program moon missions, it substitutes Mars and asteroids as long-term destinations. It will extend the life of the International Space Station through 2020, direct NASA to build a new heavy-lift launch rocket to be operational in six years, and continue development of the Orion crew exploration vehicle. At the same time it preserves the thrust of the Obama plan to support development of commercial launch crews to low Earth orbit.
In addition to saving most of the expected 7,000 layoffs at JSC under the Obama plan, the compromise would maintain the Clear Lake facility’s primacy as the center for astronaut training. According to Bob Mitchell, president of the Bay Area Houston Economic Partnership, the Senate measure, if passed by Congress, would solidify JSC’s position as “the home of human space exploration.”
The Senate budget also provides for an extra space shuttle flight, extending the life of the program through next year. Sen. Hutchison has called for continuation of shuttle launch capabilities until an alternative launch craft is operational. We believe that is in the national interest and well worth the additional expense.
Otherwise, America will be dependent upon costly flights on Russian Soyuz craft for access to the space station and rescue missions in the event of an emergency there.
NASA officials have noted that the shuttle fleet remains in good flight condition and that safety is not an overriding concern.
In an interview with the Chronicle’s Eric Berger, NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver called the compromise “a big step in the right direction.”
We agree, and urge legislators in both the House and Senate to move swiftly to provide essential funding to keep manned space exploration — and the Johnson Space Center — on track in the next decade.
With a strong push by Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, a compromise NASA funding bill won unanimous approval from a key committee and has good prospects for approval by Congress with support from the White House.
While it cancels a mission to the moon, it also would save key programs and thousands of jobs at Houston’s Johnson Space Center.
“The bill that we put out of committee today preserves our workforce, our creativity and the commitment to humans in space,” said Sen. Hutchison after the vote. The Texas Republican and Florida Sen. Bill Nelson, a Democrat, cosponsored the bipartisan effort to craft a budget with a more robust manned spaceflight component than that proposed by President Barack Obama.
There’s a lot for Houstonians to like in the $19 billion spending plan. While it cancels the Constellation program moon missions, it substitutes Mars and asteroids as long-term destinations. It will extend the life of the International Space Station through 2020, direct NASA to build a new heavy-lift launch rocket to be operational in six years, and continue development of the Orion crew exploration vehicle. At the same time it preserves the thrust of the Obama plan to support development of commercial launch crews to low Earth orbit.
In addition to saving most of the expected 7,000 layoffs at JSC under the Obama plan, the compromise would maintain the Clear Lake facility’s primacy as the center for astronaut training. According to Bob Mitchell, president of the Bay Area Houston Economic Partnership, the Senate measure, if passed by Congress, would solidify JSC’s position as “the home of human space exploration.”
The Senate budget also provides for an extra space shuttle flight, extending the life of the program through next year. Sen. Hutchison has called for continuation of shuttle launch capabilities until an alternative launch craft is operational. We believe that is in the national interest and well worth the additional expense.
Otherwise, America will be dependent upon costly flights on Russian Soyuz craft for access to the space station and rescue missions in the event of an emergency there.
NASA officials have noted that the shuttle fleet remains in good flight condition and that safety is not an overriding concern.
In an interview with the Chronicle’s Eric Berger, NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver called the compromise “a big step in the right direction.”
We agree, and urge legislators in both the House and Senate to move swiftly to provide essential funding to keep manned space exploration — and the Johnson Space Center — on track in the next decade.
New Mission for American Aerospace Giants
From the New York Times: New Mission for American Aerospace Giants
NEW YORK — For Boeing, Lockheed Martin and the other aerospace giants that have been the backbone of the American space effort for decades, the shift in U.S. space policy announced by President Barack Obama means a major change in mission.
President Obama toured the commercial rocket processing facility of Space Exploration Technologies with Elon Musk, second right, in April.
Mr. Musk said that the successful launch of its Falcon 9 rocket was a major victory “for NASA’s plan to use commercial rockets for astronaut transport.”
After working for decades with largely one customer — the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration — to ferry astronauts and equipment into orbit, major players in the aerospace industry are facing a commercial market with a range of entrepreneurs who say they can do that work for less.
Under Mr. Obama’s ambitious initiative, NASA would rely on commercial companies to provide a kind of taxi service to the International Space Station, while focusing its efforts on missions into deep space with international partners.
How the aerospace industry establishment will fit into this new plan remains far from clear, analysts say.
“I see a certain analogy with what happened when computers went from being room-sized to being on the desktop,” said Louis D. Friedman, executive director for Planetary Society, a space exploration advocacy group.
“Some companies barely survived, while others adapted and thrived. I think we are going to see something like this in the aerospace industry.”
The most immediate effect of the proposed policy shift will be on jobs. Mr. Obama’s plan to cancel the Constellation program, started five years ago by President George W. Bush to send astronauts back to the moon, could mean the end of nearly 12,600 jobs, according to estimates by aerospace contractors. The cuts would fall most heavily on Alabama, California, Florida, Texas and Utah, and political opposition from those states has been vociferous.
The Constellation program has already cost American taxpayers about $9 billion.
The end of Constellation would largely stop work on the Ares I rocket, which was to replace the space shuttle for carrying astronauts into orbit and would scale back work on the Orion crew capsule, which was to ride atop the Ares I. Lockheed Martin said more than 2,000 jobs depended on the Orion program, while Boeing said 1,500 jobs would be affected by the retirement of the space shuttle and the canceling of Constellation. Alliant Techsystems, known as ATK, said the ending of Ares I would put 5,000 jobs at risk at its plants and those of its subcontractors.
Mr. Obama has said that the changes do not amount to a retreat from manned spaceflight and that adding private entrepreneurs to the mix will create a more vibrant industry with more astronauts in space and more business for established companies and newcomers alike.
One established player that appears to accept Mr. Obama’s plan is United Launch Alliance, a 50-50 joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin. The company, whose Atlas and Delta rockets have carried military and commercial satellites into space for decades, said it had no plans to cut any jobs.
“Just the opposite,” a U.L.A. spokesman said.
“The president’s new plan could have a significant increase in demand coming from NASA and could create new jobs at U.L.A.,” the spokesman said, adding that U.L.A.’s long record of successful launchings made it “very different from new entrants.”
One new entrant much on the minds of the aerospace community is Space Exploration Technologies, founded by Elon Musk, the Internet entrepreneur who helped found the payment system PayPal. The company, which did not exist a decade ago, has $2.5 billion in contracts, including $1.6 billion from NASA to provide a minimum of 12 flights to deliver cargo to the space station starting in 2011.
The company, known as SpaceX, bolstered the credibility of Mr. Obama’s plan by launching into orbit last month the Falcon 9, a rocket measuring 158 feet, or 48 meters, and weighing 735,000 pounds, or 335,000 kilograms. The rocket, which the company said cost about $50 million, put a model of its Dragon capsule into orbit about 160 miles, or 260 kilometers, above the Earth without a hitch — an unusual development for a maiden flight.
SpaceX, which plans to launch a fully operational rocket and capsule this summer before sending one to the International Space Station next year, said the successful June trial was a major victory “for NASA’s plan to use commercial rockets for astronaut transport.”
The part of Mr. Obama’s plan that calls for missions that leave the Earth’s orbit to explore deep space will probably not be spelled out for several years. Mr. Obama has said that NASA will start developing a heavy-lift rocket for deep-space missions by 2015.
That gap of several years between the planned end of the Constellation program and the start of work on a new heavy-lift vehicle does not please the aerospace contractors, who say they could shift at least some workers who might otherwise be laid off into a new deep-space program. It is also dangerous, some analysts say, because after canceling the Ares I, the United States would have no backup rocket if new commercial companies failed to deliver on their promises.
“It’s a risky strategy,” said Loren B. Thompson, an analyst at the Lexington Institute, a research group financed in part by military contractors. “Our capacity to send man-rated rockets into space is at risk.”
In a statement in response to Mr. Obama’s April 15 speech at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida outlining his new policy, Boeing emphasized the need for immediate development of a heavy-lift vehicle.
“We have the technology and the people to commence development of these vehicles now,” Boeing said. Accelerated development of a deep-space launching vehicle and capsule “could achieve maximum benefit for American tax dollars by drawing on the cutting-edge technology already being developed for the Constellation program,” Boeing said.
