Atlantis: The Grand Finale Photo Special at Launch Pad 39A Part 2, Ken Kremer, SpaceRef
"It was both relentlessly breathtaking and surreal to find oneself at a historic crossroads - looking skywards from directly beneath the wings of the very last shuttle orbiter that will soon be orbiting Earth some two hundred miles overhead. NASA's Space Shuttle's are the most complex and magnificent machine built by humans, constructed with over two and a half million moving parts."
Mark Albrecht's White House memoir is educational--and entertaining, Weekly Standard
"The Economist magazine thinks the Space Age is probably over, and the discussion of our space future (or non-future) in its new issue is intelligent and informative. I've found over the years, though, that in many instances, the Economist's suave articulation of the not-so-cutting edge of conventional wisdom proves wrong. Mark Albrecht hopes that's so in this case, because he's a believer in space exploration, and his new book argues for U.S. leadership in that endeavor."
Time is running out to enter the 2011 "Create the Future" Design Contest. Entries for the ninth annual contest are due by June 30th. Click here to submit your design idea.
Sponsored by COMSOL, Creo - a PTC product, and Tech Briefs Media Group, the contest recognizes outstanding innovations in product design, awarding a Grand Prize of $20,000 USD.
New this year is an Electronics Design category sponsored by Digi-Key Corp. Other categories are Consumer Products, Machinery & Equipment, Medical, Safety and Security, Sustainable Technologies, and Transportation. Entries can be submitted by individuals and/or teams in up to seven categories.
The top entry in each category will receive a workstation computer from Hewlett-Packard. The top ten most popular entries, as voted on by site registrants, will get a 3D mouse from 3Dconnexion. All qualified entrants will be included in a drawing for NASA Tech Briefs T-shirts, and the winning entries will be featured in a special supplement to NASA Tech Briefs magazine.
If you haven’t submitted your design, you have until June 30th to visit http://www.createthefuture2011.com and enter your great idea.
National Press Club Luncheon with Charles F. Bolden Jr., Administrator, NASA
"July 1, 2011. 12:30 PM. This event is open only to members of The National Press Club & their guests."
Keith's 6 June note: Well, unless media, citizen journalists, or plain old taxpayers who wish to attend/cover this event happen to be paid members of the National Press Club (or invited by a guest), access to Bolden's remarks will only be offered to a select few. So much for that whole openness/transparency thing.
Keith's 18 June update: It looks like media (and the public) can attend but it will cost up to $36 to get in (but it will be webcast live) and no one can actually ask questions at the event since the website says "Submit questions for speakers in advance and during the live event by sending them to @QNPCLunch on Twitter, or email a question in advance, with BOLDEN in the subject line, to president@press.org before 10 a.m. on July 1." This makes sense, of course. Screening questions in advance is always a good way to limit embarassment of a quest and is also an efficient means to avoid having to answer questions from certain individuals.
"A century can fundamentally change our understanding of our universe and reality. Man's desire to explore space and achieve the seemingly impossible is at the center of the 100 Year Starship Study Symposium. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and NASA Ames Research Center (serving as execution agent), are working together to convene thought leaders dealing with the practical and fantastic issues man needs to address to achieve interstellar flight one hundred years from now."
Keith's note: Cool stuff. Yet NASA PAO makes zero mention of this event. I asked DARPA why this is the case in a telecon today. They said that this is because they have the lead on this and that NASA is doing the right thing by referring all inquiries to DARPA. I then asked if NASA will be allowed - encouraged - to openly participate in the conference that DARPA is holding in Orlando this Fall. DARPA said that NASA would be sending speakers, etc. DARPA is supposed to be posting a link to the proceedings of a workshop that they held with NASA a few months ago. When I asked if NASA would be asked to post a link to this report, DARPA did not know.
