NASA Extends Its Reliance on Russia to June 2017

NASA today signed an agreement with Russia to extend the current arrangement for U.S.  crew flights aboard Soyuz into 2017.  The full press release,  included below, is noteworthy in that it calls for crew return, as well as rescue capability,  but not necessarily crew transport to the station, through Jun 2017. This represents perhaps the last hopeful gesture that Congress will  fully fund the Commercial Crew program at the level requested in the Administration’s FY-2014 budget request, thereby opening the door for American crew transfer to ISS, leaving only the return of crew already in place.   To  add emphasis to the point, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden underscored the importance of full funding in a blog, also posted today.  

Based on Senate appropriation subcommittee proceedings last week however, if Alabama Senator Richard Shelby opened  by observing that he  “doesn’t believe in the fiction of privately funded commercial launch vehicles”  doesn’t get his way, which means full funding for SLS and the overweight MPCV/Orion capsule, cracked hull and all, then General  Bolden will likely be signing a new agreement with Russia fairly soon, one which officially abdicates NASA’s crew access to Low Earth Orbit until 2018, or perhaps never.  

 NASA  Press Release:  

CONTRACT RELEASE : C13-027
 
 NASA Extends Crew Flight Contract with Russian Space Agency 
 
WASHINGTON — NASA has signed a $424 million modification to its contract with the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) for full crew transportation services to the International Space Station in 2016 with return and rescue services extending through June 2017.

 NASA is facilitating development of a U.S. commercial crew space transportation capability with the goal of achieving safe, reliable and cost-effective access to and from the space station and low-Earth orbit beginning in 2017. This modification to the Roscosmos contract will ensure continued U.S. presence aboard the space station as NASA prepares for commercial crew providers to begin those transportation operations.

 NASA is committed to launching U.S. astronauts aboard domestic spacecraft as soon as possible. Full funding of the administration’s Fiscal Year 2014 budget request is critical to making these domestic capabilities possible by 2017.

 This firm-fixed price modification covers comprehensive Soyuz support, including all necessary training and preparation for launch, flight operations, landing and rescue of six space station crew members on long-duration missions. It also includes additional launch site support, which was provided previously under a separate contract. The modification will allow for a lead time of about three years Roscosmos needs to build additional Soyuz vehicles. These services will provide transportation to and from the International Space Station for U.S., and Canadian, European or Japanese astronauts.

 Comments about the contract from NASA Administrator Charles Bolden are available on the agency’s administrator blog page at:
http://go.nasa.gov/g4C5Ov

One Fast Step, Virgin Galactic Breaks the Sound Barrier with SpaceShipTwo

Up, Up and Away
Credit : Virgin Galactic

The suborbital space transportation industry took one of its biggest steps to date this morning, with the first powered test flight of Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo, the complete details of which are included in the press release below.  Coming as it does in the same month which saw Orbital Sciences complete the first launch of the Antares booster,   and looking forward to further developments from SpaceX and XCOR later this year, it should not be lost on anyone that we are, at last,  entering a very interesting, and perhaps definitive era in humanity’s  attempt to establish a permanently expanding space economy.  There will no doubt be disappointing days ahead, and if we have learned anything from the emergence of the NewSpace movement, it is that things simply take more time, frequently quite a bit more of it,  than most would like.  

Nevertheless, on the subject of time,  and  in  appreciation of a  year which might just change everything,  in the words  of the one Earth city which distant  generations will no doubt still travel to, even  from around the solar system, to eat,  drink, dance and generally enjoy life,   “Laissez lez bon temps roulez.”  Let the good times roll, and welcome to the NewSpace age.

Virgin Galactic Press Release

 April 29, 2013

VIRGIN GALACTIC BREAKS SPEED OF SOUND IN FIRST ROCKET-POWERED FLIGHT OF SPACESHIPTWO

Sir Richard Branson witnesses vehicle-proving milestone

as company sets year-end goal for spaceflight

MOJAVE, Calif. – Today, Virgin Galactic, the world’s first commercial spaceline owned by Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group and Abu Dhabi’s aabar Investments PJC, completed the first rocket-powered flight of its space vehicle, SpaceShipTwo (SS2). The test, conducted by teams from Scaled Composites (Scaled) and Virgin Galactic, officially marks Virgin Galactic’s entrance into the final phase of vehicle testing prior to commercial service from Spaceport America in New Mexico.

