October 2008 Archives

Find images of the presentation slides detailing the conclusions of the FAA managed Aerospace Corporation study of human spaceflight safety for commercial launches in the extended portion of this blog post

See Flight's recent story on this issue here

Past Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee (COMSTAC) meetings' minutes and presentations can be found here

Click on all the images in this blog post to see larger versions in the same browser window

credit: NASA Marshall Space Flight Center / Caption: click on the image to see a larger version

NASA says, "This schlieren photo depicts a wind tunnel test demonstrating air flow over the .331 percent model of the Ares V heavy cargo launch vehicle at Mach 4.5. Schlieren imaging is a diagnostic method used to visualize air flows with varying densities.

It is widely used in aeronautical engineering to photograph the flow of air around objects. Marshall [Space Flight Center] engineers are testing the stainless steel and aluminum model to collect aerodynamic data that will help the Ares V team determine basic requirements for guidance, navigation and control of the Ares V vehicle."

The Personal Spaceflight Federation (PSF) does disagree with the personal spaceflight safety report in "some of the key areas" of the 50-page document produced by the US Federal Aviation Administration, as directed by the Commercial Space Launch Act Amendment 2004, contrary to comments by individuals involved

The PSF contacted me today (after seeing this story on flightglobal) to say that while it can't provide details of its members' concerns the feedback from the federation would be provided once the document had been approved and that the organisation had "some pretty stiff comments about some of the underlying thinking" 

Its members include Space Adventures, Space Exploration Technologies, Virgin Galactic, Xcor Aerospace, Spaceport America and the X Prize Foundation 

credit: Spacefleet / caption: This personal spaceflght vehicle was designed by an international team of engineers

At the 3rd International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety conference held in Rome earlier this month a panel session on private spaceflight was held featuring key people who will be directly involved in the development of the personal spaceflight industry in the years to come

Those key people include experts from the US Federal Aviation Administration's office of commercial space transportation, the European Aviation Safety Agency, the French space agency CNES, the German aerospace agency DLR, EADS Astrium and air and space lawyers

The session ran for 1h 24min and it was recorded in its entirety, without any editing, including some interventions by me, but if you stick it out there is a lot of very informed comment and I think a lot can be learned

To watch the session video click through to the extended portion of this blog post

all comments made by individuals in the video are their personal views and not the views of their respective employers

credit: Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency

JAXA has released images of its International Space Station Kibo laboratory's Exposed Facility and Experiment Logistics Module-Exposed Section being delivered to NASA Kennedy Space Center in Florida, after being shipped from Japan's Tsukuba Space Center, in September 2008

So the Orlando Sentinel has discovered something that could have been seen in a Boeing simulation of the Ares I crew launch vehicle (CLV) back in 2006

Let me explain. At the 2nd NASA/AIAA space exploration conference in Houston, Texas I was invited by Boeing to see a software package of theirs and to have an interview with one of their executives

Beyond the executive's admission that he didn't know when Boeing would announce its team to bid for the CLV's upper stage following the ATK, Lockheed Martin Team Ares annnouncement (Boeing did announce its team eventually in March 2007) that chat was a bit of a bust story wise and at the time the software seemed pretty incomplete too 

After an initial demo of the software I was asked to play around with it. But it crashed, twice, within minutes leading me to abandon any attempt to trial it as embarressed Boeing personnel blamed me, jokingly, for being cursed

What struck me as odd during the demo was seeing the Ares I move sidewards just as it lifted off. "But that's what it does," said the Boeing manager giving me the demo, "that's based on the data [NASA] gave us."

