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From: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Date: November 21, 2014 12:46:14 PM CST
To: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Subject: FW: NASA and Human Spaceflight News - Friday – November 21, 2014
Have a great weekend everyone. Looks like a couple of days maybe of going between A/C and heat until the weather makes its mind up.NASA and Human Spaceflight NewsFriday – November 21, 2014HEADLINES AND LEADSAll-Air Force Crew From Three Nations Ready for Launch to Space Station (Part 1)Ben Evans - America SpaceTwo weeks after the 9 November return to Earth of Soyuz TMA-13M, a new three-member crew will launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 3:01 a.m. local time Monday, 24 November (4:01 p.m. EST Sunday, 23 November), bound for a six-month stay aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov, U.S. astronaut Terry Virts, and Italy's first female spacefarer, Samantha Cristoforetti, will embark on a now-standard six-hour, four-orbit "fast rendezvous" profile and should be in position to dock their Soyuz TMA-15M spacecraft at the station's Earth-facing (or "nadir") Rassvet module at 9:53 p.m. EST Sunday. After confirming the integrity of seals between the two vehicles, hatches will be opened at about 11:30 p.m., whereupon the new arrivals will be greeted by the incumbent Expedition 42 crew of U.S. astronaut Barry "Butch" Wilmore and Russian cosmonauts Aleksandr Samokutyayev and Yelena Serova, who have been aboard the orbital outpost since 25 September.Roscosmos denies gas leaks on board ISSITAR TASS, of RussiaEarlier, NASA in its official blog said there had been a minor leak of the gas khladon (Freon-218) from the system of air conditioningThere have been no gas leaks on board the Russian segment of the International Space Station (ISS), the spokesperson for the Russian space agency Roscosmos, Irina Zubareva, has told TASS.Lidar Scanner To Boost ISS Earth-observation roleNext SpaceX mission will expand Earth-monitoring role forFrank Morring, Jr. - Aviation Week & Space TechnologyAmong the payloads scheduled for launch as early as Dec. 9 on the next SpaceX Dragon is the Cloud Aerosol Transport System (Cats), a lidar scanner that will bolster the International Space Station's growing value as a platform for high-resolution observation of the Earth below.NASA Is Building a Sustainable 'Highway' for Unprecedented Deep Space ExplorationDan Dumbacher - Huffington PostIn early December, NASA will take an important step into the future with the first flight test of the Orion spacecraft -- the first vehicle in history capable of taking humans to multiple destinations in deep space. And while this launch is an un-crewed test, it will be the first peek at how NASA has revamped itself since the end of the Space Shuttle Program in 2011.Culberson to be Next House C-J-S 'Cardinal'Anne L. Kim – Roll CallTexas Republican John Culberson is slated to become the next chairman of the House Appropriations Commerce-Justice-Science Subcommittee and on Thursday he signaled that he'll be a booster for NASA and the National Science Foundation.
Countdown Clock retired, poised for move to Kennedy Space Center Visitor ComplexJason Rhian – Spaceflightinsider.comThe iconic Countdown Clock located at the Kennedy Space Center press site in Florida – ended its decades-long service today. The timepiece, which has provided the exact time before a mission takes flight, as well as the amount of time that missions have spent in orbit – was officially shut down at 3:45 p.m. EST (1945 GMT).How a Superchilled Telescope Will Look Back at the Dawn of the UniverseEric Niller – WiredTo see back in time, you need a massive telescope—one big enough to capture light from when the first galaxies were formed, 13.5 billion years ago. Astronomers are clamoring to see this light, so NASA is obliging them by building the James Webb Space Telescope. The Webb will operate 1 million miles from Earth in a gravity-tethered spot called the L2 point, where the telescope can get cold enough that its own heat won't drown out faint traces of infrared radiation—once-visible light that's been stretched out by the universe's expansion. To ensure it will survive out there, this astro-time machine has to be prechilled: In the past year, NASA engineers have tested individual components in vacuum chambers that reach L2-like temperatures (below 50 Kelvin). Once in place, the Webb, with its 21-foot mirror, will be 100 times more powerful than the Hubble Space Telescope, able to capture images of very dim, very old light. It will also probe the atmospheres of exoplanets to check for oxygen, water, and maybe even alien pollution. Final assembly begins in December, and the fully built Webb launches from French Guiana in October 2018—heading far out in space to peer back in time.Glitch Sends Latest NASA Mars Orbiter into Safe ModeDan Leone – Space NewsLess than a week after full science operations began, a processing glitch aboard a new NASA Mars orbiter forced the craft to temporarily shut down all of its science instruments, the agency said in an online post Nov. 20.Curiosity Rover Recons Rocky Base of Mars Mountain (Photos)Mike Wall - Space.comNASA's Mars rover Curiosity is taking a good, long look at the first rocks it encountered at the base of a huge Martian mountain.NASA: Big sunspot is an odd oneJames Dean - Florida TodayNASA scientists are monitoring an enormous and strangely behaved sunspot that has rotated back into Earth's view, but don't expect it to cause problems on the ground or threaten upcoming rocket launches.Europe's Satellite Operators Urge Swift Development of Ariane 6Peter B. de Selding - Space NewsThe president of the European Satellite Operators Association (ESOA) on Nov. 19 applauded the apparent agreement between France and Germany on a next-generation Ariane 6 rocket and said the vehicle needs to be in service as quickly as possible.COMPLETE STORIESAll-Air Force Crew From Three Nations Ready for Launch to Space Station (Part 1)Ben Evans - America SpaceTwo weeks after the 9 November return to Earth of Soyuz TMA-13M, a new three-member crew will launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 3:01 a.m. local time Monday, 24 November (4:01 p.m. EST Sunday, 23 November), bound for a six-month stay aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov, U.S. astronaut Terry Virts, and Italy's first female spacefarer, Samantha Cristoforetti, will embark on a now-standard six-hour, four-orbit "fast rendezvous" profile and should be in position to dock their Soyuz TMA-15M spacecraft at the station's Earth-facing (or "nadir") Rassvet module at 9:53 p.m. EST Sunday. After confirming the integrity of seals between the two vehicles, hatches will be opened at about 11:30 p.m., whereupon the new arrivals will be greeted by the incumbent Expedition 42 crew of U.S. astronaut Barry "Butch" Wilmore and Russian cosmonauts Aleksandr Samokutyayev and Yelena Serova, who have been aboard the orbital outpost since 25 September.Making its 124th piloted flight since the ill-fated mission of Vladimir Komarov, way back in April 1967, the Soyuz spacecraft comprises three main segments: from the base, a cylindrical instrument and propulsion module, a bell-shaped descent module, and a spheroidal orbital module. Soyuz TMA-15M arrived at Baikonur in mid-August 2014 to commence pre-flight inspections, firstly in the Spacecraft Assembly and Testing Facility and subsequently in the vacuum chamber for leak checks and radio interference tests. On 13 November, it was loaded with approximately 1,760 pounds (800 kg) of unsymmetrical dimethyl hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide propellants for its attitude-control and propulsion systems, together with helium pressurant and oxygen and nitrogen for its environmental controls. It was then transferred back to the Spacecraft Assembly and Testing Facility for final processing, ahead of integration with its mammoth Soyuz-FG booster. Over the next several days, it was encapsulated within its aerodynamic payload shroud and the State Commission met today (Thursday, 20 November), to review the status of the mission. Rollout of the vehicle to Site 31/6 at Baikonur is expected early Saturday.Concurrently, the two groups of astronauts and cosmonauts assigned to Soyuz TMA-15M—the prime crew of Shkaplerov, Virts, and Cristoforetti and their backups, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, U.S. astronaut Kjell Lindgren, and Japan's Kimiya Yui—traveled from the Star City training center, on the forested outskirts of Moscow, to Baikonur, on 13 and 14 November, respectively. Reports indicated that the 24-hour delay in the arrival of the backup crew was caused by a problem with their aircraft. Upon disembarking, the crews were greeted by members of the State Commission and Technical Management, to whom the respective commanders, Shkaplerov and Kononenko, declared their readiness to fly. Although the arrival at Baikonur offered some time for relaxation, the two crews plunged directly into a final training phase, familiarized themselves with documentation, and performed fit-checks of their Sokol ("Falcon") launch and entry suits and seat liners.On Tuesday, 18 November, they participated in the customary tree-planting ceremony, a ritual followed by each spacegoing crew from Baikonur. "Today, Terry and I had some gardening to do," Cristoforetti explained on her Facebook page. "Last time I planted a tree I was in fifth grade. Today, I was probably as happy as I was back then, as an 11-year-old. It is a great honor to have "my" tree in this alley, along with those planted by every human who ever left the Earth from Baikonur." Next day, Wednesday, 19 November, the trio boarded Soyuz TMA-15M for the last time before it was integrated with the booster, and traditionally raised their respective national flags at Baikonur.With liftoff targeted for early Monday, local time (late Sunday afternoon EST), Launch Day promises to be a long one for both the prime and backup crews of Soyuz TMA-15M. They will be awakened about 8.5 hours before the scheduled launch. They will shower and be disinfected, after which microbial samples will be taken in support of the scientific experiments to be undertaken in orbit. Breakfast will be followed by departure from Baikonur's Cosmonaut Hotel and the traditional blessing by a Russian Orthodox priest. Shkaplerov, Virts, and Cristoforetti will then be bussed out to Site 254, where they will submit to final medical checks and don their Sokol suits. This will also offer them a final chance to speak, face-to-face, with their families, albeit from behind glass screens. The trio will then depart Site 254, bound for the launch pad.Since March 2013, Russia has attempted to deliver its piloted Soyuz spacecraft to the ISS in just six hours, and four orbits of Earth, to alleviate pressure on the crew. Earlier missions typically followed a two-day rendezvous regime, which proved more economical in terms of propellant expenditure, but also tended to be highly cramped, stressful, and exacerbated nausea and motion sickness. First trialed by an unmanned Progress resupply craft in August 2012, the "fast rendezvous" was successfully executed by four Soyuz crews last year and would have been performed by Soyuz TMA-12M in March 2014, but for a malfunction shortly after orbital insertion. This forced the crew to revert to the standard two-day, 34-orbit approach profile, which was completed successfully."Same-day" rendezvous and docking are nothing new. In September 1966, Gemini XI astronauts Charles "Pete" Conrad and Dick Gordon accomplished a rendezvous and docking with an Agena target vehicle just 85 minutes and a single orbit after launch. Several years later, during the Skylab era, crews followed an expedited rendezvous lasting nine hours to reach their home in space. However, since the late 1970s, in the interests of propellant economy, most crews—including shuttle-Mir and ISS crews—spent between one and two days in transit, prior to docking.At the launch pad, Shkaplerov, Virts, and Cristoforetti will be ensconced into their specially contoured seats aboard the Soyuz TMA-15M descent module about two hours before liftoff. Cristoforetti will take the Flight Engineer-1 position on the left side of the cabin, with Virts assuming the Flight Enginee-2 seat on the right side. Shortly afterwards, they will joined by Shkaplerov, who will assume the central commander's couch. Their launch vehicle—a descendent of Chief Designer Sergei Korolev's R-7 missile, an early variant of which carried Yuri Gagarin into space—will undergo final checks and will be fully fueled with a mixture of liquid oxygen and a refined form of rocket-grade kerosene (known as "RP-1") by T-3 hours. After loading, the oxygen will enter a "topping mode," whereby all cryogenic boil-off will be rapidly replenished until shortly before launch. This will ensure that all tanks remain at "Flight Ready" levels, prior to the ignition of the RD-108 engine of the first stage and the RD-107 engines of the four tapering, strap-on boosters.In the final 15 minutes, the Launch Abort System (LAS) will be armed and transferred to Automatic Mode, the crew will be instructed to close their visors and Shkaplerov's controls will be activated. Internal avionics will be initiated and the on-board flight recorders will be spooled-up to monitor the Soyuz-FG's myriad systems throughout ascent. Inside the control bunker, the "launch key"—an actual, physical key—will be inserted in order to enable the ordnance to support Soyuz TMA-15M on its voyage. This will be followed by the completion of nitrogen purging, the pressurization of the rocket's propellant tanks and the continued topping of cryogens.A minute before liftoff the Soyuz-FG will transfer to internal power, and at T-10 seconds the engine turbopumps will attain full speed. By five seconds, the engines of the core and tapering boosters will roar to life and quickly reach full power. This will produce a retraction of the fueling tower and a liftoff into the darkened Baikonur sky at 3:01:13 a.m. local time Monday, 24 November (4:01:13 p.m. EST Sunday, 23 November).Rising rapidly, the rocket will exceed 1,100 mph (1,770 km/h), within a minute of clearing the tower, and at T+118 seconds the four tapering boosters will be jettisoned, leaving the core stage alone to continue the boost into low-Earth orbit. By the two-minute mark, Shkaplerov, Virts, and Cristoforetti will surpass 3,350 mph (5,390 km/h), and, shortly thereafter, the escape tower and launch shroud will separate, exposing Soyuz TMA-15M to the near-vacuum of the rarefied high atmosphere. Four minutes and 58 seconds after leaving the desolate steppe of Central Asia, the core booster will separate at an altitude of 105.6 statute miles (170 km) and the third and final stage will ignite, accelerating the Soyuz to a velocity of more than 13,420 mph (21,600 km/h). By the time the third stage separates, nine minutes into the flight, the crew will enter an orbit of about 125 x 160 miles (200 x 260 km), inclined 51.6 degrees to the equator, and will begin the process of deploying their craft's communications and navigation antennas and solar arrays.Four maneuvering "burns" will be required to raise the apogee of