Launch Abort System:

Historically, Launch Abort Systems (LAS) – or Launch Escape System (LES) – have appeared as towers, attached on top of the crew capsule, ready to “pull” the capsule – and its crew – away from a failing vehicle, be it at the launch pad, or during early ascent.

In the event of a nominal launch, the tower would be jettisoned midway through the ascent to orbit – at a point in time where a major issue would result in the capsule simply separating away for an abort – usually resulting in a splashdown.

These LAS towers can be seen on the early crewed launch vehicles, having first been tested in 1960 – when the “Beach Abort” practiced the abort technique on the first production Mercury capsule at NASA’s test facility at Wallops Island.

While Gemini used ejection seats, the towers became part of the Mercury and Apollo programs, even earning a place in Hollywood movies, such as when Tom Hanks – playing Commander Jim Lovell in the movie Apollo 13 – reached forward to manually jettison the tower during second stage flight during the film’s launch scene.

The early flights of the Space Shuttle only employed the ejection seat capability, as much as it was hinted using such a system – only available for a limited time during first stage ascent – would have provided the escaping astronauts very little chance of survival. The Shuttle mainly relied on abort scenarios involving the return of the crew with the orbiter.

Thanks to the strict safety record of crewed launch vehicles, the use of the LAS has only been called for once during an actual emergency, with the Russians.

Another abort – Soyuz 18A – aborted in flight, resulting in the crew landing safely near the Chinese border – however, it is believed this event came after LAS jettison, with the abort carried out by the Soyuz engines.

The clear use of the LAS during an abort event is a famous one – mainly due to the footage finding a large audience on youtube – as the crew of Soyuz T-10-1 underwent a pad abort, just seconds before their failing vehicle exploded on the launch pad.

The video shows a line of the Soviet top brass witnessing the dramatic abort, acknowledged only by one General calmly adjusting his collar.

It was reported that the crew landed safely, just four miles away.

LAS For Orion:

For the defunct Vision for Space Exploration (VSE) – a direct fallout of the Columbia disaster – crew safety for the next launch system was paramount, as NASA reverted back to a capsule design, with a full Launch Abort System.

In 2007, a major trade of several LAS concepts were evaluated by NASA managers, namely the Multiple External (x4) Service Module (SM) Abort Motor concept, the Crew Module Strap On Motors (x4) concept, and the In-Line Tandem Tractor (Tower) concept – the latter of which was baselined into Ares I/Orion design.

The trades request the preferred design should ensure the risk of losing the crew in an abort scenario would be no greater than 1:10, noting such a system is no guarantee for crew survival during an emergency.

The winning concept – the Tandem Tractor (Tower) LAS design – comprised of a Nose Cone, Attitude Control Motor (Eight Nozzles), Canard Section (Stowed Configuration), Jettison Motor (Four Aft, Scarfed Nozzles), Interstage, Abort Motor (Four Exposed, Reverse Flow Nozzles), Adapter Cone, and Boost Protective Cover (BPC).

The primary role of such a system is to save the crew during the ‘three stages’ of an abort, the first involving the firing of the spacecraft – in this case Orion – away from a failing vehicle on the launch pad to a safe distance, before deploying the parachutes on the Orion, for a landing in the Atlantic ocean within a 3450 ft radius due east of the launch pad.

The second stage of an abort is noted as “mid altitude” – which has a different characteristic when compared to pad abort. This stage of abort works for up to 150,000 ft, involving the LAS remaining on the vehicle after firing the Orion safely away from the failing vehicle until the point of drogue chute deployment, which becomes necessary at that altitude.

The final stage of abort, which would still require the LAS, is at an altitude of between 150,000 ft and 300,000 ft – the latter being the point the LAS would be jettisoned on a nominal flight. After being pulled away from the launch vehicle, Orion would revert to a flight profile similar to that used during the end of a normal mission.

During the evaluations, some engineers called for changes to the system. However, due to the mighty struggles of the time – involving Ares I’s mass to orbit ability, or lack thereof – the main focus turned to using the LAS, in the event of a successful launch, to still perform a firing, in order to assist Orion’s ride uphill.

“LAS Abort Impulse used for Ascent Assist: Theoretically can increase mass to orbit by 1000 lb. However, additional tension loading on the Command Module requires additional structure that leads to overall decrease in mass to orbit,” noted an extensive NASA presentation (acquired by L2 – Link to Document).

Managers also evaluated the use of nozzle inserts in the LAS motors, which would reduce the thrust and thus structural loadings on the vehicle. This option would mitigate any concerns of Command Module (CM) mass penalties.

‘An Alternate Option Using Nozzle Inserts: Reduces Abort Motor Thrust, Increases burn time. Relieves Command Module Compressive load – no tension loads. Increases the Payload Mass-to-Orbit by ~650 lb,’ added the presentation.

This option weakened as evaluations progressed, with the final note on such a use for the LAS pointing to only a 400lb mass increase.

This system has enjoyed one test launch, lofting a boilerplate Orion into the skies of White Sands, New Mexico, durng the successful PA-1 (Pad Abort 1) test in 2010.

MLAS:

While abort motors on the Service Module lost out during the trade studies, a new concept came forward called the Max Abort Launch System – or MLAS (named after Maxime (Max) Faget).

Although it was never publicly admitted, this system was often mentioned by sources as a potential solution towards a growing movement associated with cancelling Ares I and human rating the Ares V, as the Constellation Program (CxP) began to falter.

It also had the backing of then-NASA administrator Mike Griffin, which would not have come as a surprise, given MLAS was an evolution of two of the original three LAS concepts studied by Constellation, one of which made the LAS trade study in 2007 via a rather amusing hand-drawn sketch, created in 2006.

The MLAS concept combined the boost protection cover of the service module mounted escape system with the command module mounted motors, in turn reducing the overall height of the vehicle – something desired by the Ares V HR advocates, who were worried about being able to stack and rollout the vehicle – with a LAS tower – under the height restrictions of the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) doors.

The MLAS utilized a ‘bullet’ boost protection cover over the capsule to house four Mk 70 Terrier solid motors separation motors – as opposed to locating them on a tower above the capsule.

Two orientation parachutes are attached to the top of the fairing to re-orient the vehicle, with the blunt heat shield to aid in fairing separation.

The design resulted in the aborting vehicle re-orienting immediately after abort motor cut off during a pad abort, but would fly with its nose “into the wind” on a mid-altitude abort. The orientation parachutes would then activate quickly before the fairing separation.

In the event of a high altitude abort, the fairing would come off immediately, in order to allow the Command Module Reaction Control System (RCS) to stabilize the vehicle for entry.

The design of MLAS changed several times during its development, gaining fins for stability during later cycles, becoming more in line with another hand drawn sketch.

This  time the artist was former Constellation head Scott “Doc” Horowitz – as seen in the second of two MLAS presentations acquired by L2 (Link to Presentations) – over a year after Mr Griffin’s conceptual design.

The final version of the MLAS flight test vehicle weighed in at over 45,000 lbs and was over 33 feet tall – and this vehicle actually got to fly for real, after being shipped to Wallops for its one and only hop off the ground.

The pad abort test proper began seven seconds after burnout of some specially attached solid motors, as the vehicle rose into the Virginia morning sky at 6:25am local time on July 8, 2009.

Video of the launch showed a perfect test, as the vehicle rose on a stable flight path, before reorientation and further stabilization, followed by crew module simulator separation from the MLAS fairing, and parachute recovery of the crew module simulator.

Other tests were planned for MLAS, including a high altitude abort – which will involve the fairing being released immediately after abort is called, in order to allow the Command Module Reaction Control System (RCS) to stabilize the vehicle for entry. However, the program was put on the backburner, as the Constellation Program found itself cancelled.

At this time, the Space Launch System (SLS) will launch Orion with the previously chosen Line Tandem Tractor (Tower) design as its LAS.

SpaceX LAS:

Despite being late to the game, when compared to the Constellation development path, SpaceX still came up with an arguably superior system for use with their Dragon spacecraft, a system not only fully integrated into the body of the spacecraft, but one that also holds future uses, through to those that aren’t even related to launch abort.

The first major difference relates to the traditional use of solid propellant, mainly because of the speed it can ignite and reach full thrust – something highly desirable when moving human lives away from a failing rocket.

However, Dragon sports a series of eight liquid SuperDraco engines, built into the side walls of the Dragon spacecraft, capable of producing up to 120,000 pounds of axial thrust to drive the Dragon away from its failing launch vehicle.

SpaceX are deep into developing the engines – just nine months after their Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) contract noted the LAS is required – with the latest test fire taking place at the company’s Rocket Development Facility in McGregor, Texas.

Referencing back to the benefit of solid motor abort systems, SpaceX’s SuperDraco produced full thrust within approximately 100 milliseconds of the ignition command. It also fired for five seconds, which is the same amount of time the engines would burn during an emergency abort.

Advantages of the SuperDraco liquid thruster include how the engine can be put through a series of throttling ranges, in turn allowing for redundancy, with SpaceX claiming they could lose one of the eight abort engines and still recover the vehicle and crew successfully. The engines can also be restarted multiple times.

Another advantage is the fact it’s not a tower. As noted previously, the LAS tower normally requires jettison shortly after first stage flight. Any failure of this key sequence of ascent would end the mission, given the flight profile wouldn’t be designed for carrying the LAS along for the ride.

