Category: Commercial

Sierra Nevada Files Suit to Reinstate Stop-Work Order on CCtCAP

Sierra Nevada Files Suit to Reinstate Stop-Work Order on CCtCAP

By Marcia Smith | Posted: October 16, 2014 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: October 16, 2014 4:04 pm ET

Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) filed a lawsuit in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims yesterday asking the court essentially to overturn NASA’s decision to allow work to proceed under the Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCAP) contracts.  SNC is protesting NASA’s award of those contracts to Boeing and SpaceX and ordinarily work would stop until the protest was resolved.  NASA initially told the companies to stop work, but rescinded that order about a week later, triggering SNC’s lawsuit.  A hearing on SNC’s suit is scheduled for tomorrow morning (Friday, October 17).

Sierra Nevada, Boeing and SpaceX are all being funded under the current phase of NASA’s commercial crew program — Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCAP).   Those three companies, at least, bid for the CCtCAP phase which will lead to operational commercial crew systems to take astronauts to and from the International Space Station.   NASA selected Boeing and SpaceX for CCtCAP on September 16.

On September 26, SNC filed a protest with the Government Accountability Office (GAO) because it found “serious questions and inconsistencies in the source selection process.”  GAO has 100 days (until January 5, 2015) to rule on the protest.

NASA issued a stop-work order to Boeing and SpaceX because of the protest.  The stop-work order affects only the CCtCAP contracts, not work under the CCiCAP agreements. 

However, on October 9, NASA rescinded the stop-work order, overriding provisions of the Competition in Contracting Act (CICA) on the basis that it was acting within statutory authority to avoid significant adverse consequences.

In filing its lawsuit in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, SNC asserts that NASA’s override decision was “illegal and void” because the government failed to establish that “performance of the contract is in the best interest of the United States” or “urgent and compelling circumstance that significantly affect the interests of the United States will not permit waiting” for the GAO decision.  SNC calls NASA’s override decision “arbitrary and capricious, an abuse of discretion and … contrary to law, all in violation of the Administrative Procedures Act….”

SNC asks the court to declare NASA’s override “illegal and void” or alternatively to “preliminarily enjoin the Defendant from further implementing” the override — in other words, to reinstate the stop-work order — until the court issues a final judgment on the matter.

Because SNC’s filing to the court relies on material subject to a GAO protective order (because of its bid protest to GAO) and on other material that may contain proprietary information, SNC further requests the court to keep the primary documents it filed with the court (memorandum and appendix) under seal.   For now, at least, only a few of SNC’s documents are available to the public through the court’s PACER electronic system: Plaintiff’s Motion for Leave to File Documents Under Seal and Motion for a Protective Order, Motion for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief, and Plaintiff’s Applications for a Temporary Restraining Order to Prevent Unlawful Override of CICA Stay.

The court has scheduled a hearing on the case, Sierra Nevada Corporation v United States, before Judge Marian Blank Horn for 10:00 am ET tomorrow, October 17.

Last Updated: Oct 16, 2014 4:04 pm ET
Hurricane Gonzalo Delays Orb-3 Cargo Launch to ISS

Hurricane Gonzalo Delays Orb-3 Cargo Launch to ISS

By Marcia Smith | Posted: October 15, 2014 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: October 15, 2014 6:38 pm ET

NASA and Orbital Sciences Corporation decided today to delay the launch of Orbital’s third operational cargo mission (Orb-3) to the International Space Station (ISS) until at least October 27 because Hurricane Gonzalo is bearing down on Bermuda.  One of the tracking sites used for Orbital’s launches from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility is located in Bermuda.

The announcement on Orbital’s website stresses that the October 27 date is tentative since the impact of the storm on Bermuda’s infrastructure will not be known until the storm passes.

As of 5:00 pm ET today (October 15), Gonzalo is a Category Three hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 125 miles per hour and higher gusts.  Bermuda is expected to feel the brunt of it on Friday with a “dangerous storm surge” accompanied by “large and destructive waves” according to the National Hurricane Center.

The mobile tracking station is located on Cooper’s Island, Bermuda. 