this orbit to reach the operational altitude of the ISS. The first burn (DV-1) should occur 45 minutes into the mission, after which a second burn (DV-2) is timed at 90 minutes after liftoff. These will be followed by another pair of burns, later in the rendezvous sequence, which should position Soyuz TMA-15M for an on-time docking at the space station's Earth-facing (or "nadir") Rassvet module at 9:53 p.m. EST Sunday, about five hours and 52 minutes into the flight. Following standard pressure and leak checks, the hatches will be opened and the trio will be greeted by the incumbent Expedition 42 crew of Commander Barry "Butch" Wilmore and his crewmates, Aleksandr Samokutyayev and Yelena Serova. At the time of the Soyuz TMA-15M docking, the ISS will also accommodate two unpiloted visiting craft: Russia's Progress M-25M and Europe's fifth and final Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV-5).The arrival of Shkaplerov, Virts, and Cristoforetti will restore the ISS to its full, six-person strength, through March 2015. The presence of two female crew members on Expedition 42—Italy's Cristoforetti and Russia's Serova—will make this the first occasion in history that a pair of women have been in space together over the Christmas and New Year periods. It is a minor record, perhaps, but with Cristoforetti also becoming the 59th female spacefarer and the first from Italy, it is surely an indicator that the presence of women in space is steadily being taken seriously by the International Partners. Since the pioneering mission of Valentina Tereshkova, back in June 1963, women from Russia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, France, Iran, and China have ventured into orbit, 11 of whom have embarked on spacewalks. With the possibility of several EVAs during the Expedition 42/43 increment, there remains a distinct possibility that Cristoforetti may don a U.S.-built Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) and perform work outside the ISS, which would make her the first non-U.S. and non-Russian female spacefarer in history to perform a spacewalk.With Wilmore, Samokutyayev, and Serova expected to remain aboard the station until March, and Shkaplerov, Virts, and Cristoforetti anticipated to return to Earth in May, the impending joint mission promises to be a busy one, with scientific research, a handful of visiting vehicles, and several EVAs planned. Speaking in September 2014, Virts remarked that some 240 experiments—about 170 provided by the United States, including academic and commercial payloads, and 70 others by international scientists—will be undertaken in the U.S. Orbital Segment (USOS), whilst Shkaplerov added that his role in the Russian Orbital Segment (ROS) would encompass medical and biological studies, in addition to around 50 other investigations already in work aboard the ISS. "It would take a long time to list all the experiments," he told an audience at the Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, Texas."We have a very aggressive science program that we're doing," Virts explained. Yet several experiments do stand out for the three crew members. Virts, whose NASA biography lists astronomy as one of his interests, is particularly excited by the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS)-2, mounted atop the space-facing (or "zenith") side of the station's S-3 truss structure, and by Japan's Monitor of All-Sky X-ray Image (MAXI) experiment, affixed to the Kibo laboratory. Both Virts and Cristoforetti are interested in the investigations which focus upon the effect of microgravity on the human body, including bone loss, lung function, and visual acuity. "It makes me feel more like a scientist," Cristoforetti said about working with hands-on experiments in the Microgravity Science Glovebox (MSG) inside the U.S. Destiny laboratory, although she pointed out that several investigations are autonomous or controlled remotely from the ground.Both she and Virts have signed up for a European Space Agency (ESA) experiment on airway monitoring, which will require them to breathe a specialized gas mixture to better understand the performance of their lungs in space. Virts also noted that about 30 percent of shuttle-era astronauts experienced vision problems, which quickly corrected upon their return to Earth, but that approximately 60 percent of long-duration ISS crew members have suffered from degraded vision which has affected them in the lon. During his six months aboard the station, Virts will perform Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) scans, fundoscopy, and will also take ultrasound measurements of his brain and heart, in order to monitor blood flow to his eyes. Bone loss experiments will also be performed, with Virts noting that regular exercise has helped crews—including the Expedition 40 team, who returned in September 2014, with a virtually insignificant 0.3 percent of bone tissue loss—to maintain their health and physical strength during lengthy missions.Aside from the dedicated experiments, the crew has also trained extensively to handle unexpected medical contingencies, which Virts described as "a diverse job." On his STS-130 shuttle flight, back in February 2010, the crew included a dedicated medical officer, but for ISS expeditions each member of the team has to assume the mantle of the scientist, the mechanic, the doctor, the sewage worker, the cook, and the cleaner. In readiness for their six months in space, Shkaplerov, Virts, and Cristoforetti received a level of training roughly equivalent to an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT), allowing them to deal with situations up to and including a heart attack. They learned how to take blood samples as part of their experiment training, but also undertook several shifts in a Houston emergency room and at a dental clinic. "It's a part of training that we hope we'll never have to use," Virts said, but added that the ISS carries its own basic pharmacy and in the event of a major medical emergency their Soyuz TMA-15M spacecraft would be primed to bring the crew home at a few hours' notice.Thankfully, medical emergencies requiring crew members to be returned to Earth has proven an extreme rarity throughout the history of human space exploration. In the fall of 1985, Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Vasyutin fell ill aboard the Salyut 7 space station, and although the precise nature of his ailment remains subject to conjecture, it seems that the microgravity environment did not suit him. Following his return to Earth, he spent time in a Moscow hospital and later blamed a battle with "inflammation" and "a high fever," although his crewmates made reference to "anxiety in his behavior and loss of sleep and appetite," as well as Vasyutin being in "pain" and described as "tense" and "a bundle of nerves." Later, in the spring of 1987, cosmonaut Aleksandr Laveykin experienced a "rather painful" adaptation to spaceflight and later suffered "minor heart irregularities" which were of sufficient severity that he was returned to Earth in July, six months into a planned 11-month mission. A number of others, including Mongolia's first man in space, Jügderdemidiin Gürragchaa in March 1981, appear to have adapted badly to the microgravity environment, although medical ethics mean that other cases will undoubtedly never be divulged.The arrival of Shkaplerov, Virts, and Cristoforetti aboard the ISS will shortly be followed by their first unpiloted visitor, SpaceX's fifth dedicated Dragon cargo craft (SpX-5), which currently has Eastern Range approval to fly from Space Launch Complex (SLC)-40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., no earlier than mid-December. Marking the third Dragon mission of 2014—it follows SpX-3 in April-May and SpX-4 in September-October—this mission is part of a $1.6 billion Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract, signed between NASA and the Hawthorne, Calif.