From XinhuaNet: Yearender: Mankind faces long road in space exploration
Special Report: Major Science Events in 2011
by Igor Serebryany, Zheng Haoning
MOSCOW, Dec. 15 (Xinhua) -- After the retirement of the U.S. space shuttle fleet, the only way for astronauts to reach the International Space Station (ISS) is by Russia's Soyuz spacecraft until at least 2015.
However, as one of the leading countries in space exploration, Russia suffered serious setbacks in 2011.
Human beings have never stopped observing and thinking about the outer space. But their space exploration programs have taught them that they still face a long, rough road to unlock more secrets of the universe.
RUSSIA'S AMBITIOUS PLANS
For Russians, 2011 was one to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their country's first human flight into space and was proclaimed the Year of Cosmonautics.
Yuri Gagarin, who made the first manned space flight on April 12, 1961, and orbited Earth for 108 minutes before landing safely, introduced "space" to humankind.
After the Cold War, Moscow was determined to maintain its keen interest in space exploration.
In 2011, Russia allocated some 75.8 billion rubles (2.45 billion U.S. dollars) for its space programs, 13 percent more than in 2010.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin announced in April that the country should conduct half of the world's space launches, up from the current share of 40 percent. He even revealed that Russia has been developing nuclear engines for expeditions to the Moon and other planets.
In June, when the last U.S. space shuttle completed its mission to the ISS, Russia's space agency Roscosmos proudly announced that "the era of the reliable (Russian spaceship) Soyuz has begun."
The country has also made public its plans to build a brand-new spacecraft to replace the Soyuz by 2015 and a new cosmodrome in the Amur region in the Far East.
Besides, some 13 countries have used Russian rockets to put their satellites into orbit.
The growth of Russia as a space power is recognized even by the United States' National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), as NASA has decided to make the Russian language a basic knowledge for astronaut trainees.
"Russia has preserved and even strengthened its leading position in space explorations," President Dmitry Medvedev said in June.
DIFFICULT YEAR FOR RUSSIAN SPACE INDUSTRY
However, Russia's space programs suffered a string of failures in 2011.
The failed launch of a Proton-M rocket carrying a high-power Express AM4 communications satellite on Aug. 18 embarrassed the Russian space authorities, as the Protons have been Russia's "shire horse" to orbit domestic and foreign spacecraft.
Only a week later, a Progress M-12M cargo ship also failed to reach the ISS due to a rocket malfunction, leaving the station crew in a difficult situation because of supply shortages. The failure of the Progress cargo ship was the first in more than 30 years.
The latest and most widely reported setback was the failure of the Phobos-Grunt mission to Mars that carried China's micro-satellite Yinghuo-1.
The Mars mission components were launched atop a Russian Zenit-2SB rocket on Nov. 9, but failed to reach the intended orbit.
Putin has boasted that Russia ranks fourth in the world in terms of funding its national space programs, but the failures showed that problems can come from other aspects.
Russian experts agreed that the troubles behind the continuous mishaps were not entirely technological.
"Generally, 1 percent of the failed launches is considered within a technical norm in the space industry," Igor Lisov, a prominent Russian space expert, told Xinhua.
In a globalized world, the alarms have sounded not only for Russia but also for other countries involved in space exploration.
Local analysts say that the human element has put the entire international program at risk as exemplified by the failure of the Progress M-12M.
LONG ROAD TO SPACE
Compared with Gagarin's era, human beings have now adopted a more pragmatic approach to space exploration.
Space technology now is more closely connected with people and affects their daily lives more directly. Nowadays, one just cannot imagine life without satellite TV or GPS.
"Early romanticism and the space race have gone. Countries have been replaced by business-oriented cooperation in the recent decades," Pavel Vinogradov, deputy head of the Space Flight Center in the Energy Rocket-Space Corporation, told Xinhua.
Experts said the scale and costs of space exploration require massive international cooperation.
"Space programs have been more money-thirsty even than military programs, so the nations seek closer cooperation, and this pays off," Vinogradov said.
Moreover, people need to "think big" despite the difficulties of space exploration, experts said.
Before the launch of the Phobos-Grunt on Nov. 9, Lev Zelyony, director of Russia's Space Research Institute, said Roscosmos had undertaken a risky mission to Mars because the country "needs some large-scale projects."