NASA/Wallops Bermuda Tracking Site.  Photo Credit:   NASA/Wallops.

Orbital launches its commercial cargo missions to the ISS from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on the coast of Virginia.  NASA and Bermuda signed an agreement in March 2012 to place a tracking site there to support such launches.  NASA/Wallops Deputy Range Director Steven Kremer said at the time that “[o]wning, deploying and controlling our own assets means control over scheduling … and higher confidence in promising range availability to our customers….”  The tracking station provides telemetry, radar and command and control services.

Originally scheduled for October 14, the Orb-3 launch was delayed to October 20 and then October 24 primarily because of the busy schedule of activities aboard the ISS, including three spacewalks this month (the second was completed today) and the arrival and departure of other cargo spacecraft including Russia’s Progress and SpaceX’s Dragon.

If the launch takes place on October 27, the launch time is 6:44 pm ET and Orbital’s Cygnus spacecraft will arrive at the ISS on November 2, Orbital said today.

Last Updated: Oct 15, 2014 6:38 pm ET
Air Force X-37B Due to Land Tuesday, SWF Wants More Transparency About Its Missions

Air Force X-37B Due to Land Tuesday, SWF Wants More Transparency About Its Missions

By Marcia Smith | Posted: October 13, 2014 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: May 19, 2015 3:33 pm ET

UPDATE:  The vehicle landed on October 17.  See X-37B Lands After 675 Days in Space.

NOTE:  As of 5:00 pm EDT October 15, the Air Force has not made any announcement that the X-37B landed.  The original announcement that it was returning to Earth said the exact landing date and time were dependent on technical and weather considerations.  Unofficial observers monitoring FAA’s NOTAMs (Notices to Airmen) and using amateur observations of its orbit can offer possible landing times, but they are subject to uncertainty. Reuters reporter Irene Klotz (@Free_Space) tweeted today that the landing “now looks like no earlier than Thursday, FAA pilot advisory indicates.”  Bob Christy at zarya.info calculates there is a landing opportunity that day (tomorrow) about 16:25 GMT (12:25 EDT).  This article has been updated to reflect the delay from the anticipated landing date of October 14.

UPDATED, October 15, 2014:  The Air Force announced on Friday (October 10) that its secretive X-37B spaceplane, in orbit for almost two years, will soon return to Earth and land at Vandenberg Air Force Base, CA.  At the recent International Astronautical Congress (IAC2014) in Toronto, Victoria Samson of the Secure World Foundation encouraged the U.S. government to be more open about what the X-37 is doing as part of the Transparency and Confidence Building Measures (TCBMs) the United States is advocating to help ensure space sustainability.

Officially called the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV), the vehicle resembles a very small space shuttle.   The Air Force launches the robotic spacecraft for lengthy on-orbit classified missions.  This flight is the longest to date.  Launched on December 11, 2012, its mission duration will be more than 667 days.  There are at least two OTVs.  The first, OTV-1, made a 224 day flight in 2010.  The second, OTV-2, made a 469 day flight from March 2011 to June 2012.  The OTVs are reusable and this is the second flight for OTV-1.

Photo of X-37B OTV-1.  Photo credit: Boeing (via Spaceflightnow.com)

The Air Force statement said the exact time of the landing “will depend on technical and weather considerations.”  Initial indications were that landing was targeted for October 14, but that day passed with no announcement from the Air Force.  Unofficial observers are estimating potential landing times based on the FAA’s NOTAMs (Notices to Airmen) and amateur observations of the X-37’s orbit, but they are subject to uncertainty.  Check back here for updated information when it is available.

The classified nature of the missions prompts much speculation about what they are doing.   In an era when the United States and other countries are advocating for establishing TCBMs to help ensure space sustainability, some question why the missions are kept secret.   In an October 1 session at IAC2014 on “Assuring a Safe, Secure and Sustainable Space Environment for Space Activities,” the Secure World Foundation’s (SWF’s) Samson cited the X-37B’s secrecy as at odds with TCBMs.  TCBMs are norms of behavior that “nations that mean no harm” should follow, she said, including a willingness to share information about technical capabilities in order to avoid misperceptions.  She remarked that the U.S. “refusal to explain what the X-37B is [doing] has led a lot of people to assume the worst, and probably wrongfully so.” 

