Boeing released this video to promote its CST-100 capsule.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VYIUi9H3vM&w=700]
The Commercial Spaceflight Federation has announced Eric Stallmer as it’s new president. Stallmer will join the Commmercial Spaceflight Federation in September, replacing Capt. Michael Lopez-Alegria (USN-ret.).
Stallmer comes to the Federation from Analytical Graphics Inc., where he served as vice-president of government relations. Prior to joining AGI, he served as president of the Space Transportation Association.
Commercial Spaceflight Federation chair,an Stuart Witt said, “We are very pleased to have Eric as a part of CSF leadership. He has long been an advocate for commercial spaceflight, and will now be in a position to make an even greater impact on the industry at the helm of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation.”
Sierra Nevada continues to make progress on its Dream Chaser spaceplane.
On 10 July, Sierra Nevada completed acquisition of Orbital Technologies Corporation (Orbitec), which has been developing life-support and thermal management systems for Dream Chaser. Orbitec is also expected to play a key role in development of Dream Chaser propulsion.
Orbitec has developed a new engine technology called the VCCW (“vortex combustion cold-wall”) thrust chamber, which can be applied to hybrid or liquid-propellant rocket engines. There has been some speculation that Sierra Nevada might use this new technology to improve the performance of the Dream Chaser’s hybrid rocket motor. However, Charles Lurio of The Lurio Report suggests that Sierra Nevada plans to abandon the hybrid motor in favor of a liquid-propellant (nitrous oxide/propane) rocket engine, which would be developed by Orbitec using the VCCW chamber. The advantages of this engine would include better performance, more consistent thrust, easier thrust-vector control, and better reusability.
On 23 July, Sierra Nevada announced that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). Sierra Nevada will work with JAXA on potential applications of Japanese technologies and the development of mission concepts for Dream Chaser. Sierra Nevada and JAXA will also explore the possibility of launching and landing Dream Chaser in Japan.
Sierra Nevada previously signed similar agreements with the European Space Agency and the German Aerospace Center.
Sierra Nevada touts Dream Chaser as “the only lifting-body, low-g reentry spacecraft with the capability to land on commercial runways, anywhere in the world.” Dream Chaser is being marketed as a “multi-mission space utility vehicle” able to “retrieve, repair, replace, assemble or deploy items in space” as well as servicing the International Space Station.
[Update: Sierra Nevada has announced the completion of the first Dream Chaser structural component by subcontractor Lockheed Martin.]
The Spaceship Company announced today that Doug Shane has been named as president.
“This deal is looking worse and worse all time.” Those words were famously spoken by Lando Calrissian in Star Wars Episode V (The Empire Strikes Back), but they could also be applied to NASA’s Commercial Crew program.
NASA sold the Commercial Crew program to Congress with the promise that the expenditure would end US dependence on the Russian Soyuz capsule and launcher. But according to NASA’s deputy space-station program manager Dan Hartman, that won’t happen. This week, Hartman told the NASA Advisory Council that some US astronauts will continue to ride on Soyuz vehicles as long as ISS is operational.
Soyuz serves as both transportation system and “lifeboat” for ISS astronauts, and NASA expects any new crew vehicle will do the same. NASA wants some astronauts to continue to ride on Soyuz and some Russian cosmonauts to ride on US vehicles, so it can continue to operate the station with a mixed crew even if one vehicle has to depart due to an emergency. “It doesn’t make much sense for three Russians to leave and expect the four Americans onboard to operate the Russian segment and vice versa,” Hartman said.
This revelation represents just the latest in a long string of broken promises from the Commercial Crew program.
SpaceX has released a statement on the results of their latest booster-recovery experiment. SpaceX reports that “following last week’s successful launch of six ORBCOMM satellites, the Falcon 9 rocket’s first stage reentered Earth’s atmosphere and soft landed in the Atlantic Ocean.”
According to SpaceX, “This test confirms that the Falcon 9 booster is able consistently to reenter from space at hypersonic velocity, restart main engines twice, deploy landing legs and touch down at near zero velocity.”
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQnR5fhCXkQ&w=700]
The booster tipped over after touchdown (as expected), causing the structure to rupture. Based on the result of this test, SpaceX says it is now “highly confident of being able to land successfully on a floating launch pad or back at the launch site and refly the rocket with no required refurbishment.”
The next recovery test won’t occur for a while. The next two launches are for geostationary satellites with high delta-v requirements. These missions do not allow enough residual propellent for booster recovery. (In the long term, SpaceX plans to switch these missions to the Falcon Heavy.)
