U.S. Air Force Plans Reusable Space Booster | AVIATION WEEK

U.S. Air Force Plans Reusable Space Booster | AVIATION WEEK

U.S. Air Force Plans Reusable Space Booster

Dec 12, 2011

By Guy Norris Los Angeles

Stretched between growing operational space demands and shrinking budgets, the U.S. Air Force is funding the first major research phases of a reusable booster system (RBS) intended to replace its costly expendable launchers. Although the value of the initial contracts to Andrews Space, Boeing and Lockheed Martin is only $2 million each, the agreements are potentially worth up to $250 million over the next five years. More importantly, the awards come on the eve of unprecedented budget cutbacks and appear to underline the importance the Air Force attaches to a concept that promises to slash launch costs by more than 50% compared to the conventional Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV). The RBS consists of a vertically launched reusable first stage and expendable upper stages. After deploying the upper stack containing the payload, the rocket-powered, winged first stage will return to make an autonomous, aircraft-like horizontal landing near the launch site. Although this and similar jet-powered concepts have been proposed over the years, the Air Force Research Laboratory’s RBS Flight and Ground Experiments (RBS-FGE) program is the first to support a funded demonstrator, as well as the first to form part of a sanctioned Air Force Space Command spacelift plan. However, the RBS faces major technology hurdles on the path to planned deployment beyond 2025, when it could begin to replace the current Atlas V and Delta IV vehicles. At the top of the list of challenges is a preferred “rocket-back” maneuver, which was selected by the AFRL over first-stage designs that glide back to land or return using high-speed turbine engines. The focus for the RBS‑FGE design is a liquid oxygen/kerosene rocket-powered vehicle that will be able to achieve staging at a higher Mach number than the other options. Following release of the second stage, which could also evolve to a fully reusable vehicle, the first stage will turn around 180 deg. so that its rocket engine is firing in the direction of the velocity vector. This rocket-back maneuver, involving extremely high angles of attack and sideslip, will be tested by a sub-scale RBS Pathfinder vehicle built by one of the three initial RBS-FGE contractors. The AFRL will select the winning Pathfinder design in the second half of 2012, with flight tests expected to begin in 2015 and run into 2016. Individual contractor designs remain under wraps, but all are similar to the 15-ft.-long reference target Pathfinder that AFRL revealed in 2010, and all are expected to be ground- or air-launched on up to three flights to test different rocket-back maneuvers. A follow-on reusable booster demonstrator (RBD) is expected to follow the Pathfinder into the air within five or six years. The RBD, likely to be allocated as an X-plane demonstrator, will be highly representative of the operational unmanned, reusable booster. Overall configuration is expected to be similar to that outlined by the Air Force in 2010, which indicated an overall length of 60 ft., span of 34 ft., 9-ft.-dia. body and gross liftoff weight around 230,000 lb. Early concept details also showed the demonstrator could be powered by a liquid-oxygen/kerosene RD-180 EELV engine. Another AFRL demonstration program, called Hydrocarbon Boost, is developing a large liquid-oxygen/kerosene rocket engine for the full-size booster. “The RBD will be a good X-vehicle that could demonstrate all the parts of the puzzle, including the ability to fly and operate the RBS flight profile as well as ground operations,” says Slater Voorhees, Lockheed Martin RBS program manager. “Some of that will be demonstrated by the Pathfinder, but the RBD will be much closer to the operational vehicle.” Lockheed Martin’s design will incorporate “a good mix” of design know-how from the company’s fixed-wing and space vehicles ranging from the SR-71 to the X-33. Voorhees says the design will combine expertise in “materials, systems and solutions—not only for flying maneuvers, but also for affordability, operability and responsiveness.” Initial steps under the RBS-FGE program will include flight and ground experiments as well as demonstrations to address “aeromechanics, configuration, and flight performance; structures and materials; flight controls and health management; flight systems and propulsion; and ground systems and operations,” the Air Force says. The technology road map is expected to support the eventual development of two versions of the RBS: a single, reusable first stage and expendable cryogenic upper stage for medium-lift missions; and two reusable boosters, cryogenic core stage and upper stage for heavy-lift and growth missions. The latest contracts follow parallel research studies conducted into the RBS concept by Andrews, Boeing and Lockheed Martin for the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC), from November 2010 to August 2011. These aimed to achieve a better understanding of the RBS trade space and, in particular, the flight dynamics, flight control and technological impacts associated with several unproven RBS flight maneuvers. The studies focused not only on the rocket-back and return-to-launch sites, but also the booster-phase abort and upper-stage separation. Andrews Space, based in Tukwila, Wash., has been involved in several reusable booster studies including, most recently, the SMC RBS risk-reduction study earlier this year. It is a long-time proponent of advanced space systems, having worked on an air collection and enrichment system for a two-stage-to-orbit reusable launch system as well as ballute-based reentry systems and advanced materials. The company is also involved in the development of a variety of technologies ranging from unmanned ground vehicles to recoverable space cargo logistics modules and nanospacecraft. Boeing, which has worked closely on several RBS concepts with Maryland-based research and development company Astrox, is expected to leverage its experience gained with the X-37 Orbital Test Vehicle. Lockheed Martin’s RBS team is led by the company’s Space Systems unit based in Denver, Colo., and includes the Skunk Works operations in Palmdale, Calif., and Fort Worth. Also part of the Lockheed team are: Science and Technology Applications of Moorpark, Calif.; UP Aerospace of Highlands Ranch, Colo.; and JFA Avionics Systems of Newbury Park, Calif. For the RBS Pathfinder, Lockheed says it has entered into an agreement with the New Mexico Spaceport Authority to conduct flight-test operations from Spaceport America, in Las Cruces. Lockheed Martin Concept