"The people, the state must think big," Zelyony said.
Boris Chertok, a spacecraft designer and member of Russia's Academy of Sciences, pointed out that Russia has lost its qualified workforce in the space industry as older professionals retire with few younger workers and engineers available to replace them.
"The government must make space exploration interesting for the youth," Chertok said.
Friday, December 16, 2011
NASA revamps, delays commercial space taxi work
From Reuters: NASA revamps, delays commercial space taxi work
(Reuters) - Budget cuts in a program to spur commercial space taxis will likely keep the United States dependent on Russia to fly astronauts to the International Space Station until 2017, NASA's head of space operations said on Thursday.
But the newly revamped program, intended to provide a commercial alternative following the recent retirement of NASA's space shuttles, comes with a silver lining: NASA is abandoning plans for traditional fixed-price contracts and instead will use less expensive and more flexible partnering agreements.
"It's one small step for Commercial Crew," said Bigelow Aerospace attorney Michael Gold, referring to NASA's space taxi development program. "And one giant leap for common sense."
The switch was spurred by the halving of NASA's $850 million Commercial Crew program budget request for the year that began October 1 and by NASA's determination to keep at least two space taxi designs in the running for the agency's future business.
"We would like to carry two providers at a minimum, actually more," NASA associate administrator Bill Gerstenmaier said during a conference call with reporters. "We think competition is a key piece."
Currently the agency is funding work at four firms: Boeing, Space Exploration Technologies, Sierra Nevada Corp., and Blue Origin, a start-up owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
Other aspiring space transportation companies, including Stratolaunch Systems, the recently announced start-up backed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, are not seeking or have not been awarded NASA funds to assist with spaceship development.
"Our investment helps to ensure that this capability gets done in as timely a manner as we can actually make it occur," Gerstenmaier said.
A solicitation for the next phase of the program was due to be released on Monday, but will be delayed until the first quarter of 2012, Gerstenmaier said. The selection of companies, however, should remain on schedule for next summer.
NASA, which has $406 million to spend on the program this year, is uncertain how much money it will receive to see the development effort through the planned 21-month period.
"We want to get enough work behind us that we've got a very solid design that we can then start taking into a certification," Gerstenmaier said.
The agency had hoped to have an alternative by 2016 to sending its astronauts into space aboard the Russian Soyuz capsule, which costs more than $60 million per person per ride.
"We got an increase in the budget in fiscal year '12, which was a good thing, but it wasn't quite the funding level that we anticipated. That moved the potential service capability at least into 2017," Gerstenmaier said.
MORE LAUNCHES, LESS LAWYERING
The alternative contracting arrangement, called Space Act Agreements, has been used in a related program to develop commercial U.S. cargo ships to fly to the space station, a $100 billion research laboratory built in partnership with Russia, Europe, Japan and Canada that flies about 240 miles above Earth.
Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, is preparing for its trial cargo run to the station in February, launching a Falcon 9 rocket carrying a Dragon cargo capsule. A second company, Orbital Sciences Corp. is expected to follow suit with its cargo craft later in 2012.
"Space Act Agreements yield amazing results, we need only look at the Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket," SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell, wrote in an email to Reuters.
"We applaud NASA's decision to use Space Act Agreements for the next round of Commercial Crew and look forward to the competition," she said.
The difference between traditional government contracting and Space Act Agreements is night and day, added Gold, who oversees business growth for Bigelow Aerospace, which is developing commercial orbital habitats for research, government and business lease.
"It's the difference between a 30-page contract and one that could involve 3,000 pages of regulations," Gold said. "Even understanding what you're up against can take months of review by lawyers. If you want to spend more money on lawyers and less on launches, FAR (Federal Acquisition Regulation) is a terrific way to proceed."
Gerstenmaier said the alternative partnering arrangement would not allow NASA to get as involved technically in the space taxis' design, but "essentially we can enable them."
(Reuters) - Budget cuts in a program to spur commercial space taxis will likely keep the United States dependent on Russia to fly astronauts to the International Space Station until 2017, NASA's head of space operations said on Thursday.
But the newly revamped program, intended to provide a commercial alternative following the recent retirement of NASA's space shuttles, comes with a silver lining: NASA is abandoning plans for traditional fixed-price contracts and instead will use less expensive and more flexible partnering agreements.
