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From: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Date: December 4, 2014 at 1:20:34 PM CST
To: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Subject: FW: NASA and Human Spaceflight News - Thursday – December 4, 2014
Great to see so many of you at the Hibachi Grill today.Especially, nice that Bill Speier joined us-have not seen him in a while and Walter Scott who lives 3 hours away and Doug Drewery-who lives in Georgia joined us from out of town.Great to see Don Curry, Bernie Rosenbaum, Jack Knight, Bill Bates, Charlie Harlan, Charlie Crews, George Dawson, Dave O'Brien, Dave Thelen, Jim Jaax, Teresa Sullivan, Linda Lapradd, John Peck, Dean Schwartz and his wife, Joe Mechelay, Jim Knoedler, Jan Fearer, Denny Holt, Jim Ackermann, Alex and Barbara Pope, Dick and Laurie Beverlin, Paul Horsman, Paul Shack, Oron Schmidt, Lambert and Faith Austin, Howard Wagner, Mike Conley and his wife, John Whalen, Gary Johnson, and many many more good friends.Soon to be retiree Bob Egusquiza with special guest Elvia Garcia joined us too.Happy Holidays everyone and see you all next year.NASA and Human Spaceflight NewsThursday – December 4, 2014HEADLINES AND LEADSNASA's Orion launch scrubbed, rescheduled for FridayAmanda Barnett and Jason Hanna – CNNNASA will have to wait at least one more day to see how its new Orion spacecraft flies.NASA's Mars milestoneCharles Bolden – CNN OpinionEverywhere you look, there is renewed interest in space. Two of the top grossing movies of the past two years were "Gravity" and "Interstellar," while recent real-life space dramas have been even more fascinating than fiction.NASA Delays Launch of Orion SpacecraftAttempt Scrubbed After Weather and Technical Issues; Another Try Could Occur FridayAndy Pasztor – The Wall Street JournalA string of weather issues and technical problems prompted NASA to delay Thursday's planned launch of an unmanned Orion spacecraft from Florida for at least a day.NASA Scrubs Orion Launch For TodayScott Neuman – NPRNASA's Orion spacecraft, which could one day send astronauts to Mars, is stuck on terra firma for at least another day after the space agency's mission control was unable to satisfactorily resolve a number of issues before a 9:45 a.m. launch window closed.The Orion Era BeginsWhat to watch for during tomorrow's test.Tony Reichhardt - Air and Space Museum MagazineThe engineers in charge of tomorrow's first test flight of the new Orion spacecraft are no doubt sick of hearing comparisons with the Apollo program of almost 50 years ago, so I'll just make this one quick point and move on.Next Orion Flight To Slip to 2018Jeff Foust – Space NewsAs NASA finalizes preparations for the Dec. 4 launch of its Orion spacecraft on its first test flight, the program's manager said that the next Orion test flight was now all but certain to slip from late 2017 to 2018.Drones and Planes Will Live-Track NASA's Orion Capsule LaunchElizabeth Palermo – Live ScienceNASA will launch its Orion spaceship — the agency's deep-space capsule built to carry humans on future missions to an asteroid and Mars — on an unmanned test flight tomorrow (Dec. 4), but as the spacecraft rockets thousands of miles away from Earth, it won't be alone. A NASA drone, two U.S. Navy planes and several helicopters will join the capsule for at least part of its journey.Bolden Meets Human-Spaceflight Chief During China VisitFrank Morring, Jr. - Aviation Week & Space TechnologyNASA Administrator Charles Bolden met with Wang Zhaoyao, director of the China Manned Space Engineering Office (CMSEO), during a visit to Beijing last month that was organized – with congressional approval – to share information on air traffic management.Rep. Culberson Drops in To Pledge Planetary Science SupportDan Leone - Space NewsIn an unscheduled appearance here during a Capitol Hill advocacy meeting hosted by the Pasadena, California-based Planetary Society, the incoming chairman of the House Appropriations commerce, justice, science subcommittee reiterated a promise to find more funding for NASA's portfolio of robotic solar system missions.Sierra Nevada completes Dream Chaser's milestone 15a for prior phase of Commercial CrewJason Rhian – Spaceflight InsiderColorado-based Sierra Nevada Corporation was not selected to continue forward under NASA's Commercial Crew transportation Capability (CCtCap) phase of the agency's effort to send crews to orbit via private companies. However, SNC is still completing milestones under earlier phases of the Commercial Crew Program. One of these, Milestone 15a, was recently completed and in so doing helped validate the Reaction Control System (RCS) propulsion risk reduction for the company's Dream Chaser space plane.COMPLETE STORIESNASA's Orion launch scrubbed, rescheduled for FridayAmanda Barnett and Jason Hanna – CNNNASA will have to wait at least