Fwd: Human Spaceflight News - August 16, 2013

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Begin forwarded message:

From: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Date: August 16, 2013 6:22:10 AM GMT-06:00
To: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Subject: FW: Human Spaceflight News - August 16, 2013

Happy Flex Friday everyone.  Have a safe and great weekend.

 

 

 

NASA TV:

·         9 am Central (10 EDT) – Spacewalk coverage begins (Russian segment-based EVA)

·         ~9:40 am Central (10:40 EDT) – EVA begins with Fyodor Yurchikhin & Alexander Misurkin

 

Human Spaceflight News

Thursday – August 15, 2013

 

HEADLINES AND LEADS

 

Russian Cosmonauts Set to Perform 6-Hour Spacewalk

 

RIA Novosti

 

Two Russian crew members on board the International Space Station (ISS) will carry out a spacewalk on Friday to install equipment for the arrival of a new Russian module, Russia's Mission Control Center said. Flight Engineers Fyodor Yurchikhin and Alexander Misurkin are expected to open the Pirs airlock hatches at 06.40 pm Moscow time [14:40 GMT], a Mission Control spokesman said Thursday. The two cosmonauts will continue routing power and Ethernet cables for the future arrival of the Russian Multipurpose Laboratory Module (MLM), which will be launched aboard a Proton-M rocket from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan later this year.

 

NASA Audit Warns More Delays, Cost Growth are Possible for Orion

 

Dan Leone - Space News

 

While managers of NASA's Orion deep-space crew capsule program have made the best of a difficult budget environment, their coping strategy ultimately could cause delays and cost increases, an internal agency audit concluded. In a report released Aug. 15, NASA's Office of the Inspector General said there is a price to be paid for developing major systems of the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle piecemeal rather than simultaneously. "We believe it vital that Congress and the public recognize that incremental spacecraft development is not an optimal way to sustain a human space program," NASA Inspector General Paul Martin wrote in the report.

 

NASA watchdog cites Orion development problems

 

Mark Matthews - Orlando Sentinel

 

The space capsule that NASA hopes will one day fly astronauts to a nearby asteroid is beset by funding problems and technical glitches that could delay a first crewed mission that already won't launch until 2021, according to a watchdog report released Thursday. The findings by NASA's inspector general cast more doubt on the future of a spacecraft that was nearly canceled in 2010, when President Barack Obama shelved NASA's troubled Constellation moon program because of similar concerns about cost and technical risk. Though the Orion capsule designed for Constellation ultimately survived the budget ax -- and since has been folded into NASA's latest human spaceflight program -- many of the same worries have persisted.

 

NASA watchdog: Orion development facing challenges

 

James Dean – Florida Today

 

An overweight spacecraft. A crack-prone heat shield. Dependence on Europe for a propulsion module. Those are a few of the challenges that could delay development of NASA's Orion human exploration spacecraft, the agency's internal watchdog office reported Thursday. But the biggest threat comes from NASA's flat, roughly $1 billion annual budget that forces work on critical systems to be deferred until late in the spacecraft's development, leaving little flexibility to handle any issues that arise. While managers are doing their best under the circumstances, NASA's Office of Inspector General concluded it was "concerned about the future of the program given the risks associated with incremental development."

 

NASA, Navy practice space-capsule recovery

 

Brock Vergakis - Associated Press

 

 

During the glory days of the U.S. space program in the 1960s and `70s, astronauts returning to Earth splashed down at sea in their capsules and were picked up by the Navy in a triumphant moment that made for stirring TV. Now, NASA and the Navy are training again for the first such recovery in a generation. On Thursday, they completed several days of tests, practicing the retrieval of an unmanned mock-up of the Orion capsule that the U.S. hopes to send someday to an asteroid and Mars. Navy divers and the crew of the USS Arlington carried out the exercise in the calm waters of the Elizabeth River at a Naval Station Norfolk pier.

 

Navy, NASA successfully test capsule retrieval

 

Diane Tennant - Virginian-Pilot

 

Thirty-eight years after its last astronaut retrieval, the Navy demonstrated that it still has the right stuff to pluck a space capsule from the sea after splashdown. In an updated version of the partnership that collected astronauts after Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions, the Navy on Thursday flooded the well deck of a ship and floated a mock-up of NASA's Orion spacecraft into it. Capsule retrievals in the 1960s and 1970s relied on military helicopters that lifted astronauts and capsules from the sea and flew them to the decks of recovery ships.

 

Orion space capsule recovery test goes swimmingly

 

Tamara Dietrich - Hampton Roads Daily Press

 

A space capsule wafted like driftwood in the harbor at Naval Station Norfolk on Thursday, fitted with float bags in case it tipped over, ready to be rescued. This craft was only a mock-up for the media watching from the pier, but the point was to demonstrate how the U.S. Navy would one day retrieve the crew module portion of NASA's new Orion spacecraft when it splashes down in the Pacific after a deep-space mission. Perhaps, NASA says, after a mission to the moon. Or to a near-Earth asteroid. Or to Mars. "We have a 'crawl, walk, run' strategy," said Scott Wilson, a manager in NASA's Orion program. "We're taking the first steps in learning to walk here."

 

NASA & US Navy test demonstrates water recovery of Orion crew capsule

 

Ken Kremer - Universe Today

 

When American astronauts again venture into deep space sometime in the next decade, their return trip to Mother Earth will end with the splashdown of their Orion capsule in the Pacific Ocean – much like the Apollo lunar landing crews. But before that can happen, Orion must pass a myriad of milestones to insure the safe return of our human crews. A NASA and U.S. Navy test successfully demonstrated the water recovery of the Orion crew module Thursday at Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia and Universe Today witnessed the entire operation. "Today's test was terrific," Scott Wilson, NASA's Orion Manager of Production Operations, told Universe Today in a post test interview at Naval Station Norfolk. "We got all the data we needed and the test was very successful. This was exactly what we wanted to do and we don't like surprises."

 

Louder-than-usual SpaceX test still planned; ISS launch pushed to early '14

 

Joseph Abbott - Waco Tribune

 

I haven't heard from SpaceX lately about the louder-than-usual test I got emailed about last week (my usual media contact is out of the country this week), but this did appear on the Twitter feed of the Waco/McLennan County Office of Emergency Management this evening:

 

Waco McLennan Co OEM @WacoMclennanOEM

Space X Louder than normal test planned 8/16-8/19. Bluebonnet closed @CaseRd periodically. Fields north, east and west off-limits.

So there's that. Meanwhile the space news website NASASpaceflight.com reports that SpaceX's next Dragon cargo flight to the International Space Station has been postponed from this December to next January, a move confirmed on the Goddard Space Center mission database.

 

SpaceX buys more land

Rocket launch firm now owns 12 Cameron County lots

 

Emma Perez-Trevino - Valley Morning Star (south Texas coast)

 

The list of SpaceX's property holdings in Cameron County continues to grow. The space exploration firm based in California that is considering development of a rocket launch facility near Boca Chica Beach purchased four more lots. The purchase follows a commitment of $15 million and other legislation from the state aimed at luring Space Exploration Technologies Corp., to Texas. The firm now owns 12 lots in Cameron County. The most recent purchases were made in July from a private investor who bought the four lots in 2007 at property tax sales, according to public records.

 

NASA adds goals for commercial crew participants

 

Zach Rosenberg - FlightInternational.com

 

NASA is adding four milestones for commercial crew integrated capability (CCiCap), worth a total of $55 million. Sierra Nevada Corporation will get two additional milestones to work on its Dream Chaser lifting body: $5 million for an Incremental Critical Design Review due in October and $10 million for Incremental Reaction Control System Testing, due in July 2014. SpaceX will receive $20 million for Dragon Parachute Testing, due in November. Parachutes are used to slow the Dragon capsule during descent once in the atmosphere. Boeing will receive $20 million for a Spacecraft Safety Review due in July 2014.

