Elon Musk's $5 Billion in Govt Subsidies Help Make Ends Meet

He is running space x ---- America's shuttle replacement--- was planned on being manned by now---- maybe in a few or so more years, but we keep paying Russia .! Priority not there, but this is going to save our space capabilities! Capabilities not even close to shuttle, but they continue to ignore x37 C boeing proposal. Very disappointed in Charlie bolden, nasa adm. A truly tragic end to America's great space capabilities!!

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/05/31/elon-musks-5-billion-in-govt-subsidies-helps-make-ends-meet/

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Why China's space program stands out - CNN.com

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/05/29/opinions/opinion-china-space-business/


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Keep the shuttle flying: 6 LOST capabilities with shuttle retirement

http://keeptheshuttleflyingc.blogspot.com/2014/10/6-lost-capabilities-with-shuttle.html


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Fwd: This Week in The Space Review - 2015 May 26

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Begin forwarded message:

From: jeff@thespacereview.com (Jeff Foust)
Date: May 26, 2015 at 12:41:26 PM CDT
Subject: This Week in The Space Review - 2015 May 26
Reply-To: jeff@thespacereview.com

[ If you no longer wish to receive announcements from The Space Review,
please follow the instructions at the end of this message. ]


Welcome to this week's issue of The Space Review:


A stagecoach to the stars
---
Concepts of interplanetary spacecraft often face challenges with power, propulsion, radiation shielding, and more. Brian McConnell offers a concept for a "spacecoach" spacecraft that overcomes many of those obstacles by making use of water and solar electric propulsion in unique ways.
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2760/1

Congress launches commercial space legislation
---
Both the House and Senate are considering legislation to support the US commercial launch industry, including extending key provisions of current law. Jeff Foust reports on those efforts, including the contrast between the partisan debates in the House and the bipartisan effort in the Senate.
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2759/1

A quick look at trade secrets in outer space
---
As commercial ventures in outer space grow, so do issues like the protection of trade secrets such companies may obtain from their space activities. Kamil Muzyka explores the issue of trade secrets and offers one approach to protecting them.
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2758/1

India's GSLV Mark III: Another step ahead
---
India is making progress, albeit slowly, on the next generation of its GSLV launch vehicle designed to end the country's dependence on foreign launchers. Debalina Ghoshal examines the state of the vehicle's development.
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2757/1

Review: Black Hole
---
Black holes are widely accepted today both in astrophysics and in popular culture, even though half a century ago they seemed inconceivable to many scientists. Jeff Foust reviews a book that offers a concise history of our understanding of black holes, and how they redeemed general relativity.
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2756/1


If you missed it, here's what we published in our previous issue:


Impatience for Mars
---
NASA says it has a plan for human missions to Mars in the 2030s. Jeff Foust reports that some, though, are pressing NASA for more details about those plans and coming up with alternative concepts that they believe could accelerate those crewed missions to the Red Planet.
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2755/1

Two small steps for humankind
---
Getting humans to live beyond Earth in a sustainable manner is a long-term effort with many steps involved. Derek Webber proposes that NASA focus on two initial steps, supporting key technologies that can enable eventual human space settlement.
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2754/1

The need for a launch vehicle development organization: Learning from Brazil's experience
---
Brazil is considering terminating its agreement with Ukraine to launch Cyclone 4 rockets from its spaceport, dealing another setback to that country's space access plans. Ajey Lele suggests that Brazil partner with other nations, including India, to jointly develop launchers.
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2753/1

Humankind's greatest adventure: A review of The Last Man on the Moon
---
It's been more than 40 years since Gene Cernan was the last human to walk on the Moon. Shane Hannon talks with the director and producer of a documentary about Cernan's life.
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2752/1

Review: Elon Musk
---
He is one of the major figures in the space industry today, but Elon Musk remains something of an enigma to people who are puzzled by his way of doing business and his passion for Mars. Jeff Foust reviews a new biography that covers Musk's life and his work at SpaceX.
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2751/1


We appreciate any feedback you may have about these articles as well as
any other questions, comments, or suggestions about The Space Review.
We're also actively soliciting articles to publish in future issues, so
if you have an article or article idea that you think would be of
interest, please email me.

Until next week,

Jeff Foust
Editor, The Space Review
jeff@thespacereview.com
==
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To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@spacesites.com with the word
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For more information please visit http://www.thespacereview.com

Fwd: Commercial Crew Milestones Met; Partners on Track for Missions in 2017

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Begin forwarded message:

From: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Date: May 28, 2015 at 10:02:27 AM CDT
To: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Subject: FW: Commercial Crew Milestones Met; Partners on Track for Missions in 2017

 

 

May 27, 2015

15-105

 

Commercial Crew Milestones Met; Partners on Track for Missions in 2017

Credits: NASA

NASA has taken another step toward returning America's ability to launch crew missions to the International Space Station from the United States in 2017.

The Commercial Crew Program ordered its first crew rotation mission from The Boeing Company. SpaceX, which successfully performed a pad abort test of its flight vehicle earlier this month, is expected to receive its first order later this year. Determination of which company will fly its mission to the station first will be made at a later time. The contract calls for the orders to take place prior to certification to support the lead time necessary for the first mission in late 2017, provided the contractors meet certain readiness conditions.

Missions flown to the station on Boeing's Crew Space Transportation (CST)-100 and SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft will restore America's human spaceflight capabilities and increase the amount of scientific research that can be conducted aboard the orbiting laboratory.

"Final development and certification are top priority for NASA and our commercial providers, but having an eye on the future is equally important to the commercial crew and station programs," said Kathy Lueders, manager of NASA's Commercial Crew Program. "Our strategy will result in safe, reliable and cost-effective crew missions."

Boeing's crew transportation system, including the CST-100 spacecraft, has advanced through various commercial crew development and certification phases. The company recently completed the fourth milestone in the Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) phase of the program, the delta integrated critical design review. This milestone demonstrates the transportation system has reached design maturity appropriate to proceed with assembly, integration and test activities.

"We're on track to fly in 2017, and this critical milestone moves us another step closer in fully maturing the CST-100 design," said John Mulholland, Boeing's vice president of Commercial Programs. "Our integrated and measured approach to spacecraft design ensures quality performance, technical excellence and early risk mitigation."

Orders under the CCtCap contracts are made two to three years prior to the missions to provide time for each company to manufacture and assemble the launch vehicle and spacecraft. In addition, each company must successfully complete the certification process before NASA will give the final approval for flight. If NASA does not receive the full requested funding for CCtCap in fiscal year 2016 and beyond, NASA will have to delay future milestones for both partners proportionally and extend sole reliance on Russia for crew access to the station.

A standard mission to the station will carry four NASA or NASA-sponsored crew members and about 220 pounds of pressurized cargo. The spacecraft will remain at the station for up to 210 days and serve as an emergency lifeboat during that time. Each contract includes a minimum of two and a maximum potential of six missions.

"Commercial Crew launches are critical to the International Space Station Program because it ensures multiple ways of getting crews to orbit," said Julie Robinson, International Space Station chief scientist. "It also will give us crew return capability so we can increase the crew to seven, letting us complete a backlog of hands-on critical research that has been building up due to heavy demand for the National Laboratory."

