Derek Richardson

March 1st, 2017

A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket carrying a payload for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) lifts off from Space Launch Complex-3. Designated NROL-79, the mission is in support of national defense. Photo & Caption Credit: ULA

A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket roared out of Vandenberg Air Force Base in California with a classified payload for the National Reconnaissance Office. The NROL-79 mission lifted off at 9:49 a.m. PST (12:49 p.m. EST / 17:49 GMT) March 1, 2017, from Space Launch Complex 3E.

Laura Maginnis, vice president, Government Satellite Launch, said: I am so impressed by the incredible teamwork between the NRO, U.S. Air Force our industry partners and the ULA team that resulted in todays successful launch. The integrated mission team overcame many challenges this flow including delays associated with the Vandenberg Canyon Fire last year.

Tragically, Ventura County firefighter Ryan Osler lost his life en route to assist in fighting the fire. We are honored to dedicate todays mission to Ryan and his family. Thank you to all of the men and women who worked to deliver this critical asset for our nations security.

Atlas V / NROL-79 launch. Photo Credit: ULA

The weather for the launch was almost perfect. In fact, some six hours before launch, the probability of weather violation at the time of liftoff decreased to zero percent.

Col. Chris Moss, 30th Space Wing commander, the launch decision authority, said: This successful launch is the result of outstanding teamwork between members of the 30th Space Wing and our partners at the National Reconnaissance Office and United Launch Alliance. The combined team delivered an important capability for the nation today. It was an exceptional effort.

Using an Atlas V in the 401 configuration 4-meter fairing, zero solid rocket motors and a single engine Centaur upper stage the vehicle lifted off from the launch pad and began to turn toward the south.

The first stage, an Atlas common booster core, was powered by a single Russian-made RD-180 engine. Consuming rocket grade kerosene (RP-1) and liquid oxygen, it produced about 860,000 pounds (3,827 kilonewtons) of thrust. That increased to 933,000 pounds (4,152 kilonewtons) as the vehicle climbed out of Earths atmosphere and into the vacuum of space.

About 1 minute, 21 seconds into the flight, as the vehicle surpassed the speed of sound, the Atlas V began to push through the region of maximum stress on the rocket known as max Q.

About two-and-a-half minutes later, some four minutes into theflight, the Atlas common booster core was depleted of fuel and the RD-180 cut out as planned.

At 4 minutes, 9 seconds, the Atlas common booster core separated with the Centaur upper stage. Ten seconds later, its RL10C-1 engine ignited.

Consuming liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, the RL10C-1 engine provided about 22,890 pounds (101.8 kilonewtons) of thrust.

It being a classified mission, at 4 minutes, 27 seconds, once the payload fairing was jettisoned to reveal the payload to space, ULAs coverage of the mission concluded at the request of the NRO.

A launch like this requires thousands of hours of activity and practice to execute successfully, said Lt. Col. Eric Zarybnisky, 4th Space Launch Squadron commander. Engineers and technicians from my squadron work with members of the United Launch Alliance to ensure a successful launch like this one.

Not much is known about the classified payload or what orbit it was being placed in. There has been information suggesting the rocket was carrying a pair of Naval Ocean Surveillance Satellite (NOSS) spacecraft. This would be similar to those that were deployed on NROL-36 and NROL-55, the latter occurring in October 2015.

These spacecraft are also known by their code name of INTRUDER. Together, the pair weighs about 14,330 pounds (6,500 kilograms) and provide intelligence to the NRO and U.S. Navy.

This was the 70th flight of an Atlas V rocketand the 35 in the base 401 configuration since the first launch in 2002. It was the second West Coast launch of the year and ULAs second flight of 2017.

ULAs next launch is expected to occur on March 8, 2017, when it launches the Wideband Global SATCOM, or WGS 9, spacecraft from Cape Canaveral Air Force Stations Space Launch Complex 37.

The satellite being launched is a communications spacecraft that will serve the U.S. military. The rocket that will be employed for this flight will be a Delta 4 Medium+ (5,4) with a five-meter fairing and four solid rocket motors.

A National Reconnaissance Office payload on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket launches from Space Launch Complex-3, March 1, 2017, Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. Photo & Caption Credit: Senior Airman Ian Dudley / U.S. Air Force

Video Courtesy of SpaceFlight Insider

Tagged: Lead Stories National Reconnaissance Office NROL-79 Space Launch Complex 3E United Launch Alliance Urgent Vandenberg Air Force Base

Derek Richardson is a student studying mass media with an emphasis in contemporary journalism at Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas. He is currently the managing editor of the student run newspaper, the Washburn Review. He also writes a blog, called Orbital Velocity, about the space station. His passion for space ignited when he watched space shuttle Discovery leap to space on Oct. 29, 1998. He saw his first in-person launch on July 8, 2011 when the space shuttle launched for the final time. Today, this fervor has accelerated toward orbit and shows no signs of slowing down. After dabbling in math and engineering courses in college, he soon realized that his true calling was communicating to others about space exploration and spreading that passion.

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Atlas V sends classified NROL-79 payload to space - SpaceFlight Insider

Artists concept of the OneWeb factory at Exploration Park, Florida. Credit: OneWeb

Days before breaking ground on a new spacecraft assembly line near Cape Canaveral, OneWeb and Intelsat announced a proposed merger Tuesday that would couple a planned fleet of 900 broadband Internet satellites with a high-power communications network in geostationary orbit.

The share-to-share merger, if finalized, will be followed by a $1.7 billion investment in the combined company by Japans SoftBank. The merger and investment will reduce Intelsats debt by up to $3.6 billion, officials said, revitalizing Intelsat as it struggles with falling prices for broadband capacity and reduced business from the U.S. government.

Meanwhile, OneWeb is about take another step toward deploying the largest satellite fleet in history with the start of construction of the companys factory in Exploration Park, Florida, just outside the gates of NASAs Kennedy Space Center.

A groundbreaking ceremony was set for Friday, but officials said the event was postponed due to scheduling conflicts. The first satellites should be completed at the facility next year.

The merger of Intelsat and OneWeb is contingent on bondholder and regulatory approvals, officials said.

Assuming we can close this transaction, we think the Intelsat and OneWeb future advances the objectives of both companies, said Stephen Spengler, CEO of Intelsat, with headquarters in Luxembourg and McLean, Virginia. First, we create a global leader with the ability to provide consistent highly reliable broadband anywhere in the world, from a crowded city to the middle of the rainforest.

Spengler added the OneWeb fleet, which will consist of 900 satellites in low Earth orbit at an altitude of 745 miles (1,200 kilometers), will operate as a fully-integrated hybrid network with Intelsats 50-plus relay craft positioned in geostationary orbit more than 22,000 miles (36,000 kilometers) above the equator.

The OneWeb constellation will begin launching next year, building out a space network the company says will offer high-speed Internet with connection speeds comparable to ground-based service providers.

Greg Wyler, executive chairman and founding chairman of OneWeb, said the merger of large satellite fleets in low Earth orbit and geosynchronous orbit is a unique combination to support wide-scale broadband services.

OneWebs fleet in low orbit is 30 times closer to the Earth than geostationary satellites, cutting the systems latency, or the time it takes signals to travel between each spacecraft and the ground.

First of all, theres broadband with low-latency with a terrestrial quality, which is what were getting out of the OneWeb system, and then (were) adding a lot of other features that the GEO (geostationary satellites) offer for wide-scale video distribution, wide-scale upload of software, Wyler said Tuesday in a conference call announcing the merger. So the combination of the two companies gives us a really nice set of features that we can offer our customers not just stuff that people get today, but stuff that will be needed in the future.

Based in Arlington, Virginia, OneWeb aims to beam wifi and mobile data service to customers as soon as next year, reaching homes, businesses, hospitals, schools, oil rigs, ships, airplanes and trains. It works by broadcasting a signal to a hotspot that customers can install on their roofs.

Spengler said Intelsat and OneWeb envision developing fully interoperable ground terminals that can access both satellite fleets.

Were still going to be serving mobile operators and helping them with small cell expansion into remote rural areas, but well also have the ability to go direct to schools and into government offices, Spengler said Tuesday.

Intelsat was already an investor in OneWeb, planning to take charge of day-to-day operations for OneWebs satellites in orbit.

OneWeb plans to launch 648 satellites in the first phase of the constellation. The rest of the spacecraft will be spares pre-positioned in orbit or on the ground.

Wyler said OneWeb has raised $1.7 billion to date to fund the first phase of the program, with $1.2 billion coming from SoftBank under a previous fundraising agreement announced in December.

Airbus, Qualcomm, New Delhi-based Bharti Enterprises, Hughes Network Systems a subsidiary of EchoStar Corp. Coca-Cola and Totalplay, a company owned by Mexican billionaire Ricardo Salinas Pliego, are also behind OneWeb.

The satellite fabrication plant on Floridas Space Coast will produce up to three 330-pound (150-kilogram) spacecraft per day in an assembly line fashion. Airbus Defense and Space is prime contractor for OneWebs satellite constellation, applying mass production techniques such as automation and robotics used in the companys airplane business to spacecraft.

The OneWeb factory will cover more than 100,000 square feet (more than 9,000 square meters), officials said.

This will be the worlds first fully-automated high-volume satellite assembly plant, Wyler said.

Space Florida, a state agency charged with luring commercial aerospace business to the Sunshine State, helped arrange $20 million in government incentives to bring the OneWeb factory to the Space Coast.

The factory will create around 250 direct jobs at Exploration Park, officials said.

OneWebs facility will be located across the street from Blue Origins rocket factory. Blue Origin aims to launch its first New Glenn rocket from Cape Canaveral by the end of the decade.

The bulk of the initial OneWeb constellation totaling up to 700 satellites will be launched by Russian Soyuz rockets under a contract signed in 2015 between OneWeb and Arianespace.

OneWeb ordered 21 Soyuz launches from up to four spaceports the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Vostochny and Plesetsk in Russia, and the European-run Guiana Space Center in South America to send up between 32 and 36 satellites at a time.

Airbus is building the first 10 OneWeb satellites at its facility in Toulouse, France. Those spacecraft will be launched to test their performance and functionality in early 2018, Wyler said.

Were starting with our first launch at the end of March of 2018, Wyler said. And then, several months after maybe five months after once we test out those satellites, we will be launching every 21 days, which sounds like a lot, but were using multiple launch pads to do that.

They are really a very high-volume launcher, even one time they launched twice in one day, Wyler said of the Soyuz. So they really have their act together, and we feel very confident about their capabilities.

Arianespace also secured optional orders from OneWeb for five more Soyuz launches and three flights of the next-generation Ariane 6 rocket.