 

Dream Chaser Spacecraft Rolls Through Runway Test, Faces New Hurdles

 

Michael Davidson - Xconomy.com

 

The spaceship being built in Colorado continues to make progress here on Earth, although NASA announced Thursday it will have to clear a few more hurdles before reaching space. Sierra Nevada Corp. is designing and building the Dream Chaser spacecraft, which is a privately developed vehicle NASA could use to ferry up to seven astronauts and supplies to the International Space Station. The company has likened the Dream Chaser to the Space Shuttle's little brother, and it would launch on a rocket and land on runways like NASA's former workhorse. SNC currently is testing the vehicle in California at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, which is part of the famed Edwards Air Force Base. A video of the most recent tests is at the bottom of this article.

 

Boeing puts airplane feel into latest space capsule

 

Chris Sullivan - KIRO Radio (posted at MyNorthwest.com)

 

 

Building a spaceship and a commercial airplane apparently aren't all that different. That's why the next generation of astronauts might see a lot of familiar features as they head to the International Space Station. Boeing is competing with two other companies to provide the replacement to the Space Shuttle, and should Boeing win the contract, NASA astronauts will see a lot of similarities between their space capsule and the plane they likely flew on to get to the launch site.

 

NASA robot's eyes, ears? Digi International

 

Steve Alexander - Minneapolis Star Tribune

 

An industrial Wi-Fi company with 300 Twin Cities workers finds itself worrying about things like temperatures and radiation in space. Digi International Inc. has a new piece of business providing the eyes and ears of the world's first walking robot astronaut. Robonaut, as NASA calls him, was sent to the International Space Station two years ago for certain maintenance tasks, such as polishing the railings and testing air circulation. An upgrade coming soon will give the robot legs to move about the space station, and NASA hired Digi to provide the main circuitry for the change.

 

Leading the end of one space era, and the beginning of another

 

Lillian Cunningham - Washington Post

 

In the Summer of 2011, Administrator Charles Bolden led the end of an era for NASA–the shuttering of its longstanding space shuttle program. A year later, he oversaw the landing of the Curiosity Rover on Mars, and the beginning of a new phase for America's exploration of space. Now, a year after that, he reflects on the leadership challenges and the organizational changes that have accompanied NASA's shift. Bolden spoke with the Post's Lillian Cunningham in this interview for the On Leadership series. In this "Micro Management Stories" video, you can watch him speak about the emotional end of the shuttle program. You can also read the longer version of his interview in the text below. It has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

 

Fly me to the moon!

Why the future of space exploration will be crowd-funded

 

Arion McNicoll - CNN

 

In the halcyon days of space exploration, when the USSR was sending the very first satellites into orbit, and Neil Armstrong was about to take his first (small) steps on the moon, NASA's finances accounted for a staggering 4.41% of the US federal budget. In the last two years, that figure has dropped below 0.50% for the first time since 1960, and with the long, slow decline in funding has come an equally steady slide in the US government's appetite for space exploration. Two years ago, many commentators were proclaiming the end of the space age. The contention seemed hard to dispute: in 2011, NASA's Space Shuttle program was permanently retired when the Atlantis touched down to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, after completing its final voyage. Around the same time, plans for a U.S.-manned mission to Mars were shelved, and steps were put in place to decommission the International Space Station. But as governmental funds have dried up, amateur space enthusiasts around the world are reviving humanity's interplanetary dreams through crowd-researched and crowd-funded space projects of their own.

 

What does a $250,000 ticket to space with Virgin Galactic actually buy you?

 

Daisy Carrington - CNN

 

For decades, none but a few privileged -- and highly trained -- individuals could dare dream of traveling beyond Earth's orbit. All that's set to change as Richard Branson brings space exploration to the (mega-rich) masses. In April, Virgin Galactic -- a subsidiary of Branson's Virgin Group -- hit a milestone. The rocket motor the company had been testing on the ground was fitted into SpaceShip Two, the spacecraft that, from next year onwards, will bring space travel to the general public. Though a ticket aboard SpaceShip Two doesn't come cheap -- a seat currently costs $250,000 -- Attenborough maintains that as things stand, the fare is a relative bargain. "It's still about 1% of the price you would have needed to pay to go to space as a private citizen before now," maintains Attenborough. Indeed, in the past, the privilege cost civilians a fair share. When Dennis Tito, the world's first "space tourist" bought a seat aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft in 2001, it allegedly cost him nearly $20 million.

__________

 

COMPLETE STORIES

 

Russian Cosmonauts Set to Perform 6-Hour Spacewalk

 

RIA Novosti

 

Two Russian crew members on board the International Space Station (ISS) will carry out a spacewalk on Friday to install equipment for the arrival of a new Russian module, Russia's Mission Control Center said.

 

Flight Engineers Fyodor Yurchikhin and Alexander Misurkin are expected to open the Pirs airlock hatches at 06.40 pm Moscow time [14:40 GMT] and will return to the ISS at 01:19 am Moscow time on August 17 [21:19 GMT Friday], a Mission Control spokesman said Thursday.

 

The two cosmonauts will continue routing power and Ethernet cables for the future arrival of the Russian Multipurpose Laboratory Module (MLM), which will be launched aboard a Proton-M rocket from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan later this year.

 

They will also install a new panel of Vynoslovost (Endurance) experiments designed to collect data on the effects of the microgravity environment in low-Earth orbit.

 

The six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk will be the seventh in Yurchikhin's career and the second for Misurkin. Both cosmonauts conducted a similar spacewalk on June 24.

 

The spacewalk on Friday will be the 172nd in support of assembly and maintenance performed on the $100-billion orbiting laboratory built by 15 countries.

 

NASA Audit Warns More Delays, Cost Growth are Possible for Orion

 

Dan Leone - Space News

 

While managers of NASA's Orion deep-space crew capsule program have made the best of a difficult budget environment, their coping strategy ultimately could cause delays and cost increases, an internal agency audit concluded.

 

In a report released Aug. 15, NASA's Office of the Inspector General said there is a price to be paid for developing major systems of the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle piecemeal rather than simultaneously.

 

"We believe it vital that Congress and the public recognize that incremental spacecraft development is not an optimal way to sustain a human space program," NASA Inspector General Paul Martin wrote in the report. "[D]elaying critical development tasks in complex spaceflight development programs increases the risk of cost and schedule problems and causes development of critical technologies to be deferred to later program phases when integration may be more difficult or the costs of material and labor greater."

 

Orion is the crew-carrying piece of NASA's deep-space transportation system, the first such system the agency has set about building since the Apollo era. Orion's intended carrier rocket is the heavy-lift Space Launch System (SLS), an initial variant of which is slated to loft two Orion missions to lunar space in 2017 and 2021. Only the latter mission would be crewed.

 

Orion and SLS draw heavily on hardware designs for the Moon-bound Constellation program that the White House canceled in 2010. Congress subsequently ordered NASA to build the vehicles using any space shuttle and Constellation contracts that could practically be adapted for the work.

 

NASA obliged, but with shrinking budgets and a continuing obligation to other programs, such as sending crew and cargo to the international space station, the agency has had to slow-roll some of the Orion and SLS work.

 

The new report warned that this approach has already delayed tests on critical Orion subsystems and may well delay more. The agency's watchdog pointed to two particular delays to make its point.

 

First, the report said Orion's maiden spaceflight, a stress test for the craft's heat shields, was delayed from 2013 to September 2014. In that test, Orion will be placed into orbit by a United Launch Alliance Delta 4 rocket and then sent on a steep re-entry trajectory to simulate the stresses the craft would experience on a direct return from lunar orbit.

 

Second, the report noted that a test of Orion's launch abort system, which would propel astronauts to safety if something goes wrong during the ascent to space, has been delayed by four years due to budget pressure.  The test was originally scheduled for 2015.

 

The high-altitude test of the abort system, which ATK Aerospace of Magna, Utah, is providing as a subcontractor to Lockheed Martin, will be launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., on a converted Peacekeeper missile stage prepared by Orbital Sciences Corp., Dulles, Va.

 

Besides these two tests, "NASA has delayed development of life support systems and some avionics due to budget constraints," the report said.

 

Lockheed Martin Space Systems of Denver got its $6.1 billion Orion prime contract in 2006 and had spent $5.1 billion as of Sept. 30 2012, NASA spokeswoman Rachel Kraft said. The contract runs through September 2014, and NASA and Lockheed Martin are negotiating an extension that would cover work for the capsule's first flights to lunar space.