NASA's Commercial Crew Program manages the CCtCap contracts and is working with each company to ensure commercial transportation system designs and post-certification missions will meet the agency's safety requirements. Activities that follow the award of missions include a series of mission-related reviews and approvals leading to launch. The program also will be involved in all operational phases of missions to ensure crew safety.

For more information about NASA's Commercial Crew Program, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/commercialcrew

For the latest on Commercial Crew progress, bookmark the program's blog at:

http://blogs.nasa.gov/commercialcrew

For more information about the International Space Station, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/station

-end-

Stephanie Schierholz
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
stephanie.schierholz@nasa.gov

Stephanie Martin
Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
321-867-2468
stephanie.a.martin@nasa.gov

Last Updated: May 28, 2015

Editor: Karen Northon

 

---

 

 

Fwd: X-37B spaceplane’s orbit discovered

Sent from my iPad

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Date: May 28, 2015 at 9:55:42 AM CDT
To: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Subject: FW: X-37B spaceplane's orbit discovered

 

 

X-37B spaceplane's orbit discovered

May 27, 2015 by Justin Ray

Credit: Boeing

CAPE CANAVERAL — Hobbyists who keep track of the skies with remarkable precision have found the U.S. Air Force's mini space shuttle in its no-longer-secret orbit around the Earth.

The X-37B craft, making the program's fourth mission into space, was launched May 20 from Cape Canaveral atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket.

The ascent entered a news blackout about five minutes after liftoff, as the Centaur upper stage began its burn to put the spaceplane into low-Earth orbit.

It wasn't until later that officials confirmed the launch had gone smoothly for the Orbital Test Vehicle mission No. 4. It is believed the Centaur deployed X-37B about 19 minutes into flight.

Observers this week spotted the craft flying overhead in a 194 by 202 mile orbit (312 X 325 km), tilted 38 degrees relative to the equator.

That perch is lower than previous X-37B missions and the inclination is lower, too.

"OTV 4 entered the lowest initial altitude of the program," said Ted Molczan, a respected satellite observing hobbyist.

"The ground track nearly repeats every 2 days. Frequently repeating ground tracks have been a common feature of the program. This could be an indication of a surveillance mission, or it may offer some operational advantage I have yet to figure out."

Although the Air Force revealed two experiments to be conducted on this fourth mission — an electric propulsion thruster test and materials exposure in the space environment — much was classified about the flight, including the orbit, mission duration and even which of the two X-37B spaceplanes is making the trip.

"The X-37B testbed platform is unique because we can tailor to specific user needs and return experiments back to post-flight inspection," said Ken Torok, Boeing's director of experimental systems.

"Reliability, reusability and responsiveness of the X-37B will fundamentally change how we perform future space missions."

OTV 1 (first flight of Vehicle No. 1)
Launch: April 22, 2010
Landing: Dec. 3 2010
Duration: 224 days

OTV 2 (first flight of Vehicle No. 2)
Launch: March 5, 2011
Landing: June 16, 2012
Duration: 469 days

OTV 3 (second flight of Vehicle No. 1)
Launch: Dec. 11, 2012
Landing: Oct. 17, 2014
Duration: 675 days

"These missions have proven the reliability and flexibility of the system to support a variety of experiments," Torok said.

See our earlier launch coverage.

 

© 2015 Spaceflight Now Inc.

 

---

 

Accurate reporting of capabilities

To loudobbs@ foxnews

If you are going to report on space capabilities, please cover the capabilities of space x as compared to the prematurely retired shuttle & the fact that nasa commercial ignores X37C boeing proposal--- a way to regain partial shuttle capabilities & stop paying Russia. Also, space x manning may be several more years coming-- we need to be able to handle our xport to Iss 4 years ago, in 2011---- do not retire shuttle without a replacement------ most experts said -- but muslim loving NASA adm & potus ignored!!!

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America's space program severely damaged by inept leaders!

If you read Jeffs & richardson articles on shuttle, one can come to only one conclusion, America's space program has been severely damaged by "leaders" that obviously can not think in a rationale manner.
The shuttle will support exploration & EO operations excellently, & by placing in museum this country has wasted a large amount of money & is compounding this waste by not implementing the Boeing X37C proposal, a way to regain shuttle capabilities utilizing a modified X37B. All citizens should start blogging & urging all citizens to write, tweet & call their Congressmen & Senators!!

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John Glenn on shuttle retirement

http://www.scottcarpenter.com/johnglenn.pdf

Early Retirement of the Shuttle

http://www.scottcarpenter.com/shuttle_opinion.htm


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USA needs this vehicle operational

(1) REAL Space Act of 2013

https://www.facebook.com/?ref=tn_tnmn


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Could use expanded X37B -- X37C to get much of shuttle capabilities Back

But, seems almost everybody is Brain dead--- powers that be will not consider that EITHER. Read boeing proposal for x37C.

Go figure, we had in shuttle UNIQUE capabilities, that were the envy of the world.
We could accomplish tasks in EO that had not been accomplished by any other country, & by operating shuttle, we improved the following:
1. Improved designs for various systems & mfg. & test capabilities
2. Created tens of thousands of excellent jobs
3. Supported iss & maintained an improved safety state than is presently being done re Kraft letter on placing Iss in danger w/ o shuttle
4. Provided the option by maintaining a STS to accomplish important EO tasks, & to explore universe by placing exploration modules in EO.
5. Improve Iss research by providing equipment & supplies that can not be done with Soyuz & cargo transportation system.
6. By maintaining a multiplicity of operations & a dynamic program, provided a Dream for our youth to strive for.
7. Developed approaches/techniques for military operations in EO which are critical to the capabilities of national security

But, after spending billions , we scrap the effort, & develop capsule approach that will not be manned for several more years, & when it is will not come CLOSE to shuttle capabilities, meanwhile WE pay Russia.

Whole deal TOTALLY NONSENSICAL--- seem our leaders in Congress have lost their minds!!!!

Sent from my iPad

Sent from my iPad

We had IT ALL in Shuttle !

Go figure, we had in shuttle UNIQUE capabilities, that were the envy of the world.
We could accomplish tasks in EO that had not been accomplished by any other country, & by operating shuttle, we improved the following:
1. Improved designs for various systems & mfg. & test capabilities
2. Created tens of thousands of excellent jobs
3. Supported iss & maintained an improved safety state than is presently being done re Kraft letter on placing Iss in danger w/ o shuttle
4. Provided the option by maintaining a STS to accomplish important EO tasks, & to explore universe by placing exploration modules in EO.
5. Improve Iss research by providing equipment & supplies that can not be done with Soyuz & cargo transportation system.
6. By maintaining a multiplicity of operations & a dynamic program, provided a Dream for our youth to strive for.
7. Developed approaches/techniques for military operations in EO which are critical to the capabilities of national security

But, after spending billions , we scrap the effort, & develop capsule approach that will not be manned for several more years, & when it is will not come CLOSE to shuttle capabilities, meanwhile WE pay Russia.

Whole deal TOTALLY NONSENSICAL--- seem our leaders in Congress have lost their minds!!!!

