Happy Monday everyone.
| | JSC TODAY CATEGORIES - Headlines
- Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee's Toys for Kids
- Pumps & Pipes - Today!
- Got a Moment to Spare? - Organizations/Social
- Starport's Weekly Holiday Sale
- Presale: Monster Jam & Sesame Street Tickets
- AIAA Houston Section Lunch and Learn: Space 3.0
- Greening Our JSC Cafés
- Starport Book Fair - Tomorrow in Building 3 Caf - Jobs and Training
- A Discussion on Sponsors
- Where Do I Find Job Opportunities? - Community
- Visit the Combined Federal Campaign Charity Fair |  |
| Headlines - Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee's Toys for Kids
We still need eight more volunteers to staff an exhibit for the 2013 U.S. Representative Sheila Jackson Lee Toys for Kids event at the George R. Brown (GRB) Convention Center Saturday, Dec. 14, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Won't you consider being a part of this really fun, high-energy event? Hundreds of disadvantaged kids in Houston will be able to learn about NASA, get autographs from astronauts - and oh, by the way - visit with Santa and get a toy or two. Transportation will be provided to/from the GRB! To sign up, check out the event page on the V-CORPs website, or email V-CORPs at V-CORPs admin. While you are on the V-CORPs website, take a look at the many, many opportunities we have. Click on the "current volunteer opportunities" tile to see a list of upcoming events. You can sign up right from that list if you're signed in. Not yet a V-CORPs volunteer? It's easy to sign up - just click on the COUNT ME IN button on the V-CORPs website. Be sure to check back frequently - new events are added almost every day! - Pumps & Pipes - Today!
The annual Pumps & Pipes meeting is TODAY and is being streamed live from 8 a.m. to 5:15 p.m. You are encouraged to join other JSC employees in the conference room in Building 1, Room 360A, to watch the conference proceedings. This will be a fantastic opportunity to gain insight into how the medical, oil and gas, and aerospace communities solve similar problems differently, and perhaps add a few tools to your own problem-solving tool-box! This is the seventh meeting of the Pumps & Pipes consortium, which began on a chance meeting between Houston Methodist cardiac surgeons and ExxonMobil oil pipeline engineers. They realized both industries deal with similar issues (assuring fluid flow through pumps and pipes), but approach them from very different perspectives. The aerospace industry joined Pumps & Pipes last December, and Ellen Ochoa is a co-director. She is scheduled to speak at 8:30 a.m.; other JSC employees will be speaking during the event as well. For the agenda and live streaming from your desk, surf here. - Got a Moment to Spare?
The Office of the Chief Knowledge Officer is conducting research on the usability and satisfaction of the JSC Search interface. Over the next two months we will be releasing surveys to gather your thoughts on the usability/ functionality of the search interface, as well as the satisfaction on the result set presented. The survey only takes a moment and serves as a great opportunity to help improve a vital resource to the center! All submissions are anonymous, and every response will be evaluated. Please support this project by clicking on the link to take the first survey. Thank you! Organizations/Social - Starport's Weekly Holiday Sale
The Starport Gift Shops will offer special savings every week now through Christmas. This week, take 15 percent off Guildan cotton NASA golf shirts and infant wear and accessories. Also, get 10 percent off models and ornaments. Watch your JSC Today to see what's on sale next week. Shop Starport and save every day throughout the holiday season. - Presale: Monster Jam & Sesame Street Tickets
Starport is currently accepting PRESALE orders for Monster Jam and Sesame Street tickets as follows: Monster Jam 2014: Reliant Stadium. Super saver tickets only available at $23 for adults and $6.50 for children (pit pass included). Jan. 18 at 7 p.m., Section 138, Rows W-Y; and Feb. 1 at 7 p.m., Section 135, Rows GG-JJ. Sesame Street Live "Make a New Friend:" Reliant Arena. Saturday, Feb. 8, at 5:30 p.m., Section 206, Rows 10-11; and Sunday, Feb. 9, at 2 p.m., Section 106, Rows 11-12. The last day to purchase tickets is Dec. 20. - AIAA Houston Section Lunch and Learn: Space 3.0
Please bring your lunch and join us as Dr. Michael Lembeck, vice president of Operations and FDOC program manager for Cimarron, presents "Space 3.0: How to be Successful Without Drinking the Kool-Aid." Lembeck is also a senior project integration engineer for Boeing's CST-100 commercial crew vehicle. For more information, please visit the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Houston Section website. - Greening Our JSC Cafés
Are you curious about what the JSC cafés are doing to go green? Join us tomorrow, Dec. 10, in the Building 3 Collaboration Center from 11:30 a.m. to noon for a lunchtime discussion on "Greening Our JSC Cafés." - Starport Book Fair - Tomorrow in Building 3 Café
Come and enjoy the Books Are Fun book fair held in the Building 3 café tomorrow, Dec. 10, and Wednesday, Dec. 11, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Search through more than 250 great titles in children's books, cookbooks, general interest books, New York Times bestsellers, stationary and scrapbooking, music collections and more, all at unbelievable prices. These make great holiday gifts! Click here for more information. Jobs and Training - A Discussion on Sponsors
Date: Dec. 13 Time: 11 a.m. to noon Venue: Building 30 Auditorium Panelists: Yolanda Marshall, director, Strategic Opportunities & Partnership Development Paul Hill, director, Mission Operations Natalie Saiz, director, Human Resources Lon Miller, ESC senior vice president, Jacobs Engineering Have you ever wondered: - What's the difference between a mentor and a sponsor?