 

Lockheed received a stopgap contract to begin that work back in February. Negotiations on a final contract extension are expected to wrap up sometime this year, Kraft said. She declined to provide the value of the stopgap contract.

 

The White House requested about $1 billion for Orion in 2014, an amount that House appropriators matched in a spending bill now awaiting a floor vote. Senate appropriators, who ignored the effect of across-the-board sequestration cuts that are still in effect, provided $1.2 billion for Orion.

 

Meanwhile, although Martin's report focused on Orion, it also reiterated an oft-repeated point: The money NASA has said it will spend on SLS, Orion and associated ground systems is not enough to stage a mission to any extraterrestrial surface.

 

"Given the time and money necessary to develop landers and associated systems, it is unlikely that NASA would be able to conduct any surface exploration missions until the late 2020s at the earliest," the report says. "NASA astronauts will be limited to orbital missions using" Orion.

 

One such mission, proposed by the White House, is the Asteroid Redirect Mission, in which NASA would send a robotic craft to capture a small asteroid and deliver it to lunar orbit. Astronauts aboard Orion would then visit the asteroid to collect samples while testing the spacecraft's performance in an environment far from the Earth.

 

The mission has not generated much enthusiasm in Congress. Legislation drafted in the House would bar NASA from spending any money on the mission, while a companion bill in the Senate is silent on the matter.

 

NASA watchdog cites Orion development problems

 

Mark Matthews - Orlando Sentinel

 

The space capsule that NASA hopes will one day fly astronauts to a nearby asteroid is beset by funding problems and technical glitches that could delay a first crewed mission that already won't launch until 2021, according to a watchdog report released Thursday.

 

The findings by NASA's inspector general cast more doubt on the future of a spacecraft that was nearly canceled in 2010, when President Barack Obama shelved NASA's troubled Constellation moon program because of similar concerns about cost and technical risk.

 

Though the Orion capsule designed for Constellation ultimately survived the budget ax -- and since has been folded into NASA's latest human spaceflight program -- many of the same worries have persisted.

 

"The [Orion] Program faces significant risks in meeting NASA's goal of human exploration beyond low Earth orbit," noted investigators.

 

The material used on its heat shield has been known to "crack under thermal conditions" similar to what the capsule could experience in the "deep space environment," the report found. And engineers are struggling to get the capsule's weight below a 73,500-pound maximum.

 

Both problems must be fixed. And that intensifies the capsule's biggest problem: not enough money.

 

Under its current design, Orion could carry a four-person crew on missions lasting up to three weeks. NASA's latest plan calls for putting the capsule atop NASA's newest rocket, the Space Launch System, and blasting astronauts to a nearby asteroid as early as 2021.

 

But between 2011 and 2013, the Orion project received only about $3.6 billion – or roughly $1.8 billion less than what NASA envisioned – forcing cutbacks that investigators said could haunt NASA in future years.

 

Inspector General Paul Martin, who acts as an internal agency watchdog, noted that NASA has delayed development of some avionics and a life-support system. It also postponed – until 2018 – a test of the abort system that would separate the capsule from a rocket if something went wrong during liftoff

 

NASA managers said the delays were necessary to focus limited resources on the two unmanned test flights planned for 2014 and 2017. Neither life-support systems nor escape capabilities are needed for launches that aren't carrying astronauts.

 

Even so, Martin and his team warned that the postponements could cause long-term problems if trouble arises in the development of either of these areas.

 

"While this [strategy] may be the only realistic and affordable development approach available to NASA given the program's current funding profile, such an approach increases risks," they noted.

 

NASA responded to the report with a statement that noted its engineers had made "significant progress in mitigating the technical risks" highlighted in the report. It also called on Congress to give the agency more money to deal with funding issues.

 

NASA watchdog: Orion development facing challenges

 

James Dean – Florida Today

 

An overweight spacecraft. A crack-prone heat shield. Dependence on Europe for a propulsion module.

 

Those are a few of the challenges that could delay development of NASA's Orion human exploration spacecraft, the agency's internal watchdog office reported Thursday.

 

But the biggest threat comes from NASA's flat, roughly $1 billion annual budget that forces work on critical systems to be deferred until late in the spacecraft's development, leaving little flexibility to handle any issues that arise.

 

While managers are doing their best under the circumstances, NASA's Office of Inspector General concluded it was "concerned about the future of the program given the risks associated with incremental development."

 

The report went further, saying that even after Orion is ready to fly crews, "NASA will continue to face significant challenges concerning the long-term viability of its human exploration program."

 

The budget outlook offers little funding for landers and surface systems, likely relegating astronauts to orbital missions until at least the late 2020s.

 

NASA agreed with the funding challenges.

 

"We believe it is vital that Congress and the public recognize that incremental spacecraft development is not an optimal way to sustain a human space program," wrote Bill Gerstenmaier, head of human spaceflight programs, repeating a line from the inspector general's report.

 

Officially called the Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, Orion is being developed to fly four-person crews beyond low Earth orbit on missions up to 21 days. The system includes a crew module, service module and launch abort system.

 

A first test flight atop a Delta IV Heavy rocket is planned next fall, without a crew.

 

Another uncrewed test flight atop NASA's new Space Launch System rocket is targeted for late 2017, and a first crewed mission in 2021, potentially to an asteroid.

 

In all, NASA expects to spend $16.5 billion to develop a crew-ready Orion by 2021.

 

But the program's flat funding each year increases the chance that costs will grow or flights will be delayed.

 

Some life support systems won't be developed until after the 2017 test flight, so won't be tested in flight until a crew is on board. As a result, Orion won't serve as a backup transport to the International Space Station if commercial vehicles aren't ready in the near-term, as was originally proposed. Station operations are now planned through 2020.

 

A test of Orion's launch abort system has been pushed back by four years, to 2018.

 

The Orion program expects to draw upon reserves to meet the 2017 flight date, potentially draining funds intended to support the crewed mission in 2021.

 

The inspector general's report noted Orion is already dealing with significant technical challenges, including:

 

The spacecraft's weight must be reduced by 7 percent, or over 5,400 pounds. NASA has made progress, but "concerns exist that these efforts will not be sufficient to alleviate the issue," potentially impacting mission objectives.

 

A heat shield material has shown a tendency to crack. Next year's planned flight will test it in orbit, but that shield might not be delivered on time due to production issues. A delay in that flight would likely delay the next one.

 

Computer system problems have slowed access to engineering data and drawings, delaying routine tasks by three to five hours per day. Upgrades are in work, but required drawings might not all be ready in time for the 2017 flight.

 

On top of those risks, Orion is dependent on outside programs to meet its goals.

 

NASA earlier this year announced an agreement for the European Space Agency to provide Orion's service module for the 2017 test flight.

 

NASA also is developing its heavy-lift Space Launch System rocket and related ground systems at Kennedy Space Center at the same time.

 

The inspector general called for close coordination among those programs and transparency discussing program risks.

 

NASA, Navy practice space-capsule recovery

 

Brock Vergakis - Associated Press

 

 

During the glory days of the U.S. space program in the 1960s and `70s, astronauts returning to Earth splashed down at sea in their capsules and were picked up by the Navy in a triumphant moment that made for stirring TV. Now, NASA and the Navy are training again for the first such recovery in a generation.

 

On Thursday, they completed several days of tests, practicing the retrieval of an unmanned mock-up of the Orion capsule that the U.S. hopes to send someday to an asteroid and Mars.

 

Navy divers and the crew of the USS Arlington carried out the exercise in the calm waters of the Elizabeth River at a Naval Station Norfolk pier.

 

In a statement, Adm. Bill Gortney, commander of Navy's U.S. Fleet Forces Command, welcomed the chance to take part again in recovering NASA astronauts "just as we did nearly a half-century ago in support of America's quest to put a man on the moon."

 

From 1961 to 1975, teams of Navy ships tracked and recovered Mercury, Gemini and Apollo spacecraft after they re-entered Earth's atmosphere and splashed down.

 

Typically, frogmen would swim up to the pitching, bobbing spacecraft and help the astronauts out. Then helicopters would hoist the men and their capsule and fly them to a waiting aircraft carrier. In a few instances, the astronauts would remain inside the capsule while a crane lifted it aboard a ship.

