Orbital CRS:

Orbital and SpaceX won a combined $3.5 billion Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract back in 2008, required due to the ISS’ cargo resupply needs in the post-shuttle era. The award from NASA ordered eight flights valued at about $1.9 billion from Orbital and 12 flights valued at about $1.6 billion from SpaceX.

SpaceX are already preparing for their third CRS mission (CRS-3/SpX-3) via their Dragon spacecraft, while Orbital are set to launch their first Cygnus spacecraft (OrB-D) to the ISS – the final part of their final Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) requirements – in September.

Orbital’s first CRS run (CRS-1/OrB-1) could occur before the end of the year, dependent on the success of the OrB-D mission and the ISS’ Visiting Vehicle schedule constraints.

Citing the official – but highly unlikely – scenario that the ISS will be decommissioned in 2020, the OIG created an audit report on the status of NASA’s commercial program, focusing on the cargo resupply status.

“NASA’s commercial cargo program is at a critical stage with Orbital poised to come online later this year and the scheduled decommissioning of the ISS in 2020 rapidly approaching,” noted the OIG report.

“The successes and challenges experienced by NASA’s commercial cargo program will prove to be instructive to its commercial crew effort. Given the importance of the commercial cargo program to the continued viability of the ISS, we examined NASA’s management of the program.”

While the report over-viewed both SpaceX and Orbital, the OIG appeared to be more concerned with NASA’s dealings with the Virginia-based company.

“Orbital has experienced delays of over two years in its COTS Program, including an early change from an unpressurized to pressurized capsule and construction delays on its Wallops Island, Virginia, launch facility,” the report noted.

Click here for additional Orbital News Articles: http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/tag/orbital/

“NASA has paid Orbital a total of $910 million as of the end of FY 2012, including funding for both development efforts under its COTS Space Act Agreement and CRS contract. Under the current payment schedule, the company is on track to receive up to 70 percent of the funds associated with six of its eight CRS missions prior to having flown a demonstration flight.”

Despite what was a hugely successful test flight of the Antares launch vehicle in April, the OIG claimed they have concerns the next launch still holds the “possibility” of incurring issues that would delay Orbital’s CRS schedule. No validation of their concerns were provided in the document.

“Orbital successfully completed a maiden test flight of its Antares rocket on April 21, 2013. NASA and Orbital officials noted the maiden flight has reduced technical risk and that the costs of any system modifications needed as a result of the demonstration flight will be borne by Orbital given that the CRS contract is fixed price.

“Nevertheless, the possibility remains that the demonstration flight could expose issues that require costly rework and redesign, resulting in major adjustments to the current CRS launch schedule.”

The OIG claim they don’t wish to “second guess” the reasons behind how NASA contracted the CRS companies on fixed priced contracts. However, they have recommended the Agency revises the payment schedule to reflect slips in the respective schedules.

“In our judgement, NASA has been too slow to adjust its payment schedule to Orbital under the CRS contract given the substantial slippage in the launch schedule for the company’s resupply missions,” the document continued. “As such, given the risks inherent in concurrent development, we question NASA’s decision to pay Orbital approximately $150 million for costs associated with their fourth and fifth resupply missions.

“We believe NASA should have deferred this amount to future fiscal years in order to avoid spending funds too far in advance of each mission’s launch dates.”

The report added that NASA already took steps to adjust its payment schedule – in light of the development delays – by negotiating a contract modification in December 2012 for “Mission 6″, that tied payment to a successful Antares maiden test flight. However, the OIG believe the Agency should have tied the payment schedule to the success of the upcoming OrB-D mission.

“In our view, NASA instead should have tied payment for this mission to a successful full system demonstration flight. (Also) Orbital requested to begin work on resupply Mission 7 by May 2013, a request from our perspective that, if approved, would result in an additional estimated $70 million in premature payments to the company in FY 2013.”

The OIG added they have already discussed their concerns with program officials about the advance procurements and that NASA recognized the need to slow down the pace of NASA’s payment for Orbital’s rocket systems production. “For example, officials said they tied future Mission 4 and 5 payments to an adjusted launch schedule and completion of ISS integration activities by the company.”

Despite this, the OIG “believe the Agency has accepted too much financial risk by funding Orbital’s fabrication of rocket systems for Missions 4, 5, and 6 so far in advance of the time needed to meet the ISS resupply schedule and prior to Orbital completing a successful system demonstration flight.”

As part of the OIG’s “Management Action”, a recommendation has been made to Associate Administrator for Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate, William Gerstenmaier, to ensure that contractual agreements for the commercial cargo providers are updated to reflect the lead times required to meet any revised launch dates.

“If launch dates slip,” the OIG added, “NASA should adjust contract work plans to ensure that the authorized lead times and NASA payments reflect the revised schedules.”

The document claims Mr Gerstenmaier concurred with the recommendation after seeing a draft report of the document, although it was stated he disagreed that NASA has accepted too much financial risk in the way it has implemented the Orbital CRS contract.

“He (Mr Gerstenmaier) stated that NASA determined that the programmatic risks of not starting hardware development needed for cargo resupply were substantially greater than the financial risks posed to the Agency by doing so. He further stated that NASA uses existing payment cap protections and other contractual provisions to reduce financial risks and align payments with technical performance.”

The OIG agree that “balancing programmatic and financial risk is critical to ensure the success of the commercial cargo program. However, as outlined in the report we continue to believe that NASA has been too slow to adjust its payment schedule to Orbital given the substantial slippage in the launch schedule for the company’s resupply missions.”

Ironically, a large amount of the document cited the critical need for a healthy CRS program, not least because two of the vehicles capable of large upmass capabilities are coming to the end of their ISS resupply life cycles.

The penultimate European cargo mission (ATV-4) docked with the ISS on Saturday, with the final mission – the “George Lemaitre” (ATV-5) – scheduled for June, 2015. HTV will pass the mid-way point for its ISS role when HTV-4 launches this August.

“NASA officials stated that because European cargo missions are scheduled to end in mid-2014, these vehicles (HTV and Dragon) would not provide sufficient capability to meet the Agency’s ISS cargo transportation needs beginning in 2015,” the OIG report continued.

“In addition, Program officials said the last two scheduled HTV flights in 2015 and 2016 are slated to carry 24 primary batteries for the ISS, which significantly reduces the available pressurized resupply capability of these flights.

“The costs per mission for cargo resupply both by SpaceX and by Orbital are expected to be lower than the costs associated with the European and Japanese vehicles.”

In a scanned letter, added to the document, Mr Gerstenmaier noted the Agency will further review the recommendations over the coming months.

If they plan not to accept the contract realignment recommendation, NASA “will document the logic for that decision.”

(Images: via L2′s Antares/Cygnus Section – Containing presentations, videos, images, interactive high level updates and more, with additional images via Orbital and NASA).

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

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Progress M-19M undocking:

ATV-4 docked to the ISS at the Russian Segment (RS), via the Service Module (SM) “Zvezda” Aft docking port, that until a few days ago was occupied by the Progress M-19M vehicle.

That Progress vehicle docked to the ISS back in April with an undeployed Kurs antenna, which ground teams thought could have potentially impacted a Laser Retro Reflector (LRR) navigational aid on the Aft of the SM that is used by the ATV during docking.

It was not until Progress M-19M undocked from SM Aft on 11 June that the first camera views of the LRR were available to evaluate any potential damage.

However, after two months in space, the undeployed Kurs antenna on Progress M-19M actually deployed upon undocking, which, assuming the deployment occurred right at the moment of undocking, could have occurred with as little as 2mm of clearance between it and the ISS.

Undocking photos of Progress M-19M (L2) clearly show a visibly deformed Kurs antenna, where it had been crushed against the ISS during docking.

The camera views of the SM Aft area did not appear to show any visible signs of damage however, and so at this time it is assumed that the LRR is undamaged, and thus ATV-4 is cleared to proceed with rendezvous and docking.

Rendezvous and docking:

Following ten days of free-flight activities after ATV-4′s launch atop an Ariane V booster from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana, ATV-4 will today rendezvous and dock with the ISS using the same proven fully automated procedures as were used during the previous three ATV missions.

While multiple altitude-rising burns have been conducted over the past few days, rendezvous officially began with the “homing” phase, which took ATV-4 from its S1 waypoint at 30km from the ISS, to the S2 waypoint at 3.5km from the ISS.