Wondering if Boeing's IT monkeys had punched in the data incorrectly, or if this was another software glitch, I ignored the rocket's odd translation and left to play around with the kewl Honeywell Orion CEV simulation

Just goes to show, as a journo, if you see anything that is at all odd, follow it up! 

credit: Astrium

EADS Astrium's launchers business division's space tourism programme manager and chief engineer Christophe Chavagnac spoke at the 3rd International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety conference in Rome on 23 October

He declined an interview with Flight but did say that the company would release no more details about the vehicle until its roll out, comparing the company's commercial approach with the car industry that Chavagnac says does not announce a new model until it is ready to go into production

I didn't spot any great advances since my interveiw with Astrium's chief technical officer Robert Laine 16-months ago at the 2007 Paris air show, maybe you can

Watch the video of Chavagnac's presentation in the extended portion of this blog post

credit: Flight / caption: Christy Hales presentation raised some important issues about Ares staging

At the 3rd International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety conference held in Rome this month NASA safety and reliability engineer Fayssal Safie and Bastion Technologies' Christy Hales talked about risk issues with the Ares rockets

Hales spoke about a study to examine the risk of fire from hydrogen and oxygen leaking into the interstage. I had reported about related work on this blog in August. Bastion's interstage work is continuing, the point during ascent when the risk is highest of an ignition is just before separation, which will see the use of pyrotechnics

Go through to the extended portion of this blog post to watch the presentations' videos

credit: Armadillo Aerospace / Rocket Racing Inc

With a target price of $100,000 per ticket or less, launch vehicle developer Armadillo Aerospace and Rocket Racing League company Rocket Racing Inc are aiming to offer suborbital flights from New Mexico's Spaceport America from 2010

The image above is the rocket concept the two companies have released to the media 

Rocket Racing Inc chief executive Granger Whitelaw says: "The price of space is coming down to Earth. And thanks to Armadillo's ships and New Mexico's spaceport, human beings will be treated to the most stellar views in the galaxy."  

See more images of the joint venture's concept vehicle, some comment by me and Virgin Galactic's reaction in the extended portion of this blog post

click on all the images in this blog post to see larger versions in the same browser window

On 23 October International Space Safety Foundation (ISSF) president Richard Stuart talked to Flight at the 3rd International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety conference held in Rome from 21-23 October 2008

The ISSF is a non-profit organisation dedicated to furthering policies of international cooperation and scientific progress in the field of space safety. It is raising funds to support international forums and research into space safety technology for the coming commercial launch and human spaceflight industry that its founders foresee in the near future  

Stuart is also the founder and chief executive of technology and project consultancy specialist Applied Research and Engineering Sciences (ARES) corporation. He spoke to Flight in a personal capacity as ISSF president

Watch the video of the interview in the extended portion of this blog post

credit: NASA

NASA Altair project office's John Linius talked about risk assessment and mitigation for the lunar lander during the design process at the 3rd International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety conference held in Rome from 21-23 October 2008

click through to the extended portion of this blog post to watch the video of the presentation

All the views expressed by individuals in this video are their own and not their employers'

credit: ESA / caption: This image was obtained from an ESA provided video

The video, in the extended portion of this blog post, shows the integration of the rocket and its payload, the launch of the Chandrayaan-1 lunar orbiter, a post-lift-off speech by the chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation and a mission overview

Portions of what this video shows can be seen on Youtube but to see it all in one place click through to the extended portion of this blog

credit: EADS Astrium / caption: Is Astrium applying to EASA for certification?

At the 3rd International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety conference in Rome this week the European Aviation Safety Agency's (EASA) general aviation  project certification manager, Jean-Bruno Marciacq, gave an insightful presentation into how EASA is going about drawing up its rules for enabling space tourism in Europe with suborbital aircraft

He also said that EASA had been approached by a number of "applicants" for the suborbital aircraft certification process, but declined to name them

Watch the video of Marciacq's presentation and the following Q&A session in the extended portion of this blog post

All the views expressed by individuals in this video are their own and not their employers 

credit: Spaceport America / caption: will ICAO one day rule for spaceport operations?