 

After Apollo ended, U.S. astronauts began flying the space shuttle, which returns to Earth on a landing strip like an airplane. With the end of that program in 2011, astronauts began hitching rides aboard Russia's Soyuz capsule, which parachutes to a landing on the steppes of Kazakhstan.

 

Now, with Orion still under development, the Defense Department and NASA have to dust off their old recovery playbook and update it to achieve something they haven't done since 1975.

 

"The test we're seeing today is really the first time that we've worked together with DOD to recover a capsule, really since that mission. So it's a pretty historic start to this program that we're doing," said Scott Wilson, NASA's manager of production operations for the Orion program.

 

In a break with the past, the Navy doesn't plan to use helicopters to retrieve Orion, although they will be available on standby. Instead, an amphibious transport ship will come close to the capsule and dispatch divers and small boat teams to go secure it.

 

As they did on Thursday, those crews will attach a winch line to Orion and tow it into the amphibious ship's well deck, a compartment that can be deliberately flooded. Then the well deck will be drained, allowing the astronauts to step out of the capsule.

 

NASA decided to employ an amphibious ship about seven years ago, in part because it is less expensive than using a large nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. It also allows for astronauts who may be weakened by space travel to avoid a physically draining extraction at sea. The crew can stay inside the capsule while it is being recovered.

 

Another reason for using the amphibious-ship method: The Orion capsule will be bigger and much heavier than the Apollo spacecraft that came before it.

 

More training and testing of the procedure are planned in the coming years. Astronauts will not fly into space aboard Orion until 2021 at the earliest.

 

Some of the splashdowns during the U.S. space program's Right Stuff era nearly ended in tragedy: In 1961, the Liberty Bell 7 capsule carrying Gus Grissom sank to the bottom of the Atlantic, apparently after the hatch blew prematurely, and Grissom almost drowned. The capsule was finally raised in 1999.

 

In 1962, Mercury astronaut Scott Carpenter's Aurora 7 overshot its target in the Atlantic by 250 miles and all contact with him was lost for about a half-hour. By the time rescuers spotted him, he had climbed out of his listing capsule and into his life raft.

 

SpaceX, a private company that has sent three of its Dragon cargo spacecraft to the International Space station so far, has been retrieving its unmanned capsules from the Pacific since 2010, though without Navy involvement.

 

Navy, NASA successfully test capsule retrieval

 

Diane Tennant - Virginian-Pilot

 

Thirty-eight years after its last astronaut retrieval, the Navy demonstrated that it still has the right stuff to pluck a space capsule from the sea after splashdown.

 

In an updated version of the partnership that collected astronauts after Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions, the Navy on Thursday flooded the well deck of a ship and floated a mock-up of NASA's Orion spacecraft into it.

 

Capsule retrievals in the 1960s and 1970s relied on military helicopters that lifted astronauts and capsules from the sea and flew them to the decks of recovery ships.

 

During the dockside demonstration at Norfolk Naval Station, bright yellow and orange flotation balloons blossomed from the neck of the floating mock-up of the Orion capsule. Sailors in five small boats handled tow lines attached to the capsule, and winches tugged it into the flooded well deck of the Arlington, an amphibious transport dock that usually carries Marines and their equipment.

 

Following an actual mission, the capsule then would be secured in a cradle and the water drained from the well deck, leaving the spacecraft high and dry inside the ship.

 

Practice runs conducted at the same location earlier this week tested the equipment and procedures that will be used during open-water testing of the concept next year in the Pacific Ocean.

 

The Navy has not been asked to retrieve a NASA capsule from the water since 1975, the year of the last flight of an Apollo spacecraft.

 

The Orion capsule is nearly twice the size of Apollo, speakers said during Thursday's demonstration, and twice as heavy. That's one reason for not using helicopters to lift the capsule and four astronauts from the sea.

 

The demonstration was a far cry from the events of July 1961, when astronaut Gus Grissom, then a Newport News resident, nearly drowned. His capsule, the Liberty Bell 7, sank in the Atlantic when an escape hatch opened prematurely after NASA's second manned space launch. The spacecraft filled with water and nearly pulled down the helicopter trying to lift it.

 

Mercury astronaut Alan Shepard, who then lived in Virginia Beach, was America's first man in space. His capsule landed in the Atlantic and was retrieved by the Navy in May 1961.

 

Orion is part of NASA's plan to explore deep space. Shorter trips to and from the International Space Station will be handled by private companies working with the space agency. One such company, Orbital Sciences Corp., plans to launch a test flight to the space station in September from Wallops Island on the Eastern Shore, home of NASA's Wallops Flight Facility and the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport.

 

Orion is scheduled for an unmanned orbital flight in September 2014 to test its suitability for deep space. That test will take it to an altitude of 3,600 miles, far beyond the space station, which orbits 248 miles above Earth.

 

Ultimately, Orion is expected to carry a crew to asteroids and, eventually, Mars. As NASA's latest design for carrying astronauts, Orion returns to the basic shape of the successful Mercury, Gemini and Apollo capsules. Water-impact testing of the Orion mock-up was conducted in October 2011 at NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton.

 

Langley is where Project Mercury - America's first manned missions into space - began in the late 1950s, and where the first astronauts trained.

 

Space shuttles, which could land like airplanes, replaced capsules in 1981. The shuttles were retired in 2011, leaving NASA no way to get its astronauts off the ground.

 

American crew members of the International Space Station are transported aboard Russian spacecraft, at a cost of $58 million to $63 million per astronaut.

 

Orion's first unmanned mission is planned for 2017, with a manned launch planned for 2021.

 

Orion space capsule recovery test goes swimmingly

 

Tamara Dietrich - Hampton Roads Daily Press

 

A space capsule wafted like driftwood in the harbor at Naval Station Norfolk on Thursday, fitted with float bags in case it tipped over, ready to be rescued.

 

This craft was only a mock-up for the media watching from the pier, but the point was to demonstrate how the U.S. Navy would one day retrieve the crew module portion of NASA's new Orion spacecraft when it splashes down in the Pacific after a deep-space mission.

 

Perhaps, NASA says, after a mission to the moon. Or to a near-Earth asteroid. Or to Mars.

 

"We have a 'crawl, walk, run' strategy," said Scott Wilson, a manager in NASA's Orion program. "We're taking the first steps in learning to walk here."

 

The Orion is the first spacecraft NASA has built in a generation to carry humans back into space for exploration, NASA says, and it's designed to take us farther than we've ever gone before.

 

The crew module is part of a four-part, multi-purpose, integrated structure. It's tucked beneath a tower-like "launch abort" emergency escape system astronauts can activate during launch to pull their module to a safe landing. Beneath the crew module is a service module for in-space propulsion, life support systems and cargo. And under that is a spacecraft adapter to connect the Orion to a massive heavy-lift launcher.

 

When the crew module returns from a mission, the plan is to splash down off the coast of San Diego.

 

That's where trained Navy teams will be waiting.

 

Rather than be hoisted up by cables and flown via helicopter like the old Apollo crew capsule, the Orion will be secured and towed into the well deck of a waiting vessel.

 

NASA and Navy experts explained what the proper procedure would be as Navy sailors and divers in the harbor demonstrated:

 

From upwind, they'll approach the module in Zodiak boats — small and nimble combat-ready rubber craft. They'll circle the vehicle, take pictures and video and use instruments to test for hazardous materials. They'll attach an anchor to keep the vehicle from spinning, then divers with cameras will check out the heat shields from below, sending the stills and video to NASA for analysis.

 

When all's clear, they'll hook up tending lines to the vehicle, then slowly tow the vehicle to the waiting Navy ship — on Thursday, it was the USS Arlington, an amphibious transport vessel and the Navy's newest on the East Coast.

 

When in position behind the ship, the module will be towed at a creep through the open stern gate into the well deck. With wing wall lines, sailors will help tend the vehicle to the ship. Winch lines will pull the vehicle in place, cradled inside the well deck.

 

On Thursday, it was a methodical, unremarkable display that pleased NASA and Navy officials.

 

"We don't like surprises," said Wilson. "I think it was a good test."

 

"It went very well," said Lou Garcia, NASA's recovery director out of Kennedy Space Center. "The biggest thing was working with the Navy doing something we've never done before."