This is all rather baffling. The intent of this project is to spur imagination and new technologies such as life support, energy production etc. The DARPA folks are really good at this sort of thing and are being very inclusive. The cost is barely a blip on people's radar screens. This thing is bursting at the seams with potential spinoffs - and is the sort blue sky, what-if activity that you'd expect - hope - that a forward-thinking space agency would engage in - yet NASA HQ is going out of its way to ignore it. Go figure.
'Astronaut Ferry' Firm Says it Was Defamed, Courthouse News
"Spaceship builder SpaceX claims its NASA contract to ferry cargo and astronauts to the International Space Station was compromised by a spacecraft safety company's defamatory allegations of mechanical failures and explosions, and it says the allegations were spurred by its refusal to give the defendant a $1 million consulting contract. SpaceX - Space Exploration Technologies Corp. - sued Valador and its vice president Joseph Fragola in Fairfax County Court. SpaceX claims Fragola contacted U.S. officials "to make disparaging remarks about SpaceX, which have created the very 'perception' that he claimed SpaceX needed his help to rectify."
Hanley Changes His Story On Ares 1 Safety - Again, earlier post
"With regard to Jeff Hanley's current comments, this is not the first time that Hanley's organization has had problems presenting (or admitting) a consistent view of what Ares 1's safety was relative to Shuttle and other launch systems. Indeed, you only have to look at Joseph Fragola's presentation to the Augustine Committee to see what Constellation knew Vs what it said. Specifically, there was a briefing chart that was withheld from the Augustine Committee - see below for that chart."
Pentagon dreams of interstellar travel, AP
"This month 150 competitors answered the federal government's initial call for private sector cosmic ideas. Officials say some big names are among those interested. The plan is to make interstellar travel possible in about a century."
Could You Head Up DARPA's 100-Year Starship Program?, Universe Today
"Just like all the technology development that DARPA has done in the past which required only small initial investments but ultimately lead to things, such as the internet and GPS technology -- as well as NASA's investment in space travel which has spawned items we use every day here on Earth -- they believe a small investment now could lead to a big payoff for everyone in the future."
Let's Reconstitute Humans From Genomes Launched Into Space! and Other Ambitious Proposals for Galactic Colonization, Popular Science
"We have no idea what interstellar travel might look like in 100 years, of course -- just as Jules Verne could never have conceived of the technology required to really send humans to the moon when he wrote about it in 1865. But if we start now, we can make it happen, according to David Neyland, who directs DARPA's Tactical Technology Office."
More reaction here
Keith's note: NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and his wife are off on an official tour of Europe - a lot of which is reportedly filled with vacation time and light duty in terms of work. Nice gig if you can get it.
Here's a photo of hiim being a motivational speaker to French students earlier today.
Payload Readied for Trip to the Pad as Tanking Test Wraps Up, NASA
"During the tanking test, the main fuel valve for Atlantis' No. 3 space shuttle main engine recorded temperatures below normal levels, indicating a possible liquid hydrogen leak. Teams isolated the engine and continued to fuel Atlantis with no issues and temperatures returned to normal readings. Technicians can gain access to the engine area once it is cleared from tanking test operations, and engineers will evaluate any necessary work on the fuel valve. If the valve needs to be replaced, managers expect that the work could be done early next week at the pad and still support Atlantis' July 8 target launch date."
"So this brings us reasonably up to date. I can't discuss many more details because we're still in the competitive phase of acquiring this cooperative agreement, but I can say that NASA has received multiple proposals from a strong and highly competitive field. The selection decision is imminent, and you can expect an award announcement later this summer upon successful completion of final negotiations."
Keith's note: Once again, NASA is incapable of meeting its own timeline. "Later this summer" is not 31 May 2011 - as NASA had promised. Rather, it is months away. (see "ISS National Lab: Two Weeks Late - Still No Word") NASA does not know what it wants to do with the ISS - and does not know that it does not know. Moreover, it was forced at legislative gunpoint to pursue the NGO path. As such, it follows that selecting someone to implement such a non-existent utilization strategy is taking time to accomplish.