Virgin Galactics air-launched LauncherOne vehicle, which is still in development and could fly by the end of 2017, was also awarded 39 launches by OneWeb to replenish the companys satellite fleet as old satellites stop working. LauncherOne will haul up one satellite at a time after dropping from a modified Boeing 747 carrier jet.

Wyler said OneWeb is set to start initial service by the end of 2019, with full global coverage available 12 to 18 months later.

As many as 2,000 more OneWeb satellites could be added to the network with sufficient demand, Wyler said.

Email the author.

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.

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OneWeb to break ground on Florida factory, merge with Intelsat - Spaceflight Now

Curt Godwin

March 2nd, 2017

Image Credit: Peoples Republic of China

There are indications that the China National Space Administration (CNSA) is preparing to launch its Kaituozhe-2A (KT-2A) rocket on a mission to deliver an experimental satellite into orbit. The rocket maylift off as soon as March 3, 2017.

Scale model of the Chinese Kaituozhe-2A (KT-2A) launch vehicle. Photo credit: Gunters Space Page

Not much is known about the 114-foot (35-meter) tall launch vehicle. The vehicle is reportedly capable of lofting 4,409pounds (2,000 kilograms) to a 310-mile (500-kilometer) orbit.

Based on Chinas Dong Feng 31 (DF-31) intercontinental ballistic missile, the KT-2A sports a central core consisting of three stages along with two strap-onboosters. All stages, as well as the boosters, are solid fueled.

The launch, when it occurs, will be the first for this variant of the KT-2 family.

The intermediate-class rocket is set to launch on its maiden flight from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, located in far northwestern China, near Mongolia. This was the site of Chinas first successful domestic satellite launch, DFH-1, in 1970.

The launch center is well-positioned for high-inclination launches, such as those bound for sun-synchronous orbits. Pad 603 at the facility will likely play host for this mission, which may be the launch of an experimental satellite called Tiankong-1.

Jiuquanwas Chinas first spaceport. More Chinese launches have occurred here than anywhere else in the country. Additionally, all of Chinas crewed missions took off from this location as well as its two space stations, Tiangong 1 and 2.

Pad 603 is one of two atLaunch Area 4, also known as the South Launch Site. The other is called Pad 921. They became operational in 2003 and 1999 respectively.

Pad 921 has been used to launch the countrys crewed Shenzhou spacecraft and space station modules while Pad 603 has been used for most of the uncrewed launches from Jiuquan.

While rockets bound for Pad 921 are built in a vehicle assembly building and rolled out, rockets using Pad 603 are assembled vertically on the pad with a crane.

If KT-2A flies on March 3, it will be Chinas third mission of the year.A Long March 3B and Kuaizhou 1A were launched Jan. 5 and Jan. 9, 2017, respectively.

Another Chinese rocket is expected to fly by the end of March. It will be a Long March 2D and carry two communications satellites for CNSA.

Tagged: China Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center Kaituozhe-2A Lead Stories Tiankong-1

Curt Godwin has been a fan of space exploration for as long as he can remember, keeping his eyes to the skies from an early age. Initially majoring in Nuclear Engineering, Curt later decided that computers would be a more interesting - and safer - career field. He's worked in education technology for more than 20 years, and has been published in industry and peer journals, and is a respected authority on wireless network engineering. Throughout this period of his life, he maintained his love for all things space and has written about his experiences at a variety of NASA events, both on his personal blog and as a freelance media representative.

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China readying Kaituozhe-2A rocket for launch with experimental payload - SpaceFlight Insider

hyderabad, Mar 2 Veteran space scientist K Kasturirangan has favoured India to pursue a collaborative model in its proposed human spaceflight venture to undertake the mission early in a cost-effective manner by leveraging proven capabilities in the field internationally.

The former Chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation noted that there is a programme to look at whats the model that would be applicable at this phase of the programme, both globally and nationally in the case of human spaceflight.

"So, they (ISRO) need to really work out multiple strategies by which the goal can be achieved, and in those strategies how much of it should be ourselves, how much we should do with international collaboration component, and whats the optimum way in which we can reach the goal as early as possible with minimal investment because these are all investment-intensive and also they take their own time," he told PTI.

Not just funds, resources in terms of human and infrastructure, quite a lot of investment is needed if India is to do the venture alone, pointed out the former Secretary in the Department of Space and ex-Chairman of Space Commission.

"But the world has already moved there in that direction (human spaceflight) and therefore in the world today we have got quite a lot of capabilities available across globally. Our political relations are quite good with many of these countries (having such space capabilities) and so I think we should be able to develop models where we can optimally design a system by which we can move fast into the human spaceflight," Kasturirangan said.

Asked if India should have an ambition to establish a space station, he said the country can now have any ambition because economically its getting stronger.

"Technologically and scientifically its capable; there is a will among the public to support this programme and so I see no reason why India will hesitate. I am sure these things are very much in the minds of planners and political system of the country," Kasturirangan added.

Hyderabad, Mar 2 Veteran space scientist K Kasturirangan has favoured India to pursue a collaborative model in its proposed human spaceflight venture to undertake the mission early in a cost-effective manner by leveraging proven capabilities in the field internationally.

The former Chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation noted that there is a programme to look at what is the model that would be applicable at this phase of the programme, both globally and nationally in the case of human spaceflight.

"So, they (ISRO) need to really work out multiple strategies by which the goal can be achieved, and in those strategies how much of it should be ourselves, how much we should do with international collaboration component, and what is the optimum way in which we can reach the goal as early as possible with minimal investment because these are all investment-intensive and also they take their own time," he told PTI.

Not just funds, resources in terms of human and infrastructure, quite a lot of investment is needed if India is to do the venture alone, pointed out the former Secretary in the Department of Space and ex-Chairman of Space Commission.

"But the world has already moved there in that direction (human spaceflight) and therefore in the world today we have got quite a lot of capabilities available across globally. Our political relations are quite good with many of these countries (having such space capabilities) and so I think we should be able to develop models where we can optimally design a system by which we can move fast into the human spaceflight," Kasturirangan said.

Asked if India should have an ambition to establish a space station, he said the country can now have any ambition because economically its getting stronger.

"Technologically and scientifically its capable; there is a will among the public to support this programme and so I see no reason why India will hesitate. I am sure these things are very much in the minds of planners and political system of the country," Kasturirangan added.

hyderabad, Mar 2 Veteran space scientist K Kasturirangan has favoured India to pursue a collaborative model in its proposed human spaceflight venture to undertake the mission early in a cost-effective manner by leveraging proven capabilities in the field internationally.

The former Chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation noted that there is a programme to look at whats the model that would be applicable at this phase of the programme, both globally and nationally in the case of human spaceflight.

"So, they (ISRO) need to really work out multiple strategies by which the goal can be achieved, and in those strategies how much of it should be ourselves, how much we should do with international collaboration component, and whats the optimum way in which we can reach the goal as early as possible with minimal investment because these are all investment-intensive and also they take their own time," he told PTI.

Not just funds, resources in terms of human and infrastructure, quite a lot of investment is needed if India is to do the venture alone, pointed out the former Secretary in the Department of Space and ex-Chairman of Space Commission.

"But the world has already moved there in that direction (human spaceflight) and therefore in the world today we have got quite a lot of capabilities available across globally. Our political relations are quite good with many of these countries (having such space capabilities) and so I think we should be able to develop models where we can optimally design a system by which we can move fast into the human spaceflight," Kasturirangan said.

Asked if India should have an ambition to establish a space station, he said the country can now have any ambition because economically its getting stronger.

"Technologically and scientifically its capable; there is a will among the public to support this programme and so I see no reason why India will hesitate. I am sure these things are very much in the minds of planners and political system of the country," Kasturirangan added.

Hyderabad, Mar 2 Veteran space scientist K Kasturirangan has favoured India to pursue a collaborative model in its proposed human spaceflight venture to undertake the mission early in a cost-effective manner by leveraging proven capabilities in the field internationally.

The former Chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation noted that there is a programme to look at what is the model that would be applicable at this phase of the programme, both globally and nationally in the case of human spaceflight.

"So, they (ISRO) need to really work out multiple strategies by which the goal can be achieved, and in those strategies how much of it should be ourselves, how much we should do with international collaboration component, and what is the optimum way in which we can reach the goal as early as possible with minimal investment because these are all investment-intensive and also they take their own time," he told PTI.

Not just funds, resources in terms of human and infrastructure, quite a lot of investment is needed if India is to do the venture alone, pointed out the former Secretary in the Department of Space and ex-Chairman of Space Commission.

"But the world has already moved there in that direction (human spaceflight) and therefore in the world today we have got quite a lot of capabilities available across globally. Our political relations are quite good with many of these countries (having such space capabilities) and so I think we should be able to develop models where we can optimally design a system by which we can move fast into the human spaceflight," Kasturirangan said.

Asked if India should have an ambition to establish a space station, he said the country can now have any ambition because economically its getting stronger.

"Technologically and scientifically its capable; there is a will among the public to support this programme and so I see no reason why India will hesitate. I am sure these things are very much in the minds of planners and political system of the country," Kasturirangan added.

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Kasturirangan for collaborative approach to human spaceflight - Outlook India

Derek Richardson

February 27th, 2017

An artists rendering of a Crew Dragon in orbit. After SpaceX is certified to send acrew to the International Space Station, it will send two paying customers to fly around the Moon. This is expected to occur in late 2018. Image Credit: Nathan Koga / SpaceFlight Insider

SpaceX announcedon Feb. 27, 2017, that it will be sending two people on a free-return trajectory around the Moon in late 2018 using the companys yet-to-be-flown Crew Dragon spacecraft. The announcement came with less than 24 hours notice when the NewSpace companys CEO and founder Elon Musktweeted about it.

Click to enlarge. Image Credit: James Vaughan / SpaceFlight Insider

According to a news release from the company, SpaceX was approached by two private citizens for the trip sometime next year. The trajectory will be a long loop around the Moon, reaching about 400,000 miles (650,000 kilometers) from Earth with no landing on the surface. The two citizens will fly alone with no professional astronaut with them.

They have already paid a significant deposit to do a Moon mission, the announcement stated. Like the Apollo astronauts before them, these individuals will travel into space carrying the hopes and dreams of all humankind, driven by the universal human spirit of exploration.

SpaceX did not identify the individuals and said they will undergo health and fitness tests, as well as training, later this year. The company said other flight teams have expressed strong interest and it will release more information about them contingent upon their approval and confirmation of the health and fitness tests results.