Because the system is integrated into the Dragon itself – as opposed to departing the spacecraft during jettison – the spacecraft can technically abort within much longer periods than the tower version. With Dragon returning with the engines on board, they can also be reused on future launches.

There is also a large amount of commonality between the 18 maneuvering engines built into Dragon and the SuperDraco LAS engines – bar the fact the SuperDraco engines would burn through propellant 200 times faster.

The biggest long-term advantage of this system is related to the potential use of the engines to land Dragon back on land propulsively, as seen via SpaceX’s Reusable Falcon 9 concept, which returns all of the launch vehicle and spacecraft hardware to the ground for reuse.

Parachutes would still be onboard the Dragon, for a contingency event resulting in problems with the SuperDracos, allowing the spacecraft to land on water, as it is currently designed to do.

However, Earth isn’t the only landing destination for Dragon, with SpaceX holding ambitions of landing on the Moon and more notably Mars. Nicknamed “Red Dragon” – SpaceX have made no secret about heading to Mars, even publishing a graphic of their spacecraft touching down on the Red Planet.

Such a mission is deep into the future, although Elon Musk, SpaceX CEO and Chief Technology Officer, included the full range of use for the SuperDraco’s when announcing his pleasure with the recent test firings.

“SuperDraco engines represent the best of cutting edge technology,” Mr Musk noted. “These engines will power a revolutionary launch escape system that will make Dragon the safest spacecraft in history and enable it to land propulsively on Earth or another planet with pinpoint accuracy.”

NASA’s own Mars plans are a mix of old mission outlines and revamped videos, but do show they also have propulsive landing ambitions – in tandem with large parachutes – with the latest conceptual Mars mission videos showing massive cargo landers and crew habitats, with the crew riding down to the surface on board the hab lander, touching down under large amounts of propulsive power.

Such missions are likely to be in the 2030s at the earliest, with the main focus for the entire US space program being the urgency to regain their own domestic crew launch capability, following the retirement of the Space Shuttle.

The successful development path of the SuperDraco engine has literally pushed SpaceX one step further down the road for NASA and the United States to achieve independence from purchasing seats on the Russian Soyuz – a vehicle which still uses the same tower LAS that caused one Soviet General to check if his collar was straight.

(Images via NASA, SpaceX, and L2 content)

(With the shuttle fleet retired, NSF and L2 are providing full transition level coverage, available no where else on the internet, from Orion and SLS to ISS and COTS/CRS/CCDEV, to European and Russian vehicles. 

(Click here: http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/l2/ - to view how you can access the best space flight content on the entire internet)

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Following an official green light from NASA managers, the approved the combination of the Dragon C2/C3 (D2/D3) Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) missions was set to launch from Cape Canaveral on February 7 – as much as the potential for a further slip was referenced during the launch date announcement.

Dragon will only arrive at the ISS if all of the requirements under the initial C2 demo objectives receive the joint approval from SpaceX controllers and NASA controllers – the latter located at the Mission Control Center (MCC) in Houston. Any major problems during the C2 flight phase will end the mission.

The first commercial spacecraft to attempt a docking at the ISS will also conduct a series of check-out procedures that will test and prove its systems in advance of the rendezvous with the station.

The primary objectives for the flight include a fly-by of the space station at a distance of approximately two miles to validate the operation of sensors and flight systems necessary for a safe rendezvous and approach.

The spacecraft also will demonstrate the capability to abort the rendezvous, if required. Crewmembers on the ISS will also have a level of manual control via the COTS UHF Communication Unit (CUCU), which includes orders to abort the approach.

All three crewmembers on the ISS have previously been hands-on the hardware associated with the CUCU during a visit to SpaceX back in September. Dragon also requires two trained crewmembers to berth it, with Dan Burbank and recent arrival Don Pettit tasked with the docking.

Dragon will perform the final approach to the ISS ahead of the station crew grappling the vehicle with the Station’s robotic arm.

The capsule will be berthed – by the Space Station Remote Manipulator System (SSRMS) to the Earth-facing side of the Harmony node.

At the end of the mission, the crew will reverse the process, detaching Dragon from the station for its return to Earth and splashdown in the Pacific off the coast of California.

If the rendezvous and attachment to the station are not successful, SpaceX will complete a third demonstration flight in order to achieve these objectives as originally planned.

Next up in preparation for the launch was the Wet Dress Rehearsal (WDR) for the Falcon 9 at Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral, which was expected to take place last week, or early this week. However, that has been postponed, along with the launch date.

The specific reason for the delay has not been revealed, as much as the slip is is expected to be only a matter of weeks.

It is not known if the due diligence checks are related to the launch vehicle. However, the mission profile had passed through the ISS Post Qual Review board before Christmas, allowing SpaceX to enter the final steps toward launch.

“In preparation for the upcoming launch, SpaceX continues to conduct extensive testing and analysis. We believe that there are a few areas that will benefit from additional work and will optimize the safety and success of this mission,” noted SpaceX in a press release on Monday.

“We are now working with NASA to establish a new target launch date, but note that we will continue to test and review data. We will launch when the vehicle is ready.”

Click here for other Dragon News Articles: http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/tag/dragon/

The comment about launching only when the vehicle is ready is an absolute standard throughout the launch industry, yet the language of the SpaceX release matches the recent heritage of NASA managers tasked with providing a green light for a Space Shuttle launch.

The post-RTF era for the Shuttle earned a large amount of respect for NASA, as Flight Readiness Reviews (FRRs – L2 Link to Presentations) and Mission Management Team (MMT – L2 Link to Presentations) meetings often slipped a launch or delayed the target date late into the flow, avoiding the obvious strain of “schedule pressure” – something which can cause a negative outcome.

One such example of only launching when the vehicle is ready from the Shuttle era was seen ahead of STS-133, via deputy Space Shuttle Program (SSP) manager LeRoy Cain, when he made an internal address to his teams relating to the cracked stringer troubleshooting and mitigation on ET-137. (L2 Link to Presentations).

“If there is a way to make that launch period at the end of all of our work, where we have a very thoughtful and complete assessment of where we think we are as it relates to the risk associated with these anomalies, and we can do something within this launch period, then we will,” noted Mr Cain in November, 2010.

“If we can’t – then we won’t, and we are not going to do anything until we are ready to go fly safely.”

This alignment from a relatively new commercial company to the due diligence of seasoned shuttle managers should impress, as much as SpaceX are clearly fully aware of what they class as a sense of responsibility.

That responsibility is not only to re-establish the domestic cargo supply line to the orbital outpost for the first time since STS-135, but also to lay the foundations of the ultimate Low Earth Orbit goal of transporting US astronauts back to the ISS via an American launch vehicle and spacecraft.

“After the last Shuttle flight we were struck with an enormous sense of responsibility,” noted SpaceX communications director Kirstin Brost Grantham to NASASpaceFlight.com. 

“For 30 years the Space Shuttle provided our country’s only means of carrying astronauts to low-Earth orbit. We are determined to get that capability for our country back just as soon as possible.”

SpaceX are currently part of the CCDev2 (NASA’s Commercial Crew Development) process, which is aiming to re-establish domestic crew transport to the ISS by 2015-2017.

(Images via SpaceX, NASA and L2).

Please note: Clickable links with (L2) references point directly to cited L2 content. Such content is only available to L2 members (please ensure you are logged in). All other clickable links point to NSF articles and open content.

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A Rocket Is For Life, Not Just For Launch:

SpaceX are currently closing in on the February launch of their third Falcon 9 flight, tasked with the historic mission to loft an unmanned Dragon spacecraft on a recently approved combined D2/D3 mission to the International Space Station (ISS). Should the spacecraft successfully pass both its D2 and D3 demonstration test requirements, Dragon will be the first commercial vehicle to dock with the orbital outpost.

The Falcon 9 launch vehicle, however, will not live to see the historic event, following its staging and return to Earth – at least for the First Stage (the second stage may conduct restart/reboost tests) - shortly after the ride uphill.

This is the standard approach for expendable launch vehicles, even for large elements of technically reusable space vehicle systems – such as the Space Shuttle, which saw her giant External Tank (ET) destroyed via a destructive re-entry over the Indian Ocean, after each successful ascent to orbit.

Attempts have been made to design Single-Stage-To-Orbit (SSTO) vehicles – where the entire vehicle avoided any form of staging and returned to Earth “as launched” – such as the infamous X-33/VentureStar, which failed to overcome extensive design challenges prior to its cancellation.

However, SpaceX aren’t looking to redesign the wheel with their reusable ambitions. Instead, they are looking to keep their Falcon 9 launch vehicle design, along with its staging profile, whilst making revolutionary changes to what the expended stages do once they have completed their ascent roles – in essence, a highly advanced and wider-ranging version of the flyback booster concept.

These plans were unveiled by SpaceX founder and chief executive Elon Musk back in September of last year, plans which called for an improved Falcon 9, featuring first and second stages that would fly back to the launch site under their own power – something no other aerospace company has achieved. Mr Musk had previously hinted at such an ambition in 2009.

“This is a very difficult thing to do. Even for an expendable launch vehicle, where you don’t attempt any recovery, you only get maybe two to three percent of your lift-off weight to orbit. That’s not a lot of room for error,” noted Mr Musk during a speech to the National Press Club (*Video Snippet*).

“Now you say ‘OK, now let’s make it reusable’. You have to strengthen the stages, add a lot of weight, a lot of thermal protection – a lot of things that add weight to that vehicle – and still have a useful payload to orbit. You’ve got to add all that’s necessary to bring the stages back to the launch pad to be able to re-fly them and still have useful payload to orbit.

“This has been attempted many times in the past and generally what’s happened is people have concluded that success was not one of the possible outcomes, and the project has been abandoned. It’s a very tough engineering problem.”

During the announcement, a video simulation of the concept – if not entirely accurate – outlined how the Falcon 9 would return back to the launch site, ready for safing ahead for reuse on a latter mission. (*Video Here*)

With a slightly controversial, slightly clever, yet entirely apt use of British band “Muse” – well-known to be space flight fans – and their track “Uprising” as the soundtrack to the video, a visibly modified version of the Falcon 9/Dragon combination can be seen launching uphill, prior to a nominal First Stage MECO (Main Engine Cut Off) and staging.

However, this is the point where “nominal” turns into “fascinating” as the entire first stage rotates 180 degrees via Reaction Control System (RCS) thrusters, and then reignites three of its nine engines to “boost back” the near-empty stage back to the launch site.

Descending back to the launch pad, the First Stage is seen firing one engine to decelerate to a pinpoint landing on its specially made landing legs, in an area depicted in the video as the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) Skid Strip runway complex.

“We have a design that on paper – doing the calculations and simulations – that does work. Now we have to make sure those simulations and reality agree. Because generally when they don’t, reality wins. So that’s to be determined,” noted Mr Musk.

“The simulation shows a general idea of what we plan to do, which is to basically put a First Stage out to stage separation, turn the stage around, relight the engines, boost back to the launch pad – and land propulsively on landing legs.”

With the Upper Stage completing its orbital insertion burn, prior to spacecraft separation, thrusters once again rotate the stage 180 degrees, aft forward, ahead of engine restart for another burn to deorbit the Upper Stage.

Protected by what appears to be a version of the PICA-X (a proprietary variant of NASA’s phenolic impregnated carbon ablator (PICA) material) heat shield used by the Dragon spacecraft, the Upper Stage dives back to Earth, protected against the heat and force of re-entry, prior to using what is depicted as four thrusters to decelerate and land on its landing legs.

During the sequence, the landing legs are shown in several configurations, both extended – to allow for the Upper Stage Nozzle to complete its burn, as well as folded inwards – to protect against the forces of re-entry.

“With the Upper Stage, after dropping off the satellite or spacecraft, we do a deorbit burn, re-enter – you need a quite powerful heat shield - and steer aerodynamically back to the launch pad, landing propulsively on landing legs,” added Mr Musk. “(Also worth noting,) you don’t need wings to steer aerodynamically, you just need some lift over drag numbers and lift vector.”

Click here for recent Dragon Articles: http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/tag/dragon/

With Dragon completing its mission, the capsule re-enters as expected – as much as Dragon still has one unique feature to present via its propulsive landing system, an integrated hardware element which also provides the launch abort capability during ascent.

While a backup parachute system will be available in the event of any issues, the sum total of the overall changes results in the entire launch vehicle and spacecraft hardware – minus fuel and original upmass payload – returning to Earth to be reused.

“I wasn’t sure it could be solved, but relatively recently – in the last 12 months or so – I’ve come the conclusion it can be solved and SpaceX is going to try and do it,” Mr Musk claimed. “We could fail, I’m not saying we’re certain of success, but we’re going to try to do it.”

Upcoming Development For F9r And Merlin 1D:

The first element of testing the simulations with real hardware will begin via a technology test bed called “Grasshopper”. This concept – per Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) information – points to a single-engine Falcon 9 First Stage with its own landing legs.

As confirmed by SpaceX in a response to NASASpaceflight.com, the company will begin testing on their vertical propulsion landing system for the Falcon 9 Reusable project later this year – a project they acknowledge is a long-term effort.

“We will begin testing our vertical propulsion landing system later this year. This is the research and development effort designed to help us learn more about propulsive landing systems to advance plans for producing reusable rockets,” noted SpaceX.

“This is a long-term project. SpaceX must successfully complete extensive testing before we will see reusable vehicles.”

The long-term nature of the project should place SpaceX in a good position for success, especially as they are continuing to advance and improve the performance of their in-house hardware, most notably their engines.

The Falcon 9 currently employs nine “SpaceX designed and built” Merlin main engines on the First Stage – sporting a single shaft. propellent fed, dual impeller turbo-pump, operating on a gas generator cycle which also provides the high pressure kerosene for the hydraulic actuators, which then recycles into the low pressure inlet.

The turbo-pump also provides roll control by actuating the turbine exhaust nozzle on the single second stage MVac engine.

In a response to NASASpaceflight.com, SpaceX note that an upcoming upgrades to the engine (Merlin 1D) will provide a vast improvement in performance, reliability and manufacturability – all of which could provide a timely boost to aiding the potential for success for the fully reusable Falcon 9.

“Increased reliability: Simplified design by eliminating components and sub-assemblies. Increased fatigue life. Increased chamber and nozzle thermal margins,” noted SpaceX in listing the improvements in work.

“Improved Performance: Thrust increased from 95,000 lbf (sea level) to 140,000 lbf (sea level). Added throttle capability for range from 70-100 percent. Currently, it is necessary to shut off two engines during ascent. The Merlin 1D will make it possible to throttle all engines. Structure was removed from the engine to make it lighter.

“Improved Manufacturability: Simplified design to use lower cost manufacturing techniques. Reduced touch labor and parts count. Increased in-house production at SpaceX.”

No specific date has been given for when such improvements will come on line, or if they would require debuting on a satellite launch, as opposed to a mission under NASA’s commercial contract.

A Breakthrough For Humans:

With the obvious challenge of potentially trading some of the vital upmass ratios, via the extra mass required for the additions to enable the launch vehicle to become reusable, Mr Musk pointed out just how important a breakthrough of this nature would be, by reducing the costs of a launch vehicle system, to a point it provides an enabler for the viability of a human settlement on Mars.

“The pivotal breakthrough that some company has to come up with (to make life multi-planetary), is a fully and rapidly reusable orbit class rocket. We’ll see if this works, but it’ll certainly be an exciting journey – and if it does work, it’ll be pretty huge,” noted Mr Musk at the September presser, before providing an example of the cost differential between expendable and reusable vehicles.

“If you look at the cost of a Falcon 9 rocket – which is a big, one million pounds of thrust rocket, yet the lowest cost rocket in the world, it’s still 50-60 million dollars. But if you look at the cost of the fuel and oxygen and so forth, it’s only about 200,000 dollars. So obviously if we can reuse the rocket, say one thousand times, then that would make the capital cost of the rocket per launch only about 50,000 dollars.

“(Bar) maintenance costs (etc), it would allow for a hundred fold reduction in launch costs.”

With commercial space now preparing to take over the access to Low Earth Orbit (LEO), many people have compared the current transition for the United States in space to that of the commercialization of other transportation sectors.

Mr Musk used a similar example when referring to the reusability of hardware for one of the more common modes of transport.

“This is a pretty obvious thing when applied to any other mode of transport. You can imagine if planes were not reusable, very few people would fly. A 747 is about $300 million, you’d need two of them for a round trip, yet I don’t think anyone has paid half a billion dollars to fly.

“These planes can be used tens of thousands of times and all you’re really paying for is fuel, pilots and incidentals – so the cost is relatively small. That’s why it’s such a giant difference, and that’s why I think a full reusable rocket is fundamentally required for life to become multi-planetary, for us to establish life on Mars.”

Click here for SpaceX News articles: http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=21862.0

While Mars remains a stated intention for SpaceX’s future aspirations, near-term success with their Falcon 9 and Dragon systems – not least under the Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) and CCDev (Commercial Crew Development) contracts – will provide the experience and the confidence for a company which has successfully become a household name in the global space flight arena.

(Images via SpaceX, National Press Club and NASA)

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The first upgrades needed to support the Dragon spacecraft, scheduled to visit the station for the first time on the combined COTS-2/3 (C2/C3) mission in February, were to the COTS UHF Communication Unit (CUCU) and its associated Crew Command Panel (CCP).

The CUCU, delivered to the ISS on STS-129 in November 2009, is an avionics box that plugs into the ISS in order to allow communication between the station, through its antennas, and the SpaceX Dragon, by converting and relaying signals between the two spacecraft.

The CCP allows the ISS crew to interact with Dragon, by issuing commands to Dragon via the CUCU in response to crew inputs to the panel, such as rendezvous abort, Dragon strobe light on/off, and other commands.

Having been aboard the ISS for over two years, during which time the Dragon spacecraft software has changed from its original version, both the CUCU and CCP needed software updates in order to support Dragon’s inaugural arrival at the station in February.

Beginning in late November 2011, a new software version, called R3.2, was loaded into the CUCU. The updates were to the Remote Input/Output (RIO) control modules, the radio, and the 1553 card on both of the CUCU’s two redundant strings of electronics, called 1a and 1b.

Following the CUCU update, a remote checkout of the CUCU was performed, with tests involving performing transmit and receive tests between Earth and both of the CUCU’s redundant strings. Only a minor command line issue was discovered, which was resolved after cycling the circuit breaker for the RIO-A, which verified CUCU command capability.

The subsequent CCP update, which was firmware of version R3.2 for both of the two CCPs aboard the ISS – Primary and Backup – was originally scheduled to be performed soon after the CUCU update, however was delayed due to issues with test communication links between the ISS and NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center (DFRC) in California.