Planetary Defense Plans For Asteroids Form | AVIATION WEEK

Planetary Defense Plans For Asteroids Form | AVIATION WEEK

Planetary Defense Plans For Asteroids Form

Nov 29, 2011

By Guy Norris Boulder, Colo.

Concepts for communicating the risks and managing the threat of asteroid impacts will be considered by the United Nations following an expert working group meeting in Colorado. The Near-Earth Object (NEO) media/risk meeting came within days of a 300-meter (984-ft.)-plus-dia. asteroid passing between the Earth and the Moon on Nov 8, and as NASA closed on additional congressional funding of more than $20 million for an ongoing survey mission aimed at finding objects posing a potential collision threat. Although acknowledged as a statistically rare, low-probability event, asteroid impacts are seen as potential global catastrophes. Now, with 1,265 asteroids currently listed as potentially hazardous to Earth and with around 100 or more new potential impacts currently being flagged each month by the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s automated collision-monitoring Sentry system, the threat is being taken increasingly seriously by governments and space agencies. According to NASA, as of Nov 3 8,421 NEOs have been discovered, of which 830 are asteroids with a diameter of approximately 1 km or larger. A NEO is an asteroid or a comet with an orbit close to that of Earth in which the perihelion (or nearest point to the Sun) is less than 1.3 astronomical units (1.3 times the distance from the Earth to the Sun). Potentially hazardous NEOs are 500 ft. or so in diameter and follow orbital paths that come within 4.65 million mi. (7.48 million km) of Earth. The meeting, held at University of Colorado’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, was organized by the Secure World Foundation and aimed at a draft report for the U.N. Action Team 14 working group on NEOs. The team forms part of the U.N.’s Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space Scientific and Technical Subcommittee, and will present guidance to the U.N. working group at a NEO-mitigation meeting in Vienna, in February 2012. Following a review in June next year, final recommendations will form the blueprint for possible U.N. action from 2013 onward. The working group is studying setting up an information, analysis and warning network (IAWN) to coordinate data about NEO detection, orbit analysis, impact prediction and notifications. The Colorado meeting was focused on IAWN communications, including protocols used by similar warning nets dealing with natural disasters such as hurricanes and tsunamis, as well as improving public education on the NEO phenomenon. Parallel work is underway to set up a NEO Mission Planning and Operations Group (MPOG) that will coordinate international space agencies on the planning and conduct of missions to threatening asteroids. The MPOG will be modeled on the inter-space agency group established to monitor space debris. The conference included discussion of communication strategies for events ranging from those with almost no warning such as the TC3 asteroid which exploded over southern Sudan in 2008 less than 21 hr. after being detected, to decades-long scenarios such as the Apophis asteroid which could potentially impact Earth in 2036. In particular, the meeting focused on effective ways of communicating the reality of threats and evacuation notices to predicted impact zones in short-term warning scenarios. For longer-term threats, the group weighed the geopolitical implications of potential mitigation strategies involving speeding up or slowing down an asteroid. By altering an asteroid’s speed, its trajectory could be altered to either miss the Earth altogether or be deflected toward less-populated areas. Such choices inevitably involve increasing the risk to certain nations and regions, while decreasing it for others, raising enormous policy questions. Social scientists, invited to advise the group, called for transparent debate from agencies over both warnings and mitigation strategies. Dennis Mileti, director emeritus of University of Colorado’s National Hazards Center, warned “the biggest issue will not be panic but getting them to take your NEO warning seriously. Human beings need to dichotomize risk. That’s how they decide to do something about it or not. Don’t try and explain your science to the public.” Former Apollo astronaut and asteroid awareness trailblazer Russell Schweickart warned greater efforts and survey systems are needed. “We have many more objects that will be discovered. We’re not running out of objects, we’re running out of capability of our telescopes.” While roughly 94% of the largest NEOs are believed to have been located, “there are 60% still not detected in the 300-meter or so size,” said Schweickart, who is co-founder and past chairman of the B612 Foundation dedicated to protecting Earth from asteroid strikes. Detection numbers are even lower for smaller NEOs between 100 and 300 meters in diameter with only 10% of the estimated population accounted for, while for the smallest ones—like the approximately 50-meter asteroid that airburst over Tunguska, Siberia, in 1908—“we’re below 1% of total objects discovered. When it comes to objects that can do serious damage we’re nowhere near a full inventory yet,” he added. NASA NEO Observations Program Executive Manager Lindley Johnson said securing allocated NEO funding is “critical to continuation of our existing survey programs like the radars for instance, and to do sorely needed upgrades for the Arecibo (radio telescope) in particular—that has suffered from a lack of funding over the years.” Johnson added money will also support analysis “to determine what the next generation survey should be.” Options include new land-based telescope projects like the Atlas (Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System) and Large Synoptic Survey Telescope as well as space-based systems. These could include hosted payload-type concepts in which a staring array would be mounted on the “backside of a commercial payload,” scanning as it orbits the Earth. Such schemes are less capable than a dedicated survey telescope, but much more affordable. “We really need to ferret out the best solution,” said Johnson. Asteroid image: Lockheed Martin