Sent from my iPad

Fwd: Remembering Gordon Cooper's Faith 7 Mission

Sent from my iPad

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Date: May 18, 2015 at 7:41:41 PM CDT
To: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Subject: FW: Remembering Gordon Cooper's Faith 7 Mission

 

 

AmericaSpace

For a nation that explores
May 16th, 2015

'How About Now?' Remembering Gordon Cooper's Faith 7 Mission (Part 1)

By Ben Evans

 

Gordon Cooper is extracted from the Faith 7 capsule, on the deck of the USS Kearsarge on 16 May 1963. The astronaut's 34-hour, 22-orbit mission proved as colorful as Cooper himself. Photo Credit: NASA

More than a half-century ago, on 15 May 1963, America launched astronaut Gordon Cooper on its longest manned space mission to date. In doing so, NASA began to take strides toward meeting President John F. Kennedy's goal of landing a man on the Moon before the end of the decade. The humiliation of Yuri Gagarin's orbital flight had been met by two suborbital missions and three Earth-circling voyages. When Wally Schirra ended his nine-hour, six-orbit flight in October 1962, it was considered so successful that some voices within NASA advised ending Project Mercury immediately and pressing on with the two-man Project Gemini. Others countered that one of Mercury's goals was to fly an astronaut for more than a day and long-duration experience was highly desirable in the run-up to Gemini. By the end of the year, the space agency was thus hard at work preparing to close out Mercury in style with a "Manned One-Day Mission" (MODM). To history, it would be known as "Faith 7", and around the colorful man who flew it would grow a legend which endures to this very day.

Originally planned for April 1963, the scope of the mission expanded in the wake of Schirra's success from 18 to 22 orbits, producing a flight time of around 34 hours in space. To be fair, the MODM would fly for barely a quarter of the Soviet Union's four-day Vostok 3 mission in August 1962, but its preparations were stupendous. It would demand massive tracking support, including 28 ships, 171 aircraft, 18,000 military personnel, and around-the-clock control operations, headed by veteran flight directors Chris Kraft and John Hodge. Finally, on 14 November 1962, NASA announced that astronaut Gordon Cooper would fly the MODM, with Alan Shepard as his backup.

Yet the months before the flight were marred with difficulty. The military "F-series" version of its Atlas rocket had suffered two inexplicable failures, and when Cooper's "D-series" booster rolled out of the factory in January 1963 it did not pass its initial inspection. After extensive rewiring of its flight controls, NASA reluctantly announced on 12 February that the launch would be delayed from mid-April until mid-May. To support the astronaut for more than a day in orbit, the Mercury capsule carried better batteries, additional oxygen, extra cooling and drinking water, more hydrogen peroxide fuel, a full load of life-support consumables, and an expansive scientific payload. One plan even called for the replacement of Cooper's fiberglass couch with a lightweight hammock, but fears that it might stretch and the astronaut might "bounce" meant that the proposal was never approved.

During training, Gordon Cooper (right) discusses one of the mission's cameras with his backup, Alan Shepard. Photo Credit: NASA

Speaking at a press conference on 8 February, Cooper described his mission as "practically a flying camera". Firstly, a slow-scan television had been installed into the capsule to monitor the astronaut and his instruments and a battery of other cameras would be aboard: a 70 mm Hasselblad, a specially modified 35 mm device to observe the "zodiacal light" and a 16 mm all-purpose motion picture unit. Cooper himself would wear an upgraded space suit, with a mechanical seal for his helmet, together with new gloves and a more mobile torso. His boots were integrated to make them more comfortable and the whole ensemble was much less bulky than earlier suits.

By the middle of March, the mission—officially dubbed "Mercury-Atlas-9"—appeared to be back on track, when the Atlas booster passed its acceptance trials without a single minor discrepancy. Several weeks later, on 22 April, the capsule itself was attached to the top of the rocket. After much consideration, Cooper had named his spacecraft "Faith 7" to symbolize "my trust in God, my country, and my teammates." Within the higher echelons of NASA, concerns were raised about the name. (A mission failure, the Washington Post told its readers, could yield unfortunate headlines, such as "The United States today lost Faith".)

In tandem with Cooper's preparations, there was also consideration given to attempting a "Mercury-Atlas-10" mission, flown by Alan Shepard for up to three days, to slightly close the space-endurance gap with the Soviets. As part of NASA's Project Orbit in February 1963, tests had already demonstrated that the Mercury capsule could theoretically support a four-day mission, although the effects of freezing or sluggishness in its hydrogen peroxide thrusters remained unknown. Shepard, of course, was in favour of a three-day flight, and had already named his spacecraft "Freedom 7-II". Had it gone ahead, it would have launched sometime in October 1963, and Shepard even went so far as to lobby President John F. Kennedy for support, although the president rightly deferred the issue to NASA Administrator Jim Webb. "After Cooper finished his mission," Shepard reflected in a February 1998 NASA Oral History interview, "there was another spacecraft, ready to go. My thought was to put me up there and just let me stay until something ran out—until the batteries ran down, until the oxygen ran out, or until we lost a control or something; just an open-ended kind of a mission."

As history has shown, Freedom 7-II would never fly. On 11 May 1963, Julian Scheer, NASA Deputy Assistant Administrator for Public Affairs, emphatically declared this fact and Jim Webb endorsed it, arguing that Gemini was already primed for long-duration missions. His rationale was that it was pointless to demonstrate a capability just once, with an obsolete system. Moreover, an accident on Shepard's flight could set Project Gemini back in its tracks. In mid-June, the flight officially vanished from consideration and its spacecraft was put into storage. By then, Gordon Cooper had flown his 34-orbit mission, marking an end of the beginning in America's conquest of space.

Cooper was the sixth and final astronaut to fly a Mercury mission. Photo Credit: NASA

Cooper had almost missed out flying in Project Mercury entirely. Since his selection as one of the nation's first seven astronauts in April 1959, he had gained a reputation as something of a hotshot—a daredevil pilot with a passion for fast cars—balanced against criticisms that he was a complainer who pulled dangerous stunts. (On one occasion, his F-106 Delta Dart jet screamed right outside, and below, the office window of Project Mercury Operations Director Walt Williams.) Even fellow astronaut Deke Slayton wrote of his personal surprise that Cooper had even been picked as an astronaut. "My first reaction was, something's wrong," Slayton wrote in his autobiography, Deke, co-authored with Michael Cassutt. "Either he's on the wrong list, or I am." Cooper was an engineer at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., and was not even a test pilot.

Still, the man who would fly the final Mercury mission was all but born in a pilot's seat. His father, an Air Force lawyer and county court judge, frequently plopped his young son on his lap in the cockpit of an old Command-Aire biplane and Cooper took the controls for the first time aged only six. By his teens, the boy was taking lessons in a J-3 Piper Cub and soloed, "officially", at 16. The story of Cooper's life was very much a story of his love affair with aviation. Even in his mid-seventies, he told an interviewer that "I get cranky if I don't fly at least three times a month!"