The homing phase consisted of two 2m/s homing burns, and two 0.5m/s correction burns. It was noted that one of the ATV-4 thrusters has failed, but controllers were happy to give go for docking.

After ATV-4 arrived at the S2 waypoint, the “closing” phase began, which took ATV-4 from the S2 waypoint at 3.5km from ISS to the S3 waypoint at 250m from ISS.

This phase involved two 1.5m/s closing burns, and two 0.5m/s correction burns.

At the conclusion of these maneuvers, the Final Approach 1 (FA1) phase began, which took ATV-4 from the S3 waypoint at 250m from ISS, to the S4 waypoint at 20m from ISS. This was slightly delayed – due to the need to update ATV’s computers – resulting in a slip to the docking time by about 20 minutes.

After arriving at the S4 waypoint, ATV-4 aligned itself with the SM Aft port, whereupon FA2 began, which took ATV-4 from S4 at 20m to S41 at 12m from ISS.

The approach then continued, being constantly monitored (but not controlled) by the crew inside the ISS, until the Crew Hands Off Point (CHOP) was reached when ATV-4 was one meter from the ISS, which was the point at which ATV-4′s own momentum made any propulsive abort ineffective.

(ATV-3 Docking Animation created from 70 hi res ATV-3 docking images acquired by L2 – LINK).

Shortly following CHOP, contact and capture was made via ATV-4′s Russian probe docking probe, with probe retraction following shortly thereafter, leading to hard dock of ATV-4 to the ISS.

Post-docking timeline:

Following docking, ATV-4 was set to be ingressed on Monday (17 June), when hatch was due to occur. However, this was delayed a day due to the potential of mold lingering on a few of the cargo bays.

The hatch will need to be closed again less than a week later, as ATV-4 will need to be prepared for undocking in the event that the Service Module should become inaccessible due to an airlock repressurisation failure during Russian EVA-33 on 24 June.

ATV-4 is carrying an extensive amount of cargo – the largest amount of internal cargo ever flown on an ATV – which amounts overall to a staggering 201 Cargo Transfer Bag Equivalent (CTBE), held in eight cargo racks inside ATV-4, seven of which are carrying “rack front cargo” via large cargo bags mounted to rack adapter plates on the front of the racks.

The process to unload all of this cargo, load 145 CTBE of trash in its place, while at the same time keeping track of every move and maintaining an acceptable centre of mass in the vehicle, is outlined in an extensive cargo choreography presentation on L2. All in all, cargo loading and trash loading is expected to take around 75 hours of crew time.

However, as detailed in L2 documents, ATV-4′s cargo unloading will be combined with a special Development Test Objective (DTO) aimed at decreasing crew time needed for cargo ops, to increase time available for scientific activities.

The new DTO will test the effectiveness of having one astronaut (in this case ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano) serve as “loadmaster”, responsible for tracking all cargo moves done by all crewmembers and then relaying that to the ground, which will allow multiple crewmembers to work simultaneously and in parallel to unload cargo, which it is believed is more effective than having different crewmembers all tracking different moves at different times.

Click here for additional ATV News Articles: http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/tag/atv/

In addition to cargo unloading however, ATV-4 will also serve as a “propulsion module” while attached to the ISS, aiding in attitude maneuvers, reboosts, and Debris Avoidance Maneuvers (DAMs). The first reboost, which will be a test of ATV-4′s Orbit Correction System (OCS) engines while attached to the ISS, is planned for 19 June. The second reboost is currently planned for 10 July.

Following approximately four months of Attached Phase Operations (APO), ATV-4 is currently planned to undock from the ISS on 28 October. A destructive re-entry over the South Pacific Ocean will then follow, which will conclude the penultimate mission for Europe’s heavy hauler cargo spacecraft.

(Images: L2′s ISS and ATV sections, plus ESA and NASA).

(NSF and L2 are providing full coverage of all current and future vehicles, to LEO, ISS, and BEO).

(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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The ATV – Europe’s ISS heavy hauler:

Since the retirement of the Space Shuttle fleet in 2011, the ATV is the largest cargo delivery vehicle in the ISS program’s arsenal, which is not only able to transport a large amount of internal, or “dry” cargo to the ISS, but is also able to haul a large load of propellants, gases, and water, or “wet” cargo to the station.

ATV-4 in particular – named after famed physicist “Albert Einstein” – will be hauling the largest ever load of dry cargo to the ISS for the ATV program, following the three previous ATV flights in March 2008, February 2011, and March 2012.

ATV-4′s internal cargo load, located inside the Integrated Cargo Carrier (ICC) portion of the vehicle, will total in at 2,479kg of resupply items, spare parts, crew provisions, and scientific materials.

ATV-3 in 2012 carried only 2,200kg of internal cargo, while ATV-2 in 2011 carried 1,605kg, and ATV-1 in 2008 carried 1,150kg.

As well as carrying eight integrated cargo racks (the first two ATVs carried only six), ATV-4 will also be configured to carry additional large cargo bags on the rack fronts of the Aft-Nadir and Aft-Zenith racks, in addition to the usual bags on the Aft-Port and Aft-Starboard rack fronts.

In addition to that, brand new Late Cargo Access Means (LCAM) equipment at the Kourou Space Center has allowed ground teams to load much more “late load” cargo than ever before, with the new equipment allowing for bags weighing up to 75kg to be loaded, whereas the previous LCAM equipment allowed bags of only 25kg to be loaded.

This new LCAM equipment, coupled with the additional location for large cargo bags on the Aft-Zenith and Aft-Nadir rack fronts, has allowed an extra 218kg of late load cargo to be carried on ATV-4, with the total amount of late load cargo on ATV-4 being 1,109kg, whereas ATV-3 carried only 592kg, ATV-2 carrying 435kg, and no late load cargo at all for ATV-1.

Cargo items of note flying on ATV-4 include a large 80kg water pump for Europe’s Columbus module, a Fluids Control and Pump Assembly (FCPA) for the Urine Processor Assembly (UPA), one of which was flown on ATV-3 last year prior to a failure on ISS causing another spare to need to be flown, a GPS antenna for the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM), and a 3D printed toolbox to be used to stow tools needed in the Columbus module.

As for fluid, or wet cargo, which is located in the Service Module (SM) portion of the vehicle, ATV-4 will carry 2,235kg of propellant for the ATV’s vessel itself, 2,580kg of propellant for ISS reboosts, 860kg of propellant to re-fuel the Russian Segment (RS) of the ISS, 100kg of gasses, and 565kg of water.

Altogether, ATV-4 will carry 4,105kg of wet cargo, which is actually less than ATVs 3 and 2, which carried 4,395kg and 5,488kg of wet cargo, respectively. This means that, despite the fact that ATV-4 will carry the largest ever load of dry cargo, the lesser amount of wet cargo means that ATV-4 will carry less cargo in total than its predecessors, with ATV-4 weighing in at 6,584kg in total, whereas ATV-3 was 6,595kg, ATV-2 was 7,093kg, and ATV-1 was 4,557kg.

Rendezvous and docking:

Following ATV-4′s launch, which with a total vehicle lift-off mass of 20,235kg will be the heaviest spacecraft ever launched by Europe, the vehicle began its ten day rendezvous with the ISS.

Prior to that however, a new 3D stereo camera system recorded the spacecraft’s separation from the Ariane V upper stage, in order to offer new perspectives in understanding separation events.

Following that, ATV-4′s four X-shaped solar arrays will need to be deployed, as will the proximity communications boom, which will be a particular item of interest on this mission since the boom deploy signal was not received until 141 minutes after its planned deployment on ATV-2, and 46 hours after its planned deployment on ATV-3.

As detailed in a previous NASASpaceflight.com article on ATV-4, some Multi Layer Insulation (MLI) changes have been made to the ATV-4 prox boom to eliminate any possible MLI “ballooning” effects during launch.

Before ATV-4 can dock to the ISS at the Service Module (SM) Aft port, the vehicle which is currently occupying it (Progress M-19M) must be undocked on June 11, which will be another item of interest for the ATV-4 mission since the cameras on Progress M-19M during its undocking will provide the first views of the possibly damaged Laser Retro Reflector (LRR) used by the ATV during docking.

