SpaceX Awarded Canadian Launch Reservation Contract

SpaceX Press Release:

SPACEX AWARDED LAUNCH RESERVATION CONTRACT FOR LARGEST CANADIAN SPACE PROGRAM

Falcon 9 rocket will deliver RADARSAT Constellation to orbit

Hawthorne, CA – Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) was awarded a launch reservation contract with MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. (MDA) to support the largest space program to date in Canada, carrying the three satellites to orbit that will make up the RADARSAT Constellation Mission (RCM) on a Falcon 9 rocket in 2018.

“SpaceX appreciates MDA’s confidence in our ability to safely and reliably transport their satellites,” said Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX President and COO. “We hope this agreement is the second of many with MDA.”

RCM is a three satellite configuration and will support Canada’s need for maritime surveillance, disaster management and ecosystem monitoring. The mission will build on the successes of RADARSAT-1 and RADARSAT-2.

SpaceX will conduct its first mission for MDA. this year, launching the CASSIOPE satellite on a Falcon 9.

The Grand Asteroid Challenge

NASA Press Release:

NASA Sees Enthusiastic Response on Grand Asteroid Challenge

ASA Sees Enthusiastic Response to Asteroid Call for Ideas

WASHINGTON — NASA has received more than 400 responses to its request for information (RFI) on the agency’s asteroid initiative, Deputy Administrator Lori Garver announced Friday.

 “Under our plan, we’re increasing the identification, tracking and exploration of asteroids, and the response to this initiative has been gratifying,” said Garver, speaking at the Space Frontier Foundation’s NewSpace 2013 conference in San Jose, Calif. “The aerospace industry, innovative small businesses and citizen scientists have many creative ideas and strategies for carrying out our asteroid exploration mission and helping us to protect our home planet from dangerous near-Earth objects.”

Released June 18, the RFI was the first opportunity for industry and other potential partners, including private individuals, to offer ideas on planning for NASA’s mission to redirect an asteroid for exploration by astronauts and the agency’s asteroid grand challenge.

Garver noted  about a third of the responses were in areas relevant to the asteroid grand challenge, which is to identify all asteroid threats to human population and know what to do about them. All other responses were related to the five mission components.

 All the responses are being evaluated and rated. NASA will explore the highly rated responses for inclusion in future planning during a public workshop in September.

 Grand challenges are ambitious goals on a national or global scale that capture the imagination and demand advances in innovation and breakthroughs in science and technology. NASA’s asteroid grand challenge will support planetary defense by use of multi-disciplinary collaborations and a variety of partnerships with other government agencies, international partners, industry, academia, and citizen scientists.

The asteroid grand challenge complements NASA’s mission to find and capture a near-Earth asteroid, redirect it to a stable lunar orbit and send humans to study it. The asteroid redirect mission is included in President Obama’s fiscal year 2014 budget request for NASA, and leverages the agency’s progress on its Space Launch System rocket, Orion spacecraft and cutting-edge technology development. The mission is one step in NASA’s plan to send humans to Mars in the 2030s.

End Press Release

Some overall points to consider:

According to media sources present at the event, Garver went on to dispute the notion advanced by some in Congress that the asteroid retrieval mission is diverting attention from returning to the Moon. Considering the fact that nothing in the current U.S. policy states that NASA’s goal is in fact, returning to the Moon, one could also argue that is diverting attention from going to Alpha Centauri as well.

Leaving all that aside, the intense opposition to the ARM on the part of Congressional Republicans is in a word, bizarre.  While there are anywhere from  $20 to $40 billion reasons to be skeptical of the Space Launch System and the Orion Capsule, it is for the most part the same interests who insisted on SLS, in spite of the patently unsustainable costs, who are objecting to using it for one of the few missions which will not require billions of even more expenditures, or as the Administration prefers to call it “investments,” to conduct. Furthermore, it is not as if NASA has in any way suggested that it is planning an ongoing series of missions to various asteroids which might in fact, divert attention from other uses. 

The ARM is by all accounts a one-shot mission which will depend on whether or not the agency is successful in capturing and re-diverting a very small asteroid, or loosely bound accretion of materials from a larger one first. If the mission fails in this regard, NASA is arguably no worse off that it would in the alternative case, which is launching SLS/Orion on an almost completely meaningless circumlunar mission.

