Constellation/Ares: Whither NASA after the Shuttle?

[Rick]

NASA ponders manned near-Earth asteroid visit

A faction within NASA are proposing a disaster-movie-esque manned space mission to an asteroid on a trajectory close to Earth, it has been revealed.

Space.com reports that the new generation of "Constellation" manned spacecraft, with which NASA plans to replace the venerable space shuttle fleet, could be used. Constellation represents a return to old-school stacked rocket boosters, not unlike the famous Apollo craft which took men to the Moon in the 1960s and 70s.

More: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/08/01/armageddon_out_to_the_asteroids/

And: http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/070730_asteroid_probe.html

[Rick]

NASA inks deal for Shuttle replacements

NASA has signed a $1.8 billion contract with Utah-based Alliant Techsystems (ATK) for "design, development, testing, and evaluation of the first stage of the Ares I and Ares V launch vehicles." Ares I and V will replace the Space Shuttle fleet as NASA's primary means of getting people and stuff into earth orbit.

The deal, announced on Friday, includes delivery of five ground static test motors, two ground vibration test articles and four flight test stages. NASA doesn't get any boosters to use under this deal: the operational rockets will be subject to a seperate contract.

More: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/08/13/shuttle_replacement_deal_inked/

[Rick]

NASA's plans for the system which will replace the Space Shuttle have continued to move forward. Last week, the space agency inked a deal for solid-fuelled test rockets. Now it has issued an assessment of the environmental impact which will result from the entire "Constellation" programme.

Constellation will be made up of a variety of spacecraft, including the Ares launch systems, the Orion crew module, lunar landing units, and in time - all being well - deep space systems for a journey to Mars. The main effects for Earth's environment will come from the Ares boosters, however, as they will be releasing rocket exhaust into the atmosphere.

More: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/08/16/nasa_constellation_pollution/

[Rick]

The planned Ares I rocket - which will be the USA's only way of putting people into space after the Shuttle retires in 2010 - faces "significant threats" to its performance, according to an internal NASA document. The problems have already led to significant delays.

The Ares I first stage is a modified version of the solid-fuelled boosters mounted either side of the Shuttle's external fuel tank, and apparently it is here that the problems lie. The solid booster must lift the second stage - a liquid-fuelled rocket based on the J-2 design used in the 1960s Apollo moonshot programme - plus the crew module and its abort bailout system.

More: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/11/08/not_so_solid_ares_i/

[Rick]

NASA has put back the planned launch of its Orion spacecraft for a year, meaning the first test launch won't be until 2014 at the earliest.

The agency's publicly-announced deadline set by Congress to conduct a first test launch of a manned Orion capsule was 2015. Internally, though, it was hoped to fast-track this to 2013 despite technical and financial issues. NASA had hoped to keep the time between the last shuttle flight and the first Orion flight to a minimum.

More: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/08/12/space_shuttle_replacement_delayed/

[Rick]

Nasa has pushed back by a year its internal target date for flying the successor to the shuttle.

Agency officials say they are now aiming for September 2014 for the first crewed mission of the Orion ship.

More: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7555927.stm

[Rick]

NASA will map the future of manned spacecraft later today, following long-running rumours of possible delays to the programme and increasing worries of over-reliance on Russian technology to support the International Space Station.

The US space agency will soon retire its fleet of Shuttle orbiters, after which America will have no manned space launch system until the arrival of the Ares I rocket and its Crew Launch Vehicle.

More: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/08/19/nasa_ares_i_brief/

[Rick]

Presidential contender John McCain and two other bigshot Republican senators have written to George Bush urging that NASA keep the Space Shuttle fleet alive beyond 2010. The politicians are concerned about US reliance on Russia for manned space transport in the early years of the next decade.

According to the Orlando Sentinel, Senators McCain, Hutchison (Texas) and Vitter (Louisiana) wrote to the President on Monday.

More: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/08/27/mccain_calls_for_shuttle_extension/

[Rick]

The budget for NASA's Constellation programme - comprising the Orion and Ares vehicles - looks like it may have run to a few billion cubic metres of road surfacing after the agency admitted the Kennedy Space Center crawlerway over which spacecraft are trundled to their launchpads could collapse under the weight of the Ares V heavy lifter.

According to Flight Global, the 40-year-old crawlerway comprises at its thickest point "200mm of river gravel that is on top of 900mm of compacted limerock, which is in turn on top of two layers of 'select fill' that is up to 1.1m deep in total".

More: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/08/21/kennedy_crawlerway/

Flight Global: http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2008/08/21/314931/nasa-faces-budget-busting-crawlerway-rebuild-for-ares-v.html

Nasa: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/constellation/main/index.html and http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/constellation/ares/aresV/index.html

[Rick]

Nasa will study whether the space shuttle can operate beyond its planned retirement in 2010, reports say.

The agency will look at what might be required to delay the retirement of its fleet until the shuttle's replacement - Ares-Orion - begins flying in 2015.

More: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7590449.stm

[Rick]

An internal email from NASA chief Mike Griffin has been leaked to the media. It expresses Griffin's frustration with recent US space policy, says that White House oversight offices have waged a "jihad" against the space shuttle, and offers a gloomy view of the future.

The email was obtained at the weekend by the Orlando Sentinel, and lays out Griffin's view of how America should have acted in recent years.

More: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/09/08/griffin_leaked_email/

[Rick]

Europe may have to find its own solutions for transporting astronauts and cargo to and from the International Space Station due to short-sighted US policies that now threaten Nasa's ability to maintain a presence on the orbital outpost.

Nasa chief Michael Griffin recently gave top managers a blunt assessment of the situation in an e-mail reprinted by the Orlando Sentinel, in which he said: "My own view is about as pessimistic as it is possible to be."

More: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7612790.stm

[Rick]

US Presidential contender Barack Obama has outlined his views on the near-term direction to be taken by the US space programme, according to reports.

The Democratic senator believes that NASA must be given extra money if it is to extend the operational life of the space shuttle. However he seems to accept that many Democrats on Capitol Hill will be unwilling to find more cash for space, and goes on to say that the shuttle should not keep flying in the absence of extra funds.

More: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/09/25/obama_nasa_shuttle_soyuz_barney/

[Rick]

A dramatic showdown that threatened to remove the US and its partners from the International Space Station (ISS) appears to be over, as lawmakers eased a trade ban that prevents Nasa from buying Russian space transportation services.

The United States is giving up its own fleet of spaceships in 2010 due to safety and cost issues.

Vehicles to replace the space shuttles are not expected until 2015 at the earliest.

More: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7638188.stm

[mickw]

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — When astronauts return to the moon by 2020, they will do so following a familiar path and flying in a cone-shaped capsule that echoes the "good old days" of Project Apollo.

But the skin-deep similarities between Apollo's Command Module and Constellation's Orion spacecraft are far outnumbered by differences - more like improvements — that NASA's 50 years of spaceflight experience make possible.

More:   http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/080929-nasa50-orion-apollo.html