The concern is that one of the LRRs (out of three in total) may have been damaged by an undeployed Kurs antenna on Progress M-19M during its docking on 26 April, which was, sources indicate, conducted by the Russians without the approval of the station’s International Mission Management Team (IMMT).

The LRR is not the same as the Videometer that was replaced on SM Aft during Russian EVA-32 on 19 April.

Click here for additional ATV News Articles: http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/tag/atv/

If the LRR is found to be damaged, ATV-4 may be required to wait while a Russian spacewalk is performed to R&R the LRR unit with a new one recently flown up on Soyuz TMA-09M. Assuming the LRR is undamaged however, ATV-4 will dock to the SM Aft port ten days after launch on 15 June.

ATV-4 mission outlook:

Following docking and hatch opening, ATV-4 will “settle in” to the ISS for a long period of “Attached Phase Operations”.

This period will include cargo unloading, trash loading, and propulsive support for the ISS, including attitude control maneuvers, reboosts, and Debris Avoidance Maneuvers (DAMs).

ATV-4 is currently planned to undock from the ISS on 28 October, whereupon it will conduct a de-orbit burn for a destructive re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere, thereby concluding the penultimate mission for ESA’s ATV program, with only one launch then left to be conducted – ATV-5 “George Lemaitre” in June 2015.

While that flight will be the final mission for the ATV program, its legacy will live on in the form of the Service Module (SM) for the Multi Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) Orion, which will be constructed by ESA based heavily on the ATV SM design.

(Images: L2′s ISS and ATV sections, plus NASA).

(NSF and L2 are providing full coverage of all current and future vehicles, to LEO, ISS, and BEO).

(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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What commercial companies want and can do – A Space Act Agreement:

Coming just a few months after the announcement that Bigelow’s inflatable spacehab technology will finally see full-up, in-space testing aboard the International Space Station beginning in 2015, the newly-announced SAA between NASA and Bigelow Aerospace signals not only a growing partnership between the agency and the commercial sector, but also a potential look into how NASA’s vision of Beyond Earth Orbit (BEO) exploration might evolve based on outside industry input.

As discussed at the recent NASA-Bigelow Aerospace teleconference, NASA’s William Gerstenmaier, Associate Administrator for Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate, stated that the purpose of this SAA is to survey the aerospace industry to determine where their exploration interests lie.

“For us in NASA, we typically do a lot of design reference mission analysis. We do a lot of concept work. We do a lot of things, and then we typically ask industry how they can participate or be part of that activity.

“We thought that this time, instead of doing it the typical way, we would kind of turn that around a little bit. We would ask the industry first through this Space Act Agreement what they are interested in; (where) they see interest in doing exploration throughout the solar system; where they see human presence that makes sense; where they see potential commercial markets.

“They would give us some answers to that through this space act through essentially two gates.”

Under the terms of the agreement, Gate 1 consists of Bigelow identifying assets that demonstrate the value of new NASA – and private sector-supported capabilities.

This part of the two-gate approach will see Bigelow Aerospace identify four key areas: Which companies would be capable of making contributions; What contributions could those companies make; What conditions would be necessary in order to generate the identified contributions; and when could the contributions be made.

Following the Gate 1 phase of the SAA, Gate 2 will consist of identifying and establishing mission proposals based on the companies’ stated contributions identified in Gate 1 and those companies’ stated mission and exploration interests.

In essence, the two-stage SAA first identifies interested parties and what they can realistically produce and then determines viable mission and exploration goals based on those tangible capabilities.

The timeframe in which Bigelow Aerospace has to produce the Gates 1 and 2 reports is fairly short.

The final Gate 1 report must be completed within 100 days from the signing of the SAA on 27 March 2013. Under this timeframe, the final Gate 1 report must be submitted by 5 July 2013.

Likewise, the Gate 2 report must be submitted within 120 days of the completion of the Gate 1 report. Assuming a 5 July 2013 completion date of the Gate 1 report, the Gate 2 report must be submitted no later than 2 November 2013.

The final Gate 1 and Gate 2 reports will be released to the general public by NASA upon their completion.

To this end, while the final Gate 1 report is not officially due to NASA until early July, Robert T. Bigelow, president and founder of Bigelow Aerospace, handed a draft of the Gate 1 report to Gerstenmaier at the May 23rd teleconference, over 40 days before the final report’s due date.

Summarizing some of the preliminary report’s content, Bigelow stated that Gate 1 contains everything from an examination of past spaceflight accomplishments to future operations in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) to Lagrangian Point missions to cis-lunar (the region outside Earth’s atmosphere extending out to just beyond the Moon’s orbit) missions.

According Bigelow, the Gate 1 report identifies how “the commercial sector (can) expand on what has already been done and drive out of that benefits for NASA.

“In concluding Gate 1, we addressed the menu of assets for everyone to consider: who was going to be producing those assets, when they can produce those assets, the practicality, and (if) these assets (were) already in development. Which turns out most of them are.”

Bigelow went on to say that his company attempted to not set boundaries during the Gate 1 process, looking instead to give NASA an as-complete-as-possible presentation of what the space agency can utilize from the private sector, in a manner that makes sense to it, based on the resources and finances available to it from the U.S. federal government.

In all, roughly 20 companies participated in Gate 1, including well-known companies SpaceX, Boeing, SNC (Sierra Nevada Corporation), and Orbitech Technologies Corporation.

Lagrangian Point (specifically, L2) and other cis-lunar missions were discussed and focused upon by various companies. “Taking somebody to the general vicinity of the moon without actually landing them is still a big deal.

“There is a potential revenue stream, obviously, in that if people are willing to pay to go to LEO. There are folks who are also very interested in going to L2 and other locations without actually getting to the surface (of the moon).”

In general, Bigelow identified the nature of the Gate 1 report as, in part, a collection of information on what the private sector companies are already doing in the context of “if they are already investing their own capital and efforts into certain areas of hardware and missions, isn’t there an opportunity in there for NASA to benefit. so that NASA (doesn’t have) to pay the perpetual heavy burden of research and development costs?”

In making this point, Bigelow identified his company’s own BA-330 inflatable spacehab modules. “In our case, with the BA-330, there is no investment by NASA in that architecture and that spacecraft.

“And that goes for other iterations of other hardware. The future, next generation of the 330 is the Olympus (the BA-2100), and there will be no R&D cost to NASA if they use that spacecraft either.”

And use Bigelow’s next generation space station is just what NASA might have to do come 2028.

Relating the idea for his company’s Alpha Station, Bigelow stated that “The easiest mission and the least expensive for NASA (in the next 10 years) by far is essentially (to use) the (Alpha Station) configuration in Low Earth Orbit. You have 660 cubic meters of (pressurized volume) which is over half of what the ISS has.

Under this proposed mission, Bigelow would have two of their BA-330 inflatable modules launched into LEO – the first of which could be ready by the end of 2016.

After the first module is launched, ground control teams would determine the health of the spacecraft to determine that everything is functioning as intended.

After that, a crew of two people would be launched on a taxi mission to stockpile supplies in the first inflatable module, thus preparing the newly minted space station for the arrival and docking of the second inflatable module.

But Bigelow explained that that’s “after years and years of testing every kind of thing (we could) possibly imagine through long duration tests, thermal tests, moment tests. Everything you can think of, we have already done.

“Terrestrially, we can get to a significant level of confidence; maybe 90 percent confidence terrestrially without flying. The two Genesis missions (begun in 2006 and 2007) helped us gain, through flight, further knowledge and experience. But that last 10 percent is actually only really acquired through the actual execution of the flight.

“But we would not (have) anybody onboard until we were satisfied that the spacecraft was ready.”

In particular, while Mr. Bigelow’s comments were meant to highlight what his company has achieved and strives to achieve, the concept of commercial space station is something that could prove vital to NASA as it moves forward.

The engineering marvel that it is, the fact is that the International Space Station will not last forever.

While most analyses concur that ISS will last until at least 2028 (from a structure standpoint, funding from the partner-nations notwithstanding), the time will come when NASA, ESA (European Space Agency), JAXA (Japan Aerospace eXploration Agency), CSA (Canadian Space Agency), and RSA (Russian Federal Space Agency) will have to look for other avenues for continuous space experimentation.

