credit: Virgin Galactic / caption: could SpaceShipTwo use a liquid propulsion system?

Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo could be a single stage to suborbit vehicle using liquid chemical propulsion according to independent research carried out by a company that has been contracted by the European Space Agency for suborbital and hypersonic transport studies

UK company Gas Dynamics has concluded, after its own internal study, using all the publicly available material it could obtain about SS2, that the spacecraft does not need its carrier aircraft WhiteKnight Two if it is fitted with a liquid chemical propulsion system

Sounds like a great idea, it inspires the kids, showcases the amazing engineering achievement that is spaceflight and helps to drum up electoral support for projects that are good photo opportunities for the politicians and makes voters feel good about their country

Sadly the likelihood of a European or even UK version of NASA tv isn't looking very likely a few weeks after this blog's clarion call for such a thing

So here's the bad news, the European Space Agency doesn't have any sort of broadcast licence and doesn't plan to get one and is happy for the time being having an arrangement with the rolling news channel euronews

The British Broadcasting Company would not even do a dedicated science channel and it turns out that the UK's digital terrestrial broadcast system Freeview is "tightly controlled" and the frequency spectrum is already allocated. Or maybe the problem will be rather like that which stymed US firm Hulu's internet tv hopes for the UK?  

Whatever the obstacles are outreach was a word heard often with the launch of the UK Space Agency but what will that be? A few school competitions? Can we expect the odd poster care of trade body UKSpace to raise awareness about the UK space industry, meaning that it does have one?

So what's the good news? Well we're about to enter a pretty turbulent political period here in the UK thanks to the self inflicted almost total destruction of our financial industry. That's the good news?! Well yes, the UK's ruling elite now knows we need manufacturing as much if not more than finance and no one can ignore that

Spaceflight is high tech engineering so it is going to be an open door to push on and an UKSAtv channel is one way of preparing a new generation to take up that challenge  

Hello UKSpace, are you receiving me, over? 

Spacevidcast.com has released this video and this article about Russia's MAKS aerospace system

credit: Dassault Aviation / caption: this is the VSH, Dassault's space tourism spin off from VEHRA 

French aerospace company Dassault Aviation's In the Air newsletter issue 14 has provided an update on its spaceflight related activities and teased us with the prospect of an imminent report outlining a possible future for the European suborbital vehicle VSH, or is that K:1000?

In its report "Suborbital Aviation: on the very edge of space" it says:

The study of suborbital vessels, both manned and unmanned, constitutes the natural extension of the activities of Dassault Aviation with regard to the aircraft of the future.
The suborbital activity began with the VEHRA (air-launched reusable hypersonic vehicle) project. This constituted an "evolution" of the X-38 experimental lifting body from NASA, for which Dassault Aviation had defined the shape. It comprises a family of vehicles that comes in three versions:
− 10 t demonstrator;
− 30 t vehicle for launching small (300 kg) satellites;
− heavy vehicle (200 t) for placing a 7 t payload in low orbit.

The newsletter goes on to say:

Air-launching from a commercial transport aircraft does away with the take-off constraints of classic launchers. In terms of flexibility, this type of launch requires a much more slim line ground infrastructure, and offers the possibility of aborting the mission and recovering the vehicles and their payloads in the majority of cases. The VEHRA project has generated repeat works (configuration, systems, propulsion, etc.) for the engineering division (DGT). Interns from the major engineering colleges have also been associated over the years with these futuristic vehicle projects.

Below and in the extended portion of this blog post are my notes from a telecon I had with a Lockheed Martin Orion crew exploration project manager in mid-2009. The bizarre situation was that I was at the Colorado Convention Center and Lockheed Martin Space Systems is only a car journey away but I couldn't get a rental car to get myself there (something was happening that meant all the rentals in and around Denver were taken) and the aerospace prime didn't seem too enthusiastic to come get me

I had planned to write the interview up at the time but events got in the way and despite repeated attempts since to get an interview with Lockheed to update this information and write a feature or lengthy blog nothing came of any of it

In the months since that telecon we have had news about the Orion heat shield being made by Lockheed, the choice of lithium aluminum supplier has been made with Rio Tinto Alcan annuoncing its selection and there have been Aerojet engine tests and ATK's Orion launch abort system attitude control motor tests; and one company called G Systems has made public the fact that it has delivered its test stations to the Michoud Assembly Facility for Orion. Next month I think there is an Orion pad abort test too

Anyway, last year I began to write "After a 10-month delay to its preliminary design review NASA has spent over $3 billion on its Orion crew exploration vehicle," and below are my notes