- Why is sponsorship critical to my advancement?
- Are mentors and sponsors the same or different people?
- How do I get a sponsor?
Make plans to attend. Seating will be limited. For more information, contact Sheela Logan, x34214, or John Clayborne, x37077. - Where Do I Find Job Opportunities?
To help you navigate to JSC vacancies, use the filter drop-down menu and select "JSC HR." The "Jobs" link will direct you to the USAJOBS website for the complete announcement and the ability to apply online. If you have questions about any JSC job vacancies, please call your HR representative. Community - Visit the Combined Federal Campaign Charity Fair
Stop by Building 3 and chat with representatives from several Combined Federal Campaign (CFC)-eligible charity organizations and see what a difference your gift, large and small, can make in the lives of many. Don't believe a $1 a week gift makes a difference? - 12 elementary school students with trained volunteer tutors to help with reading and math
- 10 children with bilingual beginning-to-read books to build early literacy skills
- Three 30-minute appointments for health assessment and counseling for an individual facing physical, developmental or mental health challenges
- One acre of unprotected tropical rainforest, which assures protection of the natural areas vital to our climate and diverse species
- One hour of expert training for a citizen's group interested in preserving natural areas in their communities
… all for just $52 a year! One-time check or cash donations designated to the charity of your choice will be accepted during the fair. | |
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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. |
NASA and Human Spaceflight News
Monday – December 9, 2013
HEADLINES AND LEADS
Why is China targeting the moon -- and should NASA as well?
Jeremy A. Kaplan – FOX News
Americans from Buzz Aldrin to President Barack Obama say it's a waste of time to put men back on the moon -- so why are foreign countries so eager to take that one small step?
The new space race: It's not just the U.S. and Russia anymore
There are now many space programs, both national and private. And that's good for science.
Louis Friedman– Los Angeles Times
Some 10 years ago, during testimony before Congress, I was asked by Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), "Do you think we are in a space race with China?" I quickly answered "no" and proceeded to explain that, in my view, the concept of a space race represented old thinking. The modern way forward in space would be through international cooperation and coordination. International Space Station set to turn 15
James Dean – Florida Today
Everyone wanted to know: Who would be the first person to enter the new International Space Station? Bob Cabana, commander of the shuttle mission responsible for linking the station's first pieces together, wouldn't tell the press or even his own crew.
Value Added: Dulles-based Orbital Sciences explores outer space for dollars
Thomas Heath – The Washington Post
Space travel isn't limited to the dreams of entrepreneurs looking to explore new worlds after making their billions of dollars on terra firma.
NASA Astronauts To Fly as 'Participants' on Commercial Space Taxis, FAA Rules
Irene Klotz – Space News
NASA astronauts will fly as "space flight participants" aboard commercial spaceships being developed to taxi crews to and from the international space station, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Office of Commercial Space Transportation has determined.
Small steps to Mars are a big leap for Indian companies
Shyamantha Asokan –Reuters
Indian companies that built most of the parts for the country's recently launched Mars mission are using their low-cost, high-tech expertise in frugal space engineering to compete for global aerospace, defence and nuclear contracts worth billions.
U.S. House Approves One-year Launch Indemnity Extension
Dan Leone – Space News
The same week Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) launched its first commercial satellite, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a compromise bill that, at the behest of House Democrats who say they favor a broader revision of existing commercial space legislation, would extend the current indemnity regime for U.S. commercial launch companies for only a year.
COMPLETE STORIES
Why is China targeting the moon -- and should NASA as well?