X-37B Vehicle Derivative Plan Revealed | AVIATION WEEK

X-37B Vehicle Derivative Plan Revealed | AVIATION WEEK

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By Guy Norris, Frank Morring, Jr. Los Angeles, Cape Town, South Africa
Amid preparations for key demonstrations of commercial cargo and crew operations to low Earth orbit, Boeing has revealed studies of scaled-up, mini-space shuttle-like variants of the reusable X-37B orbital test vehicle (OTV) which could be used to return to a runway landing. The larger derivative could be developed for potential delivery of cargo and crew to the International Space Station (ISS), with flight tests of the current version paving the way for a more ambitious stretched version, according to the manufacturer. However, NASA appears to be unconvinced by the derivative plan, describing it as a “trial balloon” aimed at gauging the agency’s interest. The development plan is targeted at providing a larger cargo backup to Boeing’s CST-100 crew vehicle as well as a potential longer-term crew-carrying successor. The concept builds on the ongoing OTV demonstration with the U.S. Air Force, the first phase of which ended with the classified unmanned OTV-1’s December 2010 demonstration flight culminating in an autonomous landing at Vandenberg AFB, Calif., after 244 days in orbit. A second mission, OTV-2, is currently under way. OTV-2 has been in space since March 5 and, assuming it has not already been covertly recovered, the vehicle is expected to remain in space until at least mid-October. William Gerstenmaier, who oversees the agency’s Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) program as NASA’s associate administrator for human exploration and operations, says a commercial X-37 is an idea whose time probably has not come. “We’ve got two cargo providers that are making real good progress,” he says. “We’re making good progress with crew, so I don’t think I would deviate much off of those paths until we show that there’s some benefit. So I think it’s some kind of trial balloon on their part to see if were interested, because there’s limited funding throughout the government. So this is a way for them to see if there’s another market.” In an interview with Aviation Week between sessions at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Cape Town, South Africa, last week, Gerstenmaier said the only possible scenario for a shift to X-37 to send supplies and crew to the ISS would be “in extremis” in the event that the other commercial launch alternatives do not go well. Under its CCDev agreements, the agency could only pursue an alternative if a company defaults or stops work. The business case for these companies is really based on their having a good market share, he says. “The 20 metric-ton [capacity] was derived from what they need for a business case to deliver cargo to ISS, and if I give that business case away that erodes their ability to deliver, and that’s not a good thing,” Gerstenmaier says. NASA already has a CCDev agreement with Boeing to build the CST-100 crew vehicle, a seven-seat aluminum capsule that will ride to space atop an Atlas V, and the company official in charge of that work says the capsule will continue to be Boeing’s entry in the commercial-crew arena as the CCDev effort advances. “Clearly, [X-37B] is an option for cargo,” says John Ebon, vice president and general manager for space exploration at Boeing Defense, Space and Security. “There’s work that would have to be done for that to be used as crew. We internally traded when we were looking at going after commercial crew whether to do a capsule or a winged vehicle based on X-37. Based on the risk associated with development in a fixed-price environment of a winged vehicle as opposed to a simple capsule, we chose to go after a capsule.” Ebon, who also attended the IAC, noted that X-37B evolution study team is supporting Sierra Nevada Corp. as a supplier in its effort to build a lifting-body crew vehicle. But that work is firewalled off from the CST-100 effort, and unrelated to the Boeing CCDev entry, he says. Like Gerstenmaier, Elbon sees the X-37 as a backup, particularly as a cargo carrier in case Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) and Orbital Sciences Corp. fail to develop their cargo vehicles. Depending on what happens with cargo providers, it could be a real near-term solution for taking cargo to station, Elbon says. The X-37B evolution study, which harks back to the OTV’s pre-military NASA origins, envisages a three-phase build-up. The first would see the current 29-ft.