Panel Pitches Public-Private Partnership for Space Taxis

October 22, 2009

The presidential panel reviewing the U.S. space program sees little hope for NASA's Ares 1 moon rocket, though it found the program technically sound. The problem, the board said in its final report, is a question of timing.

To make up for budget shortfalls, NASA delayed development, postponing the rocket's debut until at least 2017, according to the advisory panel which was tapped to come up with options for the U.S. human space program.

By then, the International Space Station will have been removed from orbit, though the panel also recommended funding the station through at least 2020. Unfortunately for Ares 1, additional funding for station likely would delay Ares' debut another couple of years.

"I think there is argument that it was a sensible program to begin with. There is a real question as to whether it’s a sensible program today ," said space review panel chairman Norm Augustine. "The (schedule) slippage has caused a mismatch between what Ares 1 is needed for and what it’s going to be able to do.

"It’s very useful to be told that you’re on a track that you don’t have enough money to stay on, and we can continue down, but I think … a few years from now there will be a group back here saying ‘What happened?’" he added.

The favored option appears to be a public-private partnership, with NASA kicking in about $5 billion to jump-start development of commercially operated space taxis. The proposal is sure to rankle members of Congress representing districts that have work tied to the existing Constellation program.

The report was delivered on Thursday to NASA and the White House.

Will Obama Fly Commercial?

September 09, 2009

Here’s a word Americans should learn to become very familiar with: LEO, pronounced just like the zodiac sign, though in this context it’s an acronym for Low-Earth Orbit, a distance of a couple of hundreds miles above the planet’s surface, such as where the space station flies.

It’s the only place we’ve been in space since 1972 when the last Apollo crew returned from the moon and it’s the only place that anyone else in the world that has managed to send people into space has ever gone.

America had high hopes of breaking out of LEO after the shuttle program ends, going back to the moon, maybe out to an asteroid and then eventually on to Mars, the holy grail of human space exploration. NASA got started on the job with great enthusiasm and due diligence, racking up a $7.7 billion tab of the estimated $40 billion needed just to develop a new rocket and capsule for astronauts to ride in.

Along came our new leader, President Barack Obama, who decided to take stock. He appointed a panel of 10 wise men and women, headed by the well-respected former chief executive of Lockheed Martin. They spent three months listening, studying, assessing, analyzing, debating what the country was doing, should be doing and could be doing with its human space flight program.

The panel’s summary report was released yesterday. In a nutshell, it says that without more money for a government-run space program, America will remain in LEO for the foreseeable future. In other words, after building a $100 billion outpost in orbit, our only option is to use it.

I’m sure that the Augustine report will prompt immediate calls to increase NASA’s budget, and maybe that’s a good thing. But say legislators, still slugging it out over health care, don’t take heed and NASA has to live on roughly $18 billion a year. What would it do?

Seems to me like NASA needs a new story line. Yes, seeing people in strange environments is interesting, and we love swelling with national pride, but we’re easily pleased. We’re happy following the antics of robots stuck in Martian soil.

It’s hard to imagine people shedding tears over the fact that they may not live to see astronauts walk on the surface of Mars. It’s easier to imagine the joy on their faces if they’d get to go to space themselves, even (especially!!) to LEO.

Will Whitehorn, the president of Virgin Galactic, told reporters yesterday his firm has collected $40 million in deposits from people willing to pay $200,000 to experience a couple of minutes of spaceflight in a sub-orbital rocketship, which is on schedule to debut in December.

Space Adventures is getting ready to send its seventh tourist to the space station, at a cost of about $35 million, which includes training and transportation from Russia.

Though it was tasked to come up with options for the U.S. human space program, the Augustine panel slipped in a few recommendations, including extending the planned life of the space station, which is scheduled to be finished next year.

 “It seems unwise to de-orbit the Station after 25 years of assembly and only five years of operational life,” committee members wrote in the report.

“Not to extend its operation would significantly impair U.S. ability to develop and lead future international spaceflight partnerships,” they added.

The government has allocated no money for station operations after 2015.

The report also suggests that it is time for the government to stop flying people to LEO, that the commercial sector is ready to compete for this business.  

At an impromptu teleconference as the report was being released, representatives from commercial space launching firms echoed the sentiment.

“Looking at the size of the industry at the moment is not really the question to be asking,” Whitehorn said.

“You’re looking at what kind of industry you’re going to create, what kind of new jobs you’re going to create and what kind of new technologies are going to come out in supplying a “simple” solution to NASA, which can allow it to get on with the more important job in the future of human exploration, unmanned exploration, research and development, and Earth climate change science. These should be the priorities for NASA. They shouldn’t be a ferrying company.”

