Archive for commercial space

NASA seeks to lease or sell space shuttle facilities

By alkaon on January 7, 2013 No Comments

ORLANDO, Fla. — Does anyone need a 15,000-foot landing strip? How about a place to assemble rocket ships? Or a parachute-packing plant? A launchpad?

Make us an offer, says NASA, which is quietly holding a going-out-of-business sale for the facilities used by its space shuttle program.

The last shuttle flight was in July 2011, when Atlantis made its final touchdown. That orbiter, like its sisters Discovery and Endeavour, is now a museum piece. As soon as some remaining cleanup is finished at Kennedy Space Center, the shuttle program will be history.

That has prompted NASA to advertise a long list of space center facilities and equipment available for use, lease or, in some cases, purchase by the right business.

Among them: Launchpad 39A, where shuttles took off; space in the Vehicle Assembly Building, the 526-foot-tall structure first used to assemble Saturn V-Apollo rockets; the Orbiter Processing Facilities, essentially huge garages where the shuttles were maintained; Hangar N and its high-tech test equipment; the launch control center; and various other buildings and chunks of undeveloped property.

A lot of the stuff needs to be transferred by the end of 2013, when federal maintenance money will run out. When it does, machinery will start to rust, and buildings will deteriorate in the harsh coastal-marsh environment of Cape Canaveral.

“We have a lot of things in discussion, realizing that these major facilities have been funded by the space shuttle program,” said Joyce Riquelme, NASA’s director of planning and development at the space center. “And the facilities out here can’t be in an abandoned state for long before they become unusable. So we’re in a big push over the next few months to either have agreements for these facilities or not.”

The process is mostly secret because NASA has agreed to let bidders make their proposals out of the view of competitors and the public. NASA has at times published official notices seeking proposals and spelled out that they should be space-related, although the agency will consider alternative uses.

But information about who wants to do what may not be revealed until agency officials select finalists.

“The first deals should start coming together in the next six months. We look at what’s available, the prospects for commercial space businesses moving into Kennedy facilities and the possible effects on the space center,” Riquelme said.

Space Florida, the state’s public-private space agency, has made proposals for some of the facilities. Its president, Frank DiBello, thinks the most attractive are those that can support launches that don’t use the existing pads at the space center and adjacent Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

DiBello said value would be set by the marketplace. And NASA’s success will be driven by whether there is an economically viable future for commercial space, as he hopes there is. Various facilities at the center, such as one with satellite processing capabilities, “have a real value for the next generation of space activity,” DiBello said.

But some facilities, such as the launchpads, might not attract interest, he said. Companies may prefer to build their own, tailored to their rockets.

Space Florida wants to play go-between, bringing commercial space companies to the center, so it has put together proposals for some of the facilities, including the shuttle landing strip.

NASA already has deals with Space Florida and Boeing, which is leasing one of the shuttle garages. Boeing, under a Space Florida contract, intends to assemble and refurbish its planned CST-100 capsules that might be used to take up to seven astronauts at a time to the International Space Station.

Boeing also has a partnership with Bigelow Aerospace, which is seeking to build and launch its own space stations.

smpowers@tribune.com

Article source: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-nasa-sale-20130107,0,921008.story

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Space Station Arm "Tames" Dragon Capsule—SpaceX Docking Is a First

By alkaon on October 11, 2012 No Comments

For the second time in five months, the commercial rocket company SpaceX has successfully docked its Dragon capsule at the International Space Station (ISS)—this time on its first official cargo run under a supply contract with NASA.

“Looks like we’ve tamed the Dragon,” station commander Sunita Williams, a U.S. Navy officer, told controllers on the ground after the ISS’s robotic arm had grabbed the unmanned craft just before 7 a.m. ET, accomplished with the assistance of Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshideh. (Related: “Robot Arm to Grab Robotic Ship—A Space Station First.”)

“We’re happy she’s on board with us.”