one more day to see how its new Orion spacecraft flies.The space agency scrubbed Thursday morning's test launch in Florida after a series of delays, the last of which happened because some liquid-oxygen fuel and drain valves failed to open during the countdown, NASA said.The launch tentatively has been rescheduled for 7:05 a.m. ET Friday.The launch of Orion -- a craft designed to eventually explore deep space -- is to be one of NASA's biggest moments since the shuttle era ended in 2011.NASA spent most of Thursday morning's nearly 2½-hour launch window trying to work out various obstacles and kinks before scrubbing the launch around 9:40 a.m. ET. The first delay involved a boat that came too close to the launch area; more delays came because of wind gusts.When the countdown resumed, valves failed to open in the boosters, eventually leading to the scrubbing.A new beginningNASA hopes Orion will usher in a new era: Eventual human exploration of deep space."We haven't had this feeling in awhile, since the end of the shuttle program," Mike Sarafin, Orion flight director at Johnson Space Center, said in a preflight briefing on Wednesday.Orion looks like a throwback to the Apollo era, but it is roomier and designed to go far beyond the moon: to an asteroid and eventually to Mars."It is, I think, consistent with those -- the beginning of shuttle and beginning of Apollo," said Mark Geyer, NASA Orion program manager. "I think it's in the same category."When it becomes fully operational, Orion's crew module will be able to carry four people on a 21-day mission into deep space or six astronauts for shorter missions. By comparison, the Apollo crew modules held three astronauts and were in space for six to 12 days. Orion's crew module is 16.5 feet in diameter and Apollo was 12.8 feet in diameter, NASA said.Orion is expected to take up its first crew in 2021.During this test flight, Orion will climb to an altitude of 3,600 miles (15 times higher than the International Space Station) and will orbit Earth twice. Four and half hours later, it will splash down in the Pacific Ocean about 600 miles off the coast of Baja California. Two U.S. Navy ships, the amphibious transport dock ship USS Anchorage and the Military Sealift Command rescue and salvage ship USNS Salvor, will help NASA recover the capsule.Once in orbit, Orion should send back some amazing pictures of Earth, NASA said. If the weather cooperates, NASA said a drone will provide a live video feed of the splashdown.Though Orion's first flight won't have people on it, it won't go up empty. It will carry the names of more than a million people packed on a dime-sized microchip."Sesame Street" is sending up some mementos to inspire students about spaceflight, including Cookie Monster's cookie and Ernie's rubber ducky.Also going up: an oxygen hose from an Apollo 11 lunar spacesuit and a small sample of lunar soil. A Tyrannosaurus rex fossil from the Denver Science Museum will be on board and lockers will be filled with flags, coins, patches, poetry and music.NASA's Mars milestoneCharles Bolden – CNN OpinionEverywhere you look, there is renewed interest in space. Two of the top grossing movies of the past two years were "Gravity" and "Interstellar," while recent real-life space dramas have been even more fascinating than fiction.Take the unprecedented 37-year, 12-billion-mile odyssey of NASA's Voyager spacecraft -- the first human-made object to venture into interstellar space. In 2012, our Curiosity rover made its harrowing landing on Mars. We also provided key support and instruments to the European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft and the recent first-ever robotic landing on a comet with its Philae lander.Everywhere I go, the world over, students, citizens, scientists, explorers and entrepreneurs are eager to get in on the action in this new era of space exploration. And we are just a few days from yet another extraordinary milestone toward a human journey to Mars.On Thursday, NASA's Orion spacecraft will blast off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on its first test flight -- a major step in meeting President Barack Obama's bold challenge, supported by Congress, that America send humans to Mars by the 2030s.As the administrator of NASA, I am excited by the opportunity to launch this historic journey. As a former astronaut, I am proud and a bit envious of the amazing men and women -- members of our elite astronaut corps -- who are now in training to perhaps be the first people to set foot on the surface of another planet.Our uncrewed test flight will send Orion 3,600 miles above Earth, farther into space than any craft designed for astronauts has gone since the last Apollo moon mission more than 40 years ago.The mission has two primary goals. First, as we have seen with two recent launch failures, space travel is a dangerous business, which is