LEO may be the end of the road for NASA, but for the rest of us, it’s just the beginning.

(America's first lady of space, astronaut Sally Ride, a member of the U.S. Human Space Flight Plans review committee, talks with panel head Norm Augustine before the start of the group's last meeting in Washington, D.C.  Credit: NASA/Paul E. Alers) 

 

Space Tourism Program Still Ticking

April 03, 2009

Space Adventures, the Virginia-based firm that so far has cornered the market on commercial spaceflight, isn't letting a little thing like no more flight opportunities spoil its business plans.

In a conference call with reporters, company president Eric Anderson said the ongoing flight of space tourist Charles Simonyi (they prefer the term "spaceflight participant") shouldn't be its last. 

Simonyi, who is flying for the second time, is among six wealthy business people who have ventured into orbit thanks to Space Adventures' business ties with Russian space officials. NASA won't fly anyone other than professional astronauts, in case you're wondering.

Space Adventures has been selling spare seats on the Russian Soyuz capsules traveling to the International Space Station to swap out crews. But beginning in May, when the live-aboard crew size doubles to six, there aren't going to be any spare seats available, barring last-minute hiccups. That's one of Space Adventures' business models: Be prepared to pounce if something opens up. Anderson said the company is keeping a close watch on a potential issue that may free a seat on the Soyuz slated to fly on September 30 with a flier from Kazakhstan, which is paying Russia directly for the venture.

Space Adventures also is trying to put together dedicated commercial Soyuz flights, though the capsule manufacturer, which already has to double production to handle the extra flights to ferry the station's larger crews, may find it impossible to crank out more vehicles. Also, there's limited parking space at the station -- assuming that's still the tourist destination of choice. Two of the station's docking ports will be filled with Soyuz craft serving as the crew's lifeboats. The leaves just one port free for either a third Soyuz, a Russian Progress cargo ship, or Europe's ATV cargo ship, which docks at the Russian side of the station. 

Still, there's reason to hope, Anderson said. The world economic situation apparently hasn't hit his clientele (Simonyi paid $35 million for his flight) as much as other industries.

"The kind of person … who has indicated an interest in going to space is a long-term thinker. Someone who has had a life dream of going to space is not going to let an economic downturn -- even if it’s a longer one than we would have hoped -- change their objective," Anderson said.

That's a load off. 

(Caption: Charles Simonyi in space. Courtesy: NASA) 

Texas Startup Takes NASA Prize

October 29, 2008

Buoyed by a win in a NASA-backed competition to spark commercial space endeavors, Texas startup Armadillo Aerospace plans to give Virgin Galactic a run for the suborbital tourism business.

The company, founded by John Carmack (creator of video game Doom among others), is joining with the Rocket Racing League and the government of New Mexico to offer rides into space for $100,000. That’s half the fare Virgin is charging for rides aboard a ship modeled after the famed SpaceShipOne, which in 2004 won the $10-million X Prize (not funded by NASA) for the first privately financed manned spaceflights.

Armadillo still has a ways to go. Over the weekend, it clinched a $350,000 purse from NASA for flying its ship, named Pixel, to an altitude of 50 meters, touching down on a landing pad 100 meters away and then reversing the maneuver.

The team tried to fly a larger vehicle in a more rigorous test, but were stopped by technical problems. If they had managed to pull it off, NASA had an additional $1.65 million in prize money.

Still, Armadillo is confident enough to enter into a joint venture with the Rocket Racing League, an X-Prize offshoot, to parlay its technology into a suborbital passenger ship.

A press release about the partnership states that Armadillo Aerospace will develop the reusable launch vehicles and provide ground support and equipment, the state of New Mexico will supply launch facility infrastructure and resources, and the Rocket Racing Technology Development, a wholly owned subsidiary of Rocket Racing Inc., will provide financing for, and business and operational management of, the partnership.

A fourth entity, to be selected at a later date,  will manage reservations, marketing, customer training and customer relations.

Armadillo expects to begin flying a prototype in 2009 and manned flights to space in 2010. Virgin Galactic is running along pretty much the same time frame. Both firms plan to fly from a commercial spaceport being developed in New Mexico.

 

Falcon Flies, Next Stop Space Station?

September 28, 2008

Heard the big news? No, not the Great Government Bailout of 2008. A real-live capitalist, using his own money and moxie, racked up the first successful flight of a rocket he's been developing to change the game in space.

