In Today’s Deep Space Extra… NASA and the agency’s aerospace company partners are addressing crew safety requirements as they prepare Orion, Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner and SpaceX’s Dragon 2 for future missions. Policy makers continue discussions over when it makes sense to end NASA operations of the International Space Station. Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered better performance from Roscosmos, the Russian federal space agency, as it develops new launch systems.
Human Space Exploration
NASA’s Orion spacecraft test module for Moon launch system passes flight simulations
Houston Chronicle (7/20): Simulations underway with an Orion capsule mock up are preparing the four person spacecraft for a key development milestone in April 2019. The capsule is to be launched without crew from Florida’s Space Coast to test the abort system, the propulsive systems that would pull the capsule with astronauts away should their launch vehicle, the Space Launch System (SLS), explode on the launch pad or during ascent.
NASA performs another test of Orion’s parachute system
Coalition Member in the News – Lockheed Martin
Spaceflightinsider.com (7/21): The parachute system for NASA’s Orion crew capsule underwent its seventh air drop test on July 12 at the U.S. Army Proving Ground in Yuma, Arizona. The tests involving a capsule simulator and 11 parachutes are exposing the landing system to forces twice those expected for an actual landing with astronauts.
Engine anomaly deals setback to Boeing’s Starliner space taxi
Coalition Member in the News – Boeing
GeekWire.com (7/22): Boeing is addressing a propellant leak in the abort system of its CST-100 Starliner spacecraft, which is in development under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program to transport astronauts to and from the International Space Station. The leak surfaced in June at NASA’s White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico, delaying a Starliner pad abort test. NASA is expected soon to set new dates for uncrewed and crewed test launches of the Starliner and SpaceX’s Dragon 2, milestones required to certify the two capsules for regular launches of astronauts from the U.S. for the first time since NASA’s shuttle fleet was retired seven years ago.
Cruz is right on Space Station
Town Hall (7/21): 2025 may be too aggressive a date to end NASA funding for the International Space Station, as proposed by the Trump Administration. Some in Congress, among them U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, of Texas, as well as NASA’s inspector general question whether there is a sufficient business case at this point to support commercial operations.
Space Science
Weather-monitoring and tech demo CubeSats deployed in orbit
Coalition Member in the News – Northrop Grumman
Spaceflightnow.com (7/22): Fifteen small satellites, all deployed this month from the International Space Station and the Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems’ Cygnus cargo capsule as it departed the space station have started a wide range of science and technology demonstration missions. RainCube, TEMPST-D and CubeRRT, for instance, will test a miniature radar and other systems for improving weather forecasts and the tracking of climate change.
Europe’s life-hunting Mars rover needs a name
Space.com (7/20): Residents of European Space Agency member states have been asked to submit names for the ExoMars rover that ESA intends to launch in 2020. The rover is to drill below the Martian surface to search for evidence of past or current life on Mars. Russia is an ExoMars partner.
Other News
White House to showcase U.S. products as trade battles loom
Coalition Members in the News – Aerojet Rocketdyne, Boeing, Jacobs, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman
Reuters.com (7/22): U.S. President Donald Trump will showcase American-made products at the second annual Made in America day at the White House. Products ranging from beef jerky and cowboy boots to the Orion Spacecraft built by Lockheed Martin, the Space Launch System (SLS) built by Boeing, Aerojet Rocketdyne and Northrop Grumman, and the rocket’s Launch Platform/Exploration Ground Systems supported by Jacobs.
Advocates cite Morhard’s Senate experience as key strength for NASA post
Space News (7/20): President Trump formally nominated U.S. Senate aide James Morhard as NASA deputy administrator on July 17. The Senate has yet to schedule a hearing on the nomination, but the space policy community has been largely silent on the choice. However, Morhard is credited with having a deep knowledge of complex government research and development efforts as well as the appropriations process.
Putin challenges Roscosmos to “drastically improve” on space and launch
Space News (7/20): In a meeting last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin called on Roscosmos, the Russian federal space agency, to improve its performance in the development of new rockets, including the Angara, which is to replace the troubled Proton. He also called for a start of test flights for a new Russian super heavy rocket should begin in 2028.
SpaceX delivers for Telesat with successful early morning launch
Spaceflightnow.com (7/22): A U.S. built, Canadian communications satellite was launched into geosynchronous transfer orbit early Sunday from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. The 1:50 a.m., EDT, launch marked the second for SpaceX’s new Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket.
Top ISRO scientist shunted out for opposing privatization
Deccan Herald of India (7/21): In a management shakeup, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) scientist in charge of the agency’s Space Applications Center has been transferred to an advisory post.
Coalition Member in the News – Lockheed Martin
Spaceflightinsider.com (7/21): Lockheed Martin will sponsor the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex’s new Astronaut Training Experience, a simulation exercise for visitors that enables them to experience astronaut training, including what it would be like to live and work on a Mars base.
Major Space Related Activities for the Week
Major space related activities for the week of July 22-28, 2018
Spacepolicyonline.com (7/22): NASA’s U.S. House authorization panel has scheduled hearings for Wednesday and Thursday to address cost and scheduling issues facing the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), now slated to launch in March 2021 with a development cost of $8.8 billion. NASA’s Senate authorization panel will address plans for the human exploration of Mars during a hearing on Wednesday. Meanwhile, the American Astronautical Society has organized the four day conference on International Space Station research and development in San Francisco this week that begins today.