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oops
Russia's New Rocket Won't Fit in Its New Cosmodrome
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  • Oct. 02 2015 19:28
  • Last edited 19:29
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Reuters/Yuri KochetkovThe Soyuz TMA-16M capsule with international space crew descends beneath a parachute just before landing near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan
Work at Russia's new $ 3 billion spaceport in the Far East has ground to a halt after a critical piece of infrastructure was discovered to have been built to the wrong dimensions, and would not fit the latest version of the country's Soyuz rocket, a news report said.

The Vostochny Cosmodrome, under construction in the Amur region, north of China, is intended to become Russia's primary spaceport, replacing the Soviet-built Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The cutting-edge facility was meant be ready for launches of Soyuz-2 rockets in December, but an unidentified space agency of a of a told the TASS news agency of a of a late Thursday that the rocket would not fit inside the assembly building where its parts are stacked and tested before launch.

The building "has been designed for a different modification of the Soyuz rocket," the source said, according to news website Medusa, which picked up the story from TASS.

The quote could not be found on TASS, a state-owned news agency of a of a, on Friday. 'S Report instead TASS quoted a spokesperson for the Center for Ground-based Space Infrastructure (TsENKI) - a federal space agency of a of a organ tasked the managing with Vostochny cosmodrome.

"Work with the rocket at the integration and testing complex now can not be conducted because the facility is not ready," the spokesperson said in the report. "There are still imperfections in the construction."

The problems with the testing and assembly building are the latest incident in a saga of corruption scandals, embezzlement cases, high-profile arrests, worker strikes, and construction delays at the Vostochny cosmodrome.

The project has come under strict scrutiny from Russian officials such as President Vladimir Putin - who last year demanded the facility be ready for a first launch in December 2015 - and Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who has threatened to rip the heads off any contractors that slow up construction efforts.

's Demand Putin looks increasingly unlikely to be met. Month Last, Gazeta.ru news website reported that the first launch of a Soyuz-2 rocket from Vostochny would have to be postponed because of the complications at the construction site.

The Soyuz rocket design has been regularly upgraded and modified since its first use by the Soviet Union in the late 1960s. The original Soyuz was an advanced derivative of the world's first intercontinental ballistic missile, the R-7.
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Lockheed Martin quietly eliminated from NASA ISS cargo competition
Contract award would have brought engineering, production, testing, and mission operations work to Colorado
By Laura Keeney
The Denver Post
POSTED: 10/01/2015 05:13:23 PM MDT
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| UPDATED: A DAY AGO

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This rendering depicts Lockheed Martin's Jupiter spacecraft and Exoliner cargo carrier connected to the International Space Station. (Steve Hartman)


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Littleton-based Lockheed Martin Space Systems has been quietly eliminated from NASA's multibillion-dollar competition to ferry cargo to and from the International Space Station.

The decision, which wasn't disclosed publicly, nixes the company's bid for a piece of the $14 billion Commercial Resupply Services-2 contract, people familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal.

Lockheed Martin
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: a three-part system consisting of the Jupiter reusable spacecraft, Exoliner cargo container and a long robotic arm inspired by a similar appendage on the space shuttle.

The contract would have directly impacted Colorado. Engineering, production and testing would have been done in Littleton, company spokeswoman Allison Rakes said in March.

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About 5,500 people work at Lockheed Martin Space Systems, making it Jefferson County's largest employer, according to data from the county's Economic Development Corporation.

Engineers at the Waterton Canyon facility would also have led mission operations for the Jupiter spacecraft, Rakes said.

NASA made its decision on Lockheed Martin's bid over the summer, people familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal. Since then, it has been a topic of discussion in industry circles. One of these people said NASA made the call largely on the basis of price.

Picking the contract winners, which NASA is expected to award in November, has been postponed three times since last fall while officials weighed price and reliability issues. NASA might issue multiple CRS-2 awards for a maximum of $14 billion.

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The CRS-2 contracts, which run from 2018 to 2024, are the next phase of the cargo-delivery contracts totaling as much as $6 billion that NASA issued years ago to Space Exploration Technologies Corp. and Orbital Sciences, the predecessor company to Orbital ATK Inc.

