November 2007 Archives

This interview with hotelier and commercial spaceflight entrepreneur Robert Bigelow qoutes him as saying he is to invest in a capsule that could fit on a Khrunichev Space Center Proton, a Lockeed Martin Atlas 5 or a Space Exploration Technologies' Falcon 9. I rang the company and there is no more information available for now

Bigelow had already announced that he was accelerating his private orbital complex timetable following the success of his two Genesis spacecraft and then in October said that he would offer a $700+ million contract for the development of a transportation system

Well we now have a few more details about that system

Meanwhile another company has anounced its proposal for NASA's stab at commercial transportation, its "COTS" programme

Talking of commercial ventures another spaceport has raised its head, but this time not at the Cape but at Cecil Field naval air station

But in Virginia they are going one stage further with their spaceport and even politicians are getting interested in a transatlantic suborbital prize

If you are planning on making such a trip then maybe you'd like to read about thrust augmentation nozzles; personally I am not entirely convinced this blogger actually understands what thrust augmentation is but when has lack of knowledge ever stopped anyone from pouring forth?

Hobbyspace provides a useful link to a whole load of material put online by the National Space Society

But perhaps you're more interested in paying upwards of $20,000 for original Werner von Braun technical papers on rocket development dating from 1930s Nazi Germany?

I know nothing about the backgrounds of those that wrote this US General Accounting Office Report but isn't it blazingly obvious that when you build something that has never existed before you are going to have knowledge gaps?

Chairforce Engineer is laying down the law when it comes to what he thinks needs to be done to open up space to the masses and apparently it involves achieving minor successes such as developing anti-gravity - easy when you know how of course

This news just in, the Romanian manned spaceflight organisation ARCA has put its latest mission video on youtube

Now back to our planned broadcast...

If you're in the USA right now you might be peering at this through a haze of Thanksgiving related food and drink excess but worry not, you're not hallucinating because of that extra slice of Turkey, you are reading ths correctly, NASA is looking for rats in space experiments

But not these rats

If you can believe that then your likely to embrace with vigour Space.com's Leonard David and his analysis of the commercial space world and how its prospects are shaping up

Last week saw the deadline for submissions for the new NASA Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) demonstration phase one $175 million space act agreement. As well as PlanetSpace's link up with Lockheed and ATK, Hyperbola has heard that Spacedev and T/Space have submitted proposals for COTS

Another organisation with launch hopes is Sea Launch. After its on-pad explosion earlier this year it is finally getting its sea legs again

China on the other hand is celebrating its unveiling of the first image from its Chang'e-1 lunar orbiter

Slightly more down to Earth Hobbyspace.com has more links to US presidential election candidate space policy discussions

Meanwhile the European Space Agency is looking for new young graduate trainees

Talking of Europe, the European Commission's ideas for a way past the Galileo satellite navigation programme impasse seem to have been leaked

But if that is just to unbelievable then there is always the reassuring fantasy of boyhood with space suits with glass bowl helmets and huge behemoth direct ascent Moon rockets, care of a link from Transterrestrial Musings

With the thanksgiving holiday in the US at the moment the English language spaceflight community of bloggers and mass media has gone very quiet but here is some detail on NASA's Ares I crew launch vehicle (CLV) and Orion crew exploration vehicle (CEV) care of NASASpaceflight.com.

This, I think, UK based website clearly has some good links into the US Constellation and Shuttle programmes yet none of their writers are names I recognise from the aerospace media community. In the past I had noted that the Constellation documents the website had obtained were many months old and NASA had told me the website's editorial team never actually spoke to the agency.

But with one individual at least participating in a Boeing telecon not so long ago and NASASpaceflight's recent interview (well it looks more like an emailed Q&A to me) with the Ares I first-stage element manager Alex Priskos, it seems basic journalistic practice is now being followed.

Anyway, well done them in getting those insider contacts into Constellation. Either that or they have hacked into NASA's computers!

Following my recent articles on NASA budget woes, potential delay to Shuttle orbiter Atlantis' retirement and the US agency's own internal newslettters highlighting problems with the CLV I am expecting to talk to NASA's prime contractors in the next few weeks so "stand by" - as NASA's PR officials like to say - for more info on the trials and tribulations of the people at the sharp end.

