Great to see everyone that was able to make it to Hibachi Grill today. Sorry I did not join yall until later….and also I hear I missed Dave Leestma's visit ::: so Dave –please come back and join us again another month.
Thank you to Pete Cerna for joining us today --- he is forecasting joining the retiree club in a few month himself ,,,,so congratulations to him.
Happy Flex Friday eve to everyone.
| | JSC TODAY CATEGORIES - Headlines
- Joint Leadership Team Web Poll
- Building 45 Occupants: Get Ready for Power Outage
- Monthly Test of the JSC Emergency Warning System
- Recent JSC Announcement
- POWER of One: Nominate Your Peer Today - Organizations/Social
- Pumps and Pipes 8: Ideas to Insights Event
- Don't Miss the 2014 Tech & Tell Poster Session
- Co-Labs: Oculus Rift Demostration
- Today: Parenting Series - Talking to Your Teen
- Space Serenity Al-Anon Meeting Moved - Nov. 12
- Aerodynamics of Airplanes, Birds & Fish: Nov. 19 - Jobs and Training
- Project Management and Systems Engineering Forum - Community
- America Recycles Day Events
- Astronomy Day Needs Your Help
- Astronomy Day - Nov. 8 |  |
| Headlines - Joint Leadership Team Web Poll
The Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1) mission launches aboard a Delta IV Heavy rocket, but I'm a little surprised that only 72 percent knew that. Even more surprising was that you didn't know that the great yodeler Eddy Arnold was the Country Music Awards' Entertainer of the Year in 1967. Live and learn, I suppose. The Orion mission is only a month away, so question one is looking for you to answer which part of a spacecraft is NOT part of that mission. Crew module? Service module? The newest Matthew McConaughey movie, "Interstellar," opens this weekend, and you must go see it before our Dec. 4 launch of EFT-1. Please, please, please do this. It's a huge movie in many different ways. McConaughey is a native Texan who has been in a bunch of films. Vote on your favorite McConaughey movie in question two. Alright your alright on over to get this week's poll. - Building 45 Occupants: Get Ready for Power Outage
Effective 6:30 p.m. this evening, an electrical outage to Building 45 will begin. As this is a total building outage, there will be no lighting to the building until Monday, Nov. 10 (though we hope to have power restored by Sunday evening after 7 p.m.). Building 45 occupants, please take everything you need from the building before the outage begins. The building will be locked, and Security has instructions not to let anyone in until power is restored. Please check the JSCSOS website Sunday evening after 7 p.m. for up-to-date information on the status of the outage. Thanks for your cooperation. - Monthly Test of the JSC Emergency Warning System
The Emergency Dispatch Center and Office of Emergency Management will conduct the monthly, first Thursday test of the JSC Emergency Warning System (EWS) today at noon. The EWS test will consist of a verbal "This is a test" message, followed by a short tone and a second verbal "This is a test" message. The warning tone will be the "whoop" tone, which is associated with a "Seek shelter inside" message. Please visit the JSC emergency awareness website for EWS tones and definitions. During an actual emergency situation, the particular tone and verbal message will provide you with protective information. - Recent JSC Announcement
Please visit the JSC Announcements (JSCA) Web page to view the newly posted announcement: JSCA 14-030: Key Personnel Assignment - Sherry Hatcher Archived announcements are also available on the JSCA Web page. - POWER of One: Nominate Your Peer Today
The POWER of One Award has been a great success, but we still need your nominations. We're looking for standout achievements with specific examples of exceptional and superior performance. Make sure to check out our award criteria to help guide you in writing the short write-up needed for submittal. If chosen, the recipient can choose from a list of JSC experiences and have their name and recognition shared in JSC Today. Nominations for this quarter close Nov. 14, so nominate someone deserving today! Click here for complete information on the JSC Awards Program. Organizations/Social - Pumps and Pipes 8: Ideas to Insights Event
Pumps and Pipes brings together leaders engaged in cutting-edge research, discovery and strategy from across industries, providing a unique opportunity to ignite collaborations, exchange ideas and discover solutions. There will be a variety of keynote speakers, including representatives from JSC, medicine and oil/gas. Civil servants and contractors with management approval should: 2. Register in SATERN to get credit for training. Please use the SATERN External Training Form 182 when registering. For assistance in completing sections B1a through C6 of the form, please contact your organization's training admin. 3. After completing steps 1 and 2 above, send a confirmation email for use in the compilation of a JSC conference tracking log for the event. - Don't Miss the 2014 Tech & Tell Poster Session
Following JSC's previously successful "Tech & Tell" events for the past two years, the 2014 Exploration Integration and Science Directorate (EISD)-sponsored Independent Research and Development (IR&D)Tech & Tell poster session is being held on Tuesday, Nov. 18, in the Building 3 Collaboration Center from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. During this come-and-go event, you will meet some of JSC and White Sands Test Facility's most innovative thinkers. Principal investigators will share overviews of their projects and how they are being integrated to meet NASA science and JSC human spaceflight needs. This year's theme is "JSC's Technology Pathway to Mars," which will showcase both center-level and new EISD directorate IR&D technology projects being developed at both JSC and the White Sands Test Facility. Come support your colleagues. Also, cast a vote to select an outstanding project to receive the "People's Choice Award" for innovation and creativity in the spirit of JSC 2.0. Event Date: Tuesday, November 18, 2014 Event Start Time:10:30 AM Event End Time:1:30 PM Event Location: Building 3 Collaboration Center Add to Calendar David L. Brown x37426 [top] - Co-Labs: Oculus Rift Demostration
