Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

NASA Administrator Orders Study of Heavy Lift Alternatives

Jupiter 110 and 232. From Directlauncher.com

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NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden has asked for an evaluation of alternative heavy lift rockets, including DIRECT’s Jupiter launch vehicle. The evaluation is a “top priority,” according to NASASpaceflight.com, and a special team from the Marshall Space Flight Center has been commissioned to conduct the study, with the directive to have a report ready by the end of November. Looking at alternatives to the Constellation program is an apparent reaction to the final Augustine Commission report, which will be made public on Thursday.

Shuttle Derived Heavy lift concept. Credit: NASASpaceflight.com
Shuttle Derived Heavy lift concept. Credit: NASASpaceflight.com

The other heavy lift vehicle also to be looked at is the Shuttle Derived Heavy Lift Launch Vehicle, which is a shuttle-based concept with a cargo carrier side mounted to the current design of the external tank. The concept is capable of launching 80mt (metric tons) into Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and around 54mt to the moon.

However sources at NASASpaceflight.com note that the DIRECT team’s Jupiter launch system has dominated early discussions at the Special Team meetings.

Bolden also recently hinted that commercial space companies could play a crucial role in NASA’s future. “Some of the most exciting companies in America today go by the names of SpaceX, Blue Origin, Armadillo Aerospace, Virgin Galactic, Xcor, Bigelow Aerospace, Masten, Flag Suit, and Ad Astra,” Bolden said in a speech at the National Association of Investment Companies. “Today, we at NASA are devising ways to work with these companies and others who will come. I urge you, and all other investors, to take notice. Space may someday soon become the new thing in investing.”

For more information on the Direct project, see our previous in-depth article here, or the DirectLauncher website.

Source: NASASpaceflight.com

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Ares I-X at the Launchpad

Ares at the pad. Credit: NASA

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“The Stick” made it out to launchpad 39B without falling over. I have to admit, NASA’s new rocket looked tall, super-skinny and pointy (as Dr. Brian Cox described it), as it rolled out on the crawler transporter. Somehow, it seems the Ares I-X should be wider. It’s definitely tall — at 100 meters (327 feet,) it is 43 meters (143 feet) taller than the space shuttle. But appearances aside, this is an historic occasion. For the first time in more than a quarter century, a new vehicle is sitting out at the launchpad at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

More pictures below:

Lit by xenon lights, the Ares I-X emerges from the Vehicle Assembly Building. Credit: NASA
Lit by xenon lights, the Ares I-X emerges from the Vehicle Assembly Building. Credit: NASA

The Ares I-X flight test vehicle arrived at the pad at approximately 7:45 a.m. EDT Tuesday. The crawler-transporter left Kennedy’s Vehicle Assembly Building at 1:39 a.m., traveling less than 1 mph during the 4.2-mile journey. The rocket was secured “hard down” on the launch pad at 9:17 a.m.

The test flight of the Ares I-X rocket is scheduled to launch at 8 a.m. on Oct. 27. This test flight will provide NASA an opportunity to test and prove hardware, models, facilities and ground operations associated with the Ares I launch vehicle. Mission managers will finalize the launch date at a flight readiness review on October 23.

And in case you aren’t familiar with what the Ares I-X is for, the test flight will check out this un-crewed, modified Ares I configuration with a sub-orbital development test that will launch the rocket 43 km (28 miles) in altitude. This is the first developmental flight test of the Constellation Program, which includes the Ares I and V rockets, Orion and the Altair lunar lander.

Unless it all gets axed. The Augustine Report comes out on October 22.

Ares on the way out to 39B. Credit: NASA Edge crew
Ares on the way out to 39B. Credit: NASA Edge crew

For more great images of Ares I-X, checkout Robert Pearlman’s collection of rollout pics over at collectSPACE, or Spaceflightnow.com’s gallery of Ares I-X images from this morning.

