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From: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Date: March 28, 2014 9:26:17 AM CDT
To: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Subject: FW: NASA and Human Spaceflight News - Friday – March 28, 2014
.Happy Flex Friday everyone…have a safe and good weekend.NASA and Human Spaceflight NewsFriday – March 28, 2014HEADLINES AND LEADSSoyuz crew welcomed aboard space stationWilliam Harwood – CBS NewsA Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying two cosmonauts and a NASA astronaut glided to a smooth linkup with the International Space Station Thursday, two days after a technical snag blocked a fast-track rendezvous and docking shortly after launch Tuesday.Russian-U.S. crew makes belated arrival at space stationIrene Klotz - ReutersA Russian spaceship carrying two Russian cosmonauts and a U.S. astronaut made a belated arrival at the International Space Station on Thursday, returning the orbital outpost to full staff.NASA unloads composite rocket tank of tomorrow from legendary Super Guppy for tests in AlabamaLee Roop - Huntsville TimesThe giant rocket fuel tank NASA unloaded Thursday from one of the world's legendary airplanes at Marshall Space Flight Center is a high-stakes bet on the future of space exploration.Space Shuttle's 747 Aircraft Soon to Make One Final VoyageAssociated PressSteven Ramey is standing inside a Boeing 747 fuel tank, and he's having the time of his life.Radar repairs at Cape could delay launches 3 weeksJames Dean – Florida TodayLocal launches could be grounded for three more weeks while the Air Force repairs a tracking radar knocked out Monday by overheating from an electrical short, the 45th Space Wing reported Thursday evening.SpaceX Says Requirements, Not Markup, Make Government Missions More CostlyPeter B. de Selding – Space NewsSpace Exploration Technologies Corp. President Gwynne Shotwell said the company's Falcon 9 launch prices have nudged up to an average of about $60 million for standard commercial launches but that NASA and U.S. Air Force missions will add between $10 million and $30 million per launch.Bolden: Breakdown with Russia may stall deep-space planLedyard King – Florida TodayNASA Administrator Charles F. Bolden Jr. told a congressional panel Thursday that if Russia stops taking American astronauts to the International Space Station, he will recommend suspending work on deep-space programs that rely on the orbiting lab for important groundwork.NASA administrator says cancel Space Launch System, Orion if Russia stops U.S. astronaut ridesLee Roop – Huntsville TimesNASA Administrator Charles Bolden told Congress today he will recommend canceling the Space Launch System and Orion capsule programs if Russia stops American astronaut rides to the International Space Station any time soon and before U.S. companies are ready to do the job.Lightfoot Pins $1.25 Billion Estimate on Asteroid Mission's Robotic CaptureDan Leone – Space NewsThe first half of NASA's Asteroid Redirect Mission, finding a small asteroid and hauling it back to a lunar storage orbit with a new robotic spacecraft, should cost about $1.25 billion, according to a top NASA official.NASA Still Intends To Use Donated Spy Telescope for Dark Energy MissionDebra Werner – Space NewsNASA is pushing ahead with plans to use one of the Hubble-sized space telescopes donated by the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office to conduct a $2 billion mission to observe Earth-like planets and explore the nature of dark energy.COMPLETE STORIESSoyuz crew welcomed aboard space stationWilliam Harwood – CBS NewsA Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying two cosmonauts and a NASA astronaut glided to a smooth linkup with the International Space Station Thursday, two days after a technical snag blocked a fast-track rendezvous and docking shortly after launch Tuesday.With commander Alexander Skvortsov monitoring the automated approach from the Soyuz's center seat, the docking mechanism in the nose of the Soyuz TMA-12M ferry craft engaged its counterpart at the end of the upper Poisk module at 7:53 p.m. EDT (GMT-4) as the two spacecraft sailed 252 miles above southern Brazil."Sasha, congratulations to you and your crew on having successfully completed the first part of your mission," Oleg Ostapenko, director of Roscosmos, the Russian federal space agency, radioed in interpreted remarks. Cryptically, he added: "Now, you know, there's been a well-kept secret promise that will need to be materialized, and we're not going to be making it too well known, but you know what you need to do.""You bet," Skvortsov replied.A few moments later, latches engaged to firmly lock the Soyuz in place. After extensive leak checks, Skvortsov, flight engineer Oleg Artemyev and NASA astronaut Steven Swanson opened the main hatch and floated into the station, welcomed aboard by Expedition 39 commander Koichi Wakata, Mikhail Tyurin and Rick Mastracchio.All six crew members then gathered in the Zvezda command module for a traditional post-docking radio chat with space agency managers, friends and family members at the Russian flight control center near Moscow."We had a fun time," Swanson told his family. "It was a long two days, but we made it. Glad to be here."Swanson's father called up, saying "I'm happy that you're there even though you took the scenic route to arrive.""We're anticipating you having a very successful six months, and I'm glad to see you're with a lot of friends ... and I'm sure you'll accomplish many things," Stanley Swanson said. "Looking forward to seeing you back on the ground."Bill Gerstenmaier, director of space operations at NASA Headquarters, closed out the session, telling the crew "the ground teams are here ready to support your expedition, we're looking forward to making your stay happy.""I can tell you all your family will be here supporting you every day that you're in space," he said. "So have a great time."After a safety briefing, Skvortsov, Artemyev and Swanson planned to settle in, looking forward to a bit of time off after a busy, unexpected two-day rendezvous. U.S. flight controllers, meanwhile, planned to press ahead with work to load new software into the station's computer system.The station crew originally expected to take delivery of a commercial SpaceX cargo ship next Wednesday, but the launching, planned for Sunday, was put on hold because of presumed problems with U.S. Air Force tracking equipment. A new launch date has not yet been announced.Skvortsov, Artemyev and Swanson blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Tuesday. Shortly after reaching orbit, the spacecraft's computer began executing a planned six-hour, four-orbit rendezvous, a procedure requiring a series of carefully timed rocket firings to home in on the space station.The first two rocket firings went smoothly, but the spacecraft was slightly out of attitude, or orientation, for the third "burn" and the rendezvous procedure was aborted.During subsequent passes over Russian ground stations, engineers downlinked stored data from the spacecraft to figure out what caused the 1-degree attitude error. They have not yet revealed the presumed root cause, but NASA officials say the problem is understood and engineers have developed procedures to make sure it isn't repeated on future flights.In the meantime, flight controllers began implementing backup plans for a 48-hour, 34-orbit rendezvous. Such two-day Soyuz rendezvous plans were the norm for most of the space station's 15-year lifetime and Skvortsov flew one during his first flight to the outpost in 2010.The shorter four-orbit rendezvous was designed to reduce the time crews have to spend in the cramped Soyuz en route to the space station. The abbreviated rendezvous was first tested in 2012 with an uncrewed Progress cargo ship. After additional test flights, four crewed Soyuz flights followed the fast-track trajectory. Skvortsov's crew would have been the fifth.With the station's crew back up to six, the astronauts and cosmonauts face a full slate of research activity, along with the expected arrival of three cargo ships over the next several weeks -- the SpaceX Dragon capsule, a Russian Progress freighter and an Orbital Sciences Corp. Cygnus cargo ship. Because of the SpaceX delay, however, launch dates are under review and have not yet been finalized.Wakata and his two crewmates have had the station to themselves since March 11 when Soyuz TMA-10M commander Oleg Kotov, Sergey Ryazanskiy and Mike Hopkins returned to Earth. Wakata and his crewmates are scheduled to follow suit in their Soyuz TMA-11M ferry craft on May 13. At that point, Swanson will take over as commander of Expedition 40.That will clear the way for the May 28 launch of Soyuz TMA-13M commander Maxim Suraev, a Russian space veteran, and two rookies: European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst and NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman.Skvortsov, Swanson and Artemyev are scheduled to return to Earth on Sept. 11. Their replacements -- Barry Wilmore, Alexander Samokutyaev and Elena Serova -- are scheduled for launch Sept. 26. They will join Suraev, Gerst and Wiseman as part of the Expedition 41 crew.Russian-U.S. crew makes belated arrival at space stationIrene Klotz - ReutersA Russian spaceship carrying two Russian cosmonauts and a U.S. astronaut made a belated arrival at the International Space Station on Thursday, returning the orbital outpost to full staff.Russian cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev and NASA astronaut Steven Swanson blasted off aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket two days ago from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.They had expected to reach the station, a $100 billion research complex that flies about 250 miles (400 km) above Earth, six hours later.But about two hours after launch, the crew's Soyuz capsule failed to fire its maneuvering engines as planned, forcing a delay to the next station docking opportunity on Thursday.The cause of the skipped rocket firing remains under investigation, said NASA mission commentator Rob Navias.Preliminary analysis shows the spaceship was 1 degree out of alignment from its predicted orientation, triggering the Soyuz computers to automatically abort the engine burn, Navias said during a NASA Television broadcast of the docking.Since Tuesday's mishap, the Soyuz successfully conducted the necessary engine firings to reach the station."Better late than never," said Navias as the Soyuz made its final approach to the outpost.The crew's prolonged journey ended