Jeremy A. Kaplan – FOX News
Americans from Buzz Aldrin to President Barack Obama say it's a waste of time to put men back on the moon -- so why are foreign countries so eager to take that one small step?
While several private American companies are planning robotic missions to the moon, China launched a man-sized robotic scout to the moon on Monday. The country's recent manned missions and efforts to build a new space base suggest a future manned mission to the moon, though why is an open question. Speculation has run from the desire to build a military missile base -- a Death Star of sorts -- to national pride to simple economics.
The answer may be far simpler: The moon is "easy" to get to.
"If you're still trying to test out your space legs, it's a great place to do it," said one NASA engineer familiar with the agency's plans. NASA's current space agenda includes a highly challenging project to tow an asteroid back to Earth, as well as transporting men to Mars within two decades -- projects of vast technical complexity compared with the moon landings America ended four decades ago.
'NASA is not going to the moon with a human as a primary project probably in my lifetime.'
- NASA administrator Charles Bolden
"Mars and the asteroid mission is just clearly not something most of them can even fathom taking a major role in, whereas going to the moon is something that they can do, as the Chinese have proven," he said.
Others, including a chorus of ex-astronauts and policy experts, argue that NASA is making a mistake by ignoring the moon, which still fascinates the Earthbound. Only 12 men have ever set foot on the moon, Americans all of them, the last one 41 years ago.
Dennis Wingo, a space entrepreneur and author of the book "MoonRush," thinks the Chinese mission is about supporting the world's exploding population.
"China is spending billions on resource acquisition in Africa, South America and other places around the world," he told FoxNews.com. "If you look at the design of their system for this mission, it is very much a mineral prospector as much as a science mission." Yet America will not return to the moon, NASA administrator Charlie Bolden makes clear.
"NASA is not going to the moon with a human as a primary project probably in my lifetime," Bolden said at an April panel in Washington. Bolden acknowledged the worldwide interest in putting men back on the moon -- and said he was willing to help out any other nation in their efforts.
"They all have dreams of putting humans on the Moon," he said. "I have told every head of agency of every partner agency that if you assume the lead in a human lunar mission, NASA will be a part of that."
NASA echoed that sentiment today, telling FoxNews.com that it is working with international partners to plan missions to the moon and elsewhere. "The Global Exploration Roadmap we recently released is a clear signal that the global community is committed to working together on a unified deep-space exploration strategic plan, with robotic and human missions to destinations that include near-Earth asteroids, the moon and Mars," NASA's David Weaver said.
That's fine with some, including legendary moonwalker Buzz Armstrong himself.
"Do not put NASA astronauts on the moon. They have other places to go," Aldrin said in his book, "Mission to Mars: My Vision for Space Exploration." Aldrin argues that NASA should strive to put humans on Mars instead. But other experts call America's agenda a profound oversight.
"Our political system made a possibly fatal mistake in 1968 [by] shifting the entire focus of the American government from one of forward looking future-supporting projects such as the interstate highway system, advanced aerospace, and space development," Wingo said. "We are reaping the fruits of that mistake today."
The NASA engineer described the situation as complicated, partly due to politics.
"George Bush was going to the moon, and when the new administration came in they were looking for something to do," he told FoxNews.com. It's clear that the far more scientifically challenging mission to an asteroid isn't resonating, said Albert Carnesale, former chancellor of UCLA and chair of a recently completed National Academies Committees on NASA's Strategic Direction.
"The asteroid mission clearly had not been accepted either within or without the NASA community as a next step," Carnesale told FoxNews.com. It may be time to reconsider our missions, some suggest, especially if you could find innovative ways to get to the moon. And several U.S. companies have been working on just that. The latest is Moon Express, which will unveil the MX-1 spacecraft at the Autodesk University show in Las Vegas Thursday evening -- the micro-spacecraft that will in 2015 mark the first U.S. soft landing on the moon since the days of the Apollo program.
The craft looks for all the world like two stacked donuts wearing an ice cream cone, and the tiny vehicle clearly isn't big enough for a human being. It's just big enough to scoop up some rocks and dirt and return to Earth. Moon Express plans to mine our satellite, and NASA endorses that idea.
"NASA ... supports commercial exploration of the moon," Weaver said. "We have solicited ideas from industry to help stimulate commercial robotic lunar transportation services as the first step in assessing interest for public-private partnerships to jointly develop a robotic lander that could demonstrate technologies and enable research opportunities for government and commercial customers on the moon."