The dude is Elon Musk, of Pay-Pal fame and fortune, who has been picking away at the not insubstantial barriers to entry into the commercial space arena.

"That was freakin' awesome," Musk said after the launch Sunday night.

The Falcon 1 booster lifted off from Omelek Island at Kwajalein Atoll in the central Pacific Ocean.

It was Musk's fourth attempt to reach orbit.

The battle is far from over. With a successful launch on the books, Musk told me in an interview last week that he's going to make a bid for ferrying astronauts to and from the space station after the shuttle is retired. Technical know-how, Musk has now demonstrated. As for the political battles to come, the challenges may just be beginning.

Check back at space.discovery.com on Monday for an exclusive Q&A with Musk.

Here's a really good account of the launch on SpaceflightNow.com.

And here's a Discovery News story about what this launch might mean for NASA and the U.S. space program

Falcon Flubs

August 03, 2008

Not to sound tarty -- and first to acknowledge Elon Musk for even trying these days, on his own dime, and not asking the government to bail him out if/when times get hard -- but this weekend’s launch of Space
Exploration Technology’s Falcon 1 rocket, which carried a payload for its first paying customers, the U.S. government, didn’t go exactly right for the third flight in a row.

Though Musk once said he might stick by baseballs’ three-strikes-yer-out rule, he’s out in front, as a good leader should, talking up flights four, five, six and beyond. In other words, he will not stop.

“I will never give up and I mean never,” Musk wrote in an email to employees Saturday night.

Earlier in the day, the company fired off a Falcon 1 rocket from the firm’s central Pacific launch site on Omelek Island in the Kwajalein Atoll, located about 2,500 miles southwest of Hawaii.

SpaceX is a privately-owned rocket development and launch services firm founded and funded by Musk, an internet entrepreneur credited as a (the?) key member of the PayPal financial services firm, now owned by eBay.

As Stephen Clark of SpaceFlightNow.com puts it, “Disaster struck about two-and-a-half minutes after a seemingly picture-perfect blastoff at 11:34 p.m. EDT Saturday (0334 GMT Sunday).”

At a press conference later that day, Musk said some problem prevented the first and second stages from separating properly (apparently this is a problem shared by even very experienced space-farers, like the Russian government.)

Writes Clark, “Stage separation was slated to occur two minutes and 39 seconds after liftoff as pyrotechnic bolts fired to sever the physical connections between the stages. The bolts are all redundantly initiated and have never failed aboard other launch vehicles, according to SpaceX.”

Lost in the accident were the U.S. military’s Trailblazer satellite and two small NASA payloads, including an innovative solar sail. The payload also included a cache of cremated remains, including ashes from astronaut Gordon Cooper and Star Trek actor James Doohan, notes Clark.

Live long and prosper, Elon.

Caption: Falcon 1, Take 3. Before shot. Courtesy: SpaceX

Spaceship 2.0

July 28, 2008

From the creators of the world's first privately developed spaceship comes its commercial cousin, Eve. During an unveiling ceremony at Scaled Composites' Mojave, Calif., base, Burt Rutan, who designs cutting edge aircraft -- and spacecraft -- with an artist's eye, and his newest best friend, the daring and dashing Richard Branson, of Virgin fame and fortune, showed off the launch vehicle for their new venture.

Branson started a new business, Virgin Galactic, after watching Rutan's prototype SpaceShipOne make three flights in 2004 to clinch a $10 million purse put out by the X Prize Foundation.

Like its predecessor, SpaceShipTwo will travel into suborbital space after being toted off the ground by a jet carrier, aka: Eve, named for Branson’s mother. Eve is to SpaceShipTwo what the White Knight was for SpaceShipOne. You can read the full press release here.

The rollout comes a year and two days after an accident claimed the lives of three Scaled employees working on the new spaceship's rocket engine. Scaled is appealing a $25,870 fine levied by the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which cited inadequate training and unsafe conditions as contributors to the accident.

Though the accident and investigation delayed plans for the start of Virgin’s space tourism business, it didn’t seem to stem enthusiasm and support for the venture. The company, which is charging $200,000 for a ride, has already collected full fares from 100 armchair astronauts ready to leave -- albeit briefly -- the home planet.

NASA's Plan B -- NOT

July 21, 2008

I noted a news story this weekend, first reported in a Japanese newspaper, that NASA was looking at Japan’s new H-2 Transfer Vehicle to haul cargo to the space station. Nothing new … NASA has said repeatedly that after the shuttle is retired the U.S. will have to depend on its partners to ferry crew and supplies to the outpost -- until and unless a commercial company was able to provide the service.