SpaceX’s Dragon—the first and only commercial spacecraft to berth at the station—made contact with the station 252 miles (406 kilometers) above Earth. The capsule is packed with nearly a thousand pounds (450 kilograms) of essential supplies and gear, as well some arguably nonessential chocolate-vanilla swirl ice cream and, for a school science experiment, some Silly Putty.

High-flying SpaceX, founded by PayPal co-founder Elon Musk, won a nearly U.S. $1.6 billion contract with NASA in 2008 to supply the space station via a dozen flights in the years ahead.

Unlike any government-owned capsules supplying the ISS, the SpaceX Dragon is designed to return intact to Earth, and so can be used as a two-way ferry. The capsule brought back 1,300 pounds (590 kilograms) of science experiments and space hardware after its test berthing in May and will do the same later this month.

SpaceX Contract an Investment in the Future?

Today’s first formal berthing at the International Space Station under the NASA cargo-supply contract was broadly cheered as a milestone, and perhaps a harbinger of much more to come.

“I think it would be fair to say the successful docking under the NASA contract is parallel to the early days of the commercial airline industry,” said John Logsdon, space policy emeritus professor at George Washington University and longtime NASA adviser.

“The government paid airline owners to deliver the mail and gave the early industry the financial support it needed to grow,” he said. “Clearly, NASA is hoping the same will happen here—that giving commercial space companies contracts to supply the space station will act as a huge boost to the early commercial space industry.”

In a statement issued after the berthing, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said: “This marks the start of a new era of exploration for the United States, one where we will reduce the cost of missions to low-Earth orbit so we can focus our resources on deep-space human missions back around the moon, to an asteroid, and eventually to Mars.”

While SpaceX is the only commercial rocket company to fly to the International Space Station so far, several others—including Orbital Sciences, Boeing, Sierra Nevada, and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin—are developing systems to carry cargo and ultimately crew as well.

The push to have private companies handle some of the basic space transport to the ISS began under U.S. President George W. Bush but picked up steam under President Obama—often against strong opposition from legislators in the U.S. Congress, who were largely concerned with NASA job losses and crew safety.

Mars or Bust?

With three successful Dragon launches now and two berthings at the ISS, the viability of commercial space transport is by all accounts improving. Nonetheless, Musk, speaking before Sunday’s launch, said it’s too soon to consider the SpaceX launches routine.

His assessment was soon proved correct during takeoff with the failure of one of the nine Falcon 9 rockets intended to boost Dragon beyond Earth’s atmosphere. But the lapse didn’t affect the launch, SpaceX officials said, because the propulsion system was designed to launch without all rockets firing, as are those commissioned by NASA.

The importance of SpaceX and the other commercial space companies that will follow grew substantially after NASA retired the last of the space shuttles in 2011. Without the shuttle, the United States has had no way to ferry cargo or crew to and from the station, and has purchased rides from Russia and Japan as well as from European operators.

Illustrating that reality, the Dragon capsule is currently docked next to the Russian Soyuz spacecraft that brought commander Williams and others to the station and will bring them back to Earth. Next to the Soyuz was an automated Russian craft, a Progress cargo ship.

Originally sceduled to be opened for unloading on Thursday, the Dragon capsule’s hatch was instead unlocked at 1:40 p.m. ET Wednesday. ISS crew members had raced through post-berthing procedures, NASA explained.

After several weeks, the capsule is to return to Earth with a parachute-assisted splashdown in the Pacific Ocean on October 28.

While the main focus of SpaceX has been the effort to bring cargo—and within a few years, astronauts as well—to the space station, CEO Musk’s ambitions are far larger. He got into the space business, he’s said, with the ultimate goal of building rockets to carry substantial numbers of people to Mars.

More: Will SpaceX send humans to Mars?

Author of the National Geographic e-book Mars Landing 2012, Marc Kaufman has been a journalist for more than 35 years, including the past 12 as a science and space writer, foreign correspondent, and editor for the Washington Post. He is also author of First Contact: Scientific Breakthroughs in the Hunt for Life Beyond Earth, published in 2011, and has spoken extensively to crowds across the United States and abroad about astrobiology. He lives outside Washington, D.C., with his wife, Lynn Litterine.

Article source: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/10/121010-spacex-international-space-station-nasa-dragon-science-hatch/

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NASA chief Bolden says criticism of agency’s direction ‘undermines our nation …

By alkaon on September 20, 2012 No Comments

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NASA Administrator Charles Bolden dismissed rumors that the future of U.S. space exploration is in jeopardy and rejected speculation that his agency has no plans for future human spaceflight.

“Those who perpetuate that myth only hurt the space program,” Bolden told businessmen, academics and journalists Tuesday afternoon at the National Press Club.

“Such talk undermines our nation’s goals at a very critical time,” he said. “The truth is we have an ambitious series of deep space destinations we plan to explore and we are hard at work exploring the hardware and the technologies to get us there.”

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said the agency is in ‘relatively good shape’ financially, mostly thanks to the discontinuation of the space shuttle program. (Al Behrman/AP)

Bolden’s remarks came after he was awarded the International Public Service Award by the Word Affairs Council of Washington.

Though he is still waiting for Congress to adopt a budget for 2013, Bolden said NASA is in “relatively good shape” financially, crediting the discontinuation of the space shuttle program, which he said cost the administration $2 billion just to maintain.

NASA’s requested budget for the 2013 fiscal year comes to a little more than $17.71 billion, a decrease of about $60 million from this 2012 estimated budget. The biggest decrease in the requested budget is in the space operations section, accounting for a $173.8 million cut, thanks to nearly $500 million being shaved off from this year’s space shuttle budget.

“If you look at what we do for the money that we get I think we’re doing very well,” he said. “The prospect for the future is good unless your a pessimist and you believe that the people we hire, that we elect to run the government won’t rise to the occasion and  run the government. But I’m an eternal optimist.”

The future of NASA’s budget remains a question heading into potentially a new presidential administration. Bolden said he has not given much thought to the idea of a Mitt Romney White House, saying that he “loves” and “admires” President Barack Obama, who in 2009 chose Bolden to be NASA’s 12th administrator.

Texas Republicans have been critical of the Obama’s space flight priorities and complain that he has tilted toward Florida, a swing state in presidential election, at the expense of heavily Republican Texas.

Last month, in an online discussion forum hosted by the website reddit.com, Obama voiced his support for the space program, calling it a priority for his administration.

“The key is to make sure that we invest in cutting edge research that can take us to the next level – so even as we continue work with the international space station, we are focused on a potential mission to a asteroid as a prelude to a manned Mars flight,” Obama said in response to a question.

Romney has yet to take a firm stance on the future of NASA and space exploration.

With officials of private spaceflight companies such as SpaceX and Lockheed Martin in attendance, Bolden said he welcomed advancements in commercial space flight and “anything that brings jobs and income into the economy.”

He also expressed support for private flights and privately owned space stations for tourist purposes.

“Commercial space is not a national priority, it is an imperative,” he said. “NASA can’t go to the exploration that we want to do if we don’t have a viable, sustainable commercial space program with US capability to get humans into orbit.”

PHOTOS: Selected images from the career of NASA Administrator Charles Bolden accepted the International Public Service Award from the World Affairs Council of Washington, D.C., on Tuesday at the National Press Club.









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Article source: http://blog.chron.com/txpotomac/2012/09/nasa-administrator-charles-bolden-criticism-of-agencys-direction-undermines-our-nations-goals-at-very-critical-time/

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NASA Administrator Announces New Commercial Crew And Cargo Milestones

By alkaon on August 26, 2012 No Comments

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden announced Thursday new milestones in the nation’s commercial space initiatives from the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The latest advances made by NASA’s commercial space partners pave the way for the first contracted flight of cargo to the International Space Station (ISS) this fall and mark progress toward a launch of astronauts from U.S. soil in the next 5 years.

Bolden announced Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) has completed its Space Act Agreement with NASA for Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS). SpaceX is scheduled to launch the first of its 12 contracted cargo flights to the space station from Cape Canaveral in October, under NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services Program.

“We’re working to open a new frontier for commercial opportunities in space and create job opportunities right here in Florida and across the United States,” Bolden said. “And we’re working to in-source the work that is currently being done elsewhere and bring it right back here to the U.S. where it belongs.”

Through the COTS program, NASA provides investments to stimulate the American commercial space industry. As part of its COTS partnership, SpaceX became the first commercial company to resupply the space station in May, successfully launching its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft to the orbiting complex.

During the historic mission, the Dragon was captured by astronauts using the station’s robot arm, unloaded and safely returned to Earth carrying experiments conducted aboard ISS. Later this winter, Orbital Sciences Corp. plans to carry out its first test flight under COTS.

Bolden also announced NASA partner Sierra Nevada Corp. has conducted its first milestone under the agency’s recently announced Commercial Crew integrated Capability (CCiCap) initiative.

The milestone, a program implementation plan review, marks an important first step in Sierra Nevada’s efforts to develop a crew transportation system with its Dream Chaser spacecraft.

CCiCap is an initiative of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program (CCP) and an Obama administration priority. The objective of the CCP is to facilitate the development of a U.S. commercial crew space transportation capability with the goal of achieving safe, reliable and cost-effective access to and from the space station and low Earth orbit.

After the capability is matured, it is expected to be available to the government and other customers. NASA could contract to purchase commercial services to meet its station crew transportation needs later this decade.

While NASA works with U.S. industry partners to develop commercial spaceflight capabilities, the agency also is developing the Orion spacecraft and the Space Launch System (SLS), a crew capsule and heavy-lift rocket to provide an entirely new capability for human exploration.

Designed to be flexible for launching spacecraft for crew and cargo missions, SLS and Orion will expand human presence beyond low Earth orbit and enable new missions of exploration across the solar system.

Article source: http://www.space-travel.com/reports/NASA_Administrator_Announces_New_Commercial_Crew_And_Cargo_Milestones_999.html

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NASA Administrator Announces New Commercial Crew And Cargo Milestones

By alkaon on August 25, 2012 No Comments

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., Aug. 23, 2012 — /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ – NASA Administrator Charles Bolden announced Thursday new milestones in the nation’s commercial space initiatives from the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The latest advances made by NASA’s commercial space partners pave the way for the first contracted flight of cargo to the International Space Station (ISS) this fall and mark progress toward a launch of astronauts from U.S. soil in the next 5 years.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO)

Bolden announced Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) has completed its Space Act Agreement with NASA for Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS). SpaceX is scheduled to launch the first of its 12 contracted cargo flights to the space station from Cape Canaveral in October, under NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services Program.

“We’re working to open a new frontier for commercial opportunities in space and create job opportunities right here in Florida and across the United States,” Bolden said. “And we’re working to in-source the work that is currently being done elsewhere and bring it right back here to the U.S. where it belongs.”

Through the COTS program, NASA provides investments to stimulate the American commercial space industry. As part of its COTS partnership, SpaceX became the first commercial company to resupply the space station in May, successfully launching its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft to the orbiting complex. During the historic mission, the Dragon was captured by astronauts using the station’s robot arm, unloaded and safely returned to Earth carrying experiments conducted aboard ISS. Later this winter, Orbital Sciences Corp. plans to carry out its first test flight under COTS.

Bolden also announced NASA partner Sierra Nevada Corp. has conducted its first milestone under the agency’s recently announced Commercial Crew integrated Capability (CCiCap) initiative. The milestone, a program implementation plan review, marks an important first step in Sierra Nevada’s efforts to develop a crew transportation system with its Dream Chaser spacecraft.

CCiCap is an initiative of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program (CCP) and an Obama administration priority. The objective of the CCP is to facilitate the development of a U.S. commercial crew space transportation capability with the goal of achieving safe, reliable and cost-effective access to and from the space station and low Earth orbit. After the capability is matured, it is expected to be available to the government and other customers. NASA could contract to purchase commercial services to meet its station crew transportation needs later this decade.

While NASA works with U.S. industry partners to develop commercial spaceflight capabilities, the agency also is developing the Orion spacecraft and the Space Launch System (SLS), a crew capsule and heavy-lift rocket to provide an entirely new capability for human exploration. Designed to be flexible for launching spacecraft for crew and cargo missions, SLS and Orion will expand human presence beyond low Earth orbit and enable new missions of exploration across the solar system.

For more information about NASA’s commercial space initiatives and programs, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/commercial

For more information about the present and future of American human spaceflight, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/exploration

SOURCE NASA

Article source: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/08/23/4751504/nasa-administrator-announces-new.html

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NASA announces new commercial space milestones

By alkaon on August 24, 2012 No Comments

Charles BoldenNASA Administrator Charles Bolden Thursday announced new milestones in the nation’s commercial space initiatives from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station near the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. (NASA)CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida — NASA Administrator Charles Bolden announced that two commercial space companies – SpaceX and Sierra Nevada Corp. — have reached milestones in the race to supply and staff the International Space Station.

Bolden said SpaceX has completed its Space Act Agreement with NASA for Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS). SpaceX will launch the first of 12 contracted cargo flights to the station in October, Bolden said.

Sierra Nevada has reached the first milestone under NASA’s new program known as the Commercial Crew Integrated Capability initiative (CCiCap). The milestone reached was a successful “program implementation plan review.”

“We’re working to open a new frontier for commercial opportunities in space and create job opportunities right here in Florida and across the United States,” Bolden said in Florida Thursday. “And we’re working to in-source the work that is currently being done elsewhere and bring it right back here to the U.S. where it belongs.”

 I cover NASA and space for The Huntsville Times and al.com. Follow me on Twitter @leeroop and email me at lee.roop@htimes.com.

Article source: http://blog.al.com/space-news/2012/08/nasa_announces_new_commercial.html

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Virgin Galactic rocket to carry satellites

By alkaon on July 12, 2012 No Comments

A concept illustration shows Virgin Galactic's LauncherOne rocket deploying beneath the WhiteKnightTwo mothership. This image was released Tuesday.Sir Richard Branson, the billionaire founder of the private space tourism company Virgin Galactic, unveiled plans Wednesday to add satellite launches to its list of commercial space services, with the first flights to blast off in 2016.

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NASA: Space Flight Authority names new leader

By alkaon on June 30, 2012 No Comments

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WALLOPS ISLAND — The Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority has named a new executive director ahead of legislative changes aimed at boosting the group’s efforts to promote commercial space activity, economic development and aerospace research at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Virginia’s Eastern Shore.

Dale K. Nash, CEO of Alaska Aerospace, will take the helm beginning July 31, the authority’s board of directors said Wednesday. He will replace Billie M. Reed, who has served as executive director since the authority was established in 1995 and has since worked with others to launch Virginia’s space industry to one that contributes $7.6 billion in annual direct economic output and supports more than 28,000 jobs.

Nash has spent nearly 30 years in the aerospace industry and has been directly involved in more than 60 space shuttle flights throughout his career. He previously spent 14 years working on NASA’s Space Shuttle/Human Space Flight programs as director of launch operations at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Nash’s experience will be a “tremendous boost” as the authority works to become the top commercial space port in the U.S. and create much-needed economic development and jobs, said Virginia Secretary of Transportation Sean T. Connaughton, whose office took oversight of the authority from the secretary of commerce and trade’s office last year.

