Lori Garver Is Leaving NASA
(Source: NASA Watch)
Sources report that NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver will leave
the agency in a few weeks to take a non-space job in the private
sector. A formal announcement is expected Tuesday. No word yet as to
who will replace her - or if a Deputy Administrator will even be named.
Dan Goldin managed to do without a formal "Deputy" for a decade. I am
not certain that the White House would want the distraction of a
confirmation hearing right now - one where any question about NASA
would be fair game for the nominee. Its more probable that they will
leave the position empty or make someone (like Associate Administrator
Robert Lightfoot) Acting Deputy Administrator for the time being and
punt on anything formal. (8/5)
SpaceX on a Roll (Source:
Parabolic Arc)
In poker terms, the California-based SpaceX now holds three of a
kind….three 5′s, that is. They’ve had 5 largely successful flights of
its Falcon 9 rocket (with one secondary payload placed in the wrong
orbit), 5 flights of the Grasshopper test bed, and 5 flights of the
Falcon 1 rocket with a pair of successes and a trio of failures. There
also have been four successful flights and recoveries of the Dragon
spacecraft. The company has 41 launches listed on its manifest through
2018. This list includes 10 Dragon cargo resupply missions for NASA to
the International Space Station and a number of commercial and
government satellites. Click here.
(8/5)
NASA Selects Atlas V for OSIRIS-REx
Launch From Cape Canaveral Spaceport (Source: SpaceRef)
NASA has selected United Launch Services (a contracting/sales arm of
ULA) to launch the Origins-Spectral Interpretation-Resource
Identification-Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft. The
OSIRIS-REx mission is scheduled to launch in September 2016 aboard an
Atlas V rocket from Launch Complex 41 at the Cape Canaveral Spaceport.
The task order contract is valued at about $183.5 million. This price
includes payload processing, integrated services, telemetry and other
launch support requirements. (8/5)
Spaceport America Readies to Welcome
Space Tourists (Source: Space.com)
Spread across 18,000 acres, Spaceport America continues to preen itself
here in anticipation of booming business as the world's first
purpose-built, commercial spaceport. The "fit-out" of the Spaceport
Operations Center continues at the site. New fire trucks and emergency
vehicles are now on station, and field maintenance activities are in
full swing. A runway extension effort is complete, now yielding a
12,000-foot "spaceway" to handle the projected comings and goings of
anchor tenant Virgin Galactic.
Spaceport America tours are treating ticket-holding visitors to
up-close-and-personal encounters with the sprawling complex, located
adjacent to the U.S. Army White Sands Missile Range in southern New
Mexico. Ongoing work continues to flesh out both on- and off-site
welcome centers, which are expected to be complete next year. Last May,
Spaceport America put out the welcome mat for a new tenant, SpaceX.
(8/2)
Doctor Who Fans Sending a Tardis Into
Orbit? (Source: Guardian)
What better way to celebrate 50 years of Doctor Who than by launching a
satellite the shape of the Tardis into a low-Earth orbit? Thus reasoned
Robert Doyle, a would-be film-maker from Florida, and his daughter
Alex. Then they got onto Kickstarter.
One month and 3,231 backers later they have exceeded their $33,000
target by $55,880, thanks to the enthusiasm of Whovians across the web.
A satellite kit from Interorbital Systems in California will now be
launched into space on one of its Neptune rockets as close as possible
to 23 November – the anniversary of Doctor Who's first broadcast
episode. Click here.
(8/5)
NASA Outlines its Plans for Commercial
Crew Certification (Source: NasaSpaceFlight.com)
In a recent conference with its industry partners, NASA outlined the
next phase of its strategy to enable the certification of commercial
crew transportation systems to and from the International Space Station
(ISS). The goal is to return domestic launch and transportation
capability by the year 2017. Phase 1 of the certification strategy, the
Certification Products Contract (CPC) phase, was awarded last December
to SpaceX, SNC and Boeing for amounts that did not exceed $10 million
per company.
This procurement contract is based on the Federal Acquisition
Regulations (FAR) and its deliverables include early life-cycle
certification products (alternate standards, hazards analysis, and
verification, validation, and certification plans). Phase 2 of the
strategy, the Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) phase,
should also be a FAR-based procurement contract – more specifically, it
should be a Firmed Fixed Price Contract under Part 15 of FAR. (8/5)
Does the Future of the Space Industry
Depend on Kickstarter? (Source: Mashable)
Chris Lewicki would've been perfectly happy with failure. His company's
high-reaching Kickstarter project, the ARKYD telescope, certainly had
the potential to oblige. With a $1 million funding goal, the
crowdfunded "space telescope for everyone" could have very publicly
fizzled out. "To say it directly and bluntly, we were completely ready
to put out all our ideas and have people be totally uninterested in
them," says Lewicki in a Skype interview. "And that would've been as
good of a result as success."