why this test flight will stress systems critical to ensuring the safety of future astronauts. These include the heat shield, parachutes, avionics and attitude control. We intend to learn as much as possible before Orion carries astronauts to explore an asteroid and then on a journey to Mars.Our second major goal is to expose the spacecraft to the orbital environment it will endure on missions into deep space. We will measure Orion's performance from launch through its four-hour flight, splashdown and recovery in the Pacific Ocean.NASA is leveraging expertise and resources from across the agency to achieve this next giant leap in space exploration. For example, Curiosity measured radiation on the way to Mars and is now sending back radiation data from the Martian surface. In September, NASA's MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission) became the first orbiter to study the Martian upper atmosphere, MAVEN will greatly improve our understanding of how Mars has changed over time and the potential for habitability. Our deep-space exploration program is also driving development of technologies such as solar electric propulsion, which will power tomorrow's missions.NASA is also changing the way we do business, beginning with our commitment to help build an American commercial space industry that is second to none. As President Obama has said, the greatest nation on earth should not be dependent on other nations to get into space. That is why we are now forming partnerships with American aerospace companies to ferry cargo, and soon humans, to and from the International Space Station. These commercial partnerships are proving that America works best when government and private-sector ingenuity work as a team. Our commercial partners are not only allowing NASA to focus on our big goal of a human mission to Mars, they are also creating good jobs and strengthening our economy.The world has learned much about the Red Planet after decades of exploration with rovers and orbiters, but the time has come for human exploration, and we intend to meet the challenge. The Orion test flight is the first step. It is important to remember that NASA sent humans to the moon by setting a goal that seemed beyond our reach. With our Journey to Mars program, NASA is once again well on its way to breathing new life into an American dream and turning science fiction into science fact.Godspeed, Orion!NASA Delays Launch of Orion SpacecraftAttempt Scrubbed After Weather and Technical Issues; Another Try Could Occur FridayAndy Pasztor – The Wall Street JournalA string of weather issues and technical problems prompted NASA to delay Thursday's planned launch of an unmanned Orion spacecraft from Florida for at least a day.Orion's launch would have marked the first test flight of a spacecraft the U.S. hopes to rely on for human exploration of the solar system in the next few decades.Higher than allowable winds and balky fuel valves temporarily stopped the countdown multiple times at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station before and after the original launch time of 7 a.m. EST.In the end National Aeronautics and Space Administration teams determined they lacked adequate time to troubleshoot problems—and didn't want to take the chance of depleting certain onboard video-camera batteries—by making one last attempt to lift off just before the launch window was set to close around 9:45 a.m.Wind shifts and an errant boater who mistakenly entered the protected launch zone were responsible for some initial delays. Automated fail-safe systems twice halted the countdown briefly when sensors recorded excessive winds, but mission controllers remained confident they had enough time to recycle systems for launch.Later, balky valves on Orion's fuel system prompted another, longer delay. Even as engineers struggled to verify that all the valves were working normally, managers scrubbed Thursday's launch and announced the next attempt wouldn't occur until Friday morning at the earliest.The planned voyage, featuring two orbits and scheduled to last less than five hours, is slated to take Orion some 3,600 miles above the earth, more than 10 times higher than the trajectory of the international space station. But it won't resolve long-standing questions about how future Orion missions will be paid for or even where they would go.NASA officials describe the 11-foot long Orion, with its advanced onboard life-support systems and radiation shields, as the primary vehicle to transport future astronauts to asteroids and eventually to Mars, perhaps by the late 2030s. Yet so far, NASA's plans have failed to generate the international support, congressional consensus and public excitement back home that the agency expected.It is unclear how NASA's budgets—already stretched by the international space station—over the next decade will cover Orion's