HOUSTON — The unpiloted SpaceX Dragon spacecraft sped toward its first encounter with the International Space Station May 23, on the eve of a crucial set of maneuvers and communication exchanges intended to bring the first U.S. commercial resupply ship within a mile and a half of the six-person orbiting science lab.
MOTOR RUNNING: Alliant Techsystems plans to test a GEM-60 solid rocket motor on May 31 at its test facility in Promontory, Utah. The 60-in.-dia. graphite epoxy motor (GEM) is designed to provide additional thrust to United Launch Alliance Delta IV medium rockets. The 90-sec. “cold motor” test, designed to evaluate performance at low temperatures, will see the motor produce a maximum thrust of 270,000 lb. Test objectives include verification of the motor’s new vectorable nozzle and its insulation.
SPACE SPENDING: As SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft makes its way toward its first rendezvous with the International Space Station, the Sunlight Reporting Group has tallied up the money the Hawthorne, Calif.-based company has spread around on Capitol Hill. SpaceX has spent $4 million lobbying Congress and given more than $800,000 in political contributions since its founding a decade go, the group says. Founder Elon Musk has donated $35,800 to President Barack Obama’s re-election committee, $15,000 to the National Republican Congressional Campaign Committee and $5,000 to Sen.
NASA and the National Space Biomedical Research Institute will distribute $26 million among 29 teams selected to investigate the range of health and performance issues confronting humans during long-duration spaceflight.
HOUSTON — SpaceX’s Dragon capsule thundered into orbit atop a Falcon 9 rocket early May 22, marking a successful start in the 10-year-old company’s bid to carry out the first U.S. commercial resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS).
Mankind’s next objective in space exploration should be the establishment of a permanent international base on the Moon, in the “professional opinion” of the Russian space agency Roscosmos.
LOS ANGELES — Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne (PWR) tested three separate engines over three consecutive days last week as negotiations near completion for the sale of the rocket maker from United Technologies Corp. (UTC) to an unidentified investor group.
REMOTE VIEWING: Consultancy Forecast International (FI) projects the worldwide civil and commercial remote sensing satellite market will reach $17 billion over 2012-2021, during which 108 remote sensing satellites will be produced. “Demand for remote sensing satellite data continues to increase,” FI says.
U.S. NAVY Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc., Pascagoula, Miss., is being awarded a $133,751,000 cost-plus-fixed-fee not-to-exceed modification to previously awarded contract (N00024-06-C-2222) for advance procurement of long-lead-time materials and pre-construction activities in support of Landing Platform Dock 27. Work will be performed in Pascagoula, Miss., and is expected to complete by June 2017. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity.
U.S. ARMY Alliant Techsystems, Inc., Plymouth, Minn., was awarded a $58,272,447 firm-fixed-price contract. The award will provide for the modification of an existing contract to procure Spider XM-7 networked munitions systems. Work will be performed in Plymouth, Minn.; Wilmington, Mass.; and Rocket Center, W.Va., with an estimated completion date of April 30, 2013. One bid was solicited, with one bid received. The U.S. Army Contracting Command, Picatinny Arsenal, N.J., is the contracting activity (W15QKN-11-C-0126).
u.s. AIR FORCE Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., El Segundo, Calif., is being awarded a $51,284,530 cost-plus-incentive-fee contract for Multi Platform Radar Technology Insertion Program radar system development and demonstration, ECP-025, radar modification for Global Hawk Block 40. The location of the performance is Norwalk, Conn. Work is to be completed by March 2015. AMC/ESC, Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass., is the contracting activity (F19628-00-C-0100 P00233).
HOUSTON — SpaceX, after replacing a faulty first-stage check valve, readied the Falcon 9/Dragon combination for a second attempt to launch the first U.S. commercial resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS) in the early morning hours of May 22. U.S. Air Force weather forecasters offered an 80% chance of favorable weather for a 3:44 a.m. EDT liftoff from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. There has been a slight concern about isolated rain showers in the region. SpaceX has a backup launch opportunity on May 25 at 2:33 a.m. EDT.
U.S. AIR FORCE United Launch Services, L.L.C., Littleton, Colo., is being awarded a $398,000,000 firm-fixed-price contract for Atlas V EELV launch service in support of a Mobile User Objective System-4 mission and Delta IV EELV launch service in support of a Global Positioning System mission. The location of the performance is Decatur, Ala. Work is to be completed by Nov. 30, 2014. SMC/LRK, El Segundo, Calif., is the contracting activity (FA8811-11-C-0001 P00018). U.S. NAVY
DISPUTE VERDICT: Thales Alenia Space stands to receive a €53 million ($67 million) settlement fee by June 9 in a legal dispute with Globalstar. An arbitrator ruled in favor of Thales Alenia Space in a disagreement over a 2009 satellite contract between the operator and satellite maker. The settlement fee can still be avoided if both sides agree to other terms. Talks between the two parties are now underway.
NASA and SpaceX, the agency’s six-year-old Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program partner, stressed the experimental nature of the company’s bid to lift off early May 19 on the first U.S. commercial resupply mission to the International Space Station. The launch of the Falcon 9/Dragon rocket and spacecraft combination from the company’s launch complex at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station is set for 4:55 a.m. EDT, during a nearly instantaneous launch window.
On Jan. 17, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced that the U.S. would not sign the EU's Code of Conduct for Outer Space Activities. Instead, the U.S. would invite other spacefaring states, including members of the EU, to negotiate an International Code of Conduct for Outer Space Activities using the EU document as a launching point. The administration's new direction should not come as a surprise, but will prove counterproductive in achieving its own goals.
Growing interest in small satellites and the problem of how to launch them affordably could provide hypersonic system developers with a long-awaited first step on the way to reusable, routine access to space.
It has been almost 50 years since Mariner 2 became the first space probe from Earth to return scientific data from another planet. The swarms of ever-more-sophisticated robotic spacecraft that followed have changed our view of the planets around our Sun in ways that seem incredible today. On Aug. 27, 1962, when Mariner 2 lifted off for Venus, many scientists believed Earth's sunward neighbor was a steamy jungle planet beneath its clouds. Data from the two-channel microwave radiometer on Mariner 2 quickly disabused everyone of that notion. Passing within 22,000 mi.
SpaceX will get an early opportunity to show what it can do to help scientists and engineers use the International Space Station by flying a powerful thruster testbed up in the unpressurized section of its Dragon cargo capsule.
The International Space Station has a crew of six again, following launch and docking of Russia's Soyuz TMA-04M capsule with two cosmonauts and a NASA astronaut on board. The May 17 linkup restored the station to six-person operations for the first time since April 27, when a crew of three U.S. and Russian fliers descended to Earth after 5.5 months in orbit. Cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Sergei Revin and NASA's Joseph Acaba (seen in this photo taken in the Russian space agency control room) lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on May 15.
Spacecraft controllers are checking out Telesat’s Nimiq 6 direct-to-home broadcast satellite after a 9-r., 14-min. launch mission on an International Launch Services (ILS) Proton Breeze M rocket that lifted off May 17 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The 4.5-metric-ton satellite reached its geostationary transfer orbit en route to its operational orbital slot at 91.1 deg. W. Long. From there its 32 Ku-band transponders will deliver direct-to-home television services to customers in North America for its Canadian operator.
NASA has cleared Innovative Space Propulsion Systems (ISPS), a Houston-based partnership developing green rocket engines, to fly a thruster testbed on the International Space Station (ISS)
KOUROU, French Guiana — The future of communication satellites appears to be moving toward larger, more powerful models, but satellite manufacturers such as Lockheed Martin will have the challenge of keeping within the capability of current launchers.
