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Tuesday’s CSExtra features the latest reporting and commentary on space developments. Today, solid rocket booster manufacturer ATK is scheduled to test fire the five-segment solid rocket booster under development for the Ares 1 and Ares V rockets (11 am, EDT). However, both face cancellation as part of NASA’s Constellation Program. Meanwhile. NASA selects California and Texas start up rocket companies for commercial suborbital launches this year and next.
1. From the New York Times: Does ATK’s solid rocket motor have a future? The New York Times looks at the potential uses of the solid rocket motor developed by NASA for the space shuttle and a more powerful version under development for the Ares 1 crew launch vehicle, which is facing cancellation as part of the Constellation Program. With only one customer, NASA, the rockets are too expansive, say critics. The newer “five segment” rocket motor is slated to under go a ground test firing in Promontory, Utah.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/31/science/space/31rocket.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=NASA&st=cse
A. From the Space Review: In “DM-2 and the future of SRBs,” Space Review editor Jeff Foust looks at the future of ATK’s five-segment solid rocket booster, the cornerstone of the Ares 1 crew launch vehicle that was to orbit NASA astronauts as part of the Constellation Program. The five segment motor will be tested in the Utah desert Tuesday morning. It underwent a successful test on Sept. 10. Today’s DM-2 test will feature a new cold weather O-ring that will replace the O ring and heater combination used on the shuttle’s twin four-segment booster motors since the 1986 Challenger accident. While the White House favors Constellation’s cancellation, the House and Senate favor something like the ATK rockets for future space transportation systems.
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1688/1
2. From the Associated Press, the Washington Post and others: NASA selects Masden Space Systems of Mojave, Calif., and Armadillo Aerospace of Rockwall, Texas, a pair of commercial suborbital space transportation companies, for contracts totaling $450,000. The contracts are awarded under NASA’s new Commercial Reusable Suborbital Research Program, established for researchers with projects that need to go to the edge of space, or in this case reach altitudes of between 65,000 and 300,000 feet. Both companies will make a series of flights this year and next.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/30/AR2010083004249.html
3. From Colllectspace.com: Complex 14 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, FL, once used to launch NASA’s Mercury’s astronauts could soon become an engineering classroom. Jennifer Scheer, who is soon to be laid off, proposed the idea she calls Project Mercury Rising. Laid off aerospace workers would instruct, Scheer says.
http://www.exploredeepspace.com/news/project-mercury-rising-historic-launch-pad-100830.html
4. From Spaceflightnow.com: NASA’s ICES at mission comes to an end on Monday, after seven years. The spacecraft measured land and sea ice masses.
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n1008/30icesat/
5. From the Space Review: In “Dancing in the Dark: The orbital review of SJ-12 and SJ-06 F,” Brian Weeden, a technical adviser to the Secure World Foundation, examines the yet-to-be-explained in orbit encounter between a pair of Chinese satellites over the summer. Was it a test of orbital rendezvous technologies? Was there intentional or unintentional contact? Was it an ASAT test? Was it a satellite inspection test? Weeden says the whole incident underscores the need for greater transparency as more nations’ take on more complex space operations.
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1689/1
6. From Florida Today: Caring for the space shuttle’s 24,000 thermal protection system tiles.
http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20100831/NEWS02/8310308/Heat+shield+job+vital+to+slowing+shuttles
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