Is it just this blog or is there just not much going on out there at the moment? Maybe it is the Christian festival of Easter that is slowing things down with all that related time off work?
But for those of you that are looking forward to the imminent 2 April Soyuz TMA-18 launch there are pre-flight interviews with the crew at the news webpage of Russia's Federal Space Agency aka Roscosmos
Russian news website RIA Novosti is reporting that the UK and Russia could become high tech partners - is this because of the creation of the UK Space Agency? One doubts any help will be forthcoming on the scale that Russia provided China with for its manned spaceflight programme - click on the hypertext for a 38-slide presentation about the middle kingdom's ambitions, happy Easter!
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credit: Reaction Engines / caption: Skylon docks with the International Space Station
If links between New Mexico and UK plans for reusable spaceplanes were not evident enough with Spaceport America and Virgin Galactic's presence there then a new research contract has only made those trans-Atlantic connections more concrete
UK single stage to orbit Skylon spaceplane developer Reaction Engines has announced on its website that it has placed a study contract with the Physical Science Laboratory at the New Mexico State University (NMSU)
Reaction Engines says: "NMSU will be undertaking a preliminary evaluation of the requirements that Skylon D1 will need to meet for safe autonomous flight"
Skylon D1 is an enhanced version with a greater payload capability. The UK company states that the university was selected because of its heritage with unmanned flight vehicles - Skylon is not piloted but may have a passenger module for its payload bay
NMSU's knowledge of the US National Airspace System and "expertise" about the worldwide airspace systems were also factors in its selection
Lockheed Martin and ATK Announce 2nd Generation
Athena Launch Vehicles
Athena to fill Critical Niche in Affordable Rockets - Available for Launch in 2012
Denver, March 25, 2010 - Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE: LMT) and Alliant Techsystems (NYSE: ATK), have entered into a strategic teaming agreement to offer launch services utilizing upgraded and modernized Athena rockets. These vehicles, based on the flight-proven Athena I and II, are designed to provide reliable access to space for small payloads to a wide range of orbits. Lockheed Martin will provide mission management, payload integration, and launch operations, and ATK will provide integrated vehicle propulsion, launch vehicle structures, booster integration and launch site operations.
credit: spacepolicyonline.com / caption: Garver's presentation click on it for a large version in this browser window
So according to NASA administrator Charles Bolden in the Congressional hearing yesterday the US will get back to the Moon before the Chinese - but will they?
As the Constellation programme progressed it was always interesting to dig around for the latest multi-program integrated milestone schedule that would occasionally be available officially or unofficially on the web somewhere. That helpful document showed graphically, in every sense, the inevitable slips of an under funded Moon return programme
Earlier this month NASA deputy administrator Lori Beth Garver gave us a new milestone schedule to scrutinise - even if it has the word notional across it - when she gave a presentation at the American Astronautical Society's Goddard Memorial Symposium (held 9-11 March)
Garver's powerpoint (one assumes) slides - shown in this blog care of a new website called spacepolicyonline.com - show an Obama space plan timeline and a version of the Constellation programme schedule
Looking at the slide above (and Garver's second slide - see extended blog portion - that shows a Constellation timeline) the question that comes to Hyperbola's mind is, if Constellation was an exploration programme that was unexecutable with the available budget why is the Obama plan any more executable?