Bigelow Aerospace's CEO recently said he wanted to sell property on the moon, a Japanese firm suggested a solar panel ring around the moon, and China's Chang'e 3 lander -- which should touch down on the moon in mid-December -- will be the first controlled landing since the Soviet Union's Luna-24 mission in 1976.
China's mission could serve as a wake-up call to the world, Moon Express CEO Bob Richards said.
"We're kind of waiting to see if it's the Sputnik of our generation," he told FoxNews.com. The new space race: It's not just the U.S. and Russia anymore
There are now many space programs, both national and private. And that's good for science.
Louis Friedman– Los Angeles Times
Some 10 years ago, during testimony before Congress, I was asked by Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), "Do you think we are in a space race with China?" I quickly answered "no" and proceeded to explain that, in my view, the concept of a space race represented old thinking. The modern way forward in space would be through international cooperation and coordination. Today, I think my insistence that the space race was over was naive. There are now many space races. One is taking place between China and India, dramatized by India's launch of a Mars orbiter last month and China's launch this month of a lunar lander and rover. China also attempted a Mars orbiter last year, and India has already conducted a successful moon orbiter mission.
Japan is moving forward with lunar and asteroid missions, including one that will attempt to bring a second asteroid sample back to Earth next year. Europe, meanwhile, is planning a mission to rendezvous with a comet next year and two Mars missions this decade. Russia is tripling its space budget and has lunar and Mars missions lined up for this decade; Russia also recently started development on a new rocket for deep space missions.
And there are private entrants in the race as well, with ambitions to explore Mars or the moon, to observe asteroids, to commercially develop space resources and to promote space tourism.
One contest inherent in the new space race is between humans and robots. The competition is not merely about which is better suited to explore space but also about which is better able to excite future generations about the prospects for interacting with space. Although there is, of course, a role for both humans and robots, I am a human chauvinist: I want humans to explore other worlds (at least get to Mars) before we become satisfied with the advances of virtual world exploration of the universe by robots.
Politically, all these space races are important, with India, China and the United States all launching important missions in the second half of this year. The Indian Mars mission has generated controversy, with critics questioning why India should spend precious money on such an elitist venture.
Bijal Thakore, a young Indian female engineer and business consultant, effectively answered that question in a recent blog, pointing out: "The Indian space program is resolute as always in its purpose to contribute both toward economical and social development of its people. An emerging country like India needs to diversify its unique proposition as an international player within technology, and the space program has been an important tool ever since the vision of a future India was forged by its leaders at independence."
Several years ago in Beijing I happened to get into a conversation with a family while I was eating alone in a restaurant. After preliminary small talk, I asked the mother what she thought about the Chinese moon mission. She considered it a waste of money and human resources, she said, for a country with so much poverty. But her 12-year-old daughter disagreed: Space exploration was a great thing for China to be doing.
I agree. It's important to remember that the money spent on space is spent here on Earth, employing people in numerous fields. We don't explore Mars for the Martians; we do it because it makes us better: technically, scientifically, educationally, economically and even culturally.
Exploring space vastly broadens the horizons of children like that Chinese 12-year-old. It inspires us to solve problems and look beyond our Earthbound concerns to the vastness of what exists beyond our planet.
There will be those who want to focus narrowly on winning a space race with China. But we'll do much better if we compete and cooperate to advance a single goal: moving the planet forward in space. Doing so will take humans of all nationalities as well as robots; it will take private development and government ventures; it will take cooperating with other countries, while still trying to be the best.
Imagine inviting the Chinese to the International Space Station and using that as a springboard for sending humans into the solar system. Our space program then will be serving even a greater geopolitical purpose than it did with Apollo: creating a positive future for the world, with America leading by achievement.
Louis Friedman is executive director emeritus and co-founder of the Planetary Society, and co-leader of the Asteroid Retrieval Mission Study at Caltech's Keck Institute for Space Studies.
International Space Station set to turn 15
James Dean – Florida Today
Everyone wanted to know: Who would be the first person to enter the new International Space Station?
Bob Cabana, commander of the shuttle mission responsible for linking the station's first pieces together, wouldn't tell the press or even his own crew.
The answer came on Dec. 10, 1998 — 15 years ago Tuesday — when hatches to the U.S. Unity node and Russian-built Zarya module swung open for the first time in space.
Side by side, Cabana and cosmonaut crewmate Sergei Krikalev floated through.
"It was an International Space Station, and I felt it very important that we enter as an international crew," Cabana, a four-time shuttle flyer who has led Kennedy Space Center since 2008, told FLORIDA TODAY in a recent interview.
NASA and its 15 international partners are celebrating the station's birth 15 years ago this month, and its growth into a research complex weighing over a million pounds and stretching longer than an American football field.
