A video from WAAY-TV with comments from NASA Administrator Charles Bolden during his visit to Huntsville. Below is an excerpt from a story in The Huntsville Times below: The price is going up “because of inflation,” Bolden said in Huntsville, not because Russia is taking advantage of the end of the American space shuttle program. Only two flights remain this year before the shuttle is retired. “That’s not just for […]
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View from a test camera inside the cylinder from the March 23 Shell Buckling Knockdown Factor test at the Marshall Center. (NASA/MSFC)
NASA PR — WASHINGTON — NASA put the squeeze on a large rocket test section today. Results from this structural strength test at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., will help future heavy-lift launch vehicles weigh less and reduce development costs.
This trailblazing project is examining the safety margins needed in the design of future, large launch vehicle structures. Test results will be used to develop and validate structural analysis models and generate new “shell-buckling knockdown factors” — complex engineering design standards essential to launch vehicle design.
Another day, another bewildering blog post in The Hill, this time courtesy of former Florida Congressman James Bacchus, who once represented the district that contains the Kennedy Space Center:
Yet, for all the considerable promise of private commercial space exploration, it is not at all clear that commercial rockets will be able to be “man-rated†by NASA to taxi astronauts any time soon.
Yes. Yes, they can be.
The results are in for our latest Parabolic Arc poll. Q. What should NASA do with the shuttle-derived HLV that Congress wants it to build? Shove it up Richard Shelby’s butt (36%, 38 Votes) Build it (31%, 33 Votes) Cancel it (24%, 25 Votes) All of the above (9%, 10 Votes) Total Voters: 106 Thanks to everyone who voted!
Here’s more evidence, if we needed any, that Rep. Ralph M. Hall (R-TX) has space dust clogging up his brain. Here is an excerpt from a blog post he published in The Hill, with my annotated notes in italics:
“NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said at a recent hearing that NASA would not need exploration capabilities until after 2020, although Congress clearly directed NASA to develop the heavy lift system with an initial capability to return to the International Space Station by 2016. Failure to do so will result in continued reliance on the Russians’ Soyuz to transport astronauts to the International Space Station. This is unacceptable. NASA should give highest priority to developing the SLS and MPCV programs that build on the tremendous investments that have already been made in the Constellation systems. We cannot, as the NASA Administrator suggests, wait until 2020.”
Editor’s Note: The 130-ton heavy-lift SLS is not a very good way to launch a half-dozen astronauts to low-Earth orbit. It would be like using a Winnebago rather than a minivan for that carpool to work. Or taking a yacht across San Francisco Bay instead of the passenger ferry to go to your day job.
Jeff Foust reports on remarks that NASA Administrator Charles Bolden made yesterday in DC concerning NASA’s budget. Highlights include: New Technology Development Bolden said he has flexibility on spending on new technology development within the budget and that reports that Congress had zeroed out funds in this area are wrong. “Our understanding is that we have the flexibility to conduct, for the most part, the space technology initiatives we want […]
Sen. Richard Shelby
The year was 1972:
- Godfather Vito Corleone ruled the box office.
- President Richard Nixon approves the space shuttle, a revolutionary new vehicle using cutting-edge technology that would provide routine, affordable access to space up to 50 times per year.
- And a crack commando unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn’t commit.
That was state of the art, 1972. Jump ahead nearly 40 years, and what is old is new again. Or at least according to Sen. Richard Shelby.
NASA would see its overall budget reduced and spending on new long-range space technology eliminated under a funding bill being considered by the Senate. The appropriations bill also requires NASA focus on building the Orion crew capsule and heavy-lift vehicle. Highlights include: The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is funded at $18.5 billion, a reduction of $461 million from the FY 2011 request. This is $412 million more than […]
Charlie Bolden was up on the Hill a couple of times this week, testifying about NASA’s FY 2012 budget request before a Congress that still hasn’t finished work on the FY 2011 budget. That problem, non-trivial as it is, is probably less serious than the rift that has developed between Congress and the Administration about how to move forward on human spaceflight in the years ahead.
Jupiter Direct Launcher Variants
UPDATE: I ran into Bobby Braun last night here in Orlando, and he says that this story misquoted him as saying it would take a decade.
NASA Chief Technologist Bobby Braun thinks it could a while to complete the space agency’s human spaceflight projects:
But with spending squeezed and NASA at odds with lawmakers over a 2016 timeframe for building a new heavy-lift rocket and crew vehicle to replace the 30-year-old shuttle program, Braun said that developing the future mode of travel could take longer than Congress, or the US public, may want to hear.
“Let’s call it — think about it as a decade if you want to put a time stamp to it,” said Braun, who gathered along with a host of veteran astronauts, politicians and space enthusiasts at Kennedy Space Center on Thursday to witness the final blastoff for the Discovery space shuttle.