In the press release, SpaceX thanked NASA, for, without the U.S. space agency, the company would not be as far along as they are now. The Commercial Crew Program provided most of the funding for the Crew Dragons development.

The mission will fly into space atop the also yet-to-be-flown Falcon Heavy rocket. Its debut mission is slated for sometime in Summer 2017. Once it launches successfully, it will be the most powerful vehicle to send payloads into space since the retirement of the Saturn V Moon rocket.

SpaceX stated Falcon Heavy will have 5 million pounds of thrust at liftoff, which is two-thirds the thrust of the Saturn V and over double that of the next largest launch vehicle currently in service.

If this mission flies on time in late 2018, it is entirely possible SpaceX may beat NASAs timeline of sending acrew to the Moon, even if a proposed acceleration of crewed flight is ultimately accepted. Musk, however, did not think it would be that big of a deal.

The famous Earthrise photo taken by Bill Anders on Apollo 8. Should the SpaceX mission occur as planned, the two paying customers will be the first humans to travel beyond low-Earth orbit since the end of the Apollo program. Photo Credit: NASA

I think what matters is really the advancement of space exploration and exceeding the high water mark that was set in 1969 by the Apollo program and just having a really exciting future, Musk said.

The first test flight of the companys Crew Dragon is expected to occur later this year. According to NASASpaceflight, the current plan calls for a two-week uncrewed demo flight from Nov. 11 to Nov. 25, 2017. During that period, the spacecraft will rendezvous and dock to the International Space Stations newly installed International Docking Adapter, which is located on the forward end of the Harmony module.

Following that mission, SpaceX will perform a launch abort test sometime in early 2018 before flying the second demo mission of the Crew Dragon. This time it will have astronauts aboard. The current schedule calls for the month-long flight to take place in May 2018.

Once operational Crew Dragon missions are underway for NASA, SpaceX will launch the private mission on a journey to circumnavigate the Moon and return to Earth, the press release stated.

The launch will take place from Kennedy Space Centers Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A). SpaceX signed a 20-year lease on the complex in 2014. It has since renovated the pad to be able to launch its Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets. The first flight from the pad took place onFeb. 19, 2017, sending a cargo variant of the companys Dragon capsule to the space station.

LC-39A not only saw the start of dozens of Space Shuttle missionsbut also nearly all of the Apollo Moon missions as well. The last flight to go to Earths nearest neighbor occurred in December 1972. Since then no human has traveled further away from Earth than a few hundred miles.

This presents an opportunity for humans to return to deep space for the first time in 45 years and they will travel faster and further into the Solar System than any before them, the press release noted.

UPDATE NASA released a statement regarding todays SpaceX announcement:

NASA commends its industry partners for reaching higher.

We will work closely with SpaceX to ensure it safely meets the contractual obligations to return the launch of astronauts to U.S. soil and continue to successfully deliver supplies to the International Space Station.

For more than a decade, NASA has invested in private industry to develop capabilities for the American people and seed commercial innovation to advance humanitys future in space.

NASA is changing the way it does business through its commercial partnerships to help build a strong American space economy and free the agency to focus on developing the next-generation rocket, spacecraft and systems to go beyond the moon and sustain deep space exploration.

Animation of Falcon Heavy launching. Video courtesy of SpaceX

Tagged: Crew Dragon Elon Musk Falcon Heavy Lead Stories Moon SpaceX

Derek Richardson is a student studying mass media with an emphasis in contemporary journalism at Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas. He is currently the managing editor of the student run newspaper, the Washburn Review. He also writes a blog, called Orbital Velocity, about the space station. His passion for space ignited when he watched space shuttle Discovery leap to space on Oct. 29, 1998. He saw his first in-person launch on July 8, 2011 when the space shuttle launched for the final time. Today, this fervor has accelerated toward orbit and shows no signs of slowing down. After dabbling in math and engineering courses in college, he soon realized that his true calling was communicating to others about space exploration and spreading that passion.

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SpaceX to fly 2 people around Moon in 2018 - SpaceFlight Insider

TORONTO, ON--(Marketwired - March 02, 2017) - Space Flight Laboratory (SFL), a provider of complete microspace missions based at the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies (UTIAS), has been contracted by GHGSat Inc. of Montreal to develop the GHGSat-C1 and C2 greenhouse gas monitoring satellites. SFL will release details of the operational GHGSat microsatellite mission next week at the Satellite 2017 Conference in Washington, D.C.

"SFL is a world-class bus manufacturer with nearly two decades of experience developing and launching small satellites," said Stephane Germain, President and CEO of GHGSat Inc. "Working with SFL was a natural fit because we share a common microspace philosophy and culture important to us as we get our satellites launched efficiently and quickly."

Established in 1998, SFL specializes in implementing high-performance nano-, micro- and small-satellite missions at low cost on tight schedules. SFL served as prime integration contractor for the successful GHGSat-D demonstration satellite, known as CLAIRE, launched in June 2016. CLAIRE is a 15-kilogram, 20x30x40cm microsat based on SFL's space-proven Next-generation Earth Monitoring and Observation (NEMO) platform.

"GHGSat-D demonstrated that greenhouse gas emissions from point sources, such as power plants and industrial sites, can be accurately targeted and measured from space," said Dr. Robert E. Zee, SFL Director. "The precise attitude control and target tracking capability of our NEMO bus -- rare among satellite platforms of this size -- played a key role in the accurate pointing of the primary CLAIRE sensor."

SFL has begun development of the GHGSat-C1 and C2 satellites at its Toronto facility with planned launches in late 2018 and early 2019, respectively. Serving as GHGSat's first two commercially operating satellites, they will be identical to each other but contain incremental, yet significant, enhancements from the demonstration mission.

SFL's NEMO platform has been used on several other missions, including the NORSAT-1 and NORSAT-2 built for Norway by SFL for science, advanced ship tracking, and ship communication. The NEMO bus is also utilized in the upcoming HawkEye360 Pathfinder missions under development by SFL and Deep Space Industries of California.

SFL will release additional details on GHGSat and other upcoming SFL launches in booth #130 at the 2017 Satellite Conference and Exhibition (#SatShow) being held March 6-9 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C. For conference details, visit http://2017.satshow.com/.

About SFL (www.utias-sfl.net)

SFL builds big performance into smaller, lower cost satellites. Small satellites built by SFL consistently push the performance envelope and disrupt the traditional cost paradigm. Satellites are built with advanced power systems, stringent attitude control and high-volume data capacity that are striking relative to the budget. SFL arranges launches globally and maintains a mission control center accessing ground stations worldwide. The pioneering and barrier breaking work of SFL is a key enabler to tomorrow's cost aggressive satellite constellations.

More here:

Space Flight Laboratory (SFL) to Develop Microsatellites for Greenhouse Gas Monitoring - Marketwired (press release)

Update for 11:24 p.m. EST: President Trump mentioned space exploration only fleetingly in his first speech before Congress. You can read our full story here:Trump: Sending Astronauts to Distant Worlds Is 'Not Too Big a Dream'

President Donald Trump may make a call for a more robust approach to U.S. human spaceflight during his speech to the Joint Session of Congress tonight (Feb. 28),according to a PBS NewsHourreport that cites an unnamed senior administration official.

The report, from PBS NewsHour's John Yang, states only that Trump's speech "will call for [a] return of manned space exploration."

Trump's speech tonight comes one day after the private spaceflight company SpaceX unveiled an ambitious planto fly two passengers on a private trip around the moon by the end of 2018. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk told reporters Monday (Feb. 27) that the company had received a "significant deposit" from two private individuals for the space tourist moon flight. The mission will send two people on a five-day trip around the moon aboard SpaceX's Dragon crew capsule, using the company's large Falcon Heavy rocket to launch the craft. The Dragon crew capsule and Falcon Heavy rocket are both expected to make their first test flights later this year.

#breakingnews: tonight @realDonaldTrump will call for return of manned space exploration -- senior administration official

Yang's report also comes less than a week after NASA officials announced that the space agencyis studying a plan to fly astronauts in 2019 on the first flight of the new megarocket, the Space Launch System. If NASA approves the plan, it would be the agency's first test flight to carry a crew since the first space shuttle launch in 1981.

"This is still pushing the envelope in some areas, but it's not as big a step technology-wise as what we actually did in the case of the shuttle," Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator for human exploration and operations,told reporters in a teleconference Friday (Feb. 24). "We will be very cautious about what we go do. We will do the right thing."

The United States has maintained a continuous human presence in space with astronauts on the International Space Station since 2000. But NASA has not launched astronauts from U.S. soil since 2011, when the agency retired its space shuttle fleet.

Email Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com or follow him@tariqjmalikandGoogle+.Follow us@Spacedotcom,FacebookandGoogle+.

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Trump May Call for More US Human Spaceflight in Speech Tonight: Report - Space.com

Paul Knightly

February 28th, 2017

Several upcoming NASA missions will use lasers to increase data transmission from space. Image & Caption Credit: NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center / Amber Jacobson, producer

The slow download speeds associated with dial-up Internet are a distant memory for many people;however, slow download speeds are still a reality for scientists and engineers operating spacecraft many millions of miles from the Earth. For the last 60 years, the only way to communicate with spacecraft has been via radio. That could be changing soon as NASA prepares to test out new technologies using lasers for communications that, if successful, would greatly expand the capabilities of spacecraft both near and far.

So-called optical communication, which would carry information over laser light, could yield an increase in data-carrying capacity as much as 10 to 100 times what is possible via radio communication. These higher data rates would allow for scientists to collect data faster and to study sudden events such as dust storms, cryovolcanoes, or spacecraft landings and even enable the broadcast of video from the surface of other planets.

An animated concept of Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) depicting a satellite using lasers to relay data from Mars to Earth. Credits: NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center

Laser technology is ideal for boosting downlink communications from deep space, said Abi Biswas, the supervisor of the Optical Communications Systems group at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. It will eventually allow for applications like giving each astronaut his or her own video feed, or sending back higher-resolution, data-rich images faster.

Radio waves and lasers travel at the speed of light, but lasers travel in a higher-frequency bandwidth that enables them to carry more information. Having a means of sending more information across space in less time is an important advancement in lockstep with the increasing complexity of interplanetary missions.

NASAs Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), which by itself is set to eclipse the total amount of data returned by all other interplanetary missions combined later this year, transmits data at speeds up to 6 Mbps. Biswas estimates that MRO could transmit data up to 250 Mbps if it was equipped with a laser communications system.

That data rate might still seem slow, but it would represent a huge leap forward in deep space communications. NASA has planned two upcoming missions to test the technology in space for the first time.