Crews have lived there continuously for more than 13 years, with six-person expeditions now the norm.
Orbiting 260 miles above Earth, the station is now the centerpiece of the U.S. human spaceflight program, though it is just starting to tap its potential as a national laboratory and faces questions about its long-term future.
It all started on Nov. 20, 1998, when Cabana's five crewmates gathered at his Houston home for dinner and NASA TV coverage of the launch of the Functional Cargo Block, known as Zarya ("star"), atop a Proton rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome.
"It was bated breath, for sure," Cabana remembered. "We knew that once Zarya got safely on orbit, we had a mission two weeks later. So we were all elated when everything went well."
Endeavour blasted off Dec. 4 with the Node 1, or Unity, in its payload bay.
The shuttle crew attached Unity to the orbiter's docking port with a robotic arm, then got ready to grab Zarya.
Cabana remembers seeing the 41-foot long, 50,000-pound Russian module get bigger and bigger as Endeavour approached.
At one point, a firing of the shuttle's attitude thrusters resulted in Zarya suddenly sliding dangerously into the payload bay.
"I fired the thrusters to get away from it and it didn't move, it kept coming," Cabana said. "For a while there, it was a little bit tense."
Once everything was lined up properly, the modules were connected slowly but smoothly on Dec. 6, and the International Space Station was born.
"Those two modules came together, and have been joined ever since, Russians and Americans in space," Cabana said.
Two spacewalks to connect cables and install antennas set the stage for the shuttle crew of five Americans and Krikalev to enter for the first time.
"It was everything that we hoped for, to be inside the space station, to get to work inside there, to prepare it for the first crew," Cabana said. "That was a special day."
Assembly continued through the final shuttle missions in 2011, adding girders, solar arrays and modules from the U.S., Russia, Europe and Japan, and robotic systems from Canada, at an estimated $100 billion.
The job required scores of spacewalks and hit few major snags for such a complex project.
Cabana now sees the station as a critical proving ground for technologies and research about living in microgravity that will be needed for longer missions to a destination like Mars. He believes the international collaboration will serve as a model for exploration missions farther out into space.
The station is scheduled to operate through 2020, but NASA hopes it can be extended as long as 2028, which studies have shown is technically feasible.
But there are already doubts about whether a tightening budget will force NASA to choose between continued ISS operations into the next decade or development of systems for human exploration beyond Earth.
"I don't think that we need to choose," Cabana said. "I think they work together."
As long as it is flying, Cabana can see the station in the sky and remembers — like it was yesterday — putting the first pieces together and what it was like being among the first to set foot inside the ISS.
"It's really neat to know that I had a role to play in that," he said. "It's very special to see that bright star in the sky in the early evening or late morning as it goes overhead."
Value Added: Dulles-based Orbital Sciences explores outer space for dollars
Thomas Heath – The Washington Post
Space travel isn't limited to the dreams of entrepreneurs looking to explore new worlds after making their billions of dollars on terra firma.
David W. Thompson, 58, has made space travel his life's work. He runs Orbital Sciences, a profitable space exploration company in Dulles. It employs 3,600 people, half of whom are rocket scientists. About 2,000 of Orbital's employees work in the Washington area. Most of the others are at Orbital's rocket factory in Arizona.
Orbital has designed and built nearly 1,000 rockets and satellites in the past three decades, sending aloft commercial and science gear and military spy gizmos. The company launches its rockets from all major U.S. spaceports, including Wallops Island, a remote stretch off Virginia's Eastern Shore.
The company touches Americans more than they know.
"If you, as virtually all American households do, have something other than over-the-air television . . . you are almost certainly getting that programming, at least in part, through satellites that we built," Thompson said.
Orbital — based in a series of buildings on Warp Drive (yes, that's the name of the street) — basks in its gee-whiz glamour. It names its conference rooms after space scientists. It hires former astronauts. Its satellite factory in Dulles looks like a science-fiction movie set.
Thompson's light-filled office reflects a career that includes stops at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Caltech, Harvard, NASA and Hughes Aircraft. Rocket and airplane models, even a chair from the Harvard Business School, decorate the spacious quarters.
Orbital's mission has been to unlock the commercial possibilities of outer space, making it affordable for clients and profitable for shareholders.
The company earned $61 million last year on revenue of $1.43 billion. Orbital has made money in all but a couple of the 22 years it has been a publicly traded firm.
