10427388
submission
FleaPlus writes:
The US Air Force is currently preparing for the launch of the secretive X-37B OTV-1 (Orbital Test Vehicle 1) spaceplane, which was transferred from NASA to DARPA back in 2004 when NASA opted to focus its budget on lunar exploration. The reusable unmanned spaceplane is set to launch in April on top of a commercial Atlas V rocket, orbit for up to 270 days while testing a number of new technologies, reenter the atmosphere, then land on auto-pilot in California.
10289530
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FleaPlus writes:
The White House has announced that on April 15 the President will be visiting Florida to host a conference on the Administration's 'new vision for America's future in space,' which is focused on developing new technologies and capabilities needed for sustainable exploration of 'the Moon, asteroids, and eventually Mars.' The White House's plans for reinvigorating NASA are facing vocal opposition from several congressmen in Florida, Texas, and Alabama, due to its outright cancellation of the Constellation/Ares program, which was found to be 'fundamentally un-executable' but is/was an important source of jobs in many areas.
10190294
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FleaPlus writes:
In light of Congressional resistance to the new plans (criticized as 'radical') for NASA proposed by NASA head Charles Bolden, Sen. Hutchinson (R-TX and ranking member of the Senate committee dealing with NASA) has proposed a compromise bill. Hutchinson's bill calls for postponing the Space Shuttle's retirement, and instead of wholly cancelling Constellation/Ares, it would adapt the more effective portions to a 'government-operated space transportation system,' largely inspired by the DIRECT proposal. NASA would also pursue commercial crew & cargo launches to orbit, although the bill leaves out Charles Bolden's proposal for R&D of 'game changing' technologies for sustainable and cost-effective space exploration.
10050270
submission
FleaPlus writes:
The artist Robert McCall, who Isaac Asimov described as our 'nearest thing to an artist in residence from outer space,' has passed away at age 90. He began painting conceptual art and acting as a visual historian for NASA early in its history, envisioning the past and future of spaceflight long before the current age of 3D renderings and CGI animations. McCall eventually painted more than 400 pieces of space art (including movie posters for 2001 and the original Star Trek film), many of which can be seen in an online gallery (coral cache).
9980666
submission
FleaPlus writes:
The US Air Force is currently preparing for the launch of the secretive X-37B OTV-1 (Orbital Test Vehicle 1) spaceplane; NASA had previously dropped the project in 2004 so it could devote more funds to the Constellation project. The reusable spaceplane is set to launch in April on top of a commercial Atlas V rocket, orbit for up to 270 days while testing a number of new technologies, reenter the atmosphere, then land on auto-pilot in California. The X-37, built by Boeing Phantom Works, previously conducted autonomous landing tests utilizing the Scaled Composites White Knight carrier aircraft.
9835374
submission
FleaPlus writes:
This past week NASA announced that it would provide $15M/year for 5 years (pending Congressional approval) for launching science payloads on commercial suborbital spacecraft, which provide a more cost-effective and productive way to perform many types of research. The announcement was made at the first-ever Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference, where a few hundred scientists and rocket builders gathered to get a better understanding of each others' needs and capabilities. In addition to space tourism flights, several companies, like John Carmack's Armadillo Aerospace, Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin, Masten Space Systems, XCOR, and Virgin Galactic, are competing for the lucrative scientific market to fly payloads for fields like microgravity biology/chemistry, atmospheric science, astrophysics, and space technology testing.
9543946
submission
FleaPlus writes:
Alabama politicians have formed a 'task force' dedicated to fighting NASA's new plans to cancel the costly Constellation/Ares program (largely based in Alabama) and receive a boosted budget. The chronically-mismanaged Constellation project attempted to build new rockets in-house and replicate an Apollo-style lunar program with minimal investment in new technologies. NASA's new boosted budget revives formerly-suppressed R&D efforts into critical technologies needed for a sustainable push towards Mars and intermediate waypoint destinations, works with (instead of trying to compete with) existing commercial rockets to transport cargo/crew to orbit, and funds a stream of robotic precursor missions to scout other worlds and demonstrate new technologies. The Alabama task force fighting the new plan includes former NASA Administrator Mike Griffin and former Ares project manager Steve Cook.
9229554
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FleaPlus writes:
NASA's C3PO program has announced the first year's winners of a $50M contract competition for developing commercial spaceflight systems; their initially-planned $150M in funding was diverted by Congress towards the soon-to-be-cancelled Constellation project. The contracts are for $20M to Sierra Nevada for their in-progress Dream Chaser reusable lifting-body spacecraft, $18M to Boeing to develop a capsule with Bigelow Aerospace to launch on a variety of existing rockets, $6.7M to the ULA for an emergency detection system (needed for human-rating their existing rockets), $3.7M to the normally-secretive Blue Origin for developing a novel 'pusher' launch escape system and testing a crew module made of composite materials, and $1.4M to Paragon Space Systems to build and demonstrate a turn-key air vitalization system. SpaceX and Orbital will continue their earlier COTS contracts for cargo delivery to the ISS. Contracts in future years, totaling $6 billion over 5 years, will be competitively awarded based on performance and the goal of achieving safe, reliable, and cost-effective access to orbit.
