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Friday, July 5, 2013

Fwd: Human Spaceflight News - July 5, 2013 and JSC Today



Sent from my iPad

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Date: July 5, 2013 6:13:46 AM GMT-06:00
To: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Subject: FW: Human Spaceflight News - July 5, 2013 and JSC Today

Hope everyone had a great independence day.   Happy Friday and have a safe weekend.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   Organizations/Social

  1. Positive Behavior Change

If you've ever tried to break a habit, you know how challenging it can be, but do you know why it is difficult and how to be more successful? Please join Takis Bogdanos, LPC-S with the JSC Employee Assistance Program, on July 11 at 12 noon in the Building 30 Auditorium for a presentation about how habits form, are sustained and what it takes to create positive behavior change.

Event Date: Thursday, July 11, 2013   Event Start Time:12:00 PM   Event End Time:1:00 PM
Event Location: Building 30 Auditorium

Add to Calendar

Lorrie Bennett, Employee Assistance Program, Occupational Health Branch x36130

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   Jobs and Training

  1. Space Medicine Operations Lecture

Please join us for a lecture on Space Medicine Operations presented by the Human Systems Academy on July 16 from 9 to 11 a.m.

Please register today! https://satern.nasa.gov/learning/user/deeplink_redirect.jsp?linkId=SCHEDULED_...

Cynthia Rando x41815 https://sashare.jsc.nasa.gov/hsa/default.aspx

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   Community

  1. Milky Way Viewing at the George Observatory

Join us at the George Observatory and check out the Milky Way! We will be open from 5 to 11 p.m. on July 12. The planetarium and telescopes will be open. For more information about the George Observatory, click here.

Note: Park entrance fees apply at $7 per person for everyone over 12 years old.

Megan Hashier 281-226-4179 http://www.hmns.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=108&Ite...

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  1. Rocket Day at the George Observatory

Join us for a Rocket Day from 10 a.m. to noon on July 13! The cost is $20 per person. We will learn about and build a rocket. After the testing of the rocket, we will go on a simulated spaceflight to the moon. To get tickets, go here.

Note: Park entrance fees apply at $7 per person for everyone over 12 years old.

Megan Hashier 281-226-4179 http://www.hmns.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=450&Ite...

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  1. Family Space Day on July 13

The Challenger Learning Center at the George Observatory is holding a Family Space Day that is open to the public on Saturday, July 13, from about 3 to 8 p.m. There will be various types of rockets and robots available to play with, along with other activities.

For purchase are tickets to see a show in the Discovery Dome and a Challenger Center Mission to the Moon! Challenger Center mission tickets may be purchased for $10 a person online. Discovery Dome tickets will be available at the gift shop for $3 a person.

After enjoying the day in space, stay for the evening and look at the night sky through our telescopes.

George Observatory is located in the heart of Brazos Bend State Park. Admission to the park is $7 for adults. Kids under 12 are free.

Megan Hashier 281-226-4179 http://www.hmns.org/observatory

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  1. Name the Shuttle - Let Creativity Ring

Beginning on July 4, Space Center Houston launched a statewide "Name the Shuttle" contest—a chance for a Texas resident to name the high-fidelity NASA orbiter replica that will perch atop the 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft. Visit http://www.nametheshuttle.com to submit an original name. It must be no more than three words and symbolize the spirit of Texas and its unique characteristics of independence, optimism and can-do attitude. You have until noon CDT on Labor Day, Sept. 2, to let your creativity ring. 

Contestants will receive email verification of their submission and a thank-you coupon for discounted admission to Space Center Houston. A panel of judges will select one winner (announced mid-September). 

The winning name will be painted on the side of the shuttle replica, and the winner will have his/her name and hometown incorporated on a placard at the exhibit. The winner will also receive a three-day trip for four to Space Center Houston, which includes a VIP tour of the facility and a behind-the-scenes experience at JSC, hotel accommodations, meals and travel compensation. The winner will also get to attend the grand opening ceremony in 2015.

Space Center Houston 281-244-2100 http://www.nametheshuttle.com/

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JSC Today is compiled periodically as a service to JSC employees on an as-submitted basis. Any JSC organization or employee may submit articles.

Disclaimer: Accuracy and content of these notes are the responsibility of the submitters.

 

 

 

 

HEADLINES AND LEADS

 

SpaceX Passes New Hurdles in CCiCap Push Toward USCV-1

 

Ben Evans - AmericaSpace.com

 

With the launch of the first U.S. Crew Vehicle (USCV-1) mission now scheduled for no earlier than November 2017, it might seem easy to express pessimism about the future for the three finalists in NASA's Commercial Crew integrated Capability (CCiCap) initiative. Yet since the announcement of SpaceX, Boeing, and Sierra Nevada Corp. last August to continue development of their Dragon, CST-100, and Dream Chaser vehicles, all three companies have taken giant strides toward ensuring that their respective craft are ready to support a resumption of crewed missions from U.S. soil before the end of the present decade.