And for those of you who like lots of pictures with your spaceflight news bites I have started to post images of NASA's new spacecraft and rockets on our forum airspace.aero. Expect lots more in the coming weeks and months

State owned media outlet China Daily has reported that Pang Zhihao, a researcher (so clearly a low level employee) with the country's state owned China Academy of Space Technology space programme prime contractor, has specified October as the likely month during the previously stated year of 2008 for the superpower-to-be's first spacewalk.

But readers of my blog will know I am sceptical of a 2008 EVA following my visit to China's astronaut training center in Beijing in May.

For such a deeply political project such as manned spaceflight having a low level official keep this allegation of a 2008 spacewalk going is an easy way to then backtrack later with comments from a senior guy who is worth listening too.

What was more interesting about the China Daily article is the 2013 launch date for the country's new "next generation" cryogenic engine propelled medium lift rockets that may operate from the proposed Hainan launch complex

Russia is in less of a rush to get its new Asia based launch complex up and running with a 2018 target date, according to RIA Novosti

And to round off, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency has posted updates for its Kibo laboratory for the International Space Station and astronaut activities

NASAWatch.com has come across an updated 5.05min version of the 3.55min NASA Constellation programme's Ares V cargo launch vehicle video showing it launching a space telescope, it posted previously - see below

But things don't look to good for Constellation if potential Democrat party 2008 presidential election candidate Barak Obama comes to power in 2009

Whatever happens to that grand project Mr X at Chairforce engineer has come across some interesting ideas about a Mars mission using Constellation's vehicles

But of course we could always wait for fusion propulsion...

NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) programme participant wannabe PlanetSpace has announced its team to bid for the new COTS phase one competition, while Jeff Foust has reported details of an interview the normally secretive Jeff Bezos had with a US tv show where he talked about his Blue Origin rocket project

And here Hobbyspace.com has links to Florida Today articles SpaceX's progress and Armadillo Aerospace updates

Who ever said youtube could not be educational. Watch this lecture from a UK university (don't ask me where) about what's required to warp spacetime to traverse the universe, as you do

You can now access our online archive of Flight issues, in searchable pdf format, from the magazine's inception in 1908 to 2004 that report the earliest years of rocketry and the entire history of the space age since Sputnik. From 2004 onwards flightglobal.com's search engine does the rest

NASASpaceflight.com discusses work on NASA's Space Shuttle Atlantis as it is being prepared for the launch on 6 December for its STS-122 mission, which could be its penultimate flight

Following NASA administrator Mike Griffin's congressional testimony last week Space Politics has a right old ding dong going about what will actually happen to Shuttle come 2010

At Aviation Week and Space Technology senior space editor Frank Morring investigates solar array rotary joint issues at Atlantis' destination, the International Space Station

But if you feel you want something of the more slightly more whacky variety, then there is always Bill Sweetman's near-space flying Talon Topper

I'm sure I have seen this before somewhere but AvWeek is reporting another delay for the European Space Agency's Mars rover Exomars mission

And finally, I couldn't end this without a completely random link to Alan Boyle's Cosmic log

So far, so good for China's Chang'e 1 lunar orbiter as the sort-of-communist country prepares to switch on the spacecraft's instruments to start scanning the Earth's only natural satellite.

A good demonstration of China's growing competence in space systems the country apparently is now aiming to substantially improve its spacecraft's levels of electronics reliability - something else to give US and European satellite manufacturers nightmares

Apparently China has now confirmed what Flight had already reported last month, that it is prepared to allow private enterprise a role in its space programmes

Meanwhile China's Asian billion-people rival India pushes ahead with its cryogenic upper stage work and discusses joint Moon missions with the Russians

Space Daily thinks that Russia only intends to stay at its Baikonur, Kazakhstan cosmodrome for another 12 years.

This has sort of been rumoured, well bar the precise date, for some time as Russia has been trying to develop its Angara family of rockets to achieve Baikonur-like orbital capabilities but from its northern launch complex at Plesetsk instead. And of course Soyuz is to be launched from French Guiana in a joint venture with the European Space Agency so in a way dumping a launch pad that is actually in another country with whom your relations can allegedly be fraught makes sense.