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Build the Ares I-X in Less Than Six Minutes


Here is a very nifty time-lapse video of what it took to put together the Ares I-X test vehicle, which will launch next month to test out NASA’s newest family of rocket. The big news is that NASA has actually moved up the date for the launch to Tuesday, October 27 from the original date of October 31. The new date is pending successful testing and data verification.
Continue reading “Build the Ares I-X in Less Than Six Minutes”

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

NASA, ATK Unleash Ares Engine in Test Firing


In an impressive show of the power and might of the new Ares rocket, NASA and ATK Space systems successfully completed the first full-scale, full-duration test firing of the first stage motor for the potential successor to the space shuttle. The two-minute burn was powered with 22 million horsepower, and this first stage motor will generate up to 3.6 million pounds of thrust, or lifting power, at launch. Flames shot out twice as long as the rocket itself, at temperatures where steel boils and sand turns to glass — about 4,500 degrees Fahrenheit (2,480 degrees Celsius). 650 sensors sampled data from the test firing with rates up to 2000 samples a second. “We got an incredible amount of data today, ” Alex Priskos, first stage manager for Ares Projects, “and we were looking at 46 different objectives, but we should be able to understand every aspect of this motor, including strengths and weaknesses, and ultimately deliver the safest and most reliable motor possible.”
Continue reading “NASA, ATK Unleash Ares Engine in Test Firing”

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Ares I-X Fully Stacked

Ares I-X in the VAB. Credit: NASA

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For the first time in more than a quarter-century, a new space vehicle stands ready in NASA’s Vehicle Assembly Building. But will it fly without violent vibrations, and what verdict will the Augustine Commission give the Constellation program? Only time will tell, but for now the Ares I-X is at its fully assembled height of 100 meters (327 feet) and is one of the largest rockets ever put together in the VAB’s High Bay 3. Ares I-X rivals the height of the Apollo Program’s 364-foot-tall Saturn V. The Ares I-X flight test currently is targeted for Oct. 31. Ares I-X consists of a four-segment first stage solid rocket motor, and a simulated upper stage that represents the weight and shape of the Ares 1 rocket and Orion crew vehicle. It will be launched in a suborbital arc into the Atlantic to collect data on its flight dynamics and parachute recovery performance.

The flight of the unpiloted Ares I-X will be an important step in confirming that the rocket design is safe and stable in flight before piloted flights of Ares I begin in the middle of the next decade.

But — even before the launch of Ares I-X — a critical series of ground tests will take place to confirm that the vehicle’s dynamic response will respond to launch loads and vibrations the way that computer analytical models have predicted it will respond.

“While we are confident in the predicted model results and simulations, these ground tests are critical because we have no experience launching rockets as long and slender as Ares I-X,” according to Paul Bartolotta, Ares I-X Modal Test Lead who is responsible for leading a NASA-wide Modal Test Team from his office at NASA’s Glenn Research Center, Cleveland, Ohio.

Saturn V, Ares I-X and Delta IV. Credit: NASA
Saturn V, Ares I-X and Delta IV. Credit: NASA

With its height and average diameter of approximately 4 meters (14 feet), Ares I-X has a high “slenderness ratio” compared to other launch vehicles. The similarly-shaped Delta IV, for instance, is about 5.2 meters (17 feet) in average diameter and 69 meters (225 feet) long. The Saturn V was about 10 meters (33 feet) in average diameter and 111 (363 feet) in length.

Due to its long slender shape, the Ares I-X is unique from a flight dynamics standpoint.

“We’re going to be shaking the vehicle to make sure our structural models match the actual vehicle characteristics,” said Kurt Detweiler, Ares I-X Lead Systems Engineer, based at NASA Langley. “This is important for determining how the vehicle will respond during flight. If the vehicle doesn’t match the analytical model, its guidance, navigation and control systems will be off,” he added.

A series of sensors strategically located throughout the stacks will measure the amount and direction of movement, as the shakers impose random loads to determine the rocket segment’s first several bending modes. A comparison will be made between predicted and measured mode shapes to verify the Ares I-X flight dynamics model.

Sources: NASA on Facebook, NASA

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Ares I-X Comes Together (and it is BIG)

The Ares I-X is stacked in NASA's Vehicle Assembly Building. Credit: NASA

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The Ares I-X rocket is being stacked on the Mobile Launch Platform in NASA’s Vehicle Assembly Building in preparation for the rocket’s first test flight, scheduled for October 31, 2009. The “super stack 1” was mated to the forward motor segment, and the rocket — which will stand at 99 meters (327 feet) — is now more than half way assembled. Assembly is done using a massive overhead crane, specially adapted for I-X use.