"It's one small step for Commercial Crew," said Bigelow Aerospace attorney Michael Gold, referring to NASA's space taxi development program. "And one giant leap for common sense."
The switch was spurred by the halving of NASA's $850 million Commercial Crew program budget request for the year that began October 1 and by NASA's determination to keep at least two space taxi designs in the running for the agency's future business.
"We would like to carry two providers at a minimum, actually more," NASA associate administrator Bill Gerstenmaier said during a conference call with reporters. "We think competition is a key piece."
Currently the agency is funding work at four firms: Boeing, Space Exploration Technologies, Sierra Nevada Corp., and Blue Origin, a start-up owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
Other aspiring space transportation companies, including Stratolaunch Systems, the recently announced start-up backed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, are not seeking or have not been awarded NASA funds to assist with spaceship development.
"Our investment helps to ensure that this capability gets done in as timely a manner as we can actually make it occur," Gerstenmaier said.
A solicitation for the next phase of the program was due to be released on Monday, but will be delayed until the first quarter of 2012, Gerstenmaier said. The selection of companies, however, should remain on schedule for next summer.
NASA, which has $406 million to spend on the program this year, is uncertain how much money it will receive to see the development effort through the planned 21-month period.
"We want to get enough work behind us that we've got a very solid design that we can then start taking into a certification," Gerstenmaier said.
The agency had hoped to have an alternative by 2016 to sending its astronauts into space aboard the Russian Soyuz capsule, which costs more than $60 million per person per ride.
"We got an increase in the budget in fiscal year '12, which was a good thing, but it wasn't quite the funding level that we anticipated. That moved the potential service capability at least into 2017," Gerstenmaier said.
MORE LAUNCHES, LESS LAWYERING
The alternative contracting arrangement, called Space Act Agreements, has been used in a related program to develop commercial U.S. cargo ships to fly to the space station, a $100 billion research laboratory built in partnership with Russia, Europe, Japan and Canada that flies about 240 miles above Earth.
Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, is preparing for its trial cargo run to the station in February, launching a Falcon 9 rocket carrying a Dragon cargo capsule. A second company, Orbital Sciences Corp. is expected to follow suit with its cargo craft later in 2012.
"Space Act Agreements yield amazing results, we need only look at the Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket," SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell, wrote in an email to Reuters.
"We applaud NASA's decision to use Space Act Agreements for the next round of Commercial Crew and look forward to the competition," she said.
The difference between traditional government contracting and Space Act Agreements is night and day, added Gold, who oversees business growth for Bigelow Aerospace, which is developing commercial orbital habitats for research, government and business lease.
"It's the difference between a 30-page contract and one that could involve 3,000 pages of regulations," Gold said. "Even understanding what you're up against can take months of review by lawyers. If you want to spend more money on lawyers and less on launches, FAR (Federal Acquisition Regulation) is a terrific way to proceed."
Gerstenmaier said the alternative partnering arrangement would not allow NASA to get as involved technically in the space taxis' design, but "essentially we can enable them."
New moon exhibit makes scents of space exploration
From TheStar.com (Canada): New moon exhibit makes scents of space exploration
What does moondust smell like?
Spent gunpowder, says Apollo 17 astronaut Gene Cernan, who looked more like a coal miner than a space explorer after a moonwalk.
Four-day-old socks, says Michael Shara, who has created the exhibit that lets Earthlings get a whiff of the moon.
Shara, the Montreal-born and Toronto-educated director of astrophysics at New York’s American Museum of Natural History, built the new Beyond Planet Earth exhibit as a forward-thinking exploration in which the moon plays the role of next-door neighbour.
“I wanted to look at the next 50 or 100 or 300 years,” he told the Star.
“People have become extraordinarily blasé about things like the shuttle,” he said. “In large measure that attitude is well placed. But going over that is not the way to excite schoolchildren.”
So lunar mining and even tourism is a given, a jumping-off point for travel first to a nearby asteroid and then Mars and then Europa, a moon of Jupiter, and finally the Earthlike exoplanets orbiting other stars.
Will we be colonizing the moon in 50 years? “I would be surprised if we’re not.”