Absent a major budget increase now, what exactly is that Congress expects SLS to do in the first half of the next decade?

Total Domination
Credit: Arianespace

“Once again, Ariane 5’s unmatched reliability and availability has set the highest standards in the satellite launch business.” – comments by Arianespace CEO Stephane Israel upon Arianespace’s 70^th launch for the Ariane V, and its 56^th successful launch in a row.

Yesterday’s launch of the Ariane V ECA  took place at 4:54 pm local time from Kourou, French Guina,  and carried two satellites to geostationary transfer orbit.  The larger of the two spacecraft is Alphasat, a 6,650 kg  joint venture between the European Space Agency and Inmarsat to demonstrate a new standard platform, Alphabus, built by Astrium and Thales Alenia. In addition to providing routine commercial services, Alphasat is also being used to validate new technologies.

The smaller satellite in the typical dual launch arrangement is INSAT-3D, a 2,200 kg weather satellite developed by ISRO, the Indian Space Research Organization.   

The next Ariane V launch is scheduled for August 29^th.

The comeback of the American launch industry begins one week later.

Showdown at 39A

Who Will Remain Standing?

The battle over who will lease NASA Pad 39A took a turn last week which was both surprising and with the injection of yet another Alabama congressman, disturbing. After SpaceNews originally reported that SpaceX was apparently the only bidder for the historic pad, it was subsequently revealed that Blue Origin is interested as well. If anyone thought Blue Origin’s brief foray into the light meant that the company was prepared to unveil its orbital launch system, they were mistaken.  While the secretive rocket company founded by Jeff Bezos would ultimately like to use the facility, the substance of their bid, as indicated in some of the unattributed NASA response to questions, is to manage it as a multi-use pad which could be subleased to other, concurrent users which could include SpaceX,  if that company still maintains an interest in 39A after being rebuffed in their own bid. To add a bit of gravitas to their proposal,  Blue Origin apparently included a letter from United Launch Alliance expressing a potential interest in using the facility, as well as another letter from an unnamed provider.   That’s where it goes off the rails. Nothing ULA does it seems, comes without a political connection,  and sure enough, in an article reported  in Florida Today,  Alabama congressman Robert Aderholt attempted to insert an amendment into the NASA FY2014 funding bill which  would have prevented the agency from leasing the facility to only one company.  Although the amendment was ultimately withdrawn, it was soon replaced with a letter to NASA Administrator Charles Bolden from Aderholt  and Committee Chair Frank Wolf of Virginia, who took time out from slashing the Commercial Crew budget and looking for Chinese spies to express his “concern.”  Now, the smell of ill-considered political influence of the exact type which has nearly wrecked the space program hangs over the issue,  and improbably enough, has touched Blue Origin as well. On the surface at least, it appears that Blue Origin, not sure of their own time table, wants to prevent SpaceX gaining exclusive access to 39A, which is entirely understandable, but without an operating system at the moment, the company arguably lacks standing to make a compelling case on its own.   In an effort to strengthen that case, Blue Origin allowed NBC’s Alan Boyle into their Kent, Washington headquarters for an interview, apparently marking the first time a working journalist has crossed the threshold.   Boyle’s story, which does not mention Aderholt’s attempted intervention, is as always, a good read, but it says absolutely nothing about the hardware being built by Blue Origin, only reiterating that the company wants to operate pad 39A as a “multi use” facility.  (To the their credit, there is a model of the U.S. S. Enterprise in the lobby.) Another relevant fact which seems absent in all the reports regarding the Pad 39A contest, is that NASA has been loudly trumpeting (fact sheet here) the fact that its counterpart, Pad 39B, although intended for the Space Launch System, is also being prepared as “clean pad,”  and the agency wants to find other users for it as well.  Given that SLS will only fly twice in the next ten years, it’s not as if the agency needs to install a traffic light to manage the flow of rockets coming out of the Vertical Assembly Building.  Considering that the Pad 39A lease is set at a “minimum” of five years, and the one clear fact coming out of the Blue Origin story is that they would like to begin commercial flights “in 2018,” any schedule slip at all would mean that if the first lease is assigned to SpaceX, and the term is restricted, NASA will have plenty of opportunity to judge just how well the facility is being used long before any other launch operator is in a position to do much with it.  Also, and while there is no evidence the company has an interest in doing so, there is nothing to prevent SpaceX from sub-leasing the facility as well, and this could well be a point of negotiation before a final decision is made. If anyone stands to benefit from the Blue Origin bid, and the injection of political influence from overtly hostile members of Congress, it is very likely the people of Texas. Although SpaceX has made it clear that it intends to pursue a separate commercial launch facility regardless of what happens with the NASA launch pad, if 39A is awarded to Blue Origin, it stands to reason that rather than paying a potential competitor for a shared facility, Elon Musk’s company will increase its focus on the Boca Chica site, ultimately conducting a number of launches from it which might otherwise been assigned to Florida. Given that none of the other launch operators who may or may not really be interested in using 39A were sufficiently motivated to turn in a bid of their own,  the prospects for additional launches (excluding air launch) for the next  5 to 10 years appear to be rather  limited beyond SpaceX, meaning NASA has an important decision on its hands which is likely to have a meaningful impact on the Space Coast. Further clarification regarding 39B could help to inform that decision.

