Russia looking at consolidating aerospace industry assets into state agency. Decision to be made in 2009.
NASA Goddard CIO joins the blogosphere:Goddard CIO Blog
NASA JSC Advanced Planning Office Blog: JSC Advanced Planning Office Blog
Official NASA blogs
SpaceDev to be acquired by the Sierra Nevada Corp: SpaceRef.com
Welcome to our readers from Carnivals of Space.
I want to wish a happy 50th birthday to everyone at NASA.
Born out of the desire to prove American technical superiority, today's NASA has to struggle to prove to necessity of existence. There are those that believe the paltry amount spent on NASA would be better used building smart bombs or funding the federal education bureaucracy.
Currently, NASA is struggling to maintain an aging shuttle fleet, provide American access to the ISS and develop the next-gen launch system Constellation. The specter of being dependent on long time rival Russia for access to the ISS looms large with the presidential mandate to retire the Shuttle fleet in 2010. NASA has a rough road ahead but with the right leadership, budget and motivation (Russian and Chinese lunar outposts), NASA can regain its past position of pre-emininence.
Per Aspera, Ad Adstra
WASHINGTON - NASA Administrator Michael Griffin on Tuesday won the approval of a key Senate committee in his battle to buy Russian spacecraft as a four-year replacement for the space shuttle.
Griffin has told Congress that the shuttle is too expensive -- and dangerous -- to keep flying past 2010 and that he needs the waiver now because it takes the Russians three years to build new spacecraft. NASA officials already are negotiating with the Russians over terms of the deal.
Follow up:
WASHINGTON -- It could be the most important sentence for NASA this year, one line in a U.S. House spending bill that would allow NASA to circumvent an arms-control law and purchase Russian spacecraft after the space shuttle is retired in 2010.
But for NASA Administrator Michael Griffin, it might be enough. Today, the US House voted 370-58 to fund federal agencies at current levels through next March. The $630-billion plus measure also includes a provision that allows NASA to purchase Russian Soyuz spacecraft until July 2016, a four-year extension.
Now it's up to the Senate, where a key panel approved the same waiver request on Tuesday.
Without that waiver, NASA would be unable to purchase Russian Soyuz spacecraft after 2011. Griffin has told lawmakers that the Soyuz is the only reliable way that American astronauts can access the International Space Station once the space shuttle is retired, now set for 2010.
An American replacement wouldn't be ready until 2015 at the earliest.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
On Orbit, our news dump.
Shenzhou 7 set to fly China third manned spaceflight. Unlike Shanzhou 6, -7 will carry three taikonauts (definitely the best sounding astronaut title) into orbit, with the first taking place in 2003. Sent aloft on the Long March II-F, it will be the 109th launch of a Long March rocket. Additionally, Chinese authorities report that the Long March series has a 100% success rate. Once in orbit, one of the taikonauts will perform a spacewalk.
Update: Russia Looks to Take Lead in Commercial Launch Services
Now with pictures. Can anyone tell me how they plan to recover the RD-191?
Update: India's Moon Mission May Lift Off October 19
If India misses it October launch window for Chandrayaan-I, cyclone season would prevent a launch until December.
From a purely objective standpoint point, this is a good move for Roskosmos. Their main launch center at Baikonur is in another country (Kazakhstan) and their military launch center Plestek Cosmodrome is too far north to be truly useful except for orbits with high inclinations. A center in Cuba gives them access to equatorial orbits and the added momentum boost that comes from being launched closer to the equator.
I can't imagine Washington being happy about a Russian facility in Cuba presumably capable of launching ICBMs into the heart of the US.
Russia may help Cuba build space centre
Moscow is ready to help Cuba develop its own space centre, Russia's space agency chief said on Wednesday after talks in Caracas with Venezuelan and Cuban officials, Russia's Itar-Tass news agency reported.
Russia has stepped up efforts to develop closer links with both countries, which are ideological enemies of Washington, including sending Russian strategic bombers on a mission to Venezuela this month.
"We have held preliminary discussions about the possibility of creating a space centre in Cuba with our help," Anatoly Perminov, the chief of Russia's Federal Space Agency, was quoted as saying in Caracas by Itar-Tass.
"With our Cuban colleagues, we discussed the possibilities of joint use of space equipment . . . and the joint use of space communications systems," Perminov said.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin visited Cuba this week and, together with representatives from several Russian ministries and large Russian companies, looked at ways to help Cuba recover from hurricanes Gustav and Ike.
Recently, tensions have grown between the US and Russia over the conflict in Georgia.
This has led to worries over how the US will send astronauts into space after the space shuttles are set to retire in 2010, since the White House had planned to purchase space flights from Russia until the shuttles' replacements begin flying in 2015.
Renewed Russian links to the Caribbean island will stir memories in Washington of the 1962 Cuban missile crisis when the US and Soviet Union almost went to war over Soviet missile bases on Cuba, which is 145 km (90 miles) from US shores.