What is "immersion?" What do we mean by "presence?" Has the technology for true virtual reality finally arrived? Please join us for our Co-Labs meeting to hear Jake Mireles' overview of the exciting new Oculus Rift. You'll learn what the rift is bringing to the world of virtual and augmented reality and, as an added bonus, you'll be able to experience the latest development kit for yourself. The event will be Nov. 12 in the new 1958 Coworking Space in Building 56. Please come early and tour the space in Building 56 and Building 57. Refreshments will be served. - Today: Parenting Series - Talking to Your Teen
If you were to ask teens if they want more positive communication with their parents, the majority of them would say "Yes!" Can you believe it? Your teens want a connection with you as much as you want one with them! Your kids want to talk to you. No, this is not part of a late Halloween trick … but the "trick" with talking to teens is to listen before you talk. As with most of us, the most valuable and underused skill in talking, or communication, is the least verbal one—listening. We will discuss additional techniques that will help invite your teen to open up and allow him/her to listen to you, too. We will also identify the influence of teenage cognitive development and impact on their communication style. Please join Anika Isaac, MS, LPC, LMFT, NCC, LCDC, CEAP, as she presents "Talking to Your Teen." - Space Serenity Al-Anon Meeting Moved - Nov. 12
In honor of Veterans Day, the Space Serenity Al-Anon meeting has moved to next Wednesday, Nov. 12. "Staying Flexible" keeps us resilient. Our 12-step meeting is for co-workers, families and friends of those who work or live with the family disease of alcoholism. Visit us on Nov. 12 in Building 32, Room 135 from 12 noon to 12:45 p.m. - Aerodynamics of Airplanes, Birds & Fish: Nov. 19
You are invited to JSC's SAIC/Safety and Mission Assurance speaker forum featuring Dr. John Lienhard, writer and host of "The Engines of Our Ingenuity," which is heard nationally on public radio. This event is free and open to the public. Please feel free to bring your family/friends (teens and older) and enjoy a night out! Subject: Aerodynamics of Airplanes, Birds and Fish Date/Time: Wednesday, Nov. 19, from 7 to 8 p.m. CDT Location: Gilruth Alamo Ballroom Lienhard will look at the following question and, using photographic evidence, discuss: Does human flight really emulate avian flight? Please share with your friends and add this event to your calendar. Jobs and Training - Project Management and Systems Engineering Forum
The next JSC Project Management and Systems Engineering Forum will be Thursday, Nov. 20, from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in Building 1, Room 360. Dr. Beverly Sauer will be presenting the topic "Communication Matters: Lessons in System Safety from the BP/Deepwater Horizons Disaster." This presentation will revisit the BP disaster from the point of view of system safety fundamentals to answer the question: What role does communication play in anticipating and mitigating disaster? Sauer was formerly an associate professor of English and rhetoric at Carnegie Mellon University and a professor of management in the Johns Hopkins University Carey School of Business. All civil servant and contractor project managers and systems engineers are invited to attend. Event Date: Thursday, November 20, 2014 Event Start Time:11:30 AM Event End Time:12:30 PM Event Location: Building 1, Room 360 Add to Calendar Danielle Bessard x37238 [top] Community - America Recycles Day Events
Art Contest: Show off your creative side AND environmental side by participating in the Recycled Art Contest. Team up or individually create art using recycled materials. Drop off artwork in the Teague Auditorium lobby today, Nov. 6, from 9 a.m. to noon, or Monday, Nov. 10, from 9 a.m. to noon. Contact Alexandra Moore-VanDyke for more information and submission details if you are interested in participating. All artwork will be displayed in the Teague Auditorium lobby from Nov. 10 to 13. Book Swap Event: There is a book drop box in the Building 11 café, and there will be a collection table at the Building 3 café's west entrance from Nov. 10 to 12 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Bring new and used books and magazines for all ages and categories to the drop-off locations. On Nov. 13, come to Teague Auditorium lobby to pick up new reads. PLUS, there will be NASA STEM teaching materials available for free! - Astronomy Day Needs Your Help
Be an ambassador for JSC this weekend by staffing an exhibit at the 2014 Astronomy Day celebration at the George Observatory. This family-oriented event is on Saturday, Nov. 8. No astronomy background required—just your knowledge about NASA, JSC, your own job and a willingness to share with the public! OR .. do you know ISS? We still need a volunteer to engage with children at the South Houston Branch of the Harris County Public Library on Thursday, Nov. 6, and/or with teens on Monday, Nov. 10. Not able to commit to one of these? Check out all of the amazing opportunities in V-CORPs. - Astronomy Day - Nov. 8
Astronomy Day is Nov. 8 at the George Observatory (inside Brazos Bend State Park). Daytime activities for the kids include face painting and learning the phases of the moon by eating Oreo cookies. There are also outdoor and indoor speakers on various astronomy-related topics, a how-to-make-a-comet demo and telescopes set up to safely observe the sun. Once nighttime arrives, out come all the telescopes! Up to 35 telescopes will be set up for observing the moon, star clusters and nebulae, and there's an opportunity to go inside the observatory's three telescope domes. The Astronomy Day event starts at 3 p.m. and goes (clouds or shine) until 10:30 p.m., but telescope viewing may be impacted by weather. Come have a fun-filled day/night and learn a little astronomy in the process. It's a great time for the whole family! Normal park entry fees apply, but Astronomy Day is FREE! | |
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| JSC Today is compiled periodically as a service to JSC employees on an as-submitted basis. Any JSC organization or employee may submit articles. Disclaimer: Accuracy and content of these notes are the responsibility of the submitters. |
NASA and Human Spaceflight News
Thursday – November 6, 2014
HEADLINES AND LEADS
U.S. Desire To Keep ISS Going 'Noted' for the Record
Peter B. de Selding – Space News
The heads of the five space agencies that own the international space station on Nov. 5 "noted" that the United States wants to operate the facility through at least 2024 but made no commitment to do likewise, citing ongoing efforts in some of their governments to secure commitments to 2020.