A 2010 SWF analysis concluded it “has near zero feasibility as an orbital weapons system for attacking targets on the ground” and has “limited capability for orbital inspection, repair and retrieval,” although speculation often centers on exactly such missions.  SWF concluded its most likely purpose is “flight testing new reusable space launch vehicle (SLV) technologies … and on-orbit testing of new sensor technologies and satellite hardware primarily for space-based remote sensing.”

The OTVs are launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, FL, adjacent to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC). NASA and the Air Force announced last week that the Air Force will use two of KSC’s Orbiter Processing Facilities (OPFs) to process the X-37B in the future.  To date the OTVs have landed across the country at Vandenberg, but the NASA-Air Force announcement also said that tests were conducted to demonstrate the X-37B could land at KSC’s Shuttle Landing Facility.   The landing facility and the OPFs are left over from NASA’s space shuttle program, which was terminated in 2011.

The X-37, built by Boeing, initially was a NASA test vehicle designed to lead to an Orbital Space Plane that could serve as a Crew Return Vehicle to bring International Space Station astronauts back to Earth in an emergency and, eventually, as a taxi to take them to the ISS as well.  NASA terminated that program in 2004 after President George W. Bush reoriented the human spaceflight program toward returning astronauts to the Moon instead of ISS utilization.  The X-37 program then was transferred to the Department of Defense.

Last Updated: May 19, 2015 3:33 pm ET
What's Happening In Space Policy October 13-17, 2014

What's Happening In Space Policy October 13-17, 2014

By Marcia Smith | Posted: October 12, 2014 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: October 12, 2014 1:34 pm ET

Here is our list of space policy-related events for the week of October 13-17, 2014 and any insight we can offer about them.  Congress is in recess until November 12.

During the Week

The event likely to attract the most attention this week is the International Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight (ISPCS).  The speaker line-up is an intriguing array of “traditional space” and “new space” luminaries, although the description of Bill Gerstenmaier’s talk may say it best:  “Never before have the titles of ‘old space’ and ‘new space’ been as trivial as they are today.” 

Just to illustrate the breadth of speakers (sorry we can’t list everyone — the program is here), in addition to Gerstenmaier (NASA’s Associate Administrator for Human Exploration and Operations), speakers include Clay Mowry (Arianespace), George Sowers (United Launch Alliance), George Whitesides (Virgin Galactic), Stuart Will (Mojave Air and Space Port), Barry Matsumori (SpaceX), Brett Alexander (Blue Origin), Doug Loverro (DOD Deputy Assistant Secretary for Space Policy), John Shannon (Boeing), Mark Sirangelo (Sierra Nevada Space Systems), Doug Young (Northrop Grumman) and Senator Martin Heinrich (D-NM). 

Most unfortunately, if you can’t be there in person, you’re out of luck.  The conference’s media contact says none of the sessions will be webcast live, though “a few of the keynotes” may be posted online in a month or two.

That and other events we know about as of this afternoon (Sunday) are listed below.

Tuesday, October 14

Wednesday, October 15

  • ISS Spacewalk (2 NASA astronauts), begins approximately 8:10 am ET (NASA TV coverage begins at 7:00 am ET)

Wednesday-Thursday, October 15-16

Wednesday-Friday, October 15-17

Friday-Tuesday, October 17-21

Last Updated: Oct 12, 2014 1:34 pm ET
Shana Dale Joins FAA Commercial Space Office as Deputy AA

Shana Dale Joins FAA Commercial Space Office as Deputy AA

By Marcia Smith | Posted: October 11, 2014 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: October 12, 2014 1:51 pm ET

Shana Dale will become Deputy Associate Administrator for Commercial Space Transportation (AST) at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) as of November 3, 2014.   She succeeds George Zamka who left AST this summer to join Bigelow Aerospace.

