NASA PR — CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA and Alliant Techsystems (ATK) managers will announce an agreement that could accelerate the availability of U.S. commercial crew transportation capabilities at 3 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, Sept. 13. The announcement will occur at the Press Site auditorium at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The announcement participants are: — Ed Mango, Commercial Crew Program manager, NASA — Kent Rominger, vice president, Strategy […]
AUTHOR
Doug Messier
NASA PR — NEW ORLEANS — Construction began this week on the first new NASA spacecraft built to take humans to orbit since space shuttle Endeavour left the factory in 1991, and marked a significant milestone in carrying out the ambitious exploration vision President Obama and Congress have laid out for the nation.
Engineers at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans started welding together the first space-bound Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle. “The Orion team has maintained a steady focus on progress, and we now are beginning to build hardware for spaceflight,” said Orion Program Manager Mark Geyer, NASA’s Johnson Space Center, Houston.
An interministerial commission that a manufacturing defect in a gas generator caused last month’s failure of a Soyuz rocket that caused a Progress freighter to burn up in the atmosphere. According to a report on the Roscosmos website, the flight went as planned through third-stage separation.
On the basis of analyzing the behavior of the parameters characterizing the operation of the propulsion system the third stage, and results telemetry data it is concluded that reducing consumption of fuel in the gas generator due to contamination tract of its submission. This led to a breach of working conditions and reduce the engine parameters, it shut down on command “Emergency engine shutdown.”
This showed up in the email box this morning: Be a part of the NewSpace revolution and work closely with a small, dynamic team on spacecraft, rocket engines and other aerospace related projects. The opportunity to be in on the ground floor of an entirely new industry only comes once in a lifetime. We’re going to space and we want to take you with us! We have four positions currently […]
Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) and Bill Nelson (D-FL) issued the following statement: “A just-completed, NASA-commissioned independent cost assessment by Booz Allen Hamilton found that development of the Space Launch System, Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle and complementary ground system was feasible within authorized funding levels and timelines. This was expected; NASA experts had verified and re-verified estimated costs several times. Rather than announce these results and […]
NMSA PR – LAS CRUCES, NM – The New Mexico Spaceport Authority (NMSA) announced today that Enterprise Advisory Service, Inc. (EASI) has been awarded a contract to provide general services for Spaceport America. EASI has nine operating locations. As part of its operations to fulfill the contract, EASI will have nine New Mexico resident staff members at the spaceport, while 29 local subcontractors – 22 from Las Cruces, five from Albuquerque and two from El Paso – will be available to support surge activities.
Commercial Reusable Suborbital Research Technologies
Request for Information
Solicitation Number: NNL11OCTGCD-2
Synopsis:
The NASA Authorization Act of 2010 (P.L. 111-267) authorizes creation of a Commercial Reusable Suborbital Research (CRuSR) initiative within the NASA Office of the Chief Technologist (OCT). OCT has implemented the CRuSR initiative through the Flight Opportunities Program within the Crosscutting Capability Demonstrations Division. OCT has determined that commercial suborbital reusable launch vehicles (sRLVs) provide an opportunity to qualify a number of key space technologies in unique environments under affordable and repeatable flight tests before committing to more expensive demonstrations in Earth orbit or beyond. OCT has also determined that the research capabilities of commercial reusable suborbital vehicles can be broadened for NASA and other users by developing and demonstrating vehicle enhancements and facilities for research-specific needs. Such investments can improve or enable new spacecraft capabilities and hold the promise of reduced costs and greater availability of near-space research capabilities for science and technology demonstration. To this end, the Flight Opportunities Program in cooperation with the Game Changing Technology Division plans in the near future to solicit proposals from entrepreneurs, scientists, technologists, instrument builders,research managers, vehicle builders, and vehicle operators.
Just wrapped the post-test press conference with Charlies Precourt and Fred Brasfield. Some quick notes: Precourt: Preliminary look at data indicates test was “extremely successful”. Thrust time trace looks essentially perfect This is the third test. Earlier done were done at near freezing and at a mid temperature. In this test, fuel was heated to 92 degrees F, which would simulate being on launch pad for several days with outside […]
