Archive for lori garver

Lori Garver of NASA answers questions in Reddit AMA

By alkaon on April 18, 2013 No Comments

Between Neil deGrasse Tyson’s impassioned defense of public-funded space exploration and the wildly popular Curiosity rover, NASA has managed to capture the hopes of a new generation even as it’s joined by private companies like SpaceX. The agency is already active on social media, but NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver will be taking things a step further with a Reddit AMA, answering questions starting at 2pm EDT today.

NASA has a number of projects on the table, and it’s recently announced plans to capture a near-Earth asteroid, bring it into stable orbit around the Moon, and send an astronaut to its surface by 2025. While Garver’s AMA may not be quite as exciting as a Google Hangout with astronauts on the ISS, today’s event promises a more informal look at one of the few organizations that really inspires a sense of wonder. We’ll post the link as soon as it goes live.

Update: You can read Garver’s answers to Reddit’s questions right here.

Article source: http://www.theverge.com/2013/4/17/4234930/nasa-lori-garver-hosting-reddit-ama-april-17th

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NASA’s Lori Garver will answer questions on Reddit at 2pm ET today

By alkaon on April 18, 2013 No Comments

Between Neil deGrasse Tyson’s impassioned defense of public-funded space exploration and the wildly popular Curiosity rover, NASA has managed to capture the hopes of a new generation even as it’s joined by private companies like SpaceX. The agency is already active on social media, but NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver will be taking things a step further with a Reddit AMA, answering questions starting at 2pm EDT today.

NASA has a number of projects on the table, and it’s recently announced plans to capture a near-Earth asteroid, bring it into stable orbit around the Moon, and send an astronaut to its surface by 2025. While Garver’s AMA may not be quite as exciting as a Google Hangout with astronauts on the ISS, today’s event promises a more informal look at one of the few organizations that really inspires a sense of wonder. We’ll post the link as soon as it goes live.

Article source: http://www.theverge.com/2013/4/17/4234930/nasa-lori-garver-hosting-reddit-ama-april-17th

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NASA Deputy Chief to Answer Questions on Reddit Wednesday

By alkaon on April 17, 2013 No Comments




NASA Deputy Chief Lori Garver to Do Reddit Chat


NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver will host an “Ask Me Anything” session on the popular social-news site Reddit Wednesday (April 17).
CREDIT: NASA


If you’ve ever wanted to ask a NASA bigwig questions about America’s space program, here’s your chance: Agency second-in-command Lori Garver will host an “Ask Me Anything” session on the popular social-news site Reddit Wednesday (April 17).

“I am NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver, and you can ask me anything on Reddit tomorrow at 2 p.m. EDT,” Garver said Tuesday (April 16) via Twitter, where she posts as @Lori_Garver.

Garver might be participating from Virginia’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, which is hosting the maiden launch of the private cargo-carrying Antares rocket. Liftoff is slated for Wednesday at 5 p.m. EDT (2100 GMT), and Garver’s name is on the list of attendees.

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on SPACE.com.

Article source: http://www.space.com/20698-nasa-lori-garver-reddit.html

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Military & NASA Look to Partner With Commercial Satellite Industry

By alkaon on November 27, 2012 No Comments




Artist's Concept of the Intelsat 22 Satellite in Orbit

Commercial satellites such as this one from Intelsat could host more military and NASA payloads, government officials say.
CREDIT: Intelsat


NEW YORK — In times of dwindling government budgets, the U.S. military, NASA and other federal agencies are increasingly looking to commercial companies for help getting satellites to space.

There is a growing movement among government agencies to start hitching more rides for space instruments aboard commercial spacecraft, rather than building their own completely autonomous satellites. Such a deal is known in satellite circles as a “hosted payload,” because a commercial communications spacecraft might “host” an instrument for a Department of Defense (DOD) Earth-observation satellite, for instance.