“The first powered flight of Virgin Spaceship Enterprise was without any doubt, our single most important flight test to date,” said Virgin Galactic Founder Sir Richard Branson, who was on the ground in Mojave to witness the occasion. “For the first time, we were able to prove the key components of the system, fully integrated and in flight. Today’s supersonic success opens the way for a rapid expansion of the spaceship’s powered flight envelope, with a very realistic goal of full space flight by the year’s end. We saw history in the making today and I couldn’t be more proud of everyone involved.”

The test began at 7:02 a.m. local time when SS2 took off from Mojave Air and Space Port mated to WhiteKnightTwo (WK2), Virgin Galactic’s carrier aircraft. Piloting SS2 were Mark Stucky, pilot, and Mike Alsbury, co-pilot, who are test pilots for Scaled, which built SS2 for Virgin Galactic. At the WK2 controls were Virgin Galactic’s Chief Pilot Dave Mackay, assisted by Clint Nichols and Brian Maisler, co-pilot and flight test engineer, respectively, for Scaled.

Upon reaching 47,000 feet altitude and approximately 45 minutes into the flight, SS2 was released from WK2. After cross-checking data and verifying stable control, the pilots triggered ignition of the rocket motor, causing the main oxidizer valve to open and igniters to fire within the fuel case. At this point, SS2 was propelled forward and upward to a maximum altitude of 55,000 feet. The entire engine burn lasted 16 seconds, as planned. During this time, SS2 went supersonic, achieving Mach 1.2.

“We partnered with Virgin Galactic several years ago with the aspiration to transform and commercialize access to space for the broader public,” said His Excellency Khadem Al Qubaisi, Chairman of aabar Investments PJC. “Today’s test is another key milestone in realizing that

aspiration. Our partnership goes from strength to strength, and is an excellent example of aabar’s desire to participate in the development of world class technologies that are commercially viable and strategically important, both for the company, its shareholders, and for Abu Dhabi.”

The entire rocket-powered flight test lasted just over 10 minutes, culminating in a smooth landing for SS2 in Mojave at approximately 8 a.m. local time.

“The rocket motor ignition went as planned, with the expected burn duration, good engine performance and solid vehicle handling qualities throughout,” said Virgin Galactic President & CEO George Whitesides. “The successful outcome of this test marks a pivotal point for our program. We will now embark on a handful of similar powered flight tests, and then make our first test flight to space.”

In the coming months, the Virgin Galactic and Scaled test team will expand the spaceship’s powered flight envelope culminating in full space flight, which the companies anticipate will take place before the end of 2013.

“I’d like to congratulate the entire team,” said President of Scaled Kevin Mickey. “This milestone has been a long time coming and it’s only through the hard work of the team and the tremendous support of Virgin Galactic that we have been able to witness this important milestone. We look forward to all our upcoming tests and successes.”

SpaceX, Virgin Galactic Tests Could Mean a Big Week Ahead for NewSpace

Falcon 9 R Test Ignition
Credit : Elon Musk

This week could see  significant developments for two of the most visible companies in NewSpace.  Things got off to an early start with a tweet from Elon Musk dated 5:54 AM Sunday, announcing an ignition test for the “Falcon 9-R (reusable) ignition system.”  The nomenclature is interesting,  as it might have been expected to be identified as the  Falcon 9 V1.1 first stage, and could be a small  indication that SpaceX is increasingly confident in its approach to reusability.

Whatever it is ultimately called, the next major step is a full-scale mission length firing of all nine Merlin 1d engines, an event which could come at any time, as indicated in this Wacotrib.com article from Friday,  which indicates that the company has given advance notice that things are about to get very loud.