at 7:53 p.m. EDT (2353 GMT) as the Soyuz slipped into a berthing port on the station's Poisk module.The arrival of Skvortsov, Artemyev and Swanson returns the station to a full six-member crew. The orbital outpost, a project of 15 nations, has been short-staffed since two other cosmonauts and a NASA astronaut returned to Earth on March 11.The 15-nation space station partnership, overseen by the United States and Russia, so far has been immunized from the political and economic fallout following Russia's invasion of Ukraine's Crimean peninsula.Since retiring its fleet of space shuttles in 2011, the United States is dependent on Russia to fly its astronauts to the station, a service that costs NASA more than $63 million per person.NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, testifying before Congress on Thursday, said it is unlikely Russia will cutoff U.S. access to the station as payback for U.S. sanctions stemming from Russia's takeover of Crimea."Russia is dependent upon the United States to operate the station when it comes to power, when it comes to everyday operation," Bolden told members of the Space Subcommittee of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee."Based on my conversations with my Russian counterparts, they are equally worried about terminating activity on the ISS," Bolden said.NASA unloads composite rocket tank of tomorrow from legendary Super Guppy for tests in AlabamaLee Roop - Huntsville Times
The giant rocket fuel tank NASA unloaded Thursday from one of the world's legendary airplanes at Marshall Space Flight Center is a high-stakes bet on the future of space exploration."When you build fast and test fast, you can fail fast," admitted John Vickers, NASA project manager for the Composite Cryotank Technology Demonstration to be performed at Marshall this summer. But, Vickers said, "We have very high confidence we're not going to fail the test."The 18-foot-diameter tank flew to Alabama aboard NASA's legendary Super Guppy, a puffed-up cargo transport that has hauled major pieces of space hardware across the country for decades in various models. This time, the hardware wasn't metal, but a composite-material cylinder 20 feet tall and some 30 percent lighter than an aluminum tank of the same size.At Marshall, where some of America's unique space assets are located, smaller versions of the tank have already been successfully tested. This one will be lifted into a test stand sometime this summer, filled with 28,000 gallons of dangerous liquid hydrogen rocket fuel and put under pressure to simulate launch pressures.If the structure holds, America's deep space exploration program has taken a significant step. "You'd better being using composites," Vickers said, "because that's where the aerospace is going." Composite structures are already flying, in fact. Boeing used them for 50 percent of the structure of its new 787 Dreamliner, and Boeing built this tank, too.If something goes wrong, that's why the test is at Marshall. The center has safe underground control rooms and big test areas first used to fire Army and Saturn rocket engines.But before this tank can be tested, it had to be unloaded from the Super Guppy Thursday morning. Marshall's crews have a good reputation for handling rare and expensive space hardware - the mirrors for the James Webb Space Telescope were tested here, for example - but Thursday's crew had its hands full with the gusty wind blowing across the Redstone Arsenal Airfield.A few knots more wind and the giant cranes wouldn't have been able to work, but the job went off in perfect sequence: slide the tank out of the Guppy's cargo hold on a motorized pallet, use two cranes to lift it above the pallet, drive the pallet away, move a 96-wheel K-Mag tractor capable of hauling 800,000 pounds under the hanging tank, lower the tank and secure it, and drive the tank to a safe and secure location.So far, so good. Stand by for testing.Space Shuttle's 747 Aircraft Soon to Make One Final VoyageAssociated PressSteven Ramey is standing inside a Boeing 747 fuel tank, and he's having the time of his life.Pointing to where the aircraft's 50,000-pound wing attaches to the fuselage, Ramey notes where bolts are being removed."This is the first time we've pulled off a wing," the Boeing employee says. "It's great. We get to come in here, like a bunch of kids, tear it apart and then put it back together."The wing belongs to NASA 905, a jumbo jet that ferried dozens of space shuttles from landing sites in California and New Mexico back to Florida. Now stationed at Ellington Field, the aircraft, which is 232 feet long and 63 feet tall, is being disassembled for an 8-mile move in late April to Space Center Houston.In its current state, the plane is yet another reminder that the shuttle program is now part of history.An "Aircraft on Ground" team from Boeing is carefully removing parts and the bolts that attach them, and storing them for reassembly. Although the plane will break into nine big pieces for the trip, there are thousands of smaller pieces. Cranes and drills and airplane parts are strewn everywhere."One of our biggest logistics problems is keeping track of the parts," Ramey told the Houston Chronicle. "It's kind of like we are moving a puzzle from one location to another."Later this year Ramey and his team