Monthly Archives: June 2017

June 13, 2017 by Chris Gebhardt

Roscosmos is in final preparations for the launch of the Progress MS-06 resupply mission to the International Space Station. Liftoff is set for 15:20:13 local time (05:20:13 EDT) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, 14 June 2017 with docking following on Friday. This mission was tomark the first time a major element of the ISS will be deorbited. However, the Pirs docking compartment removal has been delayed to next year.

Progress MS-06 launch preparations:

Given the launch campaigns of late for Roscosmos to the International Space Station, processing of the MS-06 Progress mission has been relatively uneventful and quite smooth.

In all, Progress MS-06 will be the 158th Progress mission since the program began in 1978 for resupply efforts of the Salyut 6 space station and the 69th Progress mission to the ISS, counting the two Progress flights that were not designated as resupply missions because they delivered module elements to the Station.

One of those two Progress non-resupply flights occurred in 2001, when a modified Progress delivered the Pirs docking compartment to ISS.

Including todays launch, 69 Progress missions will have launched to ISS to date, with Progress MS-06 (or Progress 67 as it is known to NASA) being the 66th attempt of a Progress family vehicle to successfully reach the Station, following the Progress 44 launch failure in August 2011, the Progress 59 launch mishap in April 2015, and the Progress 65 launch failure in December 2016.

Following retirement of the Soyuz-U carry a rocket in February, Progress MS-06 will as a few previous Progress missions have utilize the Soyuz-2.1a rocket for lift off.

Following various construction milestones, system checkouts, and cargo loading, the Progress MS-06 vehicle was fueled with its propellants and compressed gases at the filling station at Baikonur on 31 May 2017.

After fueling operations were complete, technicians transferred the vehicle to the Spacecraft Assembly and Testing Facility (SC ATF), where was installed onto the assembly jig for final pre-launch processing.

In the SC ATF, engineers successfully mated Progress MS-06 to its support structure mount that will allow it to ride safely atop the third stage of the Soyuz 2.1a rocket.

Following the Designers Inspection, which clears the way for final launch processing, Progress was encapsulated into its payload fairing on 7 June.

On 9 June, engineers transported the encapsulated Progress to the Launch Vehicle Integration and Test Facility (LV ITF), where Progress was mated atop its Soyuz rocket.

The entire vehicle rolled out to launch pad 31/6 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan via rail transport on 11 June.

Under the current schedule, Progress MS-06 will launch at 09:20:13 GMT (05:20:13 EDT 15:20:13 local time at Baikonur) on Wednesday, 14 June 2017.

After an 8 minute 45 second ascent, the Soyuz-2.1a rocket will deliver Progress MS-06 into its initial orbit to begin a two-day, 34 orbit rendezvous with the ISS.

At the time of writing, NASASpaceflight.com has not been able to confirm why Progress MS-06 is conducting a two-day rendezvous instead of the fast track, four orbit docking profile used again since earlier this year after confirmation that the new ground communications tracking center at the Vostochny Cosmodrome was completed.

Most likely, however, the two-day rendezvous is part of an overall effect of crew compliment reduction on the ISS now that the number of people onboard Station has been reduced to three for the next two months.

MS-06 and the two-day ISS rendezvous:

Once Progress MS-06 is deposited into its initial orbit, the vehicle will perform primary health checks with the Vostochny Cosmodrome in eastern Russia before passing out over the Pacific.

If all is well aboard Progress, the vehicle will perform its first orbit raising maneuver, the DV1 burn, at 08:53:03 EDT (12:53:03 GMT) on 14 June.

The DV2 burn will follow shortly thereafter at 09:31:30 EDT (13:31:30 GMT).

The two burns will cumulatively change Progress MS-06s velocity by 62.03 m/s and raise and circularize Progress orbit to better match that of the International Space Stations.

A third burn, DV3, will follow on Thursday morning at 06:55:09 EDT (10:55:09 GMT) and will finalize Progress orbit via a delta-V shift of 4.00 m/s.