John M. Logsdon, the former director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University, said he had no doubt that NASA would contract for a heavy-lift vehicle sometime in the next few years and that the traditional aerospace companies would get the bulk of this work.
“But in the short-term, they stand to lose the contracts for Constellation and all that goes with it,” he said “They are trading contracts in hand for some very uncertain contracts in the future.”
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Senate committee orders a new course – and new rocket – for NASA
Orlando Sentinel: Senate committee orders a new course – and new rocket – for NASA
WASHINGTON – NASA's plans to return astronauts to the moon by 2020 died a quiet death this morning when a key Senate panel approved a new course for the agency that terminates the Constellation moon-rocket program and instructs NASA to build a new rocket for a yet-undefined mission.
By a unanimous vote, the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation committee agreed to a new NASA mission that supporters have touted as a compromise between White House desires to grow the commercial space industry and congressional desires to see NASA build its own rocket.
"I believe we have reached a sensible center," said Sen. Jay Rockefeller, the West Virginia Democrat who chairs the committee. "We're challenging NASA to do more with the resources that it has."
But if recent history is any indication, the new course faces an uphill battle.
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Over the last five years, Constellation has cost at least $9 billion and produced little more than one test flight for a stripped-down version of the program's Ares I rocket. While the Senate plan instructs NASA to salvage parts of Constellation when possible – and provides $11 billion over the next several years -- it will take time and resources to create a new design. Adding to the pressure is the 2016 deadline that Congress gives NASA to have the new vehicle ready.
On the eve of the vote, administration officials said they would support the new plan – even though the directive to build the new rocket takes time and money away from White House initiatives to fund commercial spaceflight so that NASA engineers can develop futuristic new technologies.
The bill also drew opposition from economic development officials on Florida's Space Coast, which stands to lose 9,000 jobs when the space shuttle is retired sometime next year. The bill does provide money for a third shuttle flight, in addition to the two remaining missions scheduled by NASA, which officials say will keep 2,500 shuttle workers on the job for another four to six months.
However, Space Coast officials had bought into Obama's plan to spend $10.1 billion to develop capacity for commercial rockets to fly astronauts to the International Space Station, more robotic missions and technology research that the administration had said would produce a new rocket capable of flying humans to an asteroid by 2025. Brevard officials had hoped that Kennedy Space Center and surrounding businesses could compete for more commercial launches and robotic missions as well as chunks of the research money.
On Wednesday, they sent a letter to U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Florida, objecting to the bill's funding of a new heavy-lift rocket that would be designed by NASA facilities in Alabama and Texas and likely built in part by ATK, the solid-rocket motor manufacturer in Utah. "[T]he risk that this future for Florida might be bargained away for one more attuned to the needs of Alabama, Texas and Utah, in the name of political expediency, demands a response," said the letter, from the Economic Development Commission of Florida's Space Coast.
Nelson, however, said that the bill was a necessary compromise to break a congressional stalemate that threatened to paralyze NASA. "If we don't pass a bill now, it'll effectively shut down the Cape," said press spokesman Dan McLaughlin.
During the hearing, lawmakers said they were told by leaders of the committee that controls NASA spending that they supported this bill.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Space shuttle accident board members endorse Obama's NASA plans
USA Today: Space shuttle accident board members endorse Obama's NASA plans
Five members of the 2003 space shuttle Columbia Accident Investigation Board released a letter to Congress on Monday, calling current administration plans for NASA in line with their report recommendations for replacing the space shuttle.
In February, the administration announced plans to cancel "Ares" rockets envisioned to return astronauts to the moon under the Bush administration.
Instead, the new plan calls for building new heavy-lift rocket technologies and relying on private firms -- including small ventures besides the titans of the aerospace industry -- to provide launch capabilities aimed at eventually carrying astronauts to asteroids and Mars. The move angered legislators from defense industry and NASA center-reliant states.
The text of the letter:
July 12, 2010
The Honorable Barbara Mikulski
Chairwoman, Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies
Senate Committee on Appropriations
144 Dirksen Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Dear Senator Mikulski:
As former board members of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB), we agree with your view that assuring crew safety is an essential element in the discussion of future U.S. crew transportation systems. As members of the CAIB, we have also noted with interest recent space policy discussions where our report has been cited.
In particular, we have been somewhat surprised to learn that some people, both within and outside of the Congress, have interpreted the new White House strategy for space which gives a greater role to the commercial sector in providing crew transportation services to the International Space Station, as being not in line with the findings and recommendations of the CAIB report.
Our view is that NASA's new direction can be a) just as safe, if not more safe, than government-controlled alternatives b) will achieve higher safety than that of the Space Shuttle, and c) is directly in line with the recommendations of the CAIB. First, as we wrote in the report, "the overriding mission of the replacement system [for the Space Shuttle] is to move humans safely and reliably into and out of Earth orbit. To demand more would be to fall into the same trap as all previous, unsuccessful, efforts." In contrast to Ares I and Orion, intended to both bring crews to the Space Station and to launch complex exploration missions, the commercial services under consideration as part of the President's new plan are focused exclusively on the mission of safely transporting humans to low Earth orbit. These services may well use the extensively proven Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicles (EELVs) such as Atlas V and Delta IV that have executed thirty-four successful launches in total to date. We anticipate that newer commercial vehicles such as Falcon 9 will also build up a strong history of cargo carrying launches over the next few years.
Second, the CAIB recommended that future launch systems should "separate crew from cargo" as much as possible. This statement is sometimes taken out of context. What it does mean is that human lives should not be risked on flights that can be performed without people; the new plan to procure separate crew and cargo transportation services clearly is consistent with the CAIB's recommendation. But the recommendation does not disallow the use of a cargo launch system to also fly, on separate missions, astronaut flights. Indeed, the fact that Atlas V and Delta IV are flying satellites right now, including extremely high-value satellites, has helped to prove out their reliability. And the many satellite and cargo missions that Falcon 9 is planned to fly will also produce the same beneficial result.
Third, it has been suggested by some that only a NASA-led effort can provide the safety assurance required to commit to launching government astronauts into space. We must note that much of the CAIB report was an indictment of NASA's safety culture, not a defense of its uniqueness. The report (p. 97) notes that "at NASA's urging, the nation committed to build an amazing, if compromised, vehicle called the Space Shuttle. When the agency did this, it accepted the bargain to operate and maintain the vehicle in the safest possible way." The report then adds, "The Board is not convinced that NASA has completely lived up to the bargain." We commend the efforts of former Administrator Griffin and current Administrator Bolden and their associates to address the safety issues raised in the CAIB report and to do everything in their power to avoid the organizational failures of the past that led to two tragic Shuttle accidents. However, one might argue that the similarities in the organizational cause of both Challenger and Columbia suggest that it is very difficult for a single organization to develop, oversee and regulate such a complex human-rated spacecraft for an extended period of time. In any event, the operational experience with the Shuttle does not preclude others from successfully creating a human space flight capability – as has been demonstrated by the Russians and Chinese. We see no reason why a well-crafted NASA-industry partnership cannot match, or perhaps exceed, past performance in ensuring astronaut safety.
In conclusion, in our view the new space strategy fully meets the intent of the CAIB findings. The new strategy will task an array of companies, including both established industry stalwarts with decades of experience as well as newer service providers, to build simple spacecraft that are exclusively focused on the mission of sending crews to low Earth orbit. By using existing launch vehicles that are already accumulating extensive track records to launch these spacecraft, NASA will ensure that crews would not be risked on a vehicle that has not repeatedly demonstrated its safety and reliability.
Thank you for your consideration of this letter and our views on this matter. We would be glad to answer any questions that you or other members of Congress may have concerning the CAIB report and its application to today's space policy issues.
