Space Access Society 6/11/14 Followup to

Space Access Society Political Action Alert 6/4/14

Space Access Society 6/5/14 Followup

There’s been some additional action in the fight over the future of NASA’s Commercial Cargo and Commercial Crew programs. Florida Today and The Houston Chronicle ran stories reporting the Commercial Spaceflight Federation industry association’s view that Senator Shelby’s provision to impose cost-plus contract-type “certified cost and pricing data” on these programs could disrupt contracting and would increase overall costs.

“The language would effectively change an efficient and lean commercial program into a traditional government procurement with all of the associated overhead and cost,” said Alex Saltman, executive director of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation.

“In addition, if this language were to become law before NASA awards the latest commercial crew contracts, NASA would likely have to restart the procurement with these new rules, pushing back the program up to a year and sending hundreds of millions of more taxpayer dollars to Russia for Soyuz rides,” Saltman added. “If the language were to go into effect after the awards, NASA could be tied up in contract renegotiations and challenges for months if not years.”

Michael Lopez-Alegria, president of the CSF and four-time NASA astronaut, added “It’s just bad policy. The whole idea behind the commercial crew program is to not do a lot of the stuff that we have traditionally done. It would be nice to be a little forward leaning, and to save taxpayer money.”

The papers also asked Senator Shelby about our contention that this Senate NASA Appropriation provision is intended (among other things) to protect the massively wasteful Space Launch System project. His reply: “That’s not true. We’re looking for transparency.”

With all due respect to the senior Senator from Alabama, we disagree.

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Cyclone 4 first and second stages. (Credit: Alcantara Space)

BUDAPEST, Hungary June 4 2014 (SpaceMETA PR) — SpaceMETA (www.spacemeta.com) and Alcantara Cyclone Space (www.alcantaracyclonespace.com) are proud to announce the signature of a MOU – Memorandum of Understanding (MOU No 2014-1-1 SM-ACS) for the launch of the SPACEMETA-LUMEM – Lunar Micro Explore Mission as part of the Google Lunar XPRIZE.

SpaceMETA, an official team competing in the Google Lunar XPRIZE (www.googlelunarxprize.org), a race to land a robotic spacecraft on the Moon, has just concluded the final phase of the signatures of the MOU with the binational company Alcantara Cyclone Space (ACS) for the launch of SpaceMETA mission. According to the MOU, ACS delivers the SpaceMETA payload, called “SOLITAIRE”, into the basic orbit for subsequent translunar orbit injection using the payload’s own propulsion. The spacecraft, which has been designed in Brazil, will have the capability to detect water-ice thought to be present in regions under the lunar surface.

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Dream Chaser (Credit: Sierra Nevada Corporation)

SPARKS, Nev. (SNC PR) — Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) and Craig Technologies will host a joint press conference on Thursday to announce the expansion of SNC’s Dream Chaser® ‘Dream Team’ to include Craig Technologies, a Woman-Owned, Minority-Owned, Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVO), on the development of SNC’s Dream Chaser Space System. Craig Technologies will support SNC in multiple areas of design and development that will be discussed. Media will have the opportunity to speak with SNC and Craig Technologies program executives and tour Craig Technologies manufacturing area.

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I will be appearing on the John Batchelor Show this evening from 6:30-6:45 p.m. PDT (9:30-9:45 p.m. EDT). We’ll be discussing Virgin Galactic and events here in Mojave with Dr. David Livingston, host of The Space Show, as part of the Hotel Mars segement. For details on how to listen in live, visit the John Batchelor Show website.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin could be the next space tourist to journey to the International Space Station. Space Adventures President Tom Shelley told Reuters that Brin, whose net worth is $30.2 billion, has put down a deposit on a seat aboard a future Soyuz flight to the orbiting laboratory. “He paid us a deposit and whenever we have a seat available, he has the right of first refusal,” Shelley said. […]

The battle of singing space divas is on!

In this corner, British soprano Sarah Brightman, who is paying $52 million to fly to the International Space Station in September 2015.

And in the other corner, the always interesting and frequently controversial Lady Gaga, scheduled to blast into space aboard Richard Branson’s SpaceShipTwo as part of the Zero G Colony music festival in early 2015.

Wait? What? How could Brightman get there first if Gaga is flying earlier?

Good question.

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Harwell, UK, June 9 2014 (Thales Alenia Space PR) –Thales Alenia Space announced today the completion of the acquisition of the space activities of Systems Engineering & Assessment Limited (SEA), part of Cohort plc. This acquisition will reinforce the perimeter of its new subsidiary Thales Alenia Space UK and will boost its growth in systems engineering and research & technology (R&T).

The acquisition will provide to Thales Alenia Space UK expertise in electronics and space mission subsystems and a customer base that already includes ESA.

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NASA has agreed revamp its procedures and policies for Space Act Agreements (SAA) in response to an Office of Inspector General (OIG) report that found the space agency use of these contracts lacked adequate transparency, accountability, and oversight.

“In response to a draft of this report, NASA’s Associate Administrator for Mission Support concurred with our recommendations to increase awareness of NASA’s SAA opportunities, revise Agency policies to clarify when it is appropriate to use SAAs, implement the Reimbursable Process Team’s recommendations, include high-level program objectives and key safety elements in future funded SAAs, and codify milestone management procedures,” according to the report.

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Igor Komarov (Credit: Russia Forum)

While Hercules has the Augean Stables to clean up, Igor Komarov’s task is only slightly less daunting: bringing order, coherence and profitability to a sprawling and bloated Russian space industry that saw its best days 30 years ago.

After four years as president of Russia’s largest car maker, AvtoVAZ, Komarov was brought in last year to head up the new United Rocket and Space Corporation (ACCD), a wholly-owned government entity that will consolidate virtually the entire space industry under state control.

When the consolidation is completed in about two years, ACCD will encompass 48 organizations and 14 companies. Among the major federal state unitary enterprises to be consolidated under the new corporation are Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center, NPO Lavochkin and KB Arsenal Design Bureau.

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NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts Program (NIAC) has selected TUI to perform a Phase I effort to evaluate a concept for using a deployable net and a tether deployer to enable a small nano-satellite to capture and de-spin a large rotating asteroid. This WRANGLER system could reduce the complexity, risk, and cost of NASA’s Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM). WRANGLER could also provide a means for affordable capture and disposal of space […]