On Friday morning, docking operations will commence when the SCAN S-bd / C2V2 / HTV PROX / Cygnus PROX / Cygnus S-bd GS / Dragon S-bd GS rendezvous systems of the USOS (United States Operating Segment) are taken to inhibit to prevent any interference with Progress automated docking system and its communication with the RS (Russian Segment) of the ISS.

Inhibiting those systems will occur at 01:20 EDT (05:20 GMT) on 16 June while Progress MS-06 is 2,700 km from Station.

Progress will then initiate its automated docking sequence three hours later at 05:19:06 EDT (09:19:06 GMT), with the Impulse 1 burn of 15.147 m/s at 05:42:44 EDT.

Impulse 1 will change Progress trajectory to prepare the craft for proximity ops with ISS and to begin aligning it properly for the flyaround maneuver late in the approach timeline.

Further preparations on Station will continue with the handoff from the USOS Motion Control System (MCS) to the RS MCS at 05:54 EDT.

Impulse 2, delta-V: 1.575 m/s, from Progress will follow at 06:04:13 EDT (10:04:13 GMT).

The ISSs three person crew will then activate the Zvezda Service Modules (SMs) Kurs-P communication system at 06:07 EDT, followed by activation of the Kurs-NA system on Progress at 06:08 EDT.

Progress will then perform the Impulse 3 burn (delta-V: 25.01 m/s) at 06:27:11 EDT (10:27:11 GMT).

The SMs Kurs-P system will begin tracking Progress range from the ISS when the two craft are separated by 45 km which should occur at 06:37 EDT.

A final Kurs system communications check between the ISS and Progress MS-06 will follow at 06:50 EDT once Progress has closed to 15 km.

The SMs VHF-2 transmitter will be activated at 06:55:46 EDT for TORU (Teleoperated Mode of Control) command link when Progress is 9 km from ISS, with Progress VHF receiver turned on at 07:05:56 EDT for TORU command link at a range of 3 km from Station.

TORU is the backup, manual docking system that Fyodor Yurchikhin, Expedition 51 Commander, will use to dock Progress MS-06 to the Station should the crafts or Stations automated Kurs docking system fail.

Progress will then perform the Impulse 4 maneuver, imparting a delta-V shift of 5.396 m/s at 07:07:37 EDT (11:07:37 GMT).

TORU command link test between ISS and Progress will follow seconds later at 07:07:56 EDT.

The ballistic targeting point will be established at 07:09 EDT.

Impulse 5 is scheduled for 07:11:59 EDT, altering Progress speed by 5.633 m/s, followed by Impulse 6 (delta-V: 1.564 m/s) at 07:14:58 EDT.

Progress will then begin its flyaround maneuver of the ISS to align itself with the aft docking port of the Zvezda SM at 07:17:43 EDT (11:17:43 GMT).

The flyaround will end at 07:26:44 EDT, at which point Progress MS-06 will perform stationkeeping (maintaining relative position with Station) as the crew and Mission Control Moscow review all data points from MS-06 and verify its alignment with SMs aft docking port.

Under the pre-established timeline, Progress MS-06 will pulse its thrusters at 07:32:21 EDT (11:32:21 GMT) to begin the final 10 minute 9 second approach sequence.

Using its onboard computers, automated docking systems, and navigational aides, Progress MS-06 will guide itself to a planned docking at 07:42:30 EDT (11:42:30 GMT).

At the moment of docking, the RS of the Station will inhibit ISSs attitude control, placing the Station in free drift to help equalize dispersions between Progress and the ISS created by the energy of Progress contact with the docking mechanism.

Those dispersions should dissipate in time for all the hooks on Progress to drive into the ISS at 07:56 EDT creating a hard dock between the two craft.

The ISS will then be taken out of free drift and will reorient to its nominal attitude before the RS hands back motion control to the USOS at 08:35 EDT.

Eventual farewell to Pirs, preparing for the MLM Nauka lab:

While Progress MS-06 will dock to the International Space Station on the aft end of the Zvezda Service Module, the original plan was for the vehicle not spend all of its time at the ISS at that port.

Once Progress 2,398 kg (5,286 lb) of payload which consists of crew supplies, equipment and several satellites, two of which were built by schoolchildren hadbeen removed and the Stations disposal equipment packed inside, the ISS crew was to close and seal the hatches between Progress MS-06 and the Station and prepare it for undocking.