Sincerely,
Prof. G. Scott Hubbard
Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Stanford University
Former Director, NASA Ames Research Center
Member, Columbia Accident Investigation Board
Dr. John Logsdon
Professor Emeritus, George Washington University
Founder, Space Policy Institute
Member, Columbia Accident Investigation Board
Dr. Douglas Osheroff
Professor of Physics and Applied Physics, Stanford University
Co-Recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics, 1996
Member, Columbia Accident Investigation Board
Dr. Steven Wallace
Aviation Safety Consultant
Former Director of the Office of Accident Investigation, Federal Aviation Administration
Member, Columbia Accident Investigation Board
Dr. Sheila Widnall
Institute Professor and Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Former Secretary of the Air Force
Member, Columbia Accident Investigation Board
cc: Chairman Jay Rockefeller, Chairman Bill Nelson
By Dan Vergano
Five members of the 2003 space shuttle Columbia Accident Investigation Board released a letter to Congress on Monday, calling current administration plans for NASA in line with their report recommendations for replacing the space shuttle.
In February, the administration announced plans to cancel "Ares" rockets envisioned to return astronauts to the moon under the Bush administration.
Instead, the new plan calls for building new heavy-lift rocket technologies and relying on private firms -- including small ventures besides the titans of the aerospace industry -- to provide launch capabilities aimed at eventually carrying astronauts to asteroids and Mars. The move angered legislators from defense industry and NASA center-reliant states.
The text of the letter:
July 12, 2010
The Honorable Barbara Mikulski
Chairwoman, Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies
Senate Committee on Appropriations
144 Dirksen Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Dear Senator Mikulski:
As former board members of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB), we agree with your view that assuring crew safety is an essential element in the discussion of future U.S. crew transportation systems. As members of the CAIB, we have also noted with interest recent space policy discussions where our report has been cited.
In particular, we have been somewhat surprised to learn that some people, both within and outside of the Congress, have interpreted the new White House strategy for space which gives a greater role to the commercial sector in providing crew transportation services to the International Space Station, as being not in line with the findings and recommendations of the CAIB report.
Our view is that NASA's new direction can be a) just as safe, if not more safe, than government-controlled alternatives b) will achieve higher safety than that of the Space Shuttle, and c) is directly in line with the recommendations of the CAIB. First, as we wrote in the report, "the overriding mission of the replacement system [for the Space Shuttle] is to move humans safely and reliably into and out of Earth orbit. To demand more would be to fall into the same trap as all previous, unsuccessful, efforts." In contrast to Ares I and Orion, intended to both bring crews to the Space Station and to launch complex exploration missions, the commercial services under consideration as part of the President's new plan are focused exclusively on the mission of safely transporting humans to low Earth orbit. These services may well use the extensively proven Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicles (EELVs) such as Atlas V and Delta IV that have executed thirty-four successful launches in total to date. We anticipate that newer commercial vehicles such as Falcon 9 will also build up a strong history of cargo carrying launches over the next few years.
Second, the CAIB recommended that future launch systems should "separate crew from cargo" as much as possible. This statement is sometimes taken out of context. What it does mean is that human lives should not be risked on flights that can be performed without people; the new plan to procure separate crew and cargo transportation services clearly is consistent with the CAIB's recommendation. But the recommendation does not disallow the use of a cargo launch system to also fly, on separate missions, astronaut flights. Indeed, the fact that Atlas V and Delta IV are flying satellites right now, including extremely high-value satellites, has helped to prove out their reliability. And the many satellite and cargo missions that Falcon 9 is planned to fly will also produce the same beneficial result.
Third, it has been suggested by some that only a NASA-led effort can provide the safety assurance required to commit to launching government astronauts into space. We must note that much of the CAIB report was an indictment of NASA's safety culture, not a defense of its uniqueness. The report (p. 97) notes that "at NASA's urging, the nation committed to build an amazing, if compromised, vehicle called the Space Shuttle. When the agency did this, it accepted the bargain to operate and maintain the vehicle in the safest possible way." The report then adds, "The Board is not convinced that NASA has completely lived up to the bargain." We commend the efforts of former Administrator Griffin and current Administrator Bolden and their associates to address the safety issues raised in the CAIB report and to do everything in their power to avoid the organizational failures of the past that led to two tragic Shuttle accidents. However, one might argue that the similarities in the organizational cause of both Challenger and Columbia suggest that it is very difficult for a single organization to develop, oversee and regulate such a complex human-rated spacecraft for an extended period of time. In any event, the operational experience with the Shuttle does not preclude others from successfully creating a human space flight capability – as has been demonstrated by the Russians and Chinese. We see no reason why a well-crafted NASA-industry partnership cannot match, or perhaps exceed, past performance in ensuring astronaut safety.
In conclusion, in our view the new space strategy fully meets the intent of the CAIB findings. The new strategy will task an array of companies, including both established industry stalwarts with decades of experience as well as newer service providers, to build simple spacecraft that are exclusively focused on the mission of sending crews to low Earth orbit. By using existing launch vehicles that are already accumulating extensive track records to launch these spacecraft, NASA will ensure that crews would not be risked on a vehicle that has not repeatedly demonstrated its safety and reliability.
Thank you for your consideration of this letter and our views on this matter. We would be glad to answer any questions that you or other members of Congress may have concerning the CAIB report and its application to today's space policy issues.
Sincerely,
Prof. G. Scott Hubbard
Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Stanford University
Former Director, NASA Ames Research Center
Member, Columbia Accident Investigation Board
Dr. John Logsdon
Professor Emeritus, George Washington University
Founder, Space Policy Institute
Member, Columbia Accident Investigation Board
Dr. Douglas Osheroff
Professor of Physics and Applied Physics, Stanford University
Co-Recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics, 1996
Member, Columbia Accident Investigation Board
Dr. Steven Wallace
Aviation Safety Consultant
Former Director of the Office of Accident Investigation, Federal Aviation Administration
Member, Columbia Accident Investigation Board
Dr. Sheila Widnall
Institute Professor and Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Former Secretary of the Air Force
Member, Columbia Accident Investigation Board
cc: Chairman Jay Rockefeller, Chairman Bill Nelson
By Dan Vergano
Farewell Lutetia
Farewell Lutetia
On its way to a 2014 rendezvous with comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, the European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft, with NASA instruments aboard, flew past asteroid Lutetia on Saturday, July 10.
The instruments aboard Rosetta recorded the first close-up image of the biggest asteroid so far visited by a spacecraft. Rosetta made measurements to derive the mass of the object, understand the properties of the asteroid's surface crust, record the solar wind in the vicinity and look for evidence of an atmosphere. The spacecraft passed the asteroid at a minimum distance of 3,160 kilometers (1,950 miles) and at a velocity of 15 kilometers (9 miles) per second, completing the flyby in just a minute. But the cameras and other instruments had been working for hours and in some cases days beforehand, and will continue afterwards. Shortly after closest approach, Rosetta began transmitting data to Earth for processing.
Lutetia has been a mystery for many years. Ground telescopes have shown that it presents confusing characteristics. In some respects it resembles a ‘C-type’ asteroid, a primitive body left over from the formation of the solar system. In others, it looks like an ‘M-type’. These have been associated with iron meteorites, are usually reddish and thought to be fragments of the cores of much larger objects.
On its way to a 2014 rendezvous with comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, the European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft, with NASA instruments aboard, flew past asteroid Lutetia on Saturday, July 10.
The instruments aboard Rosetta recorded the first close-up image of the biggest asteroid so far visited by a spacecraft. Rosetta made measurements to derive the mass of the object, understand the properties of the asteroid's surface crust, record the solar wind in the vicinity and look for evidence of an atmosphere. The spacecraft passed the asteroid at a minimum distance of 3,160 kilometers (1,950 miles) and at a velocity of 15 kilometers (9 miles) per second, completing the flyby in just a minute. But the cameras and other instruments had been working for hours and in some cases days beforehand, and will continue afterwards. Shortly after closest approach, Rosetta began transmitting data to Earth for processing.
Lutetia has been a mystery for many years. Ground telescopes have shown that it presents confusing characteristics. In some respects it resembles a ‘C-type’ asteroid, a primitive body left over from the formation of the solar system. In others, it looks like an ‘M-type’. These have been associated with iron meteorites, are usually reddish and thought to be fragments of the cores of much larger objects.
Monday, July 12, 2010
ISRO outlines plans to send Indians into space
The Hindu: ISRO outlines plans to send Indians into space
An unmanned crew module will be put in orbit around the earth by a modified Polar Satellite Launch (PSLV) in 2013 as a forerunner to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) sending two Indians into space, S. Ramakrishnan, Director, Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre, ISRO, said here on Monday.
