Early last year Alliant Techsystems (ATK) and EADS Astrium unveiled a new launch vehicle called Liberty, using a five-segment solid rocket booster built by ATK for the lower stage and a modified Ariane 5 core stage [...]]]>

Illustration of the ATK/EADS Astrium Liberty system, featuring the Liberty rocket and a crew capsule. (Credit: ATK)

Early last year Alliant Techsystems (ATK) and EADS Astrium unveiled a new launch vehicle called Liberty, using a five-segment solid rocket booster built by ATK for the lower stage and a modified Ariane 5 core stage built by Astrium for the upper stage. The companies hoped to win funds from NASA’s second-round Commercial Crew Development (CCDev-2) competition, primarily as as an alternative to the Atlas 5 for vehicles being proposed by companies other than SpaceX (which, of course, is using its own Falcon 9).

The companies didn’t win CCDev-2 funding but did get an unfunded Space Act Agreement to support continued study of the vehicle. In the meantime, though, the companies that did get CCDev-2 funding for their vehicles—Blue Origin, Boeing, Sierra Nevada Corporation, and SpaceX—all selected other vehicles for their spacecraft: SpaceX using its own Falcon 9, while the other three picking the Atlas 5. Liberty, it appeared, was left without a ride.

Wednesday, though, in a briefing at the Spacecraft Technology Expo in Los Angeles, the companies announced their new plan: developing their own full-service crew transportation system, also called Liberty, using the previously-announced Liberty rocket and a crew capsule. That capsule is based on a composite crew capsule previously built by ATK for testing by NASA during Constellation. The vehicle’s service module is a slimmed-down version of the one bring developed for Orion by Lockheed Martin, while the crew escape system is the Max Launch Abort System (MLAS), developed originally as an alternative to Orion’s traditional escape tower system and successfully tested at NASA Wallops in 2009.

ATK and Astrium officials, at the LA announcement, said that Liberty could be ready soon: initial test launches of the abort system would take place in 2014, with test flights of the full system in 2015, the second carrying a two-person test crew. “We have our first test crew picked out,” Kent Rominger, ATK vice president and program manager for Liberty, said, without divulging their names.

Rominger emphasized the design safety of the Liberty system, calling it “the safest ever designed.” That assessment is based on what he described as a simple design as well as the demonstrated reliability of solid rocket motors and the Ariane 5 core stage (there have been nearly 50 consecutive successful Ariane 5 launches, going back nearly a decade.) Rominger said that the risk of a fatal accident on the shuttle was no better than 1 in 200, while the Liberty system would be better than 1 in 1,200.

Liberty looks like the Ares 1 rocket that was under development by NASA for Constellation before its 2010 cancellation, which had concerns about thrust oscillation causing significant vibrations in its upper stage. However, Rominger and John Schumacher, CEO of Astrium in North America, said that the Ariane 5 core stage behaved differently than the original Ares 1 upper stage, with far less vibration. “Ares 1 was really a system tuning problem,” Rominger said, as its upper stage has natural frequencies coupled with the lower stage. The Ariane-derived upper stage doesn’t have the same tuning, he said. “We can confidently say we don’t have a problem.”

The initial market for the Liberty system is crew transportation to the ISS, but Schumacher said they have identified other markets, including cargo transportation, launches of US government satellites, tourism, and so-called “sovereign clients”, governments that want a human spaceflight program without having the ability to develop their own systems. (Notably absent from the list is commercial satellite launch, perhaps because EADS Astrium doesn’t want to compete with its own Ariane 5.)

The companies confirmed they were seeking funding from NASA’s Commercial Crew Integrated Capabilities (CCiCap) competition, but didn’t disclose financial information, including the prices they planned to charge for their services (beyond that they would be cheaper than current Soyuz flight costs of over $60 million a seat.) Rominger said they would continue development of Liberty if they don’t receive CCiCap funding, but at a slower pace than the schedule they described that called for an initial crewed flight in 2015. “There’s no way I can meet a schedule like that without an award from NASA,” he said.

As a small, entrepreneurial space company, XCOR Aerospace has found innovative ways to test and demonstrate its technology. One of its best-known examples was the EZ-Rocket, a Long-EZ plane fitted with twin rocket engines built by XCOR. The company announced this week that it did something similar, using another mode of transportation to [...]]]>

As a small, entrepreneurial space company, XCOR Aerospace has found innovative ways to test and demonstrate its technology. One of its best-known examples was the EZ-Rocket, a Long-EZ plane fitted with twin rocket engines built by XCOR. The company announced this week that it did something similar, using another mode of transportation to test technology intended for its suborbital spaceplane.