The original plan called for the vehicle to be undocked from the aft portion of this Zvezda Service Module and re-dock over the course of a couple of hours to the Progress docking port on the Pirs docking compartment.

However, this redock plan has been moved to a later flight, namely Progress MS-09 at the end of 2018.

The maneuverrelates to the plan to remove the Pirs module from ISS in order to make room for the MLM (Multipurpose Laboratory Module) Nauka for Russia, which has been heavily delayed the latest delay relating to a contamination concern.

Nauka Russias primary research lab for the Station requires the docking port Pirs is currently using.

Nauka is tentatively scheduled to launch in 2018 aboard a Proton-M rocket.

Pirs itself was delivered to ISS in 2001 via a modified Progress vehicle and is currently attached to the nadir port of Zvezda.

For its eventual removal, the now-future Progress will begin a process that no other spacecraft has yet performed the removal for destructive deorbit of a permanent module of the International Space Station.

At the end of its mission, the future Progress mission will pulse its thrusters, while keeping its docking clamps firmly latched onto Pirs, and will pull the docking compartment away from the International Space Station.

In this manner, Pirs itself will undock from the Station, with Progress acting more like a tugboat to safely maneuver the module away from the vicinity of the ISS.

Progress will then maneuver, with Pirs still attached, toward a destructive reentry into Earths atmosphere that will see the first major element of the International Space Station deorbited.

The reason Roscosmos has chosen to remove Pirs from the Station has nothing to do with the compartments overall life expectancy, usefulness, or performance.

It was entirely related to making room for the much-delayed MLM.

(Images: Roscosmos, NASA)

More here:

Progress MS-06 ready for launch; mission to remove Pirs module delayed - NASASpaceflight.com

Last night, the Television Academy sent out a notice to all eligible voters that Phase One balloting for Emmy nominations has begun, with a return deadline of June 26. A lot of people are going to be disappointed on July 13th, one awards pundit predicted to me recently about the morning nominations will be announced.

We were discussing the sheer volume of contenders with big campaigns behind them this year. It seems a lotof people have high hopes. Every year it gets bigger and the odds get longer but this one seems unprecedented in Emmy history. Everywhereyou go there is some For Your Consideration ad for some show staring you in the face. Just yesterday, as I was driving down La Cienega Boulevard, the sheer numbers of banners hanging from every light pole was staggering. On one side were ads for FYC events at Upright Citizens Brigade that NBCUniversal had for the likes ofSuperstore, Master Of None and The Good Placeamong others. On the left side of the street CBS Studios was advertising FYC events taking place in Studio City from 8-10 AM for programs includingLate Late Show With James Corden(8AM? Are they kidding?).

Hulu

But they arent alone with the morning stuff. Netflix offered a waffle breakfast to lure potential voters to their below-the-line soirees forStranger Things crafts artisans Sunday at their rented 29,000-square-foot office space in Beverly Hills where they have been holding daily FYC events for the past few weeks, known as Netflix FYSee. Several women dressed as Handmaids were seen marching around at various L.A. hot spots over the weekend to promote HulusThe Handmaids Tale(unless they were just crazy fans), while FX was busy trying to drum up new Russian paranoia as if we dont have enough in well-placed ads in the New York Times and elsewhere for The Americans, aboutundercover Russian spies in the U.S.

FX

The list goes on and on, and if you are a voting Academy member as I have been for decades, you are inundated constantly with all this stuff. This year has been worse that ever in terms of screeners, which I have piled up everywhere at this point and they keep coming not only by mail and streaming subscriptions but also stuffed in the pages of Emmy Magazine which always balloons in size this time of year.

In the goodie bag at this weekends PGA Produced By event on the Fox lot was a large drug prescription bottle for Vice that was filled with little white candy (I hope) pills. After I got back from my May sojourn to the Cannes Film Festival, I was greeted with a rotting box of Rainbow Bagels and Funfetti Cream Cheese (yuk!) courtesy of The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidtthat had obviously been sitting there a few days awaiting my return.