Helium 3, a vital element in nuclear energy, is rare on Earth but “relatively abundant” on the moon and “could be the thing that drives us to the moon and keeps us there.”
Or it could be tourism, via a lunar elevator rather than rockets. Shara himself figures he has a “50-50 chance” of at least getting to orbit the moon, but his children will land there.
The smell of moon dust, recreated by chemists synthesizing compounds, is among the interactive exhibits that attempt to recreate life on other worlds.
Despite “carte blanche” in the creation, Shara admitted he had to rein in his imagination.
“I would have preferred an even more immersive experience in Mars —a real lava field that people could walk through. But then we’d have a lawsuit on our hands if anyone fell in.”
The lunar liquid mirror telescope couldn’t use mercury because of its toxicity. “Everything has to be safe from the prying hands of kids.”
What does moondust smell like?
Spent gunpowder, says Apollo 17 astronaut Gene Cernan, who looked more like a coal miner than a space explorer after a moonwalk.
Four-day-old socks, says Michael Shara, who has created the exhibit that lets Earthlings get a whiff of the moon.
Shara, the Montreal-born and Toronto-educated director of astrophysics at New York’s American Museum of Natural History, built the new Beyond Planet Earth exhibit as a forward-thinking exploration in which the moon plays the role of next-door neighbour.
“I wanted to look at the next 50 or 100 or 300 years,” he told the Star.
“People have become extraordinarily blasé about things like the shuttle,” he said. “In large measure that attitude is well placed. But going over that is not the way to excite schoolchildren.”
So lunar mining and even tourism is a given, a jumping-off point for travel first to a nearby asteroid and then Mars and then Europa, a moon of Jupiter, and finally the Earthlike exoplanets orbiting other stars.
Will we be colonizing the moon in 50 years? “I would be surprised if we’re not.”
Helium 3, a vital element in nuclear energy, is rare on Earth but “relatively abundant” on the moon and “could be the thing that drives us to the moon and keeps us there.”
Or it could be tourism, via a lunar elevator rather than rockets. Shara himself figures he has a “50-50 chance” of at least getting to orbit the moon, but his children will land there.
The smell of moon dust, recreated by chemists synthesizing compounds, is among the interactive exhibits that attempt to recreate life on other worlds.
Despite “carte blanche” in the creation, Shara admitted he had to rein in his imagination.
“I would have preferred an even more immersive experience in Mars —a real lava field that people could walk through. But then we’d have a lawsuit on our hands if anyone fell in.”
The lunar liquid mirror telescope couldn’t use mercury because of its toxicity. “Everything has to be safe from the prying hands of kids.”
Monday, December 12, 2011
Asia's space race could turn into an arms race
From ArsTechnica: Asia's space race could turn into an arms race
By Kyle Niemeyer
A Chinese lunar probe on its way to orbit.
Asia’s current space race could turn into an arms race akin to the Cold War, according to James Clay Moltz, a professor in the Department of National Security Affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School. He makes that argument in a recent Nature commentary.
The major Asian nations, including China, Japan, India, and South Korea, are all expanding their space programs with little-to-no cooperation. These efforts are driven by national prestige and geopolitical rivalries, similar to the US-Soviet space race of the 1960s. Like that period, this space race is stimulating technological advances, but competing agendas are leading to duplication of work and mistrust—in other words, a waste of resources. Even worse, this competition is undermining recent cooperation between the US, Russia, and Europe.
Unlike the Western Hemisphere, Asia doesn’t have any regional security organizations like NATO, the EU, or CSTO (Collective Security Treaty Organization, a post-USSR followup to the Warsaw Pact). Add to this long-standing feuds between specific nations—China-India, India-Pakistan, North Korea-South Korea, China-Japan, Vietnam-China, to name a few—and increasing military tensions, says Moltz, and you have a civilian space race that could turn into an arms race.
Competing for space
China, Japan, and India, the three Asian leaders in space, are all increasing their launch activity as they deploy satellite constellations for both civilian and military uses. China had the same number of launches as the US (15) last year, while Japan had two and India three. Japan’s annual space budget is the highest, at $3.8 billion, compared to China’s estimated $2.2 billion and India’s $1.3 billion. But China and India have an estimated 80,000 and 32,000 civilian space personnel, respectively, to Japan’s 8,300. For comparison, NASA’s 2011 budget is $18.724 billion and it carries about 19,000 employees.
