Category: Commercial

WSJ: Aerojet Rocketdyne Wants to Buy ULA

WSJ: Aerojet Rocketdyne Wants to Buy ULA

By Marcia Smith | Posted: September 9, 2015 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: September 9, 2015 11:54 pm ET

Rocket engine maker Aerojet Rocketdyne (AJR) wants to buy United Launch Alliance (ULA) for approximately $2 billion according to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ).  No deal has been made yet, but the companies are in “advanced talks” according to the newspaper.

Neither company has made any official announcement so far.  ULA is a 50-50 joint venture between Lockheed Martin and Boeing that builds and launches the Atlas V and Delta IV rockets primarily for national security satellites.   Aerojet merged with its main domestic rival, Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, in 2012.  AJR provides the RS-68 engines that power the Common Booster Core for ULA’s Delta IV rocket, the solid rocket motors for Atlas V, and the RL10 engines for the upper stages used for those rockets.

The emergence of new competitors in U.S. rockets and rocket engines, including SpaceX and Blue Origin, coupled with concerns about using Russian RD-180 engines for the national security launches on the Atlas V and reduced demand for national security launches overall is changing the dynamics of the U.S. space launch business. 

ULA has been essentially a monopoly provider of launches for the national security sector since it was created in 2006, but with Air Force certification of SpaceX for certain classes of national security launches, it now has a competitor.  Meanwhile, its Atlas V rocket is under attack because it uses Russian rocket engines and current law requires that use of RD-180s for national security launches end by 2019, although ULA and the Air Force are trying to extend that deadline. 

ULA has announced major changes over the past year, including a decision to discontinue the medium-size version of the Delta IV and initiating development of the Vulcan rocket and ACES upper stage that would ultimately replace Atlas V and the larger Delta IV Heavy.  Vulcan would be an Atlas V, but using Blue Origin’s innovative methane-based BE-4 engines instead of Russian RD-180s.  ULA later said a new AJR engine, AR1, using traditional LOX/kerosene propellant, was a backup alternative.

A consortium of companies including AJR recently tried to obtain production rights to the Atlas V apparently with the goal of substituting the AR1 for the RD-180s, but was rebuffed and the Air Force confirmed that ULA held those rights, not the government.

The prospect of AJR buying ULA is a new twist that could have interesting ramifications both in terms of consolidation in the U.S. launch industry and the ability of new entrants to compete against it, especially in the engine development market.

The WSJ article said an announcement could come “as early as next week.”  Any planned merger would be subject to government review.

ULA is headquartered in Centennial, CO and produces the Atlas V and Delta IV in Decatur, AL.   AJR is based in Sacramento, CA.

Last Updated: Sep 09, 2015 11:54 pm ET
What's Happening in Space Policy September 7-11, 2015

What's Happening in Space Policy September 7-11, 2015

By Marcia Smith | Posted: September 6, 2015 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: September 21, 2015 9:08 pm ET

We’re back to “regular order” this week with our list of upcoming space policy related events only for one week (September 7-11, 2015).  The House and Senate return to work from their summer recess on Tuesday.

During the Week

Monday is a federal holiday (Labor Day), so Congress resumes legislative action on Tuesday, September 8.  It has quite a long to-do list for the month, including funding the federal government before Fiscal Year 2016 begins on October 1.  As pressing as that issue is, the first order of business is the Iran nuclear deal.  Pope Francis will visit Washington, D.C. September 22-24 and speak to a joint session of Congress on September 24 and that also will consume a lot of congressional attention.  

A deal on the budget, therefore, is not likely until the end of the month — if then.  The expectation is that a Continuing Resolution (CR) will be passed to cover the first few weeks of FY2016 since none of the 12 regular appropriations bills have cleared Congress.  The House has passed six,
including those that fund DOD, NASA, NOAA and the FAA’s Office of
Commercial Space Transportation.  The Senate has not passed any yet.

No legislative action on the budget is anticipated this week.  Instead, more voices likely will be raised warning of a possible government shutdown.  The leaders of the House and Senate have repeatedly vowed not to let that happen again.   Most view the 16-day shutdown in 2013 as a costly mistake both financially and politically.  Today some things are different — Republicans control both the House and Senate (the Senate was in Democratic hands in 2013).  But some are the same — the Tea Party wing of the Republican party has a politically volatile topic on which it wants to make a point.  Last time it was Obamacare, this time it is Planned Parenthood.   Another thing that is different is that this is presidential primary season and one of the contenders, Sen. Ted Cruz, was the leader of the 2013 shutdown.  He seems to believe it was a good thing, not the travesty others in his own party and elsewhere portray.  A shutdown could play in his favor in the primary among those who share his views. 