And on top of all this have been endless, and I meanendless, FYC events every night, and sometimes two or three a night coming from unofficial events at the TV Academys Wolf Theatre at its Saban Media Center, duplicate events for members in NYC, the aforementioned UCB, as well as nightly FYC sessions (with an open bar) at the Netflix temporary Emmy headquarters, and earlier in the season for Amazons shows at their makeshift but impressive shrine to themselves at the Hollywood Athletic Club. And they are allpacked.

I moderated a fun and lively session at Netflix on Friday for its innovativeA Series Of Unfortunate Events,with cast including Neil Patrick Harris and executive producer Barry Sonnenfeld, that was SRO even considering NBC was throwing a FYC event forHairspraywith a live concert componentacross town at the TV Academy at the exact same time. Of course, there are now 24,000 Academy members and about 21,500 of them can vote, so that makes for a lot of potential customers for these things. By my count I received 25 slickly produced invites in the mail, times double or triple that on email invites. Atallof these things liquor and food is readily available and schmoozing encouraged. Attendees can often be seen handing out business cards to anyone who looks like they can give them a job.

CBS Studios

In order to compete and get noticed with all of this stuff aimed at voters, some places are getting innovative particularly CBS, which doesnt really seem to want to spend the kind of loot cable competitors, and especially those upstart streamers, are forking over. CBS sitcomMomtook out ads announcing that in lieu of a $250,000 Emmy campaign this year, they will donate the money to Planned Parenthood. And CBS Studios yesterday started handing out FYC reusable tote bags at farmers markets around town.

They also are going green with their Emmy mailer. With the tagline This Emmy race makes the world a better place, our mailer is a contrast to some of the huge heavy screeners piling on desks and stuffing mailboxes this season, a spokesperson tells me. Our mailer is wrapped in a seed-embedded, plantable belly-band and made of 100% recycled material. Who knew you could plantscreeners of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend?An attached card directs voters to their site to stream episodes of their shows.

Nearly everyone offers cards with free access to their shows, including full seasons. The TV Academy itself runs a portal, for a price of course, to studios, where members can see programming year-round.

Netflix

Whereas the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences continually refines its rules of campaigning to curtail or frown upon this kind of volume activity during their high holy season, the Television Academy (where I served on the Board of Governors for six years) has always turned a mostly blind eye to it, although it does have standards and wont allow certain over-the-top practices at their house of TV worship in North Hollywood (all invites for those are coordinated and sent through the Academy, even if at the bottom of each invite there is a disclaimer saying it is not an Academy event).

I am not sure if any of this actually results in hard-core votes (well FYSee), but it actually has turned into a kind of fun time of year in which the TV industry is basically proving they have alotof interest in Emmy season, and the TV Academy, while making money off theater rentals, mailings and Emmy Magazine ads, is also increasing its importance with all this attention paid. (Full disclosure: Deadline also kicks things off in early April each year with a well-attended The Contenders Emmys all-day event at the DGA theater, with videos of the some 50 participating shows published twice daily on Deadline right up to the start of voting.)

Now it is crunch time to see whether all this effort being poured into just Phase One of Emmy season really pays off. For some it will, and that is probably justification enough for all the hoopla that makes the Emmy period a real rival to Oscar season.

Read more here:

Emmys: Voting In Progress As Shows Make Final Pitches In Biggest Campaign Season Yet - Deadline

Sammy Watkins continues to make progress in his recovery from foot surgery.

At Tuesday's start of mandatory minicamp and for the first time this offseason, the Buffalo Bills' wide receiver took part in 11-on-11 team drills. He was on the field at New Era Fieldforfour or fiveplays.

During last week's OTA sessions, Watkins only participated on a limited basis, doing individual work.

"It was just really, Sammy was in a position, going into practice, where he felt in a good place," coach Sean McDermott told reporters. "Last week it was individual, and he built anice foundation last week.And the pitch count" Tuesday "was right around four or five reps of team drills, and he did a nice job."

McDermott had said earlier in the day the Bills' focus was to get Watkins ready for training camp, which begins in about six weeks.

"He's worked extremely hard in the training room, attacking the rehab process, and now, these last couple weeks, we've been able to get him back on the field," the coach said.

