Space Tourism … and Much More
Altair
2028? Goal of returning to moon could be slipping further away
Orlando Sentinel
NASA’s goal of putting astronauts back on the moon by 2020 is all but impossible to achieve, a presidential panel was told Wednesday.
Continue reading ‘NASA Back on the Moon by 2020? Yeah Right….’
During a Bay Area Houston Economic Partnership round table on Saturday, Oceaneering vice president Mark Gittleman said he is concerned about whether the Obama Administration is providing enough funding to allow his company to build NASA’s new spacesuit. Former NASA Administrator Mike Griffin shared the concern:
Griffin said Gittleman’s concerns are well placed in light of the proposed $3 billion-plus cut in the budget for the manned space program.
Model of NASA's Orion spacecraft
Former Congressmen Nick Lampson and Dave Weldon have authored an op-ed piece in The Washington Times urging the American government to move full steam ahead on NASA’s plan to return humans to the moon by 2020:
Continue reading ‘Lampson & Weldon: Full Speed Ahead on Constellation’
Universe Today has an interview with Paragon Space Development Corporation CEO Taber MacCallum in which he defended NASA’s work on the Constellation program and blasted Congress for not giving the agency sufficient resources to do its job.
Ares and Altair design contracts to be awarded
Flight International
Design contracts for NASA’s Ares V cargo launch vehicle (CaLV) and its Altair lunar lander payload are to be awarded in the next few days and weeks.
Continue reading ‘NASA Preps to Award Constellation Design Contracts’
PRESS RELEASE
Lockheed Martin announced it has located its Altair program office in Houston, Texas, in its bid to provide support for the next-generation human lunar lander system for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The company submitted its proposal to NASA last month for the Altair Conceptual Design Contract and the agency is expected to award several contracts for the first phase of the program later this spring.
Continue reading ‘Lockheed Martin Establishes Altair Office in Houston’
BOEING PRESS RELEASE
The Boeing Company [NYSE: BA], through its Space Exploration division, submitted a proposal to NASA today for Altair lunar lander design support. NASA is expected to award multiple contracts this spring.
Continue reading ‘Boeing Submits Proposal for Altair Lunar Lander Design to NASA’
At NASA Ames, designing America’s next lunar lander
San Jose Mercury News
Aiming at a tiny landing pad on the gray surface far below, astronaut Charlie Precourt banked the spacecraft to the right. A mottled blue and white orb hung in the black sky — the Earth.
Continue reading ‘NASA’s Next Lunar Lander Takes Shape in Mountain View’
PRESS RELEASE
Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne’s Common Extensible Cryogenic Engine (CECE) has successfully demonstrated critical capabilities required for NASA’s Altair lunar lander. The engine performed with stable operation at the widest throttle range of any known high performance cryogenic engine in December during its third series of ground tests at the company’s West Palm Beach, Fla., test facility. Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne is a United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX) company.
Continue reading ‘Rocketdyne Successfully Tests Altair Lunar Engine’
NASA PRESS RELEASE
CLEVELAND — NASA has awarded a nearly $7 million contract to Aerojet-General Corporation of Sacramento, Calif., to design, develop, fabricate, test and evaluate a new rocket engine as part of the space agency’s efforts to land humans on the moon.
The objective of this work is to sufficiently increase the maturity of this technology to establish the feasibility of using a liquid oxygen and liquid methane main engine for the ascent stage of the Altair lunar lander. After visiting the lunar outpost, the crew will lift off from the surface of the moon in Altair’s ascent stage and rendezvous with the Orion crew vehicle in lunar orbit for the return trip to Earth.
Aerojet will work for 21 months to complete an evaluation of the rocket engine assembly, a 5,500 pound constant-thrust, pressure-fed rocket engine. The contract’s period of performance began on April 8.
This cost-plus-fixed-fee contract is valued at approximately $6.9 million. The Exploration Technology Development Program at NASA’s Headquarters in Washington is providing the funding.
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