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Next trio launches on space station's 30th expedition

From Spaceflight Now: Next trio launches on space station's 30th expedition
In bitterly cold weather, a Russian Soyuz rocket carrying a three-man all-veteran crew blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan Wednesday, streaking into orbit and setting off after the International Space Station to boost the lab's crew back to six.

With commander Oleg Kononenko at the controls in the ferry craft's center seat, flanked by European Space Agency astronaut Andre Kuipers on his left and NASA flight engineer Donald Pettit to the right, the Soyuz TMA-03M's booster roared to life and climbed away from its snow-covered launching pad at 8:16:15 a.m. EST (GMT-5; 7:16:15 p.m. local time), roughly the moment Earth's rotation carried the launch site into the plane of the station's orbit.

Trailing a brilliant plume of fiery exhaust, the workhorse rocket climbed away through a clear, dark sky, arcing to the east as it accelerated toward space a little more than an hour after sunset in Baikonur. Spectators braved temperatures near zero degrees Fahrenheit to watch the rocket's ascent.

But it was comfortable inside the Soyuz and live television views from inside the spacecraft's central command module showed the crew members as they monitored the automated ascent, all three looking relaxed in their white spacesuits.

The rocket appeared to perform flawlessly and about nine minutes after launch, the Soyuz TMA-03M spacecraft separated from the booster's upper stage and slipped into orbit, its solar panels and antennas unfolding as planned as it set off after the space station.

"Congratulations, guys, on a good insertion, (there are) no issues with telemetry or anything at all at this time," Russian mission control called. "We wish you best of luck. You are experienced people, I'm sure everything is going to go very well."

Kononenko plans to oversee an automated approach and docking at the station's Rassvet module at 10:22 a.m. Friday. Standing by to welcome them aboard will be Expedition 30 commander Dan Burbank, Soyuz TMA-22 commander Anton Shkaplerov and flight engineer Anatoly Ivanishin, who were launched to the outpost Nov. 13.

Burbank and his crewmates originally were scheduled for launch in September, with Kononenko, Kuipers and Pettit following at the end of November. But the Russian launch schedule was disrupted after a Progress cargo ship was destroyed during launch Aug. 24 when its third stage engine, virtually identical to the one used in the manned version of the Soyuz booster, malfunctioned and shut down before the craft reached orbit.

An investigation concluded the shutdown was triggered by contamination in a propellant line. Engineers carried out extensive inspections of downstream engines and implemented improved quality control procedures before the Russian federal space agency successfully launched another Progress supply ship Oct. 30. The Soyuz TMA-22 carrying Burbank, Shkaplerov and Ivanishin was safely launched Nov. 13.

"The Russians are good engineers, and they know how to make their hardware, they know how to fix their hardware when it doesn't work right," Pettit said in a pre-launch interview. "But all of this falls in the category of riding rockets is a risky business. If you want to be able to venture into space at this point in time, you've got to ride a rocket and if you want to participate in exploring that particular frontier you just have to roll your dice with the universe and do the best you can."

One of the highlights of the Expedition 30 crew's stay aboard the station will be the planned berthing of a commercial cargo capsule built by Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, of Hawthorne, Calif. Launch from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida is targeted for Feb. 7.

SpaceX has a $1.6 billion contract with NASA to provide 12 cargo flights to the station for delivery of more than 44,000 pounds of equipment and supplies. The contract may be expanded to cover additional flights, boosting its value to some $3.1 billion. NASA also has ordered eight space station resupply flights from Orbital Sciences Corp. of Dulles, Va., under a contract valued at $1.9 billion. Initial test flights are expected next year.

Three test flights were planned by SpaceX under a separate contract valued at up to $396 million. The first flight was successfully carried out last December when a Dragon capsule was lofted into orbit and guided to a successful splashdown in the Pacific Ocean, the first commercial spacecraft ever recovered from orbit.

The original plan called for a second test flight to demonstrate rendezvous procedures, with berthing carried out during a third and final test flight. But earlier this month, NASA agreed to let SpaceX combine the second and third test flights into a single mission.

Unlike cargo ships supplied by Russia and the European Space Agency, the commercial craft built by SpaceX and Orbital Sciences will be pulled into port by the station's robot arm. For the planned berthing in February, Burbank and Pettit will operate the station's robot arm and communications gear.

Kuipers said the advent of commercial cargo ships is the start "of a new era where we have industry, commercial companies getting into the game and into space business."

"And I think this is also the whole idea of ESA, of NASA," he said. "New things should be developed by these kind of agencies because we have to invest, it's risky, you have to find out what is possible, what's not possible. You develop a rocket, you test it and then commercial companies take over, and I think the same thing is now happening with the space station."

