The next generation space shuttle, like its predecessor, will serve many masters, as a cargo ship, a scientific laboratory, a docking platform, and a crew habitat. But according to Mark Fisher, Marshall Space Flight Center’s manager of Exploration Systems, the next shuttle will be designed to “separate cargo from crew.” That change is one lesson learned from flying the current shuttle for the last quarter century: human spaceflight has made cargo more expensive, and cargo can potentially make human spaceflight less safe. By splitting these basic tasks, it is hoped that a more robust shuttle, called the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV), will emerge for its first unmanned flight test between 2008 and 2011.
September 27th, 2004
Bigelow’s Gamble Aviation Week & Space Technology
The Bigelow Aerospace project to privately develop inflatable Earth-orbit space modules is beginning to integrate diverse U.S. and European technologies into subscale and full-scale inflatable test modules and subsystems at the company’s heavily guarded facilities here. While much public attention is focused on the massive International Space Station (ISS), Bigelow has quietly become a mini-Skunk Works for the NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC). Ongoing technical assistance to Bigelow from JSC is focused on helping the company spawn development of orbiting commercial inflatable modules by the end of the decade, with the possibility of JSC later using the Bigelow technology for inflatable modules on the Moon or Mars.
September 15th, 2004
Lockheed Martin Awarded NASA Contract For Space Exploration Studies
Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) was awarded a contract for space exploration concept studies by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on Sept. 1. The initial value of the contract is $3 million for the first six months with an option for another six-month, $3 million study in the next phase. Lockheed Martin is one of 11 companies NASA selected to provide concepts for the development of a Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) as well as overall architecture concepts for human exploration of the moon. The CEV will carry future astronauts to space and provide transportation for astronauts to explore the moon and Mars. Among the key factors that Lockheed Martin will keep foremost in all of its concepts and recommendations are safety, reliability, sustainability, affordability and evolvability.
September 10th, 2004
Budget Cuts Would Severely Hinder Exploration, O’Keefe Says Aerospace Daily & Defense Report
The cuts to NASA’s fiscal year 2005 budget request contained in the House Appropriations Committee’s NASA spending bill effectively would halt the agency’s plans to develop a Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) and achieve new breakthroughs in in-space propulsion, according to Administrator Sean O’Keefe. “We can’t do this at the levels that they’ve contemplated,” O’Keefe told Senate lawmakers at a Sept. 8, 2004 hearing.
September 2nd, 2004
NASA Selects Contractors For Exploration Studies
NASA today awarded the first contracts to conduct preliminary concept studies for human lunar exploration and the development of the crew exploration vehicle. Eleven companies were selected. The contracts, which total approximately $27 million, with a possible option worth an additional $27 million, are a result of the Concept Exploration and Refinement Broad Agency Announcement issued in May 2004.
August 15th, 2004
Race to moon, Mars a possible boom for area Galveston County Daily News
Call it a space race. Competition to build a new craft to take astronauts to the moon and maybe Mars is on, with major area companies strategizing how to win contracts worth billions of dollars. And just how it all plays out will affect thousands of area jobs
July 30th, 2004
NASA begins moon return effort
Planners in NASA’s Exploration Directorate recently gave United Press International an exclusive briefing on the steps they envision to fulfill President Bush’s new vision for space exploration. These steps include designing the vehicle to fly back to the moon as well as the new fleet of atomic-powered spacecraft that may open up astronaut visits to deeper in space. In Part 1, NASA explains the different approach it is researching to achieve the first human visits to the moon since Apollo 17 in December 1972. When American astronauts make their return, some of their missions will resemble the old Apollo voyages and some will be far more advanced.
July 24th, 2004
Lockheed Martin Scores Success With Landing Technology Tests For A Future Astronaut Crew Exploration Vehicle Lockheed Martin
Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] has successfully performed a series of drop tests at the U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground in Yuma, Arizona, to validate soft landing technology that can be used for astronaut crew capsules upon return to Earth. The technology makes use of an array of dual airbags that, upon ground impact, releases air from the outer bags of the system, allowing the capsule to settle softly to the ground on its inner airbags.
June 23rd, 2004
NASA Administrator Discusses Agency Transformation
Media representatives are invited to NASA Headquarters Thursday, June 24. NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe will outline the agency’s Transformation, which is an important component of the final report from the Commission on Implementation of U.S. Space Exploration Policy.
The briefing is at 3 p.m. EDT in NASA’s auditorium, 300 E Street SW, Washington. The briefing will be broadcast live on NASA Television and www.nasa.gov. Reporters can ask questions from participating NASA field centers.
June 16th, 2004
Final Report From Moon-Mars Commission Project Constellation
The Final Report is now available from the Moon-Mars Commission. It contains a total of 8 findings and 14 recommendations, meant to transform NASA, focus the government on space exploration, and bolster the private sector to assist with space activities.