 

Langley leads effort to develop new spacecraft leak detection technology

 

Mark Carreau - Aviation Week

 

Subtle but detectable changes in background sound levels about a spacecraft may offer a new technique for preventing a catastrophic air leak. The risk of collision between the continuously staffed International Space Station and manmade orbital debris or difficult to detect micrometeoroids is a constant concern. However, pinpointing the source of a breach behind the equipment racks that cover much of the inner hull of the six-person orbiting science lab could take some time-consuming detective work by astronauts faced with a crisis. The Ultrasonic Noise Background Test, led by Eric Madaras, a NASA Langley Research Center aerospace technologist, may offer an alternative.

 

How NASA steers the International Space Station around space junk

Jockeying 400 tons of space station around debris ain't like dusting crops, boy

 

Lee Hutchinson - ArsTechnica.com

 

Orbiting about 250 miles (400-ish km) above our heads is one of the most complex and expensive engineering projects that the human race has ever put together: the International Space Station (ISS). The station masses around 450 tons (400 metric tons) and is a bit larger than an American football field. Its assembly required dozens and dozens of launches by Russia and the US (including 37 space shuttle flights), and it took astronauts and cosmonauts 155 spacewalks to get the whole thing bolted together—2.5 times more spacewalks than had previously occurred since the beginning of space flight.

 

Gallery: The International Space Station flight control room

A selection of behind-the-scenes images from ISS Mission Control

 

Lee Hutchinson - ArsTechnica.com

 

Our recent trip to NASA's Mission Control Center to find out how NASA steers the ISS around space junk yielded more than an awesome interview—it also gave me the opportunity to snap some excellent pictures of the rest of the goings-on in the flight control room. We weren't allowed down on the floor to take close-up pictures, but rest assured, that's definitely on my list. However, until I get that organized and cleared, here are some images of the flight controllers who keep manned space flight running! (NO FURTHER TEXT)

 

NASA Wants More Spaceport Infrastructure Opened to Private Sector

 

Dan Leone - Space News

 

An internal legislative wish-list shows that NASA, mired in a U.S. budget crunch that has dimmed prospects for new authorization and appropriations bills this year, is looking for ways to give private space companies more sway over critical national space infrastructure — so long as they are willing to pay for the privilege. The undated 35-page legislative proposal — which also contains many noncommercialization suggestions for Congress to consider — was crafted by NASA in response to the draft NASA authorization bill unveiled June 19 by the Republican leadership of House Science, Space and Technology space subcommittee.

 

Proton Failure Sets Back Russian Space Program

 

Amy Svitak - Aviation Week

 

Any launch vehicle that flies as often as Russia's Proton is bound to have its share of mishaps. The venerable heavy-lifter has flown 388 missions since its first in 1965, 45 of which have been deemed total or partial failures. But the Proton M/Block DM-03 that veered off course and destroyed three Russian Glonass M navigation satellites in a fiery explosion near its Baikonur Cosmodrome launch pad July 2 comes at a particularly vulnerable moment for Russia's space program, which has suffered a spate of launch vehicle failures in recent years, including five in the past 30 months.

 

Retiring astronaut Chris Hadfield about to launch lucrative speaking career

 

Andrea Hill - Postmedia News (Montreal Gazette)

 

As astronaut Chris Hadfield retires from the Canadian Space Agency, he can expect some hefty speaking fees — even more than the thousands of dollars per event that Justin Trudeau was earning — through work with a private agency that arranges celebrity speaking engagements. But the former International Space Station commander said he will continue to speak to students for free. "The response has been tremendous," said Speakers' Spotlight president Martin Perelmuter, who is coordinating Hadfield's professional speaking engagements. "People are very excited that he is going to be out there speaking about his experiences, not just about what he's been doing recently, but about what he's been doing over the course of his entire career."

 

As Atlantis Debuts, Florida's Space Coast Braces for Uncertain Future

 

Jeffrey Marlow - Wired.com

 

On Saturday, June 29th, smoke billowed out once again from beneath two solid rocket boosters at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and the crowd cheered. Of course, this time the smoke was merely a stage effect, and the boosters were nonfunctional replicas: the dramatics were part of KSC's dedication ceremony marking its new Space Shuttle Atlantis exhibit.  But it was a fitting symbol of what the Space Coast has become – a Disneyland of its former self, caught "between jobs" following the end of the Space Shuttle Program two years ago.

__________

 

COMPLETE STORIES

 

SpaceX Passes New Hurdles in CCiCap Push Toward USCV-1

 

Ben Evans - AmericaSpace.com

 

With the launch of the first U.S. Crew Vehicle (USCV-1) mission now scheduled for no earlier than November 2017, it might seem easy to express pessimism about the future for the three finalists in NASA's Commercial Crew integrated Capability (CCiCap) initiative.

 

Yet since the announcement of SpaceX, Boeing, and Sierra Nevada Corp. last August to continue development of their Dragon, CST-100, and Dream Chaser vehicles, all three companies have taken giant strides toward ensuring that their respective craft are ready to support a resumption of crewed missions from U.S. soil before the end of the present decade.

 

SpaceX—the Hawthorne, Calif.-based aerospace organization, headed by entrepreneur Elon Musk—has passed the fifth and sixth in a series of hurdles which it must conclude, ahead of possible selection by NASA to transport astronauts to the International Space Station aboard a human-rated version of its Dragon ship.