When Congress went into recess, it seemed that the debt limit also would have to be raised soon, adding to the complexity of getting a budget deal.  The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) recently calculated, however, that the Treasury Department can get by with the “extraordinary measures” it’s been using since the debt limit was reached in March and now has until mid-November or early December to continue paying bills by not investing in government retirement accounts.  (If you’re a government employee and wonder what exactly is going on with your retirement accounts in this regard, Government Executive has a good summary.  Treasury has done this before; the money eventually gets restored.)

Final action on the Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act, versions of which have passed the House and Senate, is possible at any time. The current prohibition on FAA issuing new regulations for commercial human spaceflight during a “learning period” expires on September 30 and both bills would extend it (the Senate bill until 2020; the House until 2025), so there is some motivation to get that done, though it will be a challenge with everything else on Congress’s plate.  As for a new NASA authorization bill?  The House has passed two bills (one for FY2015, which is ending, and one for FY2016 and FY2017), but there has been no action in the Senate.  The Senate Commerce Committee issued a report on August 11 listing the legislation it plans to focus on for the rest of the year and a NASA authorization was not included.  Congress-watchers know, however, that anything can happen at any time.

Perhaps the most notable events this week off the Hill are an interview with the current nine crew members aboard the International Space Station (ISS) on Tuesday morning Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) and the return to Earth of three of them on Friday EDT (Saturday local time at the landing site in Kazakhstan).  This is the first time since November 2013 that nine people have been on ISS at the same time.

Those events and others we know about as of Sunday afternoon are listed below.  Check back to look at our calendar on the right menu of our home page for additions as the week goes on.

Monday, September 7

  • U.S. Federal Government holiday (Labor Day)

Tuesday, September 8

Tuesday-Thursday, September 8-10

Wednesday-Friday, September 9-11

Thursday, September 10

Friday, September 11

 

Editor’s Note: the original version of this article said the House
bill extends the learning period to
2023, but it is 2025.  As introduced, it was 2023, but it was amended
during committee markup to 2025. 

Last Updated: Sep 21, 2015 9:08 pm ET
Boeing Chooses Starliner as New Name for CST-100

Boeing Chooses Starliner as New Name for CST-100

By Marcia Smith | Posted: September 4, 2015 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: September 5, 2015 6:00 pm ET

Boeing’s Chris Ferguson unveiled the new name for Boeing’s CST-100 commercial crew capsule today during a ceremony inaugurating the company’s Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility at Kennedy Space Center (KSC), FL.  The new name: CST-100 Starliner.

Ferguson is Boeing’s deputy manager of commercial crew operations and a former NASA astronaut who commanded the final space shuttle flight, STS-135, in 2011.  In revealing the name, he said the company wanted something that “gave a nod to the next generation of space and next 100 years of flight for Boeing.”  Boeing celebrates its centennial next year.  Ferguson did not mention it, but Boeing’s most recent airplane, the 787, is the Dreamliner.  Reaching back to the late 1930s, the Boeing 307 Stratoliner was the first commercial airplane with a pressurized cabin.


Notional illustration of Boeing CST-100 Starliner in orbit.  Clip from Boeing video
at Sept. 4, 2015 ceremony opening Boeing’s Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility
at Kennedy Space Center, FL.

Boeing is using the former Orbiter Processing Facility-3 (OPF-3) at KSC to process CST-100 Starliner.  OPF-3 was built for the space shuttle program, along with two others that also are now used by Boeing for the Department of Defense’s X-37B spaceplane program.

Boeing and SpaceX were selected by NASA last fall for the final phase of the commercial crew program, Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCAP).   Boeing’s contract value is $4.2 billion and SpaceX’s is $2.6 billion.  For each company, the contract covers one demonstration flight, a guarantee of two operational flights, and possibly four more operational flights.  The commercial crew program is a public private partnership wherein both the government (NASA) and the companies share the development costs and the government agrees to purchase a certain amount of services.   How much each side is putting into development is not public, but estimates are that NASA is paying 80-90 percent of the development costs.   The overall goal is to restore America’s capability to launch people into space, which it lost when the space shuttle program was terminated in 2011.  All U.S. astronauts launched into space since that time have flown on Russian spacecraft.

Originally, NASA hoped commercial crew vehicles would be ready to fly in 2015, but that slipped to 2017.  NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden often states that congressional underfunding caused the slip and warns that additional delays could result if Congress does not provide the full $1.244 billion requested for FY2016.   Congress has never provided the full amount of funding NASA requested for commercial crew, although it came close for the current fiscal year (FY2015), appropriating $805 million compared to the $848 million requested.