will put the plane back together, a 44-day process that will reverse the work they're currently doing. Then the museum will place a space shuttle mock-up -- Independence -- atop it. In 2015, both the aircraft and shuttle will open as an interactive, six-story display.The museum needs about $12 million to move the aircraft and set it up for display, said Jack Moore, a spokesman for the facility. They've raised $9 million, with a large chunk of that from an in-kind donation by Boeing employees like Ramey.The crew, most of whom are from Washington state, were eager to tackle this kind of assignment. It's a happier job than, say, the more typical work of rescuing an aircraft that's gone off the end of a runway."I've been in the industry for 20 years and I don't think anyone in this group had done this before," said Tom Conant, a Boeing ground team captain.Even after breaking down the mammoth aircraft, the move across the Clear Lake area will be an arduous, two-night affair.During the first night, the 1,000-foot trailer convoy will move from Ellington down Highway 3 to NASA Road 1. On the second night, it will proceed along NASA Road 1 to Space Center Houston.Working with area municipalities as well as Comcast, Verizon and Centerpoint Energy, the museum was able to ensure that no area residents will lose services.While the move will occur at night to minimize traffic disruptions, as parts of Highway 3 and NASA Road 1 will be closed, it should nonetheless be a public spectacle and there will be viewing locations along the way.Although it may seem audacious to plant a shuttle atop an aircraft, this combination actually weighed less than a fully booked 747 with passengers and their luggage.Built in 1970, NASA 905 was one of the first 100 aircraft in Boeing's 747 line, of which there have now been 1,500 made. NASA acquired the plane from American Airlines in 1974 and began testing it with space shuttle Enterprise -- which never flew into space -- in 1977.In addition to carrying the active orbiters across the country, the aircraft also once carried Enterprise to Europe for display in England and at the Paris Air Show.It was also the aircraft that carried Enterprise and the operational shuttles Discovery and Endeavour to their retirement homes in New York, Dulles Airport near Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles, respectively.NASA 905 made its last flight in December 2012. Now the grounded aircraft has but one trip before a final retirement.Radar repairs at Cape could delay launches 3 weeksJames Dean – Florida TodayLocal launches could be grounded for three more weeks while the Air Force repairs a tracking radar knocked out Monday by overheating from an electrical short, the 45th Space Wing reported Thursday evening.Loss of the radar postponed two launches planned this week, one of a national security satellite by United Launch Alliance and the other of International Space Station cargo by SpaceX.The radar supported tracking of rockets launching from Cape Canaveral across the Eastern Range, part of the Air Force's responsibility for public safety should a rocket stray off course.Without it, the range could not meet "minimum public safety requirements needed for flight," resulting in the missions being delayed, the 45th Space Wing said in a statement."The Air Force is evaluating the feasibility of returning an inactive radar to full mission capability to resume operations sooner," the statement continued. "The launch schedule impact is to be determined, pending resolution of the anomaly."The Air Force said it still expects to be able to support all the Cape launches that had been scheduled in the 2014 budget year.The radar, whose location was not disclosed, was disabled the same day ULA rolled an Atlas V rocket to its launch pad for a planned Tuesday liftoff.That rocket returned to its processing tower Thursday afternoon with a classified National Reconnaissance Office satellite.The mission's earliest target launch date tentatively had been reset for April 10, but it would have to wait longer based on a three-week radar repair schedule.SpaceX confirmed early Thursday that its ISS resupply mission also would be postponed, with no new target date.SpaceX has another commercial launch planned at the end of April, and ULA has two more missions scheduled for the first half of May.Although the suspected cause of the electrical short was not disclosed, the Air Force has previously identified aging range infrastructure as a significant challenge.The radar outage is not a concern for the Western Range, which will track ULA's planned launch of a military weather satellite next Thursday from California on an Atlas V rocket."The range on the East Coast did have an issue where one of their radar assets needs a little bit of repair work," said Lt. Col. James Bodnar, operations director for the 4th Space Launch Squadron at Vandenberg Air Force Base, during a media teleconference Thursday previewing the mission. "We're not projecting to have any type of similar issues that would delay the (weather satellite) launch."SpaceX Says Requirements, Not Markup, Make Government Missions More CostlyPeter B. de Selding – Space NewsSpace Exploration Technologies Corp. President Gwynne Shotwell said the company's Falcon 9 launch prices have nudged up to an average of about $60 million for standard commercial launches but that NASA and U.S. Air Force missions will add between $10 million and $30 million per launch.A launch of the Dragon space station cargo capsule aboard a Falcon 9, she said, about doubles the price of the SpaceX mission.In a March 21 interview on thespaceshow.com, Shotwell appeared to address one of the critiques regularly leveled at SpaceX by its European rival, Arianespace of France. When SpaceX aims at the commercial launch market, it is mainly targeting Arianespace's market share, now around 50 percent.Arianespace and French government officials have said Hawthorne, Calif.