Dale has served in a number of positions on Capitol Hill and in the George W. Bush Administration.  She is perhaps best known in space policy circles as the first woman to serve as Deputy Administrator of NASA from 2005-2009 while Mike Griffin was Administrator.

Shana Dale.  Photo Credit:  NASA

She joined NASA after serving in several positions, including Chief of Staff, at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.  Before and after her Executive Branch assignments she worked on Capitol Hill serving as Staff Director for the Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee of the House Science Committee (now the House Science, Space and Technology Committee) in the late 1990s and more recently as principal policy advisor to that committee from 2012-2013 while Rep. Ralph Hall (R-TX) was chairman.   In between leaving NASA in 2009 and returning to the House committee in 2012 she was Sector Leader for Science, Engineering and Technologies Services at Dell, Inc. 

Dale is a lawyer by training, with a J.D. from California Western School of Law and a B.S. in Business Administration from the University of Tulsa.

Last Updated: Oct 12, 2014 1:51 pm ET
Steltzner: Mars Curiosity's Fabeled SkyCrane was a "Manuever," Not a "Thing"

Steltzner: Mars Curiosity's Fabeled SkyCrane was a "Manuever," Not a "Thing"

By Marcia Smith | Posted: October 10, 2014 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: October 10, 2014 7:34 pm ET

Adam Steltzner, who headed the Entry, Descent and Landing (EDL) team for the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) and its rover, Curiosity, corrected a widespread misperception about the mission’s SkyCrane during a lecture at the National Academy of Sciences last week.  It is not a “thing,” but a “maneuver,” he explained as he recounted the challenges of designing an EDL system for such a heavy lander and the lessons learned from the experience.

Steltzner was selected as the winner of the first Yvonne C. Brill Lectureship in Aerospace Engineering sponsored by the National Academy of Engineering and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA).   This inaugural Brill Lecture was held on September 30, 2014.  A video of the event, which also includes tributes to Brill, a distinguished aerospace engineer who passed away last year, is available on the University of Maryland’s website.

Steltzner, an aerospace engineer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, CA, provided a lot of detail of the design and testing of the EDL system for the 900 kilogram (2,000 pound) rover that recently completed its second Earth year (first Mars year) exploring the Red Planet.  The process of getting from the top of the Mars atmosphere to the surface was nicknamed early on as the Seven Minutes of Terror with an animation (narrated by Steltzner and colleagues) vividly showing just how much had to go right for the rover to safely settle at the bottom of Mars’ Gale Crater.

The term SkyCrane seemed to accurately describe the rocket-propelled device slowly lowering the rover, hanging from tethers, to the surface before it flies away out of sight to avoid landing on top of its precious cargo.  That is not the SkyCrane however.  It “is a maneuver, not a thing,” Steltzner emphasized, which was originally called “direct placement” before someone came up with the catchier nomenclature.  It is the “act” of lowering the rover to the surface and then flying away rather than the hardware employed to accomplish that feat.  He added that the SkyCrane was judged to be the “least unacceptable solution” to the question of how to land the heavy rover.

Steltzner shared lessons learned and some of the cost-saving measures JPL used such as basing the descent engine on the type used for the 1970s-era Viking Mars probes instead of starting from scratch.   As luck would have it, JPL’s Carl Guernsey had kept one of the Viking engines under his desk for all those years and it was used for testing for the MSL project.   NASA has landed other rovers on Mars since Viking, but they were much smaller and could use simpler landing technologies (e.g. airbags).

The lecture is full of entertaining engineering stories, such as how the first signal JPL received of the spacecraft’s condition as it “kissed” the Martian atmosphere on the way down was that it had entered at a bad angle with “catastrophic” results.  Steltzner and his team held their breaths until more signals arrived moments later showing a nominal entry into the atmosphere.  They later determined the error message was the result of a bad sensor.

The Brill Lectureship is a biennial award administered by AIAA, which will release a call for nominations for the next award at the appropriate time.