Congress is still debating the FY2016 budget for all agencies, including NASA.   So far, it is not poised to fully fund commercial crew.  The House approved $1.0 billion and the Senate Appropriations Committee recommended $900 million (the Senate has not voted on the bill yet).  

At the ceremony today, Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) expressed optimism that the commercial crew program will get “the funding that it needs so that we can get our American astronauts flying on American vehicles.”   Nelson is the top Democrat on the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee that oversees NASA.   He flew on the space shuttle in 1986 when he was a Congressman.  Bolden was the pilot of that mission.

Bolden did not press the case for full funding today, instead focusing on the future not only of commercial crew and human spaceflight, but of KSC.  He praised KSC director Bob Cabana, another former astronaut, for transforming KSC into a multi-user spaceport after the end of the space shuttle program imperiled its future.  “Make no mistake, the road to space still blazes through Kennedy,” Bolden exclaimed.

Cabana himself expressed thanks to the State of Florida and commercial partners like Boeing and SpaceX for working with them to ensure KSC’s future.  “You can’t have progress, you can’t get better without change,” he said.

Florida Governor Rick Scott (R) and Florida House Speaker Steve Crisafulli (R), who represents the district where KSC is located, were among the dignitaries who spoke at the event, along with the top leadership of Boeing and its space units:  President and CEO Dennis Muilenburg; Vice President and General Manager, Space Exploration, John Elbon, and Vice President and Program Manager, Commercial Programs, John Mulholland.

NASA ordered its first commercial crew rotation flight from Boeing in May, although whether Boeing or SpaceX will fly the very first such flight has not been decided yet.  Boeing will launch CST-100 Starliner on United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rockets.  ULA is a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin.   SpaceX will launch its Crew Dragon on Falcon 9 rockets.  A Falcon 9 rocket failed on June 28.  It was intended to take a cargo version of the Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station as part of NASA’s commercial cargo program.   SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said earlier this week that it will be a “couple of months” yet before the rocket returns to flight.

Correction:  An earlier version of this article inadvertently used Spaceliner instead of Starliner in some cases.  The correct name is Starliner.

Last Updated: Sep 05, 2015 6:00 pm ET
Antares RTF Now in "Spring" 2016, Two Cygnus Launches on Atlas V First

Antares RTF Now in "Spring" 2016, Two Cygnus Launches on Atlas V First

By Marcia Smith | Posted: September 2, 2015 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: September 2, 2015 8:25 pm ET

Orbital ATK’s Frank Culbertson said today that return-to-flight of the Antares rocket now will be in “spring” 2016.  Earlier indications were that it would be in March.  Instead, a second launch of the company’s Cygnus cargo spacecraft on a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket now is planned in March.

Culbertson, President of Orbital ATK’s Space Systems Group, revealed the new plans at AIAA’s Space 2015 conference in Pasadena, CA.

The company’s Antares rocket exploded 15 seconds after liftoff from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on the coast of Virginia on October 28, 2014.   The official report on the cause of the accident has not been released, but it is known that the problem affected the rocket’s Russian-built NK-33 engines.  The NK-33’s are refurbished by Aerojet Rocketdyne and redesignated AJ26.   Orbital ATK is replacing them with a different Russian engine, the RD-181.   The “re-engined” Antares will be able to lift more mass than the original version as well as using newer technology.  The NK-33s date back more than 40 years.

Under a Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract with NASA, Orbital ATK is committed to delivering 20 tons of cargo to the ISS by the end of 2016.   The company also upgraded the Cygnus spacecraft to carry more cargo so it will take fewer missions to meet that 20 ton requirement.  To ensure that it also meets the deadline, Orbital ATK contracted for two Cygnus launches on ULA’s Atlas V while the Antares is being retrofitted.

Orbital ATK announced the plans to buy at least one ULA launch with an option for a second in December 2014.   Last month, it said it had, indeed, purchased a second Atlas V launch, but did not say when the second launch would take place.   Today was the first indication that both ULA launches would occur before Antares returns to service.

NASA officials have publicly identified December 3 as the date for the first Cygnus launch on an Atlas V for some time and Culbertson confirmed that today.  He then added that the second Atlas V launch would be in March, followed by a return to flight of Antares in “the spring” and a total of two or three — “I’m hoping three” — Cygnus launches on Antares in 2016.

Orbital ATK is one of two U.S. companies that send cargo to the ISS under NASA’s CRS contract.  SpaceX is the other and it suffered its own launch failure on June 28, 2015.  SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell told the AIAA conference on Monday that it would be “a couple months” yet before the Falcon 9 returned to flight.