 

According to the provisions of the funded Space Act agreements contracted to SpaceX, Boeing, and Sierra Nevada Corp., all three companies must fulfill their respective milestones by May 2014. SpaceX has a total of 14 milestones, of which it has now passed almost half. Last month, the company successfully completed a Human Certification Plan Review, followed by a Pad Abort Test Review. Both are critical and serve to enhance confidence that Musk's company is in position to execute a full-up pad abort test later this year or early in 2014.

 

The Human Certification Plan Review, finalized on 7 May, outlined all of the steps SpaceX plans to take in order to certify its system for piloted missions. Its scope covers the entire testing, demonstration, analysis, inspection, verification, and training process, and NASA reported that it "helped to ensure that the integrated Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule will be safe to carry human passengers."

 

In the Pad Abort Test Review, SpaceX presented plans for its upcoming pad abort test, which will occur from Space Launch Complex (SLC)-40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. In completing this review, the adequacy of the test plan objectives and the pad abort scenario were successfully demonstrated.

 

"The beauty of having the pad abort test review was it allowed both NASA and SpaceX to start coalescing toward an understanding of what will be tested and how we'll measure success," said Ed Mango, the manager of NASA's Commercial Crew Program Office. "We're really looking forward to seeing SpaceX's pad abort system take off from along Florida's Space Coast."

 

That flight will include a recovery operation following a simulated Falcon 9 launch anomaly. A Dragon craft will be installed on a launch pad test stand, and when the countdown reaches T-zero, the SuperDraco abort engines will be ignited to initiate a contingency separation command. The craft will ascend to an altitude of about 5,000 feet, after which its parachutes will deploy and bring it to a smooth splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean.

 

Langley leads effort to develop new spacecraft leak detection technology

 

Mark Carreau - Aviation Week

 

Subtle but detectable changes in background sound levels about a spacecraft may offer a new technique for preventing a catastrophic air leak.

 

The risk of collision between the continuously staffed International Space Station and manmade orbital debris or difficult to detect micrometeoroids is a constant concern.

 

A leak aboard the space station would sound an alarm, warning astronauts to head for their two Soyuz crew transports and possible escape to Earth. Or, if they had the time and wherewithal, the astronauts could attempt to quickly close off a leaking module to prevent the need to abandon the station.

 

However, pinpointing the source of a breach behind the equipment racks that cover much of the inner hull of the six-person orbiting science lab could take some time-consuming detective work by astronauts faced with a crisis.

 

The Ultrasonic Noise Background Test, led by Eric Madaras, a NASA Langley Research Center aerospace technologist, may offer an alternative.

 

"If a leak does occur, it's one of those things where you may not have a lot of time," said Madaras in a NASA statement describing the tech project. "These guys can always go sit in the Soyuz capsule and close the door and go home. They've got that capability. But no one wants to just abandon ship, so there's always this desire to deal with it."

 

As part of the UNBT, ISS astronauts are installing 14 distributed impact detection system (DIDS) sensor/recorders on the internal pressure walls of the station's U. S. segment Destiny laboratory and Tranquility module.

 

DIDS units are high-speed, four-channel digitizers tuned to record the ultrasonic background noise of the hull. Each sensor/recorder has four pressure-sensitive transducers. Madaras compares them to the pickup coils on an electric guitar.

 

If they are successful at characterizing the background noise, the Langley researchers could then modify their hardware to pick out the sounds associated with an actual leak, giving future spacecraft crews help in locating a breach in time to apply a patch.

 

How NASA steers the International Space Station around space junk

Jockeying 400 tons of space station around debris ain't like dusting crops, boy

 

Lee Hutchinson - ArsTechnica.com

 

Orbiting about 250 miles (400-ish km) above our heads is one of the most complex and expensive engineering projects that the human race has ever put together: the International Space Station (ISS). The station masses around 450 tons (400 metric tons) and is a bit larger than an American football field. Its assembly required dozens and dozens of launches by Russia and the US (including 37 space shuttle flights), and it took astronauts and cosmonauts 155 spacewalks to get the whole thing bolted together—2.5 times more spacewalks than had previously occurred since the beginning of space flight.

 

The ISS has taken 13 years and as much as $150 billion to build and fly; to call it valuable real estate is an understatement. As we Americans are relaxing for the Fourth of July and drinking beers or lighting off fireworks, high above our heads, six human beings are working in space. But the station isn't just sitting up there, static and unmoving. The ISS' orbit decays due to atmospheric drag at the rate of about two kilometers per year; it must periodically be boosted in order to maintain its height. Moreover, the entire massive structure is mobile—it can be rolled and pitched and yawed, or even moved ("translated," in NASA parlance) in three dimensions to avoid a potential collision with debris.

 

Ars Senior Science Editor John Timmer wrote back in May about the complex process behind moving unmanned satellites around in orbit—specifically, what it took to move NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope out of the way of some debris in its orbital path. But the ISS isn't an unmanned satellite; its mass is much larger. More importantly, it has six living, breathing human beings on board. How does one move 400 tons of fragile space station when there's an asteroid or something bearing down on it?