Each of these nations has performed separate lunar-mapping missions since 2007, with planned follow ups of rovers, landers, and lunar bases—but no cooperation, even though a lot of the work will be redundant.
Japan has the most human spaceflight experience, with 15 manned flights since 1992 and a membership in the International Space Station, but it has always hitchhiked with the US or Russia; the country doesn’t have its own personnel transport vehicle. China launched its first astronaut in 2003 (via the Shenzhou-5), with multiple followups since. Most recently, it launched the Tiangong-1, an orbital test module for a planned 2020 space station. India, threatened by China’s recent rise, announced a planned manned flight in 2016.
In addition to human spaceflight efforts, the three major nations are also building their own supplements to the US-maintained Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite network. GPS is freely accessible but foreign nations are understandably concerned about relying on technology controlled by the US government. China has already deployed one third of its planned 35-satellite BeiDou network. Japan—a close US ally, and therefore likely more comfortable using GPS—is building the Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS), a three-satellite augmentation to GPS to better cover South Asia. India also plans to launch a South Asian satellite network, called the GPS-Aided Geo Augmented Navigation (or GAGAN) System.
(Note: the Nature article describes the QZSS as a planned four-satellite system, but a JAXA [Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Japan’s NASA] website only mentions three.)
Smaller Asian nations, like Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Taiwan, are also building their own satellite-communications networks with help from larger partners, both in Asia and abroad. China, India, and Japan are also cooperating in some ways with US, Europe, and Russia, but not with each other.
Recently, some of the previously civilian-only space development started to move into military applications, specifically satellite interceptors. China destroyed an old satellite in 2007 with a ground-based weapon, creating more than 3,000 pieces of orbital debris. In response, both India and Japan announced offensive and defensive anti-satellite weapons.
Opportunities for cooperation
The biggest question in the face of this rising tension is, of course: what should be done? Getting the big three (China, Japan, and India) to cooperate on space development probably isn’t quite as difficult as the US and Soviet Union during the 1960s-era space race (although the same can’t be said for South and North Korea), but space relations are intrinsically linked to regional politics and rivalries.
To their credit, China and Japan both formed regional space groups: the Asia-Pacific Space Cooperation Organization (APSCO) and Asia-Pacific Regional Space Agency Forum (APRSAF), respectively, but there hasn’t been any cooperation between the groups, and members of each are limited to less-developed nations such as Bangladesh, Mongolia, Peru, and Thailand.
In addition, the recent natural disasters in the region sparked some data exchanges and networking among nations; APSCO and APRSAF could cooperate more in this area. China, Japan, and India also joined NASA’s Global Exploration Strategy, and expressed interest in data exchanges under the umbrella of the International Lunar Network. Moltz suggests that a human spaceflight initiative between China and Japan, like the US-Soviet Apollo-Soyuz docking in 1975, could help improve cooperation.
However, he says the most important issue is an easing of military tensions. The US and Soviet Union pledged satellite non-interference in 1972, but the new space powers haven’t even agreed to this yet. Orbital debris threatens the satellites and vehicles of all space-faring nations, so this might be the basis for talks aimed at ending development of satellite-killing weapons.
Another route to talks might be through the US. The government called for "responsible behavior" in space in 2010 but, due to congressional opposition, hasn’t pursued this much yet. Cooperation with China could downplay Asian rivalries and help develop shared interests in space, potentially leading towards global space efforts—exploration of space being in the interests of humankind, rather than just the citizens of specific nations.
Whether through Asian or US leadership, or a shared disaster, cooperation on space activities needs to grow to avert an arms race and potential conflict, warns Moltz.
Boeing Welcomes Astronaut Chris Ferguson to Space Exploration Team
From 4Trader: Boeing Welcomes Astronaut Chris Ferguson to Space Exploration Team
HOUSTON, Dec. 12, 2011 -- The Boeing Company [NYSE: BA] today announced that Christopher J. Ferguson, a retired U.S. Navy captain and former NASA astronaut, has been named director of Commercial Crew Interface in the company's Space Exploration division, effective Dec. 16. Ferguson, a veteran of three space shuttle missions, will report to John Mulholland, Space Exploration vice president and program manager, Commercial Programs.