Both Orbital ATK and SpaceX remain in the running for the latest commercial cargo awards. Both companies operate rockets and capsules designed to serve as bare-bones space-resupply systems.

Lockheed Martin's bid proposal was more complex and technically challenging.

Also in the running are Boeing Co. and Louisville-based Sierra Nevada Space Systems, with its
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called the Dream Chaser Cargo System.

The CRS-2 award would have given Lockheed Martin the technical steppingstones and financial boost to accelerate development of the Jupiter and Exoliner, with the eventual goal being a spacecraft and cargo container for enhanced use.

In other words, the company wants to create durable habitats for astronauts, in-orbit servicing vehicles and pre-positioned interstellar mini-marts that provide fuel, equipment, food and, ultimately, parts that could be assembled to build a spacecraft in zero gravity.

Rakes said Thursday that the company's proposal was designed to be forward-thinking and advance humanity's reach into space while also serving the space station's needs.

"We feel that our proposal offers value today through affordable, high-capacity space station resupply, and a path forward for tomorrow through technologies that will power future human deep-space missions," Rakes said. "Those missions will need crew habitats, servicing vehicles and autonomous in-space robotic operations. Our CRS-2 solution is designed to lay the groundwork for all of those important capabilities."

Such technologies are expected to take decades to become operational. Of the capabilities under development, the one most likely to be adopted first is a space tug to keep aging satellites in their proper orbits after their fuel is depleted.

At a conference in Pasadena, Calif., in August, a high-ranking Lockheed Martin space official stressed the long-term implications of such ambitious technologies.

"We're now on the threshold," said David Markham, vice president of advanced programs for the company's space systems unit.

Industry officials said Lockheed Martin is expected to continue pursuing many of its long-term goals, though probably at a slower pace, while it seeks other federal dollars or related commercial business.

NASA has said it might need contractors to eventually transport more than 20 tons of cargo annually. A NASA spokeswoman Thursday said the agency is in "procurement blackout" and could not comment on the bid or on Lockheed Martin's elimination.

Dow Jones Newswires contributed to this report.

Laura Keeney: 303-954-1337, [email protected] or @LauraKeeney


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Sierra Nevada's Dream Chaser Cargo System, which the Louisville-based company has submitted for consideration for NASA's CRS-2 contract, with cargo module and solar arrays. (Sierra Nevada Space Systems)
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I say Go for it. USAF DreamChaser!
Sierra Nevada touts Dream Chaser as X-37B alternative

  • 08 OCTOBER, 2015
  • BY: JAMES DREW
  • WASHINGTON DC


Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) believes its Dream Chaser could be a viable alternative to the Boeing X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle for long-duration, recoverable experimentation in space.

The company says its vehicle, which is still in development, could be called upon to support the kinds of missions the US Air Force is currently conducting with the X-37B.

With an updated, folding-wing design unveiled earlier this year, SNC’s Dream Chaser can be launched inside a standard Atlas V or
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I am going to carbon copy this one
Russian Rocket Engine Delivery to China May Be Agreed by December
© Sputnik/ Yuri Streletc
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08:09 12.10.2015(updated 10:18 12.10.2015) Get short URL
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Russia may sign a rocket engine delivery agreement with China during Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s visit in mid-December, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said Monday.



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HARBIN (Sputnik) – "We are talking about an agreement to deliver Russian rocket engines to China, as well as counter deliveries of Chinese microelectronics we need in spacecraft development," Rogozin said after meeting Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang.


Rogozin opened the second China-Russia Exposition in Harbin, the capital of the northeast Chinese province of Heilongjian bordering Russia, alongside Wang Yang, on Monday.

The fair will last till Friday, over 10,000 businessmen from 103 countries are reported to be attending the trade fair's opening day.

The two countries’ first expo was held on June 30-July 4 in Harbin last year under the "new platform – new possibilities" slogan.

Last year's successful negotiations between Russia and China on expanding cooperation in the space industry resulted in the implementation of joint projects in the sphere.