The MARS spaceport is one of only four that is licensed by the FAA to launch rockets into orbit, but there are more than a dozen states that are either active or interested in commercial space activity, half of which have state-owned space authorities. The Virginia governor’s office wants the spaceport to help create highly skilled, high-paying jobs as part of a plan to generate economic development. Maryland and Virginia partnered in 2004 to enhance those economic development efforts.

A report commissioned by the Virginia Department of Transportation last year said the authority needs to undergo a series of changes if it wants to become more competitive with spaceports in other states. Among other things, the study called for turning the spaceport on Wallops Island into a multiuse facility and restructuring its board to make it more conducive for recruiting qualified personnel, business continuity or marketing its services.

Article source: http://www.delmarvanow.com/article/20120630/ESN01/206300346/NASA-Space-Flight-Authority-names-new-leader?odyssey=tab%7Ctopnews%7Ctext%7CEastern%20Shore%20News

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Reality TV Show On Mars To Follow Settlers? | Video

By alkaon on June 27, 2012 No Comments

Mars One, a private company in the Netherlands has reached out to commercial space companies to help settle Mars. To be funded by the what could be the biggest media event in history – A ‘big brother’ type show broadcast from Mars.

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NASA, FAA Collaborate On Commercial Space Travel

By alkaon on June 19, 2012 No Comments

NASA's Blue Marble: 50 Years Of Earth Imagery
(click image for larger view and for slideshow)

NASA and the FAA on Monday announced plans to work together on standards for commercial space travel, an attempt to avoid conflict and duplication of effort as private sector companies increasingly transport astronauts into low-Earth orbit and to the International Space Station.

The agencies reached a memorandum of understanding (MOU) based on their common, “interdependent” interests in ensuring that commercial space flights to the ISS are safe and effective. They agreed to share data and information in support of those goals.

The agreement follows last month’s launch and return of Space Exploration Technologies’ Dragon to the ISS, the first commercial spacecraft to make that roundtrip. A second SpaceX flight to the ISS is scheduled for August, to be followed by a test flight of Orbital Sciences’ Antares rocket later this year.

NASA has turned to the private sector to provide transportation services to the ISS, following the retirement of the Space Shuttle program in 2011 after 135 missions over 30 years. More than 60 companies are partners and suppliers to NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.

[ Government efforts in space are always changing. Read NASA Cancels GEMS, Readies NuSTAR Telescope. ]

The FAA is responsible for regulating U.S. companies involved in commercial space transportation, and it has licensed 207 commercial launches since 2004. Last month, Virgin Galactic announced that the FAA had issued an experimental launch permit to Scaled Composites for its suborbital spacecraft, SpaceshipTwo, and carrier aircraft, WhiteKnightTwo. In the spring, Virgin Galactic announced that it signed its 500th future passenger, actor Ashton Kutcher.

A report on the commercial space market, published recently by the FAA’s Commercial Space Transportation office and the Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee, forecasts an average of 29.1 commercial launches annually over the next 10 years, with just over half of those being for geosynchronous orbit satellites.

An FAA commercial space license is required for any launch or reentry within the United States, or operations conducted by U.S. companies outside of the U.S. The agency reviews applications for public safety, environmental impact, payload, national security or foreign policy issues, and insurance. The FAA also issues experimental permits for space flight research and development.

The Office of Management and Budget demands that federal agencies tap into a more efficient IT delivery model. The new Shared Services Mandate issue of InformationWeek Government explains how they’re doing it. Also in this issue: Uncle Sam should develop an IT savings dashboard that shows the returns on its multibillion-dollar IT investment. (Free registration required.)

Article source: http://www.informationweek.com/news/government/policy/240002238

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NASA Image of the day

An Astronaut's View from Station

 
A view of Earth as seen from the Cupola on the Earth-facing side of the International Space Station. Visible in the top left foreground is a Russian Soyuz crew capsule. In the lower right corner, a solar array panel can be seen. This photo was taken from the ISS on June 12, 2013. Image Credit: NASA
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