-based SpaceX, back in December 2008. It requires the company to fly 12 dedicated Dragons to deliver 44,000 pounds (20,000 kg) of equipment and critical supplies to the ISS crews by 2016.Assuming an on-time launch, Dragon will rendezvous and be grappled by the station's 57.7-foot-long (17.6-meter) Canadarm2 robotic arm about two days later and berthed at the Earth-facing (or "nadir") port of the Harmony node. It is expected to remain in place until early January 2015, whereupon it will be loaded with items for return to Earth and robotically unberthed and released into space. The capsule will then descend to a parachute-assisted splashdown, off the California coast. Another Dragon (SpX-6) is currently scheduled to launch in early February and will follow a similar protocol, remaining at the ISS until the beginning of March. Other departures and arrivals with occur at the ROS, with Europe's ATV-5 cargo ship expected to undock from the aft longitudinal port of the Zvezda module on 10 February and Russia's Progress M-26M scheduled to take its place shortly thereafter on the 17th.Meanwhile, Orbital Sciences Corp.—NASA's other CRS partner, tasked with providing eight flights of its Cygnus cargo ship, under a $1.9 billion contract—was originally intended to launch its fourth dedicated mission (ORB-4) in April 2015. However, the catastrophic loss of ORB-3, just seconds after the launch of its Antares booster from Pad 0A at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) on Wallops Island, Va., on 28 October, has potentially thrown these plans into disarray. Although Orbital has pledged that it will stand by its commitments to NASA, it is also clear that the Dulles, Va.-based company will likely not fly another Antares until the spring of 2016. This means that it may rely upon a different vehicle to deliver ORB-4 into space, and it is unclear at present if the April 2015 launch target remains viable.Also in the opening weeks of 2015, a pair of U.S. EVAs are planned to be conducted by Wilmore (EV1) and Virts (EV2) in the January-February timeframe. During a pre-flight press conference at JSC, last July, Wilmore explained that he and Virts would be "the cable guys," responsible for routing umbilicals and utilities in readiness for the delivery and installation of two ISS Docking Adapters (IDAs) aboard the SpX-7 and SpX-8 Dragon missions in June and August 2015. Their arrival, together with the robotic relocation of the Leonardo Permanent Multipurpose Module (PMM) in late July, will support the dawn of Commercial Crew operations from 2017. Two months ago, Boeing and SpaceX were awarded contracts totaling $6.8 billion to develop their CST-100 and Dragon V2 vehicles to return U.S. astronauts to space from U.S. soil for the first time since the end of the shuttle era. In his recent Expedition 42/43 press conference, Virts added that another EVA task would tend to the aging Canadarm2, which was installed aboard the station by the STS-100 shuttle crew in April 2001. "This arm has been there for over ten years," he explained, "and it's getting a little sticky, so we're going to have to go outside and put some grease on it."The "core" Expedition 42 crew of Wilmore, Samokutyayev, and Serova are expected to undock from the ISS in their Soyuz TMA-14M spacecraft on 12 March and return to Earth after 168 days in orbit. Wilmore will hand command of the station to Virts, who will lead the new Expedition 43 until mid-May. Two weeks later, on 27 March, the second half of Virts' crew—Russian cosmonauts Gennadi Padalka and Mikhail Kornienko, together with U.S. astronaut Scott Kelly—will arrive aboard Soyuz TMA-16M. Of the new crew, Kelly and Kornienko will remain aboard the ISS until March 2016, becoming the first astronauts or cosmonauts since Sergei Avdeyev in 1998-1999 to spend a whole year, continuously, in orbit. They will also become the first pair of spacefarers to spend a year aloft since Vladimir Titov and Musa Manarov, way back in 1987-1988.Another U.S. EVA in support of the reconfiguration of the USOS is currently planned for April 2015, almost certainly involving Virts and either Cristoforetti or Kelly. This means that Virts will potentially perform as many as three spacewalks during his increment, although he joked at his pre-flight press conference that many people had asked him how many EVAs he would make, "and I tell them, somewhere between zero and ten!" Unlike the shuttle era, where EVAs were planned and choreographed many months or years in advance, as an ISS expedition crewman, he is keenly aware that contingencies can arise and "you need to be able to tackle anything." Present plans anticipate that Shkaplerov, Virts, and Cristoforetti will board their Soyuz TMA-15M spacecraft on 11 May, returning to Earth after approximately 169 days in orbit.Roscosmos denies gas leaks on board ISSITAR TASS, of RussiaEarlier, NASA in its official blog said there had been a minor leak of the gas khladon (Freon-218) from the system of air conditioningThere have been no gas leaks on board the Russian segment of the International Space Station (ISS), the spokesperson for the Russian space agency Roscosmos, Irina Zubareva, has told TASS.Earlier, NASA in its official blog said there had been a minor leak of the gas khladon (Freon-218) from the system of air conditioning."We do not confirm the NASA blog publication," Zubareva said. "There were no gas leaks on the Russian segment."According to the NASA blog, cosmonauts "Samokutyaev and Serova performed steps to release pressure in the Russian segment's air conditioner system by venting khladon gas (Freon 218) overboard. However, several of the quick disconnects that were actuated during the procedure exhibited leaks. As a result, the khladon was vented into the cabin instead. The quantity released was approximately 100 g, which results in a density of 117 mg/m3 over the volume of ISS, which was below the stated ISS zero risk flight rule limit of 150 mg/m3. As part of nominal air scrubbing process, the Russian Air Purification System and the USOS Trace Contaminant Control System (TCCS) will remove residual Khladon from the atmosphere," the NASA blog said.Lidar Scanner To Boost ISS Earth-observation roleNext SpaceX mission will expand Earth-monitoring role forFrank Morring, Jr. - Aviation Week & Space TechnologyAmong the payloads scheduled for launch as early as Dec. 9 on the next SpaceX Dragon is the Cloud Aerosol Transport System (Cats), a lidar scanner that will bolster the International Space Station's growing value as a platform for high-resolution observation of the Earth below.Using three laser wavelengths and a "depolarization-based discrimination" capability, Cats will be able to map clouds and the tiny airborne particles generically dubbed aerosols by altitude and composition, providing climate-change researchers, weather forecasters and air traffic control organizations with new data. It is also a pathfinder for future use of the ISS as a low-orbit platform for Earth and atmospheric monitoring (AW&ST Feb. 3, p. 24)."Everyone who comes behind us gets to use the trail that we plowed, and it was a hard trail to plow," says Matt McGill, an atmospheric-science specialist here who is the principal investigator on Cats.McGill and his colleagues originally had 24 months to develop their instrument and work through the safety and engineering wickets to