 

Ground control to Major Tom

 

To find out how to throttle-jockey the ISS around in orbit, I took a drive over to NASA's Johnson Space Center and met up with Josh Parris, a NASA ISS flight controller. Parris is one of the people tasked with manning a console in the ISS flight control room—or "Mission Control" as it's more commonly known. His station name is TOPO—Trajectory Operations Officer. As has been the case since the earliest days of manned space flight, the ISS flight controllers are all highly skilled individuals; Parris and his coworkers have all undergone years of specialized training to reach the point where they are trusted with "sitting a console."

 

"TOPO is in charge of maintaining the knowledge of where the space station and visiting vehicles are, where they're going to be, and to make sure they don't get hit by anything," he explained. There aren't a lot of operational satellites at the ISS' normal flying altitude of about 400 km, but there is a fair amount of debris circling the earth at about the same height. There have been hundreds of potential "conjunctions" in the last couple of years—that is, warnings by ground-based radar sources about potential collisions between the station and some debris. In 2013 alone, there have been 67 potential conjunction notifications.

 

"What exactly makes up the debris?" I asked Parris. "Is it from the Chinese blowing up satellites?" "That's a big chunk of it," he confirmed. "Also, the collision between the old Russian Kosmos satellite and the Iridium satellite is a source of a lot of the debris we see. And that's just the stuff that's made it down to our orbit; there's plenty of debris still above us, just waiting to come down."

 

"Who tracks these things?" I asked. "Is there a big computer map like you see in the movies with fancy graphs and stuff?"

 

"USSTRATCOM, at Vandenberg Air Force Base," he replied. "They maintain a catalog of all pieces of debris—all objects in space—and routinely, three times a day, they screen the ISS trajectory versus that catalog. They're the ones who notify us if there's a close approach."

 

A "close approach"? That sounds scary. I asked Parris to elaborate, and he explained that there is an imaginary "pizza box"-shaped perimeter around the International Space Station. This perimeter extends two kilometers above and below the station and 25 kilometers "cross-track" and "down-track" (track here refers to the orbital path the station traces). If a piece of debris is expected to come anywhere within that box, USSTRATCOM notifies NASA.

 

The TOPO controller keeps track of everything inside that pizza box-shaped perimeter, and they compute the probability of collision for all of the objects that they're tracking. TOPO assigns cautionary thresholds to each object depending on how likely a collision is. Any object with between a 1-in-10,000 and 1-in-100,000 chance of colliding with the station meets the "yellow" threshold. Flight rules say that the station must be moved out of the way in response to a yellow threshold object unless such a move results in a mission impact—"Like, if we do the burn, we're going to miss an opportunity to launch a Soyuz, for instance," explains Parris. "Do we delay the Soyuz, or do we do the maneuver?" A "red" threshold is assigned to any collision with a likelihood of between 1 (in other words, absolutely certain) and 1-in-10,000. Flight rules are more strict for maneuvers in response to red threshold objects: the station is always moved for a red threshold object, regardless of mission impact, unless a maneuver represents more risk than not maneuvering (for example, if there's a piece of equipment that's damaged on the ISS and a maneuver would exacerbate that damage).

 

Thrusters and gyroscopes

 

The ISS, for all its size and apparent fragility, is actually pretty agile. It has four gyroscopes, called Control Momentum Gyros, or CMGs, which allow it to change its attitude. These gyros fall under the responsibility of the ADCO (Attitude Determination and Control Officer) flight controller, with whom TOPO often works when figuring out how to handle incoming debris.

 

Additionally, the station has several sets of thrusters that allow it to rotate and translate. The Zvezda service module is equipped with thrusters, and there are thrusters on docked vehicles like the Progress resupply craft and the ESA ATV that can also be employed. Space shuttles could also be used when they were still operational. For a typical debris avoidance maneuver, the station will be subjected to delta V of between 0.5 and 1 meter per second.

 

One of the parameters TOPO keeps track of is the station's mass, since the precise amount of thrust required to generate the required delta V varies depending on the mass that must be moved. The ISS' mass varies primarily when vehicles dock and undock. The level of delta V generated during a typical avoidance maneuver isn't enough to disrupt the routine of the crew—they're aware of when the maneuvers are happening, but it's all controlled from the ground and they don't have to do anything special. "They're not up there with joysticks zooming the station around, are they?" I asked. "No," laughed Parris. "It's all commanded from the ground."

 

Swinging into action

 

When a piece of debris meets the yellow or red thresholds, it becomes time to take action. At 28.5 hours before the chunk of debris' closest approach to the station, TOPO kicks off the debris avoidance maneuver planning process. "Why 28.5 hours?" I asked. It seemed like an odd number. "The Russian segment is the one who's going to be doing the burn," explained Parris. "Due to the time change between Houston and Moscow, that will allow enough time for their specialists to come in and design—well, they call it a 'cyclogram,' which is the program that is uplinked to the station that commands the vehicle to do the burn. That also allows us more time to get more tracking on the debris."