development as well as a steady launch rhythm. Building and testing separate vehicles able to touch down at destinations is likely to cost billions of additional dollars. Debate also continues to simmer on Capitol Hill and elsewhere about whether astronauts should first take Orion near the moon to perfect propulsion, fueling, life-support and other essential technologies.Orion illustrates the mercurial, sometimes roller-coaster nature of U.S. manned space efforts better than any other recent program.The planned test launch will be the first time since 1972, when Apollo 17 returned from the moon, that a spacecraft built to carry astronauts will venture beyond low-earth orbit.The major goals of the test flight will be to assess how well Orion's navigation and electronics systems stand up to radiation, the performance of its heat shield and the way its parachutes are able to withstands re-entry speeds.Built by Lockheed Martin Corp. and currently costing NASA about $1 billion a year, the space agency casts Orion as the key to deep-space ventures.NASA Scrubs Orion Launch For TodayScott Neuman – NPRNASA's Orion spacecraft, which could one day send astronauts to Mars, is stuck on terra firma for at least another day after the space agency's mission control was unable to satisfactorily resolve a number of issues before a 9:45 a.m. launch window closed.The unmanned vehicle is awaiting its first test in Earth orbit. But after multiple delays for high winds and a stuck liquid-oxygen drain valve on one or more of the Delta IV Heavy rocket's booster engines, NASA didn't have time to get the rocket off the pad. They will try again Friday morning.The vehicle perched atop the Delta rocket, known officially as Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehichle, or MPCV, is designed to carry up to 4 astronauts.As NPR's Geoff Brumfiel reported earlier this week, Orion is expected to make two orbits at a distance of 3,600 miles from the Earth's surface on its second lap, before conducting a re-entry burn and splashing down in the Pacific Ocean.The flight is meant to validate the vehicles basic systems, including avionics, heat shielding and parachutes.According to Geoff: "It's designed for deep space, but Orion's first mission will be back to the neighborhood of the moon. The plan is to have a robot capture a small asteroid and drag it back to lunar orbit. Then Orion will carry up to four astronauts to meet it. It's all supposed to happen in the 2020s, though some say the mission is too complicated and not much of an advance."Although unmanned, the stakes are high for the space agency, which sees this test flight as a first step towards the exploration of deep space.By the year 2040, NASA hopes Orion will be a key piece of a manned mission to Mars — considered the next logical, if not extremely ambitious target following the Apollo moon shots of the 1960s and 1970s.The Orion Era BeginsWhat to watch for during tomorrow's test.Tony Reichhardt - Air and Space Museum MagazineThe engineers in charge of tomorrow's first test flight of the new Orion spacecraft are no doubt sick of hearing comparisons with the Apollo program of almost 50 years ago, so I'll just make this one quick point and move on.The so-called Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1) scheduled for 7:05 a.m. Eastern time on Friday (Note updated launch date after a scrub on December 4) compares most directly to the November 1967 Apollo 4 test, which also sent an unmanned capsule thousands of miles from Earth so that it could re-enter at high velocity and verify that the spacecraft's heat shield worked. The key difference is that Apollo 4 also marked the first flight of the giant Saturn V rocket. Orion's ride, the Space Launch System, won't be ready until 2018, which means the new spaceship has to wait another four years to launch again. Four years after Apollo 4, NASA had already landed eight people on the moon.But the current slow pace and uncertain course of human space exploration can't be blamed solely on the space agency. They do what they can. So we'll wish them luck and leave it at that.A few things to watch for during tomorrow's test:
- The launch won't be from a NASA pad, but from Space Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, a little farther down the beach from where the space shuttle used to launch. Mission Control will be in Houston, in a recently renovated room once used by space station controllers. Mike Sarafin, NASA's lead flight director for EFT-1, says there will be a lot of shuttle veterans in that control room, working their first flight since the last shuttle landed in 2011. "There's a little bit of a sense of getting the band back together," he said. In a classy nod to the even more distant past, Sarafin's team has invited veteran flight director Gene Kranz (Apollo again!) to join them during the two-orbit test flight.