The firmware upgrade was eventually performed on 4th January 2012, which was followed by successful testing by SpaceX Mission Control (MCC-X) in Hawthorne, California. As such, both the CUCU and the CCP are now ready to support the Dragon flight in February.

MDM upgrade:

The next ISS upgrade in support of Dragon’s visit was to the station’s Multiplexer/Demultiplexer (MDM) computers. MDMs are part of the ISS Command & Data Handling (CDH) system that controls all aspects of the ISS and its sub-systems.

As their name implies, MDMs perform multiplexing and demultiplexing functions, which essentially means that they send and receive multiple signals and data streams between the ground and the ISS, or ISS laptops and ISS systems, or ISS systems and other systems.

This essentially allows all the ISS systems to talk to each other and be commanded by both the ground and the ISS crew. While it’s commonly referred to that the ISS crew use laptops to control the station, in fact the laptops control the MDMs, which in turn control the station.

The MDMs consist of processor cards which allow them to perform their various functions, and it is one type of these cards which were the subject of the upgrades. Specifically, the new cards were called Enhanced Processor & Integrated Communications (EPIC) cards, which feature faster processors, increased memory, and an Ethernet port for data output.

The EPIC upgrades are needed to support the new commercial resupply vehicles, since the cards control communications between the ISS and Visiting Vehicles (VVs), the Space Station Remote Manipulator System (SSRMS), which is used to capture VVs, and Common Berthing Mechanism (CBM) ports, to which VVs berth.

Additionally, the EPIC upgrades will allow the ISS to support the operation of more experiments at any given time, thus increasing station utilisation in the post-Shuttle era. Under non-EPIC cards the ISS could support 12 simultaneous experiments, bit with the new EPIC cards the ISS is able to support over 25 simultaneous experiments.

The EPIC cards also updated the station’s software, since the cards were pre-loaded with new versions of software to replace the station’s old version of X2_R9. Specifically, six EPIC cards launched aboard Progress M-11M/43P in October were loaded with CCS R10 and GNC R9 software, and four cards delivered aboard Soyuz TMA-03M/29S in December were loaded with CCS R10 and PEP R10 software.

Overall, the EPIC card transition updated the ISS software from X2_R9 to X2_R10, which is essentially the same as the previous version, but upgraded to run on the faster EPIC card – no new functionality will be added.

Click here for ISS Articles: http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/tag/iss/

EPIC transition:

The EPIC transition was originally scheduled to occur in August 2011, but was delayed when problems were discovered with several EPIC cards, which L2 information shows was that “some of the cards are more susceptible to noise than the others which could result in a power supply shut down”. As a result, additional testing was needed.

At the same time, the launch failure of the Progress M-12M/44P spacecraft on 24th August and subsequent knock-on effect of reduced ISS crew, which meant that less time was available for EPIC transition work due to research commitments, pushed the EPIC transition into late December/early January.

In total, five MDMs were upgraded – three Command & Control (C&C) MDMs, and two Guidance, Navigation & Control (GNC) MDMs. The EPIC upgrades were performed in such an order as to allow for certain MDMs to be transitioned to EPIC cards while others remained on non-EPIC cards for a few days, in order to allow for full testing and problem resolution before transitioning all five MDMs to EPIC cards.

The transition was a two-man job, with US astronaut Don Pettit performing full tests of the EPIC cards to verify their functionality, prior to handing them to ISS Commander Dan Burbank for installation into the MDMs, located within the Avionics racks in the US Destiny laboratory.

The complex operations began on 28th December, with the old non-EPIC card being removed from the C&C-1 MDM and replaced with the new EPIC card, thus transitioning C&C-1 to EPIC. Following verification of correct operation, the 29th December saw the C&C-2 MDM transitioned to EPIC using the same process.

On the 30th December, the upgraded C&C-1 EPIC MDM was switched to Primary C&C MDM, and the C&C-2 EPIC MDM became Backup C&C MDM. The only remaining non-EPIC C&C MDM, C&C-3, was put into Standby mode, available as a “back-out” option should problems have arisen in the new EPIC Primary & Backup C&C MDMs.

Next, on 3rd January, an EPIC card was installed in the GNC-2 MDM, following which it was transitioned to Primary GNC MDM, while the non-EPIC GNC-1 MDM became Backup. Finally, on 5th January, after two “dwell days” to iron out any issues, the last of the three C&C MDMs, C&C-3, was transitioned to EPIC, as was the last of the two GNC MDMs, GNC-1.

An EPIC software patch for the station’s Portable Computer System (PCS) laptops was then uploaded, marking the successful completion of the transition of the three C&C and two GNC MDMs to EPIC cards, and the updating of ISS software from X2_R9 to X2_R10.

Future hardware & software upgrades:

Although, as detailed above, the EPIC cards will enable support for commercial cargo vehicles and additional payloads, the actual support will come from additional hardware and software upgrades over the coming weeks.

In order to be able to support the commercial cargo vehicles, the ISS must yet undergo another software upgrade, this time from its current X2_R10 to the new X2_R11, which will, amongst other things, update the ISS Mobile Servicing System (MSS) software to version 7.1, which will give the SSRMS software the updates required to support robotics activities associated with commercial cargo vehicles.

Source information shows that the X2_R11 transition will occur in two parts, the first part from 15th to 17th January, and the second part from 29th January to 1st February, a schedule which should give the ISS the software required to support the inaugural Dragon visit six days prior its currently planned launch on 7th February.

Although not a requirement for support of commercial cargo vehicles, a further hardware and software upgrade will be needed in order to allow the ISS to support additional payloads. This will consist of upgrading two payload MDMs with EPIC cards, and then performing another ISS software update, called X2_PEP_R10.

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This upgrade, which also includes a software update for the Permanent Multipurpose Module (PMM), will add Ethernet support for the C&C and Payload MDMs, which will provide a faster path for data being downlinked from the ISS to Earth. Source information shows that this transition will occur No Earlier Than (NET) February.

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ISS cargo deliveries:

The year 2011 was a highly successful year in terms of cargo flights to the ISS, with January’s launch of Japan’s H-II Transfer Vehicle-2 (HTV-2), February’s launch of Europe’s Automated Transfer Vehicle-2 (ATV-2), and the successful launches of Space Shuttle missions STS-133, STS-134 and STS-135, as well as numerous Russian Progress flights.

The delivery and installation of the Permanent Multipurpose Module (PMM) to the ISS on STS-133 in February increased the amount of stowage space available on the station for cargo, which paved the way for STS-135 to deliver a massive stockpile of crew provisions to the station on the final Shuttle mission in July.

The stockpile of crew provisions from STS-135 will enable the station to make it to mid-2012 without any additional deliveries of cargo, and make it to 2013 when supplemented with deliveries of cargo from Europe’s ATV and Japan’s HTV. Thus, successful commercial and non-commercial resupply flights to the ISS are essential in order to maintain a crewed presence on the station throughout 2012.

The late-addition of STS-135 to the Shuttle’s manifest in order to shore up ISS’ supplies is already being seen as an excellent decision, given the delays of commercial resupply flights to the ISS and recent failures of Russian rockets.

Non-commercial cargo vehicles:

This year’s non-commercial cargo vehicle flights to the ISS will see two large deliveries made to the station by both Europe and Japan.

Europe’s ATV-3 spacecraft, named “Edoardo Amaldi”, is currently set to launch to the ISS atop an Ariane V rocket from the Kourou space center in French Guiana, on 9th March, and arrive at the ISS for a docking to the Service Module (AM) Aft port ten days later on 19th March. It is scheduled to undock from the ISS on 27th August.

ATV-3 will carry more “dry” cargo (i.e. internal items) than ATV-2 carried to the station in 2011, due to numerous internal structural modifications that have been made that will allow ATV to carry additional internal payload.

This will mean that less “wet” cargo (i.e. propellants) will be carried by ATV-3, however this will not be of big impact to the ISS since ATV-2 performed four “big boosts” of the ISS in 2011 that boosted the station’s altitude to a mean of around 400km, meaning less reboosts will be needed in future, and thus less requirements for propellants. (L2 Link)

The next large non-commercial delivery of ISS cargo will be via Japan’s HTV-3 spacecraft, currently scheduled to launch on 26th June atop an H-IIB rocket from the Tanegashima space center in Japan, arriving at the ISS five days later for a 1st July rendezvous, capture and berthing.

HTV-3 will depart the ISS on 15th August. The HTV-3 mission was originally scheduled for the first quarter of 2012, but was pushed back to mid-2012 due to delays in hardware processing caused by the Japanese earthquake in 2011.

In additional to bringing a large volume of internal cargo to the station, HTV-3 will also carry two external payloads for the ISS – the Space Communication and Navigation (SCaN) testbed, which will be attached to ExPrESS Logistics Carrier-3 (ELC-3), and the Multi-mission Consolidated Equipment (MCE), a payload for the Japanese Exposed Facility (JEF). (L2 Link)

Five Russian Progress flights to the station are also planned in 2012 – Progress M-14M on 25th January, M-15M on 25th April, M-16M on 25th July, M-17M on 23rd October, and M-18M on 26th December. (L2 Link)

Progress flights, however, will be of particular interest to the ISS Program over the course of 2012 due to the multiple failures of Russian launch vehicles in 2011, including two third stages of Soyuz rockets – a Soyuz-U with Progress M-12M/44P on 24th August, and a Soyuz 2-1b with the Meridian satellite on 23rd December.