 

TOPO works with his Russian ballistic counterparts to determine the parameters of the avoidance maneuver, including how much delta V should be applied to the station. TOPO also coordinates back with USSTRATCOM to ensure that the maneuver they're planning will get them out of the way of the thing they're trying to avoid without inadvertently pushing the ISS into the path of some other chunk of debris. When the actual maneuvers occur, they are controlled by the ISS' onboard computers and monitored from the ground. There isn't really a way to grab a steering wheel and manually maneuver the ISS; everything is done as a result of careful planning, and the firing of the ISS' and docked vehicles' thrusters are always done through automation and strictly to plan.

 

The worst case

 

If the complexity surrounding debris avoidance seems excessive, it's important to remember that lives are at stake. "If we get hit by a tracked object, it could be loss of vehicle," said Parris. "They're moving at such great velocity, any impact of a tracked piece of debris could be catastrophic." The threshold for a tracked piece of debris is any object measuring more than about 10 cm. "Loss of vehicle" is exactly what it sounds like; a sufficiently energetic debris strike could not only destroy the station but cause the crew to perish as well.

 

Fortunately, Parris characterizes our knowledge of 10 cm-and-larger pieces of debris in the ISS' orbital height as comprehensive. "And the station has shields to protect against micrometeorites and stuff like that," he elaborates. "But there is a gap between the size the shields can deflect and the size we can track. There is a hole there, but we try to mitigate that as best we can with help from the Air Force."

 

Without trying to get too gloomy, I asked Parris what the "worst case scenario" would be if NASA found the ISS facing an unexpected conjunction. The people at USSTRATCOM almost always give NASA a three-day warning on potential conjunctions, but very rarely things are missed. "We can typically always find a clear path for something we know about," explained Parris. But if a conjunction is spotted and NASA doesn't have the 28.5 hour-window to jointly plan an avoidance maneuver with Russia, they have a contingency to fall back on called a PDAM—a Predetermined Debris Avoidance Maneuver. The PDAM is a 0.5 meter-per-second "canned" maneuver that can be executed very quickly to push the ISS out of the way of the conjunction. If the PDAM can't be executed—if, for example, it would push the ISS into the path of another conjunction—the crew buttons up inside the docked Soyuz escape craft and waits out the event, ready to evacuate if required. Since the ISS was first manned, crews have had to shelter in the Soyuz three times.

 

In fact, the pre-planned PDAM maneuver was developed and implemented in response to the last shelter event in the summer of 2011. NASA received a late notification about a potential conjunction and it had no choice but to have the crew enter the Soyuz craft; the debris ended up missing the ISS by about 725 meters. The hope now is that the PDAM will mitigate the need to shelter in the Soyuz from here on.

 

Day to day

 

When not actively figuring out where the station should be moving itself to avoid chunks of Chinese satellites or perhaps an errant Fourth of July firework, TOPO stays busy with a myriad of other tasks. "If we're not tracking any debris—and I don't believe we are right now—we have a set of tasks we do every day of the week. I mentioned that we maintain the knowledge of where the ISS is, so we work with the different flight control centers, specifically the flight dynamics facility at Goddard." TOPO, explained Parris, keeps Goddard up to date on the ISS' position in orbit so that the various NASA TDRSS stations can keep their antennas pointed at it.

 

Unless they're actively planning a debris avoidance maneuver, TOPO's role is relatively passive and consists mostly of monitoring. At the TOPO console, Parris and the other TOPO controllers who man the station work off of three primary screens. "The first monitor is our ground GPS. The display on our very left—with the three columns—is the comparison of our ground data versus the on-board telemetry," which TOPO uses to compare where the ISS thinks it is versus where the ground tracking stations think it is. The middle screen also tracks the station's position. "The different charts show the delta between the different sources on-board versus our ground model. They're typically in a straight line."

 

On the right of the middle screen, behind the comparison charts, is a "situational awareness" monitor that shows the status of the various pieces of station hardware that TOPO uses. The right-hand screen contains the software NASA uses to maintain the ground ephemeris. "The top display is a list of vectors we have of the station, and the bottom display is the actual catalog of all the ephemerides we have for the station." Parris also pointed out that if TOPO were in the middle of a conjunction operation, the displays would show a totally different set of applications. The controller consoles are commodity hardware—PCs running Linux (there are also Windows 7 PCs employed in the flight control room, but the main controller displays are all Linux-powered). This type of flexibility is a far cry from the old days, when each flight controller's station was hard-wired and reconfiguration took hours or days.

 

Finishing up

 

The ISS mission control room is on the second floor of JSC's Building 30, and it actually occupies space that was once used for one of the two Apollo Mission Operations Control Rooms (the other room, on the third floor, has been restored to close to its Apollo-era configuration and can be seen by the public as part of the Space Center Houston tour). I was able to spend several more minutes snapping pictures; a couple of other flight controllers noticed me in the gallery and stuck their heads in to say "Hi," including William Foster, who mans the Ground Control console. While I snapped away, Parris resumed his place at the TOPO console, monitoring the station as it zoomed through space and keeping a watchful eye out for collisions. It's a job that never ends—and one that requires constant vigilance.

