The Houston Chronicle has a puzzling interview with George Abbey, the former NASA Johnson Space Center director who is now a senior fellow in space policy at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy. Abbey calls SpaceX’s test flight last week “a great achievement,” advocates keeping the space shuttle flying until a replacement is fielded, and demonstrates a narrow perspective on the market for commercial human spaceflight: Q: The goal […]
XCOR's Lynx suborbital vehicle
NASA recently announced that it would be conducting contract negotiations for 350 projects under its SBIR and STTR programs, which are aimed at promoting space technology development by small businesses. Parabolic Arc will be looking at a number of the proposals involving NewSpace companies that it regularly covers or which encompass interesting technologies.
| COMPANY: | XCOR |
| LOCATION: | Mojave, Calif. |
| PROPOSAL TITLE: | Cryogenic Composite Tank Fabrication for Reusable Launch Vehicles |
| SUBTOPIC TITLE: | Advanced Composite Tank and Materials Technologies |
TECHNICAL ABSTRACT
XCOR has conducted extensive research and development, and material characterization analysis of a nonflammable, high-strength, lightweight thermoplastic fluoropolymer composite material, trademarked NonburniteTM, which is suitable for making reusable, reliable, low cost cryogenic tanks and structures for space flight service.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has an account of George French’s odyssey from billboard king to bankrupt NewSpace entrepreneur. His Rocketplane Global and Rocketplane Kistler ventures were once in prime positions to capture large shares of both the suborbital space tourism market and commercial cargo delivery to the International Space Station. And yet both efforts collapsed amid funding woes, multiple bankruptcy filings, and a flood of lawsuits from unpaid employees and […]
Masten's Xombie vehicle
NASA recently announced that it would be conducting contract negotiations for 350 projects under its SBIR and STTR programs, which are aimed at promoting space technology development by small businesses. Parabolic Arc will be looking at a number of the proposals involving NewSpace companies that it regularly covers or which involve interesting technologies.
| COMPANY: | Masten Space Systems |
| LOCATION: | Mojave, Calif. |
| PROPOSAL: | Terrestrial Plume Impingement Testbed |
| SUBTOPIC TITLE: | Robotic Systems for Human Exploration |
TECHNICAL ABSTRACT
Masten Space Systems proposes to create a terrestrial plume impingement testbed for generating novel datasets for extraterrestrial robotic missions. This testbed would allow rocket plume interactions with lunar, martian, and asteroid surface simulants in a fully instrumented, easy to access, and low cost environment using Masten Space’s existing VTVL suborbital launch vehicles.
International Space Station
NASA PROGRAM UPDATE
NASA has awarded a contract with a potential value of $171 million to Lockheed Martin Corp. of Gaithersburg, Md., for support of International Space Station cargo mission services.
The contract will support planning, coordination, preparation and packing of standardized containers for cargo missions to the station by international partner and commercial cargo vehicles. Lockheed Martin will process flight crew equipment including clothing and personal hygiene items, housekeeping items, audio and video equipment, laptop computers, batteries and crew survival equipment. The contract also includes provisions to support similar services for future vehicles to the station.
NanoSail-D - Lost in space? (Credit: NASA)
As upstart SpaceX was feted this week for the successful flight and recovery of its first Dragon spacecraft, engineers on three continents were puzzling out the reasons behind three high-profile failures in space, demonstrating anew the challenges associated with the difficult field.
In Russia, officials watched as a Proton rocket sent three navigational satellites to the bottom of the Pacific off Hawaii, delaying the nation’s efforts to provide full global coverage for its GLONASS program. Japanese engineers scratched their heads over why their Akatsuki probe ended up in orbit around the sun instead of Venus. And NASA is not quite sure what happened to an experimental solar sail satellite that blasted off into space from Alaska.
ROSCOSMOS PRESS RELEASE Roscosmos Head Anatoly Perminov signed the Order “About Establishment of Roscosmos’ United Cosmonaut Corps†of Dec. 7, 2010. The order defines completion of Roscosmos Cosmonaut Corps establishment in GCTC by Jan. 1, 2011. The Corps is to unite cosmonauts of three groups — GCTC, RSC-Energia and IBMP –- in a single infrastructure in order to “enhance cosmonaut selection and training effectiveness and to maintain coordinated national policy […]
DRAFT HOUSE APPROPRIATIONS BILL
Editor’s Notes in [ ]
Notwithstanding section 1101, the level for the following accounts of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration shall be as follows:
- Science, $5,005,600,000;
- Exploration, $3,706,000,000;
- Space Operations, $5,247,900,000;
- Aeronautics, $1,138,600,000;
- Education, $180,000,000;
- Cross Agency Support, $3,085,700,000;
- Construction and Environmental Compliance and Remediation, $528,700,000, of which $20,000,000 shall be derived from available un-obligated balances previously appropriated for construction of facilities; and
- Office of Inspector General, $37,500,000:
[Editor’s Note: The overall funding is $18.91 billion, about $90 million less than $19 billion in the authorization bill passed earlier this year by Congress. The agency’s 2010 budget was $18.72 billion.]
Florida Senator Bill Nelson
Sen. Bill Nelson, D-FL
The leading congressional authority on the U.S. space program said Wednesday that America is on track to remain a global leader in space, science and technology, after a privately owned rocket carrying a capsule powered off a launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and into outer space before returning safely to Earth.
U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson made his comments today following the successful launch into low-earth orbit and return to Earth of the 157-foot tall Falcon 9 rocket and the Apollo-like unmanned Dragon capsule built by Space X. With the splash down of its capsule in the Pacific, Space X became the first private company to successfully recover a spacecraft sent into outer space.
“We’ve arrived at the dawn of new era of U.S. space exploration that should ensure America remains a leader in space exploration,†said U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, who was a crew member aboard a 1986 space shuttle mission, and now heads a Senate subcommittee that oversees NASA.
In September, Congress approved a Nelson-engineered NASA budget blueprint that would help boost the commercial rocket industry – such as the development of the Falcon 9 – and have NASA become the chief player for building a new deep-space rocket and carry out missions to Mars.
Falcon 9's second stage fires away. (Credit: SpaceX)
A couple of updates in the wake of SpaceX’s Dragon flight:
Company President Elon Musk is looking to fly the Dragon freighter directly to the International Space Station on the next test flight. The current schedule has Dragon rendezvousing with the orbital facility on its second flight, with a docking and cargo delivery occurring on the third mission.The two flights would be combined into one under SpaceX’s plan. Spaceflight Now reports:
I’m optimistic that the next flight will be to the space station,” Musk said, adding there are several things engineers must add to the Dragon to make that possible.
NASA PRESS RELEASE
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and Chairman of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) Executive Board Johann-Dietrich Worner signed a framework agreement for cooperative activities in aeronautics, exploration and the peaceful use of space Wednesday at NASA Headquarters in Washington. The agreement is intended to enhance cooperation between the two agencies during the next decade.
Dragon floats down under three parachutes after its maiden flight to space. (Credit: SpaceX)
The three overused cliches in technology circles are: “paradigm shift,” “game changer,” and “moving the needle.” The first is vague, meaningless and pretentious with a capital “TIOUS.” These latter two are often used by executives to rally their troops on behalf of one company saving initiative or another. More often than not, they are half right: the needle (market share, profits) moves, but in the wrong direction. Meanwhile, the game remains the same — and they are losing it. Badly.
That being said, it’s not hard to apply these phrases to what SpaceX accomplished on Wednesday. Elon Musk’s start-up rocket company nailed all three objectives.