India has plans to send two Indians into space in a low-earth orbit and they will stay in space for about a week before returning to the earth. A third launch pad, at a cost of Rs.1,000 crore, will be built at Sriharikota, where the rocket that will take the Indian astronauts into space will be assembled and launched.
Mr. Ramakrishnan told a press conference here, after the successful PSLV-C15 flight, that the module in which the Indian astronauts would go into space had already been designed. The life-support systems, the thermal-proofing on board the module and the crew escape system in case of an emergency had already been defined. “We are also planning a launch pad abort for the crew in case of an accident,” Mr. Ramakrishnan said.
ISRO Chairman K. Radhakrishnan explained that the ISRO needed a highly reliable vehicle to take humans into space. Such rockets were called human-rated vehicles. Certain crucial facilities such as a new launch pad for sending human beings into space had to be built at the spaceport in Sriharikota. Facilities to handle the astronauts when they returned to the earth also needed to be built here. In the first phase of India’s Human Spaceflight Programme, these critical technologies including the re-entry technology would be developed. In the second phase, a human rated vehicle would be developed. In the third phase, astronauts would be trained to go into space. Normally, it took three years to train an astronaut, Dr. Radhakrishnan said.
Narayanamoorthy N., Chief Executive, Human Spaceflight Programme, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), Thiruvananthapuram, said the most important technology to be developed was the crew escape system. In the programme’s first phase, the module that would take the crew into space and a PSLV with a modified first stage would be built. An unmanned module, it would be identical to the final module. A host of technologies including life-support systems aboard the module and avionics would be developed in India with the help of research laboratories and industries, Mr. Narayanamoorthy said.
The location for the third launch pad site had been decided upon, said M.C. Dathan, Director, Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota. It would boast of a vehicle assembly building where not only the ISRO’s current but future vehicles would be stacked up.
R.R. Navalgund, Director, Space Applications Centre, Ahmedabad, said Cartosat-2B, launched on Monday from Sriharikota, could be used in a variety of ways, depending on the imagination of the user. The images taken by its panchromatic camera could be used for planning roads in villages, building harbours, preparing accurate maps, keeping a watch on encroachments, and for various infrastructural activities, said Dr. Navalgund.
(Cartosat-2B’s images will have a resolution of 0.8 metres. In other words, the satellite from a height of 637 km, can take pictures of objects on the earth, which are three-feet long. The images can be used for estimating the acreage and the yield of crops; for finding out various types of forests and how thick the vegetation is; for laying ring roads and digging new canals; keeping a watch on mangroves and coral formations, and estimating the amount of water available in reservoirs and big lakes).
Mr. P.S. Veeraraghavan, Director, VSSC, said a Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV - F06) will lift off from Sriharikota by the end of September or the first week of October this year. The stacking of its stages would begin in the second launch pad from July 14 (Wednesday).
A PSLV-C16 rocket would put in orbit Resourcesat-2 by the middle of October. It would also put in orbit two other satellites. The stacking of the PSLV-C16’s four stages would begin in August at Sriharikota.
An unmanned crew module will be put in orbit around the earth by a modified Polar Satellite Launch (PSLV) in 2013 as a forerunner to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) sending two Indians into space, S. Ramakrishnan, Director, Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre, ISRO, said here on Monday.
India has plans to send two Indians into space in a low-earth orbit and they will stay in space for about a week before returning to the earth. A third launch pad, at a cost of Rs.1,000 crore, will be built at Sriharikota, where the rocket that will take the Indian astronauts into space will be assembled and launched.
Mr. Ramakrishnan told a press conference here, after the successful PSLV-C15 flight, that the module in which the Indian astronauts would go into space had already been designed. The life-support systems, the thermal-proofing on board the module and the crew escape system in case of an emergency had already been defined. “We are also planning a launch pad abort for the crew in case of an accident,” Mr. Ramakrishnan said.
ISRO Chairman K. Radhakrishnan explained that the ISRO needed a highly reliable vehicle to take humans into space. Such rockets were called human-rated vehicles. Certain crucial facilities such as a new launch pad for sending human beings into space had to be built at the spaceport in Sriharikota. Facilities to handle the astronauts when they returned to the earth also needed to be built here. In the first phase of India’s Human Spaceflight Programme, these critical technologies including the re-entry technology would be developed. In the second phase, a human rated vehicle would be developed. In the third phase, astronauts would be trained to go into space. Normally, it took three years to train an astronaut, Dr. Radhakrishnan said.
Narayanamoorthy N., Chief Executive, Human Spaceflight Programme, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), Thiruvananthapuram, said the most important technology to be developed was the crew escape system. In the programme’s first phase, the module that would take the crew into space and a PSLV with a modified first stage would be built. An unmanned module, it would be identical to the final module. A host of technologies including life-support systems aboard the module and avionics would be developed in India with the help of research laboratories and industries, Mr. Narayanamoorthy said.
The location for the third launch pad site had been decided upon, said M.C. Dathan, Director, Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota. It would boast of a vehicle assembly building where not only the ISRO’s current but future vehicles would be stacked up.
R.R. Navalgund, Director, Space Applications Centre, Ahmedabad, said Cartosat-2B, launched on Monday from Sriharikota, could be used in a variety of ways, depending on the imagination of the user. The images taken by its panchromatic camera could be used for planning roads in villages, building harbours, preparing accurate maps, keeping a watch on encroachments, and for various infrastructural activities, said Dr. Navalgund.
(Cartosat-2B’s images will have a resolution of 0.8 metres. In other words, the satellite from a height of 637 km, can take pictures of objects on the earth, which are three-feet long. The images can be used for estimating the acreage and the yield of crops; for finding out various types of forests and how thick the vegetation is; for laying ring roads and digging new canals; keeping a watch on mangroves and coral formations, and estimating the amount of water available in reservoirs and big lakes).
Mr. P.S. Veeraraghavan, Director, VSSC, said a Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV - F06) will lift off from Sriharikota by the end of September or the first week of October this year. The stacking of its stages would begin in the second launch pad from July 14 (Wednesday).
A PSLV-C16 rocket would put in orbit Resourcesat-2 by the middle of October. It would also put in orbit two other satellites. The stacking of the PSLV-C16’s four stages would begin in August at Sriharikota.
Saturday, July 10, 2010
ESA preparing for close look at asteroid
BERLIN — The European Space Agency is preparing to take the closest look yet at asteroid Lutetia in an extraordinary quest some 280 million miles in outer space between Mars and Jupiter.
ESA says its comet-chaser Rosetta will fly by Lutetia as close as 1,900 miles (3,200 kilometers) Saturday and will have about two hours to capture images with its high-tech cameras.
Though Lutetia was discovered some 150 years ago, for a long time it was little more than a point of light to those on Earth.
ESA says only recent high-resolution ground-based imaging has given a vague idea of the asteroid which is believed to be 83.3 miles (134 kilometers) in diameter.
Rosetta has been in space since 2004 on a mission to rendezvous with comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in 2014.
ESA says its comet-chaser Rosetta will fly by Lutetia as close as 1,900 miles (3,200 kilometers) Saturday and will have about two hours to capture images with its high-tech cameras.
Though Lutetia was discovered some 150 years ago, for a long time it was little more than a point of light to those on Earth.
ESA says only recent high-resolution ground-based imaging has given a vague idea of the asteroid which is believed to be 83.3 miles (134 kilometers) in diameter.
Rosetta has been in space since 2004 on a mission to rendezvous with comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in 2014.
Friday, July 9, 2010
End of NASA era for New Orleans with shuttle tank
End of NASA era for New Orleans with shuttle tank
NEW ORLEANS
The end of an era for Louisiana's role in manned space flight arrived Thursday when the giant external fuel tank for the final scheduled space shuttle plant rolled out of its manufacturing plant.
With the tank mounted on rollers and ready to be hauled to the Mississippi River and a barge trip to Florida, about 1,000 employees gathered for a ceremony at NASA's Michoud Assembly with many knowing their jobs will end this fall.