 

NASA Wants More Spaceport Infrastructure Opened to Private Sector

 

Dan Leone - Space News

 

An internal legislative wish-list shows that NASA, mired in a U.S. budget crunch that has dimmed prospects for new authorization and appropriations bills this year, is looking for ways to give private space companies more sway over critical national space infrastructure — so long as they are willing to pay for the privilege.

 

The undated 35-page legislative proposal — which also contains many noncommercialization suggestions for Congress to consider — was crafted by NASA in response to the draft NASA authorization bill unveiled June 19 by the Republican leadership of House Science, Space and Technology space subcommittee.

 

The list was also shared with the U.S. Senate, where staffers are busy drafting that chamber's version of NASA's next authorization bill. Authorizing legislation sets funding guidelines, which are not always heeded, for the congressional appropriations committees that determine NASA's annual budget. Typically, such bills also contain policy directives.

 

Among the authorities NASA wants this year is something the Defense Department got last year as part of the National Defense Authorization Act for 2013: the ability to accept money from commercial entities who wish to incorporate their own upgrades into government-owned spaceports.

 

The change would "allow NASA to accept funding from the private sector in order to develop, enhance, or maintain the U.S. Government's launch, range instrumentation, and reentry sites," the agency said in its list of legislative proposals. "[T]he government's purchasing power would be enhanced through the increase in the economies of scale, as well as the benefit from receiving the additional up-front funding from the commercial launch provider prior to contracting."

 

NASA also believes that private space companies — meaning those that qualify as "commercial providers" under U.S. law — could provide both a cash-infusion for the space program, and dependable custodianship for excess infrastructure the agency cannot afford to maintain, and which could not be had easily in commercial markets.

 

However, such a sale would only be considered when the NASA administrator determines a piece of property is no longer useful, and when turning it over to the private sector would "support the development and delivery of space-related activities and space transportation services by current or potential United States commercial providers," according NASA's legislative wish-list, a copy of which was obtained by SpaceNews.

 

Among the other legislative measures NASA is seeking are:

 

·         The authority to keep the technical details of safety-related investigations, such as mishap investigation boards, from public disclosure. "NASA collects safety-related information in many situations, including internal surveys, external surveys, and when a mishap investigation board takes witness statements," NASA said, citing similar protection the Federal Aviation Administration enjoys for its Aviation Safety Action Program and Flight Operational Quality Assurance Program. "Protecting this type of information from public disclosure will encourage open and honest communication about risks and potential mishaps."

 

·         Clearer authority to hold contractors responsible for rooting out counterfeit electronics parts. The measures NASA proposed would accomplish this "by assigning NASA contractors clear and full responsibility for detecting and avoiding the supply of counterfeit product," according to NASA's proposal.

 

Meanwhile, government and industry sources said the current partisan deadlock over federal spending means there likely will be no NASA authorization bill this year, leaving Congress to find another legislative vehicles for nonspending NASA policies.

 

The difficulty in reauthorizing NASA this year, according these sources, stems from the relatively frugal stance the Republican-controlled House Appropriations Committee has taken, compared with the Senate Appropriations Committee, where Democrats are in control.

 

House leaders have limited spending for Commerce, Justice and Science accounts, of which NASA is one, to $47.2 billion for 2013, a level that reflects the ongoing effect of across-the-board sequestration cuts, which have not yet been altered by Congress. Senate leaders, on the other hand, have provided $52.3 billion for these accounts — $1 billion more than the House.

 

The authorization bill produced by the House Science space subcommittee's leadership assumes appropriators will have no more than the House-approved level to work with. However, NASA's oversight committees in the Senate, as Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) said June 19, are making no such assumptions, leading some to believe the two chambers of Congress will produce irreconcilable bills.

 

"They're too far apart," said one administration source, who asked for anonymity to discuss congressional activities.

 

An industry source agreed that a NASA authorization bill is far from a certainty this year, and added that a regular appropriation bill is even more unlikely.

 

Congressional staffers "are telling us to expect an omnibus appropriations [bill] for 2014," the source said June 28.

 

Proton Failure Sets Back Russian Space Program

 

Amy Svitak - Aviation Week

 

Any launch vehicle that flies as often as Russia's Proton is bound to have its share of mishaps. The venerable heavy-lifter has flown 388 missions since its first in 1965, 45 of which have been deemed total or partial failures.

 

But the Proton M/Block DM-03 that veered off course and destroyed three Russian Glonass M navigation satellites in a fiery explosion near its Baikonur Cosmodrome launch pad July 2 comes at a particularly vulnerable moment for Russia's space program, which has suffered a spate of launch vehicle failures in recent years, including five in the past 30 months.

 

Russia's apparent nosedive in the quality of its space efforts has so far not affected launch vehicles serving the International Space Station (ISS). However, Proton quality control could have implications for Reston, Va.-based International Launch Services (ILS), which annually launches half of the world's largest commercial telecommunications satellites atop Proton.

 

ILS and its majority shareholder, Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center, have launched 81 commercial Proton missions since 1996 with six failures. But the majority of Proton mishaps have occurred on Russian federal missions, including four out of five failures in the past 30 months, two of which were caused by human error—a December 2010 loss of three Glonass spacecraft due to over-fueling of the rocket's DM-03 upper stage, and the August 2011 loss of Express-AM4, a telecom satellite left in a too-low orbit due to a faulty parameter entered into its flight software system.