get it mounted on the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) exposed facility, where it will be able to measure clouds and aerosols below the ISS and return the data around the clock in near-real time. Launch delays in Japan added a year to the timetable, which the Cats project used to switch from the H-II Transfer Vehicle to the Dragon.NASA's space station program funded the pathfinder project at $15 million. McGill says that will give scientists several new data-taking capabilities at much lower cost than a dedicated free-flying spacecraft. Cats will be the first "photon-counting" digital instrument of its type in space, adding sensitivity previously available only in the limited coverage available through airborne sensors.The instrument will be able to distinguish ice clouds from water clouds—extremely valuable in climate-change modeling because of their different heating effects. And it will determine if an aerosol layer is natural—desert dust, volcanic ash, smoke from forest fires, sea salt—or was created by human activity, such as smog or other air pollution.With the almost-constant communication links afforded by the space station, the Cats team hopes to be able to plug its data into weather and climate models within two hours of collection through Goddard's Global Modeling and Assimilation Office. That will give weather forecasters new input on clouds and on how aerosols such as dust from the Sahara Desert contribute to tropical storm formation. It will help air traffic controllers divert airliners away from plumes of volcanic ash. And while the constantly refreshed data is important for operational applications, it also has long-term utility, McGill says."For us to have more accurate climate models, we have to have more accurate data to put into those models on where are the clouds, when were the clouds, what height are the clouds, what are they, are they water or ice," he says. "That's what the lidar can give you. "NASA also gets atmospheric profiles from the Cloud–Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (Calipso) satellite, launched into the polar-orbiting "A-Train" constellation of Earth-observing spacecraft in April 2006. Cats adds a 355 nanometer wavelength to the 1,064 and 532 nanometer channels it shares with Calipso, as an experiment to learn how the new ultraviolet data can contribute to cloud measurement in such proposed missions as the Aerosol/Cloud/Ecosystems (ACE) project recommended by the National Research Council's 2007 Earth Science Decadal Survey.McGill says that even though the ISS doesn't cover the whole Earth from its 51.6 deg. orbit, by "happy coincidence" its ground track matches the primary aerosol transport routes around the globe. And the Cats lidar data can be fused with data from Calipso to add to the global picture."For our specific science goals of the clouds and aerosols, I'm going to say we do not lose a lot," he says. "I would not build an ice sheet altimeter and put it on [the] space station. We lose the ability to see polar clouds and what are called polar stratospheric clouds, which are a big question right now. Calipso can see those, so at that point you use the synergy between existing sensors and what we can do from station."As a pathfinder built for one cargo-delivery system and converted to another, Cats is helping ISS operators learn new uses for their expensive hardware. It will arrive at the station mounted in the SpaceX Dragon's unpressurized "trunk" (see photo), and be installed on the JEM "porch" with an unprecedented robotic handoff."SpaceX docks at the opposite end of the station, so one robotic arm has to grab us, pull us out of the SpaceX vehicle, hand us over to the Japanese arm and go plug us in," McGill says. "They promise me they won't drop us, but they haven't done this before."Those payloads—for Earth science or other applications—will also benefit from the station's robust flexibility as a host for sophisticated instruments that have never flown in space before. Power, data and cooling are handled as utilities, available through the plug-in connections that link payloads such as Cats to their operational platforms on the station exterior."The nice thing about ISS, why you can do this for relatively low dollars, [is] you're not constrained by size or mass or power the way you are with a free-flyer satellite," says McGill. "We didn't have to spend a lot of money trying to save every ounce and gram of weight."A version of this article appears in the November 24 issue of Aviation Week & Space Technology.NASA Is Building a Sustainable 'Highway' for Unprecedented Deep Space ExplorationDan Dumbacher - Huffington PostIn early December, NASA will take an important step into the future with the first flight test of the Orion spacecraft -- the first vehicle in history capable of taking humans to multiple destinations in deep space. And while this launch is an un-crewed test, it will be the first peek at how NASA has revamped itself since the end of the Space Shuttle Program in 2011.
While the space shuttle achieved many ground-breaking accomplishments, it was limited to flights in low-Earth orbit (approx. 250 miles high). Its major goal, over the program's last 10 years, was to launch and assemble the International Space Station, where the risks and challenges of long duration human space flight can be addressed and retired. With the ISS construction complete, NASA is in the process of handing over supply and crew transportation missions to private industry, so NASA can focus on what's next - deep space exploration. And this first flight test of Orion is a significant milestone on the path to get us there.
The flight itself will be challenging. Orion will fly 3,600 miles above Earth on a 4.5-hour mission to test many of the systems necessary for future human missions into deep space. After two orbits, Orion will re-enter Earth's atmosphere at almost 20,000 miles per hour, reaching temperatures near 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit, before its parachute system deploys to slow the spacecraft for a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.
While this launch is an important step to taking humans farther than we've ever gone before, it is important to note that it also reflects the fact that, after 30 years of space shuttle missions dominating its human spaceflight activities, NASA has reevaluated everything - from its rockets and launch facilities to how it designs and manages its programs. NASA has now infused innovation and flexibility into everything it does.
With the Orion spacecraft, NASA wanted to develop a vehicle that could fly for decades with the flexibility to visit different destinations and safely return astronauts to Earth as the nation's exploration goals evolve. As capable as the Apollo capsule was, the longest round trip mission to the Moon took 12 days. Orion is designed as a long-duration spacecraft that will allow us to undertake human missions to Mars - a two year round trip. In addition, NASA built enough capability into Orion so there is no need for redesign, or to start up a new program, as new destinations are identified.
Innovation and flexibility are also evident with the ground infrastructure. At Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida, NASA has eliminated the ground systems and launch pads that were built specifically for the space shuttle. They have developed a "clean pad" approach that can be used by a variety of launch vehicles. The new streamlined infrastructure will be much more cost-efficient, reducing the time for on-the-pad processing from 30 days, the space shuttle's timeline, to just five to six days.