Of course, not all projects see the kind of success that the ARKYD or
the SkyCube experienced. GoldenSpike, a private company with the goal
of "sending countries and individuals to surface of the Moon before
2020," launched an Indiegogo campaign in February, seeking $240,000.
After 70 days, the project received less than 10% of its funding goal.
The difference between successful and unsuccessful campaigns is
engagement. Successful crowdfunding space projects offer even
lower-tier donators a chance to participate in space exploration, and
that makes all the difference. "It just allows us to engage more
directly with the rest of the planet on the exploration that we're
doing. It's letting people follow along and, in some cases, directly
participate," says Lewicki. (8/5)
Swimming Robot Tested for Billion-Mile
Trip to Saturn Moon (Source: National Geographic)
The glacier-fed Laguna Negra (map) in the Chilean Andes, where NASA and
SETI Institute scientists have been testing a floating robot whose
successors may eventually parachute into a sea on Titan, Saturn’s
largest moon. It’s not filled with liquid methane, nor is it -297
degrees Fahrenheit (-182 degrees Celsius), but otherwise Laguna Negra
does a passable impression of an alien sea. That’s because it’s
surrounded by a barren environment with a thin atmosphere and is
vulnerable to storms, avalanches, and possibly volcanoes.
Due to global warming, the glacial lake is also rapidly changing, ideal
circumstances for a robot being taught to recognize shifts in a fluid
environment. Titan has the distinction of being the only other body in
our solar system known to have stable liquid on its surface. That
liquid is mostly made of the gases methane and ethane, but the fact
that the moon has seas, lakes, rain, and glaciers make it closer to
Earth than anything else in our solar system. (8/5)
National Space Society Position on the
2014 NASA Budget (Source: NSS)
The Washington DC-based National Space Society (NSS) announced its
support of the 2014 Senate Authorization bill for NASA over the House
version, which contains substantial cuts to the NASA budget. Dr. Paul
Werbos, Chair of the NSS Policy Committee, said "The future of humans
in space, as well as NASA itself, is very much at stake and at risk in
current Congressional discussion." In particular, NSS urges full
budgetary support for Commercial Crew, Asteroid Return Mission, Space
Technology Program, Earth Science, Space Act Agreements, RLV Research,
and Exoplanet Studies. (8/5)
If You Set Out To Go To Mars, Go To
Mars! (Source: Space Review)
There is no shortage of proposals for exploration architectures that
lead to human missions to Mars. Harley Thronson, though, argues that
too many of these proposals feature distractions like Moon and asteroid
missions that make it unlikely they would succeed. Visit http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2345/1
to view the article. (8/5)
One Year After the Seven Minutes of
Terror: the State of Mars Exploration (Source: Space Review)
One year ago, NASA's Curiosity Mars rover successfully landed on Mars,
overcoming the "seven minutes of terror" to begin its mission of
studying the Red Planet. Jeff Foust examines how NASA's Mars
exploration program, as well as private efforts and overall public
interest, have evolved over the last year. Visit http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2344/1
to view the article. (8/5)
Back in Black (Source: Space
Review)
More than two years after the end of the last Space Shuttle mission,
it's tempting for some to seek comprehensive histories of the program.
Dwayne Day says there's still a lot to learn about the military uses of
the shuttle, although a few declassified documents are now shedding
some light. Visit http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2343/1
to view the article. (8/5)
NASA Policy Gets Partisan
(Source: Space Review)
NASA has traditionally been considered an issue that hasn't been
particularly partisan. However, Jeff Foust reports that this year is
different, with policy and spending bills for the space agency often
divided along party lines. Visit http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2342/1
to view the article. (8/5)
INSAT-3D and India's New Emphasis on
Meteorology (Source: Space Review)
Last month, India launched on a European rocket a next-generation
weather satellite. Ajey Lele discusses how this satellite fits into
expanded efforts by India to better predict the weather and understand
the implications of climate change. Visit http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2341/1
to view the article. (8/5)
As VAB Turns 50, Workers Prepare it
for Next Half Century (Source: Parabolic Arc)
Construction of the Vehicle Assembly Building, or VAB, at NASA’s
Kennedy Space Center began a half-century ago this summer. After
serving through the Apollo and Space Shuttle Programs, the mammoth
structure now is undergoing renovations to accommodate future launch
vehicles and to continue as a major part of America’s efforts to
explore space for another 50 years. Click here.
(8/4)
Becoming a Cosmonaut (Source:
Space Safety)
Cosmonaut selection criteria have been relaxed since the first manned
space mission in 1961. In 2011 the Federal Space Agency expanded the
hiring procedure to all Russians with a degree in higher education.
Previously the recruitment process for cosmonaut trainees was limited
to military pilots and engineers already employed in the space industry
as well as a small percentage of professional medics and scientists
from the Agency of Science.