NASA Releases Draft Proposal for Final Phase of Commercial Crew

The Final round Approaches
Credit : NASA

On Friday, July 19th, NASA released a draft Request for Proposal for the next phase of the Commercial Crew competition, and with it came some new acronyms.  Following Commercial Crew Integrated Capacity (CCiCap),  the fourth and final phase will be called Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) and is intended to  ” develop a U.S. commercial crew space transportation capability to achieve safe, reliable and cost-effective access to and from the International Space Station (ISS) with a goal of no later than 2017.”  

 CCtCap will be  divided into two phases; Design, Development, Test and Evaluation (DDTE) to procure the crew systems and conduct test flights, followed by Post Certification Missions (PCM)  to conduct the operational flights.  The two segments are covered by four Contract Line Items (CLIN).  

CLIN 001 and 002 are for the testing and operational phases respectively.  CLIN 003 is labelled “Special Studies” and enables NASA to pursue risk reduction activities over and above those required for other the other three categories.  The fourth item, CLIN 004  “Cargo in Excess of Requirements”  is perhaps the most interesting in that it allows the Contractor to propose providing additional cargo beyond the limited amount specified for Commercial Crew missions and that already being contracted under the Commercial Resupply program.  Depending on the responses, which would include pricing,  this item could introduce another variable into NASA’s decision-making process, potentially benefitting the competitor with the most available margin. 

Perhaps the most intriguing revelation is that NASA is apparently open to the prospect of commercial passenger or cargo service being performed as part of crew transport flights.   Also from the  draft solicitation :  “Clause  H.23 of the dRFP enables the Contractor to propose to manifest Commercial Passengers, cargo or payloads on PCMs for contract price adjustment(s) or other contract consideration.”

That somewhat innocuous sentence says a great deal about just how much the thinking has changed within some elements of NASA  in the years since the agency did nearly everything it could to impede  Dennis Tito’s groundbreaking flight to the  same space (albeit smaller)   station in 2001.  Now,  in a very ironic twist, the longer term prospects for the facility could very much depend on the extent to which NASA continues to seek new commercial arrangements to share or reduce the facility’s operational costs.   With NASA committing itself to a system, SLS, which is so expensive it will only be able to fly once every couple of years, any interest the United States government has in steady,  ongoing space research of the type being performed at I.S.S. must necessarily hinge on either Russia,  or the success of the commercial crew program.

It is all the more perplexing then, that the U.S. House of Representatives remains committed to both badly underfunding the program, as evidenced by the House of Representatives Appropriations commitee FY 2014 proposal of $500 million, more than $300 million under the NASA request, (and $200 million under the House authorization committee figure) while at the same time going out if its way to mandate that it be carried out under “cost type” contracts.   

Whether wittingly or not, at the behest of Congress, the U.S. is pursuing a long term program which will only have NASA astronauts  in space for comparatively brief periods of time for what will necessarily be narrowly focused  missions,  each of which is separated  by intervals measured in years.  Compared to the ever widening, but singular gap between the last Shuttle flight and the first Commercial Crew test flight,  the program of record could runs the risk of turning into death by a dozen gaps. 