 

The Orion module is designed to hold up to four crew members on missions from 21 to 210 days, NASA says

 

The mock-up was built at NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, which will also take the lead in designing the launch abort test flight, said Stephen Jerczyk, NASA Langley's deputy director.

 

The Orion resembles the Apollo crew module but is twice its size. It's not intended to provide living space for astronauts on longer missions, said Jerczyk, but to hook up to a transit habitat, or transhab, while in space.

 

"This just gets them up, and gets them back," Jerczyk said.

 

The Orion is currently scheduled to make its first unmanned orbital test flight in September 2014, and its first unmanned exploration mission in 2017. Its first crewed mission is scheduled for 2021.

 

NASA & US Navy test demonstrates water recovery of Orion crew capsule

 

Ken Kremer - Universe Today

 

When American astronauts again venture into deep space sometime in the next decade, their return trip to Mother Earth will end with the splashdown of their Orion capsule in the Pacific Ocean – much like the Apollo lunar landing crews.

 

But before that can happen, Orion must pass a myriad of milestones to insure the safe return of our human crews.

 

A NASA and U.S. Navy test successfully demonstrated the water recovery of the Orion crew module Thursday at Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia and Universe Today witnessed the entire operation.

 

"Today's test was terrific," Scott Wilson, NASA's Orion Manager of Production Operations, told Universe Today in a post test interview at Naval Station Norfolk.

 

"We got all the data we needed and the test was very successful. This was exactly what we wanted to do and we don't like surprises."

 

Today's 'Orion Stationary Recovery Test' was conducted to support the upcoming first flight of Orion on the EFT-1 mission due to blastoff in September 2014 from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

 

"We completed all of our primary and secondary test objectives," Wilson stated.

 

Teams of US Navy divers in a flotilla of amphibious boats launched from the USS Arlington approached a test version of the Orion capsule. The Arlington was docked against its pier during the test in a benign, controlled environment.

 

Divers attached a pair of tow lines to the capsule, in a coordinated operation with the Arlington, and led the capsule into the ship's flooded well deck.

 

The Orion capsule was carefully towed inside the well deck and positioned over the recovery cradle. The sea water was drained and the capsule was attached to the recovery cradle.

 

"During the test there is constant radio communications between the ship and the divers teams in the boats."

 

"The operation within the well deck areas are also being controlled as well as the rope and winch handlers on the boat," Wilson told me.

 

At the conclusion of the test, myself and the NASA social media participants boarded the USS Arlington and toured the Orion capsule for a thrilling up close look.

 

"Today marks a significant milestone in the Navy's partnership with NASA and the Orion Human Space Flight Program," said Navy Commander Brett Moyes, Future Plans Branch chief, U.S. Fleet in a statement.

 

"The Navy is excited to support NASA's continuing mission of space exploration. Our unique capabilities make us an ideal partner for NASA in the recovery of astronauts in the 21st century — just as we did nearly a half century ago in support of America's quest to put a man on the moon."

 

The ocean recovery of Orion will be far different from Apollo where the crew's were first hoisted out of the floating capsule and the capsule then hoisted on deck of a US Navy aircraft carrier.

 

The next Orion water recovery test will be conducted in the open waters of the Pacific Ocean in January 2014.

 

NASA's Langley Research Center in nearby Hampton, VA is conducting an extensive drop test program in support of the Orion project.

 

"The Orion capsule tested today has the same mold line and dimensions as the Orion EFT-1 capsule."

 

"The Orion hardware and the Delta IV Heavy booster for the EFT-1 launch are on target for launch in 2014," Wilson told me.

 

During the unmanned Orion EFT-1 mission, the capsule will fly on a two orbit test flight to an altitude of 3,600 miles above Earth's surface, farther than any human spacecraft has gone in 40 years.

 

The EFT-1 mission will provide engineers with critical data about Orion's heat shield, flight systems and capabilities to validate designs of the spacecraft before it begins carrying humans to new destinations in the solar system, including an asteroid and Mars.

 

It will return to Earth at a speed of approximately 20,000 mph for a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.

 

Right now its T Minus 1 Year and counting to liftoff of Orion EFT-1.

 

Louder-than-usual SpaceX test still planned; ISS launch pushed to early '14

 

Joseph Abbott - Waco Tribune

 

I haven't heard from SpaceX lately about the louder-than-usual test I got emailed about last week (my usual media contact is out of the country this week), but this did appear on the Twitter feed of the Waco/McLennan County Office of Emergency Management this evening:

 

Waco McLennan Co OEM @WacoMclennanOEM

Space X Louder than normal test planned 8/16-8/19. Bluebonnet closed @CaseRd periodically. Fields north, east and west off-limits.

So there's that. Meanwhile the space news website NASASpaceflight.com reports that SpaceX's next Dragon cargo flight to the International Space Station has been postponed from this December to next January, a move confirmed on the Goddard Space Center mission database.

 

Josh Byerly, a spokesman for NASA's ISS program at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, couldn't confirm the shift but did note — as the NASASpaceflight report says — that the December date had actually been either-or, with both SpaceX and rival Orbital Sciences penciled in for cargo launches to the ISS although only one would be able to take the open slot on the station.

 

That call's now apparently been made, with Orbital's Cygnus cargo ship set to launch in the Dec. 11, 2013-Jan. 10, 2014, window from Wallops Island, Va., and Dragon set to launch in the Jan. 17-Feb. 16, 2014, window from Cape Canaveral, Fla.

 

The NASASpaceflight report also says that NASA plans to take advantage of the extra launch-weight capacity offered by the upgraded Falcon 9-R, with January's launch set to take considerably more cargo up to the station than the last launch back in March aboard the previous-generation Falcon 9.

 

It should also be noted that this launch schedule might change depending on how Orbital's demonstration flight to the station, set for Sept. 15 from Wallops Island, goes.

 

SpaceX buys more land

Rocket launch firm now owns 12 Cameron County lots

 

Emma Perez-Trevino - Valley Morning Star (south Texas coast)

 

The list of SpaceX's property holdings in Cameron County continues to grow.

 

The space exploration firm based in California that is considering development of a rocket launch facility near Boca Chica Beach purchased four more lots.

 

The purchase follows a commitment of $15 million and other legislation from the state aimed at luring Space Exploration Technologies Corp., to Texas.

 

The firm now owns 12 lots in Cameron County. The most recent purchases were made in July from a private investor who bought the four lots in 2007 at property tax sales, according to public records.

 

SpaceX's practice is not to comment on land purchases pending the finalization of the environmental impact statement and a decision about the launch location.

 

The time-frame for public comment on the environmental impact statement concluded June 24.

 

The Federal Aviation Administration has been analyzing the potential effects of SpaceX's proposal to launch the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy orbital vertical launch vehicles and a variety of smaller reusable suborbital launch vehicles from the county site.

 

The site that entrepreneur Elon Musk is considering is near Boca Chica Beach, off State Highway 4, about a quarter-mile from Boca Chica Beach and about 3 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border. The site is about 5 miles south of Port Isabel and South Padre Island.

 

Musk's staff also has been exploring sites in Florida, Puerto Rico and Georgia.

 

The four additional lots were purchased by SpaceX's Dogleg Park LLC on July 12.

 

Two of the lots measure 0.3909 of an acre each, a third measures 0.5409 of an acre and the fourth lot measures 0.5739 of an acre.

 

SpaceX began purchasing Cameron County properties in June 2012.

 

NASA adds goals for commercial crew participants

 

Zach Rosenberg - FlightInternational.com

 

NASA is adding four milestones for commercial crew integrated capability (CCiCap), worth a total of $55 million.

 

Sierra Nevada Corporation will get two additional milestones to work on its Dream Chaser lifting body: $5 million for an Incremental Critical Design Review due in October and $10 million for Incremental Reaction Control System Testing, due in July 2014.

 

The company has recently announced completing ground-based tow tests, the final steps before airborne captive-carry tests leading up to a glide flight. The company expects to complete the glide flight before the end of 2013.

 

SpaceX will receive $20 million for Dragon Parachute Testing, due in November. Parachutes are used to slow the Dragon capsule during descent once in the atmosphere.