In 2019, the Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD) will be launched to a geostationary orbit 25,000 miles (40,000 kilometers) from Earth and relay laser communications between two different ground stations in California. Among other things, it will seek to understand how atmospheric phenomenon, such as clouds and dust, can interfere with space-based laser communications.

The Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) experiment is scheduled to launch in 2023 as a part of the upcoming NASA Discovery mission to the asteroid Psyche. While also testing laser communications at a greater distance than with LCRD, it will have the added challenge of accounting for the Earths rotation as it sends information embedded in its laser beams across the Solar System. For all the challenges ahead, successfully demonstrating deep space laser communications would be a game changer for how researchers communicate with spacecraft in the decades ahead.

Video Courtesy of NASA.gov Video

Tagged: Deep Space Optical Communications Laser Communications Relay Demonstration NASA The Range

Paul is currently a graduate student in Space and Planetary Sciences at the University of Akransas in Fayetteville. He grew up in the Kansas City area and developed an interest in space at a young age at the start of the twin Mars Exploration Rover missions in 2003. He began his studies in aerospace engineering before switching over to geology at Wichita State University where he earned a Bachelor of Science in 2013. After working as an environmental geologist for a civil engineering firm, he began his graduate studies in 2016 and is actively working towards a PhD that will focus on the surficial processes of Mars. He also participated in a 2-week simluation at The Mars Society's Mars Desert Research Station in 2014 and remains involved in analogue mission studies today. Paul has been interested in science outreach and communication over the years which in the past included maintaining a personal blog on space exploration from high school through his undergraduate career and in recent years he has given talks at schools and other organizations over the topics of geology and space. He is excited to bring his experience as a geologist and scientist to the Spaceflight Insider team writing primarily on space science topics.

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Lasers to boost communication across space - SpaceFlight Insider

Quite simply, the movie Hidden Figures should be required viewing in the Trump White House, in Congress, throughout the federal government, in every corporate boardroom, and in every school and university in the nation.

While the film understandably takes certain liberties a few composite characters and the compression of time to tell the remarkable and beyond-inspirational stories of African-American Computers Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson in the 1960s, it is destined to touch people from all walks of life in truly meaningful ways for years to come.

No matter that"Hidden Figures" was nominated for three Academy Awards (Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Adapted Screenplay) and won none at Sunday nights 89th Academy Awards.

When my wife and I saw the filmtwo months into its run, the theater was still full. As I looked around, it was filled with an incredibly diverse audience. From the elderly, to teenagers, to couples, to people of color. The one thing all had in common was that when the film ended, everyone broke into spontaneous applause with a number of people giving the film a standing ovation.

President Trump should screen the film in the White House for a number of important reasons, not the least of which being the subject of human spaceflight. For within the film, Trumpwould see a confident and forward-looking President Kennedy articulating exactly why the United States of America had to be the pre-eminent space-faring nation on Earth and why the moon was the next logical step for the country.

For decades now, NASA has been rudderless and adrift. It has been that way because there has been little or no leadership from the president on down. No direction. Just a succession of presidents who truly did not see the value in the United States maintaining its pre-eminence in space, and who looked at NASA at bestas a third-tier priority, or at worstas an annoyance.

Hidden Figures reminds us all that for at least one full decade, the American people were united as one in their support of a space program instilling national pride with a clearly defined and logical mission thatwas in the best interests of our country.

Next, on a human level, the president and Congress should screen the film to, first, be reminded of the racism and inequality that existed during that time, and, second, to then ponder what real progress has been made with regard to race relations and equality for women and all who might be discriminated against.

As a child, I grew up in abject poverty and often lived in black and minority neighborhoods. I witnessed racism up-close and personal, and afterwatching the film, I sat in my seat as the credits rolled, wondering what really was better in 2017 and what Hidden Figures with regard to racism were still being papered over?

Last, and quite wonderfully, Hidden Figures actually succeeds in removing the color of ones skin from the equation. As you watch the film, at the beginning you are called to notice that Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughanand Mary Jacksonare African-American women dealing with racism in 1961,coupled with inequality for women. Butas the film progresses, you see them simply as three incredibly strong women.You see a single mom raising her three daughters with the help of her mom as she teaches her children right from wrong. You see a wonderful nuclear family where the husband and wife support each other, and you see a loving couple.

Instead of color, you see human dignity, courage, compassion, empathy and the will to go on against all odds.

Hidden Figures should be seen by all because it reminds us of what unites us as human beings and inspires us to reach for the stars and the next goal in life.

DouglasMacKinnonof Boca Raton is a former White House and Pentagon official and served as a space consultant to the U.S. government and the private sector.

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Trump should get a clue on spaceflight from 'Hidden Figures' - Orlando Sentinel

Updated at 6:15 p.m. EST (2315 GMT) with details.

SpaceX founder and chief executive Elon Musk announced Monday plans to send two paying private individuals on a week-long flight around the moon and back to Earth by the end of next year.

Musk said the would-be space tourists approached SpaceX to fly on a mission beyond the moon, launching aboard the companys Falcon Heavy rocket from pad 39A at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida and returning to Earth approximately a week later.

Theyre very serious about it, Musk said, declining to identify the passengers in a conference call with reporters Monday afternoon. He later added the clients include nobody from Hollywood, but would not provide details on their backgrounds.

The two-person crew will be trained for emergencies, but the Dragon spaceship carrying them will fly on autopilot, loop around the far side of the moon on a free-return trajectory, then speed back to Earth. Musk said SpaceX aims to launch the circumlunar flight in the fourth quarter of 2018.

This would do a long leap around the moon, Musk said. Were working out the exact parameters, but this would be approximately a week-long mission, and it would skim the surface of the moon, go quite a bit farther out into deep space, and then loop back to Earth. Im guessing probably distance-wise, maybe 300,000 or 400,000 miles.

He acknowledged the trip will be risky.

I think they are entering into this with their eyes open, knowing that there is some risk here, Musk said of the passengers. Theyre certainly not naive. Well do everything we can to minimize that risk, but its not zero.

He declined to say how much the space tourists will pay, but SpaceX said it has already received a significant deposit for the moon mission.

They do know each other, Musk said of the prospective space tourists. I dont want to comment too much on their background, but they certainly will have extensive training before going on the mission, and I also cant say the exact amount (they will pay).

The tourists will ride inside SpaceXs Dragon 2 capsule, or Crew Dragon, in development under a $2.6 billion contract with NASA to ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station. The spaceship is scheduled to launch on its first uncrewed test flight to the station in November, followed around six months later with a demonstration mission to the outpost with two NASA astronauts on-board.

SpaceX and NASA plan at least one Crew Dragon flight to the station per year once the spacecraft proves itself on the test flights, rotating in and out four-person crews on six-month expeditions.

NASA contracted with SpaceX and Boeing to develop, test and fly commercially-operated spaceships to transport crews to the station, replacing services currently provided by Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

Russia charged the U.S. government $81 million per seat in the latest crew transportation deal. Boeing and SpaceX have not disclosed their prices for an astronaut ticket to the space station, but NASA says the average cost between the two providers runs about $58 million per person for a round-trip flight.

Musk said the price SpaceXs moon mission fliers will pay is confidential, but it would be comparable to a little more than what the cost of a crewed mission to the space station would be.

Space Adventures, a Virginia-based firm, is the only company to date to arrange for paying tourists to fly into space, brokering eight flights by seven clients to the International Space Station in the 2000s. Other companies, like Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin, offer suborbital trips for paying tourists and researchers, but they have not commenced commercial service.

In 2011, Space Adventures announced a venture in partnership with Russia to send two tourists on a trip around the moon for $150 million per person inside a modified Soyuz capsule, but the mission never materialized.

The Crew Dragon spacecraft is a major upgrade from the cargo-carrying version of Dragon currently flying resupply missions to the space station.

It is already being designed to deep space journeys, Musk said, with an ablative carbon heat shield capable of withstanding re-entry speeds from the moon, which are much faster than descent velocities from low Earth orbit missions.

The robust design of the Crew Dragon supports SpaceXs long-term objective of Mars missions, with an eye toward setting up a permanent base there and making humanity a multi-planet species.

But the Dragon capsule will need new systems for the trip to the moon and back its first time to fly higher than low Earth orbit such as deep space communications equipment.

This would be communication at several hundred thousand kilometers (more than 250,000 miles), as opposed to around 400 kilometers (250 miles at the space stations orbit), Musk said. Its mostly with respect to the communications system, but Dragon is designed to be hardy with regard to space radiation and have triple-redundant systems. We feel that the modifications necessary will be quite limited.

The Dragon spacecrafts lunar flight will come after it completes test flights to the space station, Musk said.

The orbital test flights will wring out many of the Crew Dragons life support, navigation and computer systems, and Musk said NASA will certify the capsule as human-rated once those demo missions are successfully completed.

But the space station crews will blast off on SpaceXs Falcon 9 booster, not the Falcon Heavy, which is required for the round-trip voyage around the moon. The Falcon Heavy is expected to launch for the first time some time this summer, Musk said, several years later than originally envisioned.

Dragon 2 is going through NASA human-rating, (and it) will fly with NASA astronauts to the space station before it flies this mission, Musk said. The same is true of the Falcon 9 vehicle. The difference is that were adding two additional Falcon 9 first stages as strap-on boosters to increase the performance of Falcon 9, which is what were calling Falcon Heavy.

The Falcon Heavy will lift off on the power of 27 Merlin engines, three times the number that power the Falcon 9s core stage.

All the pieces of that system will be human-rated by NASA, Musk added. One could say that theres some incremental complexity with the integration of those systems.

SpaceX will seek a license from the Federal Aviation Administration for the purely commercial tourist trip around the moon, Musk said.

We should have quite a bit of Falcon Heavy flight history (by the time the lunar mission flies), and, of course, a tremendous amount of heritage coming from Falcon 9 going into Falcon Heavy, Musk said. Dragon 2 has been designed to very high standards, so its capable of taking a re-entry from lunar entry velocity, with significant margin, so were confident that this will be a good vehicle to fly on.

SpaceX said NASA is a key enabler for the commercial circumlunar mission, which would be the first flight by humans to the moons distance since the Apollo 17 lunar landing in December 1972, and perhaps the most distant space expedition in history.

NASA said in a statement it commends its industry partners for reaching higher.

We will work closely with SpaceX to ensure it safely meets the contractual obligations to return the launch of astronauts to U.S. soil and continue to successfully deliver supplies to the International Space Station, the agency said.For more than a decade, NASA has invested in private industry to develop capabilities for the American people and seed commercial innovation to advance humanitys future in space.

While NASA has tapped Boeing and SpaceX to pick up launch and landing services for space station crews, the space agency is working on government-owned vehicles to send astronauts to deep space.