The September 30 event included several tributes to Brill from colleagues, family and friends.   Steve Battel, who served on the National Research Council’s Space Studies Board with Brill, offered highlights of Brill’s 60-year engineering career, including her invention of a hydrazine thruster when she worked for RCA (once one of the major U.S. satellite manufacturers) that revolutionized station-keeping for geostationary satellites and is still used today.  She received many honors for that invention, including the 2010 National Medal of Technology and Innovation presented by President Obama in 2011. 

Colleague Jill Tietjen recalled Brill’s role as mentor to many women engineers and determination to ensure that women were recognized for their achievements.   Brill’s son, Matt, charmingly described growing up with parents who inspired their two sons and daughter to become scientists or engineers themselves.  All did, though Matt revealed that his brother, Joe, originally an electrical engineer, decided to get an MBA and go into the financial services business after a Mars mission he worked on (Mars Observer) failed just before it was to enter Mars orbit in 1993.  The engineering tradition is now moving into a third generation — Matt’s daughter is studying engineering in college now.  Yvonne Brill was 88 when she died in March 2013.  She and her husband, Bill, a chemist, were married for 59 years until Bill’s death in 2010.

The creation of the Lectureship and organization of the September 30 event was led by Elaine Oran, a close friend of Brill’s who spent most of her career at the Naval Research Laboratory and recently moved to the University of Maryland, and is herself the winner of many awards.

Last Updated: Oct 10, 2014 7:34 pm ET
NASA Rescinds CCtCAP Stop-Work Order, Boeing and SpaceX May Proceed

NASA Rescinds CCtCAP Stop-Work Order, Boeing and SpaceX May Proceed

By Marcia Smith | Posted: October 9, 2014 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: October 9, 2014 5:09 pm ET

NASA today rescinded its directive to Boeing and SpaceX to stop work on the Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCAP) contracts because of the protest filed by Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC).   The agency said it was acting under its statutory authority to avoid significant adverse consequences.

In a posting to its commercial crew website, NASA said a failure to provide commercial crew services for the ISS as soon as possible could pose a risk to ISS crews, jeopardize continued ISS operations, delay increasing the size of the ISS crew from 6 to 7 (the additional crew member’s time would be primarily devoted to scientific research that is the fundamental rationale for building the ISS), and could result in the United States failing to meet its international commitments.

“These considerations compelled NASA to use its statutory authority to avoid significant adverse consequences where contract performance remained suspended,” NASA said.

NASA awarded the CCtCAP contracts on September 16, but SNC filed a protest with the Government Accountability Office (GAO) on September 26.  GAO has 100 days to rule on the protest, which could have delayed worked until January 2015.

Last Updated: Oct 09, 2014 5:09 pm ET
Arianespace Announces Cause of Galileo Launch Anomaly

Arianespace Announces Cause of Galileo Launch Anomaly

By Marcia Smith | Posted: October 8, 2014 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: October 8, 2014 9:34 am ET

Arianespace released the results of an investigation into why two European Union (EU) Galileo navigation satellites were left in the wrong orbit following a launch using Russia’s Soyuz rocket with Fregat upper stage.  The root cause was a “shortcoming” in the system thermal analysis of the Fregat design that led to freezing of the hydrazine fuel.

The conclusion was reached by an Independent Inquiry Board established by Arianespace after the August 22, 2014 anomaly.  The two Galileo satellites, intended to be the first of the Full Operational System, were stranded in an orbit that renders them unable to perform their primary mission.  The inquiry Board was led by Peter Dubock, former Inspector General of the European Space Agency (ESA).  The EU is funding the Galileo navigation satellite system, which is similar to the U.S. Global Positioning System (GPS).  ESA is the EU’s design and procurement agent for Galileo.  The EU plans to have 30 operational Galileo satellites in orbit by the end of the decade.

Arianespace launches Russia’s Soyuz rocket from its launch site in Kourou, French Guiana, through a partnership with Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, and two Russian manufacturers — RKTs-Progress, which builds Soyuz, and NPO Lavochkin, which builds the Fregat upper stage.  

At first, the August 22 launch seemed to go fine, but the satellites were later discovered in the wrong orbit.  The Arianespace inquiry drew on data supplied by its Russian partners and its findings “are consistent with” a separate board of inquiry appointed by Roscosmos.