“I think were at a pivotal point in the DOD in terms of our relationship and the best path forward, and I think what’s important right now is an open dialogue,” Lt. Gen. Ellen M. Pawlikowski, commander of the Space and Missile Systems Center at Air Force Space Command, told an audience of commercial satellite industry insiders this month at the 2012 Satellite and Content Delivery Conference and Expo here. “You’ve got a lot of satellites up there and I sure would like to hitch a ride.”

NASA, too, wants in on the action.

“We know we can’t do everything alone at NASA,” the agency’s deputy chief Lori Garver said. “We look within the U.S. tax dollar to get you the best benefit by first looking across agencies and then looking to our industry partners.”

This kind of commercial partnership also fits into NASA’s larger initiative to work with the private space industry on human spaceflight as well. For example, NASA has teamed with commercial companies such as SpaceX and Orbital Sciences Corp. to build private space taxis capable of carrying astronauts to the International Space Station. [Now Boarding: The Top 10 Private Spaceships]

The main attractions of the hosted payload scheme are the price and the wide availability of commercial satellite hosts (around 80 commercial satellite launches are planned for the next five years, Pawlikowski said). Plus, eliminating the need to design a whole new spacecraft from the ground up for each new launch makes sending up new instruments easier and quicker.

“It’s not just the budget — it’s accelerating the science,” Garver told SPACE.com. “You can have more science, more quickly.”

Still, some government satellites aren’t ideal for hosting on private vehicles. Many of the military’s communications satellites, for example, are too large and heavy, and require too much power, to easily cohabitate with commercial communications satellite, which are also power-hogs, Pawlikowski said.

Nonetheless, the Space and Missile Systems Center sees a public-private partnership in space as such a promising idea that it’s opened a dedicated hosted payloads office to look into opportunities for collaboration. And Garver said NASA plans to work through that same office to arrange deals of its own.

“We see hosted payloads as a huge opportunity, but we’re anchored in the reality of the situation,” Pawlikowski said. “It’s got to be the right match. We really see that commercial satellites will play a key role. It’s not a question of whether they will, it’s just how they will.”

You can follow SPACE.com assistant managing editor Clara Moskowitz on Twitter @ClaraMoskowitz. Follow SPACE.com on Twitter @Spacedotcom. We’re also on Facebook  Google+.

Article source: http://www.space.com/18588-military-nasa-commercial-hosted-payloads.html

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Obama Win Keeps NASA’s Space Plans on Course

By alkaon on November 11, 2012 No Comments

The reelection of US president Barack Obama could mean one small step back to the moon and a giant leap to landing astronauts on Mars and asteroids.

In 2010, the Obama administration set a goal to get astronauts to a near-Earth asteroid by 2025 and to Mars by the mid-2030s.

“We’re going back to the moon, attempting a first-ever mission to send humans to an asteroid and actively developing a plan to take Americans to Mars,” said National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) deputy chief Lori Garver at a conference in September.

And while Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney previously said he’d reassess NASA’s future, experts say Obama’s victory Tuesday means NASA will soon make major announcements surrounding future projects, that were uncertain under a Romney administration.

The new plans have likely been cleared with the Obama administration, but have been kept under wraps until after the presidential election, said space policy expert John Logsdon, a professor emeritus at George Washington University in an interview with Space.com, a space and astronomy news website.

According to reports, plans include NASA developing a huge rocket called the Space Launch System (SLS) and a crew capsule called Orion, to begin launching astronauts by 2021.

NASA has a $1.6 billion deal with SpaceX, a California-based private spaceflight company. In October, SpaceX successfully completed the first of 12 planned unmanned supply flights to the International Space Station.

Additional privatization of crew and cargo activities in low-Earth orbit could also be on the horizon, something experts say could fill the void left behind by the retirement of the space shuttle program in 2011.

Over the past two years, NASA has awarded a total of $1.4 billion to private firms developing manned vehicles, reports say, with hopes of having two commercial spaceships up and running by 2017.

These planned space vehicles could help relieve US dependency on Russian Soyuz spacecraft, which it currently relies on to get astronauts to and from the International Space Station.

Before Obama began his first term as president, NASA was working to put astronauts back on the Moon by 2020 under a program called Constellation, but Obama cancelled the program after a review panel said it was over budget and behind schedule.