Orbital's revenue is sourced about equally between commercial customers, the defense industry and civil government agencies, such as NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Thompson is constantly on the hunt to increase revenue — and now he thinks he has found the next big thing: an unmanned cargo delivery vehicle called Cygnus that resupplies the international space station.
Cygnus, launched by an Orbital-built Antares rocket, successfully completed in September the first of what Thompson hopes is a series of cargo runs that could supply the space station as long as it orbits the Earth — maybe for decades.
"It's a big deal," said Thompson, who has bet a big chunk of the company on Cygnus.
Thompson has had the space bug since he was a kid growing up on the East Coast. He studied aerospace engineering at MIT and Caltech, and worked at NASA before graduating with a Harvard MBA in 1981.
While he was at Harvard, he and two classmates worked on a project that focused on the possibility of making money from outer space.
"We thought there ought to be a way to do things in space that are just a lot more affordable," he said. "I mean, you don't need a billion dollars and 10 years to do these things. That was the idea."
They eventually turned the idea into reality, pooling $500 each to start in the early 1980s. They exhausted their credit card limits. The first offices were in the extra bedroom in Thompson's Southern California townhouse. They knocked on doors for funding and for customers. Their first $250,000 came from oil entrepreneurs, space technologists and real estate businessmen — all from Houston.
Some of his first business ideas involved commercially reliable space ventures built around the emerging space shuttle program, including power generation, solar farms, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals and even passenger travel.
"The space shuttle, however, did not turn out to be the railroad to space that the space community had hoped," Thompson said.
By the mid-1980s, they had moved to the Washington area because, as Thompson put it, "to the extent there was a commercial satellite hub in the U.S., D.C. was it."
After the 1986 Challenger disaster, the company pivoted from its space shuttle plans and invented Pegasus, a kind of oversized cruise missile.
"Pegasus was our first blockbuster product," he said.
Pegasus was designed to be taken up a few miles above the Earth by a giant B-52 bomber borrowed from the government. The rocket that was dropped from the plane would release its cargo — which could be a satellite the size of a TV set — into space. Eventually, the B-52 was replaced with Orbital's own plane.
Costing $6 million to $7 million per launch, the Pegasus was cheaper to use than other rockets available at the time.
The rocket, said Thompson, "clearly met a market need that was not being well-addressed."
The Pegasus project — which won some big scientific awards — has lasted more than two decades, during which time Orbital has branched out in building and carrying satellites into outer space.
Throughout the 1980s and '90s, Orbital made its money in three areas: building communications and imaging devices, missile defense systems, and scientific and environmental satellites.
Not everything has worked. The company lost a half-billion dollars on an ill-fated communications venture a decade ago that almost took Orbital under. An early version of a hand-held Global Positioning System showed some potential, but that petered out as well.
About eight years ago, the company began focusing on other possibilities for growth, including what Thompson calls "the human space flight market."
Thompson knew that human space flight was fraught with high risk and high costs.
"We concluded that the best way to get into that business initially was not to try from the very beginning to develop a rocket or capsule that could carry people up and back."
Instead, he said, they wanted something that would require less investment, carry less risk and have a faster effect on profits.
"Carrying cargo, while not easy, is easier than carrying people. If something goes really bad and the rocket explodes and the system malfunctions, you lose the cargo. Okay. There's a monetary loss. But that's a whole lower level of problem than if something goes bad and you kill a bunch of people."
Thompson and his team are betting that the space station will be around for decades, creating a need for everything from food, water, oxygen and clothes to spare parts and scientific experiments.
"You've got this hundred billion-dollar laboratory up there and you got typically six people up there all the time, and it takes a lot to run."
The company does not have the space station supply market all to itself, however. A pesky California upstart called SpaceX — led by media-savvy entrepreneur Elon Musk, inventor of Tesla Motors's battery-powered car — has also launched a successful cargo mission to the space station.
As for human space travel for the masses, Thompson said that will not be affordable anytime soon:
"Unfortunately, going into space is still a really, really hard thing to do. And over time, it will become less expensive. But it's not going to become a whole lot less expensive in a hurry."
NASA Astronauts To Fly as 'Participants' on Commercial Space Taxis, FAA Rules
Irene Klotz – Space News
NASA astronauts will fly as "space flight participants" aboard commercial spaceships being developed to taxi crews to and from the international space station, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Office of Commercial Space Transportation has determined.
"NASA astronauts do not meet the definition of 'crew' as provided in the statute … because the definition of crew requires them to be employees of the licensee or subcontractor licensee. NASA astronauts are neither, so they will be flying under the category of 'space flight participant,' under the current regulations," Pam Underwood, FAA deputy division manager at the Kennedy Space Center, said during a Dec. 4 industry briefing at the Florida spaceport.