His love of fast cars was also legendary, as flight director Gene Kranz, arriving at Cape Canaveral for his first day at work, related. "After the plane rolled to a stop," Kranz wrote, "a shiny new Chevrolet convertible wheeled to a halt just beyond the wing tip. An Air Force enlisted man popped out, saluted and held open the car's door for a curly-haired guy in civilian clothes, a fellow passenger who deplaned ahead of me." The curly-haired man offered Kranz a lift to the Cape. Quickly, he "peeled into a 180-degree turn and raced along the ramp for a hundred yards, my neck snapping back as he floored the Chevy. I had never driven this fast on a military base in my life!" For a few minutes, Kranz wondered if he had a madman behind the wheel, as the guy seemed to break every rule in the book and had no fear of being pulled over by the Air Police. Hitting the highway, he made a wide turn and took a hard left, burning rubber. After joyfully yelling Eeee-hah at the top of his lungs, he turned and offered his hand to Kranz.

"Hi, I'm Gordo Cooper."

Kranz had not only met his first Mercury astronaut, but perhaps the most controversial Mercury astronaut of them all.

With a background in the Marine Corps, the Army and the Air Force and a wife, Trudy, who was also a qualified pilot, Cooper flew F-84 Thunderjet and F-8 Crusader jets in West Germany and served as a project engineer for the F-102 Delta Dagger and F-106 Delta Dart. On one occasion, several years before they became astronauts, he and another Air Force pilot, Virgil "Gus" Grissom, were aboard a T-33 together when it crashed off the end of the runway at Lowry Air Force Base in Denver, Colo. Thankfully, neither man was hurt. In early 1959, both men received mysterious classified orders to attend a briefing in Washington, D.C. After completing a battery of punishing physical and psychological tests for Project Mercury, Cooper was so confident that he would be chosen that he told his boss to start looking for a replacement and requested two weeks' leave to move his family across country to Langley, Va. When NASA called him to ask how soon he could get to Langley, Cooper's response was "How about now?"

In the months before launch, opinion was divided amongst NASA managers over whether Cooper (right) or his backup, Alan Shepard (left), should fly the final Mercury mission. In this training image from February 1963, the pair examine one of the spacecraft's instrument panels. Photo Credit: NASA

As an astronaut, though, his early days were somewhat less illustrious and led several senior managers to consider bypassing him for a space mission. They regarded him as an unpredictable complainer, with a seemingly indifferent stance toward the public image that NASA wanted its astronauts to extol. Cooper protested about the lengthy periods away from his family, about the lack of opportunity to fly fast jets and collect flight pay, and he even threatened to leave the program when Deke Slayton was dropped from his own Mercury mission by a heart murmur. Flying a chase aircraft over the Cape during Gus Grissom's launch in July 1961, Cooper buzzed the launch site, momentarily disrupted communications traffic and earned himself a ticking-off from his boss. On another occasion, flying to Huntsville, Ala., he landed on a runway that was too short and asked to be refueled. When the ground crews told him that it was too dangerous for him to take off again, Cooper shrugged, took off regardless, and made it to his destination with fumes in his tanks!

Even in the weeks preceding Faith 7, there were persistent stories in the press that Cooper might be pushed aside in favour of his backup, Alan Shepard. So shaky was Walt Williams' "faith" in Cooper that he approached Shepard, several months earlier, and strongly hinted that he might be tipped to fly instead. Believing the mission to be his, Shepard trained feverishly, but Deke Slayton—removed from his own flight only months earlier—felt that Faith 7 belonged to Cooper. Others agreed that it would look bad for NASA if the astronauts were swapped so soon before launch. A timely intervention by Wally Schirra (who threatened to raise the roof if Cooper was overlooked) certainly helped matters, but Walt Williams was convinced that Shepard could do a better job.

As partial compensation, Williams half-promised Shepard a three-day Mercury mission, which ultimately never transpired. Shepard later gained his revenge on the operations director, by lending him the keys to his Corvette. As Williams drove away, Shepard phoned the base's security office to tell them that "someone" had just stolen his car…

Despite having finally secured the mission as his own Cooper was possibly reacting to pent-up frustration when he took a flight in an F-106, two days before his scheduled 14 May 1963 liftoff. To the great surprise of Williams and Chris Kraft, the astronaut made a very low pass over the Cape. "We were talking," Kraft recalled of that quiet Sunday afternoon in Williams' office, "and a sudden roar came upon us. The roar was a jet airplane diving onto the Cape at a very high rate of speed, which was forbidden." Glancing out of the window, they saw Cooper in the pilot's seat, as he flew beneath the second-floor office window. Since the Cape was restricted airspace, the switchboard quickly lit up with frantic emergency calls. Williams went berserk and threatened to have Cooper's "ass on a plate".

The furious operations director called Slayton, who was by now in charge of the astronaut corps and Cooper's immediate boss, to demand action. He had to shout to be heard over the din of the F-106. (Williams even phoned Alan Shepard to ask if he was ready for launch.) For his part, Slayton harbored severe reservations about Cooper, but refused to yank him off the mission. Both he and Williams allowed the astronaut to sweat about his flight status for 24 hours, and not until the evening of the 13th did the operations director finally relent and agree to let him fly. Cooper's supporters regarded the incident as the action of a good, smart pilot and a man with a mission "to go a little bit higher and a little bit faster".

On Faith 7, he would fly higher and faster than ever before.

 

Copyright © 2015 AmericaSpace - All Rights Reserved

 

---

 

AmericaSpace

For a nation that explores
May 17th, 2015

'The Right Man': Remembering Gordon Cooper's Faith 7 Mission (Part 2)

By Ben Evans

 

Faith 7 descends to a splashdown on 16 May 1963, after Project Mercury's longest mission of 34 hours. Photo Credit: NASA

Early on 14 May 1963, a hotshot pilot lay on his back in a tiny capsule, atop a converted ballistic missile, and steeled himself to be blasted into space. On Project Mercury's final mission, Gordon Cooper would spend 34 hours in space, circle the globe 22 times, and establish NASA's first real baseline of long-duration experience as the space agency and the nation prepared to land a man on the Moon before the end of the decade. To be fair, the flight would last barely a quarter as long as the Soviet Union's four-day Vostok 3 mission a year earlier, but for NASA it would mark an important step forward. Yet, as described in yesterday's AmericaSpace history article, there were many senior managers who doubted that Cooper was the right man for the job. Two days earlier, he had buzzed the administration building at Cape Canaveral in his F-106 jet, sparking a flurry of frantic emergency calls and maddening Project Mercury Operations Director Walt Williams to the extent that he almost grounded Cooper in favor of his backup, Alan Shepard. Cooper had much ground to make up in order to restore faith in his abilities.

On launch morning, Cooper breakfasted with Shepard. Only hours earlier, Shepard had convinced himself that the mission was his for the taking. He could not believe that Cooper could possibly be so rash as to buzz the very building in which his bosses were holding a meeting and was frustrated at the lost opportunity to fly himself, to the extent that he planned a somewhat mean-spirited joke. Press spokesman John "Shorty" Powers had arrived early that morning with two cameramen, who would shoot behind-the-scenes footage of Cooper as he prepared for launch. To their shock, they discovered that none of the overhead lights were working, nor were the electrical sockets. Someone had cut the wires, removed every light bulb, inserted thick tape into the sockets, and replaced the bulbs. No one pointed any fingers, but Powers recognized Shepard's grin. It was typical of him, said Powers, "when he has a mouse under his hat."