The key to launching Orion on deep space exploration missions is NASA's new "super rocket." Known as the Space Launch System (SLS), it will be the most powerful rocket in history. The enormous power of the SLS will provide the capability to go farther into our solar system than humans have ever gone before. It will enable launches to other planets in less than half the time of any existing rocket. And, like Orion and the new ground systems at KSC, it is designed to be flexible and evolvable to meet a wide variety of crew and cargo mission requirements.The SLS is an absolute game-changer for ambitious robotic missions to the outer planets and large unprecedented astronomical observatories. Those missions will build on the discoveries of Curiosity on Mars, the Hubble Space Telescope and its successor, the James Webb Space Telescope, and multiple robotic missions in the years ahead.Through the development of the SLS and Orion, NASA has learned many lessons on how to streamline the design to make it more affordable than past systems. For the early missions, SLS will use heritage space shuttle hardware for the liquid engines and solid rocket boosters. Also, instead of initially building the "full-up" SLS, NASA has designed it to evolve by planning upgraded upper stages and boosters that future missions will require in the 2020's and 2030's. These innovations have allowed SLS to stay on a relatively flat budget throughout its design phase.Even the way NASA manages its programs has been revamped. The Agency's management structure for systems engineering and integration has been streamlined to increase communication and enhance decision-making. Strong communication has led to increased precision, and the potential cost avoidance is close to $100 million per year. Evidence of these savings can be seen in the successful completions of Preliminary Design Reviews for Orion, SLS and KSC ground systems.As a nation, the U.S. has not sent crews beyond low Earth orbit since the last Apollo crew walked on the Moon in 1972. With Orion and SLS, America will have the fundamental capabilities to support missions taking the next steps into deep space, and with innovation and flexibility at the foundation of these programs, NASA is literally building a "Highway" for deep space exploration that will be sustainable for decades to come.Culberson to be Next House C-J-S 'Cardinal'Anne L. Kim – Roll CallTexas Republican John Culberson is slated to become the next chairman of the House Appropriations Commerce-Justice-Science Subcommittee and on Thursday he signaled that he'll be a booster for NASA and the National Science Foundation.House Appropriations Chairman Harold Rogers, R-Ky., announced on Thursday the 12 House Appropriations subcommittee chairman (known as "cardinals") approved by the House Republican Steering Committee. Among them: Culberson for the panel that has jurisdiction over funding for NASA, the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office."I will do everything in my power to ensure that NASA and the National Science Foundation have what they need to ensure America's unchallenged leadership in space exploration and scientific discovery," Culberson said in an interview with Technocrat.As for the space program, he said: "It's time for Congress to give them [space program astronauts, scientists and engineers] the… financial support and stability they need to do their job – get politics out of the way as much as possible."When asked about particular programs that might need more funding or less funding, he said:"Well we need to first ensure that the Space Launch System and the Orion manned program are fully funded to ensure they stay on time. And that we return American astronauts [into] space on American rockets as fast as humanly possible."He said the commercial space transportation has a "vital role" and that he'll "continue to support them" in any way he could.As for recent crashes of commercial space vehicles, he didn't seem deterred. He said spaceflight is a "risky business," and there will be challenges and setbacks, but whether they're due to human error or mechanical failure, they couldn't be allowed to "derail our space program."NASA is in the process of building its own heavy rocket (known as the Space Launch System) and crew capsule (known as Orion) and also recently announced contracts for private companies to transport astronauts to the International Space Station. NASA has been relying on Russia to transport astronauts to the research station since the U.S. shuttle program ended in 2011.Culberson said he also wants to make sure that NASA's planetary sciences program is "given the support they need to achieve the goals of the Decadal Survey."The Texas Republican, a proponent of NASA's potential Europa mission, signaled that he'd push for funding for such a mission. A mission to Europa, one of Jupiter's moons, was the National Research Council's second highest priority flagship mission in its most recent Planetary Science Decadal Survey, which basically lays out the priorities of the planetary sciences community.Culberson said Europa was a top priority of that Decadal Survey, that the U.S. has always funded and flown the top priority and said he'd "ensure that that… continues to be the case in the future."He also praised retiring subcommittee Chairman Frank R. Wolf, R-Va., saying "NASA and the sciences could not have had a better chairman than Frank Wolf has been."Another note about Culberson: he's sponsored legislation that would set a six-year term for the NASA administrator and proposes a board of directors submit the agency's annual budget to the President.Countdown Clock retired, poised for move to Kennedy Space Center Visitor ComplexJason Rhian – Spaceflightinsider.comThe iconic Countdown Clock located at the Kennedy Space Center press site in Florida – ended its decades-long service today. The timepiece, which has provided the exact time before a mission takes flight, as well as the amount of time that missions have spent in orbit – was officially shut down at 3:45 p.m. EST (1945 GMT).SpaceFlight Insider spoke with NASA's Lisa Malone in September of this year. She detailed that, with a new era in spaceflight set to take place next month, with the launch of the Exploration Flight Test 1 (EFT-1) mission, the space agency is looking to modernize many of its assets. The Countdown Clock was among these items. Its replacement is supposed to have a lot of features that its predecessor did not."The new clock will be different, it's going to be a flat screen, outdoor kind of device and it's going to be bigger…we're looking at something that is durable, weather-proof and we're looking into putting something there that is not just a clock, but something that would allow us to put the NASA TV program out there too. It would be something that you could have some flexibility with," Malone said.The clock will now join many other historic space artifacts that are located at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. NASA meanwhile will work to have the new clock in place for the planned Dec. 4 launch of a test article of the agency's new Orion spacecraft.As noted, EFT-1, is the first flight of NASA's new Orion crew-rated spacecraft. Orion will be launched on a two-orbit mission which will test out the spacecraft's key systems some 3,600 miles (5,794 km) above the Earth. Planned for launch atop a United Launch Alliance (ULA ) Delta IV Heavy booster, the spacecraft will carry out these orbits and then return to Earth at a speed of some 20,000 miles (32,187 km) per hour.In terms of the Countdown Clock, its history stretches back before NASA even sent crews in orbit around the Moon. It has served at Kennedy since it was installed on Nov. 9, 1967 (NASA's first crewed mission to orbit the Moon, Apollo 8, took place in 1968). The timepiece was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places as part of a Multiple Property Submission on Jan. 21, 2000.If NASA can get the new clock in operation by Dec. 4, it will join a number of other's located at KSC that are used to provide accurate times for missions that are about to launch. NASA has a team that handles these clocks, the Imaging Technical Support Group. They ensure that exact times are dispersed during the various missions to the relevant parties that need precise, synchronous times to coordinate their efforts when delivering crews, cargo and spacecraft to orbit. In