-long vehicle used for demonstration flights to the ISS. As presently configured, the X-37B, launched inside the 5-meter (16.4-ft.) fairing of the Atlas V, could carry bulky items such as the station’s control moment gyro, battery discharge and pump module, Boeing says. The second phase would see the development of a 165% scaled-up version, roughly 47 ft. long and big enough to transport larger line-replaceable units (LRU) to the station. The larger version would demonstrate operations to and from the ISS, paving the way for a human-carrying derivative in the third phase. This would see a human-rated version transport “five to seven astronauts” says Boeing X-37B project chief Art Grantz. Speaking at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Space 2011 conference in Long Beach, Calif., Grantz said, “the next step is a larger cargo vehicle that can deliver and return large ISS LRUs while retiring the risks associated with autonomous transportation of astronauts to and from LEO.” Although many details of the OTV‑1 flight remain unknown—and with OTV-2 shrouded in even more mystery—Grantz says the initial launch was aimed at “making it operate like an airborne test platform.” From a vehicle viewpoint, however, it also successfully demonstrated autonomous de-orbit using “shuttle-style” trajectory and aero-braking maneuvers as well as a “soft landing” on a runway. The test also validated the X-37B’s autonomous guidance, navigation and control system, electro-mechanical flight control system and thermal protection. In addition, during the X-37B’s eight months in space, Air Force controllers demonstrated deployment of the solar wing as well as its subsequent stowage and return for reuse. Photo: USAF

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Oct. 4, 1957 | Soviet Union Launches Sputnik Satellite - NYTimes.com

Oct. 4, 1957 | Soviet Union Launches Sputnik Satellite - NYTimes.com

October 4, 2011, 10:38 am

Oct. 4, 1957 | Soviet Union Launches Sputnik Satellite

By THE LEARNING NETWORK

Asif A. Siddiqi/NASAA Soviet technician putting the finishing touches on Sputnik 1.

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On Oct. 4, 1957, the Soviet Union put the first artificial satellite, Sputnik I, into the Earth’s orbit, signifying the birth of the Space Age. The spherical satellite, which was about the size of a beach ball and weighed 184 pounds, was able to orbit the Earth in 98 minutes.

The Oct. 5 edition of The New York Times noted that experts had said that satellites had “no practicable military application in the foreseeable future.” The article further explained, “Their real significance would be in providing scientists with important new information concerning the nature of the sun, cosmic radiation, solar radio interference and static- producing phenomena radiating from the north and south magnetic poles.”

At the time, the United States had been also working on launching a satellite, the far smaller Vanguard. The Soviet Union “did not pass up the opportunity to use the launching for propaganda purposes,” The Times noted. “It said in its announcement that people now could see how ‘the new socialist society’ had turned the boldest dreams of mankind into reality.”

The success of Sputnik spurred the U.S. to restart its Explorer program, which put the first American satellite into space in January 1958 (but not before the launch of Sputnik 2). The escalation of the Space Race between the U.S. and Soviet Union drove the advancement of space technology over the next decade.