Another gift from Shepard awaited Cooper when he boarded the spacecraft he had named "Faith 7" at 6:36 a.m. EDT: a small suction-cup pump on the seat, labeled Remove Before Flight, in honor of the new urine-collection device. (Cooper would become the first Mercury astronaut to urinate in a manner other than "in his suit.") At this stage, the only indication of doubt that the mission would fly came from meteorologist Ernest Amman, although the trouble increased when a radar at the secondary control center in Bermuda malfunctioned. Next, at 8 a.m. EDT, with an hour remaining in the countdown, a diesel engine stubbornly refused to work. It was supposed to move the gantry away from the Atlas rocket, and two hours were wasted trying to fix a fouled fuel injector pump. The countdown resumed around midday and the gantry was successfully retracted, but a computer converter failed at the Bermuda station and the launch attempt had to be scrubbed.

Cooper departs the transport van for Pad 14 on launch morning. Photo Credit: NASA

Despite having spent six hours on his back, Gordon Cooper was upbeat and managed to summon a wry grin when he was extracted from Faith 7. "I was just getting to the real fun part," he said. "It was a very real simulation!" As the astronaut spent the afternoon fishing, technicians readied the Atlas and the spacecraft for another attempt, early on 15 May.

Arriving at the capsule for the second time, he saluted McDonnell pad leader Guenter Wendt with mock formality, reporting in as "Private Fifth Class Cooper," to which the German pad "fuehrer" responded in kind. The roots of the joke came two years earlier, when Cooper stood in for Alan Shepard in a practice countdown session. His mock terror—begging Wendt not to make him climb aboard the primed rocket—had so annoyed a number of NASA managers that a couple even threatened to bust him to Private Fifth Class. Ironically, Cooper and Wendt liked the idea and ran with it.

Despite a problem with the Atlas' guidance equipment, which necessitated a brief hold, the countdown marched crisply on this second attempt; so crisply, in fact, that Cooper fell asleep. It took fellow astronaut Wally Schirra several efforts to bellow his name over the communications link to awaken him. Then, with just 19 seconds to go, another halt was called in order to allow launch controllers to ascertain that the rocket's systems had properly assumed their automatic sequence. Shortly after 8 a.m. on 15 May 1963, America's sixth man in space thundered off the pad in what Cooper would later describe as "a smooth, but definite push." Within minutes, Faith 7 was inserted into an orbit so good that its heading was 0.0002 degrees from perfect and its velocity "right on the money" at 17,550 mph (28,240 km/h). "Smack-dab in the middle of the plot," an admiring Schirra told him.

So rapid was Cooper's passage across the Atlantic Ocean that he expressed astonishment when called by the tracking stations in the Canaries and Kano in Nigeria. The first day of the mission went extraordinarily well—at one stage, the astronaut's heart rate surged during a sleep period, suggesting that he was experiencing an exciting dream—and he moved swiftly through his many tasks. Earth observations, photography, collection of urine samples, and monitoring his ship's health occupied his time, although he did grab a few moments to chew some brownies, fruit cake, and bacon chunks. Cooper's use of the cabin's oxygen supply was so efficient that Alan Shepard jokingly asked him to "stop holding your breath." The astronaut responded that—as the only non-smoker amongst the Mercury Seven—his lungs were in better shape than those of his comrades. If his oxygen usage was minimal, so too was his fuel expenditure, to such an extent that controllers nicknamed him "The Miser."

Faith 7 thunders into orbit on 15 May 1963. Photo Credit: NASA

One of Cooper's most important experiments was the deployment of a 6-inch (15-cm) sphere, instrumented with xenon strobe lights, part of an effort to track a flashing beacon in space. Three hours after launch, the astronaut clicked a squib switch and felt the experiment separate from Faith 7, but he was only able to see it very occasionally, at orbital sunset, pulsing in the darkness. Another experiment involved the release of a 30-inch (76-cm) Mylar balloon, painted fluorescent orange. Nine hours into the mission, Cooper set cameras, attitude, and switches to deploy the balloon, but it refused to move. Another attempt was also fruitless. The intent was for the balloon to inflate with nitrogen and extend on a 100-foot (30-meter) tether, after which a strain gauge would measure differences in "pull" at Faith 7's 168-mile (270 km) apogee and 99-mile (160 km) perigee. Sadly, the cause of the balloon's failure was never ascertained.

Evaluating an astronaut's ability to make observations from space achieved more success when Cooper spotted a 3-million-candlepower xenon light at Bloemfontein in South Africa. He also made detailed notes as he flew over cities, large oil refineries, roads, rivers, and small villages, and even saw smoke twirling from the chimneys of Himalayan houses. Lighting conditions had to be appropriate for such observations, but in the wake of the mission Cooper's claims were disputed, until two visibility researchers from the University of California at San Diego verified that in one instance the astronaut had seen a Border Patrol vehicle's dust cloud, kicked up on a dirt road near El Centro on the U.S.-Mexican border. The researchers argued that the vehicle and dust cloud were more visible from Cooper's vantage point than from the road itself.

Ten hours after launch, the astronaut was advised that he had exceeded Wally Schirra's endurance record for the longest American manned mission and that his orbital parameters were good enough for at least 17 circuits of the globe. The phenomenal speed of his flight path was amply illustrated when he spoke to fellow astronaut John Glenn, based on the Coastal Sentry tracking ship, near Kyushu, Japan, then swept south-eastwards, over the empty Pacific Ocean, to speak to a controller near Pitcairn Island, more than 6,800 miles (11,000 km) distant, just 10 minutes later.

Sleeping in space was virtually impossible, so spectacular was the view. As Cooper passed over South America, then Africa, northern India, and into Tibet, the photographic opportunities were priceless. Using the direction of chimney smoke from the Himalayan houses, he was even able to make a few rudimentary estimates about his velocity and the ground winds. Despite the difficulty, he pulled Faith 7's window shades around 13 hours after launch to catch some sleep. He dozed intermittently, but found himself having to anchor his thumbs into his helmet restraint strap to keep his arms from floating freely. Every so often, he would lift the shade to take photographs or make status reports or curse quietly to himself when his body-heat exchanger crept too high or too low.

Faith 7 is lowered gently onto the deck of the USS Kearsarge, with Gordon Cooper aboard. Photo Credit: NASA

With the exception of niggling glitches, everything seemed to be going well. Cooper's oxygen supply was plentiful and his fuel gauges for both automatic and manual tanks looked good. During a brief spell of quiet time, he paused for a short prayer. He thanked God for the privileged opportunity to fly the mission, for being in space, and for seeing such wondrous sights. That prayer marked the beginning of Faith 7's troubles. Early on his 19th orbit, around 30 hours after launch, he was over the western Pacific Ocean and out of radio contact with the ground, when his attention was arrested by the eerie green glow of one of his instrument panel lights. It was the "0.05 G" indicator, and it should normally have illuminated after retrofire, as Faith 7 commenced its descent from orbit. Moreover, it should have been quickly followed by the autopilot placing the capsule into a slow roll.