Space law doctoral candidate Michael Mineiro from Canada's McGill University gave a presentation on why the International Civil Aviation Organisation can make rules for space tourism at the 3rd International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety conference held in Rome from 21-23 October

click through to the extended portion of this blog post to watch the video

China Astronautics Standards Institute's Liming Rin gave a presentation on his country's approach to safety at the 3rd International Association for the Advanced of Space Safety conference in Rome, October 2008

click through to the extended portion of this blog to watch the video

credit: Virgin Galactic / caption: SS2 was supposed to fly in 2007

click through to the extended portion of this blog post to see the video interview with The George Washington University's Dr Joseph Pelton about the study his organisation was involved in that could have had big implications for the new industry 

credit: Lockheed Martin / caption: Orion's PDR is now mid-2009 instead of November 2008

Speaking at the 3rd International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety (IAASS) conference in Rome two of Lockheed Martin's Orion team members, Michael Saemisch and Megahn Buchanan, gave a presentation on how military aircraft vulnerability techniques were being used to determine risk for NASA's Orion crew exploration vehicle

I asked why the 10-month delay for the preliminary design review and Saemisch explained that technology choices, including for voltage, had forced the decision and that a preference for a composite capsule by NASA administrator Michael Griffin had been rejected during the course of that decision making

click through to the extended portion of this blog post to watch the video the IAASS Lockheed Martin presentation and Q&A afterward 

credit: Euronews

Watch this 8min Euronews report about the European Space Agency's plans to evolve its expendable cargo resupply Automated Transfer Vehicle spacecraft into a reentry capsule able to return cargo and eventually carry crew to and from the Earth

credit: Reaction Engines

Click through to the extended section of this blog post to see Bristol University researcher Neil Taylor present expansion nozzle research, funded by UK company Reaction Engines, at the International Astronautical Congress 2008 held in Glasgow, Scotland

Reaction Engines envisages such nozzles being used for its Sabre engine that would power its proposed single-stage-to-orbit Skylon vehicle. Reaction Engines is using some of its related technology for the European Space Agency managed European Union funded hypersonic LAPCAT projects 

Although this photo has a lot of reflection in it you can see the window portals on the other side of the WhiteKnightTwo's (WK2) cabin and very feintly you can see the rings of reinforcement of material around them and nothing inbetween, as it were


credit: Virgin Galactic

Compare that to this official photo of the interior of the prototype SpaceShipTwo, which has an identical cabin to the WK2, and the reinforcement ring is plain to see, suggesting that the rumours were right and that the WK2 Virgin Galactic rolled out on 28 July was, like the Boeing 787 at its roll out, just an empty vessel

credit: ESA

To be launched next week, click through to the extended portion of this blog post to watch the European Space Agency report about the Indian Space Research Organisation's lunar orbiter Chandrayaan-1 mission that ESA has contributed too

credit: ESA

click through to the extended portion of this blog post to watch the European Space Agency video about the Indian Space Research Organisatoin's Satish Dhawan Space Centre launch site. These are the first images I have seen anywhere of what will become home to India's manned space programme, if it is approved by the Indian government

credit: EADS Astrium / caption: could NASA one day use ESA cargo vehicles?

In its NASA authorisation act 2008 the US Congress has directed the space agency's administrator to produce an International Space Station cargo resupply contingency plan by 15 October 2009 that explains how the ISS partners' could replace NASA's commercial resupply providers if they fail to deliver from 2011, after the Space Shuttle is retired in 2010

NASA's commercial orbital transportation services demonstration (COTS)  programme is contributing funds to the development of commercial cargo delivery systems by Orbital Sciences and Space Exploration Technologies. A separate commercial resupply contractual process is ongoing with providers to be selected later this year. The COTS companies are expected to be front runners for the resupply contracts

The ISS partners can supply upmass services using their expendable vehicles. As well as Russia's proven Progress spacecraft, the European Space Agency (ESA) could provide services using its Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) that successfully completed its first mission this year and if the 2009 maiden flight of Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's HII Transfer vehicle (HTV) is also a success it too could be employed

ESA is interested in obtaining more time on ISS for its astronauts and the barter arrangements used within the space station's framework agreement could lead to ESA providing ATV in return for more manned missions and/or even developing a proposed evolution of the ATV that would meet the downmass needs

click through to the extended portion of this blog post to see the full text from the 2008 act relating to the resupply plan

credit: CNES

Click through to the extended portion of this blog post to watch a French space agency CNES video showing French Guiana and the construction of the launch pad with an animation of how Soyuz will operate from these facilities located in the French Guianan municipality of Sinnamary