As you read through Mark Uhran's comments to the STA yesterday, you will see two decades of stale, old-fashioned thinking recycled yet one more time - with the few examples of attempted ISS utilization sprinkled in as supposed examples of things to come. Uhran is welded to the old notion that only NASA can somehow stimulate private sector investment and empirical research on the ISS while retaining total control of the equation. This approach has not worked yet and it won't work in the future. I agree that the ISS has vast untapped potential - the true scope of which NASA has yet to understand. Alas, civil servant Uhran and his NASA organization are the least equipped to help realize that potential - yet they are in charge. This is a recipe for disaster and the squandering of a totally unique resource.
Keith's note: According to the ISS National Lab Management Entity CAN the "anticipated selection announcement" was 31 May 2011. That day came and went last week. Nothing was announced. Given that it took decades for NASA to get this far - and that they only did so after Congressional direction - one can expect that they will drag their feet on this process as long as they can.
"The selection decision is imminent, and you can expect an award announcement later this summer upon successful completion of final negotiations."
Keith's note: NASA is now crowing that the era of utilization operations on ISS will commence after the completion of the STS-135 mission and that there will be 35 hours of science operations per week with a 6 person crew. If we had advertised this low science operations rate back in the 1990s (when I worked on utilization and operations on the Space Station program) Congress would have cancelled the program outright - for cause. Given NASA's non-stop harping that the ISS is a "world class scientific research laboratory" Mark Uhran has some work to do: this 35 hour number needs to be doubled or tripled. 35 hours a week is unacceptable - its like saying that you need one full-time plumber, janitor, electrician, carpenter, mover, and assistant so that one scientist can do their research. That's not "world class" - rather, its pathetic for a $60 ($100?) billion investment.
- NASA's Plan To Waste Its Space Station Investment
- ISS National Lab CAN Provides Old, Incomplete Documents, earlier post
- NASA's Slow Motion Reluctance To Truly Open Up The ISS, earlier post
- The Primary Purpose (Today) of the ISS is Operations, Not Science, earlier post
- Using the ISS: Once Again NASA Has Been Left in the Dust, earlier post
Senator Shelby Letter Expressing Concern to NASA About Shuttle Derived Booster Space Launch System, Senator Shelby
"I am concerned, therefore, that NASA is considering a Space Launch System architecture that relies on a booster system developed for the Space Shuttle. I am particularly concerned that this plan might be implemented without a meaningful competitive process. Designing a Space Launch System for heavy lift that relies on existing Shuttle boosters ties NASA, once again, to the high fixed costs associated with segmented solids. Moreover, I have seen no evidence that foregoing competition for the booster system will speed development of SLS or, conversely, that introducing competition will slow the program down."
NASA Spacecraft to Make Cross Country Voyage, NASA
"NASA is inviting the public to view a test version of the agency's next spacecraft that will carry humans into deep space.
The Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, which NASA announced last month would be the agency's deep space crew module based on the original work on the Orion capsule, will make three stops as it travels by truck from NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center in California to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida."
Marc's note: Tucson, Austin and Tallahassee residents can get an up close and personal look at the MPCV. Goodness, can't we just call it Orion or Orion2? The public's just going to go huh with that acronym.
Mars Rover Curiosity, NASA
"Taken during mobility testing on June 3, 2011, this image is of the Mars Science Laboratory rover, Curiosity, inside the Spacecraft Assembly Facility at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif."
Marc's note: Looks menacing, do you think the Martians will be intimidated? 🙂
Shuttle's End Leaves NASA a Pension Bill, New York Times
"The nation's space agency plans to spend about half a billion dollars next year to replenish the pension fund of the contractor that has supplied thousands of workers to the space shuttle program.