Here is a launch-to-docking timeline for the Soyuz TMA-03M mission (in EST; best viewed with fixed-width font):


DD...HH...MM...SS...EST...........EVENT

00...00...00...00...08:16:15 AM...LAUNCH
00...00...08...45...08:25:00 AM...Orbital Insertion
00...03...36...29...11:52:44 AM...DV-1 (93.99 mph)
00...04...28...48...12:45:03 PM...DV-2 (46.12 mph)

12/22/11

01...01...21...16...09:37:31 AM...DV-3 (4.47 mph)

12/23/11

01...23...45...49...08:02:04 AM...AR&D automated rendezvous start
02...00...03...45...08:20:00 AM...US-to-Russian attitude control handover
02...00...08...08...08:24:23 AM...AR&D DV-4/impulse 1 (34.95 mph)
02...00...28...41...08:44:56 AM...AR&D impulse 2 (2.96 mph)
02...00...32...15...08:48:30 AM...Soyuz Kurs-A activation (T1)
02...00...34...15...08:50:30 AM...SM Kurs-P activation (T1)
02...00...51...29...09:07:44 AM...Range = 62.14 miles: Soyuz VHF-2 voice link
02...00...55...31...09:11:46 AM...AR&D DV-5/impulse 3 (31.49 mph)
02...00...56...49...09:13:04 AM...Range = 49.71 miles: Valid Kurs-P range data
02...01...05...22...09:21:37 AM...Sunrise
02...01...18...29...09:34:44 AM...Range = 9.32 miles: Kurs-A & Kurs-P short test
02...01...24...09...09:40:24 AM...Range = 5.59 miles: Soyuz TV activation
02...01...34...22...09:50:37 AM...AR&D impulse 4 (13.86 mph)
02...01...35...49...09:52:04 AM...AR&D ballistic targeting point
02...01...39...02...09:55:17 AM...AR&D impulse 5 (14.29 mph)
02...01...41...50...09:58:05 AM...AR&D impulse 6 (3.53 mph)
02...01...44...35...10:00:50 AM...AR&D flyaround mode start
02...01...51...00...10:07:15 AM...AR&D stationkeeping start
02...01...55...45...10:12:00 AM...AR&D final Approach start
02...01...55...58...10:12:13 AM...Daily Orbit 3 Russian ground station AOS
02...01...59...45...10:16:00 AM...ISS inertial snap-and-hold window open
02...02...02...07...10:18:22 AM...Sunset
02...02...06...26...10:22:41 AM...DOCKING
02...02...09...45...10:26:00 AM...ISS inertial snap-and-hold window close
02...02...16...00...10:32:15 AM...Daily Orbit 3 Russian ground station LOS
02...02...26...26...10:42:41 AM...Soyuz hooks closed
02...02...37...45...10:54:00 AM...Sunrise
02...03...03...45...11:20:00 AM...Russian-to-US attitude control system handover

NASA's Next Commercial Crew Solicitation Expected in February

Space.com: NASA's Next Commercial Crew Solicitation Expected in February

NASA will solicit proposals in February for the third phase of a program aimed at developing commercially operated astronaut transportation systems, an agency official said Tuesday (Dec. 20).

NASA wants to pick at least two winners by August, Ed Mango, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program manager, said during a conference call.

Mango described the next phase of NASA’s commercial crew program as a “pretty big jump” from the previous two rounds, which focused on developing only individual components of crew transportation systems.

“Obviously, this next phase has to be a lot bigger than element designs,” Mango said on the Dec. 20 call.

In the third phase of the program, NASA hopes to get at least two competing crew transportation systems ready to enter production. More details about the award will be discussed in advance of the solicitation on a public conference call tentatively set for early February, Mango said.

With the U.S. space shuttle fleet retired, NASA is looking to get commercially operated successors up and running by 2017. In the interim, U.S., Canadian, Japanese and European astronauts will ride to the space station aboard Russian Soyuz craft at NASA’s expense. [NASA's Space Shuttle Fleet in Pictures]

NASA’s commercial crew program has now switched gears twice in 2011.

The agency was to have released a solicitation Dec. 19 for a “Commercial Crew Integrated Design Contract” — a 21-month fixed-price contract culminating in a critical design review of at least two proposed astronaut taxi systems.

However, the agency announced Dec. 15 that because of budget uncertainty, it was scrapping that contracting vehicle in favor of a similar program funded by Space Act agreements, which are not bound by the Federal Acquisition Regulations that govern traditional government contracts. NASA says it can use Space Act agreements to fund development efforts — as the agency has done in previous rounds of the commercial crew program — but not to purchase hardware or services.

In announcing the shift to Space Act agreements, NASA human spaceflight chief William Gerstenmaier said the strategy would save the government money, but that NASA would sacrifice its ability to manage the design and manufacturing processes. Space Act agreements do not give the agency legal authority to dictate requirements to industry, Gerstenmaier said.

NASA requested $850 million for its commercial spaceflight activities in 2012 and received an appropriation of $406 million. The NASA Authorization Act of 2010, which made funding recommendations for the agency through 2013, authorized only $500 million for commercial spaceflight.

It is not yet clear how much of the $406 million NASA received for commercial spaceflight activities in 2012 will be used for the third round of the commercial crew program.

“It will not be $406 million, I can tell you that,” Mango said. He added that “the vast majority” of the 2012 funding will be used to continue activities initiated under the Commercial Crew Development 2 program, which began in April and is set to wrap up next July.

NASA has been encouraging — and funding — the development of privately owned astronaut taxis since 2009. Awards made in the first two rounds are worth a combined $365.5 million.

Companies that have received NASA funds to work on crew transportation systems are Blue Origin, Kent, Wash.; Boeing Space Exploration Systems, Houston; Sierra Nevada Space Systems, Sparks, Nev.; Space Exploration Technologies Corp., Hawthorne, Calif.; and United Launch Alliance of Denver.

This story was provided by Space News, dedicated to covering all aspects of the space industry.

PR: Maturing Technology: NASA Selects 85 Small Business Research and Technology Projects for Continued Development

PR: Maturing Technology: NASA Selects 85 Small Business Research and Technology Projects for Continued Development
WASHINGTON, Dec. 19, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA has selected 85 small business proposals to enter into negotiations for Phase II contract awards through the agency's Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program.

The selected projects have a total value of approximately $63 million. NASA will award the contracts to 79 small high technology firms in 27 states. These competitive awards-based programs encourage U.S. small businesses to engage in federal research, development and commercialization. The programs also enable businesses to explore technological potential, while providing the incentive to profit from new commercial products and services.

"Small businesses are not only crucial to NASA's trailblazing achievements in space exploration; they are the backbone of the American economy," said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. "As the wheels of our economy continue to pick up speed, it is important to remember that small business is the engine that is getting us moving again. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, small firms have generated 65 percent of net new jobs over the past 17 years. And federal procurement for women-, minority- and veteran-owned small businesses are a big part of that equation."

NASA's SBIR programs address specific technology gaps in agency missions, while striving to complement other agency research investments. Program results have benefited many NASA efforts, including modern air traffic control systems, Earth-observing spacecraft, the International Space Station and the Mars rovers.

"Working with small businesses through Phase 2 SBIR awards, NASA helps mature novel technologies and concepts to demonstrate their applicability to NASA's current and future space and aeronautics needs," said Michael Gazarik, director of NASA's Space Technology Program. "This maturation process also provides NASA's small business partners to more fully explore opportunities to transfer that technology to the marketplace, while creating new jobs and growing our economy."

In addition to meeting NASA's needs, the proposals also provide innovative research in areas that have other commercial applications. Examples include:

-- Development of design and fabrication techniques that will be used to create better UV detectors useful to NASA's missions to monitor ozone, aerosols and air pollution, which also are essential in the semiconductor, food processing and healthcare industries, where bacterial sterilization is important.

-- A new composite material manufacturing process which could decrease manufacturing costs for NASA's future heavy lift launch vehicles, as well as military and commercial aircraft, wind blades and towers, civil and automotive infrastructure and marine vessels.

-- New high-performance lubricants beneficial to robotic spacecraft operations in extreme temperature ranges that also may benefit automobile performance.

-- A laser-ranging technology that can be used as the next generation air data system for aircraft that will measure velocity, wind speed, air pressure and temperature. This will help predict turbulence, ensuring a safer and more comfortable flight.

The SBIR program is a highly competitive, three-phase award system. It provides qualified small businesses, including those owned by women and the disadvantaged, with opportunities to propose unique ideas that meet specific research and development needs of the federal government.

Phase 1 is a feasibility study to evaluate the scientific and technical merit of an idea. Awards are for as long as six months. The selected Phase 2 projects will expand on the results of Phase 1 projects selected last year, with up to $750,000 to support research for up to two years. Phase 3 is for the commercialization of the results of Phase 2 and requires the use of private sector or non-SBIR federal funding.

Participants submitted 428 Phase 2 proposals. The criteria used to select the winning proposals included technical merit and innovation, Phase 1 performance and results, value to NASA, commercial potential and company capabilities.

NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif., manages the SBIR program for the agency's Space Technology Program. NASA's 10 field centers manage individual projects.

For a complete list of selected companies, visit: http://sbir.nasa.gov

For more information about NASA's Office of the Chief Technologist and the agency's Space Technology Program, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/oct

American Museum of Natural History heads for the heavens with its new exhibition

From Silive.com: American Museum of Natural History heads for the heavens with its new exhibition
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — How many museums let you play God?

The option arises more than once at the American Museum of Natural History’s new show, “Beyond Planet Earth: The Future of Space Exploration.”

The best might be the “Mars Terraforming Table,” a play station that starts as a wide touchscreen depicting a Martian panorama, dry, red and barren. The vista changes depending on the instructions. The idea is to “terraform” inhospitable Mars, tweak it until it becomes earth-like, a big job but apparently doable.

Mars has no atmosphere, no cloud cover, precipitation or ground water, no rivers or oceans, fauna or flora. One of the earthifying strategies involves establishing mines, factories and industries that would spew greenhouse gases: carbon and other organic goodies. Mars needs exactly what earth doesn’t.

Exercising this option, along with introducing genetically altered species, gradually remakes the grim red planet. In the final screen, a boy and his dad are hiking the terraformed Martian wilderness, now green and Earth-like

They aren’t wearing space suits (although they are carrying oxygen tanks). Apparently, even the new Mars won’t have quite enough oxygen. One more thing: This transformation will take just 100 years.

“Beyond Planet Earth,” which seems very kid- and family-friendly, is part history and part vision quest. The former is necessary, of course, but the latter is exciting.

The first sections track the USSR’s early space feats, in photographs, text and to-scale models. The Soviets sent the first man into space 50 years ago, in 1961, and they were way ahead of us for years.

Only a few years earlier, some observers didn’t think space presented much of a challenge. The cover story in a 1952 Collier’s magazine bragged: “Man Will Conquer Space Soon.” Today, there’s a more realistic sense of the hurdles involved and no one talks about “conquering” space.

By 1969, the American space program had more than caught up. It’s still pretty thrilling to hear moonwalker Neil Armstrong saying “That’s one small step for man and one giant leap for mankind.” Notice: He didn’t declare a partisan or American victory, he claimed the moment for all.

ASTEROID: SMASHEROID

No extraterrestrial voyages have been as exciting as the moon walk, and yet, progress has been made. The data produced by the shuttle and international space station will prove useful sooner rather than later.

This past spring, President Obama alluded to an expedition to an asteroid, a useful trip. Big rocks have beaned the Earth in the past; the more we learn about them the better.

An asteroid slammed into the Yucatan 65 million years ago, launching an ice age and ending the era of the dinosaurs. It needn’t happen again: An interactive station allows participants to disable/deflect an asteroid on a collision course with us.

Just think: By contemporary calculations, there is a 1 in 4,700 chance that a 450 ft. asteroid will smack Mother Earth on Feb. 5 2052. How worried should we be? The exhibit lets us decide for ourselves.

Much of “Beyond Planet Earth” is concerned with more realistic possibilities. One gallery is wholly devoted to a lunar base that might well be set up someday soon near the Shackleton Crater at the south pole of the Moon. Why there? There’s abundant sunlight for solar power, for one thing.

Bottle-shaped habitations — there’s a detailed model — would be made out fabric, designed to withstand pelting by micro-meteorites, which are pretty relentless on the moon by all accounts.

Carrying water to the moon colony would be a nearly insurmountable hurdle. Fortunately recoverable water is trapped on the surface.

So far, despite the claims of science fiction and the UFO faithful, there is no sign of intelligent life on any heavenly bodies. Signs of any kind of life, intelligent or otherwise, have been elusive. But Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons, may have a liquid, salty ocean sloshing around under its frozen skin.

To find out, a Mission Europa probe would arrive equipped with a submersible robotic device that could melt the ice and then sink into the undersea, looking for living things.

“Beyond Planet Earth,” an enthusiastic endorsement of interstellar manifest destiny, acknowledges the enormity of such an undertaking without getting entangled in impediments.

Beyond Planet Earth:

The Future of Space Exploration”

Where

American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79th Street; 212-769-5606

When

Daily, 10 a.m.-5:45 p.m.; through Aug. 12.

How much

Suggested donations: $16, general; $12, students/seniors; $9 for children.