-based SpaceX is able to undercut Arianespace's pricing by amortizing Falcon 9's fixed costs with its large book of U.S. government — up to now, just NASA — business, for which the company charges more.Arianespace officials contend that, if given similar U.S. government contracts, the French-led consortium could lower its commercial launch costs to SpaceX's range.Shotwell disputed this."It's more expensive to do these missions," she said of U.S. government launches compared to commercial missions. "The Air Force asks for more stuff. The missions we do for NASA under the [NASA Launch Services] contract are also more expensive because NASA asks to do more analysis."They have us provide more data to them. They have folks that basically reside here in SpaceX, and we need to provide engineering resources to them and respond to their questions. So by definition, the way the government buys missions is more expensive."It depends on each individual mission, but the NASA extra stuff is about $10 million. The Air Force stuff is an extra $20 million. And if there is a high security requirement, that can add another $8 million to $10 million. All in, Falcon 9 prices are still well below $100 million even with all of this stuff."SpaceX is introducing elements to its Falcon 9 to enable the recovery and reuse of the first stage. The additional weight and power needed to control the first stage's re-entry for recovery and reuse is already embedded in the Falcon 9 design, Shotwell said. There are no major new hardware or cost items needed to accomplish recovery and reuse, and no reason for Falcon 9 performance to degrade, or prices to increase, to accommodate the recovery mission, she said.The Falcon 9 v1.1 vehicle, which has now flown successfully three times including two commercial launches to geostationary transfer orbit — the destination of most commercial telecommunications satellites — has about 30 percent more performance capability than what is advertised on SpaceX's price and capacity specifications, Shotwell said.This 30 percent margin is retained by SpaceX, which will use it to accommodate the additional fuel and hardware needed for first-stage recovery operations.This margin may be one reason why SpaceX was able to sign its two most recent contracts, with SES of Luxembourg, for the launch of two satellites, each weighing around 5,330 kilograms — or 10 percent more than the vehicle's advertised payload limit."The vehicle we plan on recovering is the one we are currently using," Shotwell said. "It is already sized. "Once we get to where we are recovering and reflying components, the price will come down from right now. It certainly won't go up."SpaceX hopes to be able to recover a first stage on land this year following one of its missions, and to reuse a stage as early as 2015, she said, adding that it remained unclear whether a stage recovered at sea could be flown again.SpaceX's next flight, a Falcon 9 carrying a Dragon capsule to the international space station under NASA's Commercial Resupply Services contract, had been scheduled for March 30, with a backup date of April 2, but NASA's latest unoffical manifest says the launch date is in flux.The original mid-March flight was postponed for several reasons, a minor one being oil contamination found on a blanket in the Dragon's unpressurized cargo hold.Shotwell said data transfer "buffering" between SpaceX in California and NASA's control center in Houston was a separate issue that also needed additional time to resolve. Also arguing for more time were range-safety issues related to the Falcon 9 trajectory as the vehicle's first stage makes postmission re-entry and landing maneuvers, even if it comes down at sea.A fourth reason for the delay was that SpaceX's Dragon team was "in a kind of a time crunch" to prepare the redesigned Dragon's avionics suite. The new avionics system allows the Dragon to accommodate more NASA space station freezers by providing more power to the cargo racks that hold the freezers during launch and berthing at the space station.Shotwell said that after analysis, SpaceX determined that the oil on the blanket-type impact shielding in the Dragon trunk came from the manufacturing process and posed no risks to the optical payloads also on board."It's worth saying that the trunk never had any contamination-control requirements on it," Shotwell said. "Taking on the optical payloads, we were all kind of leaning forward to make this work. We were operating on a best-efforts basis."Bolden: Breakdown with Russia may stall deep-space planLedyard King – Florida TodayNASA Administrator Charles F. Bolden Jr. told a congressional panel Thursday that if Russia stops