 

Boeing will receive $20 million for a Spacecraft Safety Review due in July 2014.

 

CCiCap is due to wrap up in 2014, bringing all three participants up to Critical Design Review (CDR), the final design review before building the vehicle. The contest is meant to be followed shortly by the recently-announced commercial crew transportation capability (CCtCap), which will fund one or two of the participants through construction and several flights.

 

Dream Chaser Spacecraft Rolls Through Runway Test, Faces New Hurdles

 

Michael Davidson - Xconomy.com

 

The spaceship being built in Colorado continues to make progress here on Earth, although NASA announced Thursday it will have to clear a few more hurdles before reaching space.

 

Sierra Nevada Corp. is designing and building the Dream Chaser spacecraft, which is a privately developed vehicle NASA could use to ferry up to seven astronauts and supplies to the International Space Station. The company has likened the Dream Chaser to the Space Shuttle's little brother, and it would launch on a rocket and land on runways like NASA's former workhorse.

 

SNC currently is testing the vehicle in California at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, which is part of the famed Edwards Air Force Base. A video of the most recent tests is at the bottom of this article.

 

The company is designing and making the vehicle in Louisville, which is about 10 minutes outside Boulder, and Littleton, in the south Denver suburbs.

 

The Dream Chaser just finished a set of ground tests, and now NASA is adding two new milestones designed to test its design and reaction performance. The new tests are modifications of the agreement between the company and NASA under which Dream Chaser could get more than $212 million. They are part of NASA's Commercial Crew Integrated Capability initiative—oh, for the days NASA named programs after the gods—in which SNC is competing against capsules built by Boeing (NYSE: BA) and SpaceX, Elon Musk's company. Of the three vehicles, the Dream Chaser is the only one that can land and taxi like a plane.

 

The craft's first airborne tests are approaching and could be as soon as the end of September, according to Sierra Nevada Corp. They include a test where the vehicle is hoisted around by a helicopter, which is known as a captive carry test, and the first approach and landing free flight test.

 

But before Dream Chaser can fly, it has to prove it can get around on land. It did that in a phase of testing that wrapped up last week.

 

A tow truck towed the Dream Chaser around runways at speeds up to 60 miles per hour before cutting it loose. The trial made sure Dream Chaser met standards for landing and rollout conditions. According to SNC and NASA, the ground tests verified Dream Chaser's flight computer and flight software, instrumentation, guidance, navigation, and control system, braking and steering performance, flight control surface actuation, mission control and remote commanding capability, and landing gear dynamics.

 

Boeing puts airplane feel into latest space capsule

 

Chris Sullivan - KIRO Radio (posted at MyNorthwest.com)

 

 

Building a spaceship and a commercial airplane apparently aren't all that different. That's why the next generation of astronauts might see a lot of familiar features as they head to the International Space Station.

 

Boeing is competing with two other companies to provide the replacement to the Space Shuttle, and should Boeing win the contract, NASA astronauts will see a lot of similarities between their space capsule and the plane they likely flew on to get to the launch site.

 

"We've partnered with Boeing Commercial Airplanes in providing really great innovative technology when it comes to the 'Boeing Edge,' the 'Boeing Look,' when you walk into a Boeing aircraft," CST-100 project engineer Tony Castilleja said. "We want to emulate that in this commercial space vehicle."

 

The seven-person capsule features Boeing's Sky Interior that is one of the new features on the 737, and the seats have been designed with 787 headrests and other comforts borrowed from Boeing's commercial airplane side of the company.

 

"When you walk into a 787 or 737, you see the Boeing Sky Interior, and what we've done is brought that talent down to Houston and modified it for the shape of a space capsule," Castilleja said.

 

The interior really has more of a commercial airplane feel, but it certainly isn't plush, though it is a lot more comfortable looking than the Russian capsule NASA has to book seats on today to get astronauts to the Space Station.

 

The CST-100 is going through astronaut testing this summer. It's first test flight is scheduled for 2016. Flights to the International Space Station are planned for 2017.

 

NASA robot's eyes, ears? Digi International

 

Steve Alexander - Minneapolis Star Tribune

 

An industrial Wi-Fi company with 300 Twin Cities workers finds itself worrying about things like temperatures and radiation in space.

 

Digi International Inc. has a new piece of business providing the eyes and ears of the world's first walking robot astronaut.

 

Robonaut, as NASA calls him, was sent to the International Space Station two years ago for certain maintenance tasks, such as polishing the railings and testing air circulation.

 

An upgrade coming soon will give the robot legs to move about the space station, and NASA hired Digi to provide the main circuitry for the change.

 

The Digi circuit board's processor chip will run Robonaut's five camera "eyes," and the board's Wi-Fi antenna will allow him to "hear" computer commands that tell him what to do next. Most of the time, his masters will be NASA's ground controllers rather than astronauts on the station, said Dan Huot, a spokesman for NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

 

Robonaut is a world apart from Digi's usual business of connecting industrial equipment via Wi-Fi. The Minnetonka-based company, which was founded in 1985 to connect computers to printers, industrial controls and scanners via cables, switched to wireless networking in the early 2000s. It has more than 600 employees worldwide, including about 300 in the Twin Cities.

 

For Robonaut, NASA simply ordered about 100 copies of one of Digi's off-the-shelf circuit boards, which sell for less than $200.

 

"It was a small-dollar purchase, so the research team searched for the best vendor," Huot said. "Digi had the best value for the government at the time."

 

Selling a hundred circuit boards for less than $200 apiece wasn't a big sale for Digi, which last year earned $7.6 million on revenue of $190.6 million. But NASA is a terrific showcase account, said Joel Young, Digi's chief technology officer.

 

"It's a great proof point to show what our technology can do. And if it's used by NASA in Robonaut, think how well it will work for you in your medical device or industrial controller," Young said. "It demonstrates our commitment to quality and reliability. And you expect to get future opportunities, which I hope would be with both NASA and with commercial spinoffs of the technology."

 

One potential customer is General Motors, which is partnering with NASA on the Robonaut project in hopes of learning more about how to build industrial robots that are safe enough to work alongside humans.

 

Even with the Digi circuit board, Robonaut will have a limited run of the space station, Huot said. While the station is about the size of a football field, the inhabited portion is only about the size of a three-bedroom house. Within that space, Robonaut will do cleanup work on the U.S. part of the house. NASA shares control of the station with space agencies from four other countries.

 

"Monotonous, mundane tasks are perfect for a robot," Huot said.

 

But it won't all be dull work. Besides cleaning the space station, Robonaut will also check air circulation, which is critical because in zero-gravity the air doesn't move on its own, Huot said. An astronaut's exhaled breath would stay in front of his or her face, causing oxygen deficit problems. To prevent that, Robonaut will hold a device in front of an air vent to see if the air is being circulated around the space station at the proper speed.

 

And while NASA initially wanted Digi's circuitry to work when Robonaut was inside the space station, the agency said it might someday send Robonaut on a spacewalk.

 

That got Digi executives worrying a little.

 

"This is an off-the-shelf circuit board, not one customized for NASA," Young said. "Normally these circuit boards go into factory process controllers or into medical diagnostic devices."

 

Anxious to make sure the circuit board was up to the task of a spacewalk, Digi tested it for extremes of vibration, such as those it might encounter on a rocket launch, and for susceptibility to radiation, and rapid changes in humidity or temperature, all conditions found in space. The board passed all the tests.

 

"Our product comes with a five-year warranty, and we'll find out if it works that long in space," Young said. "It's a good opportunity for all of us to learn."

 

Leading the end of one space era, and the beginning of another

 

Lillian Cunningham - Washington Post

 

In the Summer of 2011, Administrator Charles Bolden led the end of an era for NASA–the shuttering of its longstanding space shuttle program. A year later, he oversaw the landing of the Curiosity Rover on Mars, and the beginning of a new phase for America's exploration of space. Now, a year after that, he reflects on the leadership challenges and the organizational changes that have accompanied NASA's shift. Bolden spoke with the Post's Lillian Cunningham in this interview for the On Leadership series.