Republicans Seize Control of Senate, Add to House Majority
The results of some congressional races are still not final, but as of 6:00 am ET November 5, it is clear that Republicans will control the Senate in the 114th Congress and added to their majority in the House.
Engineers recommend changes to Orion heat shield
Lessons learned during preparations leading up to the first orbital test flight of NASA's Orion spacecraft in December have prompted engineers to recommend changing the design of the crew capsule's heat shield for future missions to the moon, Mars, or an asteroid, according to Lockheed Martin officials.
Orbital Drops AJ-26 After Failure, Looking for Alternate Launcher to ISS
Frank Morring Jr. - Aviation Week & Space Technology
Orbital Sciences Corp. plans to re-engine its Antares launch vehicle and use one or two alternate launch vehicles initially to meet its International Space Station resupply commitments to NASA after last week's launch failure with an Antares powered by two Aerojet Rocketdyne AJ-26 engines.
Orbital To Accelerate Upgraded Antares, Use Other Vehicles for Cygnus
Jeff Foust – Space News
Orbital Sciences Corp. announced Nov. 5 it would accelerate the introduction of an upgraded version of its Antares launch vehicle after an Oct. 28 launch failure, and would use other launch vehicles for Cygnus missions to the international space station until the new Antares is ready.
Soviet-Era Engine Is Blamed for Antares Rocket Explosion
Kenneth Chang – New York Times
Substantiating suspicions right after the spectacular fireball that destroyed a rocket carrying cargo to the International Space Station, the manufacturer of the rocket said Wednesday that the fault most likely lay in Soviet-era rocket engines that powered the first stage.
Virgin Galactic pilot defied the odds to survive crash
Ralph Vartebedian and Melody Petersen – Los Angeles Times
The Virgin Galactic rocket plane had just broken the sound barrier and was shooting toward the heavens when it began disintegrating, battered by powerful aerodynamic forces.
Curiosity Finds Tantalizing Mineral Clues for Mars Habitability
For the first time in its continuing mission to better understand the past habitability of the Red Planet, NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has detected a mineral drilled out of a Martian rock that matches orbital data from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).
The Surreal Task of Landing on a Comet
Caleb A. Scharf - Scientific American
On November 12th 2014 the European Space Agency's Rosetta mission will eject the small robotic lander Philae on a trajectory that should take it down to the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (or 67P/C-P for short). Already Rosetta is maneuvering from its 10 kilometer orbit to get into the right place to deploy Philae.
COMPLETE STORIES
U.S. Desire To Keep ISS Going 'Noted' for the Record
Peter B. de Selding – Space News
The heads of the five space agencies that own the international space station on Nov. 5 "noted" that the United States wants to operate the facility through at least 2024 but made no commitment to do likewise, citing ongoing efforts in some of their governments to secure commitments to 2020.
Meeting in Paris at the 20-nation European Space Agency, the heads of the U.S., Russian, Japanese and Canadian space agencies, as well as ESA's director-general, issued a statement saying the space station is increasing its scientific output.
They reaffirmed that the station "is the foundation for human exploration beyond low-Earth orbit."
ESA governments are expected to approve at least partial funding to permit Europe to remain a space station partner through 2020 when its government ministers meet Dec. 2. The heads of ESA and Japan's space agency have both said station operating costs need to come down. Europe already has cut its annual operational costs by at least a third. Like the United States and Russia, both Europe and Japan have their own laboratory modules at the station.
Russian government officials in recent months have said tensions with the United States, Europe and Canada over Russia's incursion into Ukraine have put into the deep freeze Russian deliberations about a prolonged space station partnership, although current operations have not been affected.
"The ISS partner agencies are working through their respective governmental procedures for continued ISS utilization through at least 2020 and noted the U.S. commitment to extend ISS utilization to at least 2024," the agencies' joint statement says. "They also noted the ongoing work by other governments for a similar extension. In reviewing the strong commitment that enabled 14 years of continuous human presence on ISS in low-Earth orbit, the agency leaders noted the stable, solid, and robust ISS partnership that will serve as the basis for working together in future human exploration."
Republicans Seize Control of Senate, Add to House Majority
The results of some congressional races are still not final, but as of 6:00 am ET November 5, it is clear that Republicans will control the Senate in the 114th Congress and added to their majority in the House.
With Senate races in three states (Alaska, Louisiana, and Virginia) still not over, Republicans have at least 52 seats in the Senate, one more than needed to control the chamber. Democrats have 43 and there are 2 Independents. In the House, Republicans will have at least 242 seats, a gain of 13, and there will be at least 174 Democrats. Results from the remaining districts are pending.
For space policy and programs, the biggest impact likely will be in funding. Republicans have been pressing for cutbacks in government spending to reduce the deficit, while Democrats have argued for a combination of spending cuts and tax increases. Republicans oppose tax increases.
Congress returns to work next Tuesday (November 12). Little legislation is likely to be passed in the lame duck session knowing that party control of the Senate will change in January.
The one must-pass piece of legislation is FY2015 appropriations. FY2015 began on October 1 and the government is operating under a Continuing Resolution that expires on December 11.