Speaking during the teleconference, Bill Gerstenmaier touched on this issue. “We think that station can fly until 2028. But there is a finite amount of time on station in terms of lifetime.”

Tying his comments back to the SAA with Bigelow, Gerstenmaier said that “Station is a platform where people can experiment to see what makes sense to them, where (there) is a market, where (there) is a unique aspect that gives a company a competitive advantage over a company that is only doing terrestrial research.

“So once Station proves that there is (that) kind of a market, then we envision that market, moving more to the private sector. It creates, essentially, a new economy based on space research and microgravity research and the uniqueness of space.”

Gerstenmaier also explained that NASA could decide to purchase services from a commercial habitat provider both before and after the ISS is deorbited.

Specifically referencing on-going research on microgravity’s influence on the human body, Gerstenmaier stated, “When astronauts go distances as far as Mars, they will be exposed to a microgravity environment for maybe one year transit one way, a year transit back. So we are going to have to understand how the human body actually can be kept healthy during that long period.

“We would still want to do that research after ISS is deorbited. Low Earth Orbit is a very good environment to do that. So we would acquire that capability from the private sector for those individual needs.”

In discussing this inevitable transition, Gerstenmaier added that he believes there should be overlap with Station and commercial habitat development and implementation.

“I think there needs to be an overlap between those two where there is a phase-in period where Station is flying, still doing some basic government kind of things and at the same time the private sector is picking up. And then we flow naturally and seamlessly into that.”

But LEO space station habitats was not the only primary area of interest identified by the preliminary Gate 1 report.

The moon and cis-lunar missions also received attention from the 20 companies participating in the collaboration.

As related by Gerstenmaier, “What is interesting in this report, at least this report implies that the private sector is very interested in lunar activity.”

Although not the main focus of the Gates 1 and 2 reports, Mr. Bigelow explained that the Moon is an important objective for his company, stating: “The brass ring for us is having a lunar base.”

Bigelow explained that his company’s BA-330 module could be adapted for the moon quite easily, due to its design for microgravity and harsh thermal and debris environment of LEO.

Thus, Bigelow states, the module could “also be very comfortable resting on a somewhat irregular hard surface such as the Moon or Mars. The shields are very thick and the materials are very strong. So one-sixth gravity, for example, that you would have on the lunar surface is not probably an issue, (nor) even perhaps the 38 percent Earth gravity of Mars.”

The interior of the BA-330 modules could also be modified to include a floor of netting (using Velcro anchors) to provide crew with a safe translation surface to various parts of the module.

Bigelow explained that the moon module would have the capability to land on its own on the surface. “The idea (for the Moon habitat)  is that we are essentially deploying a structure that has arrived to lunar orbit as a station and then it has loiter capability and descending capability and it lands as an all-out base with transit tugs attached to the axis of the 330.”

Additionally, Bigelow indicated that the company would soon test a scaled lunar module on Earth. “We are going to have a flight-like testing unit called ‘the Guide,’ which is a scaled lunar base.”

Bigelow stated that the current plan is to have all contracts completed in time to begin testing the scaled lunar module in January or February 2014.

Once those initial tests are complete, Bigelow stated that his company “will continue to do an extensive series of tests here on Earth, and migrate up to maybe a full-scale system where we have to allow for the 1g difference.

“We want to provide as much validation (as possible). We are not huge fans of resting on just computer modeling. We like to get into the integrity and the veracity of hardware that has actually been put through its paces if we are able to do that.”

While other companies participating (and not participating) in the SAA are not focusing the brunt of their attention on lunar options, Bigelow points out that “all the assets that we are talking about here are all the kind of assets that you need to go to L2, to go to cis-lunar orbit, or to execute missions to the surface of the Moon or even on to Mars.

“There is nothing wasted here and it is not an ‘either, or’ situation.”

And the fact that this SAA is not an “either, or” situation could prove useful for NASA given Administrator Bolden’s recent comments that lunar exploration was essentially off the table.

When asked by NASASpaceflight.com about the statement, William Gerstenmaier responded by saying that “I think from a government standpoint, right now, we have more interest in maybe the asteroid kind of missions. Mars is our ultimate horizon.”

However, Gerstenmaier went on to say that just because NASA has no plans to return to the moon does not mean that commercial companies should not consider lunar exploration initiatives.

“NASA and the government, we (will) focus on maybe deep space, we (will) focus on asteroids. The private sector picks up the lunar activity and then we will combine and share with them to see what makes sense: transportation to the same region is common between us, other aspects, life support are common between us.

“We can do lots of co-development between these (common requirements which) share what the private sector needs and what the government needs. We do that (common) development where it makes sense to share.”

And thus is the crux of this SAA with Bigelow: What makes sense.

And not just for NASA, but for the myriad of commercial entities that desire better or more access to space.

“What we are trying to look at here is not focused silos and pieces, but to look at this as a holistic activity of where there is a public-private partnership moving forward,” stated Gerstenmaier.

“We are going to do this not just as an individual nation, we are going to do it both internationally and with private-public partnerships as we move out and push humans out in the solar system.”

(Images: via KLAS-TV Las Vegas, NASA, Bigelow Aerospace, AP and L2).

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Soyuz TMA-09M:

The trio launched at 4:31 pm EDT (2:31 am Kazakh time, May 29), with their Soyuz-FG carrier rocket tasked with sending the Soyuz TMA-09M into its initial orbit.

Under the command of cosmonaut Yurchikhin, the Russian veteran marked his fourth mission to the ISS, following his debut ride to the orbital outpost on Shuttle Atlantis during her STS-112 mission.

Joining the Commander is Karen Nyberg, who was selected as an astronaut in 2000. Nyberg previously flew in space as a mission specialist aboard space shuttle Discovery on STS-124 in 2008.

Rounding out the crew is Expedition 36/37 flight engineer Luca Parmitano. The Italian native will conduct maintenance tasks, replace a camera mounted on Japan’s Kibo module and retrieve science payloads. One of his spacewalks will also prepare for the arrival of Russia’s Multipurpose Laboratory

Normally, Soyuz vehicles take two days to arrive at the ISS. However, following the Soyuz TMA-08M six hours rendezvous, the well practiced procedure – that was initially demonstrated on recent Progress resupply missions – Soyuz TMA-09M was the second crewed vehicle to take the short cut option.

The desire to dock to the ISS after just six hours stems from the fact that spending two days in the cramped interior of the Soyuz along with two other crewmates is known to be a stressful and uncomfortable time for astronauts and cosmonauts, many of whom are suffering from symptoms of space sickness at the same time.

Thus, being able to go from the ground to the ISS in a single day will be a big advantage to Soyuz crews.

Such a fast rendezvous was never attempted before as it requires extremely precise orbital adjustments from the ISS, and extremely precise orbital insertion by the Soyuz-FG booster, which was only deemed possible following a study conducted last year, which showed that such accuracy was achievable with the existing Soyuz-FG booster and modernized Soyuz TMA-M series spacecraft.

Following liftoff and successful orbital insertion shortly thereafter, Soyuz TMA-09M immediately performed its first two engine burns on its first orbit of the Earth, which were pre-programmed into the Soyuz’s on-board computer prior to launch.

On the second orbit, actual orbital parameters were uplinked from a Russian Ground Site (RGS), which allowed for a further eight rendezvous burns to be performed more precisely over the next five hours of flight.

During this time, the Soyuz crew were able to unstrap from their Kazbek couches and enter the Orbital Module (BO) to stretch their legs and use the bathroom facilities. However, due to the extremely tight schedule and high workload, they did not have time to take off their Sokol launch and entry suits, although they were able to take off their suit gloves and open their helmets.

Docking to the Earth-facing Rassvet module of the space station occurred at 10:10 pm EDT – seven minutes ahead of schedule – with Russian controllers noting they achieved a new launch-to-ISS docking record for the crewed vehicle.

This was followed by the opening of the hatches between the Soyuz and ISS at 11:55pm EDT, at which point Nyberg, Yurchikhin and Parmitano were greeted by Expedition 36 Commander Pavel Vinogradov, Flight engineer Alexander Misurkin of Roscosmos and Flight Engineer Chris Cassidy of NASA – who have been aboard the station since late March.

