April 2009 Archives

credit NASA/Lockheed Martin / caption: Will this be seen in 2020?

Acting NASA administrator Christopher Scolese made some interesting remarks on 29 April at the Congressional appropriations hearing that Hyperbola thinks could see another human spaceflight gap for the USA at the end of the next decade

Blogosphere excitement at the prospect of $150 million, or $80 million depending upon the report you read, going directly to "commercial" development of crew transport to low Earth orbit is all misguided NASA has told Hyperbola

These are the facts:

• NASA is to spend $150 million, not $80 million
• it is to enable earlier Commercial Resupply Services cargo missions
• these early flights will help NASA determine what human rating requirements are needed
• it will also fund work on standardisation of International Space Station docking

This has nothing to do with COTS-D and reports of a crewed launch demo being funded by this money are not true says NASA

And now I am no wiser about this other strange crew transport procurement development

credit Avio caption: Zefiro-9 Vega 's thid stage fires successfully

The last engine, the third stage of the new European Vega launcher, Zefiro 9, manufactured by Avio, has completed all the qualification stages and is now ready, says Avio.

credit SpaceX / caption: bad Elon Musk, you are too successfull

NASA is to run a new crew launch demonstration competition that NASA acting adminisrator Christoper Scolese admitted in today's US House of Representatives' committee on appropriations' subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies hearing sounded like the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) option D, which is the commercial procurement of crew transport, but actually isn't

The reason Scolese gave for why the agency would not run COTS-D is because "only one organisation", meaning Elon Musks' Space Exploration Technologies, could go for it. A conclusion Hyperbola came too yesterday

Hyperbola has approached NASA for further details about this COTS-D lookalikee that isn't COTS-D and hopes to bring you all the details soon

credit NASA / caption is this what return to the Moon means?

In an extraordinary exchange between NASA acting adminisrator Christoper Scolese and the US House of Representatives' committee on appropriations' subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies chair, Scolese said that the agency was still working on what "return to the Moon" meant and whether that was a outpost, which he went on to describe as expensive, or an extended sortie like Apollo

So much for Apollo on steroids...

Hyperbola hoped to have an audio recording of the webcast but unfortunately Microsoft's sound recorder didn't deliver. Hopefully the appropriations will have a webcast replay accessible soon

Go to www.twitter.com/flighthyperbola for Hyperbola's coverage of today's US House of Representatives' committee on appropriations' subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies hearing on NASA with acting administrator Christopher Scolese

credit Avio / caption how far is the slip into 2010? 

The qualification and certification phase for the three solid propellant engines for Vega has been passed with flying colours, says Avio's press release, but it also gives 2010 as the maiden flight date; a slip that European Space Agency director general Jean-Jacques Dordain said might happen when in January he gave a November, December 2009 target timeframe for the first flight. The rest of the Avio press release says 

The last engine, the third stage of the new European Vega launcher, Zefiro 9, manufactured by Avio, has completed all the qualification stages and is now ready, together with Zefiro 23 and P-80, for the production stage, after which propellant will be loaded and the engines will be shipped to French Guyana where they will be assembled for the first launch planned for 2010

A much pilloried US institution the workings of Congress seem, to an outsider, to have become more popularised in recent years by the prism of television satire, than any actions by the politicians themselves but for Floridians political self-interest may have just saved thousands of locals from unemplyment

Florida Today is reporting that a budget resolution to be voted on this week might add $2.5 billion to NASA's funding to keep Shuttle going for another year

And the newspaper rightly points out that the agency's post-Columbia flight rate has been about three [Shuttle missions] per year, since the post-Columbia disaster return to flight and there are nine to go, including the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer mission added by the 2008 NASA authorisation act

Hello calendar year 2011? 

In the USA there was much mirth at the result of a poll that saw US television comedian Stephen Colbert apparently chosen to be the name of the International Space Station's (ISS) Node 3. Named Tranquility instead, in honour of the Apollo 11 Moon landing forty years ago this year, Colbert is to have an ISS treadmill named after him as a runner up prize

The European Space Agency and its contractor Thales Alenia Space say of Node 3

The Node-3 connecting module to the International Space Station is currently undergoing final preparations at Thales Alenia Space premises, Torino, in view of its shipment to the Kennedy Space Center (KSC). Its launch is currently scheduled on-board STS-130 in December 2009. Node 3 will eventually house the life support equipment necessary for the permanent crew of six and will also accommodate ESA's Cupola obseration module, a seven window dome-shaped structure from where the Space Station's robotic arm, Canadarm 2, will be operated

The Cupola is already at KSC and can be seen here. Yours truly will be attending the 16 May Node 3 roll out so expect pictures and maybe even a podcast from this event

Now that additional checks on the EADS Astrium Ariane 5 ECA launcher have been completed, launch provider Arianespace and the European Space Agency have set the launch date of Herschel and Planck for Thursday 14 May, says ESA in its latest update on the mission

There must be something going on between Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) and NASA with this coy reply from SpaceX

We are currently reviewing the proposed procurement (its terms, scope, and duration).  We are interested, as you know, in providing a domestic alternative to having NASA purchase Soyuz to carry US astronauts to and from the ISS.

in response to an email of mine enquiring about this interesting development with NASA's International Space Station crew transportation arrangements being opened up

credit NASA / caption: now with a maximum of four crew it would seem

NASA's image of the day, its Orion crew exploration vehicle mock up is in the Atlantic ocean, all at sea, and bobbing around with little or no particular direction

The balloons on top are for up righting the capsules, the same system was used for the Apollo programme's command module

Since 2006 there have been a series of news articles reporting Chinese customers for space tourism, from MSNBC, the state owned China Daily, South Africa's iol.ca.za, Pakistan's Daily Times, and the technology website EE Times. Reports range from one businessman to half a dozen to literally dozens of Chinese lining up to go where only six Chinamen have gone before

credit Bigelow Aerospace / caption: will cold war treaties upset BIgelow's plans?

