Jeff Foust has an update on why SpaceShipTwo remained in the shop while its WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft was rolled out on Monday. Apparently, it’s been sitting there at 70 percent complete for the past year while the company thoroughly investigated an explosion that claimed the lives of three workers. Foust quotes designer Burt Rutan as saying:
“We have not worked on SpaceShipTwo in a year because there’s a possibility that the propulsion system would be markedly different and we’d be building things that we would have to scrap.”
Rutan declined to elaborate on technical matters beyond saying that the accident investigation is resulting in “a lot” of changes to the suborbital vehicle. He also said that report on the July 26, 2007 explosion would be released soon.
The comments are in sharp contrast to remarks made by X Prize founder Peter Diamandis, who immediately after the accident publicly claimed that the explosion was unrelated to spaceflight and had no bearing on the safety of the vehicle that Scaled Composites is building for Virgin Galactic.
Continue reading ‘Rutan: SS2 Not Worked on in a Year; Accident Report Due Soon’
Almost exactly one year after a fatal explosion that claimed the lives of three Scaled Composites workers, Virgin Galactic President Will Whitehorn has made an extraordinary safety claim about the as-yet-unflown SpaceShipTwo vehicle during an interview with The Independent.
“Q: New technology involves risk, space travel most certainly does. How can you manage the dangers?
WW: We’re trying to take the riskiest things out of the equation. Ground-based rocketry involves firing a massive explosion under somebody to leave the planet – we’ve eliminated that. So you’re launching in a very safe environment. We’ve hopefully eliminated some of the risks of re-entry, which is another of the most dangerous aspects.
We believe that this will be thousands of times safer than any previous human flights into space.”
The claim came during the same week that George Nield, head of the FAA unit that regulates commercial human space flight, warned space tourism companies to get serious about the risks faced by their wealthy clients.
Continue reading ‘Whitehorn Claims SpaceShipTwo “Thousands of Times Safer” on Eve of Roll-out; FAA Official Tells Tourism Companies to Get Real on Safety’
Another week, another crack in NASA’s Constellation facade….
“Concerned by reports that the Ares rockets and Orion crew capsule are beset by cost overruns, schedule delays and complex technical woes, [Buzz] Aldrin says he wants to create a panel of experts to make sure that Constellation is the right way to go.
“‘We need to stick with the mission but rethink some of the ways we implement it,’ said Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon. ‘It doesn’t pay to stick with a bad idea.’”
Chief Engineer outlines Ares I-X issues - includes Thrust Oscillation
NASASpaceflight.com
“A report from Ares I-X’s Chief Engineer has called for the strengthening of the vehicle’s hardware, due to the red risks associated with Thrust Oscillation near the end of first stage burn - which is also threatening the vehicle’s Flight Termination System (FTS) components.
“The vehicle is also requiring mitigation of other multiple issues and concerns - found during the vehicle’s Critical Design Review (CDR) Phase II meeting, though launch remains on track for the Spring of 2009.”
ODYSSEY MOON PRESS RELEASE
Dr. Paul D. Spudis has been named Chief Scientist of Odyssey Moon Limited, the first official contender for the $30M Google Lunar X PRIZE. Dr. Spudis is a prominent scientist in the international lunar community and served as deputy science team leader for the highly successful Clementine lunar mission and is the Principal Investigator of the Mini-SAR imaging radar experiment on the forthcoming Chandrayaan-1 mission to the Moon.
Dr. Spudis is an outspoken advocate of the Moon as a focus of scientific exploration and human settlement and has served on numerous advisory committees, including the US Presidential Commission on the Implementation of United States Space Exploration Policy. The announcement was made during a NASA Lunar Science Institute conference at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California.
A geologist and Senior Staff Scientist at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston, Texas, Dr. Spudis has an extensive background in geology and planetary science, including interpretation of remote-sensing and image data. Dr. Spudis will be applying his combined passions for science and lunar development to help Odyssey Moon deliver a valuable scientific mission while pursuing the $30 Million Google Lunar X PRIZE and an ongoing commercial lunar enterprise.
“Evidence indicates that abundant energy and material resources exist on the Moon, including deposits of ice within craters at the poles,” he said. “Returning to the Moon will teach us the skills we need to live and work productively on other worlds.”
Continue reading ‘Odyssey Moon Names Clementine Veteran Paul Spudis as Chief Scientist’
Russia to Double Space Exploration Expenditure in 2009 - Agency
Interfax-AVN
“Russian budgetary expenditure on space exploration will more than double in 2009, Federal Space Agency Deputy Director Vitaly Davydov told Interfax- AVN at the Farnborough Air Show.
“‘The Finance Ministry has informed us of budgetary allocations planned for the federal space program in 2009. I am glad to say that the allocations will more than double,’ he said.”
Orion program over budget, behind schedule
Florida Today
The cost problems include an $80 million overrun on a motor system. The Orion spacecraft’s current design remains too heavy for the proposed Ares 1 rocket. Software development, heat-shield testing and a host of other complex work remains either behind schedule or over budget. Those are just a few of dozens of serious challenges and issues, many of which are noted as ‘worsening.’