On the other hand this report is sheer nonsense. Well, Russia may plan more modules for the ISS but, a, that would require a lot more power, and, b, it is still official policy among the ISS partners, at the moment to de-orbit the thing in 2016...

Virgin Galactic's Sir Richard Branson has been selling tickets again, this time in Jacksonville, Florida.

While Branson's persuading millionaires to part with their cash somewhere called Sheboygan, in the US, is actually trying to have its own spaceport.

One of many places now pushing for local space access, head on over to Hobbyspace.com to check out more NASA Centennial Challenge and X Prize madness and some rocket engine development

If that's not enough space tech for you then there is always a cubesat workshop...

The commercial world of launch services saw two successfull launches recently, with only the second Boeing Delta IV launch, now part of the United Launch Alliance joint venture, and you can watch the launch here

While in Russia International Launch Services, the Khrunichev Space Center built Proton rocket's private sector arm, was returning to commercial flight and sending the Sirius 4 satellite into orbit, following an earlier Proton return to flight mission on a launch for the Russian government

And their future competition, Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), took one more step towards realising its medium lift Falcon 9 rocket by completing development of its engine, the Merlin 1C, but also suffering a small fire while starting work on its Cape Canaveral launch pad

SpaceX of course is involved in NASA's Commercial Orbital Transpotation System (COTS) programme as a funded space act agreement signee and since the departure of its fellow participant Rocketplane Kistler from that, companies that have had equivalent unfunded agreements with the US space agency, such as Spacedev, have been pushing their successes - namely milestones met - so cue Spacehab and its ARCTUS transportation system

Finally, if you have the time have a read of some of this COTS speculation over at Space Politics

Following Flight's exclusive on NASA's own reporting of ongoing problems with its Ares I crew launch vehicle in an internal emailed newsletter, NASAWatch.com has published detail about one difficult issue the Ares project office is having to wrestle with

At the same time NASASpaceflight.com has published an interview with NASA Marshall Space Flight Center's Ares I first stage element manager Alex Priskos about trade studies for nozzle redesign and expendabilityand other stuff. Interesting answers but elsewhere in the Blogosphere alleged Lockheed Martin Orion crew exploration vehicle development team member and blogger T.L. James is not so enthused by "the stick"

But one area where Ares I is progressing is placing those juicy contracts and Ares I first-stage prime contractor Alliant Techsystems (ATK) has announced its latest contract award

The Lunar Lander is another of the Constellation programme's many stars and our sister title New Scientist reported on progress with a potential rocket engine for that extraterrestrial spacecraft

And ATK has also made known it has completed work on a potential ascent engine for the lander

However Mr X over at the Chairforce Engineer blog is not so assured

For those of you who can persuade NASA you're supposed to be there, there is always the forthcoming lunar lander industry day, woo hoo!

In the meantime NASA has been conducting Ares first-stage recovery parachute tests, fired off another four-segment solid rocket booster and the agency has also started on its launch abort system launch pad but even still T. L. James is not a happy bunny

Developing all these fancy new rockets and landers is not cheap and NASA's head honcho Mike Griffin has been doing his best to get the cash from the US Congress but sadly the initiative to give the cash strapped agency more dosh has not worked

I'm moving into a higher orbit, way above and beyond the blogosphere for the next week, so expect more from Hyperbola on the 19 November

Some children just never get a chance in life and NASA's Constellation programme Ares I crew launch vehicle (CLV) has been unloved by many since its inception.

A name change from crew launch vehicle to Ares I didn't help and then Flight's scoop about the Ares IV suggested that that unloved creation now had competition.

While some senior personnel say Ares IV was just a notional late-in-the-next-decade near Earth object mission launcher you had to wonder why they did it.

And then finally on 5 November Johnson Space Center circulated a newsletter that used strong language to suggest there were problems, "there are significant threats to performance to be worked as the project works towards Preliminary Design Review", it stated.