The Space Launch System super-booster and Orion capsule are scheduled to take off on their first combined test flight to lunar orbit late next year, without astronauts. NASA targets launch of a crewed mission conducting a similar lunar flyby to the maneuver planned by SpaceX some time between 2021 and 2023.

SLS/Orion missions to the region around the moon, called cislunar space, will validate new propulsion thrusters, power systems, robotics and other technologies required for eventual human journeys to Mars.

The Government Accountability Office reported last year thatthe first SLS flight in 2018, the first two Orion flights on SLS, and the associated ground systems will cost almost $23 billion. In a separate report last year, NASAs inspector general said the Orion program will have received $17 billion from its start in 2006 through the first crewed mission in the early 2020s.

But NASA may be about to shake up its human spaceflight program.

The agency is conducting a feasibility and risk analysis, under orders from the Trump administration, to determine the technical hurdles and costs of putting two astronauts on the first SLS/Orion launch, named Exploration Mission-1.

If NASA decides to switch to a piloted mission, EM-1 will likely be delayed to allow engineers to finish development of key life support systems that were not originally intended to fly on the uncrewed test flight. If approved, the EM-1 crew would fly around the moon and back, following roughly the same trajectory targeted by SpaceXs privately-funded mission.

Musk did not say whether he hopes to fly to the moon before NASA, but he said the space agency will have priority if it wants to take part in the circumlunar flight.

This will be a private mission with two paying customers, (but) NASA always has first priority, Musk said. If NASA decides to have the first mission of this nature to be a NASA mission, then of course NASA would take priority.

Were generally encouraging of anything that advances the cause of space exploration, Musk said. I think an SLS/Orion mission would be exciting as well. I dont know what theyre timetable is, and Im not sure if we will be before or after, but I dont think thats really the important thing. What matters is the advancement of space exploration and exceeding the high-water mark that was set in 1969 with the Apollo program, and just having a really exciting future in space that inspires the world.

Thats what we care about, and we think that there should more companies and organizations doing this than SpaceX. The more the better.

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SpaceX to send two private citizens around the moon and back - Spaceflight Now

Credit: Walter Scriptunas II / Scriptunas Images

The U.S. Air Force says the demonstration of an automated safety system on last weeks Falcon 9 rocket launch will slash and costs and hasten turnarounds between missions from military-operated ranges in Florida and California.

The on-board safety system, relying on Global Positioning System satellite navigation data, replaces decades-old radars and tracking equipment that required military officers to manually send commands to destroy errant boosters, and their human and robot passengers, before they could threaten people and property.

The switch will save millions of dollars in infrastructure costs and allow for more launches from Air Force-run ranges at Cape Canaveral and Vandenberg Air Force Base, officials said.

The Autonomous Flight Safety System, which previously flew in a shadow backup mode for several launches, was the prime destruct mechanism for the first time on the Feb. 19 launch of SpaceXs Falcon 9 rocket from pad 39A at NASAs Kennedy Space Center.

Implementing AFSS on future launch operations allows us to increase our flexibility, adaptability and efficiency while providing more launch opportunities and greater public safety without having to add additional people,said Brig. Gen. Wayne Monteith, commander of the Air Forces 45th Space Wing, which manages the Eastern Range at Cape Canaveral.These changes will not only simplify ground support requirements thereby increasing launch on-time probability, but substantially reduce launch costs.

Like the manual flight termination system used since the dawn of the Space Age, the on-board safety computer tracks the trajectory of the rocket, ensuring it remains within a predefined corridor and meets other parameters.

With the previous safety system, a Mission Flight Control Officer on the ground in Florida or California would issue the command activate pyrotechnic charges on the rocket if it strayed off course. In the case of the automated safety system, the command comes from a computer aboard the rocket.

Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceXs president and chief operating officer, said Feb. 18 that the on-board destruct trigger makes our operations here on the range much more streamlined.

The military is still responsible for other support functions for launches from Florida and California, such as weather monitoring, maritime and airspace patrols, and base security. At launch pad 39A, which lies on Kennedy Space Center property, NASA also supports SpaceX missions.

Other launch facilities operated by SpaceX and United Launch Alliance, which flies Atlas and Delta rockets, are on Air Force property at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and Vandenberg Air Force Base.

Commercial launches from both coasts are licensed by the Federal Aviation Administration, which regulates the public safety aspects of rocket flights.

We still need the Air Force, NASA and the FAA to fly, but it does tighten timelines, for sure, Shotwell said. I think the turnover to go from a ULA launch to a SpaceX launch, it should be much faster. It will be enormously helpful to getting things done.

TheAutonomous Flight Safety System should also reduce the risk that ground equipment malfunctions will delay launches.ULA and SpaceX launches already rely on GPS satellites instead of ground-based C-band radars for tracking, even for the older manual flight termination system.

Our role to ensure public safety during launches using this system is unchanged, said Howard Schindzielorz, the 45th Space Wings chief engineer, in an Air Force statement. Our Flight Termination System requirements still apply for design, test, operational performance and reliability. We still develop the mission rules to provide public safety, but the system works with mission rule data files loaded into the on-board AFSS units. This essentially shifts the workload to the front-end of the launch process.

Other benefits of the automated safety system include faster response times and improved monitoring as rockets fly downrange, providing over-the-horizon tracking capabilities not limited by line-of-sight tracking from instrumentation at the launch base, the Air Force said in a statement.

The Air Force currently requires several days to reconfigure its ranges between Atlas, Delta and Falcon missions. That turnaround time should be reduced with the introduction of auto-destruct mechanisms, according to Hans Koenigsmann, vice president of flight reliability at SpaceX.

We have this problem right now where we negotiate dates back and forth, but I think its actually going to get better, Koenigsmann said Feb. 8 at the FAA-sponsored Commercial Space Transportation Conference in Washington. The reason its going to get better is the Autonomous Flight Safety System. It does not need a lot of resources from the range, so the time it takes to reconfigure the resources from a ULA vehicle to a Falcon 9 or some other vehicle, that factor will basically go away.

While the range is still involved in launch operations, there is not an antenna pointing at the vehicle, so that in itself, I think, will make our lives easier, Koenigsmann said. Icould easily imagine that well have two launches on the same day because of that.

Same-day launches may be years away, but the Air Force said the Eastern Range at Cape Canaveral is aiming to be ready to accommodate as many as 48 launches a year by 2020. Thats around three times the number of annual launches the spaceport has hosted, on average, in recent years.

Cape Canaveral hosted two launches in one day during the Gemini program of the 1960s, but instrumentation constraints have restricted launch rates over the last few decades.

The auto-destruct system should also simplify range safety procedures for rockets returning to land at Cape Canaveral.

SpaceX intends to land two strap-on boosters launched on the companys huge triple-core Falcon Heavy rocket back in Florida simultaneously. A manual flight termination system could be overwhelmed in such a scenario.

This changes the expectation for legacy and new entrant companies of the space launch industry to implement AFSS at the earliest possible date, the Air Force said in a statement.

The Autonomous Flight Safety System could be on crewed flights as soon as next year as commercial companies begin launching astronauts to the International Space Station.

The commercial crew missions will be launched under contract to NASA, which will certify the on-board termination computer for piloted flights if engineers are comfortable the system will not issue an inadvertent destruct command.

This is the future, said Bob Cabana, director of NASAs Kennedy Space Center and a former astronaut. This is where the range is going. It makes sense to me.

Cabana, who piloted and commanded four space shuttle missions in the 1990s, joked about the relationship between astronauts and safety officers tasked with ordering the destruction of a failing rocket. The space shuttle had no launch escape rocket, and a termination command would have likely doomed the crew.

Prior to shuttle launches, we used to go visit the guys that sat on console that would push the button, and show them pictures of our kids and get to know them, Cabana said.

But the truth is, with a human in the loop, if youve got an envelope that rocket is to remain within as it goes out over the ocean, (as) it is approaching the edge of that envelope, a human may terminate it when the system is actually correcting to get toward the center, Cabana said. An automated system, done correctly, it can iterate fast enough that the system sees that the guidance system is taking it back before its going to exceed that limit.

So, in my opinion, if done correctly, an automated system is actually safer (and) more reliable than having a human in the loop, Cabana said. Weve still got some work to do before commercial crew is going to certify that this is the way to go, but this is the future.

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Auto-destruct system seen as a key to ramping up launch tempos - Spaceflight Now

WOODBINE The chief executive officer at Vector Space Systems has sent a letter to Gov. Nathan Deal congratulating him on the General Assemblys recent votes in support of the Georgia Space Flight Act.

We recognize that this is a major milestone in Camden Countys efforts to establish a commercial spaceport in Georgia, James Cantrell wrote in his letter to the governor.

He mentioned ongoing discussions with Camden County Administrator Steve Howard about a proposed site near the end of Harrietts Bluff Road, about 10 miles east of Interstate 95.

Vector fully appreciates the opportunities and benefits that such a non-federal range can offer to launch providers like us whose long term goal is to provide dedicated delivery services tailored to the needs of the emerging small satellite market, he said.

The company is especially interested in pursuing alternative concepts of operations that take advantage of new launcher technologies and commercial IT services.

He said his company intends to continue to support Camden Countys safety analysis currently conducted by the Federal Aviation Administration.

For the medium term, we are also keeping open the option of conducting on-site pathfinder operations with our prototype transporter-erector-launcher and full-scale mechanical engineering unit, he wrote. If there is anything else that Vector can do to help bring the spaceport online, please let us know.

Howard said Vector isnt the only company expressing interest in the proposed spaceport site.

There has been interest in the past and there continues to be interest now, he said. Several companies have approached me recently.

Howard said he cant disclose the identities of the companies that have expressed interest in the site because of confidentiality agreements. He was pleased Vector decided to go public with its interest in the Camden site.

I was thrilled Vector Space Systems was interested. Theyre an up and coming company, he said. This letter, it indicates from the space community the need for a commercial spaceport on the East Coast.

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Space company praises Space Flight Act | Local News | The News - The News (subscription)

Laurel Kornfeld

February 26th, 2017

This composite of enhanced-color images of Pluto (lower right) and Charon (upper left) was taken by NASAs New Horizons spacecraft as it passed through the Pluto system on July 14, 2015. This image highlights the striking differences between Pluto and Charon. The color and brightness of both Pluto and Charon have been processed identically to allow direct comparison of their surface properties and to highlight the similarity between Charons polar red terrain and Plutos equatorial red terrain. Pluto and Charon are shown with approximately correct relative sizes, but their true separation is not to scale. The image combines blue, red, and infrared images taken by the spacecrafts Ralph / Multispectral Visual Imaging Camera (MVIC). Image & Caption Credit: NASA / JHU-APL / SwRI

A set of naming themes for features on Pluto and its five moons, informally used by the New Horizons mission, has been approved by the International Astronomical Union (IAU), which has overseen the naming of celestial objects and their surface features since 1919.