terms of the agency's various missions – exact timing is critical."We double and triple check our times. We target launch times down to the second, and things happen quickly as we approach T-0. These numbers are critical to us and they must be correct," said the Group's Steve Payne during an Oct. 2010 interview.How a Superchilled Telescope Will Look Back at the Dawn of the UniverseEric Niller – WiredTo see back in time, you need a massive telescope—one big enough to capture light from when the first galaxies were formed, 13.5 billion years ago. Astronomers are clamoring to see this light, so NASA is obliging them by building the James Webb Space Telescope. The Webb will operate 1 million miles from Earth in a gravity-tethered spot called the L2 point, where the telescope can get cold enough that its own heat won't drown out faint traces of infrared radiation—once-visible light that's been stretched out by the universe's expansion. To ensure it will survive out there, this astro-time machine has to be prechilled: In the past year, NASA engineers have tested individual components in vacuum chambers that reach L2-like temperatures (below 50 Kelvin). Once in place, the Webb, with its 21-foot mirror, will be 100 times more powerful than the Hubble Space Telescope, able to capture images of very dim, very old light. It will also probe the atmospheres of exoplanets to check for oxygen, water, and maybe even alien pollution. Final assembly begins in December, and the fully built Webb launches from French Guiana in October 2018—heading far out in space to peer back in time.Super sunshade
The Webb's four delicate cameras need to get frigid to pick up the faintest infrared light signals. So once in position, a five-layer sun shield will unfurl, blocking the sun's heat. A thin layer of gold on each of the telescope's mirror segments reflects the light of distant galaxies onto the instruments.Carbon tough
The greatest risk for the Webb is thermal cracking as it deploys the sun shield in deep space. "The whole thing shrinks when it cools down," NASA project manager Paul Geithner says. "It tries to tear itself apart." He's testing a recipe of boron graphite fibers, epoxy glue, and metal joints to increase flexibility and keep it together.Cold case
To prep for deep freeze, the Webb's parts—mirrors,
cameras, and electronics—are being tested inside the cold chamber at the Goddard Space Center (left). The chamber has two cold boxes: The outer shell uses liquid nitrogen to reach 77 Kelvin, and the inner chamber fills with helium gas to lower the temperature below 30 Kelvin (-405 degrees Fahrenheit).End point
After the Webb travels to the L2 point, Earth will gravitationally "pull" it along while circling the sun. When its shield blocks the sun's rays, the telescope will get supercold—colder than the Hubble does in low earth orbit. But unlike with the Hubble, there's no way to send an astronaut to fix the Webb if something fails (yet).Prime objective
The Webb will hunt for light emitted when the first galaxies were making the building blocks of the universe, 300 million to 400 million years post-big bang.Glitch Sends Latest NASA Mars Orbiter into Safe ModeDan Leone – Space NewsLess than a week after full science operations began, a processing glitch aboard a new NASA Mars orbiter forced the craft to temporarily shut down all of its science instruments, the agency said in an online post Nov. 20.Operators on the ground were attempting to send commands to the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft Nov. 19, when "a timing conflict between commands" triggered an automatic shutdown of the orbiter's three science instruments. MAVEN has been orbiting Mars since Sept. 22."Two different processors got out of synch with each other, so that the relative timing of commands was incorrect," Bruce Jakosky, principal investigator for MAVEN at the University of Colorado in Boulder said Nov. 20 via email. "Think of it as two computers that have to talk with each other but realize that they're not keeping the same time; they lose the ability to talk to each other. In that instance, they recognize the problem but don't know how to recover from it, so they send the spacecraft into safe mode."Six of MAVEN's eight science sensors are grouped together on an instrument known as the Particle and Fields package built by the University of California, Berkeley, Space Sciences Laboratory. MAVEN's other instruments are the Remote Sensing package provided by the University of Colorado Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, and the Neutral Gas and Ion Mass Spectrometer, built by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.MAVEN remains in contact with controllers on the ground, Jakosky said.The $571 million orbiter, built by Lockheed Martin Space Systems of Denver, is studying Mars' upper atmosphere in an attempt to figure out why the planet, once thought to be habitable, is now a cold, barren desert. MAVEN's mission had been in full swing only for a few days when the automatic shutdown occurred."We had declared start of science over the weekend," Jakosky said Nov. 20.Here's NASA's Nov. 20 statement:MAVEN went into safehold mode on Wednesday, Nov. 19. The spacecraft goes into this state autonomously, when it detects a problem with its operations, to ensure that it stays safe and in contact with Earth. Safehold was triggered by a timing conflict between commands. This is part of learning how to operate the spacecraft in a new environment, as this is the first time the spacecraft has been in its full science-operations scenario. The instruments have all been turned off and are safe, the spacecraft is healthy and in high-data-rate contact with Earth. The spacecraft operations team is currently developing the schedule to return MAVEN to science operations.Curiosity Rover Recons Rocky Base of Mars Mountain (Photos)Mike Wall - Space.comNASA's Mars rover Curiosity is taking a good, long look at the first rocks it encountered at the base of a huge Martian mountain.The car-size Curiosity rover continues to investigate an outcrop at the foot of Mount Sharp that is dubbed Pahrump Hills, which the robot reached in September after a 14-month trek. After completing a reconnaissance circuit of Pahrump Hills, Curiosity is now examining rocks in the outcrop with its spectrometer and close-up cameras, NASA officials said.The data Curiosity is gathering will help mission team members decide whether or not they want to drill into Pahrump Hills and collect samples again. (Curiosity already performed a full-up drilling operation in the outcrop in September, the rover's fourth since touching down on Mars.) [Curiosity Rover's Latest Mars Photos]"We see a diversity of textures in this outcrop — some parts finely layered and fine-grained, others more blocky with erosion-resistant ledges," Curiosity deputy project scientist Ashwin Vasavada, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said in a mission update Tuesday (Nov. 18)."Overlaid on that structure are compositional variations," he added. "Some of those variations were detected with our spectrometer. Others show themselves as apparent differences in cementation or as mineral veins. There's a lot to study here."Curiosity landed inside the 96-mile-wide (154 kilometers) Gale Crater in August 2012, on a mission to determine if Mars has ever been capable of supporting microbial life. That goal has already been achieved; Curiosity's work revealed that a place near its landing site called Yellowknife Bay was a habitable lake-and-stream system billions of years ago.The six-wheeled robot left the Yellowknife Bay area in July 2013 for Mount Sharp, which has been Curiosity's ultimate destination since before its November 2011 launch. Mission scientists want the rover to climb up through the 3.4-mile-high (5.5 km) mountain's foothills, reading in the rocks a history of Mars' changing environmental conditions as it goes.While Curiosity examines possible drilling targets at Pahrump Hills, the rover's handlers are also trying to troubleshoot an issue with its Chemistry and Camera instrument (ChemCam), which fires a laser at rocks and analyzes the composition of the resulting vaporized bits using a telescope and spectrometers.A small laser that ChemCam uses to focus its telescope appears to be weakening, NASA officials said. But it may still be possible to use the instrument even if the little laser fails, they added."If the