News
By Marcia Dunn
Oct 29 04:19 PM US/Eastern, Associated Press Aerospace Writer
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA officials said Wednesday it might be possible to try out its new moon rocketship a year earlier than its current target date of 2015.
That would mean just a four-year gap between the last space shuttle flight and the next-generation spacecraft, instead of five years. Many in Congress, including the two
presidential candidates, are troubled by the prospect of the United States having to rely on Russia for trips to the international space station during that time.
NASA is midway through a study looking at ways to move up its March 2015 test launch of the new Ares rocketship with a crew, in case the next president wants that.
The new rocket would ultimately return the United States to the moon, but the initial flights would be to the space station.
It will be difficult to accelerate the mission by much more than a year, however, said Jeff Hanley, manager of NASA's back-to-the-moon program, called Constellation.
"We're shooting for a more aggressive date of September 2014," and looking at even faster options, he said. "The real stretch is what can we do to accelerate as much as
18 months. That will be particularly hard."
The two-month study, which includes outside experts, should be completed in early December.
NASA's Ares rocket would have an Apollo-style capsule on top, called Orion, to carry astronauts. A moon flight is targeted for 2020.
The Ares concept has been controversial from the start; some engineers, in fact, have been working in their off-hours on alternative rocket designs.
If NASA were to drastically redesign the rocket at this point as some have suggested, it would push everything back three years, said Steve Cook, the Ares project manager
at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.
"Everybody's entitled to an opinion," Cook told reporters in a conference call. "But I think you've got to stick to the facts of engineering and project management, and
the fact that we're three years into this. You'd basically back yourself up three years and start over again, so just watch the gap grow."
NASA has been struggling with ways to make the new rocket safer and has come up with possible solutions for controlling its vibrations to prevent injuring the crew, and
preventing the rocket from drifting into the launch tower at liftoff. Cook said the latter problem is remote—a southerly wind would have to be blowing 39 mph or more—and
could be controlled through the steering system or with tight wind constraints.
Space shuttle commander Brent Jett, director of flight crew operations, said he's sought dissenting opinions from his fellow astronauts, but no one is willing to scrap the
Ares rocket.
NASA hopes to perform a test flight of an unmanned Ares rocket next July. But that could be delayed by the space shuttle repair mission to the Hubble Space Telescope.
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By BRIAN BERGER
Space News, 29 October 2008
WASHINGTON — NASA officials shot back Wednesday at recent news reports suggesting the Ares 1 rocket, which has been in development for the past three years,
is doomed to failure.
Although NASA officials did not mention any media outlet by name, they took issue with an Oct. 26 story in the Orlando Sentinel claiming that concerns that Ares 1
could crash into its launch tower under certain wind conditions were the latest setback threatening to undo the U.S. space agency's plans for returning to the Moon.
Doug Cooke, NASA's deputy associate administrator for exploration systems, was upfront about the motive behind Wednesday's Constellation program media teleconference.
"Some recent new reports about Ares have been inaccurate and draw false conclusions ...," Cooke said.
Steve Cook, manager of the Ares project at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., acknowledged that the so-called launch vehicle drift mentioned in
the Orlando Sentinel article was discussed during the Ares 1's preliminary design review that wrapped up in September as something that would have to be addressed. But Cook
said that news reports had blown the issue out of proportion.
"First of all, launch vehicles experience lift off drift primarily due to winds at the launch pad and it's a manageable phenomenon," Cook said. "In the very heavy wind
conditions that we are designed to, — 34 knots, which is significantly higher than what shuttle uses today — Ares 1 can use its built-in thrust vector controls to steer
away from the pad tower ... or fly within reduced wind constraints more similar to those used today on the shuttle. Either one of those by themselves will avoid the issues
we've got here."
The space shuttle is designed to launch in wind speed as high as 19 knots, or roughly 35 kilometers (22 miles) per hour.
Cook also said that computer simulations show Ares 1 crashing into the tower only under certain very specific weather conditions. "The wind condition that we are concerned
about is a southerly wind at 34 knots. In our estimate that would only happen about 0.3 percent of the time in any case," Cook said. "So this is another issue that's been
taken very much out of context."
Cook said Ares 1 emerged from preliminary design review with multiple, straightforward options for addressing the unlikely scenarios where liftoff drift could cause
re-contact with the launch tower.
The Orlando Sentinel and various Web sites also have reported conditions of low morale among engineers working on Ares and the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle. The Orlando
Sentinel reported in its Oct. 26 story that during Ares' preliminary design review NASA "had to quell near-revolts by astronauts and scientists" concerned about some of
the decisions being made by the program. The story quoted an astronaut who left NASA in 2005.