The themes chosen for each object in the Pluto system emerged from the missions Our Pluto campaign, organized in conjunction with NASA and the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California, in early 2015.

Our Pluto, which sought public suggestions for names of features the spacecraft was expected to reveal in its July 2015 flyby of the system, received IAU endorsement ahead of the flyby.

This image, taken by NASAs Hubble Space Telescope, shows five moons orbiting the distant, icy dwarf planet Pluto. Styx (initially designated P5) is the innermost of the moons found by Hubble over a period of seven years up to Styxs discovery in 2012. This image was taken with Hubbles Wide Field Camera 3 on July 7, 2012. Image Credit: NASA / ESA / L. Frattare (STScI)

Specific themes selected during the Our Pluto project were assigned to Pluto, Charon, Nix, Hydra, Styx, and Kerberos. Several continue the focus on mythologies of the underworld, ruled by the Roman god Pluto, while others commemorate both historic and fictional exploration.

New Horizons revealed Pluto to be an unusually active geological world with flowing glaciers, cryovolcanoes, ice mountains, canyons, cliffs, and a large nitrogen glacier. Charon is no longer geologically active, but many diverse features were found on its surface as well as on the surfaces of the smaller moons.

Imagine the thrill of seeing your name on a future map of Pluto and its moons. Months after the Pluto flyby, the New Horizons mission continues to engage and inspire, said Jim Green, director of NASAs Planetary Science Division.

Noteworthy names informally assigned to features on the systems worlds, such as Sputnik Planitia and Cthulhu Regio on Pluto have excited imaginations worldwide.

Mission principal investigator Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute applauded the successful partnership and process between New Horizons scientists and the IAU that resulted in approval of wonderful, inspiring, and engaging naming themes for features on Pluto and its moons and said mission scientists look forward to submitting specific names for individual features on each world.

Tagged: Charon International Astronomical Union NASA New Horizons Pluto The Range

Laurel Kornfeld is an amateur astronomer and freelance writer from Highland Park, NJ, who enjoys writing about astronomy and planetary science. She studied journalism at Douglass College, Rutgers University, and earned a Graduate Certificate of Science from Swinburne Universitys Astronomy Online program. Her writings have been published online in The Atlantic, Astronomy magazines guest blog section, the UK Space Conference, the 2009 IAU General Assembly newspaper, The Space Reporter, and newsletters of various astronomy clubs. She is a member of the Cranford, NJ-based Amateur Astronomers, Inc. Especially interested in the outer solar system, Laurel gave a brief presentation at the 2008 Great Planet Debate held at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab in Laurel, MD.

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Name themes for Pluto system features approved by IAU - SpaceFlight Insider

The NROL-79 commemorative poster. Credit: United Launch Alliance

Taking a U.S. national security satellite payload into space is the primary objective of the 70th Atlas 5 booster that will be launched Wednesday.

The United Launch Alliance rocket, flying for the 35th time in its basic two-stage version with no solids, is scheduled for liftoff around 9:50 a.m. local time (12:50 p.m. EST; 1750 GMT) from California.

Although the launch windows duration is withheld, officials say the days liftoff opportunity will close by 10:30 a.m.

Space Launch Complex 3-East at Vandenberg Air Force Base is the point of origination for the mission, known as NROL-79.

The launch customer is the National Reconnaissance Office, the government agency responsible for the countrys spy satellites.

While the launch is hardly a secret, what the payload is atop the rocket is classified. The NROL-79 spacecrafts purpose and final orbit have not been disclosed.

Things are proceeding well on the booster side, doing some of the final closeouts that we have to do, working through the weekend to make sure all of those things are finalized, Lt. Col. Eric Zarybnisky, 4th Space Launch Squadron commander and the Air Force launch director, said in a telephone interview Friday afternoon.

Monday we have a pretty full schedule of readiness reviews. Then we go into what we call a crew sync day. Because the time of day of launch being early in the morning, we give folks (Tuesday) to get some rest and (then) go into the launch Wednesday morning.

The eight-hour countdown begins before 2 a.m. local time.

We are postured for another successful Atlas launch, said Col. Christopher Moss, Vandenbergs 30th Space Wing commander and the launch decision authority. These missions are critical, and our team is excited to be a part of something that will have a global impact.

The mission marks the 14th time an NRO payload has been launched by Atlas 5.

For its 70th launch, the Atlas 5 vehicle will be flying in its 401 variant with a four-meter-diameter nose cone, no solid rocket boosters and a single-engine Centaur upper stage. It will come off the pad generating over 860,000 pounds of thrust.

This is a pretty common 401, said Zarybnisky. It is the 35th 401 so far, so we have a lot of experience both here and on the East Coast with this particular version of the rocket.

Originally slated to launch Dec. 1, the flight was postponed by last Septembers massive wildfire and electrical grid damage at Vandenberg. That held up the previous Atlas 5 launch of the commercial WorldView 4 satellite and delayed the start of the NROL-79 campaign at the pad by two months.

We were actually able to deliver the booster during the fires. We were able to offload the booster, and there really was no issues for this mission, specifically, but the WorldView 4 mission was delayed due to the fires and the subsequent build back up of the Range and the electrical infrastructure, Zarybnisky said.

Then, a problem with the upper stage had to be rectified, causing a one-month slip.

This mission has obviously been a little protracted than we would normally have. We moved the launch date twice once due to the fires, that obviously drove some changes to our schedule, and then we had a technical issue during one of our wet dress rehearsals that we had to work through. We successfully fixed that issue, proved it out in a second wet dress rehearsal and we are moving forward, Zarybnisky said.

Still, the mission is occurring within three months of the launch date selected more than two years ago.

Schedule is important and we try to make sure things happen on time, but at the end of the day mission success is really what we are focused on, Zarybnisky said.

Zarybnisky added: The infrastructure is ready to support. We had a great WorldView 4 launch and I expect this one to go just as well.

The 4th Space Launch Squadron, a team of about 75 military and civilian personnel, is the governments on-site group that oversees the rocket preparations from the point it arrives at Vandenberg until liftoff. The engineers and missile maintenance professionals give assurance that processing and testing of the vehicle performed by United Launch Alliance goes properly.

For Capt. Albert Vasso, launch mission manager in the squadron, that means cat-herding issues as they arise and working across the base to efficiently resolve them.

Another squadron member, Capt. Jonathan Crow, EELV lead engineer, works with ULA during the launch campaign to make sure the rockets technical aspects are satisfactorily met.

I get to be on console during day of launch, give one of the gos that says yes, the booster is ready, the infrastructure is ready and we are ready to put this extremely important mission on orbit,' said Zarybnisky.

The 4th Space Launch Squadron was formed in 1994 to support Titan missions at Vandenbergs Space Launch Complex 4, then re-chartered in 2003 for the Atlas 5 and Delta 4 launch systems from Slicks 3 and 6.

This launch is the first of three that ULA has scheduled in a 19-day period in March from both coasts using Atlas 5 and Delta 4 rockets.

See earlier NROL-79 coverage.

Our Atlas archive.

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Atlas 5 rocket to provide spacelift for US National Reconnaissance Office - Spaceflight Now

Jason Rhian

February 26th, 2017

Saturn V rocket at Space Center Houston in Texas. Photo Credit: Jason Rhian / SpaceFlight Insider

HOUSTON With smartphones, the internet, and an array of ever-sophisticated electronic toys, it is becoming increasingly more difficult to hold the attention of the public. Space Center Houston is working to counter these distracting influences withan array of exhibits and interactive activities as well as a fleet of vehicles that helped make space travel a reality.

The operators of Space Center Houston provided us with the best setting from which to learn what the location is working on to highlight the historic achievements of the past, the promising events that are taking place at present, and the exciting possibilities that lie on the horizon.

To find out more about the centerseducational outreach efforts, click here.

Video courtesy of SpaceFlight Insider

Tagged: Johnson Space Center Space Center Houston The Range Tracy Lamm

Jason Rhian spent several years honing his skills with internships at NASA, the National Space Society and other organizations. He has provided content for outlets such as: Aviation Week & Space Technology, Space.com, The Mars Society and Universe Today.

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Insider Exclusive: Space Center Houston inspiring new generation of explorers - SpaceFlight Insider

Derek Richardson

February 24th, 2017

NASA is looking into the possibility of adding a crew to the first flight of the Space Launch System. The EM-1 mission is currently planned on being uncrewed. Image Credit: Nathan Koga / SpaceFlight Insider

NASA is taking ahard look at having crew fly on the first integrated mission of the agencys Space Launch System (SLS) super-heavy-lift rocket and Orion spacecraft. At present, NASA is only undertaking a feasibility study, reviewing what risks would be incurred, what needs to be added to allow for this happen, and what potential benefits could be had.

Acting NASA Administrator Robert Lightfoot announced on Feb. 15, 2017, that he was ordering a study on the feasibility of adding crew. It was to be lead by William Gerstenmaier, NASAs Associate Administrator for Human Exploration System Directorate.

Should NASA decide to add crew to EM-1, its flight plan would essentially follow the proposed plan for EM-2. The main difference would be instead of the Exploration Upper Stage (which would not be ready in time for EM-1) performing a trans-lunar injection burn, the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion System would. (Click to enlarge) Image Credit: NASA

In a Feb. 24, 2017, teleconference, Gerstenmaier, along with Deputy Associate Administrator for Exploration Systems Development William Hill, addressed a number of questions and concerns about the potential crew addition stressing that this is only a feasibility study and the baseline Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1) flight is still moving forward as originally planned.

When we get done with this, we wont come out with a hard recommendation one way or the other, Gerstenmaier said. Were going to talk about essentially the advantages and the disadvantages of adding crew to EM-1.

According to Gerstenmaier, the White House asked NASA to look into the option, adding that there has been no guarantee of more money for a possible crewed flight.

The baseline schedule currently calls for a Block 1 SLS to send an uncrewed Orion spacecraft into a distant retrograde lunar orbit in late 2018 EM-1. The flight would last about 20 days. Then, in August 2021, the EM-2 flight would see a Block 1B SLS, with a new Exploration Upper Stage (EUS), send a piloted Orion on a shorter 8-day free return trajectory around the Moon.

The mission being studied would send two crew members in Orion on a similar trajectory that EM-2 would have performed. It would involve a day in high-Earth orbit to verify critical systems, such as life support, before performing a trans-lunar, free return trajectory burn using the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS) a modified Delta IV upper stage.

