The Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, Dragon spacecraft with solar array fairings attached, stands inside a processing hangar at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. The spacecraft will launch on the upcoming SpaceX CRS-2 mission. Image released Jan. 15, 2013.
CREDIT: NASA/Kim Shiflett

WASHINGTON — To deal with the nearly $900 million budget hit NASA will absorb if automatic spending cuts known as sequestration are allowed to take effect March 1, the U.S. space agency would slow development work on commercially operated astronaut taxis, delay or cancel space technology programs and postpone the launch of some small science missions.

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden outlined the space agency’s sequestration plans in a Feb. 5 letter to Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), who released it following a Feb. 14 hearing.

NASA’s overall budget would drop to $16.9 billion, down from the $17.8 billion Congress approved last year.

Spending on the commercial crew program NASA is using to subsidize development by Boeing, Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) and Sierra Nevada of competing human spaceflight systems would be reduced to $388 million — $18 million less than it is currently spending and $441.6 million less than the agency had been planning to spend in 2013. [What NASA's 2013 Budget Pays For (Video)]

NASA, like all federal agencies, has had its funding frozen at 2012 levels under a stopgap spending measure known as a continuing resolution that expires March 28. NASA’s sequestration plan assumes that the continuing resolution will be extended through Sept. 30, the end of the U.S. government’s 2013 fiscal year.

Bolden said NASA’s commercial crew partners would feel a funding pinch as soon as July.

Among the commercial crew activities planned for later this year that NASA would not be able to fund after sequestration are:

• A July test of Boeing’s CST-100 orbital maneuvering and attitude control engine.
• A September review of an in-flight abort test SpaceX plans to conduct in April 2014.
• An October integrated system and safety analysis review of Sierra Nevada’s DreamChaser space plane.

“Overall availability of commercial crew transportation services would be significantly delayed, thereby extending our reliance on foreign providers for crew transportation to the International Space Station,” Bolden wrote.

Meanwhile, a sequester would also put the screws to NASA’s Space Technology Program, a White House priority under U.S. President Barack Obama. Instead of getting the $699 million sought for the program, NASA would cut its budget back to $550 million, or about $24 million less than it has now.

To absorb the cut, NASA would consider canceling programs now in the development stage, including a highly publicized demonstration of a deep-space atomic clock, which was set to fly as a hosted payload on an Iridium Next satellite scheduled for launch in 2015. Four other space technology programs could also wind up on the chopping block, Bolden warned, and nine others might be delayed.

Small astrophysics and Earth science missions would also suffer under NASA’s plan to reduce the Science Mission Directorate’s budget to $4.86 billion. While that is only $51.1 million less than Science would have received under the agency’s 2013 budget request, it is $200 million less than the mission directorate has today.

To absorb the cut, NASA intends to award 5 percent fewer research grants this year and reduce funding for new Explorer- and Earth Venture-class missions by 10 to 15 percent. Bolden said this would result “in lower funding levels for new activities and causing minor launch delays.”

The next missions scheduled for launch in NASA’s Explorer line of small astrophysics missions are the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph, an ultraviolet observatory slated for an April launch, and Astro-H, an X-ray observatory scheduled to launch in February 2014.

The next Earth Venture launch on NASA’s calendar is the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2, which is supposed to lift off in July 2014.

This story was provided by Space News, dedicated to covering all aspects of the space industry.

Article source: http://www.space.com/19970-nasa-budget-sequester-impact.html

Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) has completed its first three performance milestones for NASA’s Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) initiative, which is intended to lead to the availability of commercial human spaceflight services for government and commercial customers.

During the company’s first milestone, a technical baseline review, NASA and SpaceX reviewed the Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket for crew transportation to low-Earth orbit and discussed future plans for ground operations for crewed flights.

The second milestone included a review of the company’s plan to achieve the CCiCap milestones established during SpaceX’s $440 million Space Act Agreement. SpaceX also presented the company’s financial resources to support its co-investment in CCiCap.

At the company’s headquarters in Hawthorne, Calif., on Oct. 29, SpaceX presented techniques it will use to design, build and test its integrated system during the third milestone, called an integrated systems requirements review. The company also provided NASA with the initial plans it would use for managing ground operations, launch, ascent, in-orbit operations, re-entry and landing should they begin transporting crews.

“These initial milestones are just the beginning of a very exciting endeavor with SpaceX.” said Ed Mango, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program manager. “We expect to see significant progress from our three CCiCap partners in a fairly short amount of time.”

SpaceX also has completed its Space Act Agreement with NASA for the Commercial Crew Development Round 2 (CCDev2) initiative, the development phase that preceded CCiCap. During CCDev2, the company designed, developed and tested components of a launch abort system.

A large hypergolic engine named SuperDraco would propel the Dragon spacecraft away from its rocket to save the crew from a disastrous event during launch or ascent. SpaceX also built a rocket engine test stand for developing an abort system. Engineers from NASA and SpaceX analyzed the trajectories, loads and dynamics the spacecraft would experience as it separates from a failing rocket.

“Our NASA team brought years of experience to the table and shared with SpaceX what components, systems, techniques and processes have worked for the agency’s human space transportation systems in the past and why they’ve worked,” said Jon Cowart, NASA’s SpaceX partner manager during CCDev2. “This sharing of experience benefitted both NASA and the company, and is creating a more dependable system at an accelerated pace.”

SpaceX is one of three U.S. companies NASA is working with during CCiCap to set the stage for a crewed orbital demonstration mission around the middle of the decade. SpaceX already is executing a contract with NASA for 12 cargo resupply missions to the International Space Station.

“The Dragon spacecraft has successfully delivered cargo to the space station twice this year, and SpaceX is well under way toward upgrading Dragon to transport astronauts as well,” said SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell.

Future development and certification initiatives eventually will lead to the availability of human spaceflight services for NASA to send its astronauts to the International Space Station, where critical research is taking place daily.

Article source: http://www.space-travel.com/reports/SpaceX_Transitions_to_Third_Commercial_Crew_Phase_with_NASA_999.html