The next attempt at water landing will be on flight 13 of Falcon 9 (an ISS resupply mission). If that goes well, SpaceX will attempt to land on a solid surface on flights 14 and 15 (an ORBCOM satellite launch and another ISS resupply run).
The National Research Council has released a report, commissioned by NASA and the US Air Force, on 3D Printing in Space.
Although fairly positive about the long-term value of 3D printing in space, the study throws some cold water on its near-term prospects.
“Many of the claims made in the popular press about this technology have been exaggerated,” said Maj. Gen. Robert Latiff (USAF-ret.), chairman of the committee that wrote the report.
The report says that 3D printing could contribute to space missions by enabling on-orbit manufacturing of replacement parts and reducing logistics, but the specific benefits and scope of the technology’s use remain undetermined.
Following DARPA’s announcement of three Experimental SpacePlane (XS-1) teams, the Boeing Company released an illustration of its XS-1 design concept.
“Our design would allow the autonomous booster to carry the second stage and payload to high altitude and deploy them into space,” said Will Hampton, Boeing XS-1 program manager. “The booster would then return to Earth, where it could be quickly prepared for the next flight by applying operation and maintenance principles similar to modern aircraft. Drawing on our other innovative technologies, Boeing intends to provide a concept that uses efficient, streamlined ground infrastructure and improves the turnaround time to relaunch this spacecraft for subsequent missions.”
Boeing and its subcontractor Blue Origin will receive $4 million for the XS-1 Phase I study. DARPA plans to hold a Phase II competition next year for the follow-on production order to build the vehicle and conduct demonstration flights.
Steve Johnston, director of Boeing’s Phantom Works Advanced Space Exploration division, said that “Developing a vehicle that launches small payloads more affordably is a priority for future US Defense Department operations.”
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has announced the selection of three teams to conduct Phase One design studies for the agency’s Experimental SpacePlane 1 (XS-1).
DARPA has selected Boeing (working with Blue Origin), Masten Space Systems (working with XCOR Aerospace), and Northrop Grumman Corporation (working with Virgin Galactic) to design the reusable experimental spaceplane, which is expected to fly ten times in ten days, fly to Mach 10+ at least once, and launch a 3,000-5,000 pound payload to orbit.
Program manager Jess Sponable said that DARPA “chose performers who could prudently integrate existing and up-and-coming technologies and operations, while making XS-1 as reliable, easy-to-use and cost-effective as possible. We’re eager to see how their initial designs envision making spaceflight commonplace—with all the potential military, civilian and commercial benefits that capability would provide.”
According to a DARPA press release, the XS-1 program “aims to develop a fully-reusable unmanned vehicle that would provide aircraft-like access to space and deploy small satellites to orbit using expendable upper stages. XS-1 seeks to deploy small satellites faster and more affordably, and develop technology for next-generation hypersonic vehicles.
“XS-1 envisions that a reusable first stage would fly to hypersonic speeds at a suborbital altitude. At that point, one or more expendable upper stages would separate and deploy a satellite into Low Earth Orbit (LEO). The reusable first stage would then return to earth, land and be prepared for the next flight. Modular components, durable thermal protection systems and automatic launch, flight and recovery systems should significantly reduce logistical needs, enabling rapid turnaround between flights.”
In addition to creating vehicle designs, the three teams will identify and conduct critical risk reduction of core component technologies and processes and develop a technology maturation plan leading to fabrication and flight-test.
DARPA expects the teams to “explore alternative technical approaches from the perspectives of feasibility, performance, system design and development cost and operational cost. They must also assess potential suitability for near-term transition opportunities to military, civil, and commercial users. These opportunities include both launching small payloads per the program goals as well as others, such as supporting future hypersonic testing and a future space-access aircraft.”
DARPA did not announce the size of the contracts, but previous statements place the awards at about $3 million each. (Boeing has just announced that its award is $4 million.)
Technology developed in the XS-1 program could transition into future fully reusable orbital systems, such as XCOR’s Lynx Mark V (the successor to the Lynx suborbital spacecraft) or Blue Origin’s VTVL system. DARPA has not specified a launch or landing mode, but it is anticipated that XS-1 concepts will include both vertical and horizontal takeoff and landing systems.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67tbhFzh1OM&w=700]
Parabolic Arc reports that Virgin Galactic’s launch license is being held up by a technical glitch in regulatory law, which prevents the company from having an active experimental permit and launch license at the same time.
Virgin Galactic has been testing SpaceShip Two under an FAA experimental permit, but the permit will no longer be useable once the launch license is issued. That presents a problem for Virgin, which expects experimental flight testing to continue for some time. As a result, Virgin Galactic has asked the FAA to place its launch-license application on hold. Without such a request, the FAA would be required to issue a launch license or deny the application within 180 days of application.