The Soyuz rocket was exonerated and found to have performed as planned.   The problem was in the Fregat upper stage because the hydrazine fuel froze and blocked the fuel supply to the Fregat’s thrusters.  The fuel froze because the hydrazine and cold helium feed lines were connected by the same support structure, creating a thermal bridge.  The root cause was found to be “ambiguities” in the design documentation as the result of poor system thermal analysis in the design phase. 

Arianespace concluded that the issue is easy for Lavochkin to resolve and launches could resume as early as December 2014.  The company also noted that this failure followed 45 consecutive successful uses of the Fregat.

Last Updated: Oct 08, 2014 9:34 am ET
MIT Analysis Paints Bleak Outcome for Mars One Concept – UPDATE 2

MIT Analysis Paints Bleak Outcome for Mars One Concept – UPDATE 2

By Marcia Smith | Posted: October 7, 2014 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: October 10, 2014 5:37 pm ET

UPDATE 2, October 10:  The MIT students will hold a Reddit Ask Me Anything (AMA) session from 3:00-6:00 pm ET today to answer questions about their analysis (username: MarsOneAnalysis).  The AMA can be accessed at:  http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2ivo0t/we_are_the_authors_of_the_mit_mars_one/.  They also have posted an Open Letter to further explain their purpose and conclusions.  If we learn of Mars One holding any similar public discussion, we will be happy to spread the word on that as well.

UPDATE:  This October 7, 2014  article was updated on October 8 with a response from Mars One co-founder and CEO Bas Lansdorp.  On October 9, Mr. Lansdorp added a comment to the DisQus feature of this website explaining some of his concerns about the MIT analysis.

An analysis by a team of MIT students of the Mars One concept to send people to Mars on one-way missions to establish a settlement there offers a bleak picture of the outcome.  The paper was presented at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC2014) in Toronto last week.

Sydney Do, Koki Ho, Samuel Schreiner, Andrew Owens and Olivier de Weck conducted “An Independent Assessment of the Technical Feasibility of the Mars One Mission Plan” supported by grants from NASA and the Josephine de Karman Fellowship Trust.

The team looked at the Mars One plan as outlined in public sources, especially its assertions that a sustainable society on Mars can be established beginning in the 2020s using existing technology.  A “pre-deployment” phase between 2018 and 2023 would send robotic precursors and establish a crew “habitat” on the surface to await the first crew, which would be launched in 2024.  Additional four-person crews and habitats would be launched at every 26-month opportunity thereafter.

Because many details of the Mars One plan are not available, the MIT team made a number of assumptions that are comprehensively explained in order to conduct their analysis.

Some of the key conclusions of the study are that:

  • Mars One’s claim that “no new major developments or inventions are needed” does not withstand scrutiny and that assessment is only for the habitation, life support, in-situ resource utilization and space transportation technologies.   The MIT team notes that they did not address other required systems such as entry, descent and landing (EDL), the power system architecture, or the surface-to-orbit communications strategy.
  • The Mars One estimate of the number of launches needed for the pre-deployment phase is “overly optimistic.”  The best scenario would require 15 Falcon Heavy launches to establish the first crew on Mars according to the MIT analysis.
  • If crops grown on Mars are the only food source, they will “produce unsafe oxygen levels in the habitat” resulting in the first crew fatality after about 68 days due to “suffocation from too low an oxygen partial pressure within the environment,”  the consequence of a complex series of events stemming from overproduction of oxygen by the plants.
  • The MIT team postulated solutions to that problem that are not part of the Mars One plan (e.g. relying on stored food brought from Earth, creating a separate plant growing facility, or using yet-to-be invented oxygen removal technology).  If a way were found to sustain a Mars One habitat for 130 months, the paper concludes that spare parts would require 62 percent of the mass brought from Earth over that period of time.

The lead author, Sydney Do, a Ph.D. candidate in aeronautics and astronautics at MIT, said via email that in his view “the Mars One Concept is unsustainable” because of the current state of technology and its “aggressive expansion approach” of quickly adding more and more people rather than keeping the settlement at a fixed size for a period of time.