- The main point of EFT-1 is verifying Orion's heat shield, the largest ever on a spacecraft. About 20 percent of the shield's mass is expected to burn off during entry. The engineers will also be monitoring 17 different separation events, from the Delta IV Heavy rocket's boosters dropping away to the Orion capsule separating from its service module (or rather, a structural mockup of the service module) before making the plunge back through the atmosphere. Some 1,200 sensors will be collecting data during the four-and-a-half hour test. Here's a narrated animation of what's supposed to happen, from launch to splashdown:
- The test will be well photographed. Rocket-mounted cameras will record key separation events, and a camera inside the Orion capsule will take pictures out the window, including views of Earth from the high point of the second orbit, 3,600 miles up. During entry, all sorts of ground- and air-based instruments will be watching, from a thermal imager on a P-3 Orion aircraft to cameras mounted on an Ikhana UAV.
- NASA will execute its first ocean splashdown since the 1970s. The target point is off the coast of Mexico, near the tip of the Baja peninsula. Future Orion splashdowns will be closer to San Diego. Instead of being hoisted onto the deck of the recovery ship (the U.S.S. Anchorage), the capsule will be brought inside the well deck of the ship. Here's how that's supposed to go:
To view entire story and videos, visit: The Orion era beginsNext Orion Flight To Slip to 2018Jeff Foust – Space NewsAs NASA finalizes preparations for the Dec. 4 launch of its Orion spacecraft on its first test flight, the program's manager said that the next Orion test flight was now all but certain to slip from late 2017 to 2018."We have a lot of challenges to December of '17," Orion program manager Mark Geyer said at a briefing here Dec. 2, referring to the current official date of the second Orion test flight, designated Exploration Mission 1 (EM-1). "We won't be there in December of '17."While Geyer has previously suggested that NASA would be challenged to have Orion ready for EM-1 by December 2017, his comments were the strongest indication that the launch will slip to some time in 2018. He said a revised launch readiness date would come after the completion of reviews in the spring of 2015.One reason for the slip, Geyer said, was the decision to perform the upcoming mission, called Exploration Flight Test 1 (EFT-1), where an uncrewed Orion will launch on a Delta 4 Heavy rocket and make two orbits of the Earth before splashing down in the Pacific. That flight will test many of Orion's key subsystems, including its heat shield, electronics and parachutes."We learned a ton about getting it done," Geyer said of EFT-1, "but it took us a little bit longer than we expected."Geyer said that bringing the European Space Agency into the program to develop Orion's service module has also contributed to delays. "They're doing a terrific job coming up to speed, but their delivery schedule will also push us past December" of 2017, he said.The December 2017 date for EM-1 was already in doubt after NASA completed in August a Space Launch System review known as Key Decision Point C (KDP-C). That review concluded that there is a 70-percent chance SLS will be ready for the EM-1 launch no later than November 2018.After the briefing, Geyer said the Orion program is in the midst of its own KDP-C review. "That will go into the spring," he said, and will incorporate the results of the EFT-1 mission. He said he expects the review to be completed in May.Like the SLS review, the Orion KDP-C review will include cost and schedule estimates to the 70 percent confidence level, Geyer said. Those estimates will run through the first crewed Orion flight, called Exploration Mission 2 and scheduled for 2021, but will include estimates for EM-1 as well.At the briefing, Geyer declined to give an estimate of the cost of the overall EFT-1 mission. He said NASA is spending about $370 million for the launch as well as Orion components that will not be recovered and reused. That estimate, though, does not include the cost to build the Orion command module itself, which will be refurbished after the mission and reflown on a test of the spacecraft's launch abort system in 2018.Geyer explained that the cost of building the Orion spacecraft flying on EFT-1 is wrapped into the overall estimates for the cost of Orion design, development, test and evaluation, or DDT&E. "We don't split out DDT&E costs by flights. We don't calculate it that way," he said.At the Dec. 2 briefing, officials reported no issues with the EFT-1 launch, scheduled for Dec. 4 at 7:05 a.m. EST at the beginning of a launch window that remains open for two-and-a-half hours. Weather forecasts call for a 70 percent chance of acceptable weather Dec. 4 and a 60 percent chance for the backup launch date of Dec. 5.Drones and Planes Will Live-Track NASA's Orion Capsule LaunchElizabeth Palermo – Live ScienceNASA will launch its Orion spaceship — the agency's deep-space capsule built to carry humans on future