Had Cooper inadvertently "slipped" out of orbit?

This suspicion was quickly refuted by orbital data from the ground, which suggested either that the indicator was at fault or that the autopilot's re-entry circuitry had been tripped out of its normal sequence. An orbit later, Cooper was advised to switch to autopilot and Faith 7 began a slow roll. This presented its own issues. For proper flight, the autopilot had to perform other functions before retrofire, and, since each function was sequentially linked, Mission Control knew that several earlier steps had not been executed. This meant that the astronaut might be forced to control those steps by hand. Worse was to come. On his 20th orbit, Cooper lost all attitude readings and, a revolution later, one of three power inverters went dead. He tried to switch to a second inverter, but it would not respond. The third was needed to run cooling equipment during re-entry, so the astronaut was now left with an autopilot devoid of electrical power.

On the ground, the options centred on bringing Cooper home on batteries alone. The astronaut could not rely on his gyroscope or clock to properly position Faith 7 for re-entry, since both depended on electrical power, and he watched with dismay as carbon dioxide levels began to rise both in the cabin and within his space suit. In true Right Stuff fashion, his comment over the radio to fellow astronaut Scott Carpenter was nonchalant: "Things are beginning to stack up a little!"

Gordon Cooper, the hotshot final pilot of Project Mercury, grins at recovery personnel after his 34-hour mission. Faith 7 would prove one of the high points of his astronaut career. Photo Credit: NASA

At length, on his 22nd orbit, Cooper made his way smoothly through the pre-retrofire checklist, steadying Faith 7 with his hand controller and lining up a horizontal mark on his window with Earth's horizon; this dipped the capsule's nose to the desired 34-degree angle. Next, he lined up a vertical mark with pre-determined stars to acquire his correct heading and astronaut John Glenn counted him down to retrofire. Cooper hit the button once—receiving no light signals, due to his electrical system problems—and verified that he could feel the punch of the three small engines igniting behind him. During the descent from orbit, he periodically damped out unwanted motions with his hand controller and manually deployed both his drogue and main parachutes. Faith 7 hit the Pacific, about 80 miles (130 km) southeast of Midway Island, within sight of the recovery ship USS Kearsarge.

The capsule floundered for an instant, then righted itself. Cooper's 34-hour mission had concluded just as each of the Mercury Seven would have wanted: with a pilot in full control of his craft. Two years later, in August 1965, Cooper would command Gemini V, which seized the space endurance record from the Soviets, and many have speculated that if circumstances played out differently he may have been the first member of the Mercury Seven to walk on the Moon. Certainly, as late as 1968, Cooper was in active training as backup commander for the Apollo 10 mission and, judging by Deke Slayton's crew rotation cycle, some have argued that this would have made him a contender to lead Apollo 13.

Others have cast doubt on this assumption, noting Cooper's strap-it-on-and-go attitude, his aversion to the simulators, and his desire to pursue other interests, including a 24-hour road race. Slayton certainly felt sentimental toward his friend, but admitted that he "didn't feel any obligation, moral or otherwise" to stick to the rotation cycle. Ultimately, command of Apollo 13 went to Jim Lovell and Cooper left NASA in 1970.

Yet all that was in the future on 16 May 1963, as Gordon Cooper basked in the success of his first mission. He had spent more time in space than all of the other members of the Mercury Seven, put together. As for Walt Williams, the disgruntled Project Mercury Operations Director, who had tried to have Cooper removed from Faith 7, it was a case of having been proved wrong. When the pair met at Cape Canaveral, Williams warmly shook Cooper's hand. "Gordo," he said, "you were the right man for the mission!" 

 

Copyright © 2015 AmericaSpace - All Rights Reserved

 

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Fwd: This Week in The Space Review - 2015 May 18

Sent from my iPad

Begin forwarded message:

From: jeff@thespacereview.com (Jeff Foust)
Date: May 18, 2015 at 3:34:47 PM CDT
Subject: This Week in The Space Review - 2015 May 18
Reply-To: jeff@thespacereview.com

[ If you no longer wish to receive announcements from The Space Review,
please follow the instructions at the end of this message. ]


Welcome to this week's issue of The Space Review:


Impatience for Mars
---
NASA says it has a plan for human missions to Mars in the 2030s. Jeff Foust reports that some, though, are pressing NASA for more details about those plans and coming up with alternative concepts that they believe could accelerate those crewed missions to the Red Planet.
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2755/1

Two small steps for humankind
---
Getting humans to live beyond Earth in a sustainable manner is a long-term effort with many steps involved. Derek Webber proposes that NASA focus on two initial steps, supporting key technologies that can enable eventual human space settlement.
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2754/1

The need for a launch vehicle development organization: Learning from Brazil's experience
---
Brazil is considering terminating its agreement with Ukraine to launch Cyclone 4 rockets from its spaceport, dealing another setback to that country's space access plans. Ajey Lele suggests that Brazil partner with other nations, including India, to jointly develop launchers.
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2753/1

Humankind's greatest adventure: A review of The Last Man on the Moon
---
It's been more than 40 years since Gene Cernan was the last human to walk on the Moon. Shane Hannon talks with the director and producer of a documentary about Cernan's life.
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2752/1

Review: Elon Musk
---
He is one of the major figures in the space industry today, but Elon Musk remains something of an enigma to people who are puzzled by his way of doing business and his passion for Mars. Jeff Foust reviews a new biography that covers Musk's life and his work at SpaceX.
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2751/1


Note: Because of the Memorial Day holiday, next week's issue will be published on Tuesday, May 26.


If you missed it, here's what we published in our previous issue:


Making good on the promise of suborbital spaceflight
---
Once on the cutting edge of commercial spaceflight, suborbital vehicles have been overshadowed in recent years, in part due to their development delays. Jeff Foust reports that, finally, some of these vehicles are entering, or about to enter, flight tests.
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2750/1

Debunking the invalid claims of a space radiation paper
---
A recent study found that cosmic radiation astronauts would be exposed to on Mars expeditions could cause brain damage, resulting in dementia or other disorders. Robert Zubrin takes issue with the study's methodology and argues the radiation risk to humans is far less serious than what the study concludes.
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2749/1

Space guy From Down Under: An interview with Colin Burgess
---
Colin Burgess is a prolific author currently working on a series of book about the Mercury program. Dwayne Day interviews Burgess to discuss how he got involved in writing about the subject and what space history books are in his future plans.
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2748/1

Inspirational asphyxiation
---
Space exploration has the ability to inspire students to pursue careers in science and engineering, as demonstrated by Apollo. However, Blake Ortner warns that inspiration could be suffocated by plans that take far too long to carry out.
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2747/1

Review: Beyond
---
To some, we appear to be on the verge of a new era of spaceflight, but even if that's true, what does that mean for our future in space? Jeff Foust reviews a book that attempts to address that issue, but whose flaws may leave readers unconvinced.
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2746/1


We appreciate any feedback you may have about these articles as well as
any other questions, comments, or suggestions about The Space Review.
We're also actively soliciting articles to publish in future issues, so
if you have an article or article idea that you think would be of
interest, please email me.