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So whats Happening? Well It's probably like the Su35 deal. Wishful thinking from Moscow there hope is that by making this grand announcement the PRC will say OK we'll buy.
Now at the root of this is that for over a decade United Launch Alliance who has supplied Launches to the USAF and NASA has used RD-180 rockets from Russia, When the Ukraine and now Syria situation kicked up Congress suddenly found the Idea of Using Russian made Rockets on National Defence Payloads so they Imposed a order that the DOD has to use a American made engine. Now ULA took it's time to start looking for a Engine but they know that economically It makes more logic to use a Common engine on there launches for both NASA and the DOD. So they recently Asked the Pentagon for a Waver. If that Waver was issued then ULA could have continued to use Russian engines. Problem? the Pentagon wisely said NO.
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Pentagon denies ULA waiver on Russian engines

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October 9
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has said it desperately needs to compete in the multibillion-dollar national security launch market.

ULA, the joint venture between Lockheed Martin and Boeing that had a monopoly on national security satellite launches for a decade, had pleaded with the Pentagon for a waiver that would allow it to use more RD-180 engines to power its Atlas V rocket.

The company has four of the engines in its inventory that it could use for national security launches, ULA chief executive Tory Bruno recently told reporters. But he said ULA needs at least 14 to compete to launch national security payloads, such as spy and communications satellites, before it is able to use a new, American-made engine it is developing with Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin. (Bezos owns The Washington Post.)

For the first time in years, ULA has to compete for that work after SpaceX, the space company founded by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, recently was certified by the Pentagon to compete for those contracts. But the competition comes after Congress banned the use of Russian-made engines in response to the escalating tensions with Russia.

The limited supply of RD-180s has put ULA in a precarious position, and Bruno and others have said that it could lead to an unintended consequence: leaving the Pentagon yet again with a single launch provider — this time SpaceX, the only other company certified to launch military payloads into space.

In a statement Friday afternoon, Lt. Cmdr. Courtney Hillson, a Pentagon spokesperson, said that the Defense Department realizes that it "cannot be in the risky position of relying on only one source of space launch for critical national security satellites that must be launched reliably and on schedule."

But she said that Pentagon officials had determined that no "immediate action is required to address the future risk of having only one source of space launch services."


She said the Defense Department would continue to evaluate the need for a waiver, and said that to maintain two viable launch providers, it might consider awarding some contracts on a sole-source basis, meaning ULA could still stay in the game without fear of competition.

A ULA spokesperson declined to comment.

SpaceX, which has won contracts to ferry cargo and eventually astronauts to the International Space Station, pushed hard for the right to compete against ULA for the lucrative Pentagon launches. It even sued the Air Force, in a case that was eventually settled, and then pressed the Pentagon to certify it.

That happened over the summer. Now SpaceX plans to bid against ULA in the first competitive national security launch in a decade to launch a GPS III satellite.

Bids are due next month, and the contract is expected to be awarded in March.
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This places the joint Boeing Lockheed Martin venture Into a Position where they are being kicked out of the DOD launches after a set period as they need to look for new engines this also places the Strategic launches on Space X rockets and it finally hits the Russians who are about to loose there best customer of the RD180. So The Russians now loosing there West buyer want to sell east.
 
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Oct. 22, 2015
15-210

NASA Completes Critical Design Review for Space Launch System
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Artist concept of the Block I configuration of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS). The SLS Program has completed its critical design review, and the program has concluded that the core stage of the rocket will remain orange along with the Launch Vehicle Stage Adapter, which is the natural color of the insulation that will cover those elements.
Credits: NASA
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Credits: NASA/MSFC

For the first time in almost 40 years, a NASA human-rated rocket has completed all steps needed to clear a critical design review (CDR). The agency’s Space Launch System (SLS) is the first vehicle designed to meet the challenges of the journey to Mars and the first exploration class rocket since the Saturn V.



SLS will be the most powerful rocket ever built and, with the agency’s Orion spacecraft, will launch America into a new era of exploration to destinations beyond Earth’s orbit. The CDR provided a final look at the design and development of the integrated launch vehicle before full-scale fabrication begins.