 

Two subsequent Proton failures—one federal, the other managed by ILS—took place within six months of each other, and were attributed to technical issues associated with the Breeze M upper stage. A manufacturing defect in the Breeze M helium pressurization system led to the loss of Russia's Express-MD2 and the Indonesian Telkom-3 satellites in August 2012, while an early Breeze M shutdown following the December 2012 launch of the Gazprom Space Systems Yamal 402 commercial telecom satellite left the spacecraft in a useless orbit. A failure review attributed the shortfall to a combination of worst-case factors, including temperature and pressure, that led to damage in an upper-stage turbo-pump bearing.

 

But last week's accident, which the Russian government is investigating, appears to have been due to failure of the rocket's first stage, which powers both Russian federal and commercial Proton missions and has malfunctioned just five times in the course of the rocket's nearly 50-year history.

 

According to Russian space agency Roscosmos, the Proton M/Block-DM-03 rocket and its three satellites went wildly off course seconds after liftoff, exploding into a fiery ball before crashing 2.5 km (1.5 mi.) from its Baikonur Cosmodrome launch site in Kazakhstan.

 

No fatalities were reported, but the Kazakh government is examining the environmental impact of the crash in the area adjacent to the launch site. Talgat Mussabayev, head of the Kazakhstan space agency, said July 2 the simultaneous explosion of rocket fuel and oxygen that took place during the launch likely transformed toxic amyl and heptyl chemicals contained in the first stage into nitric oxide, "which does not represent so big a threat to the life of the population."

 

Russia rents the Baikonur Cosmodrome from Kazakhstan for military and commercial satellite launches and for Soyuz missions that ferry astronauts and cosmonauts to and from the ISS. This year, however, the Kazakh government restricted the number of Russia's commercial satellite missions in a dispute over launch debris, which falls into Kazakh territory.

 

In the meantime, Russia continues to work on its Angara rocket family, the modular design of which is aimed in part at reducing Moscow's dependence on Baikonur to launch heavy payloads. The new generation of rockets includes a heavy-lift variant that could replace Proton by the end of the decade and will be able to launch from both the Plesetsk launch site in northern Russia and the new Vostochny space center being developed in the country's far east.

 

Khrunichev shipped the first flight model of the lightweight Angara 1.2 rocket to Plesetsk Cosmodrome May 28 in preparation for its inaugural launch next year. Khrunichev says it is also continuing work on the heavy-lift Angara A5, which it expects to ship to Plesetsk in November.

 

ILS had planned 12 Proton launches in 2013, but it says the launch failure investigation and review of the findings will delay upcoming missions, including the July 20 launch of Astra 2F for commercial fleet operator SES.

 

Retiring astronaut Chris Hadfield about to launch lucrative speaking career

 

Andrea Hill - Postmedia News (Montreal Gazette)

 

As astronaut Chris Hadfield retires from the Canadian Space Agency, he can expect some hefty speaking fees — even more than the thousands of dollars per event that Justin Trudeau was earning — through work with a private agency that arranges celebrity speaking engagements.

 

But the former International Space Station commander said he will continue to speak to students for free.

 

"The response has been tremendous," said Speakers' Spotlight president Martin Perelmuter, who is coordinating Hadfield's professional speaking engagements. "People are very excited that he is going to be out there speaking about his experiences, not just about what he's been doing recently, but about what he's been doing over the course of his entire career."

 

Hadfield, who recently returned from a five-month tour aboard the space station, gained international prominence by using social media to bring the wonders of space to those on Earth. He used Skype to talk with students about what it takes to be an astronaut, made videos showing how everyday tasks can be performed without gravity and shared photos from space with more than one million Twitter followers.

 

His fame has made him a hot commodity on the speaking circuit and Perelmuter said the astronaut is already getting requests from industries and companies as far away as the United States, the United Kingdom and Portugal. In the last week of June alone, Speakers' Spotlight received more than 500 emails asking for Hadfield to speak at corporate events, and more requests are coming in every day.

 

Although the astronaut's fees have not yet been determined, Perelmuter said that because of Hadfield's accomplishments and popularity it will "certainly be at the higher end of the spectrum." For Canadian speakers, this would be in the ballpark of $50,000 per engagement. By comparison, Trudeau, who got into hot water recently over his professional speaking fees while an MP, earned up to $20,000.

 

All astronauts in the Canadian Space Agency talk to school groups as part of their jobs, but it's not uncommon for them to enter the professional speaking gig once they retire. For example, Roberta Bondar, Canada's first woman to fly in space, has been working with Speakers' Spotlight for about 15 years and former Canadian astronaut Dave Williams can be booked for speaking engagements through the National Speakers Bureau.

 

The Canadian Space Agency is promoting Hadfield's new job on its website and representatives say they don't begrudge Hadfield his lucrative speaking career so soon after his return to Earth. Anna Kapiniari, a representative from the agency, adds that those in the organization admire Hadfield's decision and are thrilled he will continue to work with school groups and be involved with "On the Lunch Pad" – a program Hadfield founded to connect students and astronauts on Skype over lunch time.