Some members of Congress have expressed concern about how the accidents are being investigated and more broadly how NASA contracts for commercial cargo services for the ISS.  House Science, Space, and Technology Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-TX) asked NASA why it created an Independent Review Team following the Orbital launch failure, but not SpaceX’s and whether that implied SpaceX was getting preferential treatment.  NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden replied last week that NASA’s role in both investigations actually is quite similar.

Yesterday, Senators Cory Gardner (R-CO) and David Vitter (R-LA) asked the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to undertake a “full review” of NASA’s “contracted launch services and capsules.”

Orbital ATK and SpaceX are the only CRS contractors now, but NASA opened a CRS-2 procurement in September 2014.  Expectations were that it would announce the winners in June.  That slipped to September and now to November.   In addition to the incumbents, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Sierra Nevada are reported to be among the bidders. 

Boeing and SpaceX won NASA’s commercial crew contracts last fall and Boeing seems to be betting on a win in the CRS-2 contract as well.   On Friday, it will hold an opening ceremony for its “Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility” at Kennedy Space Center, FL.

Last Updated: Sep 02, 2015 8:25 pm ET
Two Senators Seek GAO Review of NASA Commercial Cargo Contracts

Two Senators Seek GAO Review of NASA Commercial Cargo Contracts

By Marcia Smith | Posted: September 2, 2015 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: September 2, 2015 9:32 pm ET

Senators Cory Gardner (R-CO) and David Vitter (R-LA) are asking the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to undertake a “full review” of NASA’s commercial cargo contracts.  Both contractors, Orbital ATK and SpaceX, are recovering from launch failures that affected resupply of the International Space Station (ISS).

The request for a GAO review is the latest in congressional expressions of concern about NASA’s commercial cargo program.

Gardner and Vitter sent their letter to Comptroller General Gene Dodaro, the head of GAO, yesterday (September 1).  They ask eight questions centering on the cost and operational impact on the ISS program of the two commercial cargo launch failures and “the demonstrated, statistical reliability of contracted commercial launch systems to provide subsequent launch services at reasonable and expected reliability levels.”

Orbital ATK’s Antares rocket exploded 15 seconds after liftoff on October 28, 2014.   SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket failed 139 seconds after liftoff on June 28, 2015.  Both were carrying cargo spacecraft, Cygnus and Dragon, respectively, loaded with supplies, equipment and scientific experiments for the ISS.  Neither rocket has returned to flight yet. 

Orbital ATK will use two Atlas V rockets to loft Cygnus cargo spacecraft to the ISS in December 2015 and March 2016 while its Antares rocket fleet is being outfitted with new engines. Orbital ATK contracted for the Atlas V launches from Colorado-based United Launch Alliance (ULA), a 50-50 joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin.

SpaceX’s plans for return to flight are not firm.

The Orbital ATK and Space X cargo launches to ISS are under NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract.   NASA issued a solicitation for the next round of commercial cargo launches, CRS-2, in September 2014.  A decision was expected in June, but that slipped to September and now to November.  In addition to the incumbents, Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Sierra Nevada are reported to be among the bidders.

The Senators said that the fact there are no operational U.S. commercial cargo providers at the moment “shows the immediate and urgent need for appropriate oversight and corrective action prior to restarting operations.”  However, while they see the need for an independent review, “we also believe that the current missions and pending contracts should continue to proceed uninterrupted.”  The reference to pending contracts presumably means CRS-2.  No deadline is requested for GAO to complete its review other than asking for a “prompt” response.

Four cargo spacecraft can resupply the ISS.  In addition to the two U.S. systems, Russia’s Progress and Japan’s HTV take cargo to the crews.  (The European Space Agency no longer launches its ATV cargo spacecraft.) 

Russia had its own failure with the Progress M-27M mission on April 28, 2015, but Progress M-28M was successfully launched in July.   Japan’s HTV5 mission enjoyed a flawless launch on August 19 and is now attached to the ISS along with Progress M-28M.

Last Updated: Sep 02, 2015 9:32 pm ET
Shotwell: Couple More Months Before Falcon 9 Launches Again, Will be New Version

Shotwell: Couple More Months Before Falcon 9 Launches Again, Will be New Version

By Marcia Smith | Posted: August 31, 2015 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: August 31, 2015 7:54 pm ET

SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said today that it will be a “couple of months” before the Falcon 9 rocket returns to flight, longer than the company anticipated.   She also said it would be the first flight of an upgraded version of the rocket.

Speaking on a panel at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Space 2015 conference in Pasadena, CA, Shotwell said the company still believes that the cause of the June 28 Falcon 9 failure was a bad strut in the upper stage.  SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk announced that preliminary finding in late July, but said the investigation was ongoing.   Shotwell said today nothing has changed that diagnosis.

