Mission Update – July 9, 2014 Orbital announced today that the launch of Antares for the Orb-2 Commercial Resupply Services mission to the International Space Station has been rescheduled for Saturday, July 12 at 1:14 p.m. EDT. Due to severe thunderstorms in the Wallops area the night of Tuesday, July 8, the rollout of the Antares rocket to its launch pad at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport scheduled for this morning […]
AUTHOR
Doug Messier
Boeing’s Commercial Crew Milestones Status Award Period: August 2012 – August 2014 Milestones: 20 Milestones Completed: 18 Milestones Remaining: 2 Total Possible Award: $480 Million Total Award to Date: $442.1 Million Total Award Pending: $37.9 Million No. Description Original Date Status Amount 1 Integrated System Review. Boeing shall conduct an Integrated Systems Review (ISR) which establishes and demonstrates a baseline design of the Commercial Crew Transportation System (CCTS) integrated vehicle […]
Space Florida President Frank DiBello
In an address to the National Space Club Florida Committee yesterday, Space Florida CEO Frank DiBello issued a start warning that Florida’s Space Coast risks irrelevancy if it doesn’t adapt to a rapidly commercializing industry.
DiBello said he expects Texas to announce within a week or two that SpaceX will build a privately operated pad near Brownsville for launches of commercial satellites.
DiBello said he was not angry at SpaceX, which will continue to launch government payloads from here and whose CEO, Elon Musk, was making a business decision about where he could best serve commercial customers.
An update on Midland International Airport’s application for a spaceport license, which is necessary for XCOR to move its R&D facility to the West Texas facility: It appears the mating rituals of the lesser prairie chicken are imposing on Midland International Airport’s pursuit of a spaceport license. After the chicken was federally listed in March, the airport submitted an addendum to its environmental assessment explaining why the spaceport wouldn’t be […]
Angara-1.2 launch vehicle on pad at Plesetsk. (Credit: Khrunichev)
PLESETSK COSMODROME, Russia (Khrunichev PR) — The MoD State Testing Cosmodrome (Plesetsk Cosmodrome) in the Archangelsk Region is witnessing the initial flight tests of Angara-1.2, the latest Russian space rocket complex.
Per State Commission decision, the light-lift Angara-1.2ML (“Maiden Launch”) integrated launch vehicle (ILV) with a not-to-be-separated payload dummy lifted off from the Angara multi-purpose launch pad, earlier today, the 9th of July. The test launch of the new Angara-1.2 family launch vehicle was performed by Aerospace Force teams.
Honeybee-Golden Spike rover
BOULDER, Colo., Jul. 8, 2014 (Golden Spike/Honeybee PR) — The Golden Spike Company, the world’s first enterprise planning to undertake human lunar expeditions for countries, corporations and individuals, and Honeybee Robotics, a premier developer of advanced robotic systems, today announced they have completed a preliminary design study for unmanned rovers capable of enhancing the next human missions to the Moon.
In partnership with technical staff at Golden Spike, Honeybee engineers conducted trade studies of both flight-proven and promising technologies to design configurable robotic rovers that can collect and store several kilograms of scientific samples from the Moon’s surface in advance of or in conjunction with Golden Spike’s human expeditions.
X-51 Waverider
by Deidre Ortiz
Arnold Engineering Development Complex Public Affairs
ARNOLD AIR FORCE BASE, TENN., July 3, 2014 — The relationship between the Air Force Research Laboratory and Arnold Engineering Development Complex’s hypervelocity capabilities is paying dividends and leading to a more in-depth and scientifically broader collaboration.
In light of the success of several joint projects, AFRL leadership has decided to extend the organization’s partnership with AEDC by establishing a new hypersonic research branch, to be known as the High Speed Experimentation Branch, here.
Dream Chaser Main Propulsion System Test. (Credit: Sierra Nevada Corporation)
Sparks, Nev., July 8, 2014 (SNC PR) – Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) announces it has completed a major Main Propulsion System (MPS) and Reaction Control System (RCS) risk reduction milestone for the Dream Chaser® Space System, maturing the design of each system close to Critical Design Review (CDR). The milestone positions SNC one step closer to restoring U.S. crew transportation to low-Earth orbit (LEO).
SNC completed the work for milestone 9a under its Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) agreement with NASA. In total, SNC has received over 80 percent of the total award value of the CCiCap agreement having successfully completed 10 of 13 milestones.
This is an artist concept of The Boeing Company’s CST-100 spacecraft atop a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket. (Credit: Boeing)
Centennial, Colo., July 7, 2014 (ULA PR) – United Launch Alliance (ULA) recently completed a Critical Design Review (CDR) of the launch site accommodations that will support commercial crew launches of Boeing’s Crew Space Transportation (CST) -100 at Space Launch Complex 41 (SLC-41) in Florida.
CCiCap milestone completion status: Boeing, 18 of 20; SpaceX, 13 of 18; Sierra Nevada Corporation, 10 of 13.
NASA Commercial Crew Return On Investment Report
Issue No. 16 — July 2014
NASA’s industry partners continue to move forward with their Commercial Crew integrated Capability (CCiCap) efforts, successfully completing milestones and working toward the culmination of their CCiCap Space Act Agreements. The Boeing Company is scheduled to complete its milestones later this summer. NASA has agreed to extend the terms of the Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) and Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) agreements to March 2015 allowing for completion of work associated with remaining flight testing—SpaceX an in-flight abort test and SNC a free flight test of a Dream Chaser test vehicle.