Category: International

False Alarm Sends USOS ISS Crewmembers to Russian Segment

False Alarm Sends USOS ISS Crewmembers to Russian Segment

By Marcia Smith | Posted: January 14, 2015 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: January 14, 2015 8:35 pm ET

What turned out to be a malfunctioning data relay caused the three International Space Station (ISS) crew members who spend most of their time in the U.S. Orbital Segment (USOS) to evacuate into the Russian segment while ground controllers determined just what was going on.  Initially it appeared there had been an ammonia leak.

ISS program manager Mike Suffredini explained at an 11:00 am EST briefing that at 4:00 am EST (3:00 am Central) systems indicated that four measurements were “off scale.”   An alarm indicated that water was building up in one of two coolant loops (Loop B)
used to transfer heat out of the interior of the space station.  The
water carries heat away, through a heat exchanger, to an ammonia loop
on the exterior of the station.  The system is designed to prevent
ammonia from getting into the interior of the facility, but there are
failure scenarios that could cause such an incursion.  One sign is that the water level rises in one of the loops.

Consequently NASA astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Terry Virts and European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Samantha Cristoforreti were ordered to don protective masks and move into the Russian segment.  

Suffredini said that initial checks indicated there was no ammonia leak and the crew members were allowed to return to the USOS, but shortly after that an air pressure spike was detected, another “cue” there could be an ammonia leak.  The crew was sent back to the Russian segment.

Ground control teams troubleshot the issue and after several hours determined that a “transient error message” in a multiplexer-demultiplexer (MDM) computer relay system had, by chance, sent erroneous data that mimicked an ammonia leak. Ground controllers recycled the MDM and the false readings disappeared.  The crew returned to the USOS at 3:05 pm EST, still wearing protective masks, to sample the atmosphere.  No ammonia was detected.

Suffredini said that the research being conducted by the astronauts would have to be replanned because of the “impromptu” day off, but did not expect any major impacts.  

The ISS is a modular facility with part composed of modules and equipment built by Russia (the Russian Orbital Segment-ROS) and the other part by the United States, Japan, Europe and Canada (the USOS segment).  A hatch separates the two segments so in circumstances like this, one can serve as a safe haven if there is a problem in the other.  The Russian segment uses a different type of cooling system and was not affected by this problem.

Last Updated: Jan 14, 2015 8:35 pm ET
What's Happening in Space Policy January 12-16, 2015

What's Happening in Space Policy January 12-16, 2015

By Marcia Smith | Posted: January 11, 2015 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: January 11, 2015 5:32 pm ET

Here is our list of space policy events for the week of January 12-16, 2015 and any insight we can offer about them.  The House and Senate are in session this week.

During the Week

The week starts off with the berthing of the SpaceX CRS-5 (SpX-5) Dragon spacecraft with the International Space Station at about 6:00 am ET Monday morning.  It may seem anticlimatic compared with Saturday’s SpX-5 launch — or rather the attempted landing of the Falcon 9 first stage on an autonomous drone ship.   While that didn’t go as planned, as a test it certainly was a success as a step towards reusability.

Congressional committee activities for the 114th Congress get off to a start this week.  Many House committees, including the House Armed Services Committee (HASC), are holding their organizational meetings to adopt rules, lay out majority and minority agendas, and complete administrative tasks.   Rep. MacThornberry (R-TX) takes over the HASC gavel this Congress from Howard “Buck” McKeon (R-CA), who retired.   Over in the Senate, SASC is holding an actual hearing with a single witness — Henry Kissinger — expounding on global challenges and U.S. national security.  Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) will chair SASC in this Congress.   Space topics do not usually arise in hearings like these on broad, top level national security issues, but U.S. dependence on Russia for rocket engines, the overall state of national security space assets, or perceived threats posed by China’s space activities might come up depending on where the conversation goes.

Down at Stennis Space Center, MS, the NASA Advisory Council (NAC) and two of its committees — Science  and Human Exploration and Operations (HEO) — will meet this week.  A joint session Monday afternoon between the Science and HEO committees might be particularly interesting.  Then, on Tuesday morning HEO Associate Administrator Bill Gerstenmaier will provide the HEO committee with an update on HEO activities overall and Michele Gates and Lindley Johnson will present an update on the Asteroid Redirect Mission.  Later in the day, Alan Lindenmoyer will offer NAC-HEO “lessons learned” from the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program.  The meetings are available virtually via WebEx and telecon (click on the links to those meetings below or on the right menu for instructions).

Those and other events of interest that we know about as of Sunday afternoon are listed below.

Monday, January 12

Monday-Tuesday, January 12-13

Tuesday, January 13

Wednesday-Thursday, January 14-15

Thursday, January 15

Friday, January 16

Last Updated: Jan 11, 2015 5:32 pm ET
Senate Commerce Names Subcommittee Chairs: Ted Cruz for NASA, Marco Rubio for NOAA

Senate Commerce Names Subcommittee Chairs: Ted Cruz for NASA, Marco Rubio for NOAA

By Marcia Smith | Posted: January 8, 2015 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: January 8, 2015 9:55 pm ET

The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee today announced who will chair its subcommittees in the 114th Congress.   Ted Cruz (R-TX) will chair the subcommittee that oversees NASA, while Marco Rubio (R-FL) will chair the one with jurisdiction over NOAA.

The Senate is now in Republican hands, so all committee and subcommittee chairs are Republican and ranking members are Democrats (though there are two Independents, who usually vote with Democrats, who might also hold committee leadership positions).   The full Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee is chaired by Sen. John Thune (R-SD), who announced the six subcommittee chairs today.  The two of most interest to the space policy community are the Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries and Coast Guard, which includes NOAA, and the Subcommittee on Space, Science and Competitiveness, which includes NASA and added “competitiveness” to its title this year.

Cruz was the top Republican on the Science and Space subcommittee last year, so his ascension to chair is not unexpected.   He did not play a prominent public role in NASA matters in the last Congress, and is known mostly for his advocacy of reduced government spending overall and opposition to almost anything that the Obama Administration supports.  Bill Nelson (D-FL) chaired the subcommittee in the previous Congress, when it was controlled by Democrats, and is an ardent NASA supporter, having flown on the space shuttle in 1986 when he was a Member of the House of Representatives.  Nelson is now the top Democrat on the full Senate Commerce Committee.

Like Cruz, Rubio was the top Republican on the Oceans/Atmosphere subcommittee in the last Congress and now becomes chair.   All of NOAA’s activities are within the jurisdiction of the subcommittee and historically it has focused more on fisheries and coastal issues than on space.

Last Updated: Jan 08, 2015 9:55 pm ET
Chinese Lunar Spacecraft Gets New Mission – UPDATE

Chinese Lunar Spacecraft Gets New Mission – UPDATE

By Marcia Smith | Posted: January 5, 2015 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: January 13, 2015 8:05 am ET

UPDATE:  January 13, 2015:  This article was updated to reflect the arrival of the service module in lunar orbit.

The service module for China’s lunar sample return test mission last year now has a new mission — returning to lunar orbit for further tests.

China launched the spacecraft — variously referred to in the West as the CE-5 Test Flight Device, Chang’e Lunar Sample Container Test Flight, or Chang’e-5T1 — on an eight day mission on October 23, 2014 Eastern Daylight Time (EDT).  The main purpose was to test technologies for reentering Earth’s atmosphere from lunar distance in preparation for China’s planned Chang’e-5 lunar sample return mission.   The capsule separated from its service module and successfully landed in China on October 31 EDT (November 1 local time in China).

The service module, however, remained in space.  Initially China redirected it to the L2 Earth-Moon Lagrange point.  “It was the first time for a Chinese spacecraft to reach the L2 point,
and the service module completed three circles around the point”
according to Zhao Wenbo as quoted by
China’s Xinhua news service.  Zhao is identified as vice director of
the lunar probe and space project center of China’s State Administration
of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense (SASTIND).

On January 5, 2015, China announced that it was on its way back to lunar orbit.   It arrived there on January 11 and placed into an initial orbit 5,300 x 200 kilometers with a period of 8 hours.  After two more braking maneuvers, on January 13 it reached its final 127-minute orbit at approximately 200 x 200 kilometers.

No details were provided about what experiments are being conducted by the service module, only that it is related to “more tests” for the Chang’e-5 mission.

Chang’e-1 (2007) and Chang’e-2 (2010) were lunar orbiters and Chang’e-2 was later redirected to encounter asteroid Toutatis, which it did in 2012.  Chang’e-3 was a lander that delivered the Yutu rover to the lunar surface in December 2013.  A mechanical fault prevented the rover from fulfilling its primary objectives, but it returned data for many months and instruments on Chang’e-3 itself reportedly are still working.

This fourth Chinese lunar mission does not carry the Chang’e-4 designation for unknown reasons.  Although China has talked about Chang’e-4 in the past as a backup to Chang’e-3, it is not clear today what that mission entails or when it will be launched. This mission does not appear to have an official Chinese designation, instead simply being described in news reports as a test related to Chang’e-5.  Chinese accounts focus on Chang’e-5, the lunar sample return mission that is scheduled for launch in 2017 on China’s new Long March 5 rocket from the new Wenchang Space Launch Center on Hainan Island.

Chang’e is China’s mythological goddess of the Moon.

Last Updated: Jan 13, 2015 8:05 am ET
What's Happening in Space Policy January 1-9, 2015

What's Happening in Space Policy January 1-9, 2015

By Marcia Smith | Posted: December 31, 2014 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: December 31, 2014 2:43 pm ET

Here is our list of space policy related events coming up for the first week-and-a-half of the New Year and any insight we can offer about them.   The 114th Congress convenes at noon on Tuesday, January 6.

During the Weeks

The New Year gets off with a bang in 2015 with three major conferences, a SpaceX launch that could demonstrate the Falcon 9 first stage returning to land on a barge, the beginning of a new Congress, and meetings of three NASA advisory groups.

The three conferences are:

Special sessions (e.g. Town Halls, lectures, plenaries) will be held at each. The conference organizers have varying policies on webcasting, so check at the links provided to determine if these events can be viewed remotely.

SpaceX’s fifth operational cargo mission to the International Space Station (ISS), SpaceX CRS-5 or SpX-5, was postponed from December 19 to January 6 because a Falcon 9 static fire test did not go as planned.  Launch on January 6 is at 6:18 am EST.  While SpaceX cargo resupply missions to the ISS have become somewhat routine, SpaceX founder and chief designer Elon Musk has been using them — with NASA’s concurrence — to test the reusability of the Falcon 9 first stage.  On two missions already, the first stage has returned vertically to “land” on the ocean — tipping over into the water, of course, at the end.   On this flight, SpaceX will attempt to land it on a specially designed barge as the next step towards reusability.

Later that day,  back in Washington, the 114th Congress will convene with the House and Senate both in Republican hands.   Will that mean less gridlock?   Post-election vibes suggest that in the Senate, at least, liberal Democrats may take pages from the playbook used by Tea Party Republicans to demonstrate that the minority party wields power, too, so there are no sure bets.

NASA’s advisory bodies — or “analysis groups” (AGs) in some cases — also get off to a fast start.  Two of the AGs are first up:  the ExoPlanet Exploration Analysis Group (ExoPAG) this weekend (January 3-4) and Small Bodies Analysis Group (SBAG) on January 6-7.  AGs are not officially allowed to give advice to NASA because they are not chartered under the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA).  Only FACA-chartered bodies are supposed to give “advice,” but non-FACA groups can provide input that seems a lot like advice.  ExoPAG provides input to the NASA Advisory Council’s (NAC’s) Astrophysics Subcommittee and SBAG provides input to NAC’s Planetary Science Subcommittee.  Both of those subcommittees report to NAC’s Science Committee.  Another NAC Science subcommittee, Heliophysics, meets on Friday, January 9. 

These and other meetings scheduled for January 1-9, 2015 are listed below.

Saturday-Sunday, January 3-4

Sunday-Thursday, January 4-8

Monday-Friday, January 5-9

  • American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) SciTech 2015, Kissimmee, FL

Monday, January 5

  • SpaceX CRS-5 (SpX-5) pre-launch briefings, NASA Kennedy Space Center, FL (watch on NASA TV)
    • 12:00 noon EST, Cloud-Aerosol Transport System (CATS) Earth science instrument
    • 1:30 pm EST, science briefing
    • 4:00 pm EST, mission status briefing

Tuesday, January 6

  • SpaceX CRS-5 launch, Cape Canaveral, FL, 6:18 am EST (watch on NASA TV beginning at 5:00 am EST); post-launch briefing approximately 90 minutes after launch
  • 114th Congress convenes, noon EST, The Capitol, Washington, DC

Tuesday-Wednesday, January 6-7

Thursday, January 8

  • SpaceX CRS-5 arrives at ISS.  NASA TV coverage of grapple begins at 4:30 am EST (grapple is approx. 6:00 am EST) and of berthing at 8:15 am EST.

Thursday-Friday, January 8-9

Friday, January 9

Last Updated: Dec 31, 2014 2:43 pm ET
Russia Launches New Angara 5 Rocket

Russia Launches New Angara 5 Rocket

By Marcia Smith | Posted: December 23, 2014 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: December 23, 2014 7:04 pm ET

Russia successfully conducted the first test launch of its new Angara 5 launch vehicle today (December 23, 2014), just six months after a suborbital test flight of a smaller version of the rocket, Angara 1.2.

Russian officials said at the time of the Angara 1.2 launch that the Angara 5 would liftoff in December, but there had been so many delays in the program that it seemed optimistic.  Russian news reports throughout the summer and fall continued to say that it would launch around Christmastime, however, and recently named December 23 as the date.  

Live coverage of the launch from Russia’s Plesetsk launch site was not provided, but replays are now posted on YouTube. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed the rocket as serving both economic and defense needs saying it can be used for “the system of early warning of missile attacks, reconnaissance, navigation, communication and re-transmission of signals for defense purposes.”  Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin praised it as tribute to the country’s fortitude:  “It is great joy for all of us.  In this difficult time it will be our best response to sanctions and to unprecedented external financial, economic and political pressure on our country.”

Angara is family of launch vehicles that can lift payloads of varying sizes to different orbits.  Russian sources list different capabilities, but Russia’s space agency Roscosmos today reported that the range is from 3.8 to 35 tons (presumably to low Earth orbit–LEO).  The capability to geostationary orbit (GEO) is often listed as 3.4 tons.

The launch at 08:57 Moscow Time (00:57 Eastern Standard Time) today placed a 2-ton dummy satellite into GEO using a Briz-M upper stage (the payload reportedly was intended to remain attached to the upper stage all the way to GEO).

One goal of the Angara program is to replace rockets that were developed decades ago, like Proton and Soyuz, with a modern, environmentally friendly model.  Angara uses kerosene and liquid oxygen.  It will also be launched from Plesetsk and a new launch site still under construction in Siberia called Vostochny.  That would free Russia from its dependence on the Baikonur Cosmodrome, which it leases from Kazakhstan, for many types of launches.

Last Updated: Dec 23, 2014 7:04 pm ET
DLR's Warner to Take Helm at ESA

DLR's Warner to Take Helm at ESA

By Marcia Smith | Posted: December 18, 2014 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: December 18, 2014 5:20 pm ET

The European Space Agency (ESA) formally announced today that Prof. Dr.-Ing. Johann-Dietrich Wörner, currently the head of Germany’s space agency DLR, will become the new Director General (DG) of ESA next summer, succeeding Jean-Jacques Dordain.

A civil engineer, Wörner (whose name is often transliterated into English as Woerner), has led DLR since March 2007 as Chairman of its Executive Board.  Before joining DLR, he was President of the Technische Universität Darmstadt, where he previosuly was Dean of the Civil Engineering Faculty.  Prior positions included work for the civil engineering consultants König and Heunisch and, while a student, two years in Japan investigating earthquake safety.

 

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Johann-Dietrich Wörner, Chairman of the Executive Board, DLR
Photo Credit:  DLR website

Dordain will remain at the helm until June 30, 2015 and Wörner will begin his new duties as DG on July 1.  The ESA DG term is four years, but Dordain was reappointed twice and has been DG since July 2003.  He joined ESA in 1986 and held a number of high level positions in the agency before his appointment as DG.

ESA and Europe’s space program overall have undergone profound changes during Dordain’s tenure.  The membership grew as countries that were previously part of the Soviet bloc joined, and the European Union (EU) took on a larger role in European space policy.  The 2009 Treaty of Lisbon formally gave the EU a space policy role and it funds two of Europe’s more prominent space applications programs — the Galileo navigation satellite system and the Copernicus earth observation program (formerly GMES — Global Monitoring for Environment and Security).  ESA is deeply involved in those programs from a technical standpoint, but the EU owns them.  ESA and the EU have different but overlapping memberships (18 of ESA’s 20 members are in the EU — Norway and Switzerland are not; while 10 of the EU’s 28 members are not in ESA) and different rules and procedures.  They work together based on a 2004 Framework Agreement.

Wörner will be taking over an agency with stable funding of about 3 billion Euros a year, but as with most space agencies, aspirations often exceed available resources and he will have his work cut out for him navigating the ESA-EU relationship and convincing member states to fund ESA’s many mandatory and optional programs.

ESA is governed by a Council of Ministers which meets every two or three years to make policy and budget decisions.  It just met on December 2 and approved building a new Ariane 6 family of launch vehicles instead of upgrading the existing Ariane 5 into an evolved Ariane 5 ME.   Germany reportedly preferred Ariane 5ME, but acquiesced to the French position supporting Ariane 6 shortly before the meeting.  In announcing that the ministers had approved Ariane 6, Dordain said the issue would be revisited at the next ministerial meeting in 2016, but the decision would allow contracts to be signed for the development phase.  ESA also is trying to obtain funds from its members to support the council’s 2012 agreement to support the International Space Station (ISS) through at least 2020.  At the December 2 meeting, Dordain was able to announce funding commitments only through 2017.  (NASA is hoping ESA and its other ISS partners (Russia, Japan and Canada) will agree to support ISS through 2024, but that topic was not on the council’s agenda at this meeting.)   Launch vehicles and ISS are part of ESA’s optional programs where member countries can choose to participate or not and Wörner will need to continue convincing participating members that they are getting sufficient return on their investment in ISS.  Germany is viewed as the strongest supporter of ISS within ESA.

Wörner is well known in Washington space policy circles not only for his effective representation of Germany’s space interests, but charmingly quirky sense of humor and entertaining stories.

 

Last Updated: Dec 18, 2014 5:20 pm ET
SpaceX CRS-5 Delayed to No Earlier Than January 6 – UPDATE

SpaceX CRS-5 Delayed to No Earlier Than January 6 – UPDATE

By Marcia Smith | Posted: December 18, 2014 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: December 18, 2014 10:27 am ET

UPDATE, December 18, 10:25 am EST:  A link to the statement NASA finally put out is added, along with information on the status of the pre-launch briefings.

SpaceX confirmed to SpacePolicyOnline this morning that its fifth operational cargo mission to the International Space Station (ISS) will be postponed from tomorrow (December 19) to no earlier than January 6, 2015.

SpaceX spokesman John Taylor said via email that the delay is due to an “abundance of caution” following a static fire test yesterday that did not achieve all of its objectives.  “While the recent static fire test accomplished nearly all of our goals, the test did not run the full duration.  The data suggests that we could push forward without a second attempt, but out of an abundance of caution, we are opting to execute a second static fire test prior to launch.”

The next launch opportunity is not until January 6 because of the time it will take to conduct the second test, limited launch opportunities during the holiday period, and a beta angle cutout period when the Sun’s angle to the ISS prevents certain on-orbit activities like berthing Dragon, he added.  The beta angle cutout period is December 28-January 7.

If the launch takes place on January 6, Dragon would arrive at the ISS on January 8, after the cutout period ends.  January 7 is a backup launch date.

The likelihood of a delay was first reported by Chris Bergin of NASASpaceflight.com yesterday via Twitter, but not confirmed by SpaceX (or NASA) until this morning.

SpaceX has a full launch manifest, including the January 23 launch of the NOAA-NASA-Air Force Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) on January 23.  What impact the SpX-5 slip may have on other launches is unclear at the moment.   NOAA will hold a media teleconference this morning at 11:00 am EST where more information about the DSCOVR launch may be made available.

NASA finally issued a statement at about 10:15 am EST confirming the postponement and clarifying that three pre-launch briefings scheduled for today will be rescheduled for January 5.  If the launch takes place on January 6, the launch time is 6:18 am Eastern Standard Time (EST).

Last Updated: Dec 18, 2014 10:27 am ET
Orbital Sciences to Use Russian RD-181 for Antares

Orbital Sciences to Use Russian RD-181 for Antares

By Marcia Smith | Posted: December 17, 2014 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: December 17, 2014 10:54 pm ET

Orbital Sciences Corporation confirmed via Twitter a story published by Aviation Week & Space Technology that it has chosen a different Russian engine, RD-181, for its Antares rocket.  The last Antares launch, powered by Russian NK-33 engines (refurbished by Aerojet Rocketdyne and redesignated AJ26), exploded 15 seconds after liftoff on October 28.

Orbital confirmed after the launch failure that it would use a different engine for future Antares rockets, but as recently as last week, Orbital Chairman, President and CEO David Thompson declined to publicly identify the engine despite rumors that it would be Russian.

Aviation Week’s Frank Morring posted a story yesterday quoting Orbital’s vice president for space launch strategic development Mark Pieczynski as saying the RD-181, built by Energomash,
“is about as close as you could possibly get to replacing the current twin AJ-26 engines in Antares, so it minimizes the redesign of the core.”  The first set of RD-181s is expected in the summer of 2015, Morring reported, with a second set arriving in the fall.

Orbital has announced plans for recovering from the October 28 launch failure, which destroyed the Cygnus spacecraft that was carrying cargo to the International Space Station (ISS) as part of Orbital’s Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract with NASA.  The contract requires Orbital to deliver 20 tons of cargo to ISS by the end of 2016.  To fulfill the contract, Orbital will use another company’s rocket for at least one launch of Cygnus while getting the reconfigured Antares ready for launch in 2016.  That other company is the United Launch Alliance (ULA).  Orbital is buying one ULA Atlas V launch, with an option for one more.

In tweets yesterday and today, Orbital (@OrbitalSciences) said that the RD-181 is the “only propulsion system that enables us to complete cargo commitments to @NASA under #CRS contract by end of 2016.”  It also disputed reports on some media outlets that the value of its order for the engines is $1 billion.  “Total possible value (including options) of #RD181 order significantly below the $1 billion being reported by some media outlets.”

One of those media outlets is Russia’s Sputnik News, formerly RIA Novosti.  It reported today that the order is for 60 RD-181 engines, citing another Russian newspaper, Izvestiya.  According to that account, an official from Russia’s space agency Roscosmos said there is a firm contract for 20 engines with a commitment to deliver a total of 60.  A subsequent story from Sputnik News quotes Orbital’s Barron Beneski as saying the $1 billion figure is incorrect and “The full value if all the options were exercised would be significantly less.” 

Congress recently passed legislation prohibiting the purchase of a different Russian engine, the RD-180, for use in ULA’s Atlas V rocket.  Atlas V is used for many U.S. national security spacecraft and U.S. dependence on Russia for those engines became a significant issue after Russia’s actions in Ukraine.  The final version of the FY2015 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) prohibits the Secretary of Defense from awarding or renewing a contract to procure rocket engines designed or manufactured in Russia for the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program.  Atlas V and Delta IV are the two EELVs, so the language does not affect Antares. 

Morring quotes Orbital’s Ron Grabe, executive vice president and general manager of the company’s Launch Systems Group, as saying the company “coordinated with all relevant congressional staffs” and notes that the ISS program itself is dependent on cooperation with Russia.  ISS is an international partnership among the United States, Russia, Canada, Japan, and 11 European countries.  NASA has been dependent on Russia to launch crews to the ISS since the space shuttle was terminated in 2011.

Last Updated: Dec 17, 2014 10:54 pm ET
GAO Warns JWST Cryocooler Poses Risk of Schedule Slip

GAO Warns JWST Cryocooler Poses Risk of Schedule Slip

By Marcia Smith | Posted: December 15, 2014 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: December 15, 2014 5:22 pm ET

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued its third annual congressionally-required assessment of the status of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) today warning that the project’s schedule is at risk particularly because of challenges developing its cyrocooler.

GAO acknowledged that JWST program officials report that the space telescope’s overall schedule reserve is above its plans and standards, but pointed out that with four years until launch, NASA is only now beginning to integrate and test two of the five elements and major subsystems and this is the time period where problems are likely to be found.  Therefore “maintaining as much schedule reserve as possible … is critical.”

JWST also has “limited short-term cost reserves” to deal with potential schedule slips, GAO found.  Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems (NGAS) is the prime contractor for JWST, and GAO criticized the cost risk analyses used by NASA and NGAS because “they do not account for many new risks identified since 2011.”  GAO stressed that cost risk analyses must be continually updated to ensure reliability and that is part of adhering to cost estimating best practices. 

It recommended in the report that NASA follow best practices in cost estimating.  NASA “partially concurred” with the recommendation. NASA’s comments are published as an appendix to the report and say basically that it agrees it should follow best practices and is already doing so. 

JWST is described as a successor to the Hubble Space Telescope although it operates in different wavelengths (infrared rather than visible) and will be positioned at the Earth-Sun L2 Lagrange point (rather than in earth orbit).   It has a sunshade to protect it from the Sun and is passively cooled by exposure to space environment.  However, one of its instruments, the Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI), requires additional cooling, which will be provided by a first-of-its-kind cryogenic system — a cryocooler. 

GAO warned that the JWST project “continues to face major technical challenges building the cryocooler that have significantly delayed delivery of key components, have made it the driver of the project’s overall schedule or the project’s critical path, and required the use of a disproportionate amount of project cost reserves.”  Since the program was replanned in 2011, the cryocooler has experienced 150 percent cost growth and “is contributing to the project’s limited cost reserve status” for FY2015.

Past cost overruns and schedule delays in the JWST program have caused concern at NASA and in Congress.  JWST is managed by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland and has strong support from Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), who currently chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee.   Even her support was tested in 2010 with the announcement of additional cost growth, leading to a study headed by JPL’s John Casani that concluded the problems were primarily managerial, not technical.  Consequently, NASA restructured how the program is managed and developed a new life-cycle cost estimate.  The Casani report estimated that the cost would grow from $5.1 billion to $6.5 billion and the launch date would slip from 2014 to 2015, but after further analysis, NASA concluded the development cost would be $8 billion, with launch in 2018. 

Congress capped JWST development at $8 billion.  Another $800 million is needed for operations, yielding a lifecycle cost estimate of $8.8 billion.  That is based on launch in 2018.  JWST is being launched on an Ariane rocket as part of an international cooperative agreement with ESA (meaning NASA does not pay for the launch).

JWST is one of NASA’s top three priorities according to an agreement reached between the White House and Congress in 2011. The other two are the International Space Station and commercial crew, and the Space Launch System and Orion.

 

Last Updated: Dec 15, 2014 5:22 pm ET

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