Whether a bill will pass to cover the rest of FY2015 (through September 30, 2015) or only for a few weeks or months to provide funding through the beginning of the next Congress when Republicans will have more power to shape its contents is an open question. NASA was poised to receive a significant increase over the President's request for FY2015 in bills that passed the House and cleared the Senate Appropriations Committee on a bipartisan basis, so it is possible that the increase will survive, but if reducing the deficit becomes the driving force, it could be endangered. NOAA's satellite programs similarly fared reasonably well in FY2015 budget action so far. A major issue in the DOD space policy and budget realm is whether to add money to begin development of a U.S. rocket engine to replace Russia's RD-180, used for the Atlas V, which is a very complex issue and it is difficult to assess how much that will be affected by the Republican gains.
Engineers recommend changes to Orion heat shield
Lessons learned during preparations leading up to the first orbital test flight of NASA's Orion spacecraft in December have prompted engineers to recommend changing the design of the crew capsule's heat shield for future missions to the moon, Mars, or an asteroid, according to Lockheed Martin officials.
The change centers on how technicians put together the Orion crew module's heat shield, which protects the capsule during its descent through the atmosphere. The heat shield can endure temperatures of up to 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit, conditions the Orion capsule would see when returning from deep space missions to the moon, asteroids or Mars.
The heat shield is one of the key components of the crew capsule to be demonstrated on Exploration Flight Test 1, a four-hour orbital mission set for launch Dec. 4 aboard a Delta 4-Heavy rocket.
Engineers are gearing up to move the Orion spacecraft next week from an assembly building at Kennedy Space Center to the Delta 4 launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
The Orion heat shield's titanium skeleton and carbon fiber skin was fabricated by Lockheed Martin — the craft's prime contractor — in Colorado. The skeleton was shipped to Textron Defense Systems in Massachusetts for installation of a fiberglass-phenolic honeycomb structure.
More than 330,000 individual cells make up the honeycomb, and Textron technicians — using a special dispensing gun — filled the cells by hand with a material called Avcoat.
The Avcoat insulation is supposed to ablate away during the Orion spacecraft's re-entry, protecting the underlying structure from searing temperatures. The Apollo moon capsule used the same type of manually-applied material for its heat shield, and it worked so well Lockheed Martin and NASA decided to dust off the design.
Engineers scaled up the heat shield for the Orion crew capsule, which is about four meters wider at its base than the Apollo command module.
"That's what worked for Apollo, and that's what we'll work with for this mission," Bray said, referring to the EFT-1 launch in December.
But a review of the heat shield on the Orion spacecraft set for launch Dec. 4 revealed the Avcoat was slightly more uneven than expected, according to Jim Bray, crew module director at Lockheed Martin, Orion's prime contractor.
A statement from a Lockheed Martin spokesperson said the company is recommending changes to the heat shield's design that allows for different contraction rates between the Avcoat and the composite heat shield substrate.
"This wouldn't change the heat shield material, but it would change the manufacturing approach, which will resolve thermal contraction/expansion differences," the statement said.
The spokesperson said a final decision on the recommended design change was expected soon. The heat shield modification will not be implemented on the December flight.
"When we fabricated the entire heat shield, we didn't get the full-up properties that we expected to get with individual gunner variability," Bray said in a presentation last month at the International Astronautical Congress in Toronto. "By going to a block architecture, we will be able to get the properties in advance before we adhere it to the substrate of the heat shield."
For Orion's next unmanned test flight set for launch in 2017 — known as Exploration Mission 1 — engineers plan to switch from a honeycomb design to a monolithic heat shield, Bray said.
"On the heat shield that we've got right now, we have a composite substrate, and we attach a honeycomb structure to that," Bray said. "It takes us about six months to fill 330,000 holes with individual gunners."
It turns out the Avcoat applied by hand did not meet expectations, Bray said.
"There was variability between gunners, and we haven't determined the root cause of that yet," Bray said. "The heat shield is good for this mission. There's no question about that. It has credentials to fly, but we really need it to better for the missions farther out for the higher-speed returns, so the question that we had to deal with was how can we prove the material to make sure we know what we're getting before you finish the heat shield.
"We have decided to move to a block architecture where we can gun the blocks in advance," Bray said.
After adding the Avcoat ablator, Textron engineers examined each cell under X-ray and a robot sanded off fractions of an inch of the material to meet specifications, according to a NASA website describing the heat shield.
"By going to a block architecture, we will be able to get the properties (of the Avcoat) in advance before we adhere it to the substrate of the heat shield," Bray said.
Textron will remain Lockheed Martin's heat shield subcontractor for the Orion program, according to Bray. Data collected on the thermal insulator's performance on the EFT-1 mission Dec. 4 will still be useful even though future Orion missions will fly with a modified heat shield, he said.
"It's still Avcoat, so what we will test on the first mission and with the second mission is the difference in the rescission rate," Bray said. "It's an ablative material. We expect it to ablate. Whether it ablates the same as a block or a little bit different than the honeycomb — you might expect minor variations, but you wouldn't expect major variations."
The sides of the Orion crew module are covered with black tiles borrowed from the space shuttle. They are rated to withstand temperatures greater than 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit, but the Avcoat will take the brunt of the heat during the capsule's fall back to Earth.
Lockheed Martin proposed the EFT-1 mission to NASA as a risk reduction flight for the agency's next-generation crew vehicle, which is designed to fly to destinations in deep space.
Piloted missions — and the next unmanned flight in 2017 — will blast off on the Space Launch System, an enormous rocket NASA is developing to launch crews and massive cargo loads farther than low Earth orbit, where space shuttle missions went and the International Space Station flies today.