I got this video, in DVD format, in February 2007 when I visited the launch pad on a European Space Agency press trip. I just recently ripped the DVD and converted it into a format our hosting software could use

credit: Boeing

See the Ares I crew launch vehicle's instrument unit being assembled and fitted to the rocket's upper stage in this Boeing produced animation of how construction of the new booster could look at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in the next decade

Click through to the extended portion of this blog to see the animation

How good is your Russian?

This image shows a proposed new rocket by Russia's Samara Space Center called the Rus.
Ignore the slides about the Soyuz 2 variants and the construction progress in French Guiana. The slide above was taken from the forum of the Russian space news magazine Novosti Kosmonautica

Sponsored by Russia's Federal Space Agency I don't know how independent it is, or could be in Putin's Russia, but the editor was a nice enough chap when I met him in Moscow in 2005

click on the images in this blog post to see larger versions in the same window browser

credit: ESA** / caption: Federal Space Agency chief Anatoly Perminov 

In an unusually blunt and undiplomatic move Russia's Federal Space Agency (FSA) has posted on its website a report about a 7 October meeting between its public relations staff and NASA representatives

**I have only sourced the Anatoly Perminov picture from the European Space Agency's website, the agency was not involved in the FSA/NASA meeting and discussions

credit: NASA/Flight

"I recognize that there are issues around budgets and so forth," the new UK science minister responsible for space Lord Drayson told The Times [of London], when asked about the realities facing his enthusiasm for human spaceflight; in what must be one of the biggest understatements of the year following a UK government pledge to buy £25 billion ($44 billion) worth of UK bank shares if necessary and commit to £450 billion of taxpayer provided capital to keep the bankers in their comfy leather chairs and us from destitution

credit: NASA

According to NASA Ares projects office manager Steve Cook the Ares I crew launch vehicle's bending moments issue is one of the controversial rocket's myths, well make your own mind up with this NASA animation of the Ares I-X test flight's dynamics

Click through to the extended portion of this blog to see the animation

After this week's run of NASA Constellation programme blog posts expect a return to a mixed bag of subjects from Virgin Galactic's WhiteKnightTwo's interior to ESA's experimental re-entry vehicles next week

credit: NASA / caption: click on this image to see a larger version in the same browser window

At the International Astronautical Congress 2008, held in Glasgow, Scotland last week NASA's crew launch vehicle implementation office manager Charles Cockrell gave a briefing on the 3 October about the Constellation programme's vehicle testing plans

Click through to the extended portion of this blog post to see the Ares testing briefing video

credit: ESA

The European Space Agency has released a video with an animation of its planned 2012 reentry technology demonstrator Intermediate Experimental Vehicle (IXV). As well as showing the mission profile the video shows the IXV's design and construction

click through to the extended portion of this blog post to see the IXV test flight animation

credit: NASA

At the International Astronautical Congress 2008, held in Glasgow, Scotland last week NASA's Constellation operations and test integration associate director, Thomas Rathjen, gave a briefing on the 3 October about the programme's flight test strategy

Tomorrow I will post a video briefing about NASA's Ares testing plan

Click through to the extended portion of this blog post to see the Ares strategy briefing video

credit: NASA

At the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) 2008, held in Glasgow, Scotland last week NASA's Ares V integration manager Stephen Creech gave a briefing on the 3 October about the new heavy lift rocket, Ares V cargo launch vehicle

Tomorrow I will post a video briefing about NASA's Ares flight test strategy

Click through to the extended portion of this blog post to see the Ares V briefing video

credit: NASA

At the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) 2008, held in Glasgow, Scotland, last week NASA's deputy mission manager for its Ares I-X test flight Stephan (pronounced Stephen not Stef-an) Davis gave a briefing on the work underway to fly the representative rocket next year 

