Former NASA Administrator Mike Griffin

WASHINGTON, Aug 14, 2012 (Schafer PR) — Schafer Corporation, a leading provider of scientific, engineering, and technical services and products applied to defeating national security threats, today announced that Michael D. Griffin will assume the role of Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.

Griffin is the former Administrator of the National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA), serving in that position from 2005 to 2009. In addition to spending ten years at NASA in various capacities, he has also served in a variety of senior government, commercial, and academic roles, including Deputy Director for Technology of the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization, Director and CEO of Magellan, Inc., Professor of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, and Space Department Head at Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory.

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WASHINGTON (NASA PR) — NASA is seeking proposals for small satellite payloads to fly on rockets planned to launch between 2013 and 2016. These miniature spacecraft, known as CubeSats, could be auxiliary payloads on previously planned missions.

CubeSats are a class of research spacecraft called nanosatellites. These cube-shaped satellites are approximately four inches long, have a volume of about one quart and weigh less than three pounds.

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Dragon berthed at the International Space Station. (Credit: NASA)

SPACEX COMMERCIAL CREW PROGRAM

Overview

Company: SpaceX
Location: Hawthorne, Calif.
Spacecraft: Dragon
Type: Capsule with service module
Crew Capacity: 7
Launch Vehicle: Falcon 9
CCiCAP Funding (if all milestones met): $440 million
CCiCAP Term: 21 months
Previous CCDev Funding: $75 million
Previous COTS Funding: $396 million
Total COTS, CCDev and CCiCAP Funding (if all milestones met): $911 million

CCiCAP Milestones

SpaceX has 14 milestones to meet over the 21-month base period. The company will conclude the CCiCAP funding with an integrated critical design review in March 2014 followed by an in-flight abort test the following month.

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Video streaming by Ustream President Barack Obama called the Mars Curiosity team at JPL this morning to congratulate them on a successful landing.

Flight: WK2 93/SS GF22 Date: 11 Aug 12 Location: Mojave Air and Space Port W2 Flight Time: 1.5 hr. SS2 Flight Time: 8 min, 2 sec WK2 Pilot: Siebold WK2 CoPilot: Kalogiannis WK2 FTE: Inks SS2 Pilot: Stucky SS2 CoPilot: Binnie GS Crew: MacKay, Jaster, Bozarth, Verderame, Cassebeer, M. Fuchs, Bourgeois, Glaser, Tighe, Basset SS2 Objectives: Maximum glide flight mach and airspeed envelope expansion Horizontal tail load expansion SS2 Results: […]

This week on The Space Show with David Livingston…. 1. Monday, August 13, 2012, 2-3:30 PM PDT (5-6:30 PM EDT, 4-5:30 PM CDT): NO SHOW TODAY AS I AM AT THE SMALSAT CONFERENCE. 2. Tuesday, August 14, 2012, :2-3:30 PM PDT (5-6:30 PM EDT, 4-5:30 PM CDT): NO SHOW TODAY AS I AM AT THE SMALLSAT CONFERENCE. 3. Friday, August 17, 2012, 9:30-11 AM PDT (11:30- 1 PM CDT, 12:30PM-2:00 […]

By Douglas Messier
Parabolic Arc Managing Editor

California legislators have significantly watered down a proposed law that would have held human spacecraft operators, manufacturers and suppliers not liable for injuries or deaths sustained by passengers if the participant signed an informed consent agreement acknowledging the inherent danger of their flights.

Under amendments to the bill, companies would have “limited civil liability” even if they were not grossly negligent or intentionally caused injuries. Legislators have also removed vehicle manufacturers and component suppliers from coverage under the measure.

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BOEING COMMERCIAL CREW PROGRAM

Overview

Company: Boeing
Spacecraft: CST-100
Type: Capsule with service module
Crew Capacity: 7
Launch Vehicle: Atlas V (United Launch Alliance)
CCiCAP Funding: $460 million
CCiCAP Term: 21 months
Previous CCDev Funding (including optional milestones): $130.9 million (Boeing), $6.7 million (ULA)
Total CCDev and CCiCAP Funding (if all milestones met): $590.6 million (Boeing), $6.7 million (ULA)

 CCiCAP Milestones

Boeing has 19 milestones to meet during the 21-month CCiCAP program, more than SpaceX (14) and Sierra Nevada (10). The g0al is to take the CST-100 capsule and its ULA-supplied Atlas V rocket through a critical design review in April 2014. If B0eing completes all milestones, NASA will pay it $460 million.

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From the Project Morpheus blog: The root cause is still under investigation,  but what we do know is that at the start of  ascent we lost data from the Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) that supplies navigation updates to the flight computer.  Without this measurement the vehicle is blind and does not know which way it is pointing or accelerating.  Since this data is needed to maintain stable flight, the vehicle […]

By Duane Hyland, AIAA Communications

California’s aerospace industry dwarfs both Hollywood and Agriculture as the state’s primary source of jobs, an AIAA panel reminded representatives of the California state legislature at the California State Capitol Building, Sacramento, Calif., on Tuesday, 8 August. The event’s theme was: “California Aerospace: Stuck in the Past, or Rocketing into the Future?”

The panel was moderated by Ivan Rosenburg, management consultant at Frontier Associates, and was composed of: Lt. Gen. Gene Tattini, U.S. Air Force (retired), Deputy Director, NASA Joint Propulsion Laboratory, and former Commander, U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center; Ken Guss, former CEO, Klune Industries; Randy Garber, partner, A.T. Kearney Global Management Consultants, who led A.T. Kearney’s analysis of the Californian aerospace industry in 2008; Gregory C. Hill, director of marketing, Ordnance Systems, Meggit Defense Systems; and Ross G. Bell, AIAA, who spent an hour and a half reviewing the current state of California aerospace and the possible dark future of the industry in California, unless substantive governmental reforms are made.

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