 

Atlas V Boosts Navy ComSat to Orbit

Liftoff
Credit : U.S. Navy

 

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket  in its 551 configuration, boosted the U.S. Navy MUOS comsat to orbit this morning.  Liftoff of the most powerful version of Atlas rocket, with a 5  meter fairing and five strap on solid rocket boosters was briefly delayed due to high winds, but ultimately lifted off at 9:00 am EST carrying the 15,000 lb. Mobile User Objective System Satellite MUOS-2, on the way to a three-part upper stage burn to geosynchronous transfer orbit. 

Once on station, the second satellite in the fleet of five MUOS spacecraft fleet will provide Ultra High Frequency narrowband communications for all U.S. armed forces, helping to replace the aging previous generation of satellites.

Today’s launch marks the 39th flight of the Atlas V booster, extending its flawless record, as well as the heaviest satellite it has yet carried.   All Atlas -V flights are powered by the Russian built RD-180 main engine, and ULA’s efforts to prevent other providers from acquiring the engine have drawn  the attention of the both the Federal Trade Commission, which is currently investigating alleged anti-competitive practices, as well as a multi hundred million dollar lawsuit from Orbital Sciences Corporation, which has sought to acquire the RD-180 for future versions of its Antares booster.

NASA Seeks More Commercial Space Partnerships

Commercial Moonbase
Credit: Bigelow Aerospace

A very interesting solicitation from NASA suggests the agency is sticking its toe in the water a little further  in incorporating commercial capabilities into its long-term plans.  Titled Collaborations for Commercial Space Capabilities, the NASA synopsis, which is calling for unfunded Space Act Agreements, begins with:  

” NASA encourages innovative and entrepreneurial efforts within the private sector to develop new space-related capabilities. These new capabilities may result in opportunities for industry to provide cost-effective commercial products and services to low Earth orbit and beyond for the Government and other customers.”

The operative word here is “beyond” and taken along with the agency’s collaboration with Bigelow Aerospace in seeking to assess commercial lunar capabilities, could be taken as a sign that despite the reflexive  “We are building SLS”  statement which seemingly accompanies every NASA press release,  and runs continuously on NASA tv,  some elements within the agency clearly understand that extending the COTS/CRS model beyond LEO   is the only viable long-term strategy, whether it is done in conjunction with SLS,  or in its place.  In case there are any doubts which way that might go, the Space Review has a good article updating some previous analysis regarding the program’s actual costs.    While the conclusions are depressing, albeit hardly surprising,  as today’s  commercial partnership announcement should remind, it took a lot of leg work by key NASA personnel to get COTS off the ground, and it all happened in midst of Project Constellation.

Congressional Chaos

For those who haven’t been following it, NASA is currently caught in a rather bizarre funding bind.  With only two and half months to go in the FY2013 year which ends September 30^th,  the agency still does not know what it is allowed to spend in this year because differing House and Senate Committees have not been able to reach an agreement after a NASA operating plan was rejected in May.  If it is not resolved a number of programs will have to pull in the reins until the fiscal year begins, and the dysfunctional cycle begins again.

That process has already started.  At the moment, House and Senate committees are reaching very different conclusions regarding  FY 2014 funding levels,  with the Senate poised to approve and $18 billion budget and the House instead wanting to keep funding basically where it is.

As has been the case for the last four budget cycles, battle lines are being drawn over Commercial Crew. The Senate version would fund the program at $800 million, reasonably close to the $821 requested by the Administration, and what NASA Administrator Charles Bolden stated was absolutely necessary to achieve a first flight by 2017, while the House Appropriations Committee which would place funding at $500 million, which is $200 million less than the number provided by the House Science Committee Authorization.   

The one constant is the desire to keep money flowing to the Space Launch System and the Orion Capsule, although one of its biggest supporters Al. Senator Richard Shelby says he will vote against the Senate funding level because the overall amount is too high.   Given that SLS/ Orion remains protected in every version under consideration, it is a rather easy stand to take. 

In a preview of coming attractions,  language in the House Committee Appropriations Committee expressed some angst regarding the fact that NASA is nowhere near pursuing development of the 130 metric ton  version of SLS

“The Committee remains committed to the development of the full 130 metric ton SLS capability, which is necessary for NASA to achieve its most challenging beyond Earth orbit (BEO) exploration goals. In order to achieve this capability, NASA has laid out a development plan to evolve from a 70 metric ton capability to 130 metric tons, and the Committee has supported this plan on the condition that NASA would not allow its near-term efforts to crowd out investments in upper stage development and the advanced booster system needed to complete the full evolution. Unfortunately, NASA continues to defer or descope activities needed to advance substantially beyond the initial SLS configuration with the interim cryogenic propulsion stage. As a result, the program would likely reach a plateau with the achievement of the 70 metric ton capability.”