Nyberg, Yurchikhin and Parmitano will remain aboard the station until mid-November. Cassidy, Vinogradov and Misurkin will return to Earth in mid-September, leaving Yurchikhin as the Expedition 37 commander.

Nyberg, Yurchikhin and Parmitano will remain in orbit until mid-November and will be joined in September by three additional crew members, Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazanskiy of the Russian Federal Space Agency and NASA astronaut Michael Hopkins.

Visiting Vehicle Evaluations:

An Ariane 5 ECA is set to loft the next Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV-4) to the ISS early next month, followed by the next Russian Progress in July. Japan’s HTV cargo ship will set sail in early August.

Evaluations are taking place into the upcoming Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) missions, with Orbital’s Cygnus first set to validate its capabilities via its debut launch on an Antares launch vehicle in mid-September.

A successful OrB-D mission will allow Orbital to press ahead to the first CRS flight, known as OrB-1, with Cygnus aiming to return to the ISS at the end of the year.

However, ongoing discussions are taking place relating to a potential conflict with the next SpaceX Dragon, which has already slipped into December. CRS-3/SpX-3 is facing delays due to what sources claim are “numerous problems” with the new Falcon 9 V1.1 launch vehicle, which is due to launch two payloads before it sends Dragon to the Station.

With CRS-3 slipping, one of the CRS missions will have to move to change its docked period to Node-2 Nadir between January 26 to February 25, 2014, L2 sources claim. Providing Orbital’s OrB-D mission proceeds as planned, allowing for a December launch of OrB-1, along with what may be additional slips to CRS-3, it is likely Dragon will have to move to the 2014 slot.

(Images: via NASA, ESA and L2).

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Major Peake’s flight assignment:

At an event in the UK earlier today – exactly four years to the day that Major Tim Peake’s selection as a European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut was made public – it was announced that Major Peake will fly to the ISS for five and a half months, as a Flight Engineer on Expeditions 46 and 47.

Major Peake will launch on the Russian Soyuz TMA-19M spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on November 30, 2015, and return to Earth on the same vehicle on May 16, 2016. During his mission, he will participate in many scientific experiments, many of which of European, and some maybe even of British origin.

According to the latest Flight Planning Integration Panel (FPIP) chart (available on L2), Major Peake can expect to see two visits of Russian Progress vehicles during his stint on the ISS, as well as two visits of SpaceX Dragon vehicles, and one visit of a Japanese HTV, with visits of Orbital’s Cygnus vehicle also likely.

He will also be trained to perform spacewalks, should one become necessary during his stay. However, plans at this point are very preliminary, and are likely to change dramatically between now and Major Peake’s launch.

Major Peake’s ISS slot was preliminarily planned to be assigned to French astronaut Thomas Pesquet, meaning Peake would have been the last of his selection class to fly, in the 2016-2017 timeframe. However, Pesquet appears to have now moved into the later slot, with Peake taking his place in the 2015-2016 slot, possibly in recognition of the UK’s recent financial contributions to ESA’s human spaceflight program.

In January of this year, NASASpaceflight.com sources reported that Major Peake had been chosen to fly on a unique short-duration flight opportunity afforded by the year-long mission to the ISS in 2015. Under this plan, Major Peake would have launched on Soyuz TMA-18M on September 30, 2015, and returned to Earth ten days later on Soyuz TMA-16M on October 10, 2015.

However, while said opportunity would have resulted in Major Peake flying to the ISS earlier than the 2016-2017 timeframe, it is understood that Britain objected to Major Peake being assigned to a short-duration slot while Andreas Mogensen of Denmark flew a long-duration mission, considering that the UK contributed more money than Denmark to ESA’s human spaceflight program at the most recent ESA ministerial meeting in November 2012.

As such, the 2015 short-duration opportunity has now been tentatively assigned to Denmark’s Andreas Mogensen, with Major Peake now being assigned to the long-duration slot from 2015-2016, and Frenchman Thomas Pesquet likely becoming the last of his class to fly in the 2016-2017 slot.

Major Tim Peake – Britain’s first ESA astronaut:

Timothy Peake was born on April 7, 1972, in Chichester, United Kingdom. In 1990, at the age of 18, he attended the Royal Military College Sandhurst, and upon graduation in 1992 went on to serve as an Officer in the British Army, serving as a platoon Commander with the Royal Green Jackets infantry division in Northern Ireland.

In 1994, he graduated as a helicopter pilot into the Army Air Corps (AAC), and four years later in 1998 went on to become a flight instructor, becoming instrumental in bringing the Apache attack helicopter into service with the AAC.

In 2005, he graduated from the Empire Test Pilots School at Boscombe Down in Wiltshire, England, a British military establishment that has now churned out eleven international astronauts. In 2006 he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Flight Dynamics from the University of Portsmouth.

Major Peake left the British Army in 2009, after 17 years of service and over 3,000 flying hours, and became a helicopter test pilot with the Agusta-Westland company. However, just a few months later in May 2009, he was announced as part of the European astronaut class of 2009, in the process becoming the first Briton ever to be selected for the ESA astronaut program.

While the UK was not a contributor to ESA’s human spaceflight program at the time of his selection, it was hoped that Major Peake would serve as an incentive for the UK to become more involved with human spaceflight – a hope that has been fulfilled with the UK’s recent financial contributions to ESA’s manned programs.

Major Peake graduated from ESA astronaut training in November 2010, and since then has been dividing his time between flying Apache helicopters for the British Territorial Army (TA), and astronaut training in Houston, Germany, and Russia, in the hope of an assignment to an ISS crew.

Peake’s assignment to a space mission will not be the first time a Briton has been in space, with many joint UK-US nationals having flown aboard the Space Shuttle and ISS, including Mike Foale, Piers Sellers, Nick Patrick, and Greg H. Johnson. As NASA astronauts however, they all flew with US flags on their arms, and did not represent the UK.

British national Helen Sharman did make it into space in 1991, however she flew as part of a privately-funded commercial experiments program to the Russian Mir space station, and as such was not sanctioned by the British government to fly on behalf of UK. Other privately-financed “space tourist” flights have also been made by joint UK-US national Richard Garriott, and joint UK-South African national Mark Shuttleworth.

Coincidentally, Major Peake looks set to miss out on claiming the title of “first UK national on the ISS” by just 2.5 months, as that claim will instead go to British singer Sarah Brightman, who will visit the ISS as a space tourist, along with ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen, for ten days from September 30-October 10, 2015, meaning that two Britons will in fact fly on the ISS in 2015.

Major Peake will however be the first ever person to fly in space on behalf of the UK government, thus representing the whole of the UK, and wearing a Union Jack flag on his arm. Major Peake’s flight will also represent the end of a long road by the British armed forces to get a current or former service member in space, having come tantalisingly close on several occasions in the past.

Those attempts were British Army Lieutenant-Colonels Anthony Boyle and Richard Farrimond, Royal Navy Commander Peter Longhurst, and Royal Air Force (RAF) Squadron Leader Nigel Wood, who in February 1984 were all selected as Payload Specialists to fly on the Space Shuttle as part of the Skynet 4 program. Ultimately however, the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster prevented all from ever flying in space.

The British forces again came close to being able to lay claim to an astronaut as part of the commercial Project Juno in 1991, with Royal Navy physician Gordon Brooks being selected as one of the final four candidates, and Army Air Corps Major Tim Mace being selected as back-up for Helen Sharman, who ultimately flew the mission.

Major Peake however will end the long history of disappointment when he blasts off toward the ISS in 2015.

“I am delighted to be proposed for a long-duration mission to the International Space Station. This is another important mission for Europe and in particular a wonderful opportunity for European science, industry and education to benefit from microgravity research,” said Major Peake on Monday.

“Since joining the European Astronaut Corps in 2009, I have been training to work on the Station and I am extremely grateful to the ground support teams who make it possible for us to push the boundaries of knowledge through human spaceflight and exploration.”

The United Kingdom and the ISS:

The UK has had a long and difficult relationship with the ISS over the past two decades, however, with Major Peake’s flight assignment, it finally looks as though the UK is firmly committing to the orbiting laboratory, and thus is finally set to start receiving its many benefits.

The UK was a signatory to the ISS Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) signed on January 28, 1998, between the USA, Russia, Canada, Japan, and the 11-member ESA, however it was the only signatory of that agreement that did not go on to contribute any funding to the ISS program.