She said it now was not just a matter of fixing the problem, which is “easy,” but taking advantage of lessons learned and ensuring there are no other problems in the vehicle or the supply chain.  It is “taking more time than we originally envisioned,” but she does not expect customers to object since they do not want to rush and potentially have another failure.

Shotwell characterized fixing technical problems as “fun challenges.”  The bigger challenge for SpaceX, she said, is “maintaining the fast pace of innovation” while still executing the launch manifest for its customers.  “We don’t want to lose that pace of innovation … that sense of our genetics, how we grew up” while still providing reliable, predictable launches.

The panel was entitled “Executive Vision Discussion” and in addition to Shotwell featured NASA Associate Administrator Robert Lightfoot, Lockheed Martin Vice President and General Manger for Civil Space Wanda Sigur, and Vice Commander of Air Force Space and Missile Systems Command Maj. Gen. Robert McMurry.  AIAA President and former Boeing executive Jim Albaugh served as moderator.

Albaugh asked all the panelists what they thought a comparable panel in 2035 would be talking about. 

Shotwell said she hoped they’d be discussing new propulsion systems “to take us out of the galaxy.”   

Lightfoot replied that he hoped they would be talking about the results of samples returned from Mars.   Separately he was asked “are we less than 20 years away from humans on Mars?”   NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden has used that as a theme recently, insisting that, for the first time, it is a reality.   Lightfoot was more circumspect, saying he expected humans to be “around Mars at least” in the mid-2030s, but landing large masses has many challenges.

NASA’s “Journey to Mars” was a major theme for LIghtfoot and Sigur.  Sigur opened the panel by presenting a plaque to AIAA commemorating last December’s Orion test.  She and Lightfoot pointed to the difficulty in pursuing such a long term mission when the set of politicians who determine policy and budgets change every two years.

McMurry, on the other hand, quipped that sending people to Mars was not his focus.  His message was three-fold: resilience is the watchword of the day, but  “we have to figure out what resilience is” and how to measure it; protecting space systems from cybersecurity threats is important, but many space systems “are older than me” and the key is to focus not on how to prevent an attack, but how to cope with it when it happens; and the national security community needs to change its “mindset” in this new era of commercial spaceflight.

Last Updated: Aug 31, 2015 7:54 pm ET
What's Happening in Space Policy August 31 – September 11, 2015

What's Happening in Space Policy August 31 – September 11, 2015

By Marcia Smith | Posted: August 30, 2015 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: August 30, 2015 3:51 pm ET

Summer is coming to an end and this will be the last of our “summer vacation” multi-week lists of upcoming space policy events.  This edition covers two weeks, August 31-September 11.  The House and Senate return to work on September 8.

During the Week

This week begins with AIAA’s Space 2015 conference in Pasadena, CA tomorrow (Monday) through Wednesday.   If you can’t be there in person, AIAA is providing a livestream of at least some of the sessions (the event’s website does not indicate which ones).  Four plenary sessions may be of particular interest and hopefully are among those that will be webcast:

  • Monday, August 31, 8:00-9:30 am PDT (11:00-12:30 EDT), Executive Vision Discussion (with Jim Albaugh, Robert Lightfoot, Maj. Gen. Robert McMurry, Wanda Sigur, and Gwynne Shotwell)
  • Tuesday, September 1, 8:00-9:30 am PDT (11:00-12:30 EDT), The
    Business of Space–How is the Space Business Evolving to Meet Future
    Needs?
  • Wednesday, September 2, 8:00-9:30 am PDT (11:00-12:30 EDT), Pioneering Space
  • Wednesday, September 2, 1:15-2:00 pm PDT (4:15-5:00 EDT), Future Explorations: Our Solar System’s Origins, Water and Life

Another event of special interest is the launch of Soyuz TMA-18M very early Wednesday morning (12:37 am Eastern Daylight Time–EDT).  This mission is a bit of an anomaly in recent years where two of the three crew will remain on board the International Space Station (ISS) for just one week instead of several months.   ESA’s Andreas Mogensen and Kazakhstan’s Aidyn Aimbetov will return to Earth on September 11 EDT (September 12 local time at the landing site) along with Russia’s Gennady Padalka, who has been on ISS since March.  Padalka launched with NASA’s Scott Kelly and Russia’s Mikhail Kornienko and those two are staying aboard for a one-year mission, but their Soyuz TMA-16M spacecraft can only remain on orbit for six months so it and Padalka — along with Mogensen and Aimbetov — will come back to Earth. Russia’s Sergei Volkov will command Soyuz TMA-18M and replace Padalka.