To be eligible, the applicants cannot be older than 33 years, must meet
the physical requirements, must have higher education and five years’
experience working in this field, a good knowledge of Russian, English
and the basics of manned space flights, a high level of fitness, and a
thorough understanding of the history of space in Russia. Click here.
(8/4)
SLS: Building the Elephant
(Source: Space Safety)
Contrary to popular belief, expendable launch systems are not cheaper
to develop than reusable vehicles. In the 1960′s, General Dynamics did
a study comparing the development of the suborbital X-15 with an
expendable missile (Atlas A) of similar size and performance. General
Dynamics found that the X-15, although more complex and of higher
reliability, was about 30% cheaper to develop. A US Air Force study
conducted around the same time, using different methods, came to a
similar conclusion.
Even NASA’s Second Generation Reusable Launch Vehicle program, which
Dumbacher managed, provides evidence for this. The 2GRLV was
overdesigned and oversized for the market, but still, the estimated
development cost (using traditional NASA development methods) was only
around $5-6 billion — less than SLS or the Orion capsule. This is not
to say that NASA ought to build 2GRLV. If built, 2GRLV would fail to
meet its cost goals for the same reason the Space Shuttle did. Click here.
(8/4)
Aspiring Martian Colonists Land In
Washington (Source: Space.com)
A group of volunteers hoping to become the first human Martians
congregated in one spot for the first time Saturday (Aug. 3) to discuss
their hopes to join the Mars One mission, a project to send colonists
on a one-way trip to the Red Planet. Mars One CEO and co-founder Bas
Lansdorp addressed a crowd of about 50 Mars One applicants, almost all
male, in an auditorium here at George Washington University. The mood
at the event, which was webcast live, was something akin to a gamer's
LAN party — excited discussions blended with nerdy banter. But the
purpose was serious. Click here.
(8/4)
Roskosmos Plans 4-5 Launches of Proton
Before Yearend (Source: Itar-Tass)
Roskosmos plans to perform before the yearend 4-5 launches of Proton
rocket, Head of the Federal Space Agency, Roskosmos, Vladimir Popovkin
said. He said the first launch after the break following the accident
at Baikonur on July 2 will be with a foreign satellite. “A foreign
satellite was scheduled, so things will proceed as planned,” Popovkin
said. Roskosmos, plans to resume launches of Proton-M rockets in
September. (8/5)
Kazcosmos’s Subsidiary Chief Suspected
of Bribe Taking (Source: Itar-Tass)
President of Kazakhstan Garysh Sapary, a subsidiary of Kazakhstan’s
state-run space agency Kazcosmos, has been detained on suspicion of
bribery, the republic’s financial police said on Monday. Gabdulatif
Murzakulov is accused of lobbying interests of construction company
Kulager in 3 billion ruble tenders for the construction of a spaceship
testing complex. Financial police said he had received a bribe worth
$272,000 and 75.3 million tenge.
Mattel's Astronaut Barbie Becomes a
Mars Explorer with Help from NASA (Source: Collect Space)
A new collaboration between NASA and Mattel, the largest toy company in
the world, is turning the Red Planet a tad more pink. "Mars Explorer
Barbie," a new spacesuited version of the iconic fashion doll,
officially launched on Aug. 5 to coincide with the first anniversary of
NASA's Curiosity rover landing on Mars. Mars Explorer Barbie is
packaged with a cardboard cutout of the six-wheeled Mars Science
Laboratory, decked out in pink. Click here.
(8/5)
Kazakhstan Garysh Sapary is a state-run company, where a 100 percent
stake is owned by the government. It specializes in the development and
implementation of space programs, introduction of space technologies
and space system testing. (8/5)
The Human Side of Space Travel
(Source: ABC.net)
We’ve learned how to pee in space and how to prepare pre-packaged
meals, but if we’re serious about long distance inter-planetary travel,
there’s still a lot more we need to work out about the psychology and
physiology of living and working in zero-gravity. And as we’ll hear,
some of what we thought we knew about staying healthy in space could
actually prove counterproductive. Click here.
(8/5)
A 1980s Strategy for Comet Missions
(Source: WIRED)
One might ask whether we will dispatch a spacecraft to explore Comet
ISON; it is a fair question, given that we have launched spacecraft to
comets for nearly 30 years. Unfortunately, at today’s level of space
technology, it cannot be done. The very thing that makes Comet ISON so
interesting – that it is visiting the inner Solar System for the first
time – means that we lacked sufficient time to prepare a spacecraft to
visit it.
Robert Farquhar, an engineer at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
(GSFC) in suburban Washington, DC, was instrumental in planning the
1980 Comet Encke dual-probe flyby mission. He also participated as
Mission Definition Manager in GSFC’s Cometary Explorer study in 1973.
Farquhar saw his comet flyby mission series as a possible lead-in to
comet rendezvous missions, which would see a spacecraft match orbits
with a comet and fly formation with it for weeks, months, or even
years. Click here.
(8/5)
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