This was due to a long-standing UK government policy that barred the UK from contributing any funding to human spaceflight, preferring instead to focus on unmanned missions and telecommunications technologies. While this strategy allowed for the creation of a very strong satellite industry for the UK, it meant that Britain was left out of sharing in the scientific benefits that result from the ISS.

Within the past few years however, the space industry has been identified as a key area of growth for the UK, contributing £9 billion to the British economy every year. As such, a government-backed drive to increase the UK’s involvement in the space sector has been underway, which resulted in the April 2010 establishment of the UK Space Agency (UKSA), who are tasked with managing Britain’s participation in space projects, for the benefit of the entire nation.

UKSA manages Britain’s contributions to ESA, and in the November 2012 ESA ministerial meeting, Britain became the only nation in the austere European budget environment to actually increase their financial contributions to ESA, becoming ESA’s third largest contributor in the process.

Notable among Britain’s £1.2 billion ESA contributions at the 2012 ministerial were two never before seen British contributions to the field of ESA human spaceflight. In a departure from past policy, and following years of campaigning by many who saw the potential benefits of UK participation in human spaceflight, the UK made a £12.4 million contribution to ESA’s European Life and Physical Sciences (ELIPS) program, which will grant the UK access to the microgravity environment of the ISS to conduct research.

Additionally, the UK made a completely unexpected one-off contribution of £16 million to ESA’s effort to design and build an Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV)-derived Service Module (SM) for NASA’s Orion spacecraft, which is now expected to include construction contracts for British industry in the areas of telecommunication and propulsion, meaning British made technologies could be used to send the first human beings beyond Earth’s orbit in over half a century.

ESA is building the Orion SM for NASA in order to cover ESA’s share of ISS operating costs for the period of 2017-2020, meaning that, since Britain is a financial contributor to the Orion SM effort, technically the UK will be an ISS partner nation for the 2017-2020 period. It is this fact that paved the way for Major Peake’s ISS flight assignment.

It is hoped that Major Peake may be able to carry out some British experiments during his time on the ISS, thanks to the UK’s recent contributions to the ELIPS program.

There is a surging interest lately in UK participation in microgravity research, with the second ever UK Space Environments conference set to take place at the National Space Centre in Leicester from November 9-10, 2013, organised by the UK Space Biomedicine Association (UKSBA).

While in late 2010 the Union Jack flag was quietly removed from the ISS, Major Tim Peake will hopefully place it back during his flight, as the UK finally takes its rightful place as an ISS partner nation, with the benefits of the orbiting laboratory in the form of scientific research and inspiration becoming available to the people of Britain at long last.

(Images: via NASA, BBC, and L2).

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Optional Milestones under CCiCap and Phase Two of Certification:

NASA is currently funding three commercial crew providers under its Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) program which runs thru May 2014. Optional milestones under CCiCap beyond May 2014 could be exercised by NASA.

As with the two previous phases (CCDev1 & CCDev2), NASA is granting money under CCiCap using Space Act Agreements (SAAs), instead of Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR).

In parallel, NASA has also started initial certification activities using FAR-based procurement contracts. The first phase of certification is known as the Certification Products Contract (CPC) and its deliverables include early life-cycle certification products (alternate standards, hazards analysis, and verification, validation, and certification plans).

CPC money was awarded last December to SpaceX, SNC and Boeing for amounts that did not exceed $10 million per company.

Under NASA’s planned strategy, the next phase of certification (phase two) should start in 2014 and should include development, test, evaluation, and certification activities. It could also include, as options, a number of crewed missions to the ISS following certification.

McAlister indicated that although FAR will be used for phase two of certification, NASA has yet to decide which part of the FAR would be used. He explained that while they are planning to shift away from SAAs for the second phase of certification, NASA will not change the basic philosophy of the program.

“The specific mechanism (space act agreement versus contract) has gotten a lot of attention but what’s really important to us is the philosophy under which we are exercising this program. We want the philosophy to remain the same. We still want industry to own (their crew transportation system). We still want some form of fixed price arrangement.

“We would like to do a public-private partnership meaning the companies (will) own the design and they (will) make more of the decisions. For customers, it should be (both) NASA and non-NASA customers.

“We are going to provide that investment (by a company) be a milestone payment based on cost. Industries defines how (they intend to do things) and we approve (it). We believe (that) we are going to maintain our program philosophy and approach to be more of a commercial oriented development.”

Phase two of certification is currently planned to start in the spring of 2014 (after the CCiCap base period ends) but the exact date has not yet been finalized.

McAlister explained that NASA is not certain that it will be able to award it in the spring of next year. If NASA is unable to award it at that time, NASA may decide to exercise some of the early optional milestones from CCiCap.

“If it’s in the government’s interest, we might exercise the early milestones. We do not intend to exercise the crewed flights milestones which are the last milestones. As you get later and later in the timeline, there is going to be more time for us to push those efforts into the certification phase. But we have not made any decision yet. We are (still) keeping the options open.”

McAlister’s statement confirms what Ed Mango, program manager of NASA’s commercial crew program, had previously told NASASpaceflight.com last year.

Mango had stated that the optional milestones in the CCiCap agreement had two purposes. “One, to get the entire end-to-end cost and schedule profile for the company to certify their hardware, their way for a crewed demonstration.

“Second, we may need to activate some options if the budget and schedule drives us in the late 2014 timeframe. We are not committing to any of the optional milestones, and there will be a rigorous process to activate those milestones.”

Although the optional milestones funding for each company is proprietary, the hearing charter from a House Hearing on commercial crew on September 14th 2012 revealed that the optional milestones under CCiCap for all three commercial crew providers “have aggregate total cost estimates in the range of $4.5 Billion”.

NASA or Company Astronauts?:

A crew transportation system can either be offered as a taxi or a rental system. Under the taxi system, each company would use its own pilot to ferry the crew. Under a rental arrangement, NASA would rent the entire capsule and would thus provide its own pilot.

McAlister explained that it was up to each company to decide which model they preferred. “NASA has not dictated whether the commercial providers should use a taxi or a rental car system. We have left that up to the provider (to decide which) concept of operation is best for them.

“Because of our requirement that they have to provide a lifeboat function, it kind of complicates the taxi model to some extent but it doesn’t preclude it. It’s up to the providers to figure out whether they want their pilot or a NASA pilot. As long as they meet our requirements, we shouldn’t care (which option they choose). We are probably going to ask for a four crew person rotation if we have the money for it.”

McAlister added that there will be test flights during the second phase of certification. It will likely include an uncrewed and a crewed flight, but they are leaving up to the commercial companies to define how many test flights they need.

The issue of whether NASA or company astronauts can be used also arises for test flights under phase two of certification. This issue was previously discussed by Ed Mango on January 9, 2013.

Click here for additional Commercial Crew News Articles: http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/news/commercial/

“Under phase two (of certification), it will probably be combined crews between what NASA needs as well as what the companies want to do. In the end, this is a joint effort between our astronaut core and the crew members that the individual companies (are) hiring.

“It’s that joint test plan that will get us to an end state. It isn’t just one or the other. If anyone has developed aircrafts in the past, you know that it is military pilots as well as pilots from the companies that do the flight testing. We expect that same kind of approach as we move through this overall process (of certification).”

Competition Is Important:

McAlister also emphasized the importance of maintaining competition in the next phase of certification. “If the budget would enable it, we would like to have more than one” commercial crew provider (during phase two of certification),” he noted.

“The posture for the government is to have competition because the big item is going to be in this ISS service line (i.e. the crew transportation contract is part of the budget for the ISS). (It was the) same way with cargo (where) we have seen significant benefits from competition.

“A lot of people think that competition only means you are getting a good price. It actually means that you are getting a safer vehicle as well. These guys are competing on safety because they know that’s (one of the) evaluation criteria by NASA. The government loses a lot of leverage when you only have one (provider).

“If we want any little change, if there is only one (provider), there is really no reason for that company to invest additionally. My big concern is that we will prematurely go down to one.

“Both schedule and competition are very important to NASA. We would like to maintain those. If it gets to the point where we can’t, it will depend on the proposals that we will receive.”