NASA officials have said they remain committed to returning to the moon, with the SLS and Orion projects serving as a possible way to get there.

Article source: http://www.space-travel.com/reports/Obama_Win_Keeps_NASAs_Space_Plans_on_Course_999.html

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NASA takes one giant leap into commerical space flight

By alkaon on May 17, 2012 No Comments


After three delays, the first U.S. commercial space flight is set to launch this week. A capsule built by the company SpaceX will take off from Cape Canaveral and head to the International Space Station. If successful, it will be a milestone in NASA’s plan to replace its space shuttle program with commercial carriers.

“We’ve been launching things into space for 50 years,” said NASA’s Deputy Administrator Lori Garver. “It’s time we did trust our industry to be able to lead the way.”

Garver spoke to The Federal Drive with Tom Temin and Emily Kopp Thursday about the upcoming launch.


Aside from weather concerns and any other day-of-the-launch issues, the Falcon 9 rocket is on track to blast off on Saturday, May 19, with a backup date of May 22. The rocket will carry the Dragon capsule into space, on a mission to deliver supplies of food and water to the International Space Station.

“It is something we do need since the retirement of the space shuttle,” Garver said. “This has been our plan for replacing the space shuttle, which was so much larger and built the space station by carrying the modules.”

The Falcon 9 mission is a smaller, much more focused effort that allows NASA to reduce the cost of space transportation by using the commercial sector, which can open new markets and create new jobs in the U.S.

“We’ve been working very closely with SpaceX, who is the industry partner on this mission,” Garver said, adding that the company has been reviewing all of the flight-readiness activities that used to be NASA’s job.


“The last couple of times, we came to do this within the last few months, we found specific software testing that needed to continue to be done and now we’re through with that,” Garver said. “I talked to the folks last night and they are ready.”

Garver admitted to being “very excited” about the launch, which will usher in a new era of space travel for the U.S., one in which private companies design and build NASA’s spacecraft, with the agency acting as just a single customer. With the current launch, SpaceX supplied the entire rocket, from its Merlin engines up.

“That just shows you how robust this activity is, that there are markets for launching satellites, defense payloads and NASA science payloads, in addition, to the space station, astronauts and cargo,” Garver said. “That is what has allowed this company SpaceX, headed by [Chief Designer] Elon Musk, to invest in an entire rocket system with the Dragon being the test for us with this capsule.”

Both the Falcon rocket and the Dragon capsule are not new systems. Both have flown into space before. But this will be the first time that Dragon will dock with the International Space Station.

Privatizing space travel will not only help NASA to save money, it will also help create new jobs for a very specialized workforce.

“The space shuttle program carried us for 30 years and we had a dedicated workforce,” Garver said. “President Bush announced in 2003 that we would be retiring the Space Shuttle. [President] Obama extended it for two flights and at least a year so that people could transition. The whole idea of having a commercial company be able to launch this is to grow markets and increase our U.S., high-paying jobs in this area.”

“As NASA is going farther, private industry takes this over, and that allows us to fly more often and win back market share, and hire, not only those people back, but create new jobs in an industry that doesn’t just count on the government,” Garver said.

Currently, two companies are vying for NASA’s cargo delivery contract and four are competing for the crew delivery to the space station.

NASA is planning for its next round of competition this summer, which would lead to a private company transporting a crew to the International Space Station. The competing companies have assured NASA that private delivery of a crew could happen within three to five years.

“It’s a very exciting time,” Garver said.

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Article source: http://www.federalnewsradio.com/494/2868334/NASA-takes-one-giant-leap-into-commerical-space-flight

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SpaceX Dragon To Launch From Cape Canaveral In February 2012: First Commercial …

By alkaon on December 11, 2011 No Comments

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A private California company will attempt the first-ever commercial cargo run to the International Space Station in February.

NASA announced the news Friday, one year and one day after Space Exploration Technologies Corp., or SpaceX, became the first private business to launch a capsule into orbit and return it safely to Earth.