For comparison, the space shuttle stands at 56.1 m (184 ft), the Saturn V rocket was 110.6 m (363 ft), and the Ares V will be 116 m (380 ft) high.

See more images of the rocket below.

The Ares I-X. Credit: NASA
The Ares I-X. Credit: NASA

According to NASA’s Ares Blog, super stack 1 is composed of the fifth segment simulator, forward skirt, forward skirt extension, frustum and interstages 1 and 2. It also includes two internal elements – the roll control system and the first stage avionics module – as well as the parachute system housed in the forward skirt extension.

The Ares I-X flight test will provide NASA an opportunity to check and prove hardware, analysis and modeling methods, and facilities and ground operations needed to develop the Ares I, which currently is NASA’s next crew launch vehicle. However, President Obama has assembled the Augustine Commission to evaluate the Ares rocket and the entire Constellation Program to determine if NASA should continue on its current path.

The test also will allow NASA to gather critical data during the ascent of the integrated stack, which will help inform the design of the Ares I rocket and the Orion crew exploration vehicle. The data will ensure the entire vehicle system is safe and fully operational before astronauts begin traveling in it to the International Space Station and moon.

Another view of the Ares I-X being assembled. Credit: NASA
Another view of the Ares I-X being assembled. Credit: NASA

Over the next month, four more super stacks with the final pieces of hardware (including the simulated crew module and launch abort system) will be mated, finishing off the stacking operations for the rocket.

Source: Ares Blog

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Could Ares Be Axed?

The Constellation program's Ares rockets. Credit: NASA

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Members of the Augustine Panel reviewing NASA’s future plans have asked the space agency to consider different approaches to send astronauts back to the moon. According to an article in the Orlando Sentinel, panel members have told NASA they want to see the effects of both “minor tweaks and wholesale changes to its Constellation Program,” which includes the newly designed Ares rocket and the Orion crew capsule. Ares has been controversial from the start, but NASA has spent the past four years and more than $3 billion creating and defending the rocket. Would starting over just mean a bigger gap between the shuttle and whatever comes next?

Current plans have the Ares rocket ready to launch by 2015, however, most critics say there’s no way the Constellation program can meet its 2015 launch schedule — let alone return astronauts to the moon by 2020 — given the technical problems and multibillion-dollar cost overruns on its Ares I rocket.

The White House named the 10-member review panel, chaired by retired Lockheed Martin CEO Norm Augustine, to review NASA’s manned-space strategy for the next decade. The Sentinel reported, “One of the [panel’s] subcommittees has asked the [Constellation] program to present both the baseline … program and one of the variants that they have studied as well,” said one committee official, who asked not to be named because he’s not authorized to speak for the committee.

The official provided no details about the “variant,” but the request coincides with NASA pulling engineers at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville Alabama from their work on Ares I to study creation of a smaller version of the Ares V that could carry both crew and heavy equipment.

Other possible options include a shuttle-derived architecture presented to the committee by shuttle program manager John Shannon, or the Direct 3.0 launch system created by a group of NASA engineers.

The Sentinel reports that NASA insiders and contractors say pulling engineers from Ares is “far from standard practice and could herald the demise of the Ares I.”

“They are looking at a whole new launch architecture,” the Sentinel quoted one NASA contractor familiar with the study. “Although it’s still too early to pronounce Ares I dead, it is safe to assume that members of the committees have doubts about it.”

Meanwhile, NASA presses ahead with a planned first launch test of the Ares I-X rocket planned for August 30. Just today the third motor segment for rocket has been moved to the Vehicle Assembly Building for to mate with the rest of the Ares stack tonight.

Stay tuned.

Source: Orlando Sentinel

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

NASA Tests Alternative Escape Pod

Launch of the MLAS at Wallops Island on Wednesday. Credit: NASA

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While the Constellation program is undergoing design reviews, NASA conducted a successful test on an alternative abort system for the Orion spacecraft to provide options and additional data on how to best protect astronauts in the event of a problem on the launch pad or during ascent. A simulated launch of the Max Launch Abort System, or MLAS, took place Wednesday morning at 6:26 a.m. EDT at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, Va. The 10 meter high (33-feet) MLAS vehicle was launched to an altