LOS ANGELES — NASA is on track to move the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Curiosity rover for the first time on the red planet’s surface around the middle of next week, according to controllers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab in California. Preparations for the move come midway through Sol 9 on Mars (Aug. 14), as the MSL team nears the halfway point in the lengthy process of checking out and commissioning the rover’s 10 major science instruments and other avionics and mechanical systems.
HOUSTON — NASA’s Morpheus team expects to assemble a second test vehicle from spare components and resume tethered test flights at Johnson Space Center by the end of 2012, following the prototype lander’s Aug. 9 crash during an untethered flight attempt at Kennedy Space Center (KSC).
NASA has issued a new call to researchers to flight test an array of space technologies on a variety of platforms ranging from the modified Boeing 727 Zero-G parabolic test aircraft to high-altitude balloons and reusable launch vehicles. The announcement is the fifth made by NASA’s Flight Opportunities program, which aims to develop key space technologies as well as help foster the growth of the reusable launch business. Proposals for the latest call are due by Sept. 21, with an initial announcement on selections possible as early as November.
NRO RETRY: The U.S. Air Force is eyeing Sept. 6 for the rescheduled launch of the National Reconnaissance Office’s latest classified satellite, NROL-36. Originally targeted for an Aug. 2 liftoff from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., the flight had to be postponed while engineers worked through a range instrumentation issue. The fixes for the range issues should be tested and certified by the end of this month, according to Atlas V rocket maker United Launch Alliance.
Three space-based experiments employing cubesats to demonstrate advanced communications and control techniques will share $22.6 million in NASA technology funding over the next three years. The agency’s Small Spacecraft Technology Program, funded through the Office of the Chief Technologist, picked proposals using the cubesat format based on 10 cubic cm. units, or Us, each weighing no more than 1.33 kg. All are scheduled to fly as secondary payloads in 2014-15.
LOGAN, Utah — The burgeoning demand for cubesat launches to orbit can easily be met by piggybacking on the commercial cargo spacecraft that soon will be visiting the International Space Station (ISS) regularly, according to an “Old Space” veteran who piggybacked with larger spacecraft three times.
NASA’s Inspector General (IG) has found significant lapses in the agency’s efforts to lease far-flung surplus real estate and facilities to private as well as other government entities as part of a wider cost-reduction strategy outlined in the NASA Authorization Act of 2010. The agency must do more to identify and market leasable assets as well as improve documentation of its response and the training of personnel responsible for carrying out the effort, according to IG Paul Martin’s Aug. 9 audit report.
The hair-raising 7-min. descent and high-precision landing of NASA's Curiosity rover on the surface of Mars last week (p. 24) provided a much-needed reinvigoration to a space agency that is struggling to stay relevant after last year's retirement of the space shuttle fleet.
MORPHEUS DOWN: NASA’s experimental Project Morpheus lander crashed and exploded during a free flight at Kennedy Space Center (KSC), Fla., Aug. 9. The vehicle “lifted off the ground and then experienced a hardware component failure, which prevented it from maintaining stable flight,” NASA spokesman Bob Jacobs said. “No one was injured and the resulting fire was extinguished by KSC fire personnel.
LOS ANGELES — Spacecraft component and control system specialist Moog remains on the acquisition trail after completing the purchase of American Pacific Corp.’s In-Space Propulsion (ISP) unit. “Our intent is to move up to providing complete systems, and that’s difficult if you don’t have engines,” says Moog Space and Defense Group President Jay Hennig. The In-Space Propulsion business, which Moog bought for $46 million, makes liquid propulsion systems and parts for satellites and missiles at sites in the U.S. as well as Ireland and the U.K.
ATLANTA — Orbital Sciences Corp. says it is “two to three weeks” away from officially taking possession of the launch pad at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island, Va., which will give the company the green light to complete preparations for the first demonstration flight of its Antares rocket.
Europe’s Meteosat Second Generation-3 spacecraft, launched July 5, has generated the first image of the Earth using its primary instrumentation. The first results from the Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager (Seviri) mark a milestone in the six-month commissioning process, the European Space Agency announced Aug. 7.