On Feb. 7, SpaceX will attempt another orbital flight from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. This time, the unmanned Dragon capsule will fly to the space station and dock with a load of supplies.

NASA stressed it is a target date.

“Pending all the final safety reviews and testing, SpaceX will send its Dragon spacecraft to rendezvous with the International Space Station in less than two months,” said NASA’s No. 2, deputy administrator Lori Garver. “So it is the opening of that new commercial cargo delivery era.”

NASA has turned to industry to help stock the space station now that the space shuttles are retired, investing hundreds of millions of dollars in this startup effort. The station currently is supplied by Russian, European and Japanese vessels.

SpaceX’s Dragon capsule will fly within two miles of the space station, for a checkout of all its systems. Then it will close in, with station astronauts grabbing the capsule with a robotic arm. The Dragon ultimately will be released for a splashdown in the Pacific. None of the other cargo carriers come back intact; they burn up on re-entry.

If the rendezvous and docking fail, SpaceX will try again. That was the original plan: to wait until the third mission to actually hook up with the station and delivery supplies. SpaceX wanted to hurry it up.

None of the supplies on board the Dragon will be one-of-a-kind or crucial, in case of failure.

SpaceX – run by PayPal co-founder Elon Musk – is one of several companies vying for space station visiting privileges. It hopes to step up to astronaut ferry trips in perhaps three more years. In the meantime, Americans will be forced to continue buying seats on Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

“Every decision that we make at SpaceX is focused on … taking crew to space,” SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said Friday at a forum in Seattle about NASA’s future. She said the company is “thrilled” at the prospect of delivering cargo to the space station early next year, and noted that the company is shooting for 2014 with astronauts.

Congress has appropriated $406 million for the commercial crew effort for 2012, considerably less than NASA’s requested $850 million.

“It is nevertheless a significant step,” Garver said at the forum, televised by NASA. She said NASA is evaluating whether it can speed up when U.S. companies “deliver our precious astronauts to and from the space station.”

___

Online:

Check out these 7 futuristic vehicles that could one day take you into space.


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The bloon, a helium-filled balloon, will take a capsule with as many as six people to 118,000 feet — not quite outer space, but near space. The company expects to make its first commercial flight in 2013.

The cost? €110,000, or about $147,000.

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Article source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/10/spacex-dragon-cape-canaveral-space-station_n_1141173.html

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NASA OKs Feb. launch of private space station trip

By alkaon on December 10, 2011 No Comments

Associated Press

A private California company will attempt the first-ever commercial cargo run to the International Space Station in February.

NASA announced the news Friday, one year and one day after Space Exploration Technologies Corp., or SpaceX, became the first private business to launch a capsule into orbit and return it safely to Earth.

On Feb. 7, SpaceX will attempt another orbital flight from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. This time, the unmanned Dragon capsule will fly to the space station and dock with a load of supplies.

NASA stressed it is a target date.

“Pending all the final safety reviews and testing, SpaceX will send its Dragon spacecraft to rendezvous with the International Space Station in less than two months,” said NASA’s No. 2, deputy administrator Lori Garver. “So it is the opening of that new commercial cargo delivery era.”

NASA has turned to industry to help stock the space station now that the space shuttles are retired, investing hundreds of millions of dollars in this startup effort. The station currently is supplied by Russian, European and Japanese vessels.

SpaceX’s Dragon capsule will fly within two miles of the space station, for a checkout of all its systems. Then it will close in, with station astronauts grabbing the capsule with a robotic arm. The Dragon ultimately will be released for a splashdown in the Pacific. None of the other cargo carriers come back intact; they burn up on re-entry.

If the rendezvous and docking fail, SpaceX will try again. That was the original plan: to wait until the third mission to actually hook up with the station and delivery supplies. SpaceX wanted to hurry it up.

None of the supplies on board the Dragon will be one-of-a-kind or crucial, in case of failure.