Another notice, this one a Notice to Airmen, was the final indication that Virgin Galactic is at long last about to conduct the first powered test flight of SpaceShipTwo today, at the Mojave Airport.  Parabolicarc.com  has excellent coverage of events taking place at Mojave, and will be a great resource for details on what could be a historic event.  It is has been almost 9 years since  SpaceShipOne made its first suborbital flight over the same skies on June 21, 2004,  and it has been a very long wait for those in the space community who saw a new vision of the future being unveiled that day.

China Conducts First Launch of 2013

Long March 2D
Credit : RIA Novosti

On Friday, China conducted its first space launch of the year when a Long March 2D rocket lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. The primary payload was the Gaofen-1 remote sensing satellite, the first of a fleet of six such spacecraft China plans to launch before 2016. Also aboard were three smaller satellites hailing from Ecuador, Argentina and Turkey.

Friday’s launch of the storable propellant, two stage rocket was 18th successful mission in a row for the Long March 2D, adding to a 100% mission success record.

Sierra Nevada Completes Two More CCiCap Milestones

Dream Chaser at ISS
Image Credit : SNC

Sierra Nevada Press Release:

Sierra Nevada Corporation Completes Dream Chaser® Milestones for Commercial Crew Integrated Capabilities Program

SPARKS, Nev., – April 25, 2013 – Sierra Nevada Corporation’s (SNC) Space Systems has successfully completed two milestones as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) phase of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program. SNC completed the Program Implementation Review, providing NASA with detailed plans for advancing the Dream Chaser® crew transportation system towards a critical design state. SNC also completed an Integrated System Baseline Review that communicated the post-Preliminary Design Review maturity of the baseline Dream Chaser® orbital crew vehicle, mission systems, ground systems, and United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V launch vehicle.

“The successful completion of these milestones resulted in affirmation that the Dream Chaser® Space System design meets its mission requirements as we work towards rebuilding the United States’ capability to fly astronauts into low Earth orbit,” said Jim Voss, vice president of SNC’s Space Exploration Systems. “Both CCiCap milestones offered us the opportunity to communicate SNC’s detailed development plans, as well as to receive and incorporate NASA’s comments and feedback.”

SNC was awarded $212.5 million by NASA in August 2012 and to date has received over $330 million by NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. The funding represents the agency’s co-investment in furthering the development of the Dream Chaser® Space System design to carry crew and critical cargo to and from the International Space Station. The Dream Chaser orbital crew vehicle is scheduled to complete its first free flight test in conjunction with NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base in Calif., in 2013.

Soyuz Launch Number 1803

1803
Credit : RIA Novosti

Source : RIA Novosti

Extending a record which is no danger of being broken any time soon, the Russian Soyuz made the 1803rd successful launch of incredible career today, carrying a GLONASS navigation satellite into orbit from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in the far north. GLONASS is the Russian counterpart to American GPS,  and like GPS it is a dual use system for both military and civilian purposes. Today’s launch took place aboard the Soyuz 2-1b version of the rocket.

 

Is Russia Following SpaceX’s Lead on Dragon?

The New Norm
Credit : RKK Energia

Anatoly Zak has an interesting story about Russia’s planned successor to the Soyuz crew capsule on his site Russianspaceweb.com, and as usual it provides a wealth of information.  What is particularly intriguing about new spacecraft,  labelled PTK NK,  is the fact it is currently being designed to make propulsive landings much like the SpaceX Dragon, which it somewhat resembles.   One key difference is that it would use a cluster of solid rockets with thrust control mounted under the base of the capsule,  jettisoning the heat shield just before touchdown on four deployable legs.

A successor to Soyuz has been in the works for a long time, during which it has undergone numerous changes in both its basic design as well as the launch vehicle which would carry it.   The one constant has been the lack of funding to begin the project in earnest, but that may soon be changing.  The Russian space program is currently undergoing quite a revival,  receiving an inordinate amount of attention from President Vladimir Putin,  who visited the new Vostochny Cosmodrome in the far east earlier this month, and used the occasion to promise an investment of $52 billion in the Russian space program between now and 2020.