But the issue became blog-worthy, IMHO, when NASA put out a denial, which includes the following:

“NASA is committed to domestic commercial cargo resupply to the space station and does not plan to procure cargo delivery services from Japan … NASA has chosen to depend on commercial resupply of cargo
delivery to the station.”

Sounds like a plan, no? 'Course the agency’s press office failed to mention that it’s wishful thinking at this point: Currently there are no companies in the U.S. with cargo transport services to the space station. So what’s the harm in exploring other options in case the market fails to materialize? Hello, NASA? Who rocked your boat this morning?

Guess Who's Coming to Visit?

July 14, 2008

There’s a long list of topics to discuss at the big International Space Station partners meeting in France this week: payloads for the shuttle's last nine flights to the outpost; two mini-research modules Russia wants to attach; bunking arrangements for when the crew size doubles next year -- and my personal favorite: what to do about uninvited guests.

Now I’m being blatantly ethnocentric here and looking at the prospect of visitors solely from NASA’s point of view, which seems a bit like the proverbial housewife putting up with the husband’s relatives. Sure, NASA needs her Russian hubby, particularly since he’s got the only car service running after the shuttle retires, but just how far does this arranged marriage bend?

Russia, which has embraced capitalism as no entity in the U.S. government  has dared, has cut a deal with a Virginia-based firm to supply spaceships and pilots to ferry paying passengers to the station. Russia has been running a small-scale tourist transport service since Dennis Tito forked over $20-plus million for run to the ISS in 2001.

NASA was none-to-pleased with the stunt and begrudgingly “allowed” access to the ISS only when it became apparent that it had no choice. But Tito and the handful of entrepreneurs who followed his footsteps (Skylab astronaut Owen Garriott’s son Richard, millionaire computer game developer, is set to become tourist space flight participant No. 6 in October) hitched rides on Soyuz capsules that were needed to change out resident space station crewmembers. The new gig would add three folks at a time for independent research, educational, commercial or other programs.

Space Adventures CEO Eric Anderson tells me he’d like to fly a commercial Soyuz once a year beginning in 2011. (He declined to reveal a target price for each excursion.)

NASA learned of the plan last month the same way most folks did: from a press conference. The initial response was polite, but muted. One program manager did let slip that he thought commercial Soyuz trips marked “a radically different” way of operating.

I’m sure they’ll work things out though, for in this world of uncertainty, NASA has indeed staked a claim in at least one final frontier: There’s no divorce in space.

Caption: Dennis Tito suiting up to become the first fare-paying passenger in space. (Photo: Space Adventures.)

Let's Steal the Soyuz

June 11, 2008

Well not “steal” it exactly, just do what Japan has done to our automobile industry, China to textiles and India to tech support. Import it, then re-label ‘Made in America.’ It’d be a neat way around the prohibition against buying Soyuz from the Russians, who are being punished -- not really -- for providing technology and dangerous ideas widely available on the internet to Iran, which is next door to Iraq and probably what the Bush Administration was really aiming for when they got us embroiled in the bruhaha over there.

And the U.S. really needs a spaceship because we can’t afford to fly the shuttles and simultaneously develop safer ships that can transport people to the space station as well as beyond low-Earth orbit, which we’ve been going ‘round and ‘round in since 1972, the last moon landing.

Unfortunately it took a national tragedy to buck up to the fact that the shuttles are too expensive and risky to fly forever, wonderful machines that they are. Problem is, it’s going to take five or six years to get the new crafts flying after the shuttles are retired. NASA has taken to calling this period “the gap.”

Leaving aside the fact that right now NASA is banned from purchasing Soyuz after its current exemption expires in 2011, the United State’s plan for staffing the space station during the gap is to get another exemption to buy more Soyuz. We’ll need twice as many as before, in fact because next year the size of the space station’s crew doubles to six. The Soyuz can hold three people.

Now comes the news today that Google co-founder Sergey Brin has plunked down $5 million for his own Soyuz so that he and another tourist can go visit space. (Apparently the Congressional ban doesn’t apply to private companies.) The firm arranging the jaunt will even hire a full-fledged Russian cosmonaut to pilot the rocketeers.

Which brings me to this: Why not import the Soyuz or get a license to manufacture them here? Florida, which just lost out to Virginia to be the launch site for a proposed commercially developed station cargo hauler, would be game. Might even get our Congressional delegation focused on an issue they need to be concerned with, like trade, economics and foreign affairs, rather than deciding if an Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer dark matter device should fly on the shuttle or not.

Just a thought ….