Until next week,

Jeff Foust
Editor, The Space Review
jeff@thespacereview.com
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Fwd: Russia unable to resume Proton launches until probe into latest crash is over — deputy PM

Sent from my iPad

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Date: May 19, 2015 at 9:00:13 PM CDT
To: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Subject: FW: Russia unable to resume Proton launches until probe into latest crash is over — deputy PM

 

 

Russia unable to resume Proton launches until probe into latest crash is over — deputy PM

May 18, 15:17 UTC+3
The official said Russia should switch to digital designing in the space rocket industry, gradually giving up Proton boosters and opting for other models, like the Angara rocket

 

© Roscosmos via AP

GORKI, May 18. /TASS/. Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin has asked Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev to hold a special meeting with the heads of the federal space agency Roscosmos and the joint probe into the latest loss of the Proton rocket to make a decision whether the launches could go on.

"My request is there should be a meeting with the heads of the probe over its findings. We will unable to launch the Proton rocket until the investigation is over," Rogozin said at Medvedev's meeting with his deputies on Monday.

"Now it is a matter of honor for the [space rocket] industry to reveal them and reduce the accident rate," Rogozin said.

The vice-premier suggested that Russian space specialists should inform their European and US partners about the investigation results so that "everyone understands that we have taken exhaustive steps to restore the reliability of our technology and this is important for Russia to keep its place on the market of space services."

When asked by Prime Minister Medvedev about Russia's share on the space services market, Rogozin said: "We have 40% of all launches."

The vice-premier said, however, the situation was changing as labor productivity at US space rocket enterprises was 9-10 times higher.

"We'll need radical measures to improve the quality of production," the vice-premier said.

Specifically, Russia needs to tighten responsibility at space rocket enterprises, consolidate the industry and modernize it, he said.

Rogozin suspects two basic causes may have been behind the failed launch of the Proton rocket - either faulty design or poor workmanship.

"As a matter of fact, we are dealing with some design feature or violation of manufacturing rules that cause the engine's abnormal operation under certain circumstances. Apparently, far more scrupulous and thorough work will be needed," Rogozin said at Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev's meeting with his deputies.

Rogozin recalled that last Friday's crash of the rocket was an exact replica of the one that occurred in 1988 and also another one last year.

"In a word, failure of the very same engine system - the rocket's third stage manufactured at the Voronezh design bureau," Rogozin said.

The head of the federal space agency Roscosmos, Igor Komarov, will lead the panel of inquiry. The general designer of the Angara rocket will be his deputy. This will guarantee an impartial look at the situation," Rogozin added.

The official also said Russia should switch to digital designing in the space rocket industry, gradually giving up Proton boosters and opting for other models, like the Angara rocket.

"Generally, our conclusion is also related to the need to switch exclusively to digital designing and modelling of this sort of situations and, of course, it is necessary to expedite the transition to modern carrier rockets like the Angara, gradually giving up the Proton rockets," Rogozin said.

Medvedev orders financial liability for space launch emergencies

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said on Monday it was important that those guilty of disrupting space projects, including launches of carrier rockets, should be held financially liable.

"Besides personal liability, all those who are part of the chain should also bear financial liability," Medvedev said at a meeting with his deputies.

Medvedev agreed with the vice-premier's suggestion to inform foreign partners about the investigation of the causes for the Proton carrier rocket accident and measures the government was taking to eliminate them in the future to reduce reputational costs.

"Apart from financial losses, there are also reputational costs," the premier said.

"We need to sort this out and officially inform so that we continue these programs on the Proton or Angara rocket basis, which is not that important but understanding that everything will be all right," Medvedev said.

Production defect likely cause for Proton space carrier rocket accident

GLONASS Bulletin Editor Konstantin Kreidenko said errors in the production of the Proton-M carrier rocket could be the cause for its fall during its launch on May 16.

"To my mind, a production defect may be the cause for the Proton-M carrier rocket accident. Somewhere during the manufacture of the third stage, there was no adequate control of technological and assembly operations or there was no sufficient control over materials that were used for the production of the rocket's units and systems. It is necessary to look for the cause in this," the expert said.

Also, the slow modernization of the ground-based control system does not allow for expanding the volume of data observed and processed from the carrier rocket's systems or during the pre-launch preparations, the expert said.

"The existing testing equipment of the cosmodrome's technical and launching complexes apparently registers an insufficient number of parameters of a space rocket system," he said.

"At the same time, the space vehicle is delivered to the cosmodrome several weeks before the launch to hold required checks and tests. Over this time, modern information technologies could make it possible to check the spacecraft more carefully and expose defects that were not revealed in the manufacturing process," he said.

The Proton-M carrier rocket with the Briz-M acceleration unit and Mexica's Mexsat-1 satellite blasted off from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan at 08:47 a.m. Moscow time (05:47 GMT) on May 16.

The Briz-M acceleration unit with the Mexican satellite was expected to separate from the carrier rocket at 08:57 a.m. Moscow time (05:57 GMT). However, a minute before the designated separation, an emergency situation occurred at an altitude of 161 km, due to which the rocket's head section and third stage failed to separate and burnt up in the dense layers of the Earth's atmosphere above the Trans-Baikal area in East Siberia.

According to preliminary information, a breakdown occurred in a steering engine of the third stage, similar to the Proton accident last year.

The failure in the launch of the Proton-M carrier rocket in May 2014 was caused by a breakdown of a bearing in the turbine pump system of a steering engine.

 

© 2015 TASS

 

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[          ]

Russia Must Toughen Penalty for Launch Failures – Deputy Prime Minister

© REUTERS/ Roscosmos/Handout via Reuters

 

14:53 18.05.2015(updated 16:00 18.05.2015) 

25040

 

Russia needs to toughen punishment for space failures if it wants to keep its leading position in this industry, Russia's deputy prime minister in charge of the space industry said Monday.

 

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The recent launch failure of a Proton rocket is similar to those that happened in 1988 and 2014, Russia's deputy prime minister said.

On Saturday, a planned correction of the ISS orbit could not be carried out after the Progress M-26M's engines failed to start on time. In an unrelated incident just hours later, an emergency situation occurred with the Russian Proton-M rocket carrying a Mexican communication satellite shortly after its launch. The satellite did not detach and was declared lost.

"It [the accident] is absolutely similar to what happened in 1988 and last year, there was a malfunction in the same system."

In May 2014, another Proton-M launch was unsuccessful when the rocket suffered a third stage failure that ended in the loss of the Russian Ekspress telecommunications satellite. Comparisons were quickly drawn between last year's accident and one that occurred in 1988, when a Proton-K rocket suffered a third-stage engine failure.

The deputy prime minister said that it was "a matter of honor" to establish the reason why this flaw was made on several occasions.

"Greater responsibility and consolidation of the industry, as well as its technical modernization, are vital preconditions for keeping our [leading] position," Dmitry Rogozin said at a meeting with Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.

"We cannot continue launches until this primary flaw is established," the minister said. "And, of course, we need to speed up the transition to modern carrier rockets of the Angara family and gradually retire the Protons."