missions to an asteroid and Mars — on an unmanned test flight tomorrow (Dec. 4), but as the spacecraft rockets thousands of miles away from Earth, it won't be alone. A NASA drone, two U.S. Navy planes and several helicopters will join the capsule for at least part of its journey.Eventually, Orion will carry humans deep into space, but for tomorrow's test flight, the capsule will travel 3,600 miles (5,800 kilometers) from home before re-entering Earth's atmosphere at an estimated 22,000 miles per hour (35,400 km/h). And as the space capsule zooms to the ground at breakneck speed, NASA and Navy aircraft will be in the sky, recording Orion's every move.One of the purposes of the test-flight mission is to determine how well the Orion capsule holds up to the huge change in temperature that it will experience when re-entering Earth's atmosphere, according to Tom Horvath, a principal investigator with NASA's Scientifically Calibrated In-Flight Imagery (SCIFLI) team, who said that Orion will experience temperatures "from very cold to up to 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit [2,200 degrees Celsius]." [Orion's First Test Flight: Full Coverage]The SCIFLI team plans to capture thermal images of this super-hot re-entry using a Navy NP-3D plane, which is also called Orion. This Orion plane, which is typically used for surveillance and data collection, is equipped with a long-range infrared optical system. Once the space capsule launches on Thursday, the Navy aircraft will fly to a location that's about 25 miles (40 km) away from the capsule's projected point of re-entry, according to NASA officials.The plane will keep flying until the space capsule enters the atmosphere and emits enough thermal energy for the aircraft's infrared cameras to start recording. Onboard, the plane's crewmembers will also snap photos of the spaceship as it descends."This is going to be a tough one. Orion will come through the atmosphere at 20,000 miles an hour as a tiny dot in the sky. With the capsule initially hundreds of miles away, it is like we are looking for it through a small soda straw," Horvath said in a statement. "It's all about getting the aircraft positioned at the right location at a precise point in time."But if the SCIFLI team can accomplish this mission, then it will have the data it needs to determine just how hot the Orion space capsule gets during re-entry, Horvath said. The team may also use the infrared camera on board the NP-3D aircraft to observe any rapid increases in surface temperature on the space capsule. These temperature increases are caused by surface roughness on the capsule's heat shield, an epoxy resin that coats the capsule and protects it from coming apart during re-entry. Predicting and protecting against such temperature increases is difficult, Horvath said."These observations of exterior temperatures will help reduce uncertainty in our computer models," said Gavin Mendeck, an Orion systems engineer at NASA. "We think we are conservative, but this real-life data will help us understand just how conservative."While the NP-3D Orion circles near the spaceship's point of re-entry, another aircraft — NASA's Ikhana drone — will fly south of the capsule's projected entry location. The drone will capture video footage of the capsule's descent into the Pacific Ocean that will be broadcast live on NASA TV.In addition to the drone and the NP-3D aircraft used by the SCIFLI team, another Navy NP-3D is scheduled to take to the skies for Orion's test flight. But this plane's mission isn't to measure heat; it's to get a good look at the spaceship's landing equipment as the craft zooms back to Earth, NASA officials said."We want to verify and document how the parachutes perform," Mendeck said. "The first chutes — the drogues — deploy at an altitude of 22,000 feet [6,700 meters]."After these small parachutes are released to stabilize and decelerate the aircraft, three huge main parachutes deploy, slowing Orion down to less than 20 mph (32 km/h) for its final splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.Recovery of the space capsule will be easier thanks to two Navy MH-60S Knighthawk helicopters, which will observe and record the final 10,000 feet (3,000 m) of Orion's journey, according to NASA officials. Equipped with handheld infrared cameras, the helicopters will assist crewmembers aboard the USS Anchorage, the vessel charged with recovering the spacecraft after its first test flight.Bolden Meets Human-Spaceflight Chief During China VisitFrank Morring, Jr. - Aviation Week & Space TechnologyNASA Administrator Charles Bolden met with Wang Zhaoyao, director of the China Manned Space Engineering Office (CMSEO), during a visit to Beijing last month that was organized – with congressional approval – to share information on air traffic management.In a brief interview with reporters in front of the Delta IV Heavy launcher that is scheduled to carry NASA's Orion crew vehicle on its first flight test Dec. 4, Bolden declined to be specific about the content of the bilateral talks with the military-controlled