A few days before Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo had its first captive carry flight the first US Air Force pilot to fly into space in an aircraft passed away on 17 March
US Air Force Major General Robert White flew his North American X-15 on 17 July 1962 to 59.6miles (95.9km), the USAF's designation for space is 50 miles making him the first USAF pilot to reach space. He was later awarded USAF astronaut wings. White was also the first pilot to fly at Mach 6, again in the X-15 testing velocities that were simply unknown to man
A command pilot astronaut, his military decorations and awards include the Air Force Cross, Distinguished Service Medal, Silver Star with three oak leaf clusters, Legion of Merit, Distinguished Flying Cross with four oak leaf clusters, Bronze Star Medal, Air Medal with 16 oak leaf clusters, and the Air Force Outstanding Unit Award Ribbon with "V" device. For his achievements in the X-15 aircraft, White received the Harmon International Aviators Trophy, the Collier Trophy and NASA's Distinguished Service Medal
It looks a bit like the old British Aerospace (now known as BAE Systems) logo to me but here it is and one wonders how many thousands of pounds did it cost to design? The logo is for an agency that will bring under it all the space projects related funding previously held by its predecessor the British National Space Centre "partnership". Its first annual budget will be £230 million and by September its first strategy is supposed to be drawn up. With a general election expected on 6 May and the governing Labour party expected to lose, the incoming government is unlikely to spend time on dismantling a £230 million government body. But during these harsh economic times extra funds for anything that could be seen as frivolous will be as distant as pltuo
After much fanfare today at the launch of the UK Space Agency's name and an announcement of £40 million going towards the International Science and Innovation Centre (ISIC) the ISISC's future is already in doubt
The government funds provided as part of the £40 million announced are only for the next year years and funding beyond that is not guaranteed. The funding consists of £16 million from industry and £24 million from government. The £24 million includes £12 million from agencies such as the Technology Strategy Board and the South East of England Development Agency and the remainder is from Department for Business Innovation and Skills
The UK government's space minister, Lord Paul Drayson of Kensington minister of state for science and innovation could not confirm that funds would be there in future. "[It depends on] how well industry responds to it. Future funding depends on its success," Drayson told Hyperbola at the UK Space Agency launch event in central London, describing the centre as a partnership for growth
However the governing Labour party faces an election in May, expected on 6 May, that it is expected to lose
Based at the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus in Oxfordshire the ISIC will come under the responsibilities of the space agency which will fund separate novel power source research at Harwell separately
Speaking to Hyperbola at the launch of the UK Space Agency today European Space Agency director-general Jean-Jacques Dordain said that a decision would be made in April about when the first Samara Space Center Soyuz 2-1a rocket flight from Sinnamary in French Guiana will take place
The decision is expected in April Dordain says because the Soyuz launch pad gantry should be completed by then. Its design, construction and testing in Russia and then delivery to Sinnamary and subsequent reconstruction has been blamed for part of the history of delays that have beset the Soyuz in French Guiana programme
This July had been touted as the maiden flight month after no date had been set in 2009 following delays from 2007 to 2008 and then to last year. The latest third quarter delay could mean slippage for the launch into the fourth quarter when ESA was hoping to be ready to launch the 2-1b version of the Soyuz rocket. This uses different fuel for its upper stage and is needed to launch the first Galileo satellites
As you read this (at 10:30h local time GMT) this blogger is kicking his heels in the Queen Elizabeth II conference centre just off Parliament square waiting for their Lords Mandelson and Drayson to deliver the goodies on the UK space industry front
As the gentlemen and ladies of the UK press await the official press kit and pre-election speeches Hyperbola can tell you now what is what
The £20 million this blog guestimated would be part of a national space technology programme will be announced and a further £21 milion is to be unveiled as part of the government and industry commitment to the new European Space Agency facility at the Harwell, Oxfordshire "innovation centre"
It is quite a boost for an industry that historically has been left to the scientists and their delicate instruments but it does also come within a few weeks of a UK general election that the governing Labour party is not expected to win
So tens of millions of pounds is perhaps an easy commitment to make when you're not going to be signing the cheques. Even if you genuinely believe that championing the space industry as a new direction for post-financial crisis Britain is the right thing to do, the reality is that industry is going to have to to argue again, vociferously, for that chunk of the diminshing pie when the next government comes to power - whether that is 6 May or again come 6 November...
credit: Flightglobal.com / caption: Virgin Galactic's first SpaceShipTwo, captive carry flight on 22 March 2010
Hyperbola will add more as details become available but it seems that at about 07:15h Pacific Daylight Time (14:15h GMT) today Virgin Galactic's WhiteKnight Two VMS Eve carrier aircraft took off from runway 26 at Mojave air and spaceport with SpaceShipTwo attached
credit: Flightglobal.com / caption: click on the images to see larger versions in the same browser window
Click through to the extended portion of this blog to see another photo, with more to be added over the next 24h and possibly video. Use of these images for anything other than personal viewing, not blogs or media outlets is prohibited
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Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo (SS2) Enterprise could make its first flight today, this morning California time, attached to its carrier aircraft WhiteKnight Two, aka Virgin MotherShip (VMS) Eve, if rumours reaching Hyperbola are true - multiple sources have contacted Hyperbola citing preparations and naming today as the expected first attempt
Already seen last week with aerodynamic testing tufts attached to its fuselage the rocket glider SS2 will undergo captive carry flights for the rest of this year with its first air launch drop for a glide return to a Mojave air and spaceport's runway possible by year's end
SpaceShipTwo and WhiteKnight Two developer Scaled Composites has posted results from two WK2 flights made earlier this year, 28 January and 4 March, on its website
If any Mojave residents wish to provide Hyperbola with photos and or video (preferably video) of today's WK2-SS2 take-off and flight then feel free to email me and I can provide further details. This blog does not need minutes of video, <60 seconds is enough but it will be needed quickly
I guess if you think you're going to lose the general election, expected on 6 May, then why not leave behind a government body with what many will think is a silly name. The rumour Hyperbola has heard includes the claim that Prince Andrew the Duke of York, the UK's special representative for international trade and investment and Her Majesty The Queen Elizabeth II's third child, will be a "patron" of this agency
If this is true then we'll hear it tomorrow (at the space agency announcement) or more likely the UK's national newspapers will have it on their websites by this evening as the Labour government always "leaks" what it sees as good news
And at the moment the government desperately needs to divert attention away from the latest scandal
Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) president Gwynne Shotwell confidently told the US Senate Commerce Science and Transportation committee's science and space subcommittee hearing that "we can guarantee crew flights to the [International Space Station] for less than $50 million a seat. Three years from the time we intitiate".