More information

www.AMNH.org

NSS Hails Stratolaunch Initiative – A Pioneering Investment in Space Transportation

From Nanotechnology Now: NSS Hails Stratolaunch Initiative – A Pioneering Investment in Space Transportation
Abstract:
The National Space Society (NSS) hails the announcement of Stratolaunch Systems, a Paul G. Allen Project, as a pioneering investment in space transportation.
NSS Hails Stratolaunch Initiative – A Pioneering Investment in Space Transportation
Washington, DC | Posted on December 18th, 2011

The company has been formed to build a mobile air-launch-to-orbit system that will include three primary components:

A carrier aircraft, developed by Scaled Composites, the aircraft manufacturer and assembler founded by Burt Rutan. It will be the largest aircraft ever flown.

A multi-stage booster, manufactured by Elon Musk's Space Exploration Technologies.

A state-of-the-art mating and integration system allowing the carrier aircraft to safely carry a booster weighing up to 490,000 pounds. It will be built by Dynetics, a leader in the field of aerospace engineering.

"The Stratolaunch Initiative is another bold step towards the key goal of reducing the cost of space travel" said, Gary Barnhard, Executive Director of the National Space Society. "By providing a less costly, more flexible, and timely launch capability than existing ground based systems, the Stratolaunch team intends to achieve routine airport-like space transportation services to orbital destinations. NSS wishes clear skies ahead for their efforts," he concluded.

With an envisioned payload capability of 13,500 pounds cargo and/or crewed spacecraft delivered to Low Earth Orbit, a fully reusable first stage air-launch carrier, and the potential for evolution to a winged returnable second stage, the initiative holds great promise. More background information on the proposed Stratolaunch concept can be found at their website: stratolaunch.com/presskit.html.

In their announcement yesterday, Stratolaunch said, "...space has long been on Allen's mind. In the close of his memoir, Idea Man, published earlier this year, he hinted at his plans, writing that he was 'considering a new initiative with that magical contraption I never wearied of sketching as a boy: the rocket ship.'" NSS thanks Paul for endeavoring to bring his boyhood dreams into reality in this historic way.

Since 1974, NSS has been working to bring forward the day when humans will be living and working in thriving communities beyond the Earth, and the use of the vast resources of space are brought to bear for the dramatic betterment of humanity. Commercial space initiatives are bringing that day ever closer.

####

About The National Space Society
The National Space Society (NSS) is an independent, grassroots, non-profit organization dedicated to the creation of a spacefaring civilization. Founded in 1974, NSS is widely acknowledged as the preeminent citizen's voice on space. NSS counts thousands of members and more than 50 chapters in the United States and around the world. The society also publishes Ad Astra magazine, an award-winning periodical chronicling the most important developments in space; and hosts the annual International Space Development Conference, among other activities.

Students to talk to space station astronauts

From the New Jersey Herald: Students to talk to space station astronauts
NEWTON -- Eighth-grade students from the Andover, Green and Newton school districts are set to talk to space travelers, and mark a New Jersey first, with a radio downlink with the astronauts aboard the International Space Station.

"This is the first school in New Jersey to be chosen," Newton Superintendent G. Kennedy Greene said. "But more importantly, it highlights our STEM program."

STEM is the acronym for Science Technology Engineering and Math, which, he noted, has just added new curricula in science and math areas.

Kevin Stanton, director of educational services, said the district has been told it has a scheduled spot on Feb. 22 for the conversation, part of a National Aeronautics and Space Administration program of teaching from space. The downlink will be the first time a New Jersey school group will have spoken directly to the Space Station since it was made operational in November 2000.

The current crew, known as Expedition 30, arrived at the station in late November and will be joined before February by additional astronauts. While astronauts have lived in the station for more than a decade, Espedition 30, is the first since the station was deemed to be completed earlier this year, with the addition of the final modules and outside equipment of the football-field-size station.

"We have had working relationships and sponsorships with several corporations and this cooperation with NASA adds to that list," Greene said.

Among recent sponsorships are the U.S. Army's Picatinny Arsenal, Thorlabs and Johnson & Johnson.

Newton is the receiving district for high school students from Andover Regional and Green districts, but the NASA program is geared toward middle school (grades 6-8) students.

The three districts formed a curriculum consortium a few years ago to coordinate what is taught in the three districts so students entering high school are on equal footing.

It was that Tri-District Consortium which submitted the application, Stanton, said.

Teachers from the three districts will meet early next month to create lesson plans using educational materials provided by NASA leading up the Feb. 22 event. The NASA material is geared to exploration of many aspects of space flight.

The February event will bring all the students from the three districts together at Newton High School auditorium for the actual conversation.

How long the downlink will last is among items to be discussed. NASA officials said the schedule could be changed if there are vital mission goals to be accomplished.