Orion's first space mission — riding a Delta 4 rocket's upper stage — will reach a peak altitude of 3,600 miles and dive back into Earth's atmosphere at about 20,000 mph, just shy of the speed the capsule would reach when returning from the moon.
Officials bill the mission as an opportunity to test the performance of the heat shield during the high-speed re-entry, which will be faster than space shuttles encountered at the end of their missions.
"We're interested in seeing the performance of the heat shield," Bray said. "We have arc jet test facilities where we test the heat shield for the thermal environments, but we can't do it at the same time as we do thermal and pressure, and it's really one of the most critical systems that we've got.
"It's about 80 percent the velocity of what we'll have on the other missions, but we'll get a pretty good test of its maximum capability with temperature and pressure," Bray said. "We can't quite get that using modeling on the ground."
Computers, guidance systems, software, and the Orion spacecraft's launcher adapter and separation systems will also be put to the test on the Dec. 4 mission.
"This mission is a compelling mission in that we have 16 events you can't fully test as an integrated system on the ground," Bray said. "We'll use this test flight to verify 10 of those system major events."
NASA and Lockheed Martin will incorporate results from the EFT-1 mission into a critical design review planned next year, when officials will decide whether the program is ready to proceed into the final stage of development.
"EFT-1's purpose was to leverage the lessons learned from actually building the spacecraft, and we are implementing that already into the design for the EM-1 spacecraft (set to fly in 2017)," Bray said.
Orbital Drops AJ-26 After Failure, Looking for Alternate Launcher to ISS
Frank Morring Jr. - Aviation Week & Space Technology
Orbital Sciences Corp. plans to re-engine its Antares launch vehicle and use one or two alternate launch vehicles initially to meet its International Space Station resupply commitments to NASA after last week's launch failure with an Antares powered by two Aerojet Rocketdyne AJ-26 engines.
David Thompson, Orbital chairman and CEO, told analysts Wednesday the surplus Russian-built engines have a "fundamental reliability issue" and probably were responsible for the Oct. 28 mishap, which destroyed an Orbital Cygnus cargo vehicle loaded with 4,883 lb. of consumables, hardware and science equipment for the ISS.
However, he declined to specify which engine will replace the AJ-26, repeating an earlier statement that Antares remains in contention for "a number of new launch contracts" that may ride on the engine choice. Russian news outlets have identified the new RD-193, kerosene-fueled engine as Orbital's pick, and other possibilities include a single Russian RD-180, a solid-fuel rocket motor proposed by ATK, and even restarting production of the Russian NK-33 that is the basis for the AJ-26.
Thompson said Orbital is in discussions with three launch services providers for one or two flights next year with the upgraded Cygnus that was already in preparation for the company's next mission to the ISS. While he declined to identify those companies, they apparently are SpaceX, United Launch Alliance (ULA) and Arianespace, based on Thompson's description of them as two U.S. companies and one in Europe.
The SpaceX Falcon 9 already is delivering cargo to the space station in that company's Dragon cargo carrier. ULA has said it is ready to deliver more Delta II launch vehicles that would approximate the Antares capability. Arianespace markets Russian-built Soyuz rockets flying from the European Space Center in French Guiana and Baikonur Cosmodrome, where Russia's Progress cargo-carriers are launched on Soyuz vehicles.
Thompson said preliminary evidence from telemetry and debris recovered at the state-owned Antares launch complex on Wallops Island, Virginia, "strongly suggests" that one of the two AJ-26s on the vehicle failed 15 sec. after ignition. The engine had passed a hot-fire acceptance test at Stennis Space Center, where last May another AJ-26 failed when its oxygen turbopump essentially "came apart," in the words of William Gerstenmaier, associate NASA administrator for human exploration and operations.
Initial evidence also points to the turbomachinery as the site of the more recent AJ-26 failure, Thompson said. The ensuing explosion, which was triggered by range safety officers shortly before the fuel-filled vehicle fell back to Earth, caused "relatively limited damage" to the pad, and should be repairable at a "small fraction" of the time and money that went into the pad's initial construction.
An initial assessment by NASA found the transporter/erector that lifts the Antares into the vertical position was damaged by the blast, as were fuel lines, wiring and the pad's lightning protection system. Thompson said equipment owned by Orbital is covered by insurance.
"From a financial standpoint, the impacts to Orbital are not expected to be material on an annual basis in 2015, although the exact magnitude and timing of quarterly changes will depend on which of several specific variations on the overall plan we settle on," Thompson said. "And in any event, I do not expect any significant adverse financial impacts in 2016 or in future years."
Thompson credited contingency planning for Orbital's hoped-for ability to return to flight quickly, and to be able to fulfill its commitment to launch 20,000 kg of cargo to the ISS under its $1.9 billion Commercial Resupply Services contract with NASA by the end of 2016. That will be done with the upgraded Cygnus vehicle, which can carry as much as 3,300 kg of versus the 2,600-2,700 kg of the initial configuration.
With the launch failure, Orbital wants to drop one of the five remaining flights under its CRS contract and make all of its deliveries in four with the larger cargo vehicle. Thompson said his company has started discussions with NASA on that proposal.
Orbital To Accelerate Upgraded Antares, Use Other Vehicles for Cygnus
Jeff Foust – Space News
Orbital Sciences Corp. announced Nov. 5 it would accelerate the introduction of an upgraded version of its Antares launch vehicle after an Oct. 28 launch failure, and would use other launch vehicles for Cygnus missions to the international space station until the new Antares is ready.
