NASA has removed ATK Liberty Launch from the shortlist of potential carriers of crew to the ISS because of concern over the technical matters. According to William Gerstenmaier, associate
administrator for NASA’s Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate, the problem was that they didn't provide enough details to reassure NASA of the safety of their planned vehicle. ATK did not commetn to Space News about this, and there's nothing about it on their website that I could find. I hope that they will be able to recover from this and re-propose their plans. If not...that's one good thing about this kind of contract system--instead of the government being stuck helping fund a program to make it work, it can choose the ones that are effective. Right now, SpaceX and Boeing are forging ahead. read more here: http://spacenews.com/civil/120904-nasa-dropped-atk-comm-crew.html
Good news for Florida workers in teh space industry: XCOR plans to manufacture and launch its suborbital ships our of Kennedy Space Center. They're taking over some of the old Space Shuttle facilities for its Lynx vehicle. The Lynx willfly tourists, researchers adn payloads into suborbital space (about 100 kilometers, although they intend to later move on to orbital vehicles. They'll be doing test flights of the Lynx Mark 1 in 2012, and plan to build and fly the Linx Mark 2 from Florida in 2014. Right now, the company is stationed in the Mohave, CA, but are moving research to Texas and building and flight to Florida. the comany said they might leave some operations and test flight activities in California. Why the move? Money--the other states provided better incentives and better business conditions. Read more here: http://www.universetoday.com/96987/xcor-to-move-operations-near-kennedy-space-center/
Showing posts with label Boeing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Boeing. Show all posts
Meanwhile, Back at NASA/KSC
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Next leg in the Commercial Space Race--it's Boeing and SpaceX!
I know everyone's excited about the Mars Rover, but in the manned space arena, NASA has announced the selection of Boeing Space Exploration and SpaceX for final phase developing funding of the Commercial Crew Program. Sierra Nevada received a smaller award, but it's still in the running. ATK's Liberty Launch didn't get an award this time.
You can read all about it at Space News. In the meantime, congrats to these three for completing one more step toward commercial manned space!
NASA COTS program paying off? Summary of Aviation Week article
I saw this interesting analysis of the commercial space launch industry in Aviation Week: http://www.aviationweek.com/Article.aspx?id=/article-xml/AW_04_16_2012_p40-444890.xml. This is a 4-page article that’s definitely worth reading,
esp. if you’re interested in the commercial space ventures and why the government
should continue to support commercial space ventures through NASA’s COTS
program. However, here’s the down-low:
--NASA’s spent about $925 million dollars in seed money to
commercial space ventures. This has
helped private space companies (like SpaceX, which is closest to its goal) to
develop.
--As commercial companies become successful, they will drive
down the cost of launches across the board as other companies work to keep their
part of the market share.
--Big government contractors will also have to innovate in
order to keep up.
--One example of innovation is the use of less expensive but
more sophisticated safety systems, like escape systems. These will rely more heavily on computer
decisions to abort because the decision needs to be made so quickly to save the
crew.
--The Atlas V is still a popular choice for launch vehicles because
it’s reliable, it does the job, and it’s available. Boeing and United Launch Alliance are using
the Atlas V. Since the Atlas is already
used by the Air Force, using it for manned space will also mean more being
produced, which lowers costs.
--SpaceX, of course, built its own rocket, the Falcon 9
itself, starting out with the intention of making it man-rated according to the
Space Act Agreement, but it needs an upgrade to meet the Federal Acquisition
Requirements for man-rating . (It doesn’t
say why the Space Act requirements and
FAR are not the same. May I suggest government bureaucracy?)
--NASA has funded several programs for its “base period;”
after which, it has an optional period where it will evaluate the competitors
and decide who it wants to work with in the longer run. Those will be the ones they work with fully
man-certifying the launch vehicles.
--Just an aside, but Sierra Nevada is being bankrolled by
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. It’s
interesting to me how many Internet business billionaires are funding
commercial space. Is it the geek
factor? If so, go, geek factor!
--Even if NASA were to only select one contractor for its
manned space missions, it still wins because companies will have developed
rockets that can carry unmanned capsules or launch other things into space.
--NASA asked for $830 million to invest in commercial crew
launch. Despite Obama’s promise to support
commercial space, it was cut to $406 million, less than half of what they asked
for and half of what they used the year before.
That’s going to delay commercial manned flights to the ISS by at least a
year. (During which time, we will
continue to fund Russia’s space program.
--However, NASA isn’t the only potential customer for manned
spaceflights. Bigelow is continuing to perfect
its inflatable space habitats, which could be used for tourism, science &
industry, and other nations that don’t have enough resources of “lack the
wherewithal to develop their own space laboratories.” Sierra Nevada, meanwhile, is working on a
shuttle-type system with the eye on satellite-servicing.
Although Aviation Week says the NASA investment will “pay
off as soon as” April, they were not speaking financially. Rather, they see the program as having sparked
a space-launch market that didn’t exist before (that of manned space
launch.) Time will tell if this market
can bear the industry being built. Most
likely, we will see companies rise and fall, just like in any industry, as new
technology and new approaches (not to mention marketing) are tried. It will also depend on whether there are
customers enough for this market. It may
be a “cottage industry” for awhile, until we find a way to make it truly
profitable.
Just a note: SpaceX has delayed its launch until early May. They have to get this one right, so they're being extra-careful. http://www.space.com/15392-spacex-dragon-launch-delay-announced.html
Shuttle Moves Out; Others Move In
Once a week, I plan on summarizing a current event article about space. Since we were talking about the industry still being alive and well, I thought this article fit nicely: "At Florida Spaceports, Commercial Operators Prepare To Move In," Space News, August 19, 2011.
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| Ground breaking ceremonies for SpaceX’s new Falcon 9 rocket launch facilities at Space Launch Complex 40, Cape Canaveral, Florida. (from left) Thad Altman, Florida State Representative; Jeff Kottkamp, Florida State Lt. Governor; Elon Musk, Founder and CEO, Space Exploration Technologies; Brigadier General Susan Helms, Commander, 45th Space Wing, United States Air Force; Lynda Weatherman, Brevard County Economic Development Commission CEO/President; Steve Koehler, President of Space Florida; Janet Petro, Deputy Director NASA Kennedy Space Center; Patricia Grace Smith, FAA Associate Administrator for Commercial Space Transportation; Steve Cain, NASA Kennedy Space Center COTS project manager. Credit: Jim Campbell, Aero-News Network. Photo and names taken from SpaceX website. |
Space X is setting up housekeeping at Cape Canaveral, upgrading an old Delta II processing hanger to launch thier Falcon Nines. They've renamed it Hangar X. (Got a theme going.) They'll also tune up a payload processing and integration facility for the Dragon capsule. They have a goal of launching 12 rockets a year by 2015. That's pretty ambitious, not just for the logistics but also finding the business. But how cool would that be?
There's also talk of Boeing taking up residence in some of the facilities to service their own Crew Space Transport capsule. (They need naming lessons from SpaceX.)
So while the Shuttle program has ended, new programs begin. The question is now: How soon, folks? How soon until Cape Canaveral is launching humans again?
Yes, Virginia, There is a Space Industry
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| What could be more representative of the American space program? Yet it is so much more! |
When I told one of my friends that I was creating a blog about the space industry, she asked, "Is there a space industry after Obama killed NASA?"
First, let's assume for this article, we're talking about manned space and exploration, rather than the thriving industry of putting satellites into orbit so we can get better cell phone reception.
She's referring to Obama's 2010 budget proposal that cancelled the Constellation program, which was supposed to replace the space shuttle and eventually get us to the moon (2020.) Here's an article in Discovery about it. And another in Scientific American. This might indeed seem a death knell for space, or at least for manned space, but there are several things to consider.
First, the Constellation program was already overbudget and experiencing a lot of technical problems. (Universe Today reported in Feb 1, 2010, "Also, its estimate costs through 2015 have risen from $28 billion in 2006 to $44 billion today.") There was also doubts about it being able to meet its deadlines of manned flight by 2015 and the moon by 2020.
What about the shuttle? It was simply at the end of its life. The technology was so old, that to repair the shuttle, NASA was having to search the Internet for spare parts. President Bush actually canceled the shuttle program because we couldn't physically support the craft any longer.
However, at the same time that President Obama called for the cancellation of the program, he recommended increasing NASA's budget for it to concentrate on other things--increasing the life of the ISS, promoting innovation and technologies, and exploring further on. As columnist Phil Plait said, "NASA can concentrate on what it should: innovation, pushing the limits, paving the road. Once the road is laid, let others use it."
So, are there others to use the road? Let's start with the fact that the ISS is International, and other nations have been servicing it, including the European Space Agency and the Russians, who are--or rather were--flying the astronauts to the station when the Shuttle wasn't. (They recently had trouble with their Soyuz capsules, and now we're not sure we will keep astronauts on the station--weep!--but that's another story.) So the space industry as a whole will continue, even if NASA died, which it isn't.
In addition, American commercial space is growing--and Obama has given it a nice void to fill. There are already many companies striving to fulfill the dream of manned space:
- Armadillo Aerospace (suborbital focused)
- Bigelow
- Blue Origin (suborbital focused)
- Boeing
- Orbital
- Sierra Nevada Corp
- Space X
- United Launch Alliance (serves the military; not sure they're looking at manned)
- Virgin Galactic (suborbital focused)
(Rob gave me this list. If we missed any, let me know.) There are also a lot of budding industries to build the craft, make the fuel, create the engines, etc.
Later this week, I'll share an article about how some of these companies are already moving into Cape Canaveral (or negotiating to). But for now, the answer to my friend's question is, "Yes, Virginia, there still is a space industry."
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| The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft after its test mission. |
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