TECH

Bolden to visit KSC for NASA’s 2016 budget rollout

James Dean
FLORIDA TODAY

NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden on Monday will visit Kennedy Space Center to discuss the “State of NASA,” part of the agency’s promotion of a 2016 budget proposal being released the same day.

NASA said Bolden would “address the agency’s scientific and technological achievements and the exciting work ahead as we push farther in the solar system and lead the world in a new era of exploration” at 1:30 p.m.

At 4 p.m., the agency plans to brief reporters on the budget proposed for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1.

Of local interest will be the amount NASA requests for the Commercial Crew Program, which is led from KSC and will seek an increase to the $805 million Congress appropriated this year.

The program hopes to fly astronauts to the International Space Station by 2017 on capsules designed and operated by Boeing and SpaceX.

NASA also will seek enough money to try to stay on track for a 2018 next test flight of its Orion exploration capsule, which would be launched for the first time by the 322-foot Space Launch System rocket from Kennedy Space Center.

The agency likely will add detail about its plans to robotically capture and drag it to near the moon an asteroid so that astronauts aboard Orion could visit by the mid-2020s.

Safety panel criticizes Commercial Crew

An independent safety panel last week criticized a lack of transparency by the NASA program preparing to launch astronauts from Florida on private rockets and spacecraft, calling it was a problem that could increase the risk of an accident.

NASA’s Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel, formed in the wake of the 1967 launch pad fire that killed three Apollo 1 astronauts, said the Commercial Crew Program’s “opacity failure to engage in open and transparent communication” recalled problems found to have contributed to the Challenger and Columbia shuttle disasters.

In its 2014 annual report, the panel said it was “currently unable to offer any informed opinion regarding the adequacy of the certification process or the adequacy of the level of safety” in the Commercial Crew Program, whose top manager is based at Kennedy Space Center.

The panel said NASA belatedly provided more information after learning of the forthcoming criticism, but too late to be considered in the annual report.

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said in a statement that “safety remains our top priority,” and the agency “strongly agrees that continued robust funding for commercial crew is essential to NASA’s work.”

NASA last September awarded Boeing and SpaceX contracts worth up to $6.8 billion combined to fly astronauts to the International Space Station starting in 2017.

The agency last week hosted an event at Johnson Space Center to celebrate the companies’ early progress and plans for certifying safe crew systems. Both companies said they were on track to fly astronauts by 2017.

Commercial Crew Program Manager Kathy Lueders said then that the agency could speak more openly about the program after the Jan. 5 dismissal of a contract protest by losing bidder Sierra Nevada Corp.

SpaceX tests

SpaceX is targeting a 6:10 p.m. launch next Sunday of the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) mission from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, NASA confirmed Friday.

The mission is a collaboration between NASA, the Air Force and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

After launch, SpaceX again will try to land the Falcon 9 rocket booster an ocean platform. The first try last month resulted in the rocket hitting the “autonomous spaceport drone ship” with a fiery crash that did not cause extensive damage.

Though it hasn’t landed a booster successfully yet, SpaceX last week released a concept video showing all three boosters from a Falcon Heavy rocket, which has not yet launched, flying back to a landing pads at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

SpaceX last week also revealed a picture of the Dragon capsule it will use to test a key system needed for future human missions to the International Space Station, targeted for 2017.

The “pad abort” test, planned within a month or two, will fire SuperDraco thrusters that a Dragon carrying people would use to escape a failing rocket.

“We think it gives incredible safety features for a full abort all the way through ascent,” SpaceX President and Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell said last week.

Assuming crews launch safely, SpaceX hopes to use the abort thrusters to steer Dragons to landings on land. But Shotwell confirmed last week that initial landings would be in water, assisted by parachutes.

She said the pad abort test from Launch Complex 40 was expected “in the next month or so.”

“It took us quite a while to get there, but there’s a lot of great technology and innovation in that pad abort vehicle,” she said.

Moon Express earns prizes

Moon Express last week confirmed that recent tests of a prototype commercial lunar lander at Kennedy Space Center had won it more than $1 million in prize money.

The Google Lunar XPRIZE competition awarded $6 million overall to five teams for demonstrating prototype systems that could eventually help one of them capture the $20 million grand prize. That will be awarded to the first private team to land a robot on Mars, move about 1,600 feet and return high-definition imagery to Earth.

Privately funded Moon Express, headquartered in Silicon Valley, was rewarded for tests of landing and imaging systems, but failed to collect a mobility prize worth another $500,000.

The company recently announced plans to lease Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station from Space Florida to further its development program, creating up to 50 local jobs this year.

Posey keeps space seat

U.S. Rep. Bill Posey, R-Rockledge, will continue to have a hand in space policy during the 114th Congress.

Posey, whose district includes Cape Canaveral, retained his seat on the Space Subcommittee according to Republican assignments released last week by the chairman of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee. Democratic members have not yet been confirmed.

No drone zone

Kennedy Space Center’s shuttle runway may one day become a drone testing ground, but the Federal Aviation Administration is still working out regulations for drone flights in commercial airspace.

Last week the FAA issued a notice to airmen warning that Super Bowl XLIX, to be played today at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, was a “no drone zone.”

Unauthorized aircraft are not allowed to fly over or near NFL games and many other sporting events with large crowds. Violators could earn jail time or civil penalties.

Bottom line, said the FAA: “If you want to see video of the Big Game, watch it on TV. Leave your drone at home.”

Contact Dean at 321-242-3668 or jdean@floridatoday.com. Follow him on Twitter at @flatoday_jdean