***

In his return to practice after being sidelined with an ankle injury, John Miller found himself sharing starting reps at right guard with Vladimir Ducasse, who the Bills signed at the start of free agency.

Miller had been a starter since joining the Bills in 2015 as a third-round draft pick from Louisville.

"There's nothing set in stone," McDermottsaid. "We're just rotating those guys. The great part about it is we've got a lot of confidence in John and then Vlad as well, and Richie. We feel good about those guys as well as Ryan inside, so we feel real good about our situation in there."

Asked if Miller was fully recovered, the coach said, "He's working back to that."

***

Running back LeSean McCoy sat out Tuesday's practice for what McDermott described as a "stomach virus."

Asked how much he expected McCoy to practice through the balance of the three-day minicamp, McDermott said, "We'll see. Obviously, like any stomach bug, you're never really sure how long it's going to last. The important thing is that we get him hydrated and in a position where he can perform."

Defensive tackle Kyle Williams also missed Tuesday's workout with "neck stiffness," according to the coach.

Offensive tackle Cordy Glenn, whoMcDermott saidis "week-to-week" with an ankle injury,watched practice while wearing a walking boot.

***

The Bills waived tight end Blake Annen Tuesday. McDermott said the move was not related to the team's interest in free-agent tight end Gary Barnidge, who visited the team last month.

See original here:

Bills notebook: Sammy Watkins makes more progress - Buffalo News

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- The Denver Broncos open their mandatory minicamp Tuesday, and that three-day affair will formally close their offseason program.

When Thursday rolls around there will be the requisite missives tossed around about the good work" that got done or how we got better." That indeed happened in many ways, but the Broncos will still adjourn with questions to answer.

That makes the next three days the last look -- until July -- at some front-burner items like:

Where do things really stand at quarterback? Broncos coaches have kept a keen eye on what Trevor Siemian and Paxton Lynch have done since players returned to work in April, but the real on-field competition for the job will begin in training camp.

Though few inside the team's complex would publicly acknowledge it, Siemian is still ahead. He sees the field better, especially between the numbers, throws on time more consistently and does better work in between the big splash plays folks seem to notice more.

That said, Lynchs arm and athleticism are intriguing to the teams decision-makers and he carries that first-round selection with him. Around the league some competing personnel evaluators wonder if Broncos executive vice president of football operations/general manager John Elway, as well as the Broncos coaching staff, would want to jam Lynch into the lineup to make that first-round selection bear fruit sooner.

However, the Broncos have Lynch potentially signed for five years, if they eventually pick up the fifth-year option, so there is no real hurry there, and Elway has vowed I dont want to play him if hes not ready." Quarterbacks win jobs on trust, and all of the athleticism in the world cannot push a quarterback into the starting lineup if the people making the decisions dont believe that quarterback will make the right choices when its a little more than a middle-of-the-week 7-on-7 drill.

Will rookie Garett Bolles be the starting left tackle? The first-round pick is headed that way and his work in the coming days could even put him in position to open training camp with the starters.

The Broncos opened OTAs with Donald Stephenson at left tackle and then Ty Sambrailo moved in with the starters. In recent weeks the Broncos really like what Bolles has done -- hes has stood up for himself quite nicely against one of the leagues best defenses -- and has shown the expected athleticism in pass protection.

Bolles has also shown the study habits, the wants-to-be-a-pro attitude coaches love to see. If he can show some consistency working out of a three-point stance in the run game, he could edge out Sambrailo for the starting job.

Will the Broncos defense stop the run? Look, they finished 28th last year, so there is almost nowhere to go but up there. That said, opposing offenses were able to essentially mute Von Miller down the stretch last season -- Miller had no sacks in the final four games -- because those offenses could run the ball largely whenever they wished.

The proof will always be in what happens when the pads go on, but Broncos look far more physical up front -- Domata Peko and Zach Kerr were quality additions. That should enable their linebackers, especially Brandon Marshall, to have a little clearer path to the ball-carriers.