agency that manages China's human-spaceflight plans. China is only the third nation to send humans into space, but so far it does not participate in the International Space Station partnership or, in a significant way, in planning for future human exploration beyond low Earth orbit."For me, it was a listening opportunity," said Bolden, who also visited Chinese human-spaceflight facilities and met Chinese astronauts in 2010.Earlier, he stressed the importance of international cooperation in human space exploration, but refused to "take the bait" on questions about the sensitive China issue."We talked about the things that I mentioned, agreements that we have now," he said in the brief interview. "We also talked to folk from both the China manned space agency and the national space agency. We heard their story … they understand the situation we're in."The "situation" is the congressional ban on NASA participation in bilateral space cooperation activities with China, enacted as part of the agency's appropriations bill out of concern over technology transfer and human rights issues.NASA has some minor cooperation programs with China in Earth science, which were allowed to continue when the restrictions were enacted under the sponsorship of Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.), the retiring chairman of the House appropriations subcommittee that funds NASA. The restrictions also allow participation in multilateral meetings that include China.Bolden visited China at the end of the 23-nation International Forum for Aviation Research, which is chaired by Jaiwon Shin, associate NASA administrator for aeronautics. The organization, which met in Zhuhai, China, this year, describes its focus as "non-competitive aviation research and development related to global technical challenges such as those pertaining to emission, noise, security, safety, efficient operations and steps to reduce the impact of aviation on climate and the environment."NASA did not mention the meeting with China's manned space organization before or after Bolden's visit. It came to light with a Chinese news account that included photos of Bolden and other U.S. officials in meeting with Wang."Both parties presented with each other's latest development and follow-on planning for the manned space program, held an in-depth talk on the international manned space cooperation, exchanged opinions, and expressed the good will of strengthening the multilateral cooperations and communications," the Chinese organization said in an English-language press release accompanying the photos.Asked if his Chinese human-spaceflight counterparts were interested in NASA's plans, the NASA administrator replied "always."Rep. Culberson Drops in To Pledge Planetary Science SupportDan Leone - Space NewsIn an unscheduled appearance here during a Capitol Hill advocacy meeting hosted by the Pasadena, California-based Planetary Society, the incoming chairman of the House Appropriations commerce, justice, science subcommittee reiterated a promise to find more funding for NASA's portfolio of robotic solar system missions.Rep. John Culberson (R-Texas) said he will make it his business in the new Congress to "help put NASA up," and give "everyone there at NASA the freedom they need to get politics out of the way."Culberson, a staunch advocate of robotic exploration, despite his district's proximity to the human spaceflight specialists at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, said it will be "a dream come true, really, that I've sought since I came to Congress," to succeed retiring Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) as NASA's top House appropriator when the 114th Congress convenes Jan. 3.Culberson — the only lawmaker who attended the public portion of the Planetary Society's program in the Dirksen Senate office building here — was especially keen on funding a mission to Europa: Jupiter's ice-encrusted moon with a subterranean ocean of briny water that many scientists believe harbors the heat and chemical elements necessary for life as we know it.Culberson, for his part, is already a step beyond scientific skepticism."I'm convinced that when we discover life on another world, it will be in the oceans of Europa. I want to be there to be a part of that," Culberson said in a two-minute speech that served as the unofficial kickoff for the society's event.Officially, NASA has no Europa mission on the books. However, instrument and mission studies on the so-called Clipper concept have been ongoing since 2012 at the NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, and the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland. The solar-powered Clipper ship would launch in the 2020s and enter orbit around Jupiter, where it would fly by Europa multiple times to map the icy moon in greater detail than ever before.NASA teams have said the Clipper mission would cost about $2 billion. The White House, as part of the 2015 budget request it released in April, asked the agency to study whether the mission could be done for $1 billion. In a November meeting