"Chris' extraordinary managerial and spaceflight experience will be a significant asset to our team as we advance our development of the Commercial Crew Transportation System," said Mulholland. "He will help us address all aspects of human spaceflight requirements, not only for trained NASA astronauts but also for a broad spectrum of people interested in accessing low Earth orbit."
Ferguson will have comprehensive oversight for crew integration and operations in the design of Boeing's Commercial Crew Transportation System. In this capacity, he will work with NASA's Human Exploration and Operations Directorate; Johnson Space Center's Engineering, Flight Crew, and Mission Operations organizations; and Kennedy Space Center's Commercial Crew Program to ensure the design supports NASA Human Rating Requirements. Ferguson also will have a leadership role in the development and testing of system concepts and key technologies for Boeing's Crew Space Transportation (CST-100) spacecraft, as well as integrated launch and ground systems.
The CST-100 spacecraft -- comprised of a crew module and a service module -- relies on materials and subsystem technologies that are proven and affordable. The CST-100 is designed to carry up to seven people, or a combination of people and cargo, and is compatible with a variety of expendable launch vehicles. By enabling development of a safe, reliable and cost-effective solution for crew transportation to and from the International Space Station, CST-100 ensures that the on-orbit research facility will continue to fulfill its promise as a world-class laboratory.
Ferguson comes to Boeing with space shuttle experience as pilot of STS-115 (Atlantis) and commander of STS-126 (Endeavour) and the final shuttle mission, STS-135 (Atlantis). He has logged more than 40 days in space. He also served as deputy chief of the Astronaut Office and was spacecraft communicator (CAPCOM) for missions STS-118, -120, -128 and -129. His experience in crew communications, both on orbit and in the CAPCOM role, is essential to his new role at Boeing.
Ferguson has a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from Drexel University in Philadelphia and a Master of Science degree in aeronautical engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif. He has been recognized with numerous service awards and citations, including the Legion of Merit, Distinguished Flying Cross, Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Navy Strike/Flight Air Medal, NASA Spaceflight Medal (three), Navy Commendation Medal (three) and the Navy Achievement Medal.
is one of the world's largest defense, space and security businesses specializing in innovative and capabilities-driven customer solutions, and the world's largest and most versatile manufacturer of military aircraft. Headquartered in St. Louis, Boeing Defense, Space & Security is a $32 billion business with 63,000 employees worldwide.
HOUSTON, Dec. 12, 2011 -- The Boeing Company [NYSE: BA] today announced that Christopher J. Ferguson, a retired U.S. Navy captain and former NASA astronaut, has been named director of Commercial Crew Interface in the company's Space Exploration division, effective Dec. 16. Ferguson, a veteran of three space shuttle missions, will report to John Mulholland, Space Exploration vice president and program manager, Commercial Programs.
"Chris' extraordinary managerial and spaceflight experience will be a significant asset to our team as we advance our development of the Commercial Crew Transportation System," said Mulholland. "He will help us address all aspects of human spaceflight requirements, not only for trained NASA astronauts but also for a broad spectrum of people interested in accessing low Earth orbit."
Ferguson will have comprehensive oversight for crew integration and operations in the design of Boeing's Commercial Crew Transportation System. In this capacity, he will work with NASA's Human Exploration and Operations Directorate; Johnson Space Center's Engineering, Flight Crew, and Mission Operations organizations; and Kennedy Space Center's Commercial Crew Program to ensure the design supports NASA Human Rating Requirements. Ferguson also will have a leadership role in the development and testing of system concepts and key technologies for Boeing's Crew Space Transportation (CST-100) spacecraft, as well as integrated launch and ground systems.
The CST-100 spacecraft -- comprised of a crew module and a service module -- relies on materials and subsystem technologies that are proven and affordable. The CST-100 is designed to carry up to seven people, or a combination of people and cargo, and is compatible with a variety of expendable launch vehicles. By enabling development of a safe, reliable and cost-effective solution for crew transportation to and from the International Space Station, CST-100 ensures that the on-orbit research facility will continue to fulfill its promise as a world-class laboratory.