Last week UK newspaper (as the weekly current affairs magazine styles itself) The Economist (thanks Jeff Foust) made public a "victory" by Bigelow Aerospace that intends to take "sovereign" clients (that's governments to you and me) to his orbital complex (that's space station to you and me) early in the next decade. The victory being that there will be no ITAR ruling against taking foreign nationals to the Bigelow station, unless their Sudanese, North Korean, Iranian or Chinese

Much is made of the US government's ITAR rules, aka International Traffic of Arms Regulations, and the limitations they place on US industry's ability to export space technology and services 

Hyperbola spoke to the US Department of State's bureau of political military affairs, which oversees ITAR, about, well, 18-months ago at least about this issue. They said then that "spaceflight participants," to use the jargon, could be informed sufficiently enough for their consent to be given without giving them sensitive information. No story there then said I and it was all duly filed under, don't bother

But this selective legal anlaysis of the export control laws surrounding spaceflight ignores perhaps the most significant factor of all, the Cold War era Outer Space Treaty, and when Hyperbola asked the bureau about this last year it never got an answer

Now we know that Scaled Composite's explanation for the tail strike and port roll during its WhiteKnight Two (WK2) prototype's fourth test flight on 20 April was thrust asymmetry from its Pratt & Whitney Canada 308A engines caused by a miss setting of the idle thrust settings, apparently giving the starboard engines more power than the port engines

Scaled's statement does not specify which set of engines it was but, just as power was being applied following the touch-and-go the aircraft must have yawed left, because the crew countered with right rudder

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's (JAXA) H-IIB Transfer Vehicle has finally arrived at JAXA's Tanegashima Space Center (TNSC) on Tanegashima island

It arrived on 23 April but in bits, broken down into its constituent parts, the pressurized logistic carrier, unpressurized logistic carrier, the avionics module, and the propulsion module

The HTV is to be launched in September to the International Space Station by JAXA's new Mitsubishi Heavy Industries H-IIB rocket, designed with a new first stage to launch the HTV. The September mission will also be the rocket's maiden launch

Now the HTV's modules are all at TNSC they will be assembled into the final vehicle and then undergo checks before mating with the H-IIB rocket

credit Flight / caption: now we know it was a idle thrust miss setting

Scaled Composites has put a statement on its website about its WhiteKnight Two prototype Virgin Mothership Eve test programme that confirms what Flight has been saying, that the rudder has had to be modified

There are other rather uncharitable comments made by Scaled in the statement but Hyperbola is sure that between the lines of aggressive corporate rhetoric the readers will see that they are getting factually accurate reportage and well informed comment from Flight about this unique aerospace project

Read here Flight's article about the statement and how it fits in with our coverage of the mothership's test programme

credit SpaceX / caption: Elon Musks's comapny reaches another milestone
 
SpaceX press release
Precision rocket engine to control Dragon spacecraft on approach to International Space Station

McGregor, Texas (March XX, 2009) - Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) successfully completed a rigorous qualification of its new Draco spacecraft thruster and Draco propulsion tank at the SpaceX Test Facility in McGregor, Texas

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) performed the second captive firing test for the first stage flight model tank of the MHI H-IIB rocket on 22 April 2009 at the Tanegashima Space Center. This September JAXA plans to launch its H-IIB Transfer Vehicle resupply spacecraft to the International Space Station using the H-IIB rocket

The test went smoothly as follows.

Test purpose
 - Final verification of the pressure characteristics of the flight
   tank
 - Acquisition of environment data including vibration data in each
   part of the core vehicle during the firing test

Firing time
 1:00 p.m. (Japan Standard Time)

Firing duration
 150 seconds (150)

Main combustion pressure
 No. 1 Engine About 12.0 Mpa (11.7 to 12.9)  No. 2 Engine About 12.0 Mpa (11.7 to 12.9)

Numbers in (   ) are scheduled values.

We would like to express our profound appreciation to all people and parties related with this CFT. For your information, the weather at the time of the CFT was cloudy, wind was 8.6 meters per second from the north-west, and the temperature was 19.1 degrees Celsius

 

Well done to Aviation Week and Space Technology space editor Frank Morring for this scoop, with Constellation programme manager Jeff Hanley saying that for mass reduction reasons two of the Orion crew exploration vehicle's planned six seats are being pulled!

Flight had already requested an interview about Orion for this Friday, hopefully more juicy facts will be coming Hyperbola's way then

But it is not because Florida Today's The Flame Trench blog has not done its journalism properly, no, its because NASA's public affairs office got it wrong - well everybody makes mistakes I guess

NASA has told Hyperbola that The Flame Trench's article about the Aerospace Corporation Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) study on EELV suitability for launching the Orion crew exploration vehicle is wrong when it's first sentence says:

Senior NASA managers are reviewing an independent analysis

because:

Under evaluation was not accurate re: the Aerospace report. I learned later that it is in fact not finished and we can't discuss it further at this point.

Hyperbola wanted to put this information into the public domain because searching for reports about this study this blog has not uncovered any correct articles, only blogosphere postings that propagate this initial error (Yes very community minded I know)

The statement that the study is not finished also raises questions about the validity of the NASASpaceflight.com (NSF) article that kicked off this whole situation

credit NASA / caption: so near yet so far, acceleration as an option is receding for NASA's Ares boosters

You can read Aviation Week and Space Technology space editor Frank Morring's article about NASA's Constellation programme acceleration report here and read the report itself here

While Morring concludes that the acceleration study has been overtaken by events it is interesting that the report has come to light after the publication of the NASA Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel's (ASAP) 2008 annual report. It states that increased funding for the Constellation progamme in the short term will not bring forward the Orion-Ares operational in-service date

Beginning in April last year and concluding on 18 December the acceleration study's report was released on 20 April and whether you think it has been overtaken by events or not it makes for some interesting reading especially in light of the ASAP report

credit Flight / caption: WK2 fourth flight indicated further directional stability issues

So now during a straight forward touch and go manoeuvre Virgin Galactic's WhiteKnight Two (WK2) prototype Virgin Mothership Eve struck its tail as the pilot fought to control a roll left due to a 15kt cross wind, which normally should not be a problem