"Working here has not just been a job, it's been a mission," said Terry Lee, 50, an associate production manager with 20 years at Lockheed Martin Corp., the tank's contractor. "We've put our hearts and souls into this. We're like a family. The astronauts are part of our family."
The latest tank is scheduled to propel the Endeavor into space on Feb. 26 -- the last shuttle mission unless Congress agrees to a NASA's request to fund one more after that.
The plant has built 134 shuttle tanks since Lockheed Martin won the contract in 1973. Following several years of planning, design and engineering, the first tank was delivered to NASA in 1979.
At the height of the shuttle program, about 5,000 people were employed building tanks. But after the Challenger disaster in 1986, the shuttle program was slowed -- and, along with it, the Lockheed Martin payroll went into a steady decline.
Lockheed Martin had 2,700 people on a $156 million annual payroll in January 2008, a number that has dropped to about 1,000 now. In contrast to most of the New Orleans economy -- with a median annual income of about $27,000 -- some of the space jobs pay in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Company spokesman Harry Wadsworth said four major layoffs occurred in 2009, followed by layoffs on the final Friday of each month in 2010. "Once the final tank comes through an area with a skill, such as welders, their job has gone away," he said.
There's been no mystery as to when a worker will be laid off: Each employee has a departure date that can be planned for. Many have been told that Sept. 30 is the dreaded day. With the national economy still dragging, planning for the future is difficult.
"I'm just going to wait and see what happens," said Tom Melchionne, 56, a quality inspector for 29 years. "It may be early retirement."
But 47-year-old Debbie Kerr, who came to Michoud 30 years ago right of high school, said she is headed to California with her husband and his new job. Although she's a New Orleans native, she said there is little chance of finding comparable employment in the region.
"I can't find a job around here doing what I'm doing and making the money that I'm making," she said.
There is one more tank yet to be finished -- but it may never see duty. A tank damaged during Hurricane Katrina in August 2005 is being redone in case NASA gets one more shuttle flight. That tank is scheduled for delivery in September.
At one time, there was hope that the planned next phase of the U.S. space program -- Constellation, a plan to carry astronauts back to the moon and perhaps to Mars -- would replace at least a large chunk of the shuttle jobs. But President Barack Obama has moved to scrub that George W. Bush-era program, though it won't become official until the next federal budget is passed. The program could still be included in the upcoming spending plan.
About 200 Lockheed Martin employees are working on the Orion space capsule as part of Constellation, while a handful of Boeing Co. employees are working on the proposed Ares I launch rocket under NASA funding for the current budget year.
Wadsworth said at least 500 employees would lose their jobs in September. About 200 will be retained to support fuel tank functions at Cape Canaveral until after the last mission.
One of those workers with a bit more time is Dave Buras, 57, a materials engineer who has been with the tank program since the start. He said he's almost always on call and makes numerous trips to Florida before each shuttle mission.
"I've got so much time in, I'm looking forward to retiring," Buras said.
NEW ORLEANS
The end of an era for Louisiana's role in manned space flight arrived Thursday when the giant external fuel tank for the final scheduled space shuttle plant rolled out of its manufacturing plant.
With the tank mounted on rollers and ready to be hauled to the Mississippi River and a barge trip to Florida, about 1,000 employees gathered for a ceremony at NASA's Michoud Assembly with many knowing their jobs will end this fall.
"Working here has not just been a job, it's been a mission," said Terry Lee, 50, an associate production manager with 20 years at Lockheed Martin Corp., the tank's contractor. "We've put our hearts and souls into this. We're like a family. The astronauts are part of our family."
The latest tank is scheduled to propel the Endeavor into space on Feb. 26 -- the last shuttle mission unless Congress agrees to a NASA's request to fund one more after that.
The plant has built 134 shuttle tanks since Lockheed Martin won the contract in 1973. Following several years of planning, design and engineering, the first tank was delivered to NASA in 1979.
At the height of the shuttle program, about 5,000 people were employed building tanks. But after the Challenger disaster in 1986, the shuttle program was slowed -- and, along with it, the Lockheed Martin payroll went into a steady decline.
Lockheed Martin had 2,700 people on a $156 million annual payroll in January 2008, a number that has dropped to about 1,000 now. In contrast to most of the New Orleans economy -- with a median annual income of about $27,000 -- some of the space jobs pay in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Company spokesman Harry Wadsworth said four major layoffs occurred in 2009, followed by layoffs on the final Friday of each month in 2010. "Once the final tank comes through an area with a skill, such as welders, their job has gone away," he said.
There's been no mystery as to when a worker will be laid off: Each employee has a departure date that can be planned for. Many have been told that Sept. 30 is the dreaded day. With the national economy still dragging, planning for the future is difficult.
"I'm just going to wait and see what happens," said Tom Melchionne, 56, a quality inspector for 29 years. "It may be early retirement."
But 47-year-old Debbie Kerr, who came to Michoud 30 years ago right of high school, said she is headed to California with her husband and his new job. Although she's a New Orleans native, she said there is little chance of finding comparable employment in the region.
"I can't find a job around here doing what I'm doing and making the money that I'm making," she said.
There is one more tank yet to be finished -- but it may never see duty. A tank damaged during Hurricane Katrina in August 2005 is being redone in case NASA gets one more shuttle flight. That tank is scheduled for delivery in September.
At one time, there was hope that the planned next phase of the U.S. space program -- Constellation, a plan to carry astronauts back to the moon and perhaps to Mars -- would replace at least a large chunk of the shuttle jobs. But President Barack Obama has moved to scrub that George W. Bush-era program, though it won't become official until the next federal budget is passed. The program could still be included in the upcoming spending plan.
About 200 Lockheed Martin employees are working on the Orion space capsule as part of Constellation, while a handful of Boeing Co. employees are working on the proposed Ares I launch rocket under NASA funding for the current budget year.
Wadsworth said at least 500 employees would lose their jobs in September. About 200 will be retained to support fuel tank functions at Cape Canaveral until after the last mission.
One of those workers with a bit more time is Dave Buras, 57, a materials engineer who has been with the tank program since the start. He said he's almost always on call and makes numerous trips to Florida before each shuttle mission.
"I've got so much time in, I'm looking forward to retiring," Buras said.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
If you watch Al Jazeera, you know Obama's new mission for NASA: To help Muslim nations 'feel good'
An op ed piece from the Los Angeles Times
You know how Wile E. Coyote straps himself to the rocket and lights the fuse? And it burns. And burns. Silence. Nothing. He's poised, hopefully, awaiting launch. We wait, painfully, for the bad thing certain to happen.
That's what we've been doing for almost a week now, anticipating the explosive public reaction to word from NASA chief Charles Bolden that President Obama has tasked his once-fabled space agency with a brand-new earthbound mission that has absolutely nothing to do with space.
Perhaps not surprisingly, Bolden's stunning announcement about the taxpayer-funded space agency's new task did not come at home. It came overseas during a televised interview with Al Jazeera, the Middle Eastern TV network.
In the interview (full video below), Bolden reveals that even before the Democratic ...
... president offered him the job as top space official, Obama ordered that his "foremost" assignment was "to reach out to the Muslim world ... to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science, math and engineering." [They indeed conttributed quite a bit...up until about 400 years ago. Since then, nothing but destruction.]
Say what?
There's been much skepticism, criticism and suspicion about Obama's "new" space program announced in April, that it was really a beautifully wrapped downsizing and abandonment of the nation's pioneering manned space exploration.
Giving up any more Moon missions. Or unilateral space trips. Relying soon on Russia to ferry U.S. astronauts to the space station -- and maybe even the Acme Supply Co. for parts. All in order to have even more money to spend on the Democrat's expensive earthly social priorities.
Here's that longer Bolden quote about Obama to Al Jazeera:
When I became the NASA administrator -- or before I became the NASA administrator -- he charged me with three things. One was he wanted me to help re-inspire children to want to get into science and math, he wanted me to expand our international relationships, and third, and perhaps foremost, he wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science ... and math and engineering.
Without the vigilant Byron York, Bolden's bold statement might have gone unnoticed at home, which perhaps was the goal.
Actually, even with the vigilant York's report and his amazing follow-up, the story has largely gone unnoted offline, drawing virtually no coverage from major newspapers and broadcast news operations. They were more focused over the holiday weekend on the latest gaffe by GOP party chairman Michael Steele, who's been filling the political clown role while VP Joe Biden was in Iraq celebrating Obama's war success.