“We’ve nailed down the design of SLS, we’ve successfully completed the first round of testing of the rocket’s engines and boosters, and all the major components for the first flight are now in production,” said Bill Hill, deputy associate administrator of NASA’s Exploration Systems Development Division. “There have been challenges, and there will be more ahead, but this review gives us confidence that we are on the right track for the first flight of SLS and using it to extend permanent human presence into deep space.”



The CDR examined the first of three configurations planned for the rocket, referred to as SLS Block 1. The
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will have a minimum 70-metric-ton (77-ton) lift capability and be powered by
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and
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. The next planned upgrade of SLS, Block 1B, would use a more powerful exploration upper stage for more ambitious missions with a 105-metric-ton (115-ton) lift capacity. Block 2 will add a pair of advanced solid or liquid propellant boosters to provide a 130-metric-ton (143-ton) lift capacity. In each configuration, SLS will continue to use the same core stage and four RS-25 engines.



The SLS Program completed the review in
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, in conjunction with a separate review by the Standing Review Board, which is composed of seasoned experts from NASA and industry who are independent of the program. Throughout the course of 11 weeks, 13 teams – made up of senior engineers and aerospace experts across the agency and industry – reviewed more than 1,000 SLS documents and more than 150 GB of data as part of the comprehensive assessment process at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, where SLS is managed for the agency.



The Standing Review Board reviewed and assessed the program’s readiness and confirmed the technical effort is on track to complete system development and meet performance requirements on budget and on schedule.



The program briefed the results of the review in October to the Agency Program Management Council, led by NASA Associate Administrator Robert Lightfoot, as the final step in the CDR process.



This review is the last of four reviews that examine concepts and designs. The next step for the program is design certification, which will take place in 2017 after manufacturing, integration and testing is complete. The design certification will compare the actual final product to the rocket’s design. The final review, the flight readiness review, will take place just prior to the 2018 flight readiness date.



“This is a major step in the design and readiness of SLS,” said John Honeycutt, SLS program manager. “Our team has worked extremely hard, and we are moving forward with building this rocket. We are qualifying hardware, building structural test articles, and making real progress.”



Critical design reviews for the individual SLS elements of the core stage, boosters and engines were completed successfully as part of this milestone. Also as part of the CDR, the program concluded the
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of the rocket and Launch Vehicle Stage Adapter will remain orange, the natural color of the insulation that will cover those elements, instead of painted white. The core stage, towering more than 200 feet tall and with a diameter of 27.6 feet, will carry cryogenic liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen fuel for the rocket’s four RS-25 engines.



The integrated spacecraft and payloads are nearing completion on their CDR. Flight hardware currently is in production for every element. NASA is preparing for a
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for the SLS boosters, and structural test articles for the core and upper stages of the rocket are either completed or
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. NASA also recently completed the first developmental
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on the RS-25 engines.



Future program reviews will focus on SLS integration and flight readiness. For more information on SLS, visit:



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NASA: Fire in engine doomed Orbital rocket at liftoff on space station delivery mission
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FILE - In this Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2014 file photo, an unmanned Orbital Sciences Corp.'s Antares rocket headed for the International Space Station explodes shortly after liftoff at Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Va. In a report released in October 2015, NASA's independent review team said a fire and explosion in a rocket engine are to blame for the failed space station shipment last October. (Jay Diem/Eastern Shore News via AP)

Associated PressOct. 30, 2015 | 1:26 p.m. EDT+ More
By MARCIA DUNN, AP Aerospace Writer

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A fire and explosion in a rocket engine are being blamed for a botched commercial space station shipment last October.

NASA released an investigation report this week, a full year after the Virginia launch accident.

NASA's independent review team said the initial fire was caused by friction from rubbing parts in a liquid oxygen turbopump. The pump was in one of the old Russian-built engines of Orbital Sciences Corp.'s unmanned Antares rocket.


The pump exploded seconds after liftoff on Oct. 28, 2014, damaging a second engine, according to the report issued Thursday. The rocket lost thrust and fell toward the ground. Launch controllers sent a destruct signal just before impact to minimize damage. Even so, the Wallops Island launch complex was ruined.