Ferguson comes to Boeing with space shuttle experience as pilot of STS-115 (Atlantis) and commander of STS-126 (Endeavour) and the final shuttle mission, STS-135 (Atlantis). He has logged more than 40 days in space. He also served as deputy chief of the Astronaut Office and was spacecraft communicator (CAPCOM) for missions STS-118, -120, -128 and -129. His experience in crew communications, both on orbit and in the CAPCOM role, is essential to his new role at Boeing.
Ferguson has a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from Drexel University in Philadelphia and a Master of Science degree in aeronautical engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif. He has been recognized with numerous service awards and citations, including the Legion of Merit, Distinguished Flying Cross, Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Navy Strike/Flight Air Medal, NASA Spaceflight Medal (three), Navy Commendation Medal (three) and the Navy Achievement Medal.
is one of the world's largest defense, space and security businesses specializing in innovative and capabilities-driven customer solutions, and the world's largest and most versatile manufacturer of military aircraft. Headquartered in St. Louis, Boeing Defense, Space & Security is a $32 billion business with 63,000 employees worldwide.
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Pared Funding for Space Taxis Ups Ante for SpaceX Test Flight
From Space News: Pared Funding for Space Taxis Ups Ante for SpaceX Test Flight
CAPE CANAVERAL, FLA. —Space E xploration Technologies (SpaceX) is counting on a successful trial run to the international space station early next year to clinch a tightening competition to develop a commercial space taxi for NASA.
With a hoped-for commercial crew budget of $850 million for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1, NASA said it planned to continue development work on two or more space taxi designs, in hopes of breaking Russia's post-shuttle monopoly on station crew transportation before the end of 2016.
But the agency received $406 million for commercial crew, less than half its request, raising the prospect that either the number of companies funded in the next round of the program would be cut, or the amounts awarded would be insufficient to keep the current schedule. Currently, NASA is investing in four companies: SpaceX, Boeing, Sierra Nevada Corp. and Blue Origin.
“We are still reviewing the budget, its impacts and how we will respond, but meeting our target of having commercial crew capabilities up and running by the middle of this decade is unlikely with the current funding,” Ed Mango, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program at the Kennedy Space Center, wrote in an email to Space News.
NASA planned to release a solicitation for the program’s Integrated Design Contract (IDC) this month. The contract or contracts are slated to begin in July 2012 and conclude in April 2014, a draft request for proposals issued in September shows.
Before selection is made, SpaceX, which debuted its Dragon cargo capsule during a test flight last December, plans to fly a demonstration mission to the station. It also may have flown the first of 12 supply runs already purchased by NASA under a related program.
“I always expected that for the next phase, NASA would down-select from four [companies] to two and that the two would probably be Boeing and SpaceX. Given the lower funding for commercial crew, I’m not sure if NASA still intends to down-select to two or not. If they down-select to one, I think we’ve got a better than even chance of beating Boeing because of the maturity of our spacecraft,” Elon Musk, SpaceX chief executive and chief technical officer, said in an interview with Space News.
“We will have flown to the space station probably twice by the time the commercial crew decision is awarded, and the design of our spacecraft is very similar between cargo and crew, so I think from a risk standpoint, SpaceX is the lowest risk and will be the most proven path to success for commercial crew,” Musk said.
SpaceX currently employs about 1,600 people, including about 70 in Florida. The company is looking for a second launch pad at either Cape Canaveral Air Force Station or one of the space shuttle launch pads at Kennedy, and expects its Florida payroll to include about 1,000 people within four to five years, depending on NASA and other awards.
“I’m highly confident that the commercial space industry will employ more than the government space industry ever did,” Musk said.
The company is awaiting NASA technical reviews for its second demonstration flight, which could include a berthing at the space station.
“From a SpaceX standpoint, we’re ready to go in December, but we have to coordinate that with NASA and any other missions that are going to the space station. What I’ve heard through the grapevine is that NASA is maybe aiming for a February launch,” Musk said. “We’re not going to launch until we’re ready and until NASA thinks we’re ready.”
CAPE CANAVERAL, FLA. —Space E xploration Technologies (SpaceX) is counting on a successful trial run to the international space station early next year to clinch a tightening competition to develop a commercial space taxi for NASA.
With a hoped-for commercial crew budget of $850 million for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1, NASA said it planned to continue development work on two or more space taxi designs, in hopes of breaking Russia's post-shuttle monopoly on station crew transportation before the end of 2016.