The shuttle program accounts for a vast majority of the business of United Space Alliance, originally a joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin. With the demise of the shuttle program, United Space Alliance will be left without a source of revenue to keep its pension plan afloat. So the company wants to terminate its family of pension plans, covering 11,000 workers and retirees, and continue as a smaller, nimbler concern to compete for other contracts."
Previously: NASA Facing $548 Million Payment To Cover USA Pension Fund Shortfall, Space News (April 1, 2011)
"The single biggest check NASA expects to write next year will go to United Space Alliance (USA) to cover a half-billion-dollar shortfall in the space shuttle contractor's pension fund."
Last Ever Shuttle to Haul Raffaello Logistics Module to the International Space Station, Ken Kremer for SpaceRef
"The primary goal of the STS-135 flight is to haul the "Raffaello" multipurpose logistics module (MPLM) up to the International Space Station. The 21 foot long cylindrical module is mounted inside the shuttle cargo bay during launch and landing.
Raffaello is a space 'moving van' and loaded with some 12 tons of critical supplies, spare parts and science equipment to stock up the station before the shuttles are retired forever, despite the fact that they have many years of service life remaining."
Aircraft of the future may not look significantly different from today’s aircraft, but a peek “under the hood” will reveal technologies that are vastly different. Commercial aviation giants such as Boeing and Airbus — in addition to NASA and academia — are developing breakthrough airframe, propulsion, materials, and cabin designs that will help aircraft of the future fly quieter, cleaner, and more fuel-efficiently, with enhanced passenger comfort.
NASA selects new heavy-lift rocket, say sources, Space.com
"Under the plan, awaiting approval by the White House Office of Management and Budget, initial flights of the SLS would utilize the solid-rocket motors, developed by ATK Aerospace Systems of Magna, Utah. ATK is under contract to develop an advanced version of the space shuttle solid-rocket booster under NASA's now-defunct Constellation program. Among the companies that have expressed interested in developing an advanced kerosene-fueled engine are Aerojet of Sacramento, Calif., Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) of Hawthorne, Calif., and Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne of Canoga Park, Calif. This engine might eventually replace the solid-fueled motors on SLS, sources said."
Servicing Study, GSFC
"From March 24-26, 2010, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) hosted an open international workshop to bring potential users and providers of on-orbit servicing capabilities together with the NASA GSFC Satellite Servicing Study Team. The event workshop drew together 57 individual speakers and over 250 participants from industry, academia, NASA, other agencies, and international organizations. ... The servicing mission study activity will result in a report to NASA, and subsequently to Congress, on the results of this workshop together with the integrated results from the servicing study team. The final report to Congress is currently under NASA review."
"NASA will execute a robust study, led by Goddard Space Flight Center under the direction of the Space Operations Missions Directorate (SOMD). The planning activity began in May 2009 and a final report to Congress is due in September 2010."
Keith's note: It has been more than a year since the meeting. The On-Orbit Satellite Servicing Study Project Report was posted recenty (18 June) here. But NASA GSFC never bothered to tell anyone that it had been posted - nor did they bother to link from the page that announced the study. But according to this page "An internal Project Report captures the work performed under the congressional mandate. SSCO's report to Congress is currently under review." So they have yet to deliver the report to Congress - and the report was due for delivery 10 months ago.
"With a burst of light, the United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket carrying the Aquarius/SAC-D spacecraft lifted off June 10, 2011 at 7:20 a.m. PDT (10:20 a.m. EDT) from NASA's Space Launch Complex 2 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California."
NASA Launches Space-Based Saline Solution, OSTP
"Aquarius is the product of an international collaborative effort between NASA and the Argentine space agency, with contributions by Canada, France, Brazil, and Italy. This new capability will enhance and complement the European Space Agency's Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity satellite designed primarily to measure soil moisture."
Keith's note: There is a memorial banner on the launch tower that reads "In memory of our colleague and friend Hal Chase - the ULA Team". Hal Chase was a ULA employee at VAFB and passed away recently.