Bolden was in the Middle East as part of a conga line of Obama folks celebrating the first anniversary of the president's Cairo speech to the Muslim world. In Bolden's own remarks in Egypt, recounted by York, the NASA chief noted it has been four decades since the first moon landing. Bolden candidly admitted that under Obama:
--"NASA is not only a space exploration agency, but also an Earth improvement agency."
--"We're not going to go anywhere beyond low Earth orbit as a single entity. The United States can't do it."
The fuse is lit. Here's the video.
You know how Wile E. Coyote straps himself to the rocket and lights the fuse? And it burns. And burns. Silence. Nothing. He's poised, hopefully, awaiting launch. We wait, painfully, for the bad thing certain to happen.
That's what we've been doing for almost a week now, anticipating the explosive public reaction to word from NASA chief Charles Bolden that President Obama has tasked his once-fabled space agency with a brand-new earthbound mission that has absolutely nothing to do with space.
Perhaps not surprisingly, Bolden's stunning announcement about the taxpayer-funded space agency's new task did not come at home. It came overseas during a televised interview with Al Jazeera, the Middle Eastern TV network.
In the interview (full video below), Bolden reveals that even before the Democratic ...
... president offered him the job as top space official, Obama ordered that his "foremost" assignment was "to reach out to the Muslim world ... to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science, math and engineering." [They indeed conttributed quite a bit...up until about 400 years ago. Since then, nothing but destruction.]
Say what?
There's been much skepticism, criticism and suspicion about Obama's "new" space program announced in April, that it was really a beautifully wrapped downsizing and abandonment of the nation's pioneering manned space exploration.
Giving up any more Moon missions. Or unilateral space trips. Relying soon on Russia to ferry U.S. astronauts to the space station -- and maybe even the Acme Supply Co. for parts. All in order to have even more money to spend on the Democrat's expensive earthly social priorities.
Here's that longer Bolden quote about Obama to Al Jazeera:
When I became the NASA administrator -- or before I became the NASA administrator -- he charged me with three things. One was he wanted me to help re-inspire children to want to get into science and math, he wanted me to expand our international relationships, and third, and perhaps foremost, he wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science ... and math and engineering.
Without the vigilant Byron York, Bolden's bold statement might have gone unnoticed at home, which perhaps was the goal.
Actually, even with the vigilant York's report and his amazing follow-up, the story has largely gone unnoted offline, drawing virtually no coverage from major newspapers and broadcast news operations. They were more focused over the holiday weekend on the latest gaffe by GOP party chairman Michael Steele, who's been filling the political clown role while VP Joe Biden was in Iraq celebrating Obama's war success.
Bolden was in the Middle East as part of a conga line of Obama folks celebrating the first anniversary of the president's Cairo speech to the Muslim world. In Bolden's own remarks in Egypt, recounted by York, the NASA chief noted it has been four decades since the first moon landing. Bolden candidly admitted that under Obama:
--"NASA is not only a space exploration agency, but also an Earth improvement agency."
--"We're not going to go anywhere beyond low Earth orbit as a single entity. The United States can't do it."
The fuse is lit. Here's the video.
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
First big layoff set as space shuttle program winds down
Palm Beach Post News: First big layoff set as space shuttle program winds down
United Space Alliance - NASA's main space-shuttle contractor - said Tuesday that it will lay off more than 1,400 workers by Oct. 1 as the shuttle program's phase-out continues, including as many as 1,000 people at Kennedy Space Center.
Houston-based United Space Alliance said it will eliminate about 15 percent of its jobs in Florida, Texas and Alabama by then "to align the work-force level with [the remaining shuttle] work scope and current budget." The latest cutbacks could affect as many as 18 percent of the company's workers in Brevard County.
It was the first major downsizing announced for the shuttle program, which has only two launches left on its schedule: Nov. 1 of this year and Feb. 26, 2011. United Space Alliance cut 400 jobs last fall, including 258 at KSC.
Ultimately, as many as 9,000 workers in Brevard could lose their jobs once the shuttle fleet is fully retired, according to NASA and space-industry officials.
"Our work force has known for several years that the space-shuttle program has been scheduled to end," United Space Alliance President Virginia Barnes said in a written statement. "But layoffs are always difficult for everyone involved."
United Space Alliance, or USA, is providing severance pay, job-placement services and career-transition training to displaced workers. The Houston-based company is jointly owned by aerospace giants Lockheed Martin Corp. and Boeing Co.
Tuesday's announcement came the same day that dozens of employment-development agencies, local governments, private companies and others asked a federal panel in Orlando for a share of the $40 million promised by President Barack Obama to help ease the effect of shuttle-related job losses.
With the shuttle's erstwhile successor - the problematic Constellation program - set for termination by President Barack Obama, no replacement is expected to be available in time to stem the space industry's job losses.
Congressional supporters of the shuttle have been battling the Obama administration over its proposed space plan, which would temporarily rely on Russia or U.S. companies to send flights to the International Space Station. Supporters are also pressing to add a shuttle flight next year to the remaining schedule.
United Space Alliance - NASA's main space-shuttle contractor - said Tuesday that it will lay off more than 1,400 workers by Oct. 1 as the shuttle program's phase-out continues, including as many as 1,000 people at Kennedy Space Center.
Houston-based United Space Alliance said it will eliminate about 15 percent of its jobs in Florida, Texas and Alabama by then "to align the work-force level with [the remaining shuttle] work scope and current budget." The latest cutbacks could affect as many as 18 percent of the company's workers in Brevard County.
It was the first major downsizing announced for the shuttle program, which has only two launches left on its schedule: Nov. 1 of this year and Feb. 26, 2011. United Space Alliance cut 400 jobs last fall, including 258 at KSC.
Ultimately, as many as 9,000 workers in Brevard could lose their jobs once the shuttle fleet is fully retired, according to NASA and space-industry officials.
"Our work force has known for several years that the space-shuttle program has been scheduled to end," United Space Alliance President Virginia Barnes said in a written statement. "But layoffs are always difficult for everyone involved."
United Space Alliance, or USA, is providing severance pay, job-placement services and career-transition training to displaced workers. The Houston-based company is jointly owned by aerospace giants Lockheed Martin Corp. and Boeing Co.
Tuesday's announcement came the same day that dozens of employment-development agencies, local governments, private companies and others asked a federal panel in Orlando for a share of the $40 million promised by President Barack Obama to help ease the effect of shuttle-related job losses.
With the shuttle's erstwhile successor - the problematic Constellation program - set for termination by President Barack Obama, no replacement is expected to be available in time to stem the space industry's job losses.
Congressional supporters of the shuttle have been battling the Obama administration over its proposed space plan, which would temporarily rely on Russia or U.S. companies to send flights to the International Space Station. Supporters are also pressing to add a shuttle flight next year to the remaining schedule.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
New Air Force satellite to monitor space junk
New Air Force satellite to monitor space junk
The US Air Force will this week launch a satellite designed to monitor the skies for dangerous debris.
The Space-Based Space Surveillance Satellite (SBSS) will launch on Friday from the Vandenberg Air Force base in California, ending up in orbit around 390 miles up.
The $500 million satellite is twice as sensitive and has ten times the capacity of previous space-based sensors.
Boeing, which has developed it along with Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp, says it has three times the chances of detecting threats, and will do it in half the time.
It uses a swivel-mounted telescope which will transmit information about possible threats to a ground station at the Schriever Air Force Base in Colorado.
"Without having to move the spacecraft, they can track objects very quickly," said Tim Harris, Ball’s director of programs for national defense.
The SBSS can detect objects as small as four inches across. It will also track all satellites in a geosynchronous low Earth orbit.
Millions of pieces of space debris are orbiting the earth, mostly man-made. They include spent rocket stages, fragments of disintegrated satellites and bits of lost equipment.
In February last year, a defunct Russian satellite collided with an Iridium satellite, creating a cloud of thousands of pieces of debris.
Currently, ground-based telescopes monitor around 22,000 pieces of debris, a small fraction of the total, as well as 1,000 active satellites. But these telescopes can only be used on clear nights, and many are underpowered.