Its further evidence that Scaled Composites, for all its expertise, did not realise the degree that a two fuselage aircraft with a Boeing 757 scale wing would require larger vertical fins

With vortex generators added and a second horn and an increase in the size of those horns the aircraft still appears to be suffering from directional instabilty. The horns, for those of you who don't know, are the tab like squares that appear to extend from the rudder into the fin and are designed to jut out in the direction opposite to the movement of the rudder, inducing forces to stop any natural tendencies for the rudder to swing back to neutral - its normal position

The big question is, can this WK2 prototype carry SpaceShipTwo (SS2)? A provocative question but while landing in a 15kt crosswind presents such a challenge the carriage of SS2 is not going to occur any time soon

See more pictures and read more detail in this story

click through to access a larger version of the photo of the moment of the tail strike

Space Exploration Technologies has responded to Hyperbola's enquiry about the last minute announcement of the delay to the company's first commercial launch with its Falcon 1 rocket, scheduled for 20 April, and denied there is any damage to the rocket:

We are re-evaluating predicted launch vehicle environments on the satellite to ensure all systems are ready to support a successful launch. As for this being a "late" find, flushing out this type of potential issue is exactly why we do pre-launch tests and checkouts. Contrary to other reports, there is no damage to the launch vehicle (all prelaunch checks were accomplished successfully, including the successful static test fire of the vehicle last Wednesday). We are evaluating the extent of the delay, and I will let you know as soon as we have a new date for both RazakSAT and Falcon 9.

 

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency has announced that it has postponed the second captive firing test of its first stage flight model tank for its Mitsubishi Heavy Industries H-IIB launch vehicle. JAXA says:

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. were scheduled to perform the second captive firing test (CFT) on April 20, 2009 (Japan Standard Time) at the Tanegashima Space Center. However, we would like to announce the postponement of the test as bad weather conditions are forecasted on April 20 and 21.

Currently, we plan to hold the test on April 22.

The final go/no-go decision for the test on the 22nd will be determined by continuously monitoring and examining the weather conditions and other factors.

credit Lockheed Martin / caption: the process will take three months

NEW ORLEANS, LA, April 20th, 2009 -- Lockheed Martin has begun its first friction stir weld process on an Orion crew module Ground Test Article at the NASA Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, La.

This ground test article will serve as a production pathfinder to validate the flight vehicle production processes and tools. When completed, this first full-sized, flight-like crew module will be tested on the ground in equivalent flight-like environments, including static vibration, acoustics and water landing loads. Results will be used to correlate sizing models for all subsystems on the vehicle

Read the full press release and see more pictures here

NASA has detailed preparations for the test firing of the first demonstrator motor for its Ares I crew launch vehicle (CLV) first stage solid rocket booster.The US space agency gives the month of August as the test date however Flight has already obtained from the Ares I prime contractor Alliant Techsystems (ATK) the more specific date of 13 August

NASA says in its statement:

The first of five segments for the Ares I development motor (DM-1) was moved April 16 from ATK Space System's production facility in Promontory, Utah, to the nearby test stand, in preparation for the first ground test, targeted for August. This next generation of solid rocket motor will be used to launch humans on future missions to the International Space Station, the moon, Mars and beyond.

ATK explained to Flight that the 133-day postponement of the test would not impact on the development of the CLV. NASA has already delayed the first test flight of the motor by more than a year

credit Italian Ministry of Defence

View from Sea Launch Commander of Sicral 1B launch, picture courtesy of the Italian Ministry of Defense. Launched today at 09:16h GMT by a Zenit-3SL rocket operating from the Sea Launch platform, positioned at the equator in the Pacific Ocean

click on images to see larger version in the same browser window

Arianespace says

 

Due to an anomaly discovered during tests on a subassembly identical to one on the Ariane 5 launcher, Arianespace has decided to carry out additional checks, which will take several days.

 

A new launch date will be announced shortly.

Cannes, April 20, 2009 - The SICRAL 1B satellite, on behalf of the Italian Ministry of Defense, has been successfully launched today at 10.16 am (CET) by a Zenit-3SL rocket operating from the Sea Launch platform, positioned at the equator in the Pacific Ocean. The SICRAL 1B program is under the joint responsibility of Thales Alenia Space and Telespazio, partners in the Space Alliance for their parent companies Finmeccanica and Thales. From today it is possible to proceed with the programme completion and development and realisation of the SICRAL 2 satellite, in partnership with France. Such a cooperation will be an international synergy for military telecommunication systems.

This was delayed by a few days apparently due to weather

credit NASA/Flight / caption: NASAWatch's reusable lander presentation looks nothing like Altair 

Back in February NASA's head of its Altair lunar lander project office Kathy Laurini spoke to Flight about the agency's ideas for a reusable or recycleable lander. A few days earlier NASA exploration expert Wendell Mendell had mentioned the reuse of landers during an event held here in London

And now NASAWatch has apparently obtained a presentation for such a lander, which I believe is called a "side loader". Is it just me or does that look very much like a Gerry Anderson SPACE: 1999 Eagle?

When I spoke to companies bidding for Altair conceptual design contracts at the National Space Symposium at the beginning of this month they said that a reusable or recycleable lander would mean substantial architecture changes

Space Exploration Technologies has released the following statement, read the rest in the extended portion of this blog

Hawthorne, CA (April 20, 2009) - Due to a potential compatibility issue between the RazakSAT spacecraft and Falcon 1 launch vehicle, Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) and Astronautic Technology (M) Sdn Bhd (ATSB) have agreed to postpone the launch of ATSB's RazakSAT satellite

credit NASA / caption: On 16 November 1982 Columbia approaches Edwards AFB bringing to an end STS-5

This story by space.com focuses on the prospects of US astronauts flying on China's Shenzhou spacecraft but what is more important in Hyperbola's opinion is the fact that president Barack Obama's science advisor "underscored," according to space.com, the fact that it is the Obama administration's "intention" to retire Shuttle in 2010

Japanese operator SKY Perfect JSAT Corporation has chosen Arianespace to launch its new JCSAT-13 communications satellite.  This new contract is the 7^th contract signed in 2009 by Arianespace with the major satellite operators.