During the Oct. 29 teleconference, NASA astronaut Brent Jett, director of fight crew operations at NASA's Johnson Space Center denied that any near revolt had to be
tamped down.
"Both [Astronaut Office Chief] Steve Lindsay and I have actively solicited our office for anyone that has a dissenting opinions on whether Ares 1 should proceed forward
to [critical design review] and ultimately to become an operational launch vehicle ... and we have not found one person in our office with a dissenting opinion so I don't
know where these stories are coming [from]," Jett said.
During the teleconference, NASA's Constellation program director Jeff Hanley told reporters that he was expecting a report by early December outlining options for speeding
up the first crewed flight of Orion and Ares should NASA be given the direction and resources to do so.
NASA currently is shooting for a first crewed flight in September 2014, six months ahead of the date it has promised the White House and Congress it can have the vehicle
ready to go. The study, which kicked off in October, is being led by Ralph Roe, the director of the NASA Engineering and Safety Center at Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va.
Hanley also said NASA now is targeting July 12 for the first major flight test of the Constellation program, the launch of an Ares 1 prototype dubbed the Ares 1-X.
NASA had been shooting for April for the Ares 1-X test, but modifications to the Kennedy Space Center launch pad selected for the flight are largely on hold until NASA
completes a space shuttle mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope. That mission was postponed last month from October to no earlier than February.
Hanley said the July 12 target for Ares 1-X assumes the Hubble mission goes in February. If the Hubble mission does not occur until May, as has been discussed, Hanley said
Constellation officials would have to revisit the Ares 1-X schedule.
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By Patrick Peterson
Florida Today — 10/29/08
Despite a troubled U.S. economy, both presidential candidates have promised to increase NASA's budget by $2 billion a year, and both have pledged to support at least one
more shuttle flight.
This budget increase could help prevent or reduce the loss of 3,000 to 4,000 jobs at Kennedy Space Center and could help speed development of the new generation of rockets
and spaceships to replace the aging space shuttle system.
The space industry was hardly mentioned early in the campaign, but Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama now are competing with each other to woo the Space Coast
with detailed policies. Early in the campaign, Obama said he planned to take money from NASA's new moon-landing program to fund education and McCain didn't emphasize support
for the space industry.
An intense lobbying and education effort from local and state officials changed both candidates' platforms.
"We've watched both campaigns come a long way in recognizing both the value and importance of the space program," said Frank Dibello, a consultant who helped the Economic
Development Commission of Florida's Space Coast formulate a strategy that brought several candidates to Brevard County to learn about the space program early in the campaign.
Obama and McCain quickly realized that Brevard County was a crucial part of a crucial state with 27 electoral votes in play.
"There is no question we have been validated," Dibelo said.
While both candidates agree to support NASA, Obama and McCain have a slight difference when it comes to Mars.
McCain promised that Americans would be the first to Mars when he spoke in Melbourne this month.
"It's simply manned spaceflight, the kinds of things we can learn only come by putting humans in space," said Doug Holtz-Eakin, domestic and economic adviser for the McCain campaign.
Obama, however, first plans a return to the moon, focusing on the next step for NASA, which is developing its next human spaceship. Since trips to Mars and asteroids would
come under the administration of another president, Obama sees himself as laying important groundwork for further exploration by getting to the moon by 2020.
"That's part of this orderly progression on to more distant destinations," said Ian Bassin, Obama's Florida policy director. "Absolutely, reducing the gap and retaining our
jobs in Florida is priority No. 1."
McCain has called for a strict spending freeze, except for the military and veterans affairs. NASA's $2 billion increase would be considered part of the military increase,
say advisors.
In addition to promising more funding, both candidates want the option to fly the shuttle beyond 2010, when the Bush administration had planned for the shuttle to be retired.
McCain first asked President Bush not to allow any of the shuttle supply lines to be dismantled, while Obama soon afterward made the same request of Congress.
NASA administrator Mike Griffin is preparing a study on the cost of keeping the shuttle in service several years until the new system of Ares rockets and Orion spacecraft
is ready.
The next president will have the authority to set a new course for NASA. The options are open.
After a delay when Russia invaded the country of Georgia, Congress finally passed an arms treaty waiver that allows NASA to purchase seats on Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
The next president will have wide latitude to set direction for NASA. He could keep the shuttle flying for a few more years to reduce the gap in human flights or he could
rely exclusively on the Russians to deliver American astronauts to the space station.
The next president, whether it's Obama or McCain, undoubtedly will be reminded of promises made to people on the Space Coast and other supporters of NASA's exploration programs.
"I don't doubt the early days of the next administration will result in a comprehensive review of the nation's space program," said Dibelo. "We want to do everything we can
to at least make sure space is addressed."
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