However, the Progress M-12M third stage failure was attributed to a problem in the RD-0110 engine, while the third stage failure of Meridian used a newer RD-0124 engine.

If any further Soyuz rockets fail in 2012, it will not only have implications for Progress cargo flights, but also Soyuz crewed flights, which could lead to a de-crewing of the station since the ISS partners now depend on the Soyuz for crewed access to the station.

As such, successful launches of both Progress and Soyuz spacecraft are vital for a continued crewed presence on the ISS throughout 2012.

Commercial cargo vehicles:

This year will also mark the first of two long-awaited commercial cargo vehicles visit the station – SpaceX’s Dragon, and Orbital’s Cygnus.

The first commercial spacecraft to attempt to reach the ISS will be SpaceX’s Dragon, which is currently scheduled to launch on the combined COTS-2/3 (C2/C3) mission atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex-40 (LC-40) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) on 7th February.

Preliminary timelines show that COTS-2 objectives (rendezvous and communication tests) will be performed the day following launch, with COTS-3 objectives (rendezvous, capture & berthing) being performed two days after launch on 9th February. These timelines, however, are not confirmed at this time.
Following a two week stay at the ISS, during which some non-critical supplies will be transferred to the ISS, Dragon will be unberthed from the ISS on 23rd February, for a re-entry and splashdown off the coast of California. (L2 Link)

While Dragon was originally scheduled to reach the station in 2011, ongoing setbacks from the Progress M-12M launch failure and subsequent ISS crew impacts, ISS hardware and software upgrades, Dragon software testing, and Dragon flight review processes delayed the flight into 2012.

With the successful docking of Soyuz TMA-03M/29S to the ISS on 23rd December, which delivered US astronaut Don Pettit to the station, all crewmembers trained to capture and berth Dragon are now aboard the ISS.

ISS hardware and software upgrades, notably the Enhanced Processor & Integrated Communications (EPIC) and X2_R10 software transition, got underway aboard the ISS last week and will continue throughout this week, so far with success.

Dragon software testing and flight reviews are currently ongoing, as much a big hurdle – deployment of an ORBCOMM secondary payload – has now been removed from the C2/C3 mission so that SpaceX can concentrate on Dragon’s flight to the ISS, and not have to worry about ISS conjunction concerns from the ORBCOMM.

Assuming the C2/C3 mission is a success, SpaceX are schedule to fly at least one more Dragon to the ISS in 2012 as an operational resupply spacecraft.

The next commercial cargo craft to attempt to reach the ISS after Dragon will be Orbital’s Cygnus spacecraft, currently scheduled to launch No Earlier Than (NET) June due to ongoing delays with launch pad readiness. A hot-fire test and a test launch with a dummy payload of Cygnus’ Antares (formerly Taurus II) launch vehicle need to be performed prior to the Cygnus C1 mission.

Since ISS can make it only as far as 2013 without any commercial cargo deliveries (assuming successful deliveries of cargo by non-commercial vehicles), this means that at least one commercial resupply vehicle must successfully reach the ISS in 2012 in order to maintain a crewed presence in 2013.

The margin for failure of this year’s COTS vehicle test flights is tight, with sources noting that even with the stockpiles of supplies from STS-135, ISS will struggle to sustain a failure of any COTS vehicle to reach the station.

As such, retirement of the Space Shuttle and its large up/downmass before an operational commercial resupply capability was available has placed additional risk on the ISS, since test flights of new, and in the case of Orbital, untested launch vehicles and spacecraft are now on the critical path for sustained ISS operations.

Although the commercial vehicles in question have yet to reach the station at the start of the year in which they must become operational, the due diligence displayed thus far by both NASA and its commercial partners enables is an encouraging sign.

While the commercial resupply vehicles have been a long time coming, the end is now in sight for the COTS (Commercial Orbital Transportation Services) development program and the transition to the operational Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) program. Due to both the high risks and high payoffs involved, 2012 is likely to be the make-or-break year for COTS and CRS.

–

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Combined Flight Approval:

Although the language allows for this mission to slip further, should ISS partners require more review time, NASA’s announcement is a major milestone not only for SpaceX’s cargo resupply missions, but also for the new era of commercial vehicles entering the operational realm of Low Earth Orbit (LEO).

“Pending completion of final safety reviews, testing and verification, NASA also has agreed to allow SpaceX to send its Dragon spacecraft to rendezvous with the International Space Station (ISS) in a single flight,” opened NASA’s statement on the announcement, which will include some final hurdles which all vehicles travelling to the ISS require.

This includes a NASA level Demo Readiness Review (RR) and an ISS review, similar to that undertaken for Europe’s ATV and Japan’s HTV.

As noted in this site’s article earlier this week, the confirmation of an approved combination flight was made by Human Exploration and Operations (HEO) Mission Directorate Associate Administrator Bill Gersteinmaier, while it was also confirmed the mission would slip from it previous January timeframe.

“SpaceX has made incredible progress over the last several months preparing Dragon for its mission to the space station,” Mr Gerstenmaier noted. “We look forward to a successful mission, which will open up a new era in commercial cargo delivery for this international orbiting laboratory.

Click here for other Dragon News Articles: http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/tag/dragon/

“There is still a significant amount of critical work to be completed before launch, but the teams have a sound plan to complete it and are prepared for unexpected challenges. As with all launches, we will adjust the launch date as needed to gain sufficient understanding of test and analysis results to ensure safety and mission success.”

The significance of the announcement coming from Mr Gerstenmaier should not be under-estimated, given his close relationship with the ISS’ other major partner, the Russians. Officials at RSC Energia and Roscosmos have been exhibiting a large degree of caution – as should be expected – over the arrival of a brand new vehicle at the orbital outpost.

As previously noted, the Russian officials had a number of concerns – some of which may require alleviating at the upcoming FRRs, which – at an ISS partner level – they will be involved with. Their latest “request” revolved around the flight profile of Dragon, one which they requested should match that undertaken by Japan’s HTV during its first flight.

Dragon’s flight profile has not been revealed in any great detail, but it is believed the vehicle was already closely following the approach milestones carried out by the JAXA vehicle, allowing for several safety decision points enroute to the rendezvous with the Space Station.

A large degree of mitigation is in-built into Dragon’s next trip into space, given it will only arrive at the ISS if all of the requirements under the initial C2 demo objectives receive the joint approval from SpaceX controllers and NASA controllers – the latter located at the Mission Control Center (MCC) in Houston. Any major problems during the C2 flight phase will end the mission.

As noted by NASA, Dragon will conduct a series of check-out procedures that will test and prove its systems in advance of the rendezvous with the station. The primary objectives for the flight include a fly-by of the space station at a distance of approximately two miles to validate the operation of sensors and flight systems necessary for a safe rendezvous and approach. The spacecraft also will demonstrate the capability to abort the rendezvous, if required.

Dragon will perform the final approach to the ISS while the station crew grapples the vehicle with the station’s robotic arm. The capsule will be berthed – by the Space Station Remote Manipulator System (SSRMS) to the Earth-facing side of the Harmony node.

At the end of the mission, the crew will reverse the process, detaching Dragon from the station for its return to Earth and splashdown in the Pacific off the coast of California. If the rendezvous and attachment to the station are not successful, SpaceX will complete a third demonstration flight in order to achieve these objectives as originally planned.

With budgetary concerns placing additional pressure on the long-term commercial approach for cargo flights and the eventual crew missions to the ISS, a successful mission will go some way to ease the ISS’ logistics status, which is under strain since the retirement of the Space Shuttle fleet from their NASA missions.

Such a historic docking of a commercial – non-Agency – vehicle to the ISS will mark the start of such a drive, one which enables NASA to concentrate on Beyond Earth Orbit (BEO) exploration via their Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion crew vehicle.

“SpaceX is excited to be the first commercial company in history to berth with the International Space Station. This mission will mark a historic milestone in the future of spaceflight,” said SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell. “We appreciate NASA’s continued support and their partnership in this process.”

Later in 2012, the second COTS vehicle – Orbital’s Cygnus spacecraft – will join in on ISS resupply operations. No firm launch date has been set for Cygnus’ debut trip to the ISS, following its ride into space via a Taurus II launch vehicle from the new launch facility at the Wallops Space Center.

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UPDATE: Combined Mission approved on December 9. Feb 7 launch date.

SpaceX Dragon Mission:

A final decision to combine the second and third of three planned Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) demonstration flights (C2 and C3 – otherwise known as D2 and D3) for SpaceX’s Dragon capsule still hasn’t been made, as much as it’s been due for several weeks.

An actual official decision – and announcement – on combining the two flights, resulting a mission which will see the first commercial spacecraft to arrive at the Space Station, will be made by Human Exploration and Operations (HEO) Mission Directorate Associate Administrator Bill Gersteinmaier.

Several challenges have been – or continue to be – evaluated, such as the series of software updates that have been planned for the ISS, which will enable the station to support the new commercial vehicles at the outpost.

Mr Gersteinmaier did note that SpaceX had delivered the final update version of their software for NASA evaluation, during the Soyuz TMA-22 post-docking media briefing in Russia.

Ironically, the Russian partners have been more than cautious with Dragon’s debut arrival, first noting concerns with the “performance data” – supplied to them from the COTS 1 flight – as much as it appears the issue was with the amount of information they gained, as opposed to any problems with the data.