 

but it gets worse...

A press release about NASA's Maximum Launch Abort System test launch can be expected in the next two weeks. Originally scheduled for a 14-month development period and a September 2008 launch test, that was put back to no earlier than 27 March this year and today NASA told Hyperbola:

Latest projection is mid-to-late May.  Once it gets out of the processing building it is in now, project managers will be able to set a target date.  We plan to issue a media announcement at that point, which is expected to be about two weeks prior to test.

NASA's Engineering and Safety Center has been designing and developing this alternate vehicle concept as "risk mitigation for the Orion crew exploration vehicle launch abort system concept" since 2007

From now on Hyperbola will be posting contract announcements with either the entire press release text in the post or just the first paragraph with a hypertext link to the webpage that has the complete statement. All of Hyperbola's postings appear on the Hyperbola twitter homepage and Facebook page

NEWTOWN, Pa., April 16th, 2009 -- Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] has been awarded a multi-million dollar contract by SKY Perfect JSAT Corporation (SKY Perfect JSAT) of Japan to build its next geostationary communications satellite. Designated JCSAT-13, the satellite will be launched in 2013

SPACEX SIGNS ARGENTINA'S SPACE AGENCY FOR TWO FALCON 9 LAUNCHES 

Pair of SAOCOM Earth Observation Satellites to Launch between 2012 & 2013

 

Hawthorne, California (April 16, 2009) - Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) has signed an agreement with CONAE, Argentina's National Commission on Space Activity, for two launches aboard SpaceX's Falcon 9 medium-to-heavy lift vehicle. The flights will send the SAOCOM 1A and 1B Earth observation satellites into sun-synchronous orbits, where they will provide imagery for natural resources monitoring, as well as emergency and disaster management.

I've come across this other educational space exploration game by Canadian company Project Whiteheadcard called Project Moonwalk. Here is its flash site and here is its wiki and this is its development site

Alas it seems to have come to a stop although the company developing it is now involved in the new Canadian Space Agency exploration game that features the International Space Station and robotics

It seems NASA is not the first to develop a space exploration video game. While hunting around for new images or even video of NASA's massively multiplayer game Astronaut: Moon, Mars and beyond I found this announcement by the US space agency's MMO provider Virtual Heroes. In 2008 the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) contracted the US software company to develop a game for Canadian schools, I'll contact the CSA to find out where they got with this

In the mean time watch the videos above of Virtual Heroes previous space exploration game, produced for the Discovery channel, Race to Mars: Mission Two. And see more Virtual Heroes game play video here

NASA needs to increase its annual average funding by $5 billion to almost $24 billion for the next decade to achieve its 2020 Moon and International Space Station (ISS) goals and be able to fly the Space Shuttles to 2015

The $5 billion prediction is from the NASA authorisation act 2008 mandated US Congressional Budget Office's (CBO) analysis of NASA's forecasted budgets and its past programmes' cost performance. The $5 billion figure is from 50% cost overrun estimates based on a 2004 CBO analysis of 72 past NASA programmes

The CBO also found that with no changes to NASA's budget to achieve the 2020 Moon and ISS goals would mean cuts to the science and aeronautics budgets

In November 2008 a CBO analysis concluded that Orion-Ares' costs could spiral by $7 billion and its first manned flight may be two years later than planned in 2017

Thanks to Jeff Foust and his tweet for alerting me to this report

credit Moon Beat / caption: Picture on the far right is of BBC's Reginald Turnill

Following in the footsteps of In the shadow of the Moon comes the flip side to the Apollo history documentary and Kevin Stirling's Moon Beat focuses on the media, the journalists who covered the programme at close quarters

NASA itself recognised those that covered the programme and called them the Chroniclers. There is a wall covered in plaques recognising the work done by the individual journalists at Kennedy Space Center and one of those plaques bears the name Reginald Turnill

The then British Broadcasting Corporation aerospace correspondent, or space reporter depending upon which webpage you read, Turnill is featured in Moon Beat

On the 50th anniversary of the launch of Sputnik Flightglobal.com visited Turnill at his home on the south coast of England and spoke to him about that event and his career with the BBC

credit NASA / caption: the design support contract awards are still imminent

NASA's Ares V cargo launch vehicle design support contracts were supposed to be awarded in the first week of April. NASA has its fiscal year 2009 budget, admittedly seven months late, so one wonders what the hold up is. The agency told Hyperbola: 

Yes, we anticipate contract announcements for Ares V this [April] for trade studies.  The Ares V Phase I RFP was originally released in January with proposals due in February.  In Phase, we are engaging industry to assess designs, identify risks and opportunities, and develop trade studies and analyses. Contracts will be awarded this month. We'll issue a news release once decisions are made.

Those trades will include a study of man rating Ares V

Find out how to watch Hyperbola's videos on its YouTube channel Flighyhyperbola on your cell phone with this infomercial from YouTube

credit Mojave air and spaceport / caption: Burt Rutan and Peter Siebold flies SS2 

In the extended section of this blog post find a Mojave air and spaceport promotional video that shows SpaceShip Two simulator training at about 4min 40s

Hyperbola videos can be watched on its YouTube channel Flighthyperbola and the videos of channels Flighthyperbola subscribes too

The Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscomos) has said in an 8 April report on its website that the third seat for the September flight of the Soyuz spacecraft TMA-16 will be for a space tourist or a Russian cosmonaut. As reported by Space Adventures in its 3 April press conference the arrangement for the Kazakhstan cosmonaut to go to the International Space Station (ISS) on TMA-16 appears to have fallen through

The 8 April statement also holds out the prospects of more space tourists depending upon the retirement date of NASA's Space Shuttle, it qoutes Roscosmos head Anatoly Perminov as saying. Good news for Space Adventures but I am not aware of any future Shuttle flights, even under the extension studies, being used for crew rotations after this year, every Soyuz seat is going to be for an ISS crew member