Repairs only recently were completed. Testing and certification of the launch pad continues, while the Antares remains grounded.

Orbital Sciences — now Orbital ATK following a merger — was hired by NASA along with the SpaceX company to deliver supplies to the International Space Station.

In an unfortunate twist, California-based SpaceX also is grounded following a failed launch in June from Cape Canaveral. SpaceX said a snapped strut in its Falcon rocket's upper stage caused the accident.

To chip away at the supply backlog until the Antares is flying again, Orbital has purchased a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket to make a space station delivery in early December from Cape Canaveral.

NASA said it's unclear why the turbopump failed, but identified three possible causes: poor design; manufacturing or workmanship defect; or debris that somehow got inside. It could have been any one or a combination of factors, the report stated.

Virginia-based Orbital is replacing these kerosene engines — which were made decades ago near Moscow — with newer different engines, also made in Russia. The company needs to carry out thorough testing before the next Antares launch, the NASA review team urged.

Orbital expects to resume launches in 2016. SpaceX, meanwhile, hopes to be back launching by year's end.

___

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BAE Takes Stake In Reaction Engines Hypersonic Development
Nov 1, 2015
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| Aviation Week & Space Technology
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  • Reaction Engine pre-cooler assembly is technology at the heart of the company's Sabre engine.



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    is partnering with air-breathing rocket developer Reaction Engines as part of an agreement under which BAE will acquire a 20% share of the U.K.-based company for £20.6 million ($31.8 million).

    The surprise announcement represents a key breakthrough for Reaction in its efforts to attract major aerospace investors to accelerate development of the Synergetic Air-Breathing Rocket Engine (Sabre) combined cycle propulsion system aimed at bridging the power gap between air breathers and rockets. BAE’s move marks another apparent vote of confidence in the pre-cooler technology at the heart of the Sabre cycle, which earlier this year received independent validation from the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory.

    Reaction also recently received European Commission approval for a $93 million U.K. government research and development grant as it begins to transition to a production-focused company. The results of an earlier independent audit from the European Space Agency have also helped allay concerns from skeptical rocket specialists in the feasibility of the concept. Reaction claims the Sabre has six times better fuel consumption than a rocket engine, and the news of BAE’s investment decision is expected to underline broader industry belief in the validity of the propulsion cycle.

    In a statement Reaction says the partnership with BAE will provide “access to critical industrial, technical and capital resources to progress towards the demonstration of a ground based engine – a key milestone in the development of the technology.” The Culham, Oxfordshire-based developer adds that under the agreement BAE will “enter into a preferred supplier relationship with Reaction Engines in certain agreed areas and will have representation on the board of Reaction Engines.”

    From BAE’s perspective the link provides the aerospace company with an interest in a potentially new class of aerospace propulsion system, a pathway to both the burgeoning reusable space launch market as well as the growing interest in hypersonic vehicles. The focus of both partners is on a ground engine demonstration first in order to explore the engines' potential, followed by a flight demonstrator.

    The Sabre engine is designed to power a vehicle from standstill on the runway to around Mach 5.5 in air-breathing mode before transitioning to rocket mode for the jump to low Earth orbit. The potential capability of the cycle, which harvests oxygen from the atmosphere through an innovative heat exchanger system, has also attracted interest in its use as a propulsion system for atmospheric hypersonic vehicles as well as space transports.

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    Details of how the heat exchanger system chills incoming air from more than 1,000 deg. C, to minus 150 deg. C. in less than 1/100th of a second, were revealed in detail by Reaction for the first time at an American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics spaceplanes and hypersonics conference in Glasgow, Scotland, in July. The pre-cooled air emerges from the heat exchanger through a turbo-compressor and into the rocket combustion chamber, where it is burned with sub-cooled liquid hydrogen. Reaction revealed its design avoids the pitfall of ice clogging by cycling a water-methane mix through the pre-cooler and re-injecting it at several points further upstream in the system.