The ruling does not limit the scope of the work government-employed astronauts can perform aboard commercial space taxis, including piloting the vehicle, aborting launch if necessary, overseeing emergency response and monitoring and operating environmental controls and life support systems, the FAA said.
NASA sought the clarification because FAA regulations prohibit "space flight participants" to pilot launch or re-entry vehicles for public safety reasons.
"The FAA's concern … was based on the possibility that space flight participants would not have the proper vehicle and mission-specific training. However, as NASA notes, NASA astronauts must meet rigorous medical and training requirements, which include training specific to each mission, launch vehicle, and reentry vehicle.
"Because NASA astronauts are not the untrained space-flight participants originally contemplated by the FAA, the considerations underlying the policy have, at best, a limited applicability to NASA astronauts," the FAA wrote in an explanation of its ruling published Dec. 2 in the Federal Register.
"Thus, for the scenarios currently envisioned, NASA astronauts may engage in operational activities during a licensed launch or reentry to ensure safety and mission success," the FAA said.
Relevant regulations, the FAA added in a footnote, "simply require that space flight participants: (1) be informed of risk; (2) execute a waiver of claims against the U.S. Government; (3) receive training on how to respond to emergency situations; and (4) not carry any weapons onboard."
NASA has been working formally with the FAA since June 2012 to sort out responsibilities and oversight as the U.S. government shifts toward purchasing orbital spaceflight services commercially rather than operating its own space transportation system.
"There's been a lot of effort to identify what the questions, what the conflicts, what the confusion areas are and then to work through a solution," said Lisa Colloredo, NASA's Commercial Crew Program associate manager.
"We are trying hard to strive for consistency between what both the FAA and NASA is going to require," she said.
NASA currently is contributing more than $1 billion toward the development of three commercial space taxi designs by Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX), Boeing and Sierra Nevada Corp. The agency also has an unfunded partnership agreement with Blue Origin. All four firms had representatives at the preproposal conference, intended to address overall questions and changes in the Commercial Crew Transportation Capability solicitation, which closes Jan. 22.
While funding uncertainties remain, NASA said it still expects to select one or more companies for fixed-price contracts, including possible options for flight services, in August.
The goal of the program is to restore a U.S. human orbital space launch capability before the end of 2017, a service that ended with the retirement of NASA's space shuttles in 2011.
NASA astronauts currently fly to the space station on Russian Soyuz capsules, a service that costs more than $60 million a seat.
Small steps to Mars are a big leap for Indian companies
Shyamantha Asokan –Reuters
Indian companies that built most of the parts for the country's recently launched Mars mission are using their low-cost, high-tech expertise in frugal space engineering to compete for global aerospace, defence and nuclear contracts worth billions.
India's Mangalyaan spacecraft was launched last month and then catapulted from Earth orbit on December 1, clearing an important hurdle on its 420 million mile journey to Mars and putting it on course to be the first Asian mission to reach the red planet.
The venture has a price tag of just 4.5 billion rupees ($72 million), roughly one-tenth the cost of Maven, NASA's latest Mars mission. Two-thirds of the parts for the Indian probe and rocket were made by domestic firms like Larsen & Toubro, the country's largest engineering firm, Godrej & Boyce, and state plane-maker Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd.
While such companies have a long way to go before they can attract big business in the commercial space sector, years of work on home-grown space projects are helping them carve out a niche as suppliers of precision parts for related sectors like defence, aeronautics and nuclear energy.
Those firms with proven space know-how will find themselves with the advantage as India, the world's biggest arms importer, shells out $100 billion over a decade to modernise its military with the country favouring local sources.
India in June strengthened a defence policy stipulating that local firms must be considered first for contracts and foreign companies winning contracts worth more than 3 billion rupees must "offset" at least 30 percent of the deal's value in India.
"We think over the next two to three years we will be able to convert this into a profit centre," said S. M. Vaidya, the business head of Godrej's aerospace division, which made the rocket's engine and fuel-powered thrusters for the Indian Mars probe.
Thanks to the space work, the company's engineers now know how to handle the specific metal alloys and the high-precision welding needed for aircraft and missiles as well as rockets, Vaidya added.
Godrej has worked with India's space agency for almost three decades and in recent years started making engine parts for aircraft makers Boeing Co, the Airbus unit of EADS and Israel's state-owned Rafael Advanced Defence Systems Ltd. It is in talks with Boeing to make parts for aircraft frames.