9187638
submission
FleaPlus writes:
The White House and NASA have revealed in this year's budget proposal their new plans for the agency. The big news is that NASA's budget-consuming Constellation program has been cancelled, as the project was 'over budget, behind schedule, and lacking in innovation due to a failure to invest in critical new technologies,' and would mostly be a repetition of Apollo-era achievements with a handful of astronauts. NASA will also be getting a budget boost of $6 billion over 5 years. Technological development and testing programs will be revived and expanded, in order to develop new capabilities and make exploration activities more cost-effective with key technologies like in-orbit propellant transfer and advanced in-space propulsion. There will be a steady stream of robotic missions to perform science, scout locations, and demonstrate tech needed for future human missions. Research and development will also be done to support future heavy-lift rockets with more capacity and lower operation costs. NASA will be maximizing the return on its investment in the ISS, extending it past 2016 and deploying new reseach facilities (potentially including a long-desired centrifuge to study human physiology in space). NASA will also use commercial contracts for routine human and cargo transportation to the space station, as it already does for most unmanned missions, which will 'help create thousands of new jobs and help reduce the cost of human access to space.' More details will be provided by NASA Administrator (and former astronaut) Charles Bolden over the coming week, and then NASA has to get its plans through a potentially-hostile Congress.
8939640
submission
FleaPlus writes:
A group at NASA has been formulating a "Flexible Path" to Mars architecture which many expect will be part of the soon-to-be-announced reboot of NASA's future plans. NASA's prior architecture spends much of its budget on creating two in-house rockets (the Ares I and V) and would yield no beyond-LEO human activity until a lunar landing sometime in the 2030s. In contrast, the Flexible Path would produce results sooner, using NASA's limited budget to develop and gain experience with the technologies (human and robotic) needed to progressively explore and establish waypoints at Lagrange points, near-Earth asteroids, the Martian moon Phobos, Mars, and other possible locations (e.g. the Moon, Venus flyby). Suggested interim goals include constructing giant telescopes in deep space, learning how to protect Earth from asteroids, establishing in-space propellant depots, and harvesting resources/fuel from asteroids and Phobos to supply Moon/Mars-bound vehicles.
8761298
submission
FleaPlus writes:
Space.com has an article on the first group of scientists (including former NASA science chief Alan Stern) trained to conduct experiments on suborbital spaceships. The training included cockpit and centrifuge simulations of Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo's launch and reentry, although a number of other serious contenders, such as Armadillo Aerospace, Masten Space Systems, XCOR Aerospace, and Blue Origin are also competing for the growing suborbital research market. As flights on these reusable suborbital craft will be much more affordable and flexible to operate than the ~$1 million unmanned sounding rockets now used, this is expected to have a huge impact on research topics like microgravity biology/chemistry/physics, upper-atmosphere measurements, and testing equipment for use in spacecraft.
7916272
submission
FleaPlus writes:
The Yecheon Astro Space Center of South Korea has announced a $30 million suborbital spaceflight project with XCOR Aerospace. XCOR, a private US company known for building liquid-fueled rocket engines and rocket racer aircraft, will lease its (in-progress) reusable 2-person Lynx Mark II spacecraft to the South Korean venture for 'space tourism, educational, scientific and environmental monitoring missions,' compliant with US and South Korean export regulations. The development cost is much less than Mojave-neighbor Virgin Galactic's suborbital project, which is itself much less expensive than NASA's $450 million suborbital Ares I-X rocket. The suborbital spaceflight market has recently seen several serious competitors emerge, with Branson/Rutan's Virgin Galactic, John Carmack's Armadillo Aerospace, Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin, Masten Space Systems, and Jeff Greason's XCOR Aerospace vying to launch microgravity experiments, atmospheric research payloads, and passengers to suborbital space.
6639323
submission
FleaPlus writes:
NASA's Ares I-X is set to launch this Tuesday or Wednesday, depending on weather. The rocket is the tallest (and possibly most expensive, at $450 million) suborbital rocket ever assembled, consisting of a solid rocket motor from the Space Shuttle and an Atlas V avionics system, with a non-functional upper stage put on top. The Ares I-X has roughly the same shape (but different internal components) compared to NASA's planned medium-lift Ares I, which is scheduled to be completed after 2017 with an estimated cost of $1-$2 billion per launch. Even though the fate of the Ares I itself (and the overall future direction of NASA spaceflight) is uncertain, the >700 sensors on the Ares I-X should provide data useful for validating computer models used by NASA.
6529597
submission
FleaPlus writes:
Buzz Aldrin and twelve other astronauts have published a joint endorsement of commercial human spaceflight, stating that 'while it's completely appropriate for NASA to continue developing systems and the new technologies necessary to take crews farther out into our solar system, [the astronauts] believe that the commercial sector is fully capable of safely handling the critical task of low-Earth-orbit human transportation.' They are confident that commercial systems (which NASA already relies on for launching multibillion-dollar science payloads) can provide a level of safety equal to the Russian Soyuz and higher than the Space Shuttle, while strengthening US economic competitiveness. They also support the expected endorsement of the White House's Augustine Commission regarding NASA's use of commercial spaceflight — the Commission's final report will be released this Thursday.
5905499
submission
FleaPlus writes:
Engineers at the United Launch Alliance (which currently launches NASA, DOD, and US commercial unmanned spacecraft), have proposed a commercially-based architecture for lunar exploration. Coupling already-existing boosters with modular upper stages would allow for cost-effective rapid development, sending humans to orbit by 2014 and landing crew on the Moon by 2018 (compared to the current projection of ~2030 for NASA). At a cost of ~$5B/yr, developing and operating the architecture is designed to fit within NASA's current human spaceflight budget constraints. Its commercial nature means NASA would not need to bear the entire cost and that multiple companies would compete to provide components of the architecture, such as propellant delivery (~75% of the required in-orbit mass). In-space refueling depots in low-orbit and L2 would be used not only for lunar exploration, but would also provide an initial market for new commercial launch vehicles and enable future exploration of near-Earth asteroids/comets, Mars, and the rest of the solar system.