International Space Station (ISS) is higher inclination [than lunar orbit], requires more launch vehicles performance but the spacecraft is [now] lighter

Can carry 3,500lb more cargo to ISS with four crew

Four crew is now the baseline but requirements for that have not been spread through out Constellation

Amount of [crew] consumables didn't change very much [with crew reduction]

We have always kept the waste management system

[Astronaut corp] Crew has been very involved from the beginning

"Driving all the systems to an optimal path, we need enough time to check out the vehice before we fly"

Fan motors have a two year lead time

Putting together different options for Orion and its service module (SM), 17,500lb propellant for lunar, 8,000lb for ISS, SM can be used as a space tug, this could have 16,000lb

we are at 606G design for PDR and after next two cycles get to 606H

21 August have PDR board that lasts for a couple of days

It is not often Africa and spaceflight get mentioned in the same breath but here are a couple of interesting items

South Africa had a satellite symposium the other week and the country is apparently interested in co-operating with Russia and Japan on satellite based astronomy

NASA administrator Charles Bolden had an op-ed in today's {well the website says 27 April) yesterday's Houston Chronicle that is notably short and strangely refers to a 2015 International Space Station retirement date in the present tense

While I can understand why he was making the point of the Constellation programme's Ares I crew launch vehicle and its Orion crew exploration vehicle only starting to operate after ISS was to be retired in 2015 surely president Barack Obama has now OK'd station use to 2020? Bolden doesn't mention that his plan's commercial crew programme is not expected to deliver an operational crew transport system until 2016 at the earliest

But Bolden has greater problems than the use of tense in an op-ed, as the Congressional investigation into actions by NASA on Constellation contracts steps up a gear; has the agency broken the law?

I wonder how Congress will also feel about co-operation with the Chinese? According to the Agence France Presse, via the Times Colonist (?) website, Bolden said Tuesday that he would be happy to co-operate with China - the rumours are a US astronaut would fly on a Shenzhou mission

And just to add to Bolden's Congressional woes, on the same day as his Houston Chornicle op-ed, 27 April, another Congressman gave their penny's worth on the Obama plan

The Hunstville Times isn't giving president Barack Obama's NASA plan a good write up with its latest article about the political reaction to the flexible path to asteroids and Mars from 2025

With the headline, NASA plan: 'Cosmic bridge to nowhere', the article has a particularly strong qoute from a Senate staffer that says, "I don't know how many more blunt objects we have to hit NASA over the head with"

Despite this aggressive talk what the article communicates is a view that the Moon return programme Constellation's proponents know they are unlikely to win and save it. But its not stopping them from trying, see this spacepolitics.com post here and this one here by NASAWatch

The Huntsville article also refers to a Congressional hearinjg in mid-May. This could be the hearing that was mentoned during the last Senate hearing with NASA administrator Charles Bolden

For any US nationals or green card holders that are interested Virgin Galactic is advertising for a head of safety on the Virgin group website. The role also works for The Spaceship Company (TSC),  a Mojave based Virgin group, Scaled Composites joint venture that is the Boeing, shall we say, to Virgin Galactic's Virgin Atlantic. The head of safety will make public appearences as well

The advert says:

VG/TSC is seeking a first rate qualified Head of Safety to define and develop Virgin Galactic's operational safety approach, and to lead the establishment of the Galactic Group safety policies & framework.

and that the role will

• Be responsible for the risk management process at the core of the SMS, from hazard identification and analysis to development of mitigation approaches. Emphasis will be on integrating Scaled Composites / TSC's space launch system hazard analyses, VG LLC's operationally focused hazard analyses, and Spaceport America/NMSA's infrastructure and airspace analyses.

and that it will

• Develop, with the Chief Pilot and their team, emergency scenarios and appropriate action plans or mitigation approaches. These should include dress rehearsals and emergency / incident response plans in accordance with FAA and stakeholder requirements.

Following a meeting between the Space Shuttle and International Space Station programmes and the space operations mission directorate's senior management NASA has concluded that

• STS-133/Discovery now becomes the Launch-On-Need (LON) vehicle for the STS-132/ULF-4 mission targeted for 14 May launch
• STS-133/ULF-5 is to fly 16 September
• STS-134/ULF6/AlphaMagneticSpectrometer is targeted for mid-November
• AMS should be at Kennedy Space Center in late August - so STS-134 date is still fluid
• While November is the new "no earlier than" launch date for STS-134/Endeavour, due to ISS traffic with Soyuz, ATV and HTV a flight timeframe of "end of CY2010 and early into CY2011" is said to be "challenging"