Click here for recent SpaceX News Articles: http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/tag/spacex/

This concern had apparently subsided, with claims Roscosmos and RSC Energia “stakeholders” had signed their preliminary approval for the arrival of the SpaceX vehicle at the orbital outpost, specific to their previous concerns with the data.

However, sources note the Russians still have misgivings about Dragon arriving at the ISS, claiming Roscosmos spoke with Mr Gersteinmaier recently, requesting Dragon mirrors the same approach points as the European ATV and Japanese HTV carried out in their first flights to ISS.

This should not provide a major problem, given Dragon’s rendezvous is understood to closely follow the approach profile used with the HTV. It is also not known just how much power the Russians have over a US spacecraft arriving at the US section of the ISS, as much as NASA sources confirm the Russians are being very “hands on” with the approval process.

Regardless, the overall opinion continues to point to an approval for the joint mission being close, as much as this has been the claim for almost the last two months.

One key element which would have been a natural schedule problem for Dragon has now been removed, with the Russian Progress and Soyuz vehicles back into nominal flight ops, following the successful launch and docking of both vehicles since the Progress 44P failure.

Indeed, even the ISS status reports have shown optimism on an official green light for Dragon’s flight to the ISS, with crewmembers – NASA astronaut Dan Burbank and Russian cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoly Ivanishin – preparing for what the reports listed as a merged mission at one point.

“CDR Dan Burbank pre-gathered required hardware items of the CUCU (COTS UHF Communications Unit) and restowed it in Node 2 for the upcoming (11/30) Combined Demo software update and checkout, which will involve the CUCU software and SpaceX “Dragon” CCP (Crew Command Panel) firmware, followed by a checkout of the changes,” noted the November 28 ISS Status report.

“(For the new Dragon Combined Demo (Demo 2 & 3 being merged), “Commanding from ISS” via the CCP will be demonstrated while the spacecraft flies 2.5 km under the ISS.)”

The first report in December, however, backtracked from the “merged” statement, as software work continued on the ISS.

“The software upload for the CUCU (COTS UHF Communications Unit), which the ground successfully checked out, supports the first SpaceX Dragon Demo flight early next year. The Combined Demo, which would merge Demo 2 & Demo 3, mentioned in (previous) report, continues to be under study and has not yet been approved for implementation.”

All three crewmembers previously got their hands on the hardware associated with the CUCU during a visit to SpaceX back in September. However, Dragon requires two trained crewmembers to berth it, with Dan Burbank the only crewmember currently aboard ISS who has completed the training, meaning Dragon’s arrival will require Don Pettit or his backup to arrive on the next Soyuz, scheduled to launch later this month.

Dragon will also be challenged even if the combined mission proceeds as a merged flight, with the requirement for every C2 demo objective to receive the joint confirmation from SpaceX controllers and NASA controllers – the latter located at the Mission Control Center (MCC) in Houston.

Any in-flight anomalies during the C2 phase of the flight be presented to MCC-Houston and thoroughly resolved by SpaceX’s Mission Control in California.

As previously reported, Dragon’s debut arrival has already received a level of cargo manifesting, with an ISS stowage status update providing some insight into how the ISS will make use of the mission.

“Cargo Delivered: Actual cargo growth unclear due to immature manifests; vehicle spacing could increase and impact manifests,”  noted the commercial page of the October presentation acquired by L2.

“SpaceX Demo: capability (50 CTBE – Cargo Transfer Bag Equivalent) vs manifest (41 CTBE). Launching empty bags (18 CTBE of the 41) to facilitate maximum disposal capability for SpaceX and Orbital demo flights. Manifest complement is food and crew provisions. PLs and Vehicle launch allocations not utilized.”

However, there hasn’t been any word of late on the plan for the secondary payloads, which relates to an agreement to launch 18 ORBCOMM Generation 2 (OG2) satellites as early as the fourth quarter of 2010 through 2014. The delivery of the second-generation satellites into Low Earth Orbit (LEO) was set to be carried out on the Falcon 1e launch vehicle.

SpaceX – working to further maximize the cost-effectiveness of their COTS/CRS missions – decided to include the additional payloads as passengers on the Falcon 9′s second stage, allowing them to be deployed after the Dragon separates from the Falcon 9.

It is currently understood that two ORBCOMM satellites will ride uphill with Falcon 9 during the C2/C3 flight, which caused ISS managers some interest from the standpoint of a potential collision risk with the ISS. As such, NASA noted the use of their experienced Monte Carlo analysis methods to clear this concern. No further information has been noted since.

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Robotics and EVA activities:

Opening the ISS systems status review was an update on the robotics and EVA systems on the International Space Station. Specifically, the robotics and EVA division noted an amazingly clean performance of all related systems in the preceding months, with no issues being reported.

This, coupled with no upcoming robotics activities on the ISS until December, will make for a relatively quiet period of time for the three-person ISS crew through the remainder of October and the month of November.

The next scheduled robotics activity on the ISS, in fact, is set to be the walk-off of the SSRMS (Space Station Remote Manipulator System) arm to Node-2/Harmony for “support of the Dragon mission and high-res LEE snare cable photography,” notes the MOD Robotics operations presentation – available for download on L2.

EVA systems and support structures also received little mention in the “preceding months” category. However, internal NASA documentation indicated that GMT days 290-292 (Oct. 17-19) and 298 (Oct. 25) were/will be spent by performing system and equipment maintenance in the EVA realm.

Specifically, GMT days 290-292 were spent performing maintenance on the NiMH batteries, EMU (Extravehicular Mobility Unit – spacesuit) water maintenance, and crewlock cleanout.

Airlock switch recongifuration verification will take place tomorrow, GMT day 298.

Click here for ISS News Articles: http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/tag/iss/

EMU water maintenance specifically included “extra iodination in preparation for possible de-crewing of ISS” – an added precaution as Russian space agency officials continue to work recovery efforts from the failed Progress resupply craft launch in August of this year.

Currently, ISS de-crew is not considered likely as Russian officials track a mid-November (~Nov. 14th) launch of the next ISS crew increment to the Station in a Soyuz spacecraft. The Nov. 14th launch of Soyuz will mark the 111th Soyuz flight since flight operations began in 1967 and the 22nd and final flight of the Soyuz TMA spacecraft – which is being replaced with the upgraded Soyuz TMA-M series.

ISS Systems Status: Failures and completed/upcoming work:

While robotics and EVA operations have been light in recent and upcoming months, general upkeep and maintenance of the International Space Station has continued along with science and research objectives.

Specifically, the ISS Systems Status presentation reviewed ISS systems failures and recovery/investigation results from these failures.

The first such failures mentioned were two EPS system anomalies.

“Failure: On September 23rd, AR 5543 – RPCM LA1A4A_C RPC 4 Trip. Impact: Loss of redundant power feed to Express Rack 2 (LAB1O1 Rack). Rack contains Ku-Band receiver.”

On October 17, crewmembers R&Red (removed and replaced) the RPCM LA1A4A unit to recover redundant power to the Stations’ Ku-band antenna receiver. Likewise, the RPCM LA1B-H was then R&Red the following day to “recover second of two smoke detectors in Lab” (Destiny module),” notes the ISS System overview presentation – also available for download on L2.

This resulted in the recovery of all systems from the September 23rd failure.

The second EPS failure was an Oct. 12th event in which six of the eight lights in the Permanent Multipurpose Module (PMM) Leonardo turned off because of a recurring software “overcurrent FDIR” unique to the PMM General Luminaire Assembly.

The problem was resolved by temporarily disabling the FDIR and repowering all the lights. However, this repowering failed to illuminate any of the six failed lights.

A forward plan was developed to replace the failed Lamp Housing Assembly “as crew desire/timeline allows.”

The presentation further notes a failure of the Urine Processing Assembly, specifically the Fluids Control Pump Assembly (FCAP).

“Failure: UPA Fluids Control Pump Assembly (FCPA) failure. FCPA was able to be restarted several times, but eventually high current draw prevented subsequent re-starts. Impact: Loss of Urine processing function. The UPA cannot operate without the FCPA,” notes the ISS systems presentation.

The FCPA was subsequently replaced on September 23rd and the UPA regained full operational capabilities.

The final failure mentioned in the ISS systems presentation was a September 30th failure of the Russian Contingency Telemetry asset.

“On September 30th, MCC-H performed a command and telemetry test via the Russian assets. Following a successful test, MCC-M was unable to command Russian Contingency Telemetry (RCT) on or off.

“It was determined that all commands originating from the Russian Segment sent to the US Segment were being rejected by the C&C MDM (Command and Control Multiplexer/Demultiplexer) due to a ‘Time Authentication’ bit set in commands from the SMCC.”

This failure meant that Mission Control Moscow (MCC-M) could not command RCT enabled or inhibited and that the crew could not silence a caution and warning tone from the C&W panel in the Russian Segment of the ISS.

Station Mode transitions could also not be executed if sent from the SMCC to CCS.

To counter this failure, Mission Control Houston commanded the RCT enabled and inhibited for Moscow and the crew was “informed to use the PCS laptops to silence tones in the RS segment.”

Preparations were also made to use the US operating segment of the ISS to send station mode transition commends if needed until the issue could be fully resolved.