Find more space based solar power craziness at the link-tastic Hobbyspace.com

Out here in Bilbao, Spain its a bit chilly so here is a quick posting, with highlights of the latest news bites

Selenina Boondocks has a think about solar power

China could be delaying a part of its three-stage manned spaceflight programme. This BBC report talks about a space station but the plan was for China to have a space laboratory in place by about 2012 and this report, if you read the qoutes, suggests that that is that is now happening in 2020

But its good news for extending Chang´e 1´s lifespan apparently

According to this AFP report Russia is getting even more commercial and is offering to sell Soyuz spacecraft to Malayasia

Meanwhile NASA´s Dryden Flight Research Center has been showing off its partially built Orion crew exploration vehicle to be used for abort flight testing

MSNBC writes that China's Moon orbiter Chang’e 1 has entered lunar orbit and here is a report that the country's space programme is considering using its Long March 3 vehicle for sending a lander mission

Yury Zaitsev, Russian Academy of Engineering Sciences academic adviser, writing for Russian news service RIA Novosti, has a few words about his country's experience of nuclear propulsion, which is key for rapid Earth-Mars transit

And finally, Space.com talks about the Boeing Delta IV launch scheduled for the same day Discovery comes home - tomorrow

Hobbyspace.com is reporting that the self styled "New Space" businesses are getting interest from the US mass media

While in the "New Media" that is Jeff Foust's Space Review Rocketplane Global's new XP vehicle design gets profiled

One member of that business community, Spacedev is reporting progress with its unfunded NASA space act agreement (SAA) that it wants to turn into a funded commercial orbital transportation services demonstration (COTS) programme SAA. Here is a COTS related Spacedev promotional video for its Dreamchaser vehicle;

Then there is the reality of propulsion hardware testing at Spacedev

And last but not least Peacekeeper ICBM derived launch vehicle services provider E'Prime Aerospace is also making progress thanks to the US Federal Aviation Administration.

Work has begun on Elon Musk's Space Exploration Technologies' (SpaceX) Falcon 9 rocket's Cape Canaveral launch pad that will be used for its NASA Commercial Orbital Transprotation Services (COTS) demonstration programme flights. SpaceX's first scheduled COTS demo launch is qaurter four 2008.

Prolific linker Hobbyspace.com has assorted X Prize related news-bites; and there is a link to a potential Google Lunar X Prize competitor

And here there is a Spaceport America update

Hyperbola has also heard that on 3 December Sir Richard Branson, head of the Virgin group business empire and suborbital space tourism provider-to-be Virgin Galactic, is to get flung round in the NASTAR centrifuge - most of Galactic's 100 first customers, called 'founders', have already been spun - but in the meantime see the centrifuge here in this US commercial for sauce

Here the UK's Daily Telegraph newspaper reports that the UK government is making tentative steps towards regulating commercial human spaceflight; but then again you could have read about that in Flight 16 months ago, back in June 2006

Finally you might want to ask yourself if Transterrestrial Musing's Rand Simberg got good value for money...

According to this article we are in a new age of space exploration, but isn't an age 500 years long?

The Russian's are still contemplating manned Mars missions, the expedition to the Red planet being the great adventure 20 years into the future, and it seems, it always will be

The UK's University of Leicester (pronounced Lester not Lie-Chester) has grandiose plans for the Universe

While the Chinese take a more direct route to the Moon

Taken on STS-120 flight day 11 (2 November) NASA astronaut Daniel Tani, Expedition 16 flight engineer, is in his sleeping bag in the International Space Station's US Unity node while Space Shuttle Discovery is docked with the station

And with the successful 4 November repair of the ISS solar array the Discovery crew prepare to return home

The International Space Station's mobile transporter (lower center) moves towards the center of the ISS truss structure on flight day 10.

As the Space Shuttle Discovery crew continue with mission STS-120, which could be the 14th or the 12th mission before the end of the Shuttle programme, NASA's shiny new Constellation programme Ares I crew launch vehicle first-stage contractor Alliant Techsystems, aka ATK, has fired off a solid rocket booster

Astronaut Scott Parazynski, STS-120 mission specialist, participates in the third scheduled session of extra-vehicular activity (EVA) on flight day eight as construction continues on the International Space Station. During the 7h, 8min spacewalk Parazynski and astronaut Doug Wheelock (out of frame), mission specialist, installed the P6 truss segment with its set of solar arrays to its permanent home and installed a spare main bus switching unit on a stowage platform. Parazynski also inspected the port Solar Alpha Rotary Joint to gather comparison data for the starboard rotary joint.