taking American astronauts to the International Space Station, he will recommend suspending work on deep-space programs that rely on the orbiting lab for important groundwork.Responding to House members who raised the concern, Bolden said it's very doubtful Russia would suddenly bar astronauts from riding on its Soyuz rockets, even amid rising tensions between the two countries over Ukraine.Such a move would likely shut down the station and force a halt to the Space Launch System deep-space rocket and Orion crew vehicle being developed to take astronauts to Mars in the 2030s, Bolden said. The space station will conduct medical tests and advance technology crucial to the success of the Mars mission."We're fooling everybody that we can go to deep space if the International Space Station is not there," Bolden told lawmakers on the House Science, Space and Technology Committee. "If I can't get to low-Earth orbit, there is no exploration program."The NASA administrator appeared before lawmakers to defend the Obama administration's $17.46 billion budget request for fiscal 2015, which begins Oct. 1.The budget includes funding to continue NASA's top priorities: the deep-space rocket and Orion multi-purpose vehicle it will carry to Mars, the James Webb Space Telescope due for launch in 2018, and about $133 million to fund a trip to an asteroid by 2025 as part of a stepping-stone approach to the Red Planet.NASA also is seeking $848 million for the Commercial Crew program — in which private aerospace companies are helping the agency develop a successor to the space shuttle — to meet a 2017 goal to resume sending astronauts to the space station from U.S. soil. That's $148 million more than the program received for fiscal 2014.The companies are competing to transport crew to the space station in much the same way private firms competed to ferry cargo to the space station.Congress has never given NASA its full funding request for the program since the Obama administration first asked for money several years ago. Lawmakers fear Commercial Crew takes money away from the deep-space program they often cite as their top priority.That's forced the agency to push back the planned launch date — from 2015 to late 2017 — for its first crewed mission to the space station.U.S. astronauts have had to rely on Russia for rides to the space station since the shuttle program ended with Atlantis' landing in July 2011. The Russians charge American taxpayers more than $70 million for each round trip under a contract between NASA and Roscosmos.Not funding the full $848 million this time would almost certainly push that first flight into 2018 or later, forcing NASA to buy more seats from Russia, Bolden said."Budgets are about choices," he told lawmakers. "The choice here is between fully funding the request to bring space launches back to American soil or continue to send millions to the Russians. It's that simple."Bolden doesn't believe Russia will deny America access to the shuttle, based on his conversations with his Russian counterparts, who he said want to continue the partnership. A Soyuz rocket carrying two Russians and astronaut Steve Swanson was scheduled to dock at the station Thursday night.In addition, NASA handles communication and navigation for the orbiting lab, so not having Americans on board would essentially render it unusable for everyone, Bolden said.Republican Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama, a member of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, told Bolden that President Barack Obama could have avoided the situation by extending the life of the shuttle. or at least keeping one for emergency transport.The decision to retire the shuttles, which debuted in 1981, was made during the George W. Bush administration following the 2003 accident involving the Columbia shuttle.Rep. Steve Palazzo, the Mississippi Republican who chairs the panel's Space Subcommittee, agreed it's undesirable to pay Russia more. But he also wants to use limited resources on a deep-space mission involving a lunar landing that he views as paramount to America's long-term national security."We have some serious budget constraints, not just dealing with NASA's budget but with all of our discretionary spending," he told Bolden "And we have to make sure that we have a presence in space. If not, those friends that aren't so friendly to us will have a presence."NASA administrator says cancel Space Launch System, Orion if Russia stops U.S. astronaut ridesLee Roop – Huntsville TimesNASA Administrator Charles Bolden told Congress today he will recommend canceling the Space Launch System and Orion capsule programs if Russia stops American astronaut rides to the International Space Station any time soon and before U.S. companies are ready to do the job.Bolden said the space station would probably have to be shut down without Russian transport, and in that case, "I would go to the president and recommend we terminate SLS and Orion."The comments came as Bolden was questioned during a committee appearance about NASA's 2015 budget by U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Huntsville). Brooks said afterward that shutting down SLS and Orion would "compound" the access to space problem. "Administrator Bolden's testimony underscores America's need for sufficient