 

 

Proton Carrier Rocket Accident Hurts Russia's Reputation - Medvedev

15:09 18.05.2015(updated 16:01 18.05.2015)

825103

 

On Saturday, a planned correction of the ISS orbit could not be carried out after the Progress M-26M's engines failed to start on time. In an unrelated incident just hours later, an emergency situation occurred with the Proton-M rocket carrying a Mexican satellite shortly after its launch. The satellite did not detach and was declared lost.

© REUTERS/ Roscosmos/Handout via Reuters

 

 

MOSCOW, May 18 (Sputnik) – The Proton-M carrier rocket failure harms the reputation of Russia, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Monday.

"The [investigation into the failure] should be brought to the end, [we should] understand both the Soviet and post-Soviet causes [of the Proton accident] because the accident hurts the reputation of our program launches, it is absolutely obvious," Medvedev said during a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who is in charge of Russia's space industry.

Medvedev said that there were obvious financial implications due to the failed launch on Saturday of the Proton-M carrier rocket that was to orbit Mexico's MexSat-1 communications satellite.

Following the incident, the Russian prime minister ordered to set up a special commission to investigate the causes behind this failure.

"But, in addition to financial losses, there are reputational costs that I have mentioned. We must deal with this and officially inform everyone that we will continue to carry out these programs." 

 

© 2015 Sputnik All rights reserved. 

 

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So you think we are going to remain the most powerful nation with no manned orbital capabilities ? Better reevaluate Should be improving capabilities daily, yet we can't even get to earth orbit. Congress totally out of touch on this critical issue!!! Spread the facts from nasaproblems.com

Reusable space freighter nasaproblems.com

Read the Case to save the shuttle, it seems clear this is a must have for the world leader in space. One can explore the universe with modules put in EO & can do work in EO. What else could you ask for???

Sent from my iPad

Space capabilities, lack of

Space capabilities, Lack of

A letter by fmr rep.(fl24) sent to pelosi regarding the benefits of a vibrant space program.  
All citizens better spread the word, & change many minds of our people in congress re the destruction of our space capabilities.

This is very serious, each of you should set up blogs & constantly contact media, & senators & reps in dc to get a strong program implemented. Our present program is dying & it ought to be the greatest on earth!!

--------------

imageSends Letter to the Speaker Outlining Importance of Space Exploration for Jobs, Science, and Technology

December 18, 2009

(Washington, DC) - Today, Congresswoman Suzanne Kosmas (FL-24) responded to comments made about human spaceflight by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. Earlier this week when asked about increased funding for NASA's human spaceflight program, Speaker Pelosi said that she is not "a big fan of manned expeditions to outer space, in terms of safety and cost," and that "a judgment will be made as to what it does in terms of job creation," (Florida Today, 12/17/09).

In response to the comments, Kosmas sent a letter to the Speaker outlining the numerous economic benefits of human spaceflight and highlighting the thousands of jobs that depend on a strong space program.

"Since day one, supporting Kennedy Space Center and NASA's human spaceflight program has been one of my top priorities," said Congresswoman Kosmas. "While we await the Administration's vision and recommendations for the future of the program, I believe I have an obligation to reiterate to the Speaker the numerous benefits that space exploration provides.

"Our human spaceflight program boosts our economy, helps develop countless new technologies, and supports thousands of jobs in Central Florida and across the country. Space exploration is also critical for inspiring this and future generations to excel in science and technology for the 21st Century. I will continue fighting at every turn to ensure a robust human spaceflight program."

In her letter, Kosmas wrote, "I urge you to keep in mind both the tangible and intangible benefits provided by investing in NASA and our nation's human space flight program. There is no question that increased funding for NASA, as recommended by the Review of U.S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee, will help to create and retain highly-skilled, high-paying jobs across the country, including up to 7,000 direct jobs currently at risk in Florida."

The full text of Congresswoman Kosmas' letter can be found below:

Dear Speaker Pelosi:

Given your commitment to fiscal responsibility, job creation, and science, I am writing in response to your comments earlier this week about the need for additional funding for our nation's human space flight program, its impact on jobs, and safety. While I understand your concerns about the costs of space exploration, I urge you to keep in mind both the tangible and intangible benefits provided by investing in NASA and our nation's human spaceflight program.

There is no question that increased funding for NASA, as recommended by the Review of U.S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee, will help to create and retain highly-skilled, high-paying jobs across the country, including up to 7,000 direct jobs currently at risk in Florida. Large and small suppliers, academia, and NASA Centers in nearly every state contribute to our nation's human space flight program. According to the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), the aerospace engineering and manufacturing industry directly employed approximately 650,000 people in 2008, including 200,000 engineers and scientists.

In Florida, NASA's impact is not just limited to those directly employed at the Kennedy Space Center; every direct NASA job translates into 2.82 jobs created statewide. The space program had a total statewide impact of $4.1 billion in output, $2.1 billion of household income, and 40,802 jobs in Fiscal Year 2008. Increased funding for NASA will help to maintain and create aerospace and related jobs in Florida and across the country, enabling economic recovery and ensuring we maintain our technological preeminence.

Additionally, it is important to keep in mind the impact of decisions made today on the future of our high-tech workforce. Witnesses at a recent Science and Technology Committee hearing stressed the need for a strong commitment to and stability of funding for human space flight in order to recruit young people into Science, Technology, Math and Engineering (STEM) fields. You have stated that science is one of your top priorities as Speaker and you have shown your commitment through increased funding for science and research and the enactment of the COMPETES initiative.

I urge you to take into account how our nation's human space flight program aligns with these goals and the impact it continues to have in encouraging students to pursue careers in STEM fields. A recent nationwide study of aerospace engineering students conducted by Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that 40 percent of aerospace engineering students specifically cited human space flight as the inspiration to pursue a career in aerospace. While these students may not all end up in the human space flight arena, it is clear that our human spaceflight program has had a positive, disproportionate impact and important influence over those that decide to pursue careers in STEM fields. This contribution was also noted in the report issued by Review of U.S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee.

In his testimony to the Science and Technology Committee, A. Thomas Young, former Director of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and currently a Director of Science and Applications International Corporation (SAIC), described the workforce that we have invested in over the decades as "a national treasure" that "has a limited shelf life." If we do not support and continue to develop the workforce in which we have spent decades investing in and building, and which has ensured our national security and technological supremacy, it will be dispersed and very difficult to reassemble or rebuild.

Failing to invest in our human space flight program now will also cause us to be completely reliant upon other countries for access to space and the International Space Station (ISS) for at least 5 years, as the current budget situation dictates. We should not send our constituent's hard-earned dollars overseas; investing in our space flight capabilities and working to reduce the space flight gap will drive our economy and keep highly-skilled, high-paying jobs here at home.

Finally, just as the Apollo, Shuttle and Space Station programs have lead to new technologies that improve the lives of every American, so too will the next generation human space flight program. Innovations developed for journeys to the moon, Mars, or asteroids will no doubt help us to address important issues facing our nation through the development of new forms of alternative energy and improvement of medical and communications technologies.

Increased funding for NASA will preserve and create high-tech jobs across our nation, help to mitigate the impending space flight gap, and ensure our nation's continued leadership in space and technology. I urge you to join me in supporting a robust human space flight program that will provide long-lasting scientific, technological and economic benefits for our nation.

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