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In his 2011 State of the Union address, President Obama said that the nation is facing a “Sputnik moment,” meaning that the country needs to invest more in research and education to keep up with foreign competition.

In a January 2011 political analysis article, Anand Giridharadas took issue with President Obama’s Sputnik reference, arguing, “But, unlike in 1957, when the Russians went into the ether, there is no single, simplifying event to concentrate the mind…India and China, far, far away, are rising, Americans are told. South Korea, they hear again and again, has better Internet…Bridges and roads in America are creaking, according to a study on the news. America risks calcifying
into a classist society, a British magazine warns… Especially if you have been anywhere near Asia’s renaissance lately, it feels important to say that we tend to underdiagnose the affliction.”

What are your thoughts on the U.S. as a global competitor? Do you agree with the president that we are facing a “Sputnik moment,” or do think that this reference “underdiagnoses” the current state of affairs in the U.S.? Why? What steps do you think the country should take to catch up with the competition?

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The Shuttle Ends Its Final Voyage and an Era in Space

Philip Scott Andrews/The New York Times

Space shuttle Atlantis lands at the Kennedy Space Center on Thursday. More Photos »

By KENNETH CHANG

Published: July 21, 2011

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The last space shuttle flight rolled to a stop just before 6 a.m. on Thursday, closing an era of the nation’s space program.

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The International Space Station seen from the space shuttle Atlantis as it flew away on Tuesday. More Photos »

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“Mission complete, Houston,” said Capt. Christopher J. Ferguson of the Navy, commander of the shuttle Atlantis for the last flight. “After serving the world for over 30 years, the space shuttle has earned its place in history, and it’s come to a final stop.”
It was the 19th night landing at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to end the 135th space shuttle mission. For Atlantis, the final tally of its 26-year career is 33 missions, accumulating just short of 126 million miles during 307 days in space, circumnavigating the Earth 4,848 times.
A permanent marker will be placed on the runway to indicate the final resting spot of the space shuttle program.
The last day in space went smoothly. Late on Wednesday night, the crew awoke to the Kate Smith version of “God Bless America.” With no weather or technical concerns, the crew closed the payload doors at 2:09 a.m. on Thursday.
At 4:13 a.m., Barry E. Wilmore, an astronaut at mission control in Houston, told the Atlantis crew, “Everything is looking fantastic, there you are go for the deorbit burn, and you can maneuver on time.”
“That’s great, Butch,” replied Captain Ferguson. “Go on the deorbit maneuver, on time.”
Thirty-six minutes later, as it was passing over Malaysia, Atlantis fired its maneuvering engines for 3 minutes 16 seconds, slowing it down by 225 miles per hour and beginning the fall back into the Earth’s atmosphere.
The shuttle, which travels backward while in orbit, flipped around to a nose-first position. Its descending northeast trajectory passed over the southeast Pacific Ocean and crossed Central America toward Florida.
At NASA centers around the country, crowds of NASA employees gathered to watch a broadcast of the landing. On the International Space Station, Michael Fossum, a NASA astronaut, floated in the station’s windowed cupola segment and saw Atlantis’s trail of hot plasma that marked the reentry path.
Less than 10 minutes before landing, Captain Ferguson described the view out his window.
“Beautiful view of the Yucatán, I think, going right under the wing right now,” he said. “It’s a gorgeous thing.”
“You’re looking good to us, Atlantis,” Mr. Wilmore responded, but added a correction. “You’re just passing the west coast of Florida.”
“Huh? O.K.,” Captain Ferguson said in surprise. “I’m further than I thought we were.”
In the clear, windless predawn, twin sonic booms announced its impending arrival as Atlantis slowed to less than the speed of sound. It made a wide turn in preparation for the approach for its final landing to conclude the 5,284,862-mile trip.
During the 13-day mission, Atlantis ferried 8,000 pounds of supplies and spare parts to the International Space Station. With the retirement of the shuttles, the space station will now rely on Russian, European and Japanese rockets to bring up supplies.
NASA is also counting on two commercial companies, the Space Exploration Technologies Corporation of Hawthorne, Calif., and the Orbital Sciences Corporation of Dulles, Va., to begin cargo flights next year.
For Atlantis, NASA will now begin the work of transforming it into a museum piece. It will be mounted nearby at Kennedy’s visitor center.