funding for launch vehicle development," Brooks said. "We simply cannot use Russia as a crutch for America's space program any longer."Bolden said the administration has a plan to put Americans in space in 2017 aboard American-built and operated space taxis. "This is like asteroids, we have a plan, the plan needs to be funded, and the plan is commercial crew," Bolden said.Congress and the White House have sparred over the commercial crew program and NASA's desire to rendezvous with an asteroid for research. So far, Congress has been more interested in funding SLS and Orion than either commercial crew or the asteroid mission. Some in Congress also believe the White House has looted NASA's space budget to force the agency to do more climate and Earth science research.Bolden was testifying about the White House 2015 budget request for NASA before the House science subcommittee that oversees the agency.Lightfoot Pins $1.25 Billion Estimate on Asteroid Mission's Robotic CaptureDan Leone – Space NewsThe first half of NASA's Asteroid Redirect Mission, finding a small asteroid and hauling it back to a lunar storage orbit with a new robotic spacecraft, should cost about $1.25 billion, according to a top NASA official."That's what we're shooting for," NASA Associate Administrator Robert Lightfoot, the agency's top-ranked civil servant, said during a March 26 Asteroid Initiative Opportunities Forum here. NASA used the forum to brief industry about a March 21 solicitation that would spread $6 million among 20 to 25 companies to study key aspects of the proposed Asteroid Redirect Mission, most of which center around the new robotic spacecraft needed to carry it out.Proposals are due May 5, with awards for the six-month, fixed-price contracts expected July 1. The key deliverable is paper: a report due to NASA by December. The competition is open to U.S. industry, but participation by NASA field centers is barred.After his prepared remarks, Lightfoot told reporters that some of the $1.25 billion needed for what the agency is now calling the Asteroid Redirect Vehicle would be new spending. He declined to say exactly how much — or when the agency would seek this money in a formal budget request — but he did say the estimate does not include the price of a launch.NASA developed its Asteroid Redirect Mission from a concept created at the Keck Institute for Space Studies at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif. Keck pegged mission costs at about $2.5 billion, and NASA is now "very confident that we're going to come in at roughly half of what the Keck study said," Lightfoot said in his presentation at the March 26 forum.Part of the reason, Lightfoot said is that the Asteroid Redirect Mission utilizes technology and hardware NASA is already working on, most notably the Space Launch System heavy-lift rocket and Orion deep-space crew capsule NASA is spending about $3 billion a year to build at Congress' direction.Capturing an asteroid is the first step in NASA's plan to eventually use SLS to launch a crewed Orion on a 20-day mission to rendezvous with an asteroid and collect samples.The price of the crewed Orion-SLS launch was not part of Lightfoot's estimate. Those government-designed vehicles, which are still under construction, are set to fly their first crewed mission in 2021 following an uncrewed demonstration in 2017. A crewed visit to the asteroid would notionally launch by 2025 — the date by which U.S. President Barack Obama has challenged NASA to send astronauts to one of the solar system's many orbiting space rocks.NASA still has not formally committed to the Asteroid Redirect Mission, but some of the $133 million NASA is seeking in its 2015 budget request would go toward the spacecraft's capture mechanism, according to budget documents.NASA is currently weighing two competing asteroid-capture mechanisms: a deployable bag conceived by engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena for the Keck concept, and a suite of robotic arms tipped with novel tools derived from an on-orbit satellite-servicing project NASA's Greenbelt, Md.-based Goddard Space Flight Center sent to the international space station in 2011.Lightfoot said NASA will choose one of the two methods as part of a mission concept review scheduled for February. In the meantime, about $2 million of the $6 million available under the just-released Asteroid Redirect Mission solicitation is set aside for companies to study capture mechanisms of their choosing.Other funding within the $133 million NASA's 2015 budget request includes for Asteroid Redirect Mission-related technology would go toward advanced solar-electric propulsion systems.That, Lightfoot said, is all part of NASA's plan to keep the asteroid mission in the cost box by folding as many "pieces that are already in our budget" into project as possible.NASA Still Intends To Use Donated Spy Telescope for Dark Energy MissionDebra Werner – Space NewsNASA is pushing ahead with plans to use one of the Hubble-sized space telescopes donated by the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office to conduct a $2 billion mission to observe Earth-like planets and explore the nature of dark energy.While that project would not begin officially until 2017, NASA officials are starting work on mission-related technology as