NASA has repeatedly stressed its aggressive internal 2013 target required few technical surprises and stable budget. The new report indicates neither of those conditions exist.
Guy Bujold, Canadian Space Agency president; Jean-Jacques Dordain, European Space Agency director-general; NASA Administrator Michael Griffin; Anatolii N. Perminov, Russian Federal Space Agency head; and Keiji Tachikawa, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency president. Credit: ESA/S. Corvaja
The Heads of the Five Families Space Agencies met in Paris this week to discuss ending the Mob war, dividing up the narcotics trade, and bringing Michael Corleone back from Sicily the future of the International Space Station.
Among other things, the meeting produced this statement supporting their own efforts on - of all things - the International Space Station, which they have spent the last 20 years building.
Heads of Agency International Space Station Joint Statement
PARIS — The heads of the International Space Station (ISS) agencies from Canada, Europe, Japan, Russia and the United States met at European Space Agency (ESA) Headquarters in Paris on July 17, 2008, to review ISS cooperation. As part of their discussions, they noted the significantly expanded capability that the ISS now provides for on-orbit research and technology development activities and as an engineering test bed for flight systems and operations that are critical to future space exploration initiatives. These activities improve the quality of life on Earth by expanding the frontiers of human knowledge.
Continue reading ‘Heads of the Five Space Agencies Meet; Is Bloody ISS Turf War Finally Over?’
NASA is talking with military officials about whether they could build a commercial launch pad at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The talks come after NASA’s original idea - putting it in the middle of a world-renowned national wildlife refuge - was roundly panned by the public.
Cape now gets look for new NASA launch complex
Florida Today
NASA still considering using wildlife refuge for private ventures
Orlando Sentinel
Congratulations are apparent due to NASA Administrator Mike Griffin. He is now the proud father of a five pound bouncing baby year gap in U.S. human spaceflight.
Doug Cooke, NASA’s deputy associate administrator for exploration, confirmed this week that the space agency has given up on its Quixote like efforts to get its new Orion spacecraft flying by 2013. However, he still expects they will be able to launch its new human space vehicle in March 2015 - almost five years after it retires the space shuttle.
The main problem: money. NASA has not been getting enough of it under George W. Bush - who proposed the program in the first place. His plan to send humans back to the moon and on to Mars has been apparently limping along like Tiny Tim since he announced it four years ago.
With the economy slipping, banks failing, mortgages defaulting, inflation accelerating, gas prices rising, the dollar sinking, unemployment increasing, the national debt soaring, and two wars a-waging, the next President already has his hands tied trying to find more money for NASA. And without the extra funding, the schedule will likely slip even further as engineers struggle to overcome numerous technical problems with the Orion capsule and its shuttle-derived Ares boosters.
As for the technical difficulties, Cooke’s reaction is pretty much what you’d expect: it’s all normal for projects like this, nothing to see here, please move along. “What you’re seeing is sausage-making,” he told Newsweek. “I’m really satisfied with the work that’s getting done.”
Could be a pork product. Or the chickens - in the form of Mr. Griffin’s mission architecture - are coming home to roost and crapping all over everything.
In what could be a substantial tax break for Sir Richard Branson and uber-rich space tourists, the Swedish government is close to classifying Virgin Galactic space tourism flights as sounding rockets.
Hyperbola’s Rob Coppinger reports that a government review has concluded there are no barriers to classifying suborbital tourism flights flown out of Spaceport Sweden as sounding rockets. Officials are hoping the Ministry of Commerce will approve the idea.
This move would be financially advantageous for both Virgin Galactic and its wealthy clientele. Space News reported earlier this year that Swedish officials were looking to put the flights into the same category as hot air balloon rides and sounding rockets because the value added tax (VAT) on these activities is lower. Otherwise, Sweden’s higher value-added taxes would kick in, adding as much as 25 percent to the $200,000 ticket.
The move would not require any changes in Swedish law, easing the way for Branson’s company to begin tourism flights from Kiruna early in the next decade. Coppinger reports that the Swedish government, which faces elections within two years, might have a difficult time getting new laws passed before the vote. The next government might not be as amenable to providing a lower tax rate for joyriding millionaires.
New scans show evidence of water on the moon
Maggie Fox
Reuters
“Tiny green and orange glass balls brought back from the moon nearly 40 years ago by astronauts show evidence that water existed there from the very beginning, scientists reported on Wednesday….
“Their study, published in the journal Nature, could support evidence that water persists in shadowed craters on the moon’s surface — and that the water could be native to the moon and not carried there by comets.”
Brown-Led Team Finds Evidence of Water in Moon’s Interior
Brown University Press Release
“A Brown-led research team has for the first time found evidence of water deep within the Moon. In a paper published in the July 10 issue of the journal Nature, the researchers believe the water was contained in lunar magmas ejected more than 3 billion years ago. The discovery strongly suggests that water has been a part of the Moon since its early existence – and perhaps since it was first created…
“NASA plans to send its Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter later this year to search for evidence of water ice at the Moon’s south pole. If water is found, the researchers may have figured out the origin.”