Under the "go-forward" plan the company announced, Orbital will perform one or two launches of Cygnus cargo vehicles using a launch vehicle yet to be announced. Orbital Chief Executive David W. Thompson said in a conference call with financial analysts that the company is in discussions with three companies, two American and one European, to perform those launches.
"Indications at this point are favorable that these launch operators do have available capacity that is suitable for Cygnus launches as early as the second quarter of 2015," Thompson said. That capacity, he said, extends through late 2016.
He declined to identify the specific companies or vehicles, but did rule out using the lower position of an Ariane 5 vehicle. While the Ariane 5 could accommodate the Antares, he said those launches go to different orbits not compatible with missions to the ISS. A decision on the launch vehicle they will use will be made within a month, he said.
Thompson said that Orbital would also accelerate the introduction of an upgraded version of Antares with a new first-stage propulsion system. Thompson declined to identify the engine they have selected because "Antares continues to be in contention for a number of new launch contracts," which would likely include the competition for the follow-on to the company's current Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) cargo contract for the ISS.
The new Antares would begin launches some time in 2016, Thompson said. With the increased capacity of the upgraded Antares, coupled with the capacity on the alternative launch vehicles Orbital is considering, he said Orbital believes it can transport the cargo planned for the remaining five flights under its CRS contract with NASA on four missions.
"The Cygnus capacity will expand, on average, to about 3,300 kilograms," he said, compared to 2,600 to 2,700 kilograms of cargo planned for each of the remaining Cygnus missions using the original Antares.
Thompson said that Orbital will not ask NASA for additional funding for its CRS contract for using these alternative launch options and would offer only "modest, if any, short-term delays" for cargo delivery. He said Orbital has discussed its plans with NASA "at a conceptual level" but that details were still subject to change.
The investigation into the Oct. 28 Antares failure is ongoing, but Thompson said the failure is likely linked to the rocket's main engines. "Current evidence strongly suggests that one of the two AJ-26 main engines that powered Antares' first stage failed about 15 seconds after ignition," he said.
That failure, he said, appears to have been caused by a problem with the engine's turbopump machinery, although more analysis is needed before making a definitive assessment of the failure.
Orbital said it is highly unlikely they will use the AJ-26, a refurbished version of the Soviet-era NK-33 engine provided by Aerojet Rocketdyne, on future launches. "We will likely discontinue the use of the AJ-26 rocket engines," he said, "unless and until those engines can be conclusively shown to be flight-worthy."
The AJ-26 had been at the center of speculation about the accident prior to Orbital's announcement. An AJ-26 failed during a test at NASA's Stennis Space Center in Mississippi in May, and another failed due to a fuel leak during a test there in 2011.
Asked during the conference call if the decision to discontinue the AJ-26 was linked to a "fundamental reliability issue" with the engine, Thompson responded, "I would say that's a good assessment."
Soviet-Era Engine Is Blamed for Antares Rocket Explosion
Kenneth Chang – New York Times
Substantiating suspicions right after the spectacular fireball that destroyed a rocket carrying cargo to the International Space Station, the manufacturer of the rocket said Wednesday that the fault most likely lay in Soviet-era rocket engines that powered the first stage.
On Oct. 28, the Antares rocket, loaded with about 5,000 pounds of supplies, equipment and experiments, exploded about 15 seconds after rising off a launching pad at Wallops Island, Va. Nobody was injured.
The Orbital Sciences Corporation of Dulles, Va., which has a $1.9 billion contract with NASA to take cargo to the space station, said Wednesday that its preliminary analysis pointed to a failure of a turbopump, which pushes high-pressure fluid into the engine's combustion chamber. The first stage of the rocket uses two AJ26 engines, which are refurbished from ones originally built in the 1970s for a Soviet moon mission.
In a conference call on Wednesday with financial analysts, David W. Thompson, Orbital's chief executive, described what he called the company's "go-forward approach." He said Orbital would probably discontinue the use of the AJ26 engines and accelerate the development of a next-generation Antares rocket using a different engine. The first flight of the revised Antares would be in 2016. The company did not say which engine it would use, but one possibility is a solid-fuel rocket motor from Alliant Techsystems, also known as ATK, which Orbital is seeking to merge with.
In the meantime, Orbital intends to fulfill its NASA contract by launching its Cygnus cargo spacecraft on top of another company's rocket. Mr. Thompson said Orbital was talking to three such companies, two American and one European. The change would incur no additional cost for NASA, he said.
Mr. Thompson said he also did not expect "any significant adverse financial impacts" on Orbital.
With a more powerful rocket, more cargo could be delivered aboard the Cygnus, and Orbital is looking to consolidate the launchings remaining on its contract, from five to four.
"We expect to work with NASA to determine the most favorable combination for one or two gap-filler missions using third-party launch vehicles," Mr. Thompson said, "and are aiming to make final decisions on the best way forward over the course of the coming month."
On Monday, Orbital announced the investigation board that will look at the Antares failure. David Steffy, chief engineer of Orbital's advanced programs group, will lead the group. The six other members include Wayne Hale, a former program manager for NASA's space shuttles.
Virgin Galactic pilot defied the odds to survive crash
Ralph Vartebedian and Melody Petersen – Los Angeles Times
The Virgin Galactic rocket plane had just broken the sound barrier and was shooting toward the heavens when it began disintegrating, battered by powerful aerodynamic forces.
The pilots were strapped into their seats as entire pieces were torn from SpaceShipTwo. At more than 10 miles high, with fingers no doubt numb from the cold, Peter Siebold somehow escaped from the hurtling wreckage.