McAlister explained that if they are in a situation where one proposal is evaluated very highly but the others are not, this could have an impact on how may providers they will continue to fund in the next phase. On the other hand, he explained that if you have two proposals that are very close, this could dictate a different outcome.

“The lifetime of the ISS might (also) be factor in the decision. Once we get those phase two proposals and they get evaluated and we get a little bit better understanding of where our budget is going to be, we will be able to make a better informed decision.”

Cost of Commercial Crew Development:

McAlister also discussed the recently completed Booz Allen evaluation of NASA’s cost estimates for commercial crew.

“We have had some internal cost estimate (for commercial crew) that we have used using a variety of different data sources. Some of our stakeholders felt that it would be important for us to get an independent cost estimate. (Booz Allen) did not do an independent estimate; they did an assessment on our estimate.”

McAlister noted they purposely used some of the same people from Booz Allen that did the analysis for the Space Launch System (SLS) and the Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) Orion.

He indicated that the report indicated that the “government cost estimates are high quality and follow standard cost estimating best practices but should be considered optimistic (i.e., likely to experience cost growth).” He said that he was pleased with the report.

“We do have some reserves (Unallocated Future Expenses – UFE) to cover these potential cost growth. In general, we embraced all of the findings (of Booz Allen). We had some slight differences on some of their recommendations regarding some of (the) areas of cost growth and the magnitude of the cost growth. But in general at (the) top level, we thought that (their) findings and recommendations were positive and kind of validated our approach and certainly our cost estimates.

“Where we had differences, I kind of consider them not to be big ticket items.”

McAlister said that in their estimates they calculated the total funding which would be required for each company in order to complete their program. He added that he couldn’t share these numbers because they were proprietary.

Cost of Commercial Crew Operations:

McAlister also discussed the cost of commercial crew once operational, noting that “the assumption is that (commercial crew) will be cost effective with respect to the Russians. However, McAlister admitted that he was being purposely vague on whether this meant lower than Soyuz or not.

“There is still a big pretty range on what the (costs) are going to come in at,” he added. “We will have a better idea (of the cost) in the phase two (certification) contracts.”

Another point that was addressed by McAlister is whether NASA would provide any Government Furnished Equipment (GFE) to the commercial crew companies. He explained that NASA’s philosophy was that they should not generally provide any equipment to the companies.

“We did not want to want to be in the critical path (by) providing any GFE. (However,) we always said that there were two possible exceptions: docking and the communication system because they are so integrated with the ISS. It got a little bit complicated with cargo (for systems that are very integrated with the ISS).”

McAlister indicated that rescue services could potentially be another exception, noting “for global rescue services, it might make more sense for the government to do that using Department of Defense assets as opposed to have each company negotiate individually.

“However, we haven’t made any final decisions on that, because there will hopefully be flights without NASA crew and (the companies) have to figure out how to do that without NASA’s involvement. Whatever, they come up with has to work in both situations.”

McAlister also discussed the impact that a slip to the 2017 schedule could have on each company’s business case.

“With a slip, you lose a bit of certainty on the business case for the providers if the end date for ISS is 2020. It gives them a couple of (fewer) flights that they can rely on. The plan was always for them to get non-government customers.

“Each provider is looking at that market a little bit differently. Some of them are bearish on that market; some are little bit more bullish. If you are more bullish, you might be able to say that’s not a problem, I can still close my business case (without these additional flights).

“If you are more risked adverse and you are not certain about that non-government market, it might be more difficult to close your business case. That also factors into how much they are willing to invest. It’s all kind of inter-related.”

At the same meeting William Gerstenmaier, Associate Administrator for Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate discussed another issue which could also have an impact the business case of certain of the commercial crew providers.

He mentioned that NASA has not yet decided whether it will extend the Crew Resupply Service (CRS) contract to Orbital and SpaceX after 2016, or if it will allow new entrants such as SNC or Boeing to compete for new cargo contracts after the current CRS expires in 2016.

NASA anticipates releasing a draft Request for Proposals (RFP) for phase two of certification in July, with the final RFP to follow in October. Awards are planned for the spring of 2014.

(Images: NASA and L2 Content)

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Recent Ammonia Leak:

Following recent events, the ISS controllers are continuing to keep a very close eye on the system that uses ammonia to dissipate heat from the electrical power systems on the truss.

The system leaked last week, when controllers observed data that indicated a large increase in a previously known small ammonia leak in the cooling loop of power channel 2B. At the same time, the crew inside the station noted that they were able to see flakes of ammonia originating from the channel 2B area, which were floating away into space.

Confirmation of a serious leak ultimately resulted in both the teams on the ground and in space to spring into action, resulting in an unplanned EVA taking place less than two days after the leak was spotted.

Spacewalkers Chris Cassidy and Tom Marshburn ventured out of the Quest Airlock on Saturday, successfully inspecting the hardware, before swapping out the old 2B Pump Flow Control Subassembly (PFCS) with one of the two spares located on the truss.

With the system recharged, controllers successfully returned the flow of ammonia without any anomalous indications, allowing the spacewalking duo to return back inside the ISS an hour ahead of schedule.

Marshburn then prepared for his return back to Earth onboard Soyuz TMA-07M, along with departing Expedition 35 commander Chris Hadfield and Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko. They successfully landed on the steppe of Kazakhstan, southeast of Dzhezkazgan on Monday.

Leak Returns?

However, controllers noticed an issue during the period surrounding the departure of the Soyuz, which appeared to indicate the ammonia leak on the 2B system had returned.

“Post the Soyuz undock, there were several indications that the gross 2B PVTCS leak was still present. The 2B PVTCS was shutdown to preserve consumables as the team continues to monitor the system,” noted a flash on L2′s rolling ISS Update Section.

“The channel 2B primary power equipment has powered down to a dormant configuration. Channel 2A continues to power all downstream loads of channel 2B.”

Controllers positioned cameras on the ISS to take a closer look, in order to see if they could spot ammonia flakes departing from the region. No such observations were seen.

With evaluations taking place on the ground, the focus switched to a possible false signature indication on the system, which was immediately backed up by the ISS’ requirement of maneuvering to different attitudes to cater for the Soyuz’s departure.

“As a result of the PVTCS troubleshooting performed on EVA 20 in November, the modified 2B loop includes four separate accumulators as compared to one accumulator in the unmodified system,” added notes.

“During the Soyuz undock, telemetry was only available for a single accumulator. After the maneuver to the undocking attitude, the quantity reading of that accumulator began dropping.”

As part of the written response plans, the pump was shut down and the power was removed from the 2B power channels.

Once the ISS was back into its regular attitude, additional data became available that showed the quantity in the other accumulators had actually been increasing or remaining stable while the one accumulator had been decreasing. This backed up the theory the ammonia fluid was shifting through the system, as opposed to leaking – a theory supported by the absence of snowflakes seen with the earlier leak.

The team continued to investigate the decreasing accumulator quantities and pressures – a trend of about 9.6 percent per day over a six hour period – with a focus on the attitude maneuvers and associated changes to the passive thermal environment.

“However it continued at the same rate through the undock, comm attitude maneuver, and return to TEA with all Arrays in Autotrack, and for a full orbit after this unabated, and we are not currently able to explain it by other means,” notes added, showing the evaluations were continuing throughout Tuesday. “This signature and its magnitude are very comparable to the fast leak rate observed on Thursday.

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“We do not have the benefit of crew eyes on it this time because they entered crew sleep since the signature became more definitively non-transient. We do have high definition video of the area in question, but it does not show anything observable at this time.”

Thankfully, data for the Early External Thermal Control System (EETCS) system became available later on Tuesday, confirming stable quantities in the starboard and trailing radiator accumulators and the EETCS PFCS accumulator, allowing for the 2B power channels to become reactivated.

“Based on further data review, ground teams determined that there is no gross leak of the 2B PVTCS system, and that the ammonia quantity downward trend was caused by the 2B PFCS experiencing cold conditions in the Soyuz undocking attitude,” concluded the latest notes.

“An Anomaly Resolution Team (ART) meeting was held, and the 2B PVTCS was later reactivated per the ART recommendation.”

The lack of a leak will come as a relief, not least because the potential for another EVA would only become available in a few week’s time. The ISS will only return to a six member crew – with two NASA astronauts – when Soyuz TMA-09M docks at the end of the month.