Well get a chance to test systems in a very rigorous way with [a]crew on board, Gerstenmaier said. Some of the life support systems will get to see crew interaction with the vehicle, which helps us get to an overall readiness standpoint.

The study will look into what systems will need to be added to EM-1 which were not already included, such as life support, crew displays, and an active Launch Abort System (LAS) none of which are planned to fly on the baseline mission. Additionally, it will look into what hardware may have to be changed as well as additional tests that will need to be done.

The Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS) is transported to a pressure test area at United Launch Alliances Decatur, Alabama, manufacturing facility. It will be used as an upper stage on the first SLS flight. (Click to enlarge) Image Credit: NASA

For example, the ICPS, while it is powerful enough to perform the mission requirements, is not human rated. The study will have to look at what will need to be changed to alleviate some risk. This might also include adding more debris protection for the highly elliptical orbit.

We think we can set up a profile that limits crew risk exposure, so if something doesnt go right with the upper stage, then we can abort out of that and send the crew home safely, Gerstenmaier said.

Gerstenmaier said that they might lose the mission, but they can still protect the crew. He has asked the team performing the study to look how feasible that is.

It is going to be a risk balance, Hill said. Well take a look at the risk versus thebenefits. If we can fly the EM-2 profile on EM-1, that opens up EM-2 to do more because we have at least some experience and we can do more with that as opposed to the profile we earlier anticipated with flying crew on EM-2.

Additionally, Gerstenmaier said that they are looking at ways to reduce the risks associated with this prospective mission. One way would be to accelerate theAscent Abort-2 test to early 2019.

Other ways the SLS and Orion team has already been attempting to buy-down risk include testing hardware on board the International Space Station. There is a carbon dioxide removal system on the outpost that has been running for over 2,000 hours so far. Later, a waste management system will be sent to the orbiting laboratory for tests as well.

An artists rendering of the SLS being assembled inside the massive Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center, Florida. (Click to enlarge) Image Credit: NASA

We recognize this will be an increased risk, and we take that increased risk, and we take it against the benefits that we gain by doing this, and we say, hey, is that something thats worthwhile for us to go do?, Gerstenmaier said. Then we have an agency-wide discussion on whether this is the appropriate risk for us to take.

Gerstenmaier said that one of the main questions the study will be looking at is what the agency would gain by a crewed EM-1 flight. Does it significantly advance its overall capability to take people to the Moon regularly? He also said there are astronauts on the team that will be contributing directly to this discussion.

Knowing that adding crew to EM-1 will cause a delay from the current late 2018 launch date, Gerstenmaier said he arbitrarily limited the study to changes that would allow for a mission to launch no later than late 2019.

If it goes much beyond 2019, then basically the plan weve got today with EM-2 with [a]crew is probably as good of [a]plan as we have and theres not a tremendous advantage [to add crew to EM-1], Gerstenmaier said.

There was also an option of accelerating EM-2 instead of crewing EM-1, but that was ruled out because of the extensive changes to ground systems that would be needed. There simply isnt enough time between launching a 322-foot (98-meter) tall Block 1 SLS and the 364-foot (111-meter) tall Block 1B to change out the hardware.

Roughly 33 months is the minimum time between EM-1 and EM-2, Gerstenmaier said. Thats driven by the fact that we have to change the Mobile Launch Platform to accommodate the 40-foot taller rocket associated with EM-2.

Regardless of what the agency ultimately decides to do, however, Gerstenmaier said that this study gives NASA an opportunity to step back and evaluate what it is doing on EM-1.

This is a great opportunity for us to step back, reflect on what were doing, look at the overall plan again and see if [there are] any changes we want to make [while] moving forward, Gerstenmaier said.

Tagged: EM-1 EM-2 Lead Stories Moon NASA Orion Space Launch System

Derek Richardson is a student studying mass media with an emphasis in contemporary journalism at Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas. He is currently the managing editor of the student run newspaper, the Washburn Review. He also writes a blog, called Orbital Velocity, about the space station. His passion for space ignited when he watched space shuttle Discovery leap to space on Oct. 29, 1998. He saw his first in-person launch on July 8, 2011 when the space shuttle launched for the final time. Today, this fervor has accelerated toward orbit and shows no signs of slowing down. After dabbling in math and engineering courses in college, he soon realized that his true calling was communicating to others about space exploration and spreading that passion.

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EM-1 could become Apollo 8 for the 21st century - SpaceFlight Insider

STORY WRITTEN FORCBS NEWS& USED WITH PERMISSION

NASA managers said Friday they hope to know within a month or so whether it might be feasible or advisable to put two astronauts on board the first test flight of a huge 322-foot-tall Space Launch System super booster scheduled for its maiden launch late next year.

The study, requested by the Trump administration, already is underway, but William Hill, deputy associate administrator for Exploration Systems Development at NASA Headquarters, said major technical challenges will need to be resolved, and the agency will need more money to make it happen.

Its going to take a significant amount of money, and money that will be required fairly quickly to implement what we need to do, he told reporters. So its a question of how we refine the funding levels and the phasing of the funding for the next three years and see where it comes out.

If the feasibility study doesnt pan out, he said, we still have a very exciting mission.

The current plan calls for launching a Block 1 SLS rocket in late 2018 Exploration Mission 1, or EM-1 to boost an unpiloted Orion capsule on a three-week flight beyond the moon and back to a high-speed re-entry and splashdown.

EM-2, featuring an astronaut crew, would be launched atop a Block 1B SLS rocket in the late 2021 timeframe. Unlike the EM-1 rocket, the Block 1B version of the SLS would feature a more powerful, human-rated exploration upper stage, or EUS.

The long-range plan, with its roots in the Obama administration, is to use the SLS to send astronauts beyond the moon in the mid 2020s, first to rendezvous with a robotically retrieved asteroid, or chunk of an asteroid, and then to orbit Mars in the 2030s.

The long gap between the SLSs initial test flight and the piloted EM-2 mission, driven in large part by NASAs budget and a variety of technical hurdles, has raised concerns in some quarters about maintaining public and congressional support in a program with years between flights and competing demands on agency funding.

President Trumps transition team asked NASA to look into the possibility of either moving EM-2 earlier or adding astronauts to EM-1. Hill said the latter option was more realistic than the former because of major infrastructure modifications that will be needed to support the larger Block 1B SLS.

But there are major technical challenges with speeding up Orion development for an earlier-than-panned human mission.

We know there are certain systems that needed to be added to EM-1 to add crew, said Bill Gerstenmaier, director of space operations at NASA Headquarters, including a life support system, a waste management system, operational cockpit displays and an operational abort system, all big-ticket items.

In addition, the interim upper stage used by the Block 1 SLS is not certified for human flights. While a similar stage has flown flawlessly atop Delta 4 rockets, additional tests would be required and procedures put in place to ensure crew safety if a malfunction occurs.

So we have a good, crisp list of all the things we would physically have to change from a hardware standpoint, Gerstenmaier said. Then we asked the team to take a look at what additional tests would be needed to add crew, what the additional risk would be, and then we also wanted the teams to talk about the benefits of having crew on the first flight.

The risk-benefit trade will be a crucial element of the review. NASAs Aerospace Advisory Panel met Thursday and in a statement, chairwoman Patricia Sanders cautioned the agency not to pursue an early piloted mission without strong technical justification.

NASA should provide a compelling rationale, in terms of benefits gained in return for accepting additional risk, and fully and transparently acknowledge the tradeoffs being made, she said. If the benefits warrant assumption of additional risk, we expect NASA to clearly and openly articulate their decision process and rationale.

In a Feb. 17 memo to agency employees, acting Administrator Robert Lightfoot raised the possibility of adding astronauts to Exploration Mission-1.

I know the challenges associated with such a proposition, like reviewing the technical feasibility, additional resources needed, and clearly the extra work would require a different launch date, he wrote. That said, I also want to hear about the opportunities it could present to accelerate the effort of the first crewed flight and what it would take to accomplish that first step of pushing humans farther into space.

The SLS-Orion missions, coupled with those promised from record levels of private investment in space, will help put NASA and America in a position to ensure this nations world preeminence in exploring the cosmos, he wrote.

In its initial configuration, the SLS Block 1 rocket will be made up of two shuttle-heritage five-segment solid-fuel boosters provided by Orbital ATK and a huge first stage powered by four hydrogen-burning RS-25 space shuttle main engines built by Aerojet Rocketdyne.

The Block 1 version features an interim upper stage derived from United Launch Alliances Delta 4 rocket powered by a single hydrogen-fueled Aerojet Rocketdyne RL-10B2 engine.

Even in its initial configuration, the giant SLS rocket will generate a ground-shaking 8.8 million pounds of thrust 15 percent more than NASAs legendary Saturn 5 moon rocket enough to boost the 5.75 million-pound rocket out of the dense lower atmosphere. Together with the second stage engine, the SLS Block 1 will be able to put 154,000 pounds into low-Earth orbit.

NASA eventually plans to build a Block 2 version of the SLS feature advanced strap-on boosters with a liftoff thrust of 9.2 million pounds.

Gerstenmaier said the agency was not under any political pressure to put astronauts aboard EM-1, saying this is something well go evaluate and well see what the results look like coming out the other side.

But it will not be easy. To convert the EM-1 Orion into a piloted version, life support and other critical systems will be required, along with extensive testing, adding to the missions price tag and inevitably delaying the flight. The flight would be limited to two astronauts on a free-return trajectory around the moon lasting eight to nine days.

Gerstenmaier said if the study shows the Orion spacecraft cannot be prepared for flight before the end of 2019 it likely would make more sense to stick with the original timeline and fly EM-1 uncrewed.

NASAs current deep space exploration program has its roots in presidential politics and agendas dating back to the shuttle Columbias destruction during re-entry in 2003.

In the wake of the disaster, the Bush administration directed NASA to finish the International Space Station and retire the shuttle by the end of the decade and to focus instead on building new rockets and spacecraft for a return to the moon in the early 2020s. Antarctica-style moon bases were envisioned as both a science initiative and as stepping stones to eventual flights to Mars.

NASA came up with the Constellation program and began designing a new Saturn 5-class super rocket to boost lunar modules and habitats to the moon, along with a smaller rocket to carry astronauts to low-Earth orbit. The crew capsule was called Orion and the plan was to link up with the lunar lander/habitat in Earth orbit and then head for the moon.

After the 2008 presidential campaign, President Barack Obama ordered a review of NASAs human space program. A presidential panel concluded Constellation was over budget and unsustainable, suggesting instead that NASA adopt a flexible path architecture, bypassing the moon in favor of a manned flight to an asteroid and an eventual flight to orbit Mars.