However former NASA Comptroller Malcolm Peterson (who worked with the agency's administrator Dan Goldin) had said that he did not expect any US provider to be able to beat the Russian price of $150 million for three seats on Energia Soyuz TMA spacecraft and predicted a per flight cost of around $400 million. Of course SpaceX's Dragon can seat up to seven so they can both be right. SpaceX could offer seven seats, or more likely, six, at a cost of up to $300 million, Peterson's mission cost neck of the woods, while beating the $51 million Russia charges per seat
In SpaceX's defence they do have a rocket, the Falcon 9, whose technology has been tested with successful orbital flights of its smaller predecessor the Falcon 1, and the Dragon spacecraft has been designed to work with the Falcon 9 and it could fly later this year in its cargo configuration. According to SpaceX that configuration differs only from the crew transport in that it does not have seats and a control panel for the pilot. Next month could see the maiden flight of Falcon 9 with a instrumented dummy Dragon on top. Its success or failure will no doubt be used during the ongoing debate
The big question for SpaceX is, will the NASA human rating standards it says it has followed be enough to satisfy whatever rigour the agency applies to a commercial crew programme? And how far will NASA expect any commercial crew provider to go in proving how safe they are?
Hyperbola is guessing that the reformed British National Space Centre that is getting no more money and has the pleasure of being based in Swindon is to be called UK Space Agency and not the James Bond-like Her Majesty's Space Agency that has been touted by space minister Lord Paul Drayson of Kensington. This is what appeared in my inbox this morning or more accurately at 22:23h GMT last night...
Lord Mandelson, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation & Skills and Science and Innovation Minister, Lord Drayson invite you to the launch of the new executive space agency for the UK and the publication of the Government response to the Space Innovation and Growth Strategy.
The event will be held at 10.45am on Tuesday 23rd March at The Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, Broad Sanctuary, London SW1P 3EE, London.
I see that blogger rocketeers.co.uk got his invite yesterday morning, sheer favouritism clearly. The invite email also says
At the event Government will also be responding to the Innovation and Growth Strategy Report.
The big question is, will that response see the government stump up the £20 million the 10 February published Innovation and Growth Team Strategy report recommended? The report followed the 10 December 2009 Drayson announcement at the 5th Appleton space conference - speakers presentations are available but not the promised audio - of the intention to create a space agency
Is Mars going to be the destination president Barack Obama will declare on 15 April, tax day? What could draw better responses than apparently announcing an unbelievable expensive lofty goal on the day US citizens have to file their tax returns?
For more reactions to the ongoing debate, reporting about the various states vocal politicians and more go here and here and even here and there is this from the Huntsville Times. While Space Florida gets $10 million to mitigate the thousands of job losses coming the Sunshine State's way
Even city Mayors are now heading to Washington DC because of fears of thousands of Constellation cancellation job losses as the battle for US human spaceflight starts to become as emotionally charged as those health care reform arguments about alleged death panels
What you are seeing there is not a LM landing simulator, but rather that footage is showing the SMK-23 Flight Simulator at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
But are dates really that important? If you're prepared to spend the money why not take longer, spend more but get there in the end anyway? Deseret News says Utah politicians want pretty much exactly that with a call for Constellation to continue at a slower pace. But the programme of record appears to have achieved that slower pace already according to NASASpaceflight.com which says Constellation is withering on the vine, its workers demoralised after five years of hard graft resulting in cancellation
Heraldtribune.com reminds us that Obama only narrowly won Florida in 2009 and NASAWatch is saying that the 15 April space summit will be more like the televised health care debate
Whatever is said in that space summit room it seems all could be truly lost for Shuttle already as spacepolitics.com's Jeff Foust is reporting that David Radzanowski, NASA's deputy associate administrator for programme integration in the agency's space operations mission directorate, confirmed that a decision now to continue Shuttle would still mean a spaceflight gap of at least two years following what could be the very final flight, the proposed contingency mission STS-135; which makes you wonder why the US Review of human spaceflight plans included options for continuing Shuttle that made no mention of gaps - what weren't they told?