smaller laser has become too weak to continue using, the ChemCam team plans to test an alternative method: firing a few shots from the main laser while focusing the telescope, before performing the analysis," officials wrote in Tuesday's update. "This would take advantage of more than 2,000 autofocus sequences ChemCam has completed on Mars, providing calibration points for the new procedure."NASA: Big sunspot is an odd oneJames Dean - Florida TodayNASA scientists are monitoring an enormous and strangely behaved sunspot that has rotated back into Earth's view, but don't expect it to cause problems on the ground or threaten upcoming rocket launches.When last seen about a month ago the sunspot was the largest in 24 years, anywhere from 10 to 15 times bigger than Earth. It has since shrunk a bit.The sunspot produced some powerful flares, but surprisingly no major eruptions of high-energy charged particles that in extreme cases can damage satellites and power grids."In this case, the region is of interest because it's been odd," said Alex Young, associate director for science of the Heliophysics Science Division at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland."People kept an eye on it because at any time it could have produced a flare and the other types of space weather, but the whole time it didn't."Sunspots are tight bundles of strong magnetic fields that are slightly cooler than surrounding areas of the sun and so appear darker.As the fields become twisted and knotted like rubber bands, Young explained, they can release violent solar storms."If you continue to twist a rubber band enough, it's going to snap," he said. "Something similar happens with magnetic fields. They build up energy to the point where they can't contain it anymore, and they very violently release that energy."That happens in the form of intense bursts of light called solar flares and ejections of clouds of solar material, both of which can be accompanied by blasts of charged particles.Earth's magnetic field protects people, but such space weather can disrupt technology in orbit and on the ground.The high-speed flares and particle events are of most concern to launch teams, Young said.That was the case in January when, in an unusual event, Orbital Sciences Corp. scrubbed a launch from Virginia in otherwise ideal weather conditions due to worries that a powerful solar flare could damage the rocket's avionics.If they pass through computer chips on a rocket or spacecraft, high-energy solar particles could cause a "bit flip" or "upset," potentially changing their memory or the commands they send in unpredictable ways.As a result, said Young, a system could turn off when it isn't supposed to or a rocket could become confused about which direction it is pointing."In most cases these impacts are minimal," he said, but launch teams act cautiously during periods of active space weather.Satellites built to operate for years in the harsh environment of space generally are better hardened against radiation than rockets, but spacecraft in higher orbits, including communications and Global Positioning System satellites, are at more risk than low-orbiting vehicles like the International Space Station.With the once enormous sunspot now fading, Young said it isn't likely to create extra concerns for Sunday's launch of astronauts from Kazakhstan or NASA's upcoming test flight of an Orion capsule from Cape Canaveral, planned Dec. 4."It probably won't produce a lot of space weather, so more than likely will not be of concern for launches," he said. "Having said that, the sun can and often does surprise you."Europe's Satellite Operators Urge Swift Development of Ariane 6Peter B. de Selding - Space NewsThe president of the European Satellite Operators Association (ESOA) on Nov. 19 applauded the apparent agreement between France and Germany on a next-generation Ariane 6 rocket and said the vehicle needs to be in service as quickly as possible.If it is not, said Eutelsat Chief Executive Michel de Rosen, ESOA's president, SpaceX of the United States will establish itself as a leader in the commercial market — a position from which it will not be dislodged easily."Our ESOA message: Hurry up," de Rosen said in a briefing here less than two weeks before European governments are set to meet to decide Ariane 6's funding and development period. "Each year that passes will see SpaceX advance, gain market share and further reduce its costs through economies of scale."Hawthorne, California-based SpaceX, formally known as Space Exploration Technologies Corp., has already begun to take market share from Europe's Arianespace launch service provider, mainly for the launch of satellites that would sit in the current heavy-lift Ariane 5 rocket's lower position, which is reserved for the smaller of two satellites the vehicle carries to orbit for commercial customers.Evry, France-based Arianespace has responded by squeezing, to a limited degree, its supplier base. But Ariane 5 builders are also Arianespace shareholders, limiting the company's leverage on them.Arianespace has also begun reducing prices for satellites in the Ariane 5 lower position, in part by raising prices for the heavier, upper-berth satellites.Yohann Leroy, Eutelsat's chief technical officer, said this policy has been possible in part because the Ariane 5's competitors for heavy satellites — the Russian Proton and Zenit/Sea Launch rockets — have confronted quality-control and supply-chain issues.Leroy said this situation will not last long, especially if, as scheduled, SpaceX introduces its Falcon Heavy sometime in 2015 and thereby competes for 6,000-kilogram-class satellites as well as lighter spacecraft.Asked whether Eutelsat, the world's third-largest commercial satellite fleet operator by revenue, considered the Proton and Zenit rockets out of the commercial market, de Rosen said Eutelsat has been told that the Russian government will do what it takes to keep both vehicles viable in the market.Eutelsat, de Rosen said, pointedly asked SpaceX in September what its medium-term Falcon 9 pricing policy would be. The company wondered whether SpaceX would raise prices once it had secured a sizable share of the commercial market.SpaceX's response, he said, was that Falcon pricing would remain stable for a time and then head down, not up, as new technology, scale economies and partial reuse of the vehicle produced their intended effects.While de Rosen occasionally sounded like a cheerleader for Team France or Team Europe — his company has historically favored both Ariane 5 and European satellite builders — he said Eutelsat would make no guarantees with respect to Ariane 6."If they meet their objectives in terms of flexibility and reliability, then we would certainly look favorably on the vehicle," de Rosen said, adding that Eutelsat had already volunteered to place one of its satellites on the inaugural Ariane 6 flight."We are just the customers. What we want, as satellite operators, is at least three launch options. We don't want anyone in a monopoly position."The 20-nation European Space Agency asked ESOA to weigh in with its opinions early on in the Ariane 6 design process, a move that helped change the Ariane 6 design over the past two years.ESA Director-General Jean-Jacques Dordain, de Rosen said, has been the driving force behind this evolution. "Without Dordain, there would be no Ariane 6," he said.Leroy said the decision to design an Ariane 6 with two liquid-fueled stages instead of a solid-fueled first stage "helps future-proof the vehicle and make it more adaptable. For example, any move to reusability, of the sort SpaceX is trying, would need liquid-fueled engines."SpaceX currently charges about $60 million for a single satellite launched on a Falcon 9. The Ariane 64 vehicle that appears on the verge of acceptance by European governments is expected to cost about 91 million euros to build and launch, leading to a price, in 2014 economic conditions, of 115 million euros ($144M) for a full vehicle with two satellites. The Ariane 6 vehicle, assuming its 4.3 billion euros in development funding is approved in December, is scheduled to be operational in 2020.Neither Eutelsat nor ESOA appeared overly concerned about this price difference. Presented with a competitive challenge, de Rosen said, Europe's industry is likely to rise to the occasion.ENDMore at www.spacetoday.net
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