The US Air Force will this week launch a satellite designed to monitor the skies for dangerous debris.
The Space-Based Space Surveillance Satellite (SBSS) will launch on Friday from the Vandenberg Air Force base in California, ending up in orbit around 390 miles up.
The $500 million satellite is twice as sensitive and has ten times the capacity of previous space-based sensors.
Boeing, which has developed it along with Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp, says it has three times the chances of detecting threats, and will do it in half the time.
It uses a swivel-mounted telescope which will transmit information about possible threats to a ground station at the Schriever Air Force Base in Colorado.
"Without having to move the spacecraft, they can track objects very quickly," said Tim Harris, Ball’s director of programs for national defense.
The SBSS can detect objects as small as four inches across. It will also track all satellites in a geosynchronous low Earth orbit.
Millions of pieces of space debris are orbiting the earth, mostly man-made. They include spent rocket stages, fragments of disintegrated satellites and bits of lost equipment.
In February last year, a defunct Russian satellite collided with an Iridium satellite, creating a cloud of thousands of pieces of debris.
Currently, ground-based telescopes monitor around 22,000 pieces of debris, a small fraction of the total, as well as 1,000 active satellites. But these telescopes can only be used on clear nights, and many are underpowered.
NASA Delays Final Two Shuttle Flights
NASA Delays Final Two Shuttle Flights
CAPE CANAVERAL—NASA managers July 1 decided to delay the last two missions of the space shuttle program to allow more time to prepare a final load of spare parts for the International Space Station.
To cover shuttle operating expenses beyond Sept. 30, NASA will dip into an expected $600-million cushion promised by legislators and tap savings that managers have been accruing from the program’s roughly $200 million monthly allotments.
If schedules hold, Discovery will lift off at 4:33 p.m. EDT on Nov. 1 with a load of station space parts and other equipment inside the Leonardo Multi-Purpose Logistics Module, which is being modified to remain permanently attached to the space station as a storage pod.
A previously requested launch date of Oct. 29 posed scheduling conflicts with station operations as well as for the 45th Space Wing at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, which provides tracking and range safety services for shuttle launches.
“There’s so much traffic around the station it ultimately made the most sense to pick Nov. 1,” said NASA spokesman Kyle Herring.
The Kennedy Space Center launch team expects to have four launch attempts over seven days before a Sun angle heating issue during what would be the docked phase of the mission would prohibit launching from Nov. 8 until late in the month. After that, station operations would complicate shuttle launch plans, with Europe’s second Automated Transfer Vehicle cargo ship slated to dock around Dec. 17 and Japan’s second H-II Transfer Vehicle arriving in January. There is another long period in January when solar heating concerns again would prohibit launch.
Those issues also drove NASA to pick Feb. 26 as the target launch date for STS-134, currently the program’s finale. That mission, onboard shuttle Endeavour, will be devoted to delivering and installing the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer particle detector to the station. It was initially expected to fly in November, but was bumped when managers decided to delay Discovery’s STS-133 mission to allow more time to prepare payloads, including a prototype service robot known as “Robonaut,” a pump package and a heat exchanger.
A decision on an additional station cargo mission next summer on shuttle Atlantis, which will be prepared as an emergency rescue vehicle for the Endeavour crew, is pending.
CAPE CANAVERAL—NASA managers July 1 decided to delay the last two missions of the space shuttle program to allow more time to prepare a final load of spare parts for the International Space Station.
To cover shuttle operating expenses beyond Sept. 30, NASA will dip into an expected $600-million cushion promised by legislators and tap savings that managers have been accruing from the program’s roughly $200 million monthly allotments.
If schedules hold, Discovery will lift off at 4:33 p.m. EDT on Nov. 1 with a load of station space parts and other equipment inside the Leonardo Multi-Purpose Logistics Module, which is being modified to remain permanently attached to the space station as a storage pod.
A previously requested launch date of Oct. 29 posed scheduling conflicts with station operations as well as for the 45th Space Wing at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, which provides tracking and range safety services for shuttle launches.
“There’s so much traffic around the station it ultimately made the most sense to pick Nov. 1,” said NASA spokesman Kyle Herring.
The Kennedy Space Center launch team expects to have four launch attempts over seven days before a Sun angle heating issue during what would be the docked phase of the mission would prohibit launching from Nov. 8 until late in the month. After that, station operations would complicate shuttle launch plans, with Europe’s second Automated Transfer Vehicle cargo ship slated to dock around Dec. 17 and Japan’s second H-II Transfer Vehicle arriving in January. There is another long period in January when solar heating concerns again would prohibit launch.
Those issues also drove NASA to pick Feb. 26 as the target launch date for STS-134, currently the program’s finale. That mission, onboard shuttle Endeavour, will be devoted to delivering and installing the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer particle detector to the station. It was initially expected to fly in November, but was bumped when managers decided to delay Discovery’s STS-133 mission to allow more time to prepare payloads, including a prototype service robot known as “Robonaut,” a pump package and a heat exchanger.
A decision on an additional station cargo mission next summer on shuttle Atlantis, which will be prepared as an emergency rescue vehicle for the Endeavour crew, is pending.
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Tukwila's Museum of Flight bidding for space shuttle
Tukwila's Museum of Flight [in Des Moines, Iowa] is seeking one of three retiring shuttles that staffers want to be permanently house at the museum.
"Our region has a rich history of aviation going back to the vision of Bill Boeing," said King County Councilman Pete von Reichbauer, "The
Museum of Flight is a fitting retirement place for one of this nation's pioneering space shuttles."
"Bringing the space shuttle to our region as a permanent exhibit will be a compelling chapter in our nearly century old commitment to aerospace," said Larry Phillips, also a county councilman. "The Museum of Flight has demonstrated it has the vision, programs, and facilities necessary to showcase this part of our nation's scientific history."
The two sponsored a successful council motion that calls on President Barack Obama, NASA, and Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum to award the Tukwila museum one of the three space shuttles scheduled for retirement in late 2010 or early 2011.
Twenty-one facilities across the country responded to a NASA request for information for potential host sites. The Museum of Flight is believed to be among the last six finalists.
Hosts must provide a suitable climate-controlled indoor facility, be ready to take delivery between July and December 2011, and may be required to pay some of the costs to prepare and transport the shuttle.
The Museum of Flight is building a new gallery for the shuttle across the street from the current museum. The museum has raised $8 million of the $12 million necessary to build the facility.
Architectural design work on the building is nearly complete, a groundbreaking ceremony took place June 29, and construction will begin this fall in order to be ready for shuttle delivery by July 2011.
The museum is also involved in plans to construct a building for Aviation High School across from the museum.. The school, administered by the Highline School District, is temporarily located at the Olympic site in Des Moines.
The Museum of Flight has received letters of endorsement from Gov. Chris Gregoire, all the members of the Washington congressional delegation and several educational institutions to help it get a shuttle.
Four-hundred thousand people visit the Museum of Flight annually, including 120,000 students and teachers participating in educational programs. Adding the space shuttle as an exhibit is expected to increase attendance and create a variety of new educational opportunities.
"Our region has a rich history of aviation going back to the vision of Bill Boeing," said King County Councilman Pete von Reichbauer, "The
Museum of Flight is a fitting retirement place for one of this nation's pioneering space shuttles."
"Bringing the space shuttle to our region as a permanent exhibit will be a compelling chapter in our nearly century old commitment to aerospace," said Larry Phillips, also a county councilman. "The Museum of Flight has demonstrated it has the vision, programs, and facilities necessary to showcase this part of our nation's scientific history."
The two sponsored a successful council motion that calls on President Barack Obama, NASA, and Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum to award the Tukwila museum one of the three space shuttles scheduled for retirement in late 2010 or early 2011.
Twenty-one facilities across the country responded to a NASA request for information for potential host sites. The Museum of Flight is believed to be among the last six finalists.
Hosts must provide a suitable climate-controlled indoor facility, be ready to take delivery between July and December 2011, and may be required to pay some of the costs to prepare and transport the shuttle.
The Museum of Flight is building a new gallery for the shuttle across the street from the current museum. The museum has raised $8 million of the $12 million necessary to build the facility.