The paper acknowledges that the study was based on “the best available information” and the team is willing to update their analysis if more information becomes available.

MarsOne co-founder and CEO Bas Lansdorp, in an email to SpacePolicyOnline.com on October 8, said that while he welcomed the students’ analysis, his company does not have time to respond to all the questions it receives from students and “the lack of time for support from us combined with their limited experience results in incorrect conclusions.”

Editor’s Note:  Mr. Lansdorp’s October 8 email discusses several areas where he believes the MIT analysis is incorrect.  We encouraged him to post his entire comment to our website’s DisQus feature, but he declined.  We responded that if he does post his entire reaction elsewhere (perhaps on the Mars One site), we will be happy to include a link to it.

Editor’s Note 2:  On October 9, Mr. Lansdorp did, indeed, add a comment to the DisQus feature of this website explaining his concerns.  It can be found in the comment stream labeled “Bas Lansdorp.”

Last Updated: Oct 10, 2014 5:37 pm ET
What's Happening in Space Policy October 6-10, 2014

What's Happening in Space Policy October 6-10, 2014

By Marcia Smith | Posted: October 5, 2014 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: October 5, 2014 1:31 pm ET

Here is our list of space policy related events for the week of October 6-10, 2014 and any insight we can offer about them.  Congress is in recess until November 12.

During the Week

World Space Week 2014 continues (it began on Saturday) with events worldwide commemorating the beginning of the Space Age on October 4, 1957 and the benefits derived from space over the decades. This year’s theme is “Space: Guiding Your Way” and the DC chapter of the International Space University alumni association will hold a Space Café on Tuesday featuring James Miller, who works for NASA’s Space Communications and Navigation program.

Two of the five standing committees of the National Research Council’s (NRC’s) Space Studies Board (SSB) will meet this week.  The five committees align with the five Decadal Surveys the SSB produces that advise NASA and other agencies on the top space science priorities.  The committees provide a forum to maintain discussion about the topics in between the once-a-decade (hence “decadal”) reports.   This is the first meeting of the new Committee on Biological and Physical Sciences in Space, formed after completion of the first Decadal Survey for that field of research, which was published in 2011.  It is meeting at the NRC’s Keck Center on 5th Street Tuesday and Wednesday, though the sessions on Wednesday are closed to the public.  The SSB’s Committee on Solar and Space Physics will meet Tuesday-Thursday across town at the National Academy of Sciences building on Constitution Ave.  It will have open sessions the first two days.  (If you’re keeping track, the Committee on Astrobiology and Planetary Sciences and the Committee on Earth Science and Applications in Space met in September; the Committee on Astronomy and Astrophysics meets in November.)

On Tuesday the first of two “U.S.” spacewalks scheduled for October will take place from the International Space Station (ISS).  They are “U.S.” because they involve tasks on the U.S. Operating Segment (USOS) and the spacewalkers will be wearing U.S. spacesuits, but one of the two is Europe’s Alexander Gerst (joining NASA’s Reid Wiseman) so it really is a U.S./ESA spacewalk.  Next week (October 15) Wiseman and NASA’s Barry “Butch” Wilmore will do another spacewalk, and the week after that, on October 22, two of the Russian cosmonauts will do a spacewalk on their segment of the ISS.  It’s a busy time on the ISS with visiting spacecraft coming and going in addition to those spacewalks.   Three new crewmembers just arrived on September 25.   Two cargo spacecraft, a Russian Progress and SpaceX Dragon, already docked there will depart and be replaced by a new Progress and an Orbital Sciences Corporation Cygnus later this month.

Those and other events for the week of October 6-10 that we know about as of Sunday afternoon are listed below.

October 6-10, Monday- Friday

Tuesday, October 7

Tuesday-Wednesday, October 7-8

Tuesday-Thursday, October 7-9

Tuesday-Friday, October 7-10

Thursday, October 9

 

Last Updated: Oct 05, 2014 1:31 pm ET

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