XCOR wanted to test the bearings that are used by the piston pump in its rocket engines, but found that conventional test stands were expensive. “The pump test stand costs about $500 a minute to run,” said XCOR chief engineer Dan DeLong in the video above. Instead, they found the bearings could be used in the engine of the Triumph Street Triple motorcycle, which has a similar horsepower as XCOR’s engines and a similar arrangement of cylinders. And, as it turns out, the motorcycle is a lot cheaper than a test stand. “The motorcycle [cost] is gasoline,” DeLong said.

In addition, a motorcycle test can be more scenic than a test stand. XCOR fitted the Triumph motorcycle with the rocket motor bearings and drove it from Roswell, New Mexico to Mojave, California, running the motor for about 20 hours. The result: there was “no discernible difference in bearing wear between when we started and when we finished,” DeLong said. And, as XCOR COO Andrew Nelson noted, the company saved over half a million dollars by testing it on a motorcycle versus the test stand.

“Oh, and everyone had a lot of fun along the way!” Nelson added in the release.

Updated 7:45 pm: As expected, SpaceX announced late Friday that it’s slipping its next planned launch attempt to May 19, with a backup date of May 22. “SpaceX and [...]]]>

The Falcon 9 rocket that will launch SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft on its upcoming test flight undergoes a hotfire test on April 30. (Credit: SpaceX)

Updated 7:45 pm: As expected, SpaceX announced late Friday that it’s slipping its next planned launch attempt to May 19, with a backup date of May 22. “SpaceX and NASA are nearing completion of the software assurance process,” SpaceX announced, explaining the new launch dates. “Thus far, no issues have been uncovered during this process, but with a mission of this complexity we want to be extremely diligent.” That May 19th launch would take place at 4:55 am EDT (0855 GMT), which is either very late on a Friday night or very early on a Saturday morning, depending on whether you’re a night owl or early bird.

In a separate statement, NASA endorsed the revised launch date. “After additional reviews and discussions between the SpaceX and NASA teams, we are in a position to proceed toward this important launch,” said NASA associate administrator Bill Gerstenmaier. “There are a few remaining open items but we are ready to support SpaceX for its new launch date of May 19.”

Original Post: Earlier this week SpaceX said it was “unlikely” that the company would be able to carry out its Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) test launch on Monday the 7th as previously planned. The company said it would announce a new launch date when it was set, but so far the company has said nothing, suggesting the launch will slip not just to the backup date of May 10 but at least to later in the month.

In a Twitter chat with the Associated Press on Thursday afternoon, SpaceX’s Elon Musk indicated a new launch date hasn’t been set yet. “Figuring out new no-earlier-than launch date with NASA. Should know in next few days,” he said in a tweet that, curiously, has since been deleted. (The quote is from one of a number of retweets of his original comment.) In addition, one NASA manifest that previously listed a “NET 5/10/2012″ date for the launch now lists it only as “TBD” (to be determined), but putting it after a May 15 launch of a Soyuz mission to the ISS as well as a May 17 launch of a Japanese rocket on a mission not related to the ISS. All that suggests that a May 10 launch is unlikely, and that they’ll wait until after the Soyuz is at the ISS and its new crew settled in before trying again.

Update 8:30 pm: It took a couple of tries, but SpaceX did carry out the static fire test successfully on Monday. The countdown to the original T-0 time of 3 pm EDT stopped [...]]]>

A SpaceX Falcon 9 sits on the pad at Cape Canaveral in advance of Monday's hot fire test. (Credit: SpaceX)

Update 8:30 pm: It took a couple of tries, but SpaceX did carry out the static fire test successfully on Monday. The countdown to the original T-0 time of 3 pm EDT stopped with 47 seconds to go. The company said an unspecified anomaly caused the flight computer to stop the count. After resolving the issue, the countdown proceeded and the engines ignited for two seconds at 4:15 pm EDT (2015 GMT). “So far things look good. Engines fired for 2 seconds, as scheduled. Engineers will now review data as we continue preparations for the upcoming launch,” the company said in an emailed statement.

Elon Musk, though, put it a little more succinctly:

Woohoo, rocket hold down firing completed and all looks good!!

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 30, 2012

One other note: while the test was webcast, there was virtually no information provided by the company during the test, especially after the original countdown was aborted. Even the company’s updates on Twitter were remarkably terse:

Reviewing data

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) April 30, 2012

Hopefully on the upcoming actual launch this Monday the company will have a freer flow of information.

Original Post: SpaceX plans to carry out a “hot fire” test of its Falcon 9 rocket on the launch pad today, one of the final tests leading up to next Monday’s scheduled launch of a Dragon spacecraft on a test flight to the International Space Station. SpaceX has scheduled the test, where the Falcon 9′s nine first-stage engines are briefly ignited, for 3 pm EDT (1900 GMT) today. The test will be webcast on the SpaceX web site starting at 2:30 pm EDT.