Mogensen and Aimbetov’s time aboard ISS will be even shorter than expected because last week the decision was made to use the two-day rendezvous trajectory to get there instead of the new six-hour direct ascent route introduced for crew launches on Soyuz TMA-08M in March 2013.  The two-day trip is necessary because the ISS orbit was raised recently to avoid a piece of space junk, changing the orbital dynamics involved in getting there.  The new orbit also caused a one day slip in the launch date (from September 1).  The Soyuz TMA-18M crew now will arrive on September 4, giving Mogensen and Aimbetov just seven and a half days on ISS.  It may be just as well since the ISS will be a bit crowded — for the first time since November 2013, there will be nine people aboard.  On the other hand, ESA said that it means significant replanning of Mogensen’s research activities and some experiments will have to be left for other astronauts to complete in the future.

Aimbetov, by the way, was a last minute addition to the crew after singer Sarah Brightman withdrew from the mission.  A military pilot, he was selected as a Kazakh cosmonaut in 2002 and trained at Star City.  He became a Russian citizen along the way, but is flying as a Kazakh, not Russian, crew member.  He was assigned to the flight in June and Kazakh officials say they are paying $20 million, so he apparently is filling Brightman’s “space tourist” slot, although he has been through the full training regimen.  He will be the third Kazakh cosmonaut (after Toktar Aubakirov and Talgat Musabayev), not counting Soviet cosmonauts from Kazakhstan when it was part of the Soviet Union.

Those events and others that we know about as of today (August 30) for the next two weeks are listed below.

Monday-Wednesday, August 31-September 2

  • AIAA Space 2015, Pasadena Convention Center, Pasadena, CA (some events will be livestreamed; note that times listed on the conference’s agenda are in local time)

Tuesday, September 1

Wednesday, September 2

Wednesday-Friday, September 2-4

Friday, September 4

Tuesday, September 8

  • Congress returns: House meets at 2:00 pm EDT for legislative business; Senate meets at 2:00 pm EDT

Tuesday-Thursday, September 8-10

Wednesday, September 9

Thursday, September 10

Friday, September 11

Last Updated: Aug 30, 2015 3:51 pm ET
Russia's Proton Returns to Flight on Friday – UPDATE 2

Russia's Proton Returns to Flight on Friday – UPDATE 2

By Marcia Smith | Posted: August 27, 2015 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: August 28, 2015 11:24 pm ET

UPDATE, August 28, 2015, 11:25 pm EDT:  the upper stage firings were successful and Inmarsat-5 F3 has been successfully delivered into geostationary orbit.

UPDATE, August 28, 2015, 8:00 am EDT:   Liftoff took place as planned and the three-stage Proton-M rocket appears to have performed flawlessly. The Briz-M upper stage is now making the first of five firings to place the satellite into geostationary orbit.  It will take 15 hours and 31 minutes for the satellite to reach its destination.

ORIGINAL STORY, August 27, 2015: Russia plans to launch an Inmarsat satellite using its Proton-M rocket on Friday, August 28.  It is the first Proton-M launch since a May 2015 failure destroyed a Mexican communications satellite.  The once reliable Proton, the largest of Russia’s current fleet, has suffered a number of failures in recent years, but typically returns to flight after a few months, as is true this time.

U.S.-based International Launch Services (ILS) markets the Proton globally and will broadcast Friday’s launch of Inmarsat-5 F3 on its website.   The launch of the Proton-M with a Briz-M upper stage is scheduled for 14:44 Moscow Time, which is 12:44 British Summer Time (in London where Inmarsat is headquartered), which is 11:44 GMT, which is 7:44 am EDT.  (Note that ILS incorrectly tweeted today, Thursday, that the launch is at 12:44 GMT. As Inmarsat’s website attests, it is at 12:44 BST, or 11:44 GMT).

The May 16, 2015 Proton failure 497 seconds after launch was attributed to an old design flaw that affects the turbopump for the rocket’s third stage steering engine.  In investigating this accident, Russia engineers determined that the same flaw caused a failure almost three decades ago, in 1988, that previously was thought to have been caused by a manufacturing defect. This year’s failure doomed Mexico’s MexSat-1 (Centenario) communications satellite, the second of three in that series.  The third is scheduled for launch on a Lockheed Martin Atlas V rocket in October 2015.

At the time of the MexSat-1 failure, the President of Inmarsat, Rupert Pearce, issued a statement sounding highly displeased since it was the third time the company’s Global Xpress system was encountering delays because of Proton failures.  Ironically, Pearce expressed relief that the company had another satellite under construction and a “potential” SpaceX launch in the second half of 2016 in case Proton was delayed for a long time or this return-to-flight failed.   A month later, SpaceX suffered its own launch failure and has not announced when it will resume launches.