In another Roscosmos website report, dated 11 April, dealing with the worldwide financial crisis and the future of the Russian space industry, it is stated that the new Advanced Crew Vehicle that S P Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation Energia has been contracted for is going by the name "Rus"

credit FAA / caption: The office of commercial space transportation's hopes for worldwide rules

At the Space Foundation's 25th National Space Symposium Hyperbola spoke to the US Federal Aviation Administration's associate administrator for the office of commercial space transportation George Nield

The surprising part of our quick chat (the background noise makes it useless for a podcast and I didn't ask Nield if I could use it for that anyway) was Nield's news that the French space agency CNES had visited his office for a "several days"

Nield said that his office was talking with Sweden (no surprise there) and that recently they had had the French space agency, CNES, visit for" several days and ask about our regulations and licensing process". Nield thought that interest was driven by "general curiosity mostly" but if you look at French Guiana but in future if they launch Soyuz and Vega questions of liability, what are the standards, what are the rules

Hyperbola has contacted CNES about this and is waiting for an answer

Below are my other notes from the audio recording of my chat with George Nield, its paraphrasing what he said in the most part

Asking about progress for the 2008 human spaceflight safety study recommendations - FAA has responsibility for launches and reentry and there is no overall agency responsibility for on-orbit operations. We are interested in that problem and willing to talk. It would take action by Congress to select an agency to have the lead responsibility for that

We are not sure where space falls on the [administrations to do list] and as soon as various committees are ready to take up that issue then that [report] is a good starting point for that [report and its recommendations]

With an extra $1 billion care of the Obama administration's fiscal stimulus American Recovery and Reinvestment act 2009 and fiscal year 2009 and FY2010 budgets floating around NASA had told Hyperbola it would announce this month how it is spending all the money. But now the agency is working towards something happening in May. NASA told Hyperbola:

Budget briefing is looking like "early May or late May."  We honestly don't know yet.  We've put a marker down on the calendar for May 4 AND for end of May.  We're still in consultations with [Office of Management and Budgets] and trying to get our ducks in order for a roll out press conference.  If I were a betting man, I'd bet first full week in May.

Find all of NASA's ARRA information on this webpage here. Under the ARRA NASA had 60-days from its signing (I am assuming its calendar and not working days) by Obama on 17 February to respond to Congress, giving a deadline of 17 April. So leaks about how the agency wants to spend the money could be expected in the next week or so

credit JAXA / caption: Will JAXA's first H-IIB Transfer Vehicle make its September flight?

Perhaps its because the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency is planning a double first with the maiden launch of its new Mitsubishi Heavy Industries H-IIB rocket and flight of its H-IIB Transfer Vehicle (HTV) resupply spacecraft payload but NASA is already re-organising Space Shuttle payloads to ensure the new International Space Station crew of six that is stood up come May can be maintained

"A good deal of the current [Space Shuttle Endeavour STS-127] upmass manifest [is to] be replaced with food and other consumables", says NASA. This is to avoid problems that could occur for a six-person ISS crew due to of delays to JAXA's 1 September H-IIB Transfer Vehicle maiden flight and Space Shuttle Discovery's 6 August STS-128

credit Rocketplane Global / caption: The XP vehicle is now the subject of desktop analyses

Listen here to parts, one, two and three of Rocketplane Global vice president for business development Charles Lauer's 30min presentation on the status of the XP vehicle, given at the Space Access Society conference in Phoenix, Arizona on 4 April 2009. And download here the powerpoint presentation (in pdf format), altered slightly here for commercial confidentiality reasons, used by Lauer to illustrate his talk

Space Exploration Technologies chief executive and chief technology officer Elon Musk spoke at the Space Foundation's 25th National Space Symposium on Wednesday 1 April. In this 28min video Musk talks about his company's up coming commercial Falcon 1 launch and the plans for the Falcon 9 first flight. He shows a number of videos and also takes questions. An audio recording of Musk's session without the videos' sound tracks can be found here

credit Flight / caption: WhiteKnight Two prototype Virgin Mothership Eve makes second flight

OK revelations may be a strong word but some of you may have noticed a series of articles about that start-up spaceline appearing on flightglobal.com/spaceflight. This article about its customers and this one about its prospective spaceports are the first two of six articles making up a six-page feature for Flight International magazine's 14 April edition

The remaining four articles will be published over the next few days on flightglobal.com/spaceflight with the main text of the feature appearing Tuesday (14 April) evening, UK time

That final article, largely an interview with Virgin Galactic president Will Whitehorn, has an exclusive image from the 25 March third flight of WhiteKnight Two prototype Virgin Mothership Eve and a rather special graphic. Podcasts of that interview with Whitehorn can be found here 

For Flight's coverage of the growing personal spaceflight industry go here to the space tourism landing page

credit NASA / caption: 24 July 1969, the Apollo 11 command module up righting balloons can be clearly seen

It looks like NASA's Orion crew exploration vehicle is going to have even more similarities with the space agency's Apollo command module. The Orion project office tells Hyperbola that come 2015 (take your pick on Orion-Ares crewed flight dates) the sea landing of the six crew International Space Station mission spacecraft will have balloons to ensure it can right itself if it flips upside down in the swell. NASA says

The system is early in design but here is the baseline: 

Crew Module Up righting System consists of:

-        3-52" up righting airbags integrated in the forward bay

-        Stored gas inflation system

-        24 hour up righting capability

credit Energia / caption: if all goes to plan a Soyuz 3 rocket may launch this ACTS vehicle by 2018 

The Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) has told Hyperbola:

Energia was selected to build the crew vehicle. It is clear that it won't be a winged option. The vehicle is to carry six crew to low Earth orbit and four crew to low Lunar orbit. Also, it is to deliver to orbital [space] station and to return not less than 500kg (1,100lb) of payload, and 100kg to lunar orbit

A bit earlier, Progress [Space Rocket Center in Samara] was selected to build a new launcher for Advanced Crew Vehicle [Advanced Crew Transportation Vehicle] (up to 20,000kg mass to low-Earth orbit).