Mission Control Moscow developed and sent a command to “reverse the ‘Time Authentication’ bit in the SMCC to turn off time authentication for commands being sent from the RS segment to the US segment” on Oct. 5 – which corrected the on-orbit problem.

A root cause investigation is still ongoing at this time.

To the end of the year: preparing for Dragon, Cygnus, and HTV-3:

As ISS operations move into their final phase for calendar year 2011, preparations are also continuing for the first approach and rendezvous of SpaceX’s Dragon resupply craft, the first test flight of Orbital’s Cygnus resupply craft, and the third mission of JAXA’s (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s) HTV resupply craft to the International Space Station.

Dragon:

In preparation for the upcoming Dragon flight, NASA is in the process of updating all procedural handbooks and procedures themselves to reflect the Dragon configuration that is scheduled to fly the ISS rendezvous mission in December. (45 proc handbooks from the ISS side of operations are available in L2).

“Dragon Demo will fly on CCS R9/MSS 6.3/PCS R13. Updating procedures to be consistent with this configuration,” notes the presentation.

Testing and certification are scheduled to be completed today, October 24, and work is ongoing to “determine how newly-certified PCS and CDDT can be available for Dragon Demo mission.”

Additionally, teams are looking at synchronization issues between Dragon and RWS.

“In Stage test risk mitigation/dry-run, saw RWS data drop in and out on crew overlay displays. RWS looking for consecutive, incrementing values of Dragon time (1-2-3-4, not 1-3-4-6) to confirm good link (and therefore valid data) between Dragon and ISS.”

A short-term mitigation plan for this issue is to include a filter on RWS which will result in an informational hold until three invalid counts have been received before data drops begin.

A more long-term solution is being worked to update the RWS software. This update was supposed to have already taken place; however, Expedition 29 crew prioritizations with only a three-person crew have delayed the software update until at least November 28.

The requirement for the software update is for it to be in place No Later Than 30 days before the scheduled launch of Dragon. That launch is currently targeted for Dec. 19 – just 21 days after the software update is scheduled to be installed.

Cygnus:

While preparations for Dragon’s flight continue, work is also progressing on readiness operations for the first test flight of Orbital’s Cygnus spacecraft.

“Cygnus Demo flying on new CCS R9/MSS 7.1/R11 Recon/PCS R13 configuration,” notes the Expedition Vehicle Division presentation to MOD – available for download on L2.

Open work ahead of this flight, scheduled for January 2012, includes ICATT re-work to “ensure CCS R9 vehicle data path cmds/tlm available with R11 recon and updating procedures affected by data path configuration and PCS R13 navigation changes.

“Orbital’s command/telemetry ground system unable to send valid IPCL and Sendback data, which affects ability to verify displays, and eventually, to sim.”

End to end testing on these data paths is expected in November. Additional testing will take place in February 2012.

HTV-3:

Finally, preparations are also underway for the February 18, 2011 launch of the HTV-3 (H-II Transfer Vehicle 3) resupply craft from the Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan.

Only standard open work remains for this flight at this time: updating procedures from this year’s HTV-2 mission to account for flight rule updates and vehicle design changes.

The flight of HTV-3 will also mark the first time when FOR will not be required for HTV.

(Images: NASA, Space X, Orbital and L2 Documentation) (As the shuttle fleet retire, NSF and L2 are providing full transition level coverage, available no where else on the internet, from Orion and SLS to ISS and COTS/CRS/CCDEV, to European and Russian vehicles. 

(Click here: http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/l2/ - to view how you can access L2)

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Commercial ISS Flights:

A final decision to combine the second and third of three planned Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) demonstration flights (C2 and C3) for SpaceX’s Dragon capsule still hasn’t been made, although a major hurdle – namely approval from the Russians – now appears to have been removed.

While initial concerns were raised with the “performance data” supplied to them from the COTS 1 flight - as much as it appears the issue was with the amount of information they gained, as opposed to any problems with the data – sources have pointed to the Roscosmos and RSC Energia “stakeholders” signing their approval for the arrival of the SpaceX vehicle at the orbital outpost “in recent days”.

An actual official decision – and announcement – on combining the two flights, resulting a mission which will see the first commercial spacecraft to arrive at the Space Station, will be made by Human Exploration and Operations (HEO) Mission Directorate Associate Administrator Bill Gersteinmaier.

When this mission will take place is still undecided, ironically due to the Russian effort which requires a successful return to flight their Soyuz launch vehicle, following the Upper Stage failure which resulted in the loss of mission with their Progress 44P resupply ship.

Part one of that return to flight effort was passed successfully, via the launch of a Soyuz lofting a Kosmos (Glonass-M) satellite into orbit last weekend - as much as this vehicle did not share the Upper Stage commonality with the Progress launch.

That test will come on October 30, when a Soyuz will launch the Progress 45P resupply ship to the ISS. Should that mission all go to plan, the path will be clear for the mid-November launch of the Soyuz TMA-22 spacecraft, with three members of the next expedition.

Click here for ISS News Articles: http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/tag/iss/

These missions need to avoid any setbacks, especially with a deadline approaching where the ISS could be decrewed. As a precaution, NASA managers overviewed numerous decrewing presentations at a recent meeting (all available on L2), as much as this major scenario remains highly unlikely.

However, until the Soyuz has successfully returned to full operations, SpaceX must wait to see where they will fit into the schedule, not just from a vehicle manifest standpoint, but from an ISS crew standpoint, given Dragon’s debut arrival will require a large amount of robotic operations by the ISS crew.

That work, by way of paperwork, has been completed, with over 45 “crew procedure” documents created by the ISS side of operations (all available on L2) on how they will care for the Dragon during its berthing, stay and departure from the ISS.

So far, SpaceX have only issued one statement, noting they could be ready for a December 19 launch, as much as it is likely that the mission will head into early 2012, likely January.

“NASA is working with SpaceX on our technical and safety data for this mission while coordinating with its international partners to sort out a launch schedule once a definitive decision is reached on the next Soyuz flight to the International Space Station,” noted the SpaceX release. “As a result, we’ve submitted December 19th to NASA and the Air Force as the first in a range of dates that we would be ready to launch.”

“We recognize that a target launch date cannot be set until NASA gives us the green light and the partnership of the International Space Station make a decision on when to continue Soyuz flights. Our flight is one of many that have to be carefully coordinated, so the ultimate schedule of launches to the ISS is still under consideration.”

Dragon’s debut arrival has already received a level of cargo manifesting, with an ISS stowage status update providing some insight into how the ISS will make use of the mission.

“Cargo Delivered: Actual cargo growth unclear due to immature manifests; vehicle spacing could increase and impact manifests,” noted the commercial page of the October 5 presentation acquired by L2.

“SpaceX Demo: capability (50 CTBE – Cargo Transfer Bag Equivalent) vs manifest (41 CTBE). Launching empty bags (18 CTBE of the 41) to facilitate maximum disposal capability for SpaceX and Orbital demo flights. Manifest complement is food and crew provisions. PLs and Vehicle launch allocations not utilized.”

Once Orbital have completed their Taurus II demonstration flight – scheduled to take place later this year – their “D1″ mission will target the debut mission to the ISS for the Cygnus vehicle on a preliminary launch date of February 23, 2012, ahead of docking at Node 2 nadir, for a 12 day stay. However, this launch date is at the mercy of the aforementioned schedule of missions.

The pressurized cargo module (PCM) for its Cygnus cargo logistics spacecraft has already arrived at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, the location of Orbital’s launch site for these commercial resupply missions. A level of cargo manifest work has also been discussed by NASA managers.

“Orbital D1: capability (66 CTBE*) vs manifest (20 CTBE*),” noted the ISS stowage presentation. “Manifest complement is food and crew provisions. PLs and Vehicle launch allocations not utilized – *based on volume not mass.”

Back to SpaceX, and should Dragon’s ISS debut proceed without issue, the forward plan calls for a major ramp up of SpaceX activity, as they press into their half of the Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract.

Again, only preliminary dates for these missions exist, due to the need to complete both the Soyuz return to flight, and the C2/C3 mission. However, RSC Energia’s president Vitaliy Lopota personally signed a manifest – last week – which shows the current plan for 2012 and early 2013.

This manifest, acquired by L2, shows what would be a highly historic CRS debut for SpaceX, with their CRS-1 vehicle – also tagged as SpX-1, launching four days after the departure of Japan’s HTV-3, on April 12 – the anniversary of Columbia’s STS-1 mission.

This manifest also aligns with NASA’s Flight Program Working Group (FPWG) manifest for the ISS (L2), which shows Dragon arriving two days later, on April 14, for what would be a 29 day stay on the orbital outpost.

The baton is then handed back to Orbital, who open their CRS flights with “Orbital 1″. The June 1 launch will result in Cygnus arriving at the ISS on June 4 for a 30 day stay.

Should all remain on plan, SpaceX will then launch their second CRS Dragon, currently shown as July 7, 2012, for an arrival two days later for a 26 day stay on the ISS.

The pace continues to be high as Orbital then aim to launch their second CRS Cygnus on August 14, arriving three days later for a 23 day stay.

During this period, the European ATV-3 is scheduled to depart from the opposite side of the Station, completing its 161 days on the ISS, a period which will have seen two Dragons and two Cygnus’ dock to the orbital outpost, not to mention arrival/departure activity via Russia’s Progress and Soyuz vehicles.