The Obama administrations Office of Science and Technology Policy ultimately approved a two-tiered approach to human spaceflight. It retained the Constellation programs Orion capsule, built by Lockheed Martin, and ordered NASA to build a single large rocket what became the Space Launch System for deep space exploration.

At the same time, the agency has awarded contracts to Boeing and SpaceX to develop piloted spacecraft, on a commercial basis, to ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station. The idea is to encourage private industry to develop low-Earth orbit while NASA focuses on deep space exploration.

More recently, the Obama administration specified an asteroid retrieval mission to robotically haul a small asteroid, or part of one, back to the vicinity of the moon for hands-on exploration by astronauts aboard an Orion spacecraft. Such missions would set the stage for an Orion, attached to a habitation module of some sort, to make an eventual flight to orbit Mars or its moons.

NASA staged a successful uncrewed test flight of the Orion capsule using a Delta 4 rocket in December 2014. Known as Exploration Flight Test 1, or EFT-1, the heavily instrumented Orion capsule was boosted into an orbit with a high point of about 3,600 miles above the Earth. From there, the spacecraft plunged back to Earth, hitting the atmosphere at some 20,000 mph to test its heat shield and other safety systems.

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NASA studying whether to add astronauts to first launch of new super booster - Spaceflight Now

Jose Flores

February 25th, 2017

Aerojet Rocketdyne tests its staged-combustion rocket engine, the AR1, at NASAs Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. Photo Credit: Aerojet Rocketdyne

Aerojet Rocketdyne set the record for the highest chamber pressure of any United States-produced liquid oxygen and kerosene main combustion system during a Feb. 22, 2017, test at NASAs Stennis Space Center.

The record was set during a series of successful test firings of theAR1sstaged combustion system.This particular testcombined the engines preburner with the main injector in order to validate injector design parameters and performance.

Staged-combustion testing is a critical step in proving our design for AR1 and reestablishing U.S. preeminence in hydrocarbon space launch propulsion, said Aerojet Rocketdyne CEO and President Eileen Drake in a press release.

Drake said Aerojet Rocketdyne has been working on the engine program since 2014 and remains on target to deliver a flight-qualified engine in 2019.

The latest testing validates our flight design and provides high confidence as we move further into AR1 engine manufacturing, Drake said.

Both Aerojet Rocketdyne with its AR1 and Blue Origin with its BE-4 engine are working toward developing oxidizer-rich staged-combustion engines to end U.S. reliance on Russian-made RD-180 rocket engines. Establishing independence from the Russian engineis becoming increasingly important as relations between the two countriesremain strained.

AR1 is the lowest risk, lowest cost and fastest path to end U.S. reliance on Russian engines for the launch of Americas national security and civil space missions, Drake said.

The AR1 is a 500,000-pound (2,200-kilonewton) thrust-class liquid-oxygen/kerosene engine and is slated to be completed in 2019.

Tagged: Aerojet Rocketdyne AR1 Lead Stories RD-180 Stennis Space Center

College student and long time space enthusiast, Jose has been a constant visitor to Cape Canaveral since he moved to central Florida. He joined the SFI team in the hopes of becoming more involved in the coverage of spaceflight and space exploration.

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Aerojet Rocketdyne conducts record setting AR1 test - SpaceFlight Insider

Jim Siegel

February 25th, 2017

Kennedy Space Centers Ismael Otero explains how the 2.8-million-gallon (10.6-million-liter) thermal energy storage tank in the background lowers energy costs within the complex by storing water that is chilled during off-peak nighttime hours to be later used to cool buildings during the daytime. The project was originally proposed by an intern a few years ago and construction was completed in Fall 2016. The large silver pipes shown behind Otero on either side of the tank carry the chilled water to and from the chiller building located about just a few yards to his right. Photo Credit: Jim Siegel / SpaceFlight Insider

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. NASA is currently working under an initiative to better utilize the energy that helps power the locations facilities. This includes a large thermal energy storage tank that was recently installed.

In contrast to most home central air conditioning systems that use a refrigerant to cool air, large commercial buildings and office parks often use chilled water as a coolant to cool and dehumidify interior environments.

Kennedy Space Centerscooling system includes a large central chiller building that uses electricity to chill water that is then pumped to most of the buildings in the complex. The water returns to the chiller to be again cooled, a closed-loop process that constantly operates to provide a comfortable interior work area for employees.

As explained in a press briefing by KSC project manager Ismael Otero, the complex recently installed a large 2.8-million-gallon (10.6-million-liter) thermal energy storage tank outside the chiller building. This allows KSC to store water to be chilled during off-peak nighttime hours for use during the day when electricity costs are higher.

The 90-foot (27-meter) high tank has concrete walls that are up to 10 inches (25 centimeters) thick and is coated with a tough external foam membrane to minimize the warming effects of the hot Florida sun.

The Thermal Energy Storage Tank Project, one of many at KSC aimed at improving energy and environmental efficiency, saves about a quarter of a million dollars annually in energy costs, Otero said.

Furthermore, the project also earned a $1.5 million rebate from Florida Power & Light. That rebate, in turn, is funding other energy saving projects funds within the KSC complex. Most notably, according to Dan Clark of the NASA Sustainability Team, is an initiative to replace over a hundred external lights with amber LED lights, which has a wavelength invisible to sea turtles.

Young sea turtles become disoriented by conventional nighttime lighting, Clark said.

The new LED lights will contribute to maintaining an eco-friendly environment for these and other creatures that share KSC with NASA.

Tagged: Kennedy Space Center Kilowatts and Sea Turtles: NASA's Thermal Energy Storage Project NASA The Range

Jim Siegel comes from a business and engineering background, as well as a journalistic one. He has a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University, an MBA from the University of Michigan, and executive certificates from Northwestern University and Duke University. Jim got interested in journalism in 2002. As a resident of Celebration, FL, Disneys planned community outside Orlando, he has written and performed photography extensively for the Celebration Independent and the Celebration News. He has also written for the Detroit News, the Indianapolis Star, and the Northwest Indiana Times (where he started his newspaper career at age 11 as a paperboy). Jim is well known around Celebration for his photography, and he recently published a book of his favorite Celebration scenes. Jim has covered the Kennedy Space Center since 2006. His experience has brought a unique perspective to his coverage of first, the space shuttle Program, and now the post-shuttle era, as US space exploration accelerates its dependence on commercial companies. He specializes in converting the often highly technical aspects of the space program into contexts that can be understood and appreciated by average Americans.

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Kilowatts and Sea Turtles: NASA's Thermal Energy Storage Project - SpaceFlight Insider

Laurel Kornfeld

February 25th, 2017

Using the Gran Telescopio CANARIAS in Spain, for the first time, the dynamical properties of asteroids 2004 VN112 and 2013 RF98were observed spectroscopically. The data suggest a possible common origin and gives a clue to the possible existence of a large planet deep in the Kuiper Belt.Image Credit: IAC

Observations of two extreme trans-Neptunian objects (ETNOs) suggest they were once part of a binary asteroid system that was perturbed by one or more undiscovered super-Earth planets that may still be lurking even further in the outer Solar System.

A team of researchers at the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC) and at Complutense University of Madrid, both in Spain, conducted spectroscopic observations of ETNOs 2004 VN112 and 2013 RF98, faint asteroids that orbit more than 150 astronomical units (AU) from the Sun. One AU is equal to the average Earth-Sun distance of about 93 million miles (150 million kilometers).

Approximately 21 ETNOs in similar orbits have been discovered since 2000.Because these objectsorbits have similar dynamical parameters, several scientists recently proposed they are being perturbed by one or more massive planets orbiting the Sun as far as 700 AU.

Last year Mike Brown and Konstantin Batygin at Caltech predicted the existence of one super-Earth at around 700 AU based on the orbits of seven of the 21 known ETNOs.

The hypothesized outer solar system planet is referred to by some scientists as Planet Nineand by others as Planet X. The latter is the conventional term used to refer to theorized but undiscovered objects.

Using the OSIRIS spectrograph on the Gran Telescopio CANARIAS (GTC), the research team, in cooperation with astronomers Gianluca Lombardi and Ricardo Scarpa, observed the two faint asteroids, successfully determined their apparent magnitudes, identified their compositions, and then refined the orbit of 2013 RF98.

Several striking similarities were found between the two objects. Their spectra used to determine whether their surfaces have ices, silicates, and highly processed carbon compounds were practically identical and very similar to those of two other ETNOs:2000 CR105and 2012 VP113.

The similar spectral gradients observed for the pair 2004 VN112[and]2013 RF98 suggests a common physical origin, said. Julia de Leon, the lead author of a paper on the findings published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. We are proposing the possibility that they were previously a binary asteroid which became unbound during an encounter with a more massive object

Sedna, the only other ETNO to have been spectroscopically observed, did not match the other four and is believed to have a different origin, having likely come from the inner Oort Cloud.

All five are among the seven ETNOs whose orbits led Brown and Batygin to hypothesize the existence of a distant, more massive planet.

To test the theory that these two objects were once partners in a binary asteroid system, the researchers conducted numerous computer simulations measuring how the poles of their orbits would separate once perturbation by a larger object pulled them apart.

The simulations supported the notion that a 10 to 20 Earth-mass planet orbiting between 300 and 600 AU from the Sun could have separated the two asteroids approximately five million to 10 million years ago.

A sequence of images taken with the Gran Telescopio Canarias to identify one of the ETNOs studied, 2013 RF98. The left image shows how the asteroid moved during four consecutive nights. On the right is the visible spectra obtained with the GTC of the two objects, 2004 VN112 and 2013 RF98. The red lines show the gradients of the spectra. Image Credit: Julia de Len / IAC

Tagged: 2004 VN112 2013 RF98 extreme trans-neptunian objects Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias Planet nine Planet X Sedna The Range

Laurel Kornfeld is an amateur astronomer and freelance writer from Highland Park, NJ, who enjoys writing about astronomy and planetary science. She studied journalism at Douglass College, Rutgers University, and earned a Graduate Certificate of Science from Swinburne Universitys Astronomy Online program. Her writings have been published online in The Atlantic, Astronomy magazines guest blog section, the UK Space Conference, the 2009 IAU General Assembly newspaper, The Space Reporter, and newsletters of various astronomy clubs. She is a member of the Cranford, NJ-based Amateur Astronomers, Inc. Especially interested in the outer solar system, Laurel gave a brief presentation at the 2008 Great Planet Debate held at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab in Laurel, MD.

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Data on 2 distant asteroids tease possibility of massive planet - SpaceFlight Insider