Siebold, who had been flying Virgin Galactic's spaceships for a decade, had to rely on his experience and his instincts. He had a parachute but no spacesuit to protect him from the lethal environment as he plunged toward Earth at close to the speed of a bullet.
At almost twice the height of Mt. Everest, the air is dangerously thin and the temperature is about 70 degrees below zero. It was a real world case of survival in the face of disaster, like the movie "Gravity."
Siebold managed to deploy his parachute and land in the Mojave Desert. His shoulder was smashed and a fellow pilot described him as "pretty banged up." He was discharged from the hospital Monday.
"The fact that he survived a descent of 50,000 feet is pretty amazing," said Paul Tackabury, a veteran test pilot who sat on the board of directors of Scaled Composites until it was sold to Northrop Grumman Corp. "You don't just jump out of aircraft at Mach 1 at over 50,000 feet without a spacesuit."
Siebold's partner, 39-year-old copilot Michael Alsbury, was found dead, strapped into his seat in the wreckage.
Hundreds of test pilots, like Alsbury, have died in their work over the last century. Edwards Air Force Base, where some of the nation's most secret planes are tested, is named for pilot Capt. Glen Edwards, who died in an experimental craft in 1948.
But Siebold's jump is part of a long history of extraordinary feats of survival by test pilots who have defied the odds through skill, faith or luck.
Perhaps nobody can appreciate Siebold's gift for survival more than Bob Hoover, the famed 92-year-old test pilot who survived five crashes and lives in Palos Verdes.
"I have been broken up from head to toe," he said. "It is the reason I am all crippled up now."
In October 1947, he ejected out of one of the first combat jets, the Republic F-84, and hit the tail at 500 mph, breaking both legs and busting his face. Several years later, he was trapped in a disabled F-100 Super Sabre that slammed into the desert, bounced 200 feet back into the air and then slammed down again. It broke his back. Rescue crews had to chop him out of the wreckage. His career continued for decades longer and he eventually flew 300 types of aircraft.
As for Siebold, Hoover said, "It is a miracle he got out. At 50,000 feet, your survival time is very limited, and for him to pull the rip cord in those conditions is pretty surprising. I am so happy for him."
The exact details of Siebold's more than 10-mile fall are still unknown. On Monday night, federal investigators said they still had not been able to interview him.
"We don't know how he got out," National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Eric Weiss said Tuesday.
Ken Brown, a photographer and avionics engineer who was taking shots of the test flight Friday, said his pictures show that the rocket plane was in pieces in a few moments.
SpaceShipTwo was released from its WhiteKnightTwo ferry craft at somewhere between 45,000 and 50,000 feet. Then the rocket motor ignited, blasting the craft over the next 13 seconds to more than Mach 1, NTSB investigators said. The rocket plane malfunctioned after its tail, known as a feather, deployed at the wrong time. The NTSB said it could take up to a year to unravel the cause.
Brown said he believes the plane may have been at 60,000 feet or higher when it broke apart.
"Peter is a lucky guy," Brown said. "The vehicle disintegrated around him. He would have found himself falling."
In such thin air, Hoover said it is almost impossible to inhale or exhale.
"It is the most horrible feeling in the world," Hoover recalled.
Exactly when Siebold pulled his rip cord is unknown. He may have fallen freely for miles to exit the cold as fast as possible. Brown believes Siebold may not have deployed his parachute until well under 20,000 feet.
SpaceShipTwo pilots wear thin flight jumpsuits, offering little protection against the bitter cold of the upper atmosphere. It was a decision made early in the program by aerospace pioneer Burt Rutan, who designed the predecessor SpaceShipOne, Tackabury said. The craft was made by winding composite fibers into a strong pressure vessel, and Rutan wanted small hatches to preserve the strength of that structure, meaning large spacesuits would not fit, Tackabury said.
Friday's test flight was crucial to Virgin Galactic's program, which aims to ferry wealthy tourists to the edge of space. The WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo both had grown over their designed weight, Tackabury said, meaning the spacecraft would have to launch from a lower altitude than the planned 50,000 feet. To compensate, Scaled Composites was testing a new hybrid solid rocket motor that used a faster burning fuel producing greater thrust.
The need to test experimental aircraft has always taken pilots to the edges of safety.
In 1966, Lockheed test pilot Bill Weaver was flying an SR-71 at 3.2 times the speed of sound at 78,000 feet when it began to disintegrate around him, just like SpaceShipTwo. He blacked out under the severe forces. When he regained awareness, his plane was gone and he was flying through the air strapped to his seat. The absurdity of his situation led Weaver to think, "Therefore I must be dead," he wrote later.
In fact, he came to his senses and parachuted to a New Mexico cattle ranch, where the owner rescued him.
Test pilot Chuck Yeager, the man who first broke the sound barrier, had his own fall from space in 1963 when his Lockheed NF-104A lost control at 108,700 feet, 21 miles above the Earth. The plane went into a spin and plunged to 7,000 feet while Yeager desperately tried to restart the plane's engine. Finally, Yeager ejected. But the exit was far from clean, and rocket fuel from the ejection seat leaked over Yeager, giving him second- and third-degree burns, according to written accounts. When rescuers arrived, Yeager was reportedly standing with his helmet in the crook of his arm and his parachute properly rolled up.
Siebold, the father of two children, has flown 35 different aircraft and holds a license as a glider pilot as well, according to his biography. His official company portrait shows a man with dense wavy black hair squinting against bright desert sunlight and wearing a sly smile. He has an engineering degree from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and has worked at Scaled Composites since 1996.