But the agency received $406 million for commercial crew, less than half its request, raising the prospect that either the number of companies funded in the next round of the program would be cut, or the amounts awarded would be insufficient to keep the current schedule. Currently, NASA is investing in four companies: SpaceX, Boeing, Sierra Nevada Corp. and Blue Origin.
“We are still reviewing the budget, its impacts and how we will respond, but meeting our target of having commercial crew capabilities up and running by the middle of this decade is unlikely with the current funding,” Ed Mango, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program at the Kennedy Space Center, wrote in an email to Space News.
NASA planned to release a solicitation for the program’s Integrated Design Contract (IDC) this month. The contract or contracts are slated to begin in July 2012 and conclude in April 2014, a draft request for proposals issued in September shows.
Before selection is made, SpaceX, which debuted its Dragon cargo capsule during a test flight last December, plans to fly a demonstration mission to the station. It also may have flown the first of 12 supply runs already purchased by NASA under a related program.
“I always expected that for the next phase, NASA would down-select from four [companies] to two and that the two would probably be Boeing and SpaceX. Given the lower funding for commercial crew, I’m not sure if NASA still intends to down-select to two or not. If they down-select to one, I think we’ve got a better than even chance of beating Boeing because of the maturity of our spacecraft,” Elon Musk, SpaceX chief executive and chief technical officer, said in an interview with Space News.
“We will have flown to the space station probably twice by the time the commercial crew decision is awarded, and the design of our spacecraft is very similar between cargo and crew, so I think from a risk standpoint, SpaceX is the lowest risk and will be the most proven path to success for commercial crew,” Musk said.
SpaceX currently employs about 1,600 people, including about 70 in Florida. The company is looking for a second launch pad at either Cape Canaveral Air Force Station or one of the space shuttle launch pads at Kennedy, and expects its Florida payroll to include about 1,000 people within four to five years, depending on NASA and other awards.
“I’m highly confident that the commercial space industry will employ more than the government space industry ever did,” Musk said.
The company is awaiting NASA technical reviews for its second demonstration flight, which could include a berthing at the space station.
“From a SpaceX standpoint, we’re ready to go in December, but we have to coordinate that with NASA and any other missions that are going to the space station. What I’ve heard through the grapevine is that NASA is maybe aiming for a February launch,” Musk said. “We’re not going to launch until we’re ready and until NASA thinks we’re ready.”
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Will the hacker space program make it to the moon?
From CBCNews: Will the hacker space program make it to the moon?
Now that the U.S has severely cut back its space program, independent groups and private companies are taking up the challenge.
According to a report on CBC Radio's Spark, there's an amateur space race going on, and this time it has nothing to do with the U.S. and the Soviet Union, but instead sees space enthusiasts and hackers alike vying for a chance to go into orbit.
A German hacker collective called the Chaos Computer Club is one of the key players, having recently put out the call for a three-phase space program that aims to put a hacker on the moon in 22 years.
Meanwhile, the Copenhagen Suborbitals, a non-profit Danish group founded four years ago, successfully launched a rocket into space in June.
Though the groups are taking different approaches to the space race, both believe in working in an open-source environment in order to make use of people with expertise all over the world.
Both groups also believe space is no longer the exclusive realm of governments and big corporations and argue that, due to factors like the cheaper cost of building a rocket, it is passionate individuals who will be making the biggest leaps forward in space exploration in future.
Now that the U.S has severely cut back its space program, independent groups and private companies are taking up the challenge.
According to a report on CBC Radio's Spark, there's an amateur space race going on, and this time it has nothing to do with the U.S. and the Soviet Union, but instead sees space enthusiasts and hackers alike vying for a chance to go into orbit.
A German hacker collective called the Chaos Computer Club is one of the key players, having recently put out the call for a three-phase space program that aims to put a hacker on the moon in 22 years.
Meanwhile, the Copenhagen Suborbitals, a non-profit Danish group founded four years ago, successfully launched a rocket into space in June.
Though the groups are taking different approaches to the space race, both believe in working in an open-source environment in order to make use of people with expertise all over the world.
Both groups also believe space is no longer the exclusive realm of governments and big corporations and argue that, due to factors like the cheaper cost of building a rocket, it is passionate individuals who will be making the biggest leaps forward in space exploration in future.
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