SpaceX — run by PayPal co-founder Elon Musk — is one of several companies vying for space station visiting privileges. It hopes to step up to astronaut ferry trips in perhaps three more years. In the meantime, Americans will be forced to continue buying seats on Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

“Every decision that we make at SpaceX is focused on … taking crew to space,” SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said Friday at a forum in Seattle about NASA’s future. She said the company is “thrilled” at the prospect of delivering cargo to the space station early next year, and noted that the company is shooting for 2014 with astronauts.

Congress has appropriated $406 million for the commercial crew effort for 2012, considerably less than NASA’s requested $850 million.

“It is nevertheless a significant step,” Garver said at the forum, televised by NASA. She said NASA is evaluating whether it can speed up when U.S. companies “deliver our precious astronauts to and from the space station.”

Article source: http://www.taiwannews.com.tw/etn/news_content.php?id=1783545

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NASA OKs Feb. launch of 1st private cargo run to space station, historic …

By alkaon on December 10, 2011 No Comments

On Feb. 7, SpaceX will attempt another orbital flight from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. This time, the unmanned Dragon capsule will fly to the space station and dock with a load of supplies.

NASA stressed it is a target date.

“Pending all the final safety reviews and testing, SpaceX will send its Dragon spacecraft to rendezvous with the International Space Station in less than two months,” said NASA’s No. 2, deputy administrator Lori Garver. “So it is the opening of that new commercial cargo delivery era.”

NASA has turned to industry to help stock the space station now that the space shuttles are retired, investing hundreds of millions of dollars in this startup effort. The station currently is supplied by Russian, European and Japanese vessels.

SpaceX’s Dragon capsule will fly within two miles of the space station, for a checkout of all its systems. Then it will close in, with station astronauts grabbing the capsule with a robotic arm. The Dragon ultimately will be released for a splashdown in the Pacific. None of the other cargo carriers come back intact; they burn up on re-entry.

If the rendezvous and docking fail, SpaceX will try again. That was the original plan: to wait until the third mission to actually hook up with the station and delivery supplies. SpaceX wanted to hurry it up.

None of the supplies on board the Dragon will be one-of-a-kind or crucial, in case of failure.

SpaceX — run by PayPal co-founder Elon Musk — is one of several companies vying for space station visiting privileges. It hopes to step up to astronaut ferry trips in perhaps three more years. In the meantime, Americans will be forced to continue buying seats on Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

“Every decision that we make at SpaceX is focused on … taking crew to space,” SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said Friday at a forum in Seattle about NASA’s future. She said the company is “thrilled” at the prospect of delivering cargo to the space station early next year, and noted that the company is shooting for 2014 with astronauts.

Congress has appropriated $406 million for the commercial crew effort for 2012, considerably less than NASA’s requested $850 million.

“It is nevertheless a significant step,” Garver said at the forum, televised by NASA. She said NASA is evaluating whether it can speed up when U.S. companies “deliver our precious astronauts to and from the space station.”

___

Online:

NASA: http://www.nasa.gov/cots_

SpaceX: http://www.spacex.com/

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Article source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/nasa-oks-feb-launch-of-1st-private-cargo-run-to-space-station-historic-flight-by-spacex/2011/12/09/gIQAGLWPiO_story.html

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NASA Image of the day

Launching Balloons to Study Space Weather

 
In Antarctica in January, 2013 – the summer at the South Pole – scientists released 20 balloons, each eight stories tall, into the air to help answer an enduring space weather question: when the giant radiation belts surrounding Earth lose material, where do the extra particles actually go? This NASA-funded mission is called BARREL, for Balloon Array for Radiation belt Relativistic Electron Losses. Each balloon launched by the BARREL team floated for anywhere from three to 40 days, measuring X-rays produced by fast-moving electrons high up in the atmosphere.BARREL works hand in hand with another NASA mission called the Van Allen Probes, which travels directly through the Van Allen radiation belts. The belts wax and wane over time in response to incoming energy and material from the sun, sometimes intensifying the radiation through which satellites orbiting Earth must travel. Scientists need to understand this process better, and even provide forecasts of such space weather, in order to protect our spacecraft.› Read MoreImage Credit: NASA
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