Technical  details are not to be disclosed on the draft design phase which will last until late 2010. It is reasonable because what we have for the moment is Energia proposal which has not been approved as final design yet.

The graphic above is from S P Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation Energia's poster that was shown at the Farnborough international air show last year, this is likely to be the design to be evolved and agreed with Roscosmos in late 2010

The previous statement, seen above, has been amended following further information from Roscosmos, go through to the extended portion of this blog post to see the latets details about the replacement for the Progress Space Rocket Center Soyuz-FG and Energia Soyuz TMA

Zhou Jianping, chief designer of China's manned space engineering programme, speaks about his coutry's plans for human spaceflight at the Space Foundation's 25th National Space Symposium (NSS) on 2 April

Zhou expands on comments he made to Flight during the interview with him on 31 March that can be seen here

Thanks to the Space Foundation and its audio visual team from www.ceavco.com for providing the video. This clip of Zhou is the first of a number of clips from various NSS sessions that will appear on Hyperbola

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) completed its Mitsubishi Heavy Industries H-IIB rocket's first stage firing test on 2 April, after delays caused first by a lack of coolant supply and then by a leak in the fire prevention system

The H-IIB rocket will launch the first H-IIB Transfer Vehicle (see above in the JAXA produced image) to resupply the International Space Station later this year. In a double first the launch will also be the MHI H-IIB's maiden flight

The H-IIB is the H-II rocket but with a new first stage that has two engines not one. This multiple engine stage is a first for JAXA and that is the challenge

A now former European Space Agency ISS manager once told Hyperbola that he thought the Japanese were "very brave" to have such a double first. See JAXA's successfull firing test text in the extended portion of this blog post

The European Space Agency's Herschel and Planck space telescopes are now to be launched by Arianespace EADS Astrium Ariane 5 on Wednesday 6 May

The European launch provider made the announcement today. The launch had been delayed  a number of times before, to 14 April, then 16 April and now 6 May

On 2 April ESA announced the latest delay but did not give a new date

credit: NASA / caption: Walter Cantrell is first on the left

Hyperbola has decided to throw a name into the ring for NASA administrator and that person is Walter Cantrell

For those of you saying "who!?" Cantrell was appointed as NASA's deputy chief engineer for the agency's Independent Technical Authority in 2004 by then administrator Sean O'Keefe

Hyperbola's choice is driven by a number of factors, familiarity with NASA, experience of managing large organisations, good knowledge of the Space Shuttle programme, and, as some have indicated that factions within Obama's team want a flag officer, Cantrell is a retired rear admiral, so he fits the bill

Thankfully, the silliness can end and one more name can be struck off the growing list of never wozzas for the post of NASA administrator. Jeff Foust has reported that Nick Lampson has told the Houston Chronicle that he will not be a candidate for NASA administrator

It was pretty apparent to me and Jeff, when we spoke to Lampson at the 25th National Space Symposium last week, that he was a bit bewildered by the spotlight being shone on him for the top civil space job

credit Hyperbola / caption: Buzz Aldrin chats to media at Virgin Galactic's 28 July 2008 WhiteKnight Two roll out 

Hyperbola has spoken to a representative of Dr Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin and told that Aldrin was never going to attend the Space Renaissance press conference that the organisers said would take place at the British Interplanetary Society in London, UK

An email purporting to come from Aldrin's staff and sent to one of the organisers of the Space Renaissance press conference was given to Hyperbola but Aldrin's staff deny any knowledge of the email or the person who forwarded it; it is all as mysterious as the alleged face on Mars

A blue ribbon panel to review NASA's direction is likely according to Dr John Olsen, NASA exploration systems mission directorate integration office director. Speaking to Flight last week at the National Space Symposium Olsen said he expected the panel to happen once the new administrator is in place

People involved in DC politics tell Hyperbola that unless the Obama administration can find a politician that has already been vetted to take the NASA job (this is why politicians names such as Nick Lampson are popping into the frame) the post of administrator isn't going to be filled anytime soon - Hyperbola has already described how long it could take and how acting administrator Christopher Scolese could be there for some time

More disturbingly Hyperbola has been told that Obama would like the administrator to find the agency's new direction

NASA announced yesterday that the reformulation of the Apollo programme's Avcoat has been selected for its Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV)

Flight predicted this in its 10 March article about the heat shield when an announcement was expected that month. Instead NASA announced the decision on 7 April

The decision, 14-months late, brings to an end a major question about an important mass driver for the CEV. Delayed by 10-months the Orion's preliminary design review is now more likely to go ahead later this year - the Obama administration's choice for NASA administrator likely to come so late that the individual concerned will not be in place to do anything to stop it

Avco, long since bought by Textron Systems, did propose its Apollo heat shield material for Shuttle but its abative technology lost out to the reusable ceramic tiles the orbiter's use today

And in a twist to the Constellation programme story the ceramic tiles of PICA have lost out to Avcoat for Orion

NASA is offering interviews about the Avcoat selection so expect more from Flight and Hyperbola in the near future

Today news has emerged from Russia (go here for the translation) that teams have been chosen for the development of both the Advanced Crew Transportation System (ACTS) and its launch vehicle, which it appears will be an evolution of the Samara Space Center Soyuz. This Aviation Week article talks about the team that will develop the rocket that will probably be known as Soyuz 3 in the short term

For official confirmation of the selections, the Russian Federal Space Agency has told Flight that, "we intend to publish the press release within a couple of days."