Beyond Bolles, what other rookies figure to have impact? Its tough to fool your teammates if youre a rookie, especially in a locker room like the Broncos' that includes plenty of Alpha players. Theyre going to know who has put in the time and who hasnt, and patience will be hard to find for those who are more interested in telling people they're in the NFL rather than staying there.

To that end, second-round pick DeMarcus Walker has come in and quietly gotten down to work. He figures to be in the rotation, especially in some pass-rush situations.

Carlos Henderson and Isaiah McKenzie could well be the teams kickoff and punt returner respectively, while running back De'Angelo Henderson (a sixth-round pick) could have a more difficult time getting opportunities given a crowded depth chart but gives the team real speed and short-area quickness.

Unless there is unexpected progress over the next month or so, Jake Butt and Chad Kelly will open training camp on the physically unable to perform (PUP) list, given both are still recovering from knee surgeries. Kelly has a hand injury hes been getting treatment for as well.

Butt will move into the rotation at tight end as soon as hes healthy.

See the rest here:

Rookie Garett Bolles making progress toward starting lineup - ESPN (blog)

Congress

After steady improvement on previous scorecards, agencies' progress on implementing the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act stalled on the fourth round.

For the first time, more agency grades declined than improved, while 15 agencies' grades remained neutral.

However, there were bright spots. Four agencies improved, including the U.S. Agency for International Development, which recorded the biggest jump in the history of the scorecard, leaping from a D-plus to an A-plus. USAID also has the distinction of securing the first-ever 'A' grade.

The Departments of Housing and Urban Development, State and Transportation each improved by a full letter grade.

The five declining agencies, which each dropped a full letter, were the Departments of Defense, Interior and Labor; the Office of Personnel Management; and the Social Security Administration.

At a June 13 House oversight hearing, Government Accountability Office Director of IT Management Issues Dave Powner attributed the general lack of improvement, in part, to the transitioning administrations and also to the expansion of scoring methodology.

Of the 24 agencies reviewed, eight rely on acting CIOs. Those acting-CIO agencies did not fare notably worse on the scorecard, but Powner said the lack of permanent CIOs across government is hurting agencies FITARA implementation, and that CIOs still lack complete visibility into IT spending.

"Agency CIOs and the federal CIO are critical to carrying out these high-level agendas," he said. "This lack of current leadership will negatively impact the progress were making on FITARA."

Although it was not included in this round of grades, Powner said it "is completely unacceptable" that only three agencies -- USAID, the Department of Education and the General Services Administration have "complete inventories of their software licenses."

House Oversight IT Subcommittee Chairman Will Hurd (R-Texas) expressed frustration that many agencies lack a clear chain of command and that many CIOs still do not report directly to the agency head.

"This isn't complicated This should be standard practice across the government," he said. "If agency heads are supposed to be responsible for the ultimate protection of the digital infrastructure, the person who has the authority to do that should be directly involved."

House Oversight Government Operations Subcommittee Chairman Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) threatened lagging agencies with appropriations consequences.

"If our ... CIOs dont take it seriously, they will see other areas that potentially could be impacted because of their inaction," Meadows said.

The Department of Defense, which has consistently registered among the bottom of the pack, dropped from a D-plus to an F-plus. In the subcategories of the scorecard, DOD received a failing grade for its transparency and risk management, drawing the brunt of lawmakers' ire.

Powner explained that the failing transparency grade was due to the Pentagon's reclassification of $15 billion worth of IT spending as national security systems, a category exempt from FITARA review.

"To have $15 billion magically appear under that umbrella doesnt seem right," he said. "DOD is the last organization in the world that should be exempt from FITARA. If any organization needs a private sector-type CIO, its DOD."

About the Author

Chase Gunter is a staff writer covering civilian agencies, workforce issues, health IT, open data and innovation.

Prior to joining FCW, Gunter reported for the C-Ville Weekly in Charlottesville, Va., and served as a college sports beat writer for the South Boston (Va.) News and Record. He started at FCW as an editorial fellow before joining the team full-time as a reporter.

Gunter is a graduate of the University of Virginia, where his emphases were English, history and media studies.

Click here for previous articles by Gunter, or connect with him on Twitter: @WChaseGunter

Read more:

FITARA progress stalls on scorecard 4.0 - FCW.com