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Soyuz TMA-07M:

It was an eventful end to Commander Hadfield’s stay on the ISS, as the keys to the Station were handed over to Russian Commander, Pavel Vinogradov.

All three of the returning crewmembers have played their part in making the 146 days of their Expedition 35 mission a memorable period in the Station’s history, not least during the latter part of their stay on the orbital outpost.

Roman Romanenko of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) conducted his final major role during his tour of duty during the Russian EVA in April, during which he worked alongside the veteran Vinogradov.

While the EVA involved routine maintenance on the Russian Segment (RS), Romanenko provided some comical moments during the spacewalk, even causing the Russian translator to giggle as her commentary was broadcast over NASA TV.

“I don’t like to work at night time, I’m afraid of the darkness,” not long after joking about how “for some reason the Earth is round,” which was met by bemused silence from the Russian CAPCOM in Moscow.

There was less time for joking during the unscheduled EVA that was conducted by Spacewalkers Chris Cassidy and the third person to be riding home on Soyuz TMA-07M, Tom Marshburn.

The duo ventured outside of the Quest Airlock on Saturday, in search of the source of an ammonia leak that had been observed less than two days before the spacewalkers exited the Quest airlock.

The duo investigated the cooling loop of power channel 2B on the P6 Truss of the Station, and while the system appeared to be clean, the installation of a new Pump Flow Control Subassembly (PFCS).appears to have resolved the issue.

Although it will take weeks before it is known for sure that the leak is an issue of the past, so far all indications appear to show the system is now working nominally.

Prior to the departure of the three crewmembers, Commander Hadfield uploaded a video that has since gone viral.

The Canadian astronaut showed off his singing prowess with a rendition of David Bowie’s Space Oddity, shot on board the ISS. The moving video received praise from Bowie himself, as it was revealed a member of the iconic singer’s tour band was involved in the reproduction of the song.

“The task was in front of me. I came up with a piano part. I then enlisted my friend, producer and fellow Canadian Joe Corcoran to take my piano idea and Chris’ vocal and blow it up into a fully produced song,” noted Emm Gryner. “Drums! mellotrons! fuzz bass! We also incorporated into the track ambient space station noises which Chris had put on his Soundcloud.

“I was mostly blown away by how pure and earnest Chris’ singing is on this track. Like weightlessness and his voice agreed to agree.

“And voila! And astronaut sings Space Oddity in space! I was so honoured to be asked to be a part of this. You wouldn’t get too many chances to make a recording like this and not only that, to make music with someone who – through his vibrant communications with kids in schools to his breathtaking photos to his always patient and good-humoured demeanour – has done more for science and space than anyone else this generation.

“Planet earth IS blue, and there’s nothing left for Chris Hadfield to do. Right. Safe travels home Commander!”

In preparation for that safe trip home, the Soyuz TMA-07M crew donned their Sokol launch and entry suits, closed the hatch between the Orbital Module (BO) and Descent Module (SA), and strapped themselves into their Kazbek couches inside the SA.

Undocking was on schedule at 23:08 UTC, which was followed by two separations burns to depart the vicinity of the ISS.

“”We can see the entire ISS, with the solar arrays stretched out like arms saying farewell to us,” said Romanenko, who commanded the Soyuz as it departed from the ISS.

Following a few hours of free flight, Soyuz TMA-07M made its de-orbit burn, followed by a landing near the town of Dzhezkazgan on the Steppe of Kazakhstan.

Now the crew are extracted from the SA by Russian recovery forces, they will be flown by MI-8 helicopters to a nearby airfield, where the crew will part ways, with Hadfield and Marshburn boarding a NASA Gulfstream III aircraft to be flown back to Ellington Field in Houston, Texas – via two refuelling stops in Glasgow, Scotland, and Goose Bay, Canada. Romanenko will be flown back to Star City, outside Moscow.

Vinogradov, Chris Cassidy of NASA and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin will tend to the station as a three-person crew for two weeks until the arrival of three new crew members, NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg, Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin and Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency.

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EVA-21 (This article was updated throughout the EVA):

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A huge effort has been undertaken to plan Saturday’s EVA, resulting in the crew being in a stance to conduct the EVA less than two days after the leak was first observed.

Following pre-sleep tasks, the Expedition 35 crew helped the spacewalking duo through one of the more recent additions to life on the ISS, one that allows for spacewalkers to avoid the overnight campout in the Quest Airlock.

Known as the In-Suit Light Exercise (ISLE) EVA Pre-Breathe Protocol, the procedure allows for pre-EVA conditioning of the spacewalkers set to head outside of the orbital outpost.

Debuted during STS-134, the procedure does not require overnight campout in Quest or CEVIS exercise, which helps conserve oxygen usage aboard the ISS.

For the actual procedure, the two spacewalkers performed a 60-minute mask pre-breathe with the airlock depressed to 10.2 psi. They then donned their spacesuits (EMUs) and performed standard EMU purge before the airlock was repressurized to ISS ambient levels.

Following this, the EVA crew spent 100 minutes performing in-suit pre-breathe, 50 minutes of which will consist of light in-suit exercise with 50 minutes of resting (nominal) in-suit pre-breathe.

The first order of business for Cassidy and Marshburn upon egressing the A/L was to translate out to the P6 Truss worksite.

Upon arriving at the worksite, the spacewalkers told controllers on the ground they saw no obvious signs of ammonia flakes in the region.

However, they did observe a “coffee stain” on one element of hardware, which they took photos of once they were in a daylight pass – due to a failure of the flash on their camera. The flash was later fixed.

After fully setting up the worksite, the duo proceeded to begin work to remove the 2B Pump Flow Control Subassembly (PFCS).

The removal was completed via the use of the Pistol Grip Tools (PGTs), driving the H1 & H2 bolts on the PFCS to close the Fluid Quick Disconnect Coupling (FQDC) ammonia valves between the PFCS and the P6 Truss.

Again, the hardware was reported as looking “clean” – although a few specks of ammonia were observed as the H2 bolt was driven by the PGT.

Next, they proceeded to drive the H3 and H4 structural bolts, allowing them to remove the PFCS from the P6 Truss Integrated Equipment Assembly (IEA). Photos were taken as the unit was removed, with no sign of ammonia in the area.

The PFCS was temporarily stowed on the Multi Use Tether (MUT) “Ballstack”, following which a visual inspection was conducted of both the PFCS and the IEA to try and find a “smoking gun” for the source of the leak.

However, once again, the report came down that the assembly looked “really, really clean,” according to Cassidy. “I can’t given you any data other than it looks nominal.”

With no source of the leak – or evidence of a leak – found, the spacewalkers could have re-installed the unit back into its original location, ahead of the spacewalkers heading back to the A/L to end the EVA, while teams on the ground re-evaluate the situation.

Despite the leak source not being found, the spacewalkers moved to remove a new PFCS unit from its stowage location on the P6 Truss Long Spacer (LS) just next to the EVA worksite, again by driving the H3 and H4 structural bolts.

The new PFCS unit was then be installed into the P6 IEA, in the location of the old PFCS unit, and the H3 & H4 structural bolts and H1 & H2 FQDC bolts were driven to complete the installation.

In order to aid the investigation, the new unit’s Quick Disconnects (QDs) were opened, and the 20 lbs of ammonia in the new PFCS was used to charge the system via the use of the pump. This allowed for observations for any leaks and help the root cause evaluations.

With no leaks seen by the spacewalkers – along with the system charging without issue – the new unit appears to have resolved the issue. However, it will take several weeks to confirm the problem is a thing of the past.

The old PFCS unit – which is now very likely to be the root cause of the ammonia leak – has since been installed into the previous location of the new unit on the P6 LS.

With all the EVA tasks completed, well ahead of the schedule, the spacewalkers then monitored the new PFCS, as teams on the ground turned the system back into its nominal operating condition.

Once again, no leaks were observed, which has allowed the spacewalkers to carry out the bake out protocol, which ensured no ammonia was brought back inside of the Station as they returned to the Quest Airlock.

With the bake out complete, the EVA ended after five hours and 30 minutes.

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(Images: L2′s ISS Section and NASA)

(L2 Members refer to the L2 ISS Section for Updates, Images and Presentations relating to this situation on the ISS).

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