 

In this "Micro Management Stories" video, you can watch him speak about the emotional end of the shuttle program. You can also read the longer version of his interview in the text below. It has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

 

Q. How would you characterize your leadership style?

 

A. I'm not a blunt person by any stretch of the imagination. I'm probably too easy and I could be more direct, but I just never learned how to do that. I find that very difficult. But I try to be very truthful, and I try to make sure I'm giving people my honest assessment, whether they like it or not. I tell my NASA employees the only thing I want from them is the technically correct answer. I don't ever want them to think about politics, even though we're at NASA headquarters. There are a couple of us in the agency who get paid to think politically, and they're not among them.

 

I'm interested in your reflections on the end of the shuttle program, because that has to have been the biggest organizational change NASA has yet faced. What would you say the greatest leadership challenge was?

 

Probably the biggest challenge was helping people to understand that the thing we all knew we needed to do, it was now time to do. The nation expects us to be explorers. They expect us to be dreamers. We knew that eventually we needed to phase out of shuttle and get NASA to phase into exploration and let industry take over the issue of access to low Earth orbit.

 

We're a huge contractor workforce, literally tens of thousands of people. At the height of shuttle, we probably had 100,000 contractors working for NASA, most supporting the space shuttle. That was their life, and we had to help them understand that they had made an incredible contribution, but it was time to move on.

 

What has it been like to go through that downsizing? How did you do it?

 

With great difficulty. I always refer to NASA as a family. There's the immediate family, and then all the other people—all the cousins that come along. Our contractors are all the cousins in the family. And as much as you love them, they're there because you don't have enough family members to do everything you need to do. The gut-wrenching, really hard work of operating a shuttle, preparing it for each flight, was done by the massive contractor workforce, and that was United Space Alliance (USA).

 

When we finished the last flight, Atlantis was the cleanest vehicle we ever had. They were very proud of that. They wanted to make sure that, if somebody changed their mind, Atlantis would be able to turn around and go fly again. You had no idea—no idea—of the loyalty of the workforce. Those were contractors, and they worked right until the very last day as if they were getting ready to fly again.

 

I remember running on the beach down at the Cape, where my wife and I had gone down for STS-135 [the final mission of the shuttle program]. You always run into people. I was up one morning running on the beach, and I passed this young couple. They were middle aged, and they stopped me and they said, "Are you Charlie Bolden?" And I said, "Yeah." They said, "We work for USA." And I figured, oh my gosh. These guys are going to give me some sob story and they're going to make me really feel bad. But they said, "We just want to let you know, we are as proud as we can be. We voluntarily decided that we'd take a buyout, because we feel there are people who have not had the experience we had. We've done all we can do. We just want to thank you for having had the opportunity."

 

And I, right there on the beach, I kind of just collapsed.

 

They are just incredible people. And not many people in government, except maybe military, have an opportunity to be around people like that—who are that dedicated, that motivated and that flexible to go with programs that we evolve because the Congress or the White House or somebody else says let's go do that. So I'm a blessed person to have an opportunity to be around them and work with them.

 

What about some of the talent issues you've faced as a result—morale within the organization, retention, attracting the new talent you need especially given the budding commercial space industry?

 

The one thing about NASA is that there is no retention issue and there is no recruiting issue. We cannot hire the people who want to come work for us and who represent an incredible wealth of potential for the future workforce, and so that's a leadership challenge for us. Under this constrained budget environment, we've had to impose a type of hiring freeze. The way we've chosen to do it since I've been administrator is we have a two-for-one policy, where we have to have two people leave the workforce in order to bring one on board. What we're looking for are what we call "fresh outs"—we want people fresh out of college, we want people from other professions, we want new ideas to help us as we try to mature NASA into an organization that's dedicated to exploration.

 

We have an aging workforce, and that's because people love what they do, and we don't have a lot of talent that's leaving. So our problems are trying to right size the workforce while making sure we're getting in fresh blood, fresh ideas.

 

So you don't see the commercial space industry as a competitor for talent?

 

Quite the contrary. The commercial space industry is an absolute necessity for our success. We've tried to explain that to Congress, and I think very slowly they're understanding. If we aren't able to facilitate the success of a commercial space industry, we're going to be reliant on the Russians in perpetuity to get our astronauts to and from space. We don't want to be there. We don't want to be where we are. We just paid $454 million a few months ago to extend our dependence on the Russians for Soyuz flights to the International Space Station. That was for one flight up and one flight back—$73 million per seat to another country. The American public should demand that if we're going to spend that kind of money, it ought to be spent on American companies. Commercial space is going to be the lifeblood for NASA and the nation, and it's going to be the only way that we can do exploration.

 

What's the biggest management challenge you face today with NASA?

 

I've got ton of managers, and we can get the job done. Our challenge is leadership. And the biggest leadership challenge today is keeping the workforce motivated, keeping the workforce believing that we are doing what the nation wants us to do. Leadership-wise, the biggest challenge is also to get the American public to believe in what we do and the fact that it's important. If the American public decides that they don't mind having another nation replace us as the leader in the world in terms of exploration and scientific discovery, I will regret that because it will mean that I've worked all my life to keep us No. 1 and the Congress and the American public have decided that's not important.

 

If we're not able to continue on the march of exploration toward doing what the president asked us to do—humans to an asteroid in 2025, humans on Mars in 2030—it's a generational thing. It will not be me, and it will not be my granddaughters unfortunately who will be the first people to set foot on Mars. It will be their grandkids. It'll skip a couple of generations.

 

So you see your leadership challenge today more as an external one with Congress and the public than an internal one with NASA employees?

 

I have spent the vast majority of my life leading from a second-place position. I always tell people, I love being a deputy. The job of a leader who's not out front is to influence, and a good leader prepares and influences the real leader, helps them understand and get focused on the mission. You could talk to anyone at NASA and they probably know more detail about everything we do than I do. I can't possibly know what everybody else knows, and so their job is to influence me. My job is to influence Congress and the White House.

 

That's my job—to influence decision makers, to influence members of Congress to drop all this stuff about 'if the president suggested it, we're not going to vote for it.' And that's all it is right now. Space has never been a partisan activity until now.

 

Does the asteroid redirect mission, in which you send an astronaut to one that's in lunar orbit, fulfill President Obama's goal of going to an asteroid in 2025?

 

My answer is going to be flaky. The first segment we've got to do. We've got to identify and characterize many more asteroids than we have done so far. That's essential for the protection of the planet. That's critical.

 

The second segment, which is the redirect mission—it's a robotic mission, it doesn't involve humans at all—that's really necessary for us to develop the technologies that we need to advance exploration. Is it absolutely necessary before you send humans to Mars to do that? No, but it sure would be nice to have all that risk brought down because you've done it with the asteroid redirect mission. If that's successful and then we can get humans to an asteroid in lunar orbit, that more than fulfills my understanding of the president's direction.

 

And this is subtle. I have this discussion with my science friends all the time and those who are purist. The president said by 2025 we should send humans to an asteroid. What he meant was, you should send humans to somewhere between Mars and Saturn, because that's where the dominant asteroids in the asteroid belt are. But no, he didn't say that. He said: humans to an asteroid.

 

There are a lot of different ways to do that. There are probably thousands of ways to do it. I think we have come up with the most practical way, given our budgetary constraints today. We're bringing the asteroid to us.

 

And so whether I put an astronaut on an asteroid that's in lunar orbit or put an astronaut on an asteroid that's still in orbit around the sun between Mars and Jupiter, I don't care. What's important is: Have them there.

 

Fly me to the moon!

Why the future of space exploration will be crowd-funded

 

Arion McNicoll - CNN

 

In the halcyon days of space exploration, when the USSR was sending the very first satellites into orbit, and Neil Armstrong was about to take his first (small) steps on the moon, NASA's finances accounted for a staggering 4.41% of the US federal budget. In the last two years, that figure has dropped below 0.50% for the first time since 1960, and with the long, slow decline in funding has come an equally steady slide in the US government's appetite for space exploration.

 

Two years ago, many commentators were proclaiming the end of the space age. The contention seemed hard to dispute: in 2011, NASA's Space Shuttle program was permanently retired when the Atlantis touched down to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, after completing its final voyage. Around the same time, plans for a U.S.-manned mission to Mars were shelved, and steps were put in place to decommission the International Space Station.