Due to its far eastern location,  Vostochny does not have a suitable zone for conventional parachute only landings like those employed for the current Soyuz descents at the vast Baikonur Cosmodrome in  Kazakhstan.  Consequently, if Russia maintains its intention to launch and return cosmonauts from the new spaceport, it either has to work with a tightly controlled landing zone,  or move to water based splashdowns in the Pacific.   The design for the spacecraft is clearly not set, and and during his visit, Putin told the press that  ” Most probably, according to specialists, they will come down on the ocean. So our cosmonauts will splash down rather than touch down.”   Putin was apparently referring to the current smash and roll for Soyuz when he mentioned “touch down.”

If the PTK NK  ( which desperately needs a better name) design ultimately settles on propulsive touchdown, one wonders what  influence the new SpaceX  Dragon 2.o , which is due to be unveiled  later this year, is exerting on that decision.  Even if never explicitly acknowledged, it seems possible that in actually going forward into development with a concept which has been around since the earliest days of the space age, rather than just producing viewgraphs, SpaceX may have already shifted the paradigm, forcing others to follow or risk being perceived as “so last generation.”   Peer pressure is not just  a problem for children and young adults, and with national space program’s inevitably justified partially on the basis of maintaining “prestige” it cannot be dismissed as a driver.

Propulsive landings on planet Earth are hardly the sole province of SpaceX.   Masten Space Systems and Armadillo Aerospace are well into testing  and flying their respective unmanned systems,  and Blue Origin is presumably somewhere along the same path with New Shepard.  All of the above owe a debt of gratitude to the DC-X program which showed the way,  but  it may be that just as the ultimate result of the  RLV work taking place with Grasshopper is likely to force others to follow suit, the new Russian crew vessel could be further evidence of the SpaceX effect,  otherwise known as leading by example.

Orbital’s Really Good Week

It has been quite a week for Orbital Sciences Corporation. Following the successful maiden launch of its Antares rocket on Sunday, OSC reported first quarter earnings on Monday, and they too were strong, showing a 31% growth in operating income.  Today, the company annouced that it has been selected by NASA to build the Transiting Exo Planet Survey Satellite or TESS, which is scheduled to launch in 2017.  TESS is intended to serve as a sort of targeting instrument for the James Webb Space Telescope, building on the work of the Kepler Space Telescope which has imaged distant star systems, by searching instead for promising exoplanets in relatively nearby star systems.   Launching a year ahead of JWST,  TESS is expected to be able to tell researchers where to aim JWST, and just possibly provide the first ever images of Earth sized  planets orbiting in a star’s habitable zone.

The full OSC press release is here.

SpaceX Grasshopper Climbs Another Step on the Stairway to the Heavens

Video : SpaceX Grasshopper performs another test flight, reaching a peak altitude of 820 feet, tripling its previous public record and holding  station in high winds.

Looking back from some future point in time, when the humanity has established itself as a multi planet species, historians are going question  just why it was that in the post Shuttle era,  NASA, the Air Force and the American aerospace establishment  lost all interest in pursuing reusable launch technology, even as the cost of space launch services began to escalate beyond reason.  That it would occur in at the same time an entirely different group of stakeholders,   NewSpace companies, began making rapid progress in laying the foundation for a revolution in RLV systems will be all the more puzzling.

The revolution has been a long time coming, waiting on the right spark for almost 50 years.  And that’s the thing.   That one clarifying moment which says we can do this, we can begin to open up the space frontier for real, and for good,  does not require a breakthrough in propulsion systems, or radical evolution in materials technology to enable the mass fractions of single stage to orbit.  Instead, it requires no more, and no less, than a fully recoverable and reusable first stage.  Fortunately, it  does not even need to be “rapidly reusable,”  at least not first.

The only thing required to fundamentally change the perception, and the reality of how we access space, is a reusable first stage whose recovery and refurbishment costs are marginally lower than the cost of a new first stage core produced by  its closest economic competitor.  While neither the major commercial satellite operators, and most certainly not the military, is going to be a rush to place  high value payloads on a launch vehicle with a “used” first stage core when a new one is readily available at a price point which is already accepted,  somebody else will.