The test is one of the last major milestones before the launch of that Falcon 9 carrying a Dragon spacecraft, currently scheduled for 9:38 am EDT (1338 GMT) May 7. The Dragon will fly on what SpaceX and NASA call the “C2+” mission for the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program, making a close approach to the station and, if all goes well, berthing with the station. A completely successful flight would allow SpaceX to begin commercial cargo deliveries to the ISS later this year, although both the company and the space agency have emphasized that this is a test flight.

Science-fiction authors and space commercialization advocate alike have dreamed for decades of mining asteroids. So when Seattle-based Planetary Resources, Inc. announced last week it will unveil on Tuesday “a new space venture with a mission [...]]]>

Illustration of Planetary Resources Inc.'s initial spacecraft, the Arkyd-101 space telescope in Earth orbit. (credit: Planetary Resources, Inc.)

Science-fiction authors and space commercialization advocate alike have dreamed for decades of mining asteroids. So when Seattle-based Planetary Resources, Inc. announced last week it will unveil on Tuesday “a new space venture with a mission to help ensure humanity’s prosperity” that has the backing of an all-star list of investors—Larry Page, Eric Schmidt, James Cameron, and Ross Perot, Jr., among others—the Internet exploded with visions of 21st century ’49ers heading out to the asteroid belt to make trillions of dollars mining gold and platinum.

That vision, as it turns out, is partially correct. Planetary Resources does plan to mine asteroids, eventually, but is taking an incremental approach with a series of robotic missions in Earth orbit and beyond to get there. And once they’re ready to start mining, the first resources they’re interested in are not precious metals but instead volatile compounds like water that can be used for propellant depots, enabling a wide range of commercial and government missions. In short, they’re initially more oil drillers than ore miners.

“Over the next five to ten years, considerable capability will be added in terms of launch vehicles and spacecraft,” company co-founder and co-chairman Eric Anderson said in a telephone interview last week, citing developments in commercial and government crewed and other vehicles. “The ability to use space resources to help explore space is a missing piece.”

Propellant depots have been an area of interest in recent years as a way to lower launch costs by allowing spacecraft to launch “dry”—that is, with empty tanks—and then gas up in space; or, to refuel their tanks to extend their missions. For propellant depots to work, though, the cost of bringing the propellant up separately and operating the depots would have to be less that simply launching fully-fueled spacecraft on larger rockets. Depot advocates in the past have suggested that supplying depots with relatively inexpensive propellants could be an ideal market for new, untried low-cost launch vehicles, particularly reusable launch vehicles.

In Anderson’s vision, obtaining water from near Earth asteroids and hauling it to propellant depots in Earth orbit or in cislunar space (such as one of the Lagrange points) would provide propellant in the form of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen for spacecraft at a tenth of the cost of hauling that water from the Earth. “I think there’s a market that, once the capability is there, will be easy to demonstrate,” Anderson said.

“I think we’ll have propellant depots in operation within the decade, before 2020,” Anderson said. He added that the company is open to either operating the depots itself or selling fuel to other depot operators, who would, in turn, sell propellant to spacecraft that needed it.

The company isn’t forgetting about the potential to mine asteroids for precious metals that are becoming harder and more expensive to mine on Earth, Anderson said. “I’m certainly not shying away from emphasizing that, but it’s a less urgent example,” he said. He said that “certainly within 20 years” there will be a strong, positive case for extracting such metals from asteroids. “I think the near-term driver for the space resources market is volatiles from near Earth objects” for refueling spacecraft and supporting robotic and human exploration beyond low Earth orbit, he said.

Getting to the point of extracting those volatiles and other resources will be a multi-step process. The company plans to launch its first spacecraft within 18 to 24 months that will go into low Earth orbit and carry telescopes and instruments to observe near Earth objects, characterizing them to determine which ones would be most promising to visit by future missions.

The “Arkyd-101″ spacecraft will be small and simple, said company president Chris Lewicki in a separate interview. Each spacecraft will fit into a box 40 centimeters on a side and weigh about 20 kilograms. Planetary Resources will look for secondary launch opportunities—hitching a ride on a larger spacecraft’s launch—to launch these spacecraft, of which several will be flown.

Within a few years of launching those Earth orbiting missions, the company then plans to launch “swarms” of small spacecraft on missions to candidate asteroids to study them in situ. Lewicki said that phase would include missions to rendezvous with near Earth objects as well as “intercept” missions to asteroids passing close to the Earth “in the spirit of the Ranger missions done to the Moon in the 1960s,” although not necessarily impacting the asteroid.

Lewicki said there were several keys to the company’s technical approach, including technology, small teams, simplicity of design, and overall mindset. For example, on the technology side, the company has been doing work on optical, or laser, communications that would enable high-bandwidth communications among the spacecraft and with Earth while requiring only limited power. Arkyd Astronautics, also run by Lewicki, received a $125,000 Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) award from NASA in 2011 for work on “Multi-functional Optical Subsystem Enabling Laser Communication on Small Satellites”.