of the NASA Advisory Council's planetary science subcommittee, Jim Green, head of NASA's Planetary Science Division, said NASA probably could not answer important scientific questions with a $1 billion Europa orbiter.After the White House unveiled a 2015 budget request earlier this year that sought $15 million for Europa mission studies, Culberson bumped that figure to $100 million in the 2015 Commerce, Justice, Science spending bill that passed the full House in May. The Senate's version of the bill, which has not made it to the floor, prescribed only $79 million for NASA's entire outer planets program, of which Europa is only one part.The Senate mentioned Europa by name only in the report accompanying their stalled bill, which said any mission to the icy moon should launch on the Space Launch System heavy-lift rocket NASA is building.Although the continuing resolution that has been funding the government since October is set to expire Dec. 11, the fate of the 2015 federal budget remained unclear as the Planetary Society made its latest Capitol Hill pitch Dec. 2.House Republicans are mulling a so-called "cromnibus" (a combination of continuing resolution and omnibus) that would fund most of the federal government, including NASA, through September. If the crominubs proves unpalatable — as it may for reasons unrelated to space — Congress may whip up another short-term continuing resolution that would freeze federal spending at 2014 levels to avoid a government shutdown.A House aide who attended the Planetary Society event allowed that, should a partial omnibus prove feasible, the $100 million Culberson wrangled for Europa would make a tempting target in conference negotiations between the House and the Senate.Even in the House, which ultimately approved the $100 million, Wolf had to shoo away proposed amendments that would have steered all but $15 million of that amount out of NASA.A Senate aide who attended the Dec. 2 event said appropriations staff on both sides of the Hill have "touched gloves" in preparation for conference negotiations, but that no substantial work has been done on compromise Commerce, Justice, Science language that could be folded into a partial omnibus.
Sierra Nevada completes Dream Chaser's milestone 15a for prior phase of Commercial CrewJason Rhian – Spaceflight InsiderColorado-based Sierra Nevada Corporation was not selected to continue forward under NASA's Commercial Crew transportation Capability (CCtCap) phase of the agency's effort to send crews to orbit via private companies. However, SNC is still completing milestones under earlier phases of the Commercial Crew Program. One of these, Milestone 15a, was recently completed and in so doing helped validate the Reaction Control System (RCS) propulsion risk reduction for the company's Dream Chaser space plane.Milestone 15a is the twelfth of 13 milestones under the Commercial Crew integrated Capability or "CCiCap." According to a release issued by SNC, the company has received 96 percent of the award amount under CCiCap.SNC has stated that the compact prototype of the thruster, was successfully tested in a vacuum chamber. In so doing, SNC has simulated what the thruster would encounter on orbit. These thrusters are part of Dream Chaser's Reaction Control System (RCS) and would be used to guide the spacecraft during orbital maneuvers. The RCS system is also used to guide Dream Chaser back to a landing at a runway.The thruster was tested by Orbital Technologies Corporation (ORBITEC ), a subsidiary of SNC. As SNC is no longer working under CCP, Dream Chaser is, in essence, a spacecraft without a place to fly to. There is only one destination currently for U.S. crew-rated spacecraft to travel to – the International Space Station (ISS).On Sept. 16, NASA announced that the two firms which had been selected to proceed under CCtCap, would be Boeing's CST-100 and Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX ) Dragon spacecraft. SNC has since filed a protest with the Government Accountability Office regarding the selection process.Dream Chaser stood out from both CST-100 and Dragon as it is a winged spacecraft and would land much as NASA's retired fleet of orbiters did for 30 years."Safety is paramount in the design of the Dream Chaser Space System," said Sierra Nevada Corporation's Corporate Vice President for Space Systems Mark N. Sirangelo. "It is driven by reliability, rigorous quality assurance, consistent performance, extensive testing, and robust analysis. In passing this milestone, we are able to validate our performance and safety, while decreasing the risk for this critical propulsion system. Reaching this milestone propels us even closer toward the Critical Design Review and orbital flight of our complete system."SNC has since announced several initiatives to have Dream Chaser be used by the space agencies of other nations. Both the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and European Space Agency have expressed interest in the spacecraft.ENDMore at www.spacetoday.net
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