Whether it is NASA finding new ways to work with private industries, as it is doing with Bigelow Aerospace,  another  NewSpace company willing to take a chance,  or one of a growing number of  sovereign states seeking to develop its own indigenous satellite but needing a break on launch costs, the customer is out there, waiting.

Once that moment has come,  and the first commercial mission with a reusable first stage is in the history books,  everything else becomes a matter of modest, sequential improvements.  For the existing launch establishments, comfortable in a world fairly well-ordered for the last several decades, which have made the decision sit this one out, it might just be too late.  The barbarians will already be at the gates.  For the moment, they may still be beyond the furthest hill,  but that moment will not last forever.  If you were to look beyond the immediate horizon to the skies over Texas, it is readily apparent, they are coming.

Antares Conducts Flawless Maiden Launch

Press release from Orbital Sciences following today’s successful launch of the Antares booster

ORBITAL SUCCESSFULLY LAUNCHES FIRST ANTARES ROCKET

— Company Introduces America’s Newest Medium-Class Space Launch Vehicle —

— Orbital Now Poised to Conduct Cargo Resupply Demonstrations Mission to
International Space Station in Mid 2013 —

(Dulles, VA 21 April 2013) – Orbital Sciences Corporation (NYSE: ORB), one
of the world’s leading space technology companies, today completed a
successful test launch of its new Antares™ rocket from the Mid-Atlantic
Regional Spaceport (MARS) located at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in
eastern Virginia. Lift-off took place at 5:00 p.m. (EDT) followed by
payload separation approximately 10 minutes later and mission completion at
about 18 minutes after launch, once the rocket’s upper stage completed
planned maneuvers to distance itself from the payload. The test flight
demonstrated all operational aspects of the new Antares launcher, including
the ascent to space and accurate delivery of a simulated payload to a
target orbit of approximately 150 by 160 miles, with an inclination of 51.6
degrees, the same launch profile it will use for Orbital’s upcoming cargo
supply missions to the International Space Station (ISS) for NASA.

“Today marked a giant step forward for the Antares program, with a fully
successful inaugural flight of the largest and most complex rocket the
company has ever developed and flown, said Mr. David W. Thompson, Orbital’s
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. “With its successful test flight
from the MARS pad at Wallops Island, we will now move forward toward
completing the full demonstration mission of our system to resupply the
International Space Station with essential cargo in just a couple of
months.”

Today’s test launch, dubbed the Antares A-ONE mission, was conducted under
the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) Space Act Agreement
Orbital entered into with NASA in 2008. Following a successful
demonstration mission to the ISS of Orbital’s complete system in mid-2013,
including the launch of the first Cygnus cargo logistics spacecraft,
Orbital will begin regular operational cargo delivery missions to the Space
Station under its Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract with NASA.
The $1.9 billion CRS contract calls for the delivery of up to 20,000
kilograms of essential supplies to the ISS over eight separate missions
from 2013 to 2016.

In addition to supporting cargo missions to the ISS, the new Antares rocket
will offer other commercial, civil government, and defense and intelligence
customers affordable and reliable medium-class launch services for
medium-class satellites that do not require the industry’s larger, more
expensive launch vehicles. Moving upward from its traditional focus on
small-class rockets, Orbital’s Antares medium-class launcher will provide a
major increase in the payload launch capability that the company can
provide to NASA, the U.S. Air Force and other potential customers. It is
designed to launch spacecraft weighing up to 14,000 lbs. into low-Earth
orbit, as well as lighter-weight payloads into higher-energy orbits.

Orbital’s newest launcher is currently on-ramped to both the NASA Launch
Services-2 and the U.S. Air Force’s Orbital/Suborbital Program-3 contracts,
enabling the two largest U.S. government space launch customers to order
Antares for “right-size and right-price” launch services for medium-class
spacecraft. For more information on Antares, visit
http://www.orbital.com/Antares-Cygnus/.