Make your nominations for the year's aviation and aerospace leader, aviator, innovator and the individual you think is worthy of the lifetime achievement award and then later vote on them
Last year, at a ceremony at the Dubai air show, Hudson hero Capt Chesley Sullenberger, Virgin's Sir Richard Branson and father of the Global Hawk Bob Mitchell were voted Aviator, Innovator and Leader of the Year, respectively
At 73min into this 156min video, a webcast from the Royal Society of Chemistry debate entitled Science and the General Election 2010, space finally gets a mention
The debate's moderator BBC Newsnight science editor Susan Watts mentions that a great many of the tweeted questions for the debate were about space
The debate is between the science spokespersons for each of the UK's largest parties. They are the government's minister of state for science and innovation Lord Paul Drayson of Kensington, the Conservative party's shadow minister* for innovation and science Adam Afriyie MP and the Liberal Democrat party's Evan Harris MP, who is a qualified medical doctor
Afriyie seemed to be referring to space tourism when he talked about his party's interest in insurance changes for "horizontal take-off" spacecraft. Harris says he is not sure human spaceflight should be a top priority and criticises the Labour party government for "only now" accepting recommendations made years previously by parliamentary committees' reports into the UK and space
The debate was organised on Tuesday 9 March 2010 by the Royal Society of Chemistry with the help of the parliamentary Science and Technology Select Committee and held at the House of Commons (the UK's lower parliamentary chamber). The RSC says it was the first live webcast from the House of Commons
*Under the UK political system the official opposition, the largest party after the governing party, has a shadow cabinet that consists of that party's members of parliament that would be part of the government's executive if that party were elected to power
More Congressional NASA hearing fun has reached Youtube and here Republican party Florida senator George LeMieux questions NASA administrator Charles Bolden during the recent Commerce, Science, and Transportation Senate Subcommittee hearing about the agency's fiscal year 2011 budget proposal
Jeff Foust's spacepolitics.com has links to previous reports about the ongoing political debate over NASA, while Congressman Senator Richard Shelby is admitting there will be a fight for votes, as does NASAWatch which links to reports from the space states
Meanwhile the Space Shutle programme is letting it be known what the reality is of continuing use of the world's only reusable spacecraft
And the anti-Obama space plan rhetoric gets louder with a growing number of op-eds and space history experts and even Apollo astronauts coming out against the flexible path vision
This report makes you wonder if Obama will face a Tea party death panel like protest response to his forthcoming 15 April Florida space summit but Fox news does not appear to have decided to back the anti-flexible path coalition yet
Talking to the Chinese in October last year in Korea it was clear that manned Moon mission planning was at a very early stage. Now they seem to have scoped out broadly what they want and its surprising that they are seeking a Moon rocket with less capabilty than NASA's Saturn V
What is more interesting for the nearer term is the Long March 6. It sounds like the European Space Agency's Vega, a solid rocket motor based vehicle for small payloads. The Long March 5, which comes into operation around 2015, was described to this blogger years ago by a China National Space Administation official as being just like Europe's Ariane 5. So one has to conclude that the Chinese are following the same launcher family logic as the western Europeans
The Indians, despite the engine setback, are still planning big things and this article talks about Avatar, the country's concept reusable launch vehicle not the 3D movie, and ISRO's chief talks up a fantastic future out to 2050 here
The reusable first stage demonstrator was mentioned in this Russian Federal Space Agency (aka Roscosmos) news item on its website
Russian company Khrunichev has developed a flyback booster called Baikal so one wonders if this is what the French are interested in
Roscosmos has declined to comment further and Hyperbola is waiting for more information from the French space agency CNES
Res Communis has reported on a presentation on prospects for space tourism in China by a Ms. Xu Si from the Beijing Institute of Technology - very probably an institution heavily involved in the space programme
I wrote for Flightglobal back in 2007 that China's government was looking at more commercial aspects for its space programme. One change that was seen was the selling of tickets to allow people to watch launches at the launch site
In April 2009 I interviewed China's manned space programme head Zhou Jianping and he said that Tiangong-1 would be launched at the end of 2010. That should have rung bells that 2011 was a more likely date. Whenever aerospace organisations say the end of anything it always means the following month or year. Now we have Chinese state media reports that its docking target cum autonomous space laboratory called Tiangong will launch in 2011
The China manned space engineering programme deputy general designer Wang Zhonggui told this blogger in Korea last October that there would be up to three Tiangong modules launched. The Tiangong missions are a stepping stone to the autonomous docking of space station modules for the outpost the country expects to have operating in 2020
China is not in any hurry with its space programme and no doubt there will be more delays but eventually it will have its own space station and more. The interesting question for the near term is will China join the International Space Station programme?