Virgin Galactic’s launch-license application has been on hold since January, according to Parabolic Arc.
The Suborbital and Orbital Advancement and Regulatory Streamlining (SOARS) Act, introduced by Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA, who represents the district containing the Mojave Air and Space Port) and Rep. Bill Posey (R-FL), would fix thus technical problem. If the SOARS Act is not passed, Virgin Galactic will ask the FAA to resume processing of its launch-license application once flight testing is completed.
Space News reports that Bigelow Aerospace has hired two former NASA astronauts, Captain Kenneth Ham (USN) and Colonel George Zamka (USMC-ret.). The hi rings are said to represent the start of a commercial astronaut corps for the space stations Bigelow plans to launch beginning in 2017.
Capt. Ham is a former naval aviator with 6,000 flight hours in more than 40 different aircraft, more than 300 carrier landings, and 612 hours in space. He flew two Space Shuttle missions to ISS, as pilot of Discovery on STS-124 in June, 2008 and commander of Atlantis on STS-132 in May, 2010.
Capt. Ham holds an MS in aeronautical engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School. He currently serves as chairman of the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.
Col. Zamka has logged more than 5,000 flight hours in more than 30 different aircraft and 692 hours in space on two Shuttle flights. Zamka flew to ISS as pilot of Discovery on STS-120 in October, 2007 and commander of Endeavour on STS-130 in February, 2010.
Col. Zamka left NASA in March 2013 to become Deputy Associate Administrator for Commercial Space Transportation at the Federal Aviation Administration. Bigelow says that Zamka will remain in DC to provide a company interface with the US government as well as foreign customers.
Two new bills before Congress seek to boost the commercial space industry.
The SOARS Act (HR 3038) is meant to stimulate suborbital and orbital human spaceflight, while the ASTEROIDS Act (HR 5063) focuses on deep space.
SOARS stands for Suborbital and Orbital Advancement and Regulatory Streamlining. The SOARS Act was introduced on 2 August 2013 by Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and Rep. Bill Posey (R-FL), but it received little attention until December when Rep. McCarthy spoke about it during a meeting of the House Subcommitte on Space and Aeronautics.
McCarthy represents the district that includes Mojave Air and Space Port, while Posey’s district includes Cape Canaveral.
Posey is also sponsoring the ASTEROIDS Act, which stands for American Space Technology for Exploring Resource Opportunities in Deep Space. The bill was introduced this week by Posey and Rep. Derek Kilmer (D-WA).
The following experiments may inspire the creativity of citizen scientists who want to fly experiments in space. Performed aboard the International Space Station, they could easily be replicated aboard a suborbital flight. (We would like to remind everyone that our Call for Experiments is still open.)
In the first video, International Space Station science officer Don Petit uses an inexpensive speaker to demonstrate the effects of acoustical energy on water in a microgravity environment.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1u3SYmWbqo&w=700]
A variation on this experiment uses a different type of fluid, which does not behave in a classical “Newtonian” manner. In the following video, Don Petit uses a cornstarch mixture as an example of a non-Newtonian fluid.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDLNsLqS3vE&w=700]
Austin-based Firefly Space Systems apparently intends to follow the SpaceX path of evolving its expendable launcher into a reusable system. According to this promotional video, “In the future, additional cost savings will be gained as Firefly’s launchers have been designed with reusability in mind.”
[vimeo 99888247 w=700]
FireFly Space Systems, a startup space-launch company based in Austin, Texas, has officially announced its first product — a small-satellite launcher called FireFly Alpha, designed to place 400 kilograms (880 pounds) into Low Earth Orbit.
Firefly Space Systems, which also maintains a facility in Hawthorne, California, was founded by veterans of the emerging commercial space industry. CEO Thomas Markusic formerly served as vice-president of propulsion at Virgin Galactic, senior Systems engineer at Blue Origin, and principle propulsion engineer and test-site director at SpaceX.
Firefly Space Systems, which completed a seed-funding round in January, seeks to “lower the prohibitively high costs of small satellite launches to Low Earth and Sun Synchronous Orbits with the goal of revolutionizing broadband data delivery and earth observation missions.” Firefly will offer small-satellite customers dedicated launches for $8-9 million, according to Markusic.
Firefly Alpha will be a two-stage, single-core rocket. (The artist’s concept shown above is presumably a follow-on version, with two strap-on boosters). In time, Firefly Space Systems intends to evolve its launchers into reusable systems. (See Firefly Space Systems To Pursue Reusable Launcher.)