Russian officials have said they want to renew Cuban ties that were neglected after the Soviet Union's collapse.
http://www.space-travel.com/reports/New_Impulse_To_Russian_Rockets_999.html
Russia's new RD-191 developed by NPO Energomash for use in the future Angara rocket system is an acheivement that rocket scientists have been working on for years. The RD-191 is a RE-USEABLE liquid rocket motor that is versatile enough to be used on the 1st or 2nd stage. Fueled by kerosene and LOX, the engine features four combustion chambers fed by a single turbopump. NPO Energomash reports that the RD-191 is ready for mass production.
Doesn't remember/care about the lessons from Cuba does he? Keep in mind this is coming from Al Jazeera.
Russian bombers arrive in Venezuela
Russian authorities have warned that the incoming asteroid 99942 Apophis looms as the largest threat to civilization since Bruce and the Chin blew up a Texas sized asteroid with a green nuke. Apophis is scheduled to pass within a tenth of the distance between the Earth and the Moon in 2029 and possibly even collide with the Earth on its next visit in 2036. The Russians imply that an international body administered through the UN similar to WHO and other groups would be acceptable to them.
With every spacefaring nation racing to set up outposts on the Moon, Apophis in my opinion represents a huge opportunity. The asteroid passes inside cis-lunar space twice within the next thirty years. Everyone on the Moon and in orbit is going the need cheap access to what the asteroid contains. Specifically: volatiles. According to researchers at MIT, Apophis is an LL chondrite. That makes it an ordinary chondrite with a very low iron level. Apophis would be a good source of metals and volatiles for any space outpost.
Consider the size of Apophis and this is a windfall. It’s already in orbit. No need to boost from Earth’s surface. If I was finished with school, I’d be doing the cost-benefit analysis on moving Apophis to L-4 of L-5.
Although it’s an older post, this article by SpaceWorks Engineering, a local Atlanta company, outlines the composition of Apophis.
For whom the bell does not toll
Contrary to what we had been led to believe, NASA is now interested extending the aged Shuttle fleet's life until 2015, or whenever we get Orion off the ground. As I understand, NASA has already started dismantling the infrastructure used to manufacture and maintain the Shuttle and claims that money needed to operate the Shuttle fleet takes away from Orion. So either we'd have reinvest in the Shuttle infrastructure, delay Orion, or NASA sees a huge budget increase. Keeping mind the status of our economy, which do you think is more likely. I don't see NASA getting a budget increase. No matter who gets elected.
In addition, how much does our new missle defense agreement with Poland and subsequent Russian saber rattling have to do with this new study? It will be interesting to see how all this plays out.
Chandrayaan-I Set For Launch Later This Year
Chandrayaan-I (say that five times fast) is the ISRO's (India) first Lunar probe. Set for a winter launch, it will carry five (5) Indian and six (6) international experiments. Already assemble and undergoing tests, the designers of Chandrayaan-I are looking ahead to Chandrayaab-II - a joint project with Russia to land a rover on the Moon.
Russian push into Georgia could knock Nasa off ISS
Russia’s invasion of Georgia is sending ripples right out into space, with NASA facing the possibility of no longer being able to hitch a ride to the International Space Station on Soyuz flights.
With the space shuttle due to retire in 2010, and the US not likely to have a replacement manned space flight option ready till 2015, Russian’s space fleet is the only interim option for the US to get people into space and onto the ISS.
But the US and Russia have long been at loggerheads over Moscow’s less-than-hard line on Iran’s nuclear program, and the 2000 Iran-Syria Non-Proliferation Act bans the US from tech purchases from countries that trade nuke material with those countries.
That bill includes an exemption for Russia’s Soyuz program, allowing the US to book seats on Russian manned flights, but that expires in 2011, when it will be put to the vote again.
Senator Bill Nelson, the Florida-based democrat who is a major advocate for Nasa, has publicy acknowledged that Russia’s increasingly aggressive stance means Congress is unlikely to let the exemption through.
He told Florida Today: "It was a tough sell before, but it was doable simply because we didn't have a choice. We don't want to deny ourselves access to the space station, the very place we have built and paid for."
“That’s a $100bn investment up there that we won’t have access to,” he said to the Florida Sentinel.
He also acknowledged that even if Congress did extend the waiver an increasingly assertive Russia might simply snub NASA.
Nelson did not let the opportunity pass to take a pop at the Bush administration, criticising it for allowing the US to become dependent on Russia’s manned space program. "If I were president I'd be pulling out all the stops to get Russia to understand the consequences of continued bad behavior," Nelson told the Sentinel.
The US has indeed been taking a tougher line with Russia over the Georgian incursion, though whether that makes future space collaboration more likely is decidedly moot. With US forces delivering aid – and whisking Georgian troops back from Iraq – we seem to be heading back to the days when Russian and US astronauts being within 20 feet of one another in space is seen as a major advance in détente. ®
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