Architectural design work on the building is nearly complete, a groundbreaking ceremony took place June 29, and construction will begin this fall in order to be ready for shuttle delivery by July 2011.
The museum is also involved in plans to construct a building for Aviation High School across from the museum.. The school, administered by the Highline School District, is temporarily located at the Olympic site in Des Moines.
The Museum of Flight has received letters of endorsement from Gov. Chris Gregoire, all the members of the Washington congressional delegation and several educational institutions to help it get a shuttle.
Four-hundred thousand people visit the Museum of Flight annually, including 120,000 students and teachers participating in educational programs. Adding the space shuttle as an exhibit is expected to increase attendance and create a variety of new educational opportunities.
Friday, July 2, 2010
.Russian cargo vessel spins away from space station
Russian cargo vessel spins away from space station
MOSCOW (Reuters) – An unmanned Russian cargo vessel experienced problems during a docking with the International Space Station on Friday, the Interfax news agency reported, citing the commander of the orbital station.
The Progress cargo ship "is moving away from us," Interfax quoted cosmonaut Alexander Skvortsov as saying in a communication with Russian mission control outside Moscow. He was quoted as saying the cargo ship was "spinning uncontrollably" and later that it had disappeared from view.
MOSCOW (Reuters) – An unmanned Russian cargo vessel experienced problems during a docking with the International Space Station on Friday, the Interfax news agency reported, citing the commander of the orbital station.
The Progress cargo ship "is moving away from us," Interfax quoted cosmonaut Alexander Skvortsov as saying in a communication with Russian mission control outside Moscow. He was quoted as saying the cargo ship was "spinning uncontrollably" and later that it had disappeared from view.
Phoenix Mars Lander officially dead
Phoenix Mars Lander officially dead (reported May 25)
NASA has confirmed that its Phoenix Mars Lander has not survived the harsh Red Planet arctic winter, and appears to have suffered serious ice damage to its solar panels.
The agency has been attempting to contact the lander since January, in the slim hope it may have supported the weight of up to 30cm of accumulated carbon dioxide frost. However, NASA says that although its Odyssey orbiter last week "flew over the Phoenix landing site 61 times during a final attempt to communicate with the lander", Phoenix remained silent.
Photographic evidence captured by the HiRISE camera on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter appears to confirm Phoenix's fate. A picture captured earlier this month "suggests the lander no longer casts shadows the way it did during its working lifetime".
NASA explains: "The 2008 lander image shows two relatively blue spots on either side corresponding to the spacecraft's clean circular solar panels [seen in the Phoenix self-portrait, below*]. In the 2010 image scientists see a dark shadow that could be the lander body and eastern solar panel, but no shadow from the western solar panel."
Phoenix launched from Cape Canaveral on 4 August 2007 and touched down on the Martian surface on 25 May 2008. It last communicated on 2 November, 2008, at the end of a mission during which it "confirmed and examined patches of the widespread deposits of underground water ice detected by Odyssey and identified a mineral called calcium carbonate that suggested occasional presence of thawed water".
It also "found soil chemistry with significant implications for life and observed falling snow, and wowed scientists with its discovery of perchlorate - "an oxidizing chemical on Earth that is food for some microbes and potentially toxic for others".
Fuk Li, manager of the Mars Exploration Program at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said of the fallen lander: "The Phoenix spacecraft succeeded in its investigations and exceeded its planned lifetime. Although its work is finished, analysis of information from Phoenix's science activities will continue for some time to come." ®
Bootnote
* NASA elaborates: "This view is a vertical projection that combines hundreds of exposures taken by the Surface Stereo Imager camera on NASA's Mars Phoenix Lander and projects them as if looking down from above.
"The black circle is where the camera itself is mounted on the lander, out of view in images taken by the camera. North is toward the top of the image.
"This view comprises more than 100 different Stereo Surface Imager pointings, with images taken through three different filters at each pointing. The images were taken throughout the period from the 13th Martian day, or sol, after landing to the 47th sol (June 5 through July 12, 2008). The lander's Robotic Arm appears cut off in this mosaic view because component images were taken when the arm was out of the frame."
NASA has confirmed that its Phoenix Mars Lander has not survived the harsh Red Planet arctic winter, and appears to have suffered serious ice damage to its solar panels.
The agency has been attempting to contact the lander since January, in the slim hope it may have supported the weight of up to 30cm of accumulated carbon dioxide frost. However, NASA says that although its Odyssey orbiter last week "flew over the Phoenix landing site 61 times during a final attempt to communicate with the lander", Phoenix remained silent.
Photographic evidence captured by the HiRISE camera on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter appears to confirm Phoenix's fate. A picture captured earlier this month "suggests the lander no longer casts shadows the way it did during its working lifetime".
NASA explains: "The 2008 lander image shows two relatively blue spots on either side corresponding to the spacecraft's clean circular solar panels [seen in the Phoenix self-portrait, below*]. In the 2010 image scientists see a dark shadow that could be the lander body and eastern solar panel, but no shadow from the western solar panel."
Phoenix launched from Cape Canaveral on 4 August 2007 and touched down on the Martian surface on 25 May 2008. It last communicated on 2 November, 2008, at the end of a mission during which it "confirmed and examined patches of the widespread deposits of underground water ice detected by Odyssey and identified a mineral called calcium carbonate that suggested occasional presence of thawed water".
It also "found soil chemistry with significant implications for life and observed falling snow, and wowed scientists with its discovery of perchlorate - "an oxidizing chemical on Earth that is food for some microbes and potentially toxic for others".
Fuk Li, manager of the Mars Exploration Program at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said of the fallen lander: "The Phoenix spacecraft succeeded in its investigations and exceeded its planned lifetime. Although its work is finished, analysis of information from Phoenix's science activities will continue for some time to come." ®
Bootnote
* NASA elaborates: "This view is a vertical projection that combines hundreds of exposures taken by the Surface Stereo Imager camera on NASA's Mars Phoenix Lander and projects them as if looking down from above.
"The black circle is where the camera itself is mounted on the lander, out of view in images taken by the camera. North is toward the top of the image.
"This view comprises more than 100 different Stereo Surface Imager pointings, with images taken through three different filters at each pointing. The images were taken throughout the period from the 13th Martian day, or sol, after landing to the 47th sol (June 5 through July 12, 2008). The lander's Robotic Arm appears cut off in this mosaic view because component images were taken when the arm was out of the frame."
Last shuttle mission shifted to Feb 2011
Last shuttle mission shifted to Feb 2011
NASA has announced that the last space shuttle mission - Endeavour's STS-134 to the International Space Station - will now lift off on 26 February next year.
Discovery's STS-133 mission, meanwhile, is scheduled for 1 November. NASA explains: "The target dates were adjusted because critical payload hardware for the STS-133 mission will not be ready in time for the previously targeted date. With Discovery's move, Endeavour had to plan for its next available window, which was February."
The critical payload hardware in question is the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS). Following the extension of the ISS's working life to 2020, scientists decided to "change out the current magnet in the particle physics experiment module that will be attached to the International Space Station to a longer lasting one"
STS-133 will "deliver and install the Permanent Multipurpose Module, the Express Logistics Carrier 4 and provide critical spare components" to the ISS.
STS-134 will carry "spare parts including two S-band communications antennas, a high-pressure gas tank, additional spare parts for Dextre and micrometeoroid debris shields". ®
NASA has announced that the last space shuttle mission - Endeavour's STS-134 to the International Space Station - will now lift off on 26 February next year.
Discovery's STS-133 mission, meanwhile, is scheduled for 1 November. NASA explains: "The target dates were adjusted because critical payload hardware for the STS-133 mission will not be ready in time for the previously targeted date. With Discovery's move, Endeavour had to plan for its next available window, which was February."
The critical payload hardware in question is the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS). Following the extension of the ISS's working life to 2020, scientists decided to "change out the current magnet in the particle physics experiment module that will be attached to the International Space Station to a longer lasting one"
STS-133 will "deliver and install the Permanent Multipurpose Module, the Express Logistics Carrier 4 and provide critical spare components" to the ISS.
STS-134 will carry "spare parts including two S-band communications antennas, a high-pressure gas tank, additional spare parts for Dextre and micrometeoroid debris shields". ®
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