HOME-GROWN, GO IT ALONE
India launched its domestic space program 50 years ago and had to develop its own rocket technology after Western powers levied sanctions in response to a 1974 nuclear weapons test, resulting in a "go it alone" development mentality.
The Indian Space Research Organisation, or ISRO, has worked to keep import costs low by designing most of the parts for its programme that are then outsourced to the domestic private sector.
ISRO must still import some metal alloys used in the space programme that it then gives to its contractors and Indian companies also must buy some of the machinery needed to make the parts from Europe and Japan.
India's heavy reliance on domestic companies for its space programme allows it to tap homegrown technicians and engineers who earn half as much as those in the West. Starting salaries for aerospace engineers in India are at most $2,000 per month, according to Indian recruitment consultancy TeamLease. The same role in the United States brings in about $5,300 on average, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers.
"The commercial value of the business with ISRO is not high, it is the spin-offs that are valuable," said M. V. Kotwal, president of the heavy engineering division at Larsen & Toubro, which has made $5.7 million in parts for ISRO in recent years.
L&T has also supplied $240 million worth of parts so far to ITER, an inter-governmental science experiment that is building a thermonuclear reactor in southern France.
Godrej earlier this year won a deal to build a frame for the world's largest optical telescope in collaboration with University of California, the California Institute of Technology, and the Association of Canadian Universities for Research in Astronomy.
Walchand Nagar Industries, a Pune-headquartered company that made 100 million rupees ($1.6 million) worth of parts for India's Mars rocket, said the project helped it win contracts worth double that amount for a state-run nuclear plant in the western state of Gujarat.
U.S. House Approves One-year Launch Indemnity Extension
Dan Leone – Space News
The same week Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) launched its first commercial satellite, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a compromise bill that, at the behest of House Democrats who say they favor a broader revision of existing commercial space legislation, would extend the current indemnity regime for U.S. commercial launch companies for only a year.
The proposed one-year extension of a 25-year-old law that protects U.S. companies from third-party damage claims arising from catastrophic launch failures cleared the House Dec. 2 and now heads to the Senate for consideration. The Senate returns from recess Dec. 9 and has until Dec. 31 — when the indemnity shield expires — to reach some kind of accord with the House.
"While I would have preferred a longer extension, this bill buys us time to work on a long-term extension that we will take up next year," House Science Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) said on the House floor Dec. 2.
House Republicans favor a five-year launch indemnity extension and included just such a measure in their NASA authorization bill, which, like its counterpart bill in the Senate, was approved in committee but never made it to the floor. With precious few legislative days left on the calendar, authorizers have given up on passing a NASA bill this year.
House Democrats said they need to hear more from experts in industry and the Federal Aviation Administration's Office of Commercial Space Transportation, which promotes and regulates commercial launch and re-entry in the United States, before passing anything more than a stopgap extension.
A one-year extension "is an appropriate length," Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas), ranking member of the House Science Committee, said on the House floor. "The one-year extension provides the Congress with the time to conduct necessary hearings, perform our due diligence, and enable the enactment of a comprehensive update to existing commercial space legislation."
The launch indemnity regime was established by the U.S. Commercial Space Launch Act Amendments of 1988 and has been renewed six times since, most recently at the end of 2012. The liability shield covers damage claims above and beyond those covered by the insurance the Federal Aviation Administration requires companies to purchase for each launch they carry out. No company has ever claimed indemnity in the 25 years the law has been on the books.
The cautious stance of House Science Democrats is in stark contrast with the ground Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), chairman of the Senate Commerce science and space subcommittee, has staked out on the other side of Capitol Hill.
On Nov. 20, a day before the Senate left for its Thanksgiving recess, Nelson tried to get a three-year indemnity extension, S. 1753, approved via unanimous consent. However, Nelson's bill — like other proposed unanimous-consent measures — got hung up by the partisan spat about presidential appointees that was resolved only on Nov. 21, after which the Senate left town.
Now, the fate of Nelson's bill remains unclear. A Senate source said Dec. 4 that discussions continued at the staff level about bringing the proposal back, but that no firm decision would be made until senators returned for their last legislative session before the winter holidays.
This is the second time in as many years that a multiyear extension, favored in no uncertain terms by industry groups including the Satellite Industry Association that has now testified multiple times before Congress, has fallen short at the last minute.
Last December, when SpaceX's first commercial communications satellite launch was still a moving target on the calendar, Senate Democrats attempted to push a two-year extension through that chamber on a unanimous consent vote that was ultimately blocked by Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) — a standard-bearer for the NASA old guard and a staunch protector of the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.
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