The company has attracted a number of experienced people from JPL to help develop its spacecraft. Lewicki himself worked on the Mars Exploration Rovers and the Phoenix Mars Lander. “We have many people on my team that I brought from JPL who were as excited about the opportunity as I was that they jumped ship from Mars Science Laboratory and other exciting projects to really redefine the way robotic space exploration can be done,” he said.

Lewicki likened the company’s efforts to perform low-cost planetary exploration—and eventually exploitation—to how Scaled Composites was able to develop a crewed suborbital vehicle, SpaceShipOne, in the early 2000s, an effort that four decades earlier required the resources of a nation. “In a lot of ways, what we’re focused on at Planetary Resources is doing the same for robotic exploration,” he said. “We’re putting forth missions like the Mariners and Rangers and Surveyors of the ’60s.” Now, though, he added, the technologies make such missions possible for a commercial company.

What financial resources that Planetary Resources can bring to bear is uncertain. Anderson did not respond to questions about the level of funding that the company has raised from its billionaire investors. He did indicate that, in the nearer term, the company could generate revenue by selling versions of its Arkyd-101 and other spacecraft to various customers, including for Earth observing applications. Anderson also would only say that they have “a number of thoughts” on how to accomplish the resource extraction missions to near Earth asteroids.

Lewicki was clearly eager to work on this, while understanding it will be a long term effort to extract asteroid resources. “For me, it’s just really exciting,” he said. “It’s just the promise and the hope that we’re actually gotten to a time and place where private resources and technology, and the foundation that NASA has laid,” can enable such an effort. “We are taking what is that first, necessary step.”

“Everything looks good as [...]]]> On Monday, NASA and SpaceX officials met for a Flight Readiness Review (FRR) for SpaceX’s upcoming Dragon mission to the International Space Station (ISS). After the FRR, NASA announced at a press conference that they had given tentative approval for that April 30 launch, pending some final tests and simulations.

“Everything looks good as we head towards the April 30th launch date, but I would caution us all that there’s quite a bit of work that needs to be done,” said Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA’s associate administrator for human exploration and operations, at the post-FRR briefing. “There’s a good chance to make the 30th.” That additional work an additional long simulation and som additional software testing, Gerstenmaier said. NASA and SpaceX will assess their progress on April 23, although not in a formal FRR-like meeting, and proceed from there.

This mission, designated “C2+”, will combine the separate C2 and C3 missions in SpaceX’s original Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) awards. Dragon will first work to achieve the C2 mission requirements of approaching and maneuvering around the station. If successful, SpaceX and NASA will proceed with the C3 milestones, capped off by berthing the Dragon spacecraft to the station, which would take place as early as May 3, assuming an on-time launch at 12:22 pm EDT (1622 GMT) on April 30. Dragon will remain berthed to the station for about two and a half weeks before undocking and returning to Earth, splashing down in the Pacific off the California coast.

Both the space agency and the company emphasized that this mission is a test mission, and any problems don’t indicate a lack of capability or other systemic problems with the vehicle or commercial cargo in general. “This is a test flight,” said SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. “If we don’t succeed in berthing on this mission, we’ve got a couple of more missions later this year and I think we’ll succeed on one of those.”

If this mission does succeed in berthing, it will supply the station with some cargo. ISS program manager Michael Suffredini said the Dragon will carry 521 kilograms of cargo, primarily consumables and other crew provisions. It also will carry a NanoRacks payload with some student experiments. Dragon will also return 660 kilograms from the station back to Earth, although Suffredini said the exact manifest of “downmass” cargo remains to be determined.

If SpaceX misses the April 30 launch (which is an instantaneous window, so no margin for error in the event of weather or technical issues), a second launch window is on May 3. The gap between launch windows is for a variety of reasons, including seeking to minimize the propellant needed to put Dragon into orbit so it has more available for ISS maneuvers. If Dragon doesn’t launch either day, it will slip until at least mid May, deferring to an Atlas launch from the Cape and a Soyuz mission to the ISS planned for early May.

At the post-FRR briefing, both NASA and SpaceX praised each other and the spirit of cooperation between the two for this flight, which departs from the tradition of NASA-managed missions. ISS mission controllers in Houston and Dragon flight controllers at SpaceX’s Hawthorne, California, headquarters are learning to work together to understand each others’ capabilities and requirements to allow for a smooth mission, in much the same way NASA already does for cargo missions by ESA’s ATV and JAXA’s HTV spacecraft. “It’s been a learning experience, I think, for NASA and SpaceX,” said Suffredini. “We’ve really grown together as two organizations.”