Lockheed Martin has trademarked the name Revolver for a space vehicle, rocket according to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)
Hyperbola first reported in 2008 that the company's scale-model flyback booster being flight tested at the site of Spaceport America was called Revolver
The trademark office webpage shows that Lockheed filed the trademark in August of last year and that it was "published for opposition" by the office on 29 December 2009. Published for opposition means that anyone who opposed its use by Lockheed could respond and they have 30-days in which to contact USPTO
So as far as this blog can tell Lockheed now has the name Revolver trademarked for a rocket. To find the webpage about the trademark go to this USPTO search engine and type in the serial number 77798846. The USPTO website has a time limit on searches so I can't embed an URL linking you directly to the page via the search engine
Hyperbola is awaiting further details from Lockheed
India has flight tested a sounding rocket that will be the vehicle used to carry the countries scramjet technology prototypes. The Indian Space Research Organisation's press release is here. This news article says the rocket achieved a speed of more than Mach 6.5 and this media report says it was conducted from ISRO's spaceport Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh, northeast of Chennai
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Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison's bill for authorising human spaceflight does not differ markedly from the leaked 9 February dated bill text revealed by Hyperbola last week
The Interesting changes are the following:
- Bolden must submit a National Space Transportation System plan within 90-days
- Complete shuttle review within 90 days - there was no time limit before
- plan for continuing Shuttle at two missions a year until alternative is found
- Within 60-days of the act publish human spaceflight requirements
- complete market assessment of commercial crew industry within 120-days
Two other surprises that require clarification are the following;
[a National Space Transportation System] architecture of government developed and operated space transportation systems, including one or more launch vehicles and associated crew [emphasis added] and cargo carriers;
OK one or more launch vehciles could be Atlas and Delta or Ares I but why would it be one or more government developed crewed spacecraft?! And then there is this from the heavy lift development section of the bill:
include consideration of the degree to which alternative vehicles may be developed in an evolutionary fashion with the objective of supporting initial crew and cargo transportation to the International Space Station by the end of 2013
are they really saying 2013 for a heavy lift evolved vehicle that can transport crew and cargo to ISS?
Former US Marine Corp Major-General Charles Bolden must by now be reflecting upon the military axiom, no plan survives contact with an enemy. In this case Bolden's enemies are the Congressmen and women hell bent on not accepting the president Barack Obama spaceflight plan
Now the Wall Street Journal reports of a NASA memo talking about plan Bs
So what could Bolden's boys and girls come up with? They might want to use the draft bill's contents as a guide. Why not pre-empt the bill and have an ISS assessment carried out immediately that will address the ideas of Shuttle extension and crew and cargo transportation needs for the flying laboratory?
Let's not beat around the bush, the politicians are concerned about jobs both within NASA and of those supplying the agency. They want centers maintained and industry supported. So what could be done considering a $19 billion budget?