Russia's progress in finding a replacement for Soyuz, both rocket and spacecraft, has been almost as tumultuous as NASA's public battles over its Ares I crew launch vehicle. Initially there was Kliper (or Clipper) and then it wasn't and then the tender process was cancelled and then there was collaboration with the European Space Agency and then there wasn't and now we have ACTS and possibly Soyuz 3, which was mooted sometime ago too

To be launched from the new cosmodrome at Vostochny in the far east of Russia the maiden flight dates are in the latter half of the next decade and if Khrunichev Space Center's Angara's development is a guidestick that is bound to slip

Thanks to Anatoly Zak for bringing the Russian news item about ACTS to Hyperbola's attention

Hyperbola will be flying back to the UK on Sunday 5 April. Expect more video and audio and even some powerpoint presentations from the 25th National Space Symposium and the Space Access Society 2009 conference that were held over the past week

This newly released video shows engine testing by the Swiss and German Project Enterprise team that took place about 12-months ago. Now the team is preparing to fly a computer controlled scale model of the project's Black Sky technology demonstrator aircraft that will precede the suborbital Enterprise vehicle. Hyperbola will post more video, audio and a presentation from Project Enterprise in the coming days 

credit JAXA / caption: Japan's new space law could see more lunar exploration

A former employee of the Japan Exploration Aerospace Agency Misuzu Onuki, now an aerospace business consultant, spoke to the Space Access Society conference about space activities in Japan and Japanese space tourism

Click here to listen to part one

Click here to listen to part two

In this video Armadillo Aerospace founder John Carmack speaks to Hyperbola about helping NASA test its Ares I crew launch vehicle upper stage J-2X engine's igniter, a rocket data "app" for an iphone, what happened to the Rocket Racing, New Mexico government deal and more. The interview took place on 4 April at the Space Access Society conference held in Phoenix, Arizona

Rather than go up against the intense competition of the might of so many bloggers in the live blogging stakes here at the Space Access Society's 2009 (SAS 09) conference Hyperbola has opted for audio recordings of sessions and video interviews and more of that will be posted today and early next week

But for those of you who want the bare bones facts about what has been said and what has been going on here at Space Access in Phoenix, Arizona then I would recommend (in no particular order)

Clark Lindsey's transport news blogging on SAS 09

Rand Simberg's Transterrestrial Musings about SAS 09

Henry Cate's Why Homeschool (this is actually illegal in the UK) blog about SAS 09 

Jeff Foust's coverage of SAS 09 on his Personal Spaceflight blog

And finally here is SAS 09 coverage by Parabolic Arc

If there are any bloggers I've missed off, apologies, but five is pretty good going for any conference

credit NASA/Rocketplane Kistler / caption: Space Access Society 2009 heard that Rocketplane Kistler is not dead

Rocketplane Global's vice president for business development Charles "Chuck" Lauer talked about the NASA Commercial Orbital Transportation Services programme participant Rocketplane-Kistler (RpK), what happened to it, where it is today and its future at the Space Access Society's conference in Phoenix, Arizona on 4 April 2009

Listen here to Lauer describe RpK as the "canary in the [credit crunch] coal mine" and how it fell victim to the financial worldwide crisis

NASA could be ready to purchase autonomous and manned suborbital science flights from 1 October 2010 if its Ames Research Center managed human tended suborbital science programme gets the funding it wants for the fiscal year 2011 budget. That budget would be published in February 2010

NASA Ames personnel spoke at the Space Access Society conference's last session of its second day and explained the request for proposals process it has had for the science community

In the next four weeks the space agency expects to place up to eight $50,000 awards for conceptual studies relating to what the scientists, the user community, think can be done with suborbital flights

The prospect of 4min of microgravity, according to the Ames staff, is very attractive to many science communities that use the few seconds available with parabolic aircraft flights. The level of  interest in the RFP process conducted so far has meant that Ames is considering having more

According to the Ames speakers the first of the 2011 suborbital flights are likely to use equipment to characterise the environment of the flight profile to ensure experiments can be prepared properly  

Hyperbola has an audio recording of the session and plans to release it in full or in part in the next few days   

 

Xcor Aerospace's chief executive Jeff Greason spoke to Hyperbola about the development of his company's rocket powered Lynx vehicle after his 3 April presentation at the Space Access Society conference held in Phoenix, Arizona from 2-4 April 2009

Go through to the extended portion of this blog post to see the video interview with Greason

Space Adventures chief executive Eric Anderson told the media today that if the expected flight of a Kazakh cosmonaut does not go ahead on 30 September this year onboard Soyuz TMA 16 then one of his company's customers might go to the International Space Station instead; but there is also the possiblity of a Russian cosmonaut going to the ISS

Spaceflight participants have to undergo months of training and so the Kazakh situation would have to come to a head very quickly in order for any Space Adventures customer to sign on the dotted line and have sufficient training. Unless the Russian authorities are happy for a previous Space Adventures customer's backup customer, who would have had months of some training already, to take the open seat. Anderson named Ester Dyson and Nik Halik as potential candidates

Anderson also reported that the company was in discussions with two potential customers for the mooted private Soyuz TMA flight to the ISS but instead of the latter half of 2011 target date for the flight Anderson now gave a 2012 date. Bill Harwood asked what would have been Hyperbola's question, and that was, can the Russian space industry deliver five Soyuz in one year? They now have to produce four of the spacecraft a year for the expanded ISS crew of six instead of what has been the normal two and Anderson said he expected they could build a fifth, and by 2012

I guess we'll know either way for both trips fairly soon

Spacejet (above) has the full support of the leadership of EADS Astrium and it is a long term project for a long term market, Hugues Laporte-Weywada, Astrium's senior vice president and deputy chief technical officer told Hyperbola in an exclusive interview at the Space Foundation's 25th National Space Foundation in Colorado Springs today

Laporte-Weywada discusses the company's strategy for spacejet, the impact the worldwide financial crisis has had, the potential financing options and business models for third party service operators and his own personal support for this European suborbital, project in a story to be published on flightglobal.com/spaceflight tomorrow   

The chief designer of China's manned space programme, Zhou Jiaping, speaking now at the National Space Symposium's international space agency session, has just said that after Shenzhou-9 docks with the target vehicle Tiangong-1 the country will launch a spacelab module and then a cargo vehicle that will dock with that laboratory. This two-spacecraft complex will be joined by a Shenzhou spacecraft. The lab module, cargo vehicle and Shenzhou are the three spacecraft types and together they make up the space lab. Zhou called this the second stage of the manned programme

The comments by Zhou add detail to his 31 March interview with Flight

*** NEWS TELE-CONFERENCE ***

SPACE ADVENTURES' CEO ERIC ANDERSON

FRIDAY, APRIL 3 - 1:00 p.m. (EDT)

 

SPACE ADVENTURES' CEO ERIC ANDERSON TO DISCUSS FUTURE OF

SPACE TOURISM, AVAILABLE SEATS FOR UPCOMING ORBITAL FLIGHTS

 

WHAT:             Join Eric Anderson, co-founder, president and CEO of Space Adventures, to discuss the future of space tourism.  As Dr. Charles Simonyi prepares for his return to Earth from the International Space Station amid reports he is the "last space tourist," Eric Anderson will discuss Space Adventures' upcoming missions - including a new and exciting development.