 

"Chris is an incredibly hard-working, tireless person," Kapiniari said. "We have a lot of respect for how much time, interest, energy and dedication he's put into speaking with young people already."

 

Hadfield, who admits retirement is "scary" after 35 years of working for the Canadian Space Agency, said he looks forward to promoting space exploration in this next stage of his life.

 

"With the space flights I've had, they've put me into a very prominent position as a Canadian and it would be a shame for me not to make the most of it," 53-year old Hadfield said.

 

"It looks like I was nobody and then there was this carefully choreographed sudden rush of things so I could reach some ulterior motive, but it's not like that at all. I've been trying to show young Canadians the wonders of opportunity that exist even before I was an astronaut."

 

Hadfield said public speaking has been on his list of possible post-retirement jobs for two decades now, despite the fact that such a career would once have been a "gamble" for him. And even now, the astronaut said he is approaching the experience cautiously and will be careful not to over-commit once he starts accepting speaking jobs in the fall.

 

"The last two times I flew into space, there was a great awareness right afterwards, but that fades away over time," he said. "I'm just brand-new at this phase of life and I'm just trying to guess what's going to be the best balance."

 

Meanwhile, Random House Canada announced Tuesday it had inked a two-book deal with astronaut Chris Hadfield, with the first book expected Oct. 29, in time for the 2013 Christmas shopping season.

 

An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth will cover Hadfield's years of training as well as tales of rocket launches, spacewalks and how to keep calm in a crisis. It is likely to be part memoir and part self-help.

 

Hadfield told Postmedia News he is looking forward to some rest and relaxation this summer while he moves his family to Toronto and continues to debrief and physically recover from his latest mission.

 

"I'm really looking forward to getting some feet-up time in amongst all the other craziness of changing jobs," he said. "It's been a bit of a whirlwind."

 

As Atlantis Debuts, Florida's Space Coast Braces for Uncertain Future

 

Jeffrey Marlow - Wired.com

 

On Saturday, June 29th, smoke billowed out once again from beneath two solid rocket boosters at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and the crowd cheered.

 

Of course, this time the smoke was merely a stage effect, and the boosters were nonfunctional replicas: the dramatics were part of KSC's dedication ceremony marking its new Space Shuttle Atlantis exhibit.  But it was a fitting symbol of what the Space Coast has become – a Disneyland of its former self, caught "between jobs" following the end of the Space Shuttle Program two years ago.

 

The exhibit's dedication ceremony was a vibrant, inspiring affair, with NASA officials and dozens of former astronauts on hand to sing the Shuttle's praises.  There is a lot to be proud of: Atlantis flew 33 missions, was the first Shuttle to dock at the Russian space station Mir, and was instrumental in the repair of the Hubble Space Telescope and construction of the International Space Station.  Perhaps its biggest scientific legacy is the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, which was transported to orbit in 1991 and went on to expand our view of the universe's energy sources.

 

And although the hundreds of visitors – some of whom came from as far away as Scotland – were eager to see a part of space exploration history, it was a far cry from the jubilant atmosphere that gripped the "Space Coast" during Shuttle launches.  RVs would line the Indian River, street side vendors would sell t-shirts emblazoned with the latest mission patch, and strangers would debate the cause of the countdown holds in impressive technical detail.

 

Things aren't quite what they were, but the central question remains: is the current lull a momentary lapse between programs, or a sign of a larger shift in manned spaceflight, as NASA loses ground to international competitors and private companies?

 

At Atlantis' opening ceremony, NASA officials were quick to highlight the agency's continued support for manned spaceflight.  William Moore, the Chief Operating Officer of the KSC Visitor Complex, promised that "we will fly men from the Kennedy Space Center again into space."

 

There are signs that this may be true.  Launchpad 39-B, from which most Shuttle missions lifted off, is undergoing substantial renovation to accommodate the Space Launch System (SLS), NASA's next crewed vehicle, but industry watchers expect an initial manned flight no sooner than 2021.  By that time, private rockets – like SpaceX's Falcon Heavy and its inevitable successors – may have already cornered the market with substantially lower launch costs.  In the shorter term, private firm XCOR Aerospace has signed a deal to operate sub-orbital tourist flights from KSC, a move that may bring hundreds of jobs to the region.

 

But in the meantime, KSC's tourism appeal is rooted in past glory.  Moore confesses that he took a big gamble on the Atlantis exhibit, starting construction before the decision on the Shuttle's final home had officially been made.  Fortunately, Moore and the KSC won the sweepstakes, and the resulting $100 million complex is a beautiful tribute to the Shuttle program, which ushered in an era of relatively reliable access to low-Earth orbit.

 

And while the region's future is far from certain, NASA re-affirmed its commitment to manned spaceflight and the grand exploratory challenges that may be public spaceflight's ultimate calling.  "We're going to move on," KSC director Robert Cabana proclaimed.  "We are going to go exploring, we are going to leave planet Earth, we are going to asteroids, the Moon, Mars and beyond – because that's what we do."

 

END

 

 

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