- Wind down Shuttle slowly with fewer flights per year and a shift to two orbiters
- Augustine recommended a flight proven booster for the commercial crew program, use NASA resources to help develop the modified Atlas V for that
- Rapidly select a heavy lift concept and fund it for post-2020 deployment
- Rename Orion the Deep Space Exploration Vehicle by adding a habitat module to it
- lastly provide a sliding scale of delivery based on NASA funding increases that Congress can understand
To keep Shuttle going will avoid massive job losses at a time when there are mid term elections. At least adding the mooted STS-135 flight would give some workers a breathing space. With this heavy lift, Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle and related Orion work there is plenty for the NASA centers to be getting on with and entrepreneurial companies still have a chance with crew and cargo transport
NASAWatch points to a NASASpaceflight.com forum posting it claims is made by a Senate commerce staffer. This blog made a number of attempts at contact with the committee's comms office and it never replied. Whether this 22 February version exists or not it will be interesting to see how the version that is introduced compares to the 9 Feb. version
Boiling down the 9 February version of the draft Human spaceflight capability assurance and enhancement authorization bill to just the elements that require action on the part of NASA administrator Charles Bolden after its enactment we can see that he will have too;
-
within 90-days review the Constellation vehicles and start heavy lift design work within 180-days of bill's enactment
- immediate International Space Station (ISS) assessment
- within 30-days appoint a 90-day Space Shuttle flight certification review team
The Shuttle and Constellation reviews, and everything else Congress might dream up, is likely to be driven by the ISS assessment. President Barack Obama's support for station use to 2020 at least will probably be the hook that everything else is hung on, what transportation arrangement, both crew and cargo, will ensure that ISS is fully utilised as the national laboratory that it is and will be
Mystery continues to surround the decision to add $300 million to NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services demonstration project (COTS) in the agency's fiscal year 2011 budget request
During the 25 February US House of Representatives' committee on science and technology's space subcommittee NASA FY2011 budget request hearing (click here to watch the webcast) the space agency's administrator Charles Bolden said that they decided more money was needed to realise cargo transport, that there are now companies that have come "in the last few months" that have said they could do it cheaper and that at the beginning of COTS the bidders had only been small firms, adding that "we are going to open a new round" of bidding
Hyperbola contacted NASA to ask about what Bolden had meant and what prospects there were for other companies to become part of COTS. But the agency has only responded with information (see full text of the response in the extended portion of this blog post) that is taken straight from the budget request text but with the caveat that nothing has been decided
However, considering aerospace projects tendency to take longer and cost more than originally projected it is likely that NASA will simply use the money to try to ensure the COTS companies, Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) and Orbital Sciences, deliver on the promised cargo transport capability next year as Space Shuttle is retired this year
SpaceX is already over two years late in the launching of its first COTS demonstration flight. That was planned for 2008 and its third flight was to have taken place by the end of last year. Orbital, which replaced Rocketplane-Kistler in early 2008, originally planned its demo flight for the fourth quarter of this year but a NASA requirement change for a pressurised cargo module saw that launch pushed back to March 2011; a date which itself could come under threat
So we are left wondering what exactly Bolden meant by his references to a need for more money, a plan for new rounds of bidding, companies that claim they can do it cheaper and a sugegstion that larger aerospace companies could be involved in this apparent new phase
Student based grass roots organisation wewantourfuture.org has released a video to highlight what it sees as inspirational aspects of any broad space programme that it thinks the USA needs to encourage young people to study science, engineering and mathematics
credit: Lockheed Martin / caption: the heat shield is 5m (15ft) in diameter
Hyperbola didn't get its interview with Lockheed Martin Space Systems' human spaceflight vice president in the end and now the company has released information (see below) about its progress with the Orion crew exploration vehicle's heat shield. At one time, long long ago, Orion's heat shield was supposed to be a segmented structure made of Phenolic Impreganted Carbon Ablative aka PICA - Boeing even got to do some work on it. But eventually in April 2009 PICA was officially dumped in favour of a reformulation of the Apollo programme's Avcoat material; reformulated to meet current environmental legislation. But with Avcoat you get a single monolithic bloc of a shield
So one wonders why Lockheed is talking about something involving composites - or is Avcoat technically a composite? In the text of the announcement it also qoutes Lockheed Martin Space Systems vice president and Orion programme manager Cleon Lacefield as saying, "we achieved a $10 million cost savings and improved the project schedule by 12 months".
Improved the project schedule by 12-months? The Orion project office's heat shield was originally a government furnished item and this blogger had been tracking its development. Finally, 14-months late, in 2009 NASA announced the Avcoat shield would be used. So why is Lockheed now talking about what would be the THIRD heat shield development project for the CEV, if it isn't Avcoat?
If that interview had been possible maybe we'd know. For now anyway, over to you Lockheed...
DENVER, March 1, 2010 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- The Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT)-led team developing the Orion crew exploration vehicle achieved a major technology milestone by completing fabrication of the world's largest heat shield structure. The shield is five meters (16.4 feet) in diameter and is critical to the protection of the spacecraft and its crew from the extreme temperatures experienced during re-entry. The work was completed at Lockheed Martin's composite development facility in Denver, Colorado
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