While all these missions remain preliminary, this would be the first tangible signs of the commercial fleet beginning to make up for some of the lost capability since the end of the Space Shuttle Program.

While the orbiters had vastly superior upmass and downmass strengths – not to mention numerous other capabilities, not least the ability to launch large crews – Dragon and Cygnus will mark a major new chapter in US domestic space flight.

Also, 2012 will still see one more SpaceX Dragon flight, with CRS-3 shown to be on a schedule that results in an October 10 launch, for an October 12 arrival, resulting in a stay of 23 days.

This will round off the year for CRS, with the next commercial mission being CRS-4 for Dragon, launching in January of 2013.

(Images: Space X, Orbital and L2 Documentation) (As the shuttle fleet retire, NSF and L2 are providing full transition level coverage, available no where else on the internet, from Orion and SLS to ISS and COTS/CRS/CCDEV, to European and Russian vehicles. 

(Click here: http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/l2/ - to view how you can access L2)

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Soyuz TMA-21 background:

Launched to the ISS on 4th April with a crew of two rookie cosmonauts and a veteran Space Shuttle astronaut, Soyuz TMA-21 docked to the ISS on 6th April. Soyuz TMA-21 carries a special commemorative “Yuri Gagarin” designation, since the Soyuz TMA-21 mission coincided with the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s first foray into space. Soyuz TMA-21 carries special commemorative decals in recognition of Yuri Gagarin.

Upon landing, Soyuz TMA-21 will have completed 162 days on-orbit – 38 days shy of its 200 day orbital lifetime limit.

Originally scheduled to return to Earth on 8th September, Soyuz TMA-21 gained an extra week on-orbit due to the desire to keep the ISS crewed at six people for as long as possible, in light of the suspension of Soyuz flights due to the Progress M-12M/44P launch failure.

It was not possible to keep Soyuz TMA-21 on-orbit for an additional 38 days, so as to use all of its orbital lifetime, since the Soyuz landing site in Kazakhstan becomes too dark to support a landing after 18th September. Adequate lighting will return 40 days later on the 26th October, but Soyuz TMA-21 cannot remain on-orbit until then, since by this time it would have been in space past the preferred 200 day limit.

Undocking and landing procedures:

In the hours prior to undocking on Thursday (15th September) night, the Soyuz TMA-21 spacecraft was powered up and checked out, and Quick Disconnect (QD) clamps that help hold the Soyuz to the ISS were removed. The farewell ceremony and hatch closure between the ISS and MRM-2 then occurred between 9:20 and 9:40 PM GMT.

Leak checks then occurred between the Soyuz and the ISS, and then between the Soyuz Descent Module (SA) and Orbital Module (BO) once hatches were closed between the two modules. Leak checks of the crew’s Sokol launch & entry suits also occurred.

Prior to undocking, the ISS moved to the undocking attitude under the control of Russian thrusters, and free drift was initiated just prior to undocking at 12:38 AM GMT on Friday. 

Undocking provided Soyuz TMA-21 with a Delta-V (change in velocity) of 0.12 m/s, a 15 second separation burn with a Delta-V 0.55 m/s was then conducted by the Russian vehicle.

The ISS then returned to its standard Local Vertical/Local Horizontal (LVLH) attitude under the control of Russian thrusters at 12:46 AM GMT.

Roughly 2.5 hours later, Soyuz TMA-21 conducted its de-orbit burn between 3:05:27 AM and 3:09:47 AM GMT. Tri-module separation took place at 3:33:24 AM GMT, following which atmospheric entry commenced at 3:36:43 AM GMT. Following parachute deploy at 3:45:20 AM GMT, the Soyuz TMA-21 SA hit the deck in Kazakhstan at 4:00:22 AM GMT, or 10:00:22 AM Kazakhstan local time.

Notably, after module separation, mission control in Moscow did lose all communication with the crew, prior to one of the recovery planes managing to make contact to confirm the crew were in good shape.

Expedition 29:

Following the undocking of Soyuz TMA-21, the ISS is now in a rare configuration since only two Russian vehicles will be docked to the station – Soyuz  TMA-02M/27S at MRM-1 Nadir, and Progress M-10M/42P at Docking Compartment-1 (DC-1) Nadir. The Service Module (SM) Aft port is currently unoccupied due to the failure of Progress M-12M, and the MRM-2 Zenith port will be vacated by Soyuz TMA-21 upon undocking.

The MRM-2 Zenith port will remain vacant for around two months, until the arrival of the delayed Soyuz TMA-22/28S, and the SM Aft port will remain vacant until the arrival of Europe’s Automated Transfer Vehicle-3 (ATV-3) on 19th March 2012.

With Expedition 28 Commander Andrey Borisenko having handed over command of the ISS to US astronaut Mike Fossum yesterday, the undocking of Soyuz TMA-21 will mark the official end of Expedition 28 and the beginning of Expedition 29.

However, instead of the usual two week period of three crewmember operations that usually occurs during crew rotations, Expedition 29 will be at three crewmembers for around eight weeks until the arrival of Soyuz TMA-22 with an additional three crewmembers. However, the resulting six crew period will be short lived, since Soyuz TMA-02M, carrying three crewmembers, will have to depart the ISS less than one week after Soyuz TMA-22 arrives.

Expedition 29 will then remain at three crewmembers until the arrival of Soyuz TMA-03M/29S around one month later.

Progress M-12M failure investigation status and recovery plan:

Last week, the Russian space agency, Roscosmos, announced that the cause of the Progress M-12M launch failure had been identified. Investigators found that a blocked fuel line leading to the gas generator of the Soyuz-U booster’s third stage RD-0110 engine caused the gas generator, which drives the engine’s turbopump, to lose pressure, and in response the engine automatically shut down as designed.

Although defined as a “random” failure, the blocked fuel line has led to Roscosmos taking the decision to ship all Soyuz booster third stages back to their manufacturing plant for a thorough check-up, to verify that the issue was indeed a one off. This decision has impacts for the future schedule of ISS resupply and crew rotation flights.

A “tentative” schedule of future Soyuz spacecraft launchings and landings and Progress resupply craft launchings was agreed today by the Space Station Control Board, which represents all the International Partners of the ISS. After hearing Roscosmos’ findings from the Progress M-12M failure, the following was agreed, with the caveat that changes may be made “to reflect minor changes in vehicle processing timelines”.

The first Soyuz booster launch will serve as an uncrewed test of the Soyuz booster, and as an ISS resupply flight. A Soyuz-U booster will loft the Progress M-13M/45P spacecraft on 30th October, for a docking to the ISS at the DC-1 Nadir port on 1st November.

Progress M-10M/42P, which is currently docked to DC-1, will undock on 29th October, one day prior to the Progress M-13M launch, resulting in a brief period of the ISS being placed in the very rare configuration of only one Russian vehicle docked at the outpost (Soyuz TMA-02M at MRM-1).

Providing the Progress M-13M launch is successful, the next launch will be a crewed Soyuz-FG booster with Soyuz TMA-22/28S on 14th November, for a docking to the ISS at the MRM-2 port, soon to be vacated by Soyuz TMA-21, on 16th November. This represents a nearly two month delay for Soyuz TMA-22, which was originally scheduled to launch on 22nd September.

Following the Soyuz TMA-22 docking, the Soyuz TMA-02M/27S undocking from MRM-1, originally scheduled for 16th November, will occur on 22nd November – leaving less than one week of handover time between the Soyuz TMA-22 and Soyuz TMA-02M crews.

It is understood that a 22nd November undocking of Soyuz TMA-02M would result in acceptable lighting conditions at the Kazakhstan landing site by way of a dawn landing.

Click here for ISS Articles: http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/tag/iss/

The next launch to the ISS will then occur around 26th December, when a Soyuz-FG booster will loft Soyuz TMA-03M/29S, for a docking to the ISS at the MRM-1 port on 28th December, putting the ISS back up to six crewmembers with the beginning of Expedition 30.

The delay of Expedition 30 is expected to result in SpaceX’s C2/C3 Dragon demo mission being delayed to January or February 2012, since the originally scheduled launch date of 30th November would result in a 9th December ISS arrival date for Dragon, a time when only one trained US crewmember would be available on the ISS, when free-flyer capture and berthing operations require two trained crewmembers.

Finally, a Soyuz-U booster would loft Progress M-14M/46P on 26th January, for a 28th January docking to DC-1, which will have been vacated by the undocking Progress M-13M on 25th January.

Resupply flights, however, are not the driving concern in the schedule, since enough supplies exist on the ISS for six crewmembers to reach summer 2012 without receiving any resupplies.

The driving issue is crew safety, with NASA ISS Program Manager Mike Suffredini noting “Our top priority is the safety of our crew members. The plan approved today, coupled with the conditions on orbit, allow the partnership to support this priority while ensuring astronauts will continue to live and work on the station uninterrupted.

“Our Russian colleagues have completed an amazing amount of work in a very short time to determine root cause and develop a recovery plan that allows for a safe return to flight. We’ll have a longer period of three-person operations and a shorter than usual handover between the next two crews, but we are confident that the crews will be able to continue valuable research and execute a smooth crew transition”.

(Images: Roscosmos and NASA.gov) (As the shuttle fleet retire, NSF and L2 are providing full transition level coverage, available no where else on the internet, from Orion and SLS to ISS and COTS/CRS/CCDEV, to European and Russian vehicles. 

(Click here: http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/l2/ - to view how you can access L2)

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