 

But as governmental funds have dried up, amateur space enthusiasts around the world are reviving humanity's interplanetary dreams through crowd-researched and crowd-funded space projects of their own.

 

The idea of crowd funding, where a large number of individuals pledge a small amount of cash towards a big project, may not be new, but it has been given a new lease on life through websites such as Kickstarter, which help people with innovative ideas reach a global audience. To date, Kickstarter has helped fund films, video games, electronics and more. Recently though, Kickstarter, and other sites like it, have begun to be used to fund missions to the final frontier.

 

To date, many of these projects have been relatively modest in scale and ambition, with sorties only as far as Earth's low orbit. But some are attempting to recapture the spirit of President John F. Kennedy's potent 1962 speech: "We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade."

 

The most ambitious and headline grabbing of them all is a new crowd-researched venture to send a manned submarine to Jupiter's ice moon, Europa.

 

Yes, you read that right. The fledgling mission hopes to take an amphibious vehicle farther than humanity has ever traveled before, to dive deep into the freezing oceans of Europa. At the moment, the project simply aims to connect people around the world to begin researching the mission -- funding for the operation will come much later.

 

Kristian von Bengtson is the man behind the audacious scheme. von Bengtson has spent the last five years working on crowd-funded rocket projects alongside his business partner Peter Madsen. Their organization, Copenhagen Suborbitals, has grown from a two-man team into a volunteer army of 45 full- and part-time collaborators with an annual crowd-sourced budget of around $400,000.

 

Europa is regarded as a suitable destination for human exploration due to the commonly held theory that beneath its icy surface lie great oceans of water in liquid form. Scientists suggest that Europa is one of the most likely locations in the Solar System to be capable of hosting extra-terrestrial life. Some have postulated that microbial life akin to that found in Earth's deepest oceans may already exist there. So compelling is this possibility that the European Space Agency is planning a mission to send a robot to Europa in 2022.

 

For von Bengtson though, sending robots into space holds no interest. "If you send a piece of equipment to a part of space then you didn't actually go there ... Robots are stupid mindless machines. They are not curious, they don't come up with ideas or solutions."

 

von Bengtson's project is not without its critics. In an article on the online tech magazine Motherboard, Fran Bagenal, a professor of astrophysical and planetary sciences at the University of Colorado, says: "What's the point of sending humans? What can they do that robots cannot do better? And robots do not need to breathe, eat, drink, excrete or come back. And robots have better bodies, eyes, hands, noses, ears -- and brains."

 

von Bengtson's understands the criticism, but says that working towards a manned mission to Jupiter's moon fulfills another critical purpose: to inspire. He says that inspiring people is essential to kickstarting the kinds of discussions he hopes the operation will produce.

 

"If we had talked about putting a solar panel into the sky, I guarantee we would not have got a dime in crowd funding. You need to have both the human and the pioneering aspect to attract interest."

 

Away from Operation Europa, von Bengtson and Madsen have aimed to muster this same enthusiasm to build support for their project to send a manned rocket into space. The Danish designer estimates that with the support he has received online, the project could come to fruition by 2020: "we are in a completely different age now," von Bengtson says. "You can reach everybody around the world. With the internet you can share your thoughts and ideas immediately and you can send money around the world. Copenhagen Suborbitals wouldn't be possible if you didn't have the internet. Everybody is able to join forces."

 

Other projects have found similar success online. Aerospace engineer Zac Manchester hit the fundraising target for his project to launch a hundred micro satellites after just two weeks. His experiment aims to test the communication capacities of small spacecraft, as well as determine how long they can stay in orbit and how well their electronics hold up in the harsh environment of space. The Cornell University graduate is looking forward to seeing his project launch in December.

 

One of Manchester's former research associates, Michael Johnson, has a similarly ambitious project called Pocket Spacecraft that allows anyone to buy into a mission to send a thousand tiny spacecraft to the moon. Investors will be able to track their small ship, from its design and construction through to launch and onward to the moon.

 

Johnson says that the project is about "democratizing interplanetary space exploration." He hopes that experiments such as this will help build a new enthusiasm around space research. "We're building new tools," Johnson says, "so that one day every child will be able to send their own spacecraft on a robotic field trip in space."

 

Talking about his own project to CNN, Manchester said: "I think that crowd funding is enabling new types of missions to be flown - smaller, cheaper, and riskier missions - that may not have been funded under traditional models. It is not going to replace the multi-billion dollar national space programs. Those programs, in fact, did the basic research that has enabled the current crop of crowd-funded space projects, including my own. The kind of sustained long-term research that governments have traditionally funded is still very much needed and I hope that it continues."

 

von Bengtson agrees, adding that his own work is only possible because of research that has already been done by governmental space programs: "we are standing on the shoulders of, well, everyone," he says.

 

The work being done by this new breed of innovative crowd-funded and crowd-researched projects allows people around the world to actively get involved in space exploration. von Bengtson and others like him want to inspire not through mounting monolithic projects that are out of reach, but by opening the process up and inviting people to get involved.

 

"If they want, our donors can come to Denmark and see the test of our rocket engines for free. Many like to do that, but most are just happy to be a part of the project. They find it important, and they find it interesting to follow ... That dialogue is very important."

 

What does a $250,000 ticket to space with Virgin Galactic actually buy you?

 

Daisy Carrington - CNN

 

For decades, none but a few privileged -- and highly trained -- individuals could dare dream of traveling beyond Earth's orbit. All that's set to change as Richard Branson brings space exploration to the (mega-rich) masses.

 

In April, Virgin Galactic -- a subsidiary of Branson's Virgin Group -- hit a milestone. The rocket motor the company had been testing on the ground was fitted into SpaceShip Two, the spacecraft that, from next year onwards, will bring space travel to the general public.

 

"We lit the rocket motor for the first time in the air and the spaceship went through the sound barrier," recalls Stephen Attenborough, Virgin Galactic's commercial director.

 

"It was a hugely significant milestone for us, and in many ways, the last big piece of the jigsaw."

 

Though a ticket aboard SpaceShip Two doesn't come cheap -- a seat currently costs $250,000 -- Attenborough maintains that as things stand, the fare is a relative bargain.

 

"It's still about 1% of the price you would have needed to pay to go to space as a private citizen before now," maintains Attenborough. Indeed, in the past, the privilege cost civilians a fair share. When Dennis Tito, the world's first "space tourist" bought a seat aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft in 2001, it allegedly cost him nearly $20 million.

 

Though flights won't commence until next year at the earliest, Virgin Galactic has already sold 640 seats to space enthusiasts the world over. For some, the cost is negligible. Others, though, have taken second mortgages on their homes to pay for the tickets.

 

So what does $250,000 buy you?

 

The experience starts with three days of training at Spaceport America in New Mexico.

 

"There's a lot to do with getting you psychologically prepared for a trip that is absolutely about sensory overload," says Attenborough.

 

The flight itself accommodates six passengers, lasts two and a half hours, and culminates with congratulatory champagne at the spaceport. Space travelers get to leave their seats to experience several minutes of zero-gravity, and perhaps the most iconic view ever afforded mankind.

 

"Ultimately, you get memories to last a lifetime -- a trip I think will just blow people away. When talking to professional astronauts of the past, they don't talk about (their experiences) for a day or a year, they talk about it for the rest of their lives."

 

Still, there are many enthusiasts eager to see the price drop, not the least of whom is American astronaut Buzz Aldrin. Aldrin recalls the first time he heard the concept of private space travel debated in a meeting room 25 years ago.

 

"Somebody said, 'How are we going to select (who gets to fly to space)?' Someone in the back of the room said, 'How about a lottery?' Man, my ears perked up at that, and I became a devotee of a lottery to select people."

 

The civilian lottery is the basis of Aldrin's non-profit, SpaceShare.

 

"I wasn't interested in a big pay-off of the profit made. I was interested in exposing space to a large number of people," he says.

 

Attenborough himself is eager to see the price drop.

 

"This is not just a business for Virgin. It's about the creation of a new and important industry that is going to transform space access. One of the byproducts of that is there will be competition, there will be economies of scale, and we should see the price go down," he says.

 

"Hopefully there will be a large, thriving, vibrant industry that will make it possible for most people to go into space in my lifetime."

 

END