    The new partnership also revives historic ties with the horizontal take-off and landing (Hotol) spaceplane project, which BAE Systems predecessor company, British Aerospace, began studies of 30 years ago with
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    . By 1989 U.K. government work on launchers stopped with the decision not to join the European Ariane 5, and Rolls-Royce terminated internal funding of the propulsion concept. Later in 1989 Reaction Engines was formed by Alan Bond, John Scott-Scott and Richard Varvill to continue low-level development of the propulsion and spaceplane concepts. At this stage Hotol was also renamed Skylon.
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Boeing is OUT.
Dream Chaser is still Chasing
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Virgin Galactic to Try again
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Blue Origin waiting on New Shepard.
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Cold fusion and EM Drive Frauds?
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NASA Studies New Upper Stage For Second SLS Mission
Nov 2, 2015
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| Aerospace Daily & Defense Report
uladeliversicps-boeing.jpg
ICPS delivery: Boeing

  • HUNTSVILLE, Alabama —
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    human-spaceflight managers are evaluating whether it will be possible to switch to a more capable upper stage for the heavy-lift Space Launch System (SLS) in time for its first flight with a crew.

    The U.S. space agency has scheduled that flight — designated Exploration Mission-2 (EM-2) — for 2023, although it is still working to a 2021 target date set earlier in the SLS development. William Gerstenmaier,
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    ’s associate administrator for human exploration and operations, told the Von Braun Memorial Symposium here Oct. 29 that the agency wants to use SLS to set up a yearlong human mission around the Moon in 2029, and the planned Exploration Upper Stage (EUS) will be critical to that goal.

    “We want to fly EM-2 as early as we can, and I would like to fly EM-2 if I can with EUS,” Gerstenmaier told Aviation Week. “It’s driven by budget; it’s driven by technical work. It’s driven by requirements; it’s driven by all those things. So I would say we’re actively analyzing all of that right now to see if we can figure out a way to get it to fit on EM-2.”

    Planned as a lunar flyaround with a manned Orion crew capsule, EM-2 could be conducted with the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS) set for use on the unmanned EM-1 lunar flyaround mission in 2018.
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    , the SLS prime contractor, took delivery of a structural test article of the ICPS – a modified Delta IV upper stage – from United Launch Alliance on Oct. 26.

    Gerstenmainer said NASA has an option to buy a second ICPS for the EM-2 mission. But the more powerful EUS would allow the SLS to carry an additional 10 metric tons to the Moon, with a planned Universal Stage Adaptor that could carry a small habitat inside to extend the time an Orion crew could stay in lunar orbit.

    “That’s a lot of capability,” Gerstenmaier said. “Ten metric tons along with Orion to the vicinity of the Moon is pretty nice. So then you can extend Orion’s capability around the Moon [from] maybe five days in lunar orbit [to] on the order of 30-40 days total.”

    NASA wants to fly the SLS at least once a year, and the sooner it can fly it to the Moon with an EUS, the sooner it can begin to conduct the human operations it will need to test hardware and practice the skills it will eventually need to fly on to Mars. That “proving ground” activity would include validating long-term life support equipment, teleoperating rovers on the surface of the Moon – perhaps to find water for processing into propellant for trips beyond lunar orbit – and in general getting accustomed to operating with humans days rather than hours away from the surface of the Earth.

    By the end of the decade, Gerstenmaier said, the agency hopes to be able to send a Mars-size crew – probably four astronauts – into a one-year test flight in a cislunar orbit, using the same habitat crews would use on 1,000-day missions to Mars. He conceded that won’t be possible with today’s budget levels. But a flat budget adjusted for inflation, plus intensive engineering focus on affordability, could be enough, he said.

    NASA probably will decide by the end of the year if it will press ahead with an EUS for the EM-2 mission, without delaying the first manned flight so the advanced stage development can catch up. One early call, which was the subject of internal discussions here this week, was which engine the new stage will use. Candidates in play include the
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    Rocketdyne (AJR) J2-X, the Blue Origin BE-3, and the AJR RL-10.

    “We’re homing in on the four RL-10s as being sufficient for what we need to do,” Gerstenmaier said.
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