 

Space Adventures, the only company that provides human space missions to the world marketplace, became world renowned in 2001 with the launch of client Dennis Tito, the world's first privately-funded spaceflight participant. Since then, the company has launched five other individuals to space. Dr. Simonyi made history with his recent flight as the first private explorer to make a repeat visit to the space station.

 

WHO:               Eric Anderson, co-founder, president and CEO of Space Adventures

 

WHEN:             Friday, April 3, 2009

                        1:00 p.m. (EDT)/9:00 p.m. (MSD Moscow)

The European Space Agency is to shortly announce a delay to the launch of its Herschel and Planck space telescopes

Already delayed to the 14 April and then to the 16th ESA says that this latest delay is "a new short delay but not a fixed date"

The delay report will be published by ESA at www.esa.int

In June 2008 Flight reported that the European Space Agency had concluded, after some preliminary data, that suborbital passengers have a smaller carbon footprint than those that travel on airliners

At the time Flight was told that the data would not be released because it was preliminary and that further study was required

Speaking to ESA's head of general studies, Geraldine Naja-Corbin yesterday (1 April) at the Space Foundation's 25th National Space Symposium Hyperbola asked about the suborbital tourism study, if it had concluded and if the data mentioned last year could be released

But Naja-Corbin says the study is still ongoing and the data is still being with held, so its still a case of watch this space

Hyperbola will be at the Space Access Society in Phoenix, Arizona tomorrow (Friday 3 April) and on Saturday but today I'll be covering the final sessions of the Space Foundation's 25th National Space Symposium here in Colorado Springs. Those sessions include NASA, the international space agencies attending and a possible exclusive interview with EADS Astrium's deputy chief technical officer about the future of the suborbital project spacejet - reports of its death are apparently premature

Hyperbola spoke to Secure World Foundation's communications director Phil Smith for a few minutes at the Broadmoor hotel in Colorado Springs during the Space Foundation's 25th National Space Symposium (NSS) about space weapons, the space debris issue, space traffic management and more. Smith had spoken at an NSS session about regulating the "next space age"

click here to listen to the interview

At the Space Foundation's 25th National Space Symposium Hyperbola spoke to Northrop Grumman's vice president for advanced systems Stephen Hixson (hear me get that wrong at the end of the video) and NASA Ames Research Center Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) principal investigator Anthony Colaprete. In this unedited video they talk about the schedule and financial challenges, how it might not have happened, what could yet go wrong and what science will be achieved by ramming the Moon with a Centaur upper stage producing a 1,000,000kg (2,200,000lb) plume of lunar regolith

credit NASA / caption: Will this simulation become reality by the end of August

Elon Musk, Space Exploration Technologies' chief executive and chief technology officer, spoke at the Space Foundation's 25th National Space Symposium on 1 April 2009

Click here to listen to part one

Click here to listen to part two

Hear Musk refer to the maiden flight of his Falcon 9 rocket from its space launch complex 40 at Cape Canaveral as being in "late summer," which I would imagine is end of August. Aerospace schedules being what they are that could easily become September; so much for the reports of a June launch

Three videos were shown during Musk's session and I have edited out the audio from those but you'll hear Musk refer to them. Hyperbola hopes to have a complete video of this session, and others from the symposium in the next few days. To see the COTS-D video Musk refers to go here

David Thompson, chairman and chief executive of Orbital Sciences, spoke at the Space Foundation's 25th National Space Symposium on 31 March 2009 about the future of US leadership in space and asked can it last? 

Click here to listen to part one

Click here to listen to part two

I had heard a rumour that Virgin Galactic had approached Cable News Network, aka CNN, and offered them a seat, exclusively, a one time offer to a global news organisation for a ride on SpaceShip Two; and it sort of made sense considering a lot of the spaceline's potential customers are probably wandering around the world and watching the channel in hotels

Following on from my twitter teaser on the issue I can reveal that I spoke to former CNN reporter Miles O'Brien on Monday 30 March at the Coalition for Space Exploration media roundtable (where I met Nick Lampson) about this rumour

O'Brien explained that in fact while he was still at CNN his then employer and he approached the spaceline and had meetings with the Anglo-American outfit including talking to Sir Richard Branson about CNN getting onboard a flight but Branson wanted the $200,000 and CNN couldn't even get a cut price rate. So all their hopes came crashing down to Earth, so to speak

I should have told O'Brien they have already offered Hyperbola a trip, one-way of course... ;-)

I twittered about it seconds after talking to Nick Lampson, former Texan Congressman, while Jeff Foust, who was in the media roundtable room with me and others here at the National Space Symposium, later blogged about Lampson's apparent bewilderment at being fingered as a candidate

But it seems that some people, including NASAWatch, because they hear about alleged meetings, think Lampson is still in the running. He seemed pretty adamant that he was not talking to anyone about the job - and Lampson's twitter account has no more to say so far either (at 11.36h Mountain Time Wednesday 1 April)

Meetings with members of Obama's team may be NASA linked but as almost everyone rumoured to be a candidate to get the job so far has ended up with a different job...

credit: CCTV / caption: Could Long March 5 be man rated?

In a 23min 44s one-on-one interview with Flight the head of China's manned space programme, Dr Zhou Jianping, talked about the future of the Shenzhou spacecraft, the country's space laboratory plans, how the docking missions will be organised, what Shenzhou-7's mission meant for those plans and what training the astronauts have had. Go through to the extended portion of this blog post to see the interview video and other videos relating to China's space programme