Tomorrow I will post Steve Creech's IAC 2008 Ares V briefing

Click through to the extended portion of this blog post to see the Ares I-X briefing video

NASA's John Connolly spoke at the 59th International Astronautical Congress in Glasgow on Friday 3 October about the process of designing the Altair Lunar Lander and where the project is today. On that Friday there were a series of NASA presentation's about the Constellation vehicles and I will be publishing my videos or audio recordings of them this week

click through to the extended portion of this blog post to see the video of Connolly's presentation

credit: ESA

In the video in the extended section of this blog post the European Space Agency's Bernard Foing describes the ongoing work to analyse the agency's Mars Express spacecraft's Martian surface data in relation to landing site selection for future missions

Click here to listen to S P Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation Energia first deputy designer general Evgeny Mikrin talk about the forthcoming Soyuz and Progress control system upgrades and follow his speech through this photo above (SW is an abbreviation for software) and the images of his slides in the extended portion of this blog post

While the upgraded Progress M cargo vehicle is now called the Progress M-01M with a first flight this November the new name for the Soyuz spacecraft is yet to be decided but it is likely to change from TMA. Perhaps TMB?

click on any of the pictures in this blog post to see a larger version in the same browser window

credit: ASI

On 29 September Flight technical editor Rob Coppinger sat down with newly appointed Italian Space Agency commissioner Enrico Saggese to talk about the changes ahead for the organisation at a time when there is a new Italian governmment, the European Space Agency is preparing for one of its most important member states' ministers' meetings, being held in November, and a major part of the Italian space industry has completed a joint venture with French company Thales  

click here to listen to the 11min interview with Saggese

On the morning of 2 October officials from International Space Station member states' agencies discussed what the future of the ISS holds in the years to come and the Russian participant confirmed that at a recent heads of agency meeting it had been unanimously agreed that station use should be extended to 2020

click through to this blog's extended section to see the 45min video of this morning plenary session at the International Astronautical Congress held in Glasgow, Scotland this week

credit: CCTV/caption: China's spacewalk in-action
 
Speaking at 0830h on Thursday 2 October Li Ming, an official of the China Academy of Space Technology, gave a briefing on behalf of the Society of Chinese Astronautics that included a history of China's manned spaceflight programme, a review of the Shenzhou-7 mission, details about its spacecraft and how it differs to previous Shenzhou and future human spaceflight plans including the use of graphics and animations

Click through to the extended blog section to watch the video of the briefing

On 1 October Space Exploration Technologies' vice president business development Gwynne Shotwell gave a press conference about the fourth and successfull flight of the Falcon 1 rocket and future launches of it and the Falcon 9 at the International Astronautical Congress held in Glasgow, Scotland this week

Click through to the extended section of the post to see the press conference video

credit: Dassault Aviation

Since the end of 2004, under a CNES contract, Dassault Aviation, Snecma Moteurs, Snecma Propulsion Solide and SNPE Matériaux Énergétiques are studying a new Airborne Micro-Launcher (MLA) carried by a Rafale multirole fighter. The concept is candidate for the ALDEBARAN "system" demonstrator project of CNES

Click through to the extended section of this blog post to watch the animation video

credit: Virgin Galactic

At the International Astronautical Congress' plenary session last night (Tuesday 30 September) Virgin Galactic president Will Whitehorn and UK small satellite specialist Surrey Satellite Technology chief executive Sir Martin Sweeting gave presentations (usual promo stuff so I didn't bother recording it) and then took questions

Click through to the extended section of this blog to see their answers and Whitehorn talk about Virgin Galactic's brief dealings with the sex industry 

credit: NASA / caption: this slide is not from Steve's presentation

You have seen him on NASA tv and perhaps heard him on a media telecon if you dialled in but the video in the extended portion of this blog post is 30min of NASA's Ares project office manager Steve Cook, chief designer of the Ares I crew launch vehicle, talking about that rocket, which is so controversial in some quarters, and taking questions from the audience at the International Astronautical Congress being held here in Glasgow, Scotland this week

The presentation took place on Monday but due to internet access limitations I am only posting it now