 For critics who have been convinced from the program’s outset that there is no viable future within the budget limits envisioned,  the steadily slipping transition from the  70 ton to the 130 ton version seems increasingly likely to be the point of no return.

Blue Origin, SpaceX Bid on Historic NASA Pad 39A

According to a corrected story in Space News, both SpaceX and Blue Origin have put in a bid for the Kennedy Space Center’s Launchpad 39A.  While SpaceX’s possible interest in the pad has been widely reported, the apparent last-minute participation by  perpetually mysterious Blue Origin adds a bit of speculative intrigue to what looked like a one horse race.

Although with so little known (at least publicly)  about what Blue Origin is doing or how far it had progressed, it is difficult to gauge how the massive Apollo and Shuttle pad may fit into its plans, some basic facts do stand out.   First, while the crawler transporter assembly is parked at the pad, it is not considered a part of the pad infrastructure and is not part of the lease.  Second, the lease price,  $0.00 is a pretty good deal, although power and fuel will be charged separately.   The latter point may be the most relevent considering that unlike SpaceX’s RP-1/LOX  architecture,  Blue Origin  is  developing  a hydrogen / oxygen system, so 39A fits in that regard, even if the scale is much smaller. 

As for the rare opportunitity to operate out of one of the nation’s most iconic places, there are a few things both SpaceX and Blue Origin will need to take into consideration.  In its response to an unattributed  question and answer session regarding the bid,  NASA states that it cannot say what is has spent on pad maintainance since the Shuttle was retired, but seems to assure the bidder that their own costs are going to be much lower  (unless they have a Shuttle of their own. ) A more serious issue may the lack of indemnification for any prior environmental contamination. From the relevant section:

d) Will the US Government indemnify the tenant under Public Law 85-804 for any liability resulting from any LC 39A Environmental Condition existing: (i) prior to 30 September 2013, regardless of source, and (ii) before, on and/or after 30 September 2013 if resulting from conditions outside the LC 39A fence line (such as surface drainage, runoff, seepage, groundwater plumes, or other means from NASA’s operations outside of LC 39A)?

d)  No.

Also on the subject of liability, NASA states that in the case of damage to 39A  occurring from “launch operations from facilities outside of LC 39A, such as government or commercial launches from other NASA launch facilities and/or launch facilities at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Bas”  that while  “Liability for damage caused by the federal government will be the subject of negotiation of the lease agreement.  NASA accepts no responsibility for damage caused by third parties.”

 One other curious note, also from the Q&A regarding historic artifacts.   

The following is a listing of NASA identified Artifacts.  NASA will require access to these artifacts with proper coordination, and they cannot be damaged or modified during the term of any agreement: 

• Orbiter Access Arm (OAA) U70-0503-99 – Attached to the Fixed Service Structure ~195’ level
• Gaseous Oxygen Vent Arm (GOX) U78-0001 – Attached to the Fixed Service Structure ~207-227’ level
• Emergency Egress Bunker J8-1708– Rubber Room and Blast Room

 NASA would like to lease the pad no later than October 1, 2013.

SpaceX Completes Full Length Test

Big Falcon Test Stand
Credit : SpaceX

SpaceX has completed a full length mission test burn of the Falcon 9 V1.1 first stage at its rocket development facility in McGregor, Tx.  This most recent test, which according to the Waco Trib took  place at approximately 7:41 p.m.  Sunday evening, was confirmed by twitter post from Elon Musk, who congratulated his team for overcoming a number of difficulties. 

The first flight launch for the new and improved Falcon 9 v1.1 is currently scheduled for September 5th out of Vandenberg, Ca.  It will carry MDA Corporation’s CASSIOPE satellite, a comparatively small satellite which is intended as a test bed for several  different applications including ePOP, (enhanced polar outflow probe) designed to study the ionosphere, with a suite of instrument, as well as Cascade,  a point to point space based digital file transfer capability.