directed by President Barack Obama in the 2015 budget blueprint sent to Congress in early March. Other factors propelling NASA to pursue the mission are congressional appropriations of $66 million for the effort in 2013 and 2014, Obama's request for $14 million in 2015 funding and the space agency's plan to provide money for a large-scale astrophysics mission to succeed the James Webb Space Telescope."Unless something changes, we are on a path to doing this," Paul Hertz, NASA Astrophysics Division director, said March 26 during a meeting of the NASA Advisory Council's astrophysics subcommittee.NASA plans to use the partially completed telescope with a 2.4-meter primary mirror given to NASA in 2012 by NRO to conduct an expanded version of the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) mission, which was identified as a top priority in the 2010 astrophysics decadal survey. NASA is seeking to add a coronagraph to the mission to obtain imagery of exoplanets and debris disks if the instrument's technology is ready in time."We would love to put the coronagraph on it because it expands the science," Hertz said. However, NASA will drop the coronagraph from the mission if it proves too expensive, time-consuming or technologically risky to develop, he added.A recent report from the National Research Council warned of the risk associated with coupling a technology development program, such as the coronagraph, with a NASA flagship mission. "The coronagraph design is immature and the technology is immature," said Fiona Harrison, an astronomy professor at the California Institute of Technology and chair of the NRC review panel.Rather than eliminating the instrument, however, the NRC panel recommended that NASA "move aggressively to mature the coronagraph design and develop a credible cost, schedule, performance and observing program so that its impact on the WFIRST mission can be determined." Once that work is completed, the space agency should sponsor an external review to assess risks associated with including the coronagraph and determine whether to fly the instrument on WFIRST, according to the March 18 report, "Evaluation of the Implementation of WFIRST Astrophysics Focused Telescope Assets in the Context of New Worlds, New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics."The NRC panel's overarching message to NASA officials was that the NRO telescope would enhance significantly the scientific potential of the WFIRST mission and that the agency should pursue the project while keeping a close eye on cost to ensure that it does not compromise the astrophysics division's commitment to research, analysis and frequent flight opportunities for scientific investigations through its Explorers Program. "Our main concern was that NASA recognizes the risks and work as assiduously as possible to retire those risks so the program doesn't end up overrunning its budget and having to take money from somewhere else," Harrison said. "If implementing WFIRST Astrophysics Focused Telescope Assets compromises the program balance, then it is inconsistent with the rationale that led to the decadal survey's high priority ranking for the program."Among the risks associated with using the donated telescope, according to the NRC panel, are greater design complexity, low thermal and mass margins and limited options for descoping the mission if technical or budgetary challenges arise during development.The NRC panel also noted that the $2.1 billion cost of the proposed mission employing the 2.4-meter telescope without a coronagraph is higher than the $1.6 billion cost projected for the WFIRST mission discussed in the decadal survey, which included the same 1.5-meter telescope studied for the Joint Dark Energy-Omega mission, and the $1.8 billion price tag for a more recent mission design featuring a 1.3-meter telescope. Inclusion of a coronagraph would add roughly $300 million to the latest project design, bringing the total estimated cost to $2.4 billion, according to the NRC report.NASA science chief John Grunsfeld, who addressed the astrophysics subcommittee to discuss the space agency's 2015 budget proposal and notional plans for future funding, said the space agency does not expect to receive budget hikes in the foreseeable future. Without increased funding, it is unclear how often the astrophysics community will be able to launch future flagship missions. That is one reason the division is moving forward with plans to include a coronagraph on WFIRST. Putting a coronagraph on WFIRST will not offer the scientific potential of a dedicated exoplanet probe, but "it will do very good, high-priority science much earlier and much cheaper than any standalone mission," Hertz said.In case the WFIRST mission proves too costly to complete, the astrophysics division is conducting studies of two exoplanet probes that could be built and operated for $1 billion or less. One proposed mission features an internal coronagraph to detect and study giant planets and circumstellar disks. The other includes a flower-shaped Starshade to block starlight and enable an orbiting telescope to observe distant, Earth-like planets. "Should we not have the budget for a large mission, we have options for a medium class mission," Hertz said.END
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