"I just think it was a miracle," said his Tehachapi neighbor Maureen Cornyn. "I'm very thankful for them. But again, you're torn because there's somebody else's father and son that's been lost."
Curiosity Finds Tantalizing Mineral Clues for Mars Habitability
For the first time in its continuing mission to better understand the past habitability of the Red Planet, NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has detected a mineral drilled out of a Martian rock that matches orbital data from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).
Hematite, an iron-oxide mineral, was detected by the MRO's CRISM (Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars) instrument in 2010 before Curiosity's 2012 landing site was selected. Inside Gale Crater, where mission scientists eventually decided to land Curiosity, hematite was detected, one of the reasons why the mission is studying the geology there.
"This connects us with the mineral identifications from orbit, which can now help guide our investigations as we climb the slope and test hypotheses derived from the orbital mapping," said Curiosity Project Scientist John Grotzinger, of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena, Calif.
The detection of hematite by Curiosity's on-board chemistry lab — the Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) instrument — not only provides the "ground truth" by connecting orbital data with the mineralogy measured on the ground, it also provides a tool so we can better understand the environmental conditions — potentially habitable conditions — the hematite formed in.
"We've reached the part of the crater where we have the mineralogical information that was important in selection of Gale Crater as the landing site," said Ralph Milliken of Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, and member of Curiosity's science team. "We're now on a path where the orbital data can help us predict what minerals we'll find and make good choices about where to drill. Analyses like these will help us place rover-scale observations into the broader geologic history of Gale that we see from orbital data."
Hematite is formed when another mineral, magnetite, is exposed to oxidizing conditions. This happens when the mineral is exposed to Mars' atmosphere and water. Interestingly, this tiny CRISM sample contains magnetite, hematite and olivine in a range of oxidization states. This is suggestive of an oxidization gradient through the rock sample, a gradient that may have been used by hypothetical Mars microbes as an energy source.
This latest sample of rock was drilled from a location dubbed "Confidence Hills" at the base of Mount Sharp (a.k.a. Aeolis Mons) at an outcrop called "Pahrump Hills." The drilled rock dust was then dropped into CheMin, which uses X-ray diffraction to detect the chemical fingerprint of minerals locked in the rock.
During Curiosity's first year of operations on the Martian surface, the rover spent much of its time investigating drilled samples from "Yelloknife Bay" located on the plain approaching the base of Mount Sharp. The Yellowknife Bay rock samples are markedly different from this first Mount Sharp sample, suggesting that the two locations had different environmental conditions as the rocks formed. In Yellowknife Bay, which was discovered to be an ancient lake bed, quantities of clay minerals were uncovered inside the rock — minerals that had not been detected by the MRO's CRISM instrument. Its non-detection from orbit was likely caused by a surface layer of dust that coated the rocky surface, obscuring the signal.
The discovery of clays on Mars is an important one as it is further evidence that Mars was once wetter than it is now. The fact that water was much more prevalent in Mars' history bolsters the possibility that Mars may have once hosted microbial life.
The sample drilled from Confidence Hills contains more hematite than the Yellowknife Bay samples. "There's more oxidation involved in the new sample," said CheMin Deputy Principal Investigator David Vaniman of the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Ariz.
The study of these minerals at the base of Mount Sharp is a key step in understanding the oxidation levels in Mars' ancient past. NASA's Opportunity rover, which as been exploring Mars' Meridiani Planum since 2004, also discovered hematite spherules that provided more clues about Mars' wet past, but they formed in different conditions to the hematite detected in Confidence Hills.
This latest discovery underlines the need for surface operations on Mars — if we are to truly understand the Red Planet's habitable past, we need wheels, or even boots, on the ground.
The Surreal Task of Landing on a Comet
Caleb A. Scharf - Scientific American
On November 12th 2014 the European Space Agency's Rosetta mission will eject the small robotic lander Philae on a trajectory that should take it down to the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (or 67P/C-P for short). Already Rosetta is maneuvering from its 10 kilometer orbit to get into the right place to deploy Philae.
The landing site is on the 'head' of the rubber-duck shaped cometary nucleus (although it might also be likened to a half-eaten, and rather rotten apple core). This target area has now been named 'Agilkia' after an island in the Nile river here on Earth – a place where the ancient Temple of Isis was moved to after its original island home of Philae was flooded during the construction of the Aswan dam.
It represents a remarkable stage in the history of space exploration, but perhaps equally extraordinary is the tangible sense of just how alien and surreal this place is. Here is an image from 27 kilometers away, showing the landing site atop the bizarre tower of the cometary nucleus.
During November 11-12th a go/no-go decision will be made on the release of Philae. With a 28 minute one-way light travel time from Earth this will be an entirely autonomous operation if given the 'go'.
It'll take Philae about 7 hours to drop towards Agilkia – and here's one of the trickiest and most nerve-wracking pieces of the landing. The nucleus of 67P/C-P is spinning, like an end-over-end dumbbell (yep, rubber duck, apple core, dumbbell, no single description quite captures the nature of this object). If that spin holds steady at about 12.4 hours per rotation Philae should hit the right spot – but as the comet heats up and loses material the spin rate may shift by tiny amounts.
With some luck it should all work out fine, but if you watch the following ESA video you'll see (around 0:50) that it's a bit like a fairground game where you try to hit a crazily tumbling target for the prize (except here you really want the prize).
If Philae lands successfully it'll fire up a host of experiments and instruments – using up the energy of its primary battery over the course of about 64 hours.
After that point Philae's life-expectancy hinges on how well its solar panels can recharge those batteries – hopefully well enough to take it through 67P/C-P's closest approach to the Sun in March 2015.
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