Russia is developing a new series of rockets, Angara, to replace Proton and other Soviet-era launch vehicles, several of which have failed in recent years.  The May 16 Proton failure came on the heels of a Soyuz failure that placed the Progress M-27M spacecraft in the wrong orbit from which it quickly reentered.  SpacePolicyOnline.com’s fact sheet on Russian launch failures since December 2010 lists them.

Assuming all goes well, the Inmarsat-5 F3 satellite will reach geostationary orbit 15 hours and 31 minutes after liftoff, Inmarsat explains.  Once operational, it will join two previously launched satellites in providing Ka-band global high speed broadband network connectivity — the Global Xpress service.  This satellite will cover the Pacific Ocean region.  Inmarsat-5 F1 covers the Indian Ocean region, while Inmarsat-5 F2 covers the Americas and Atlantic Ocean region.  Both were launched by Proton rockets, in December 2013 and February 2015 respectively.

Last Updated: Aug 28, 2015 11:24 pm ET
NASA Assures Congress Orb-3 and SpX-7 Investigations Are Similar

NASA Assures Congress Orb-3 and SpX-7 Investigations Are Similar

By Marcia Smith | Posted: August 26, 2015 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: August 27, 2015 10:04 am ET

NASA told Congress this week that it is not giving SpaceX special treatment in the investigation of the Orb-3 and SpX-7 launch failures, but that the investigations are quite similar.  It said the perception that NASA’s role in studying the SpaceX failure is less intense is the result of a misunderstanding.

House Science, Space, and Technology Committee chairman Lamar Smith (R-TX) wrote to NASA earlier this month asking a series of questions about NASA’s role in finding the causes of the two failures:  the October 28, 2014 failure of Orbital Sciences Corporation’s Antares rocket with a Cygnus capsule loaded with supplies for the International Space Station (ISS) and the June 28, 2015 failure of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket with a Dragon capsule also full of supplies for the ISS.  Both launches were under the Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract between NASA and the two companies.  The Antares/Cygnus launch was Orbital’s third CRS launch, Orb-3.   SpaceX’s launch was its seventh under the CRS contract — SpaceX CRS-7 or SpX-7.

As commercial launches, they were licensed by the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation (AST) and the accident investigations conducted pursuant to AST regulations.  Accordingly, the companies themselves are in charge of the investigations, not the FAA or NASA.

Smith basically wanted to know why NASA set up an Independent Review Team (IRT) in the wake of the Orb-3 accident, but did not for SpX-7 and whether that implied that SpaceX was being given preferential treatment.

NASA’s August 24 response, signed by NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden, was that although it may not seem so on the surface, NASA’s handling of both launch failures is similar.   The major difference is that Orbital Sciences (now Orbital ATK following a merger with ATK earlier this year) is only providing Antares launch services to NASA under the CRS contract while SpaceX’s Falcon 9 may also be used for other NASA launches, such as the upcoming launch of the Jason-3 ocean altimetry satellite, under a different NASA contract, NASA Launch Services II (NLS II).  Furthermore, Falcon 9 will be used for SpaceX’s launches of crew to the ISS under the commercial crew program.  Antares will not.

Bolden’s argument is that NASA’s Launch Services Program (LSP), which administers the NLS II contract, and commercial crew program have sufficient insight into SpaceX’s activities to satisfy the function of an IRT.

NASA chose to establish an IRT for the Orb-3 failure and “[w]hile it may not have been as visible, we chose to do a similar thing for the SpaceX failure, conducting an independent review, but using existing mechanisms that were already in place,” Bolden wrote.  Because of this “misunderstanding,” many of the questions posed by Smith were “written under an incorrect premise….”

The five page letter, plus enclosures, goes on to respond to the “spirit of those questions,” concluding that NASA is, in fact, conducting independent reviews of both failures and of the Orbital ATK and SpaceX “approaches to return to flight.”  One of the enclosures is an August 3 memorandum for the record from NASA Associate Administrator for Human Exploration and Operations, Bill Gerstenmaier, stating that “I have been closely observing the inclusion of NASA in the [Falcon 9 failure] investigation and have determined that NASA LSP should serve the function of an independent review team for NASA for this investigation.”

Orbital ATK determined that a malfunction of the NK33/AJ-26 Russian rocket engines on Antares caused the Orb-3 failure, although the official report has not been released yet.  It will use a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket for its next Cygnus cargo launch (OA-4) to ISS in December.  Antares is expected to return to flight, outfitted with different Russian rocket engines, in March 2016. 

SpaceX made a preliminary finding that the SpX-7 failure was due to a bad strut in the rocket’s upper stage, but the investigation is ongoing and the company has not announced when the Falcon 9 will return to flight or what it will launch.   SpaceX has a long list of customers, both commercial and government, for Falcon 9 launches. 

The next Falcon 9 NASA launch is Jason-3, which was supposed to go in July after several earlier satellite-related delays.   During a media telecon today on NASA’s studies of sea level rise, JPL’s Josh Willis said the launch could take place later this year or early next, depending on when the Falcon 9 resumes service.  He said the launch would take place as soon as possible, but only when it can be done safely.  Jason-3 is a cooperative program between NOAA and Europe’s EUMETSAT, with participation by NASA and its French counterpart, CNES.  NASA and CNES built the first two in the series and a predecessor, Topex-Poseidon.

Last Updated: Aug 27, 2015 10:04 am ET
What's Happening in Space Policy August 24-September 4, 2015

What's Happening in Space Policy August 24-September 4, 2015

By Marcia Smith | Posted: August 23, 2015 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: August 23, 2015 3:33 pm ET

Summer will be over before we know it, but for now, our list of upcoming space policy events still spans the next couple of weeks while “business” is slow.   Congress returns on September 8, the day after Labor Day.

During the Week

This week starts off with the docking of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA’s) HTV5 (Kounotori5) cargo spacecraft with the International Space Station (ISS).   The spacecraft was successfully launched on Wednesday and has been catching up with ISS ever since.   JAXA astronaut Kimiya Yui is aboard ISS and will be at the controls of Canada’s robotic Canadarn2 tomorrow morning (Monday) to capture it.   That event is expected about 6:55 am Eastern Daylight Time (EDT).  NASA TV coverage begins at 5:15 am EDT.  JAXA’s coverage begins at 6:05 am EDT.  Installation of HTV5 onto the Harmony node will follow at about 9:45 am EDT.  The crew surely will be happy to get those 9,500 pounds of supplies, equipment and science experiments following the three cargo mission failures (one U.S. Orbital Sciences Antares/Cygnus, one Russian Soyuz/Progress, and one U.S. SpaceX Falcon/Dragon) since last October.   It should be noted, of course, that there also have been five successful cargo missions (three Russian Progresses and two U.S. SpaceX Dragons) during that time, which, if anything, demonstrates just how much resupply from Earth is needed to sustain the crew and their work.

Tomorrow also is the first day of the three-day Outer Planets Assessment Group (OPAG) meeting at the Applied Physics Lab in Laurel, MD.  These “AGs” — assessment groups or analysis groups but NOT “advisory” groups — apparently no longer are officially part of NASA’s advisory process, but are still an opportunity for members of the relevant science community to get together and interact with each other and NASA officials.   The meeting is available virtually via WebEx and telecon.  Among the many interesting sessions, Bob Pappalardo will talk about plans for the Europa mission on Monday at 3:15 pm ET and Alan Stern is scheduled to talk about the New Horizons Pluto mission on Tuesday at 1:30 pm ET.

Rep. Donna Edwards (D-MD) is scheduled to speak at a Maryland Space Business Roundtable (MSBR) luncheon on Tuesday.  (The event is listed on MSBR’s website, but the link to the flyer is inactive.  We assume that’s a glitch and the event is going on as planned, but you might want to check with MSBR to be sure).  Edwards is the top Democrat (“ranking member”) on the Space Subcommittee of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee and a strong NASA supporter, especially of projects at Goddard Space Flight Center near her district.  Her interest in space goes much further, though.  Never mind just trying to convince her colleagues to fund NASA’s “Journey to Mars,” she has said publicly that she wants to go there herself.   Right now, though, she is focused on her current job representing Maryland’s 4th congressional district and running for the Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Barbara Mikulski.

On Friday, the Earth Science subcommittee of the NASA Advisory Council will meet telephonically.  An agenda is not yet posted on the subcommittee’s website, but the Federal Register notice says it is an annual performance review of the Earth Science program as required under the Government Performance and Results Modernization Act.  The public is welcome to listen in.

Those events and others coming up the first week of September that we know about as of today, August 23, are listed below.

Monday, August 24

  • HTV5 arrival at ISS, grapple 6:55 am ET, installation 9:45 am ET (times are approximate)   Watch on NASA TV (5:15 am ET) and JAXA’s YouTube site (6:05 am ET)

Monday-Wednesday, August 24-26

  • OPAG, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab, Laurel, MD (available via WebEx and telecon)

Tuesday, August 25

Friday, August 28

Monday-Wednesday, August 31-September 2

Tuesday, September 1

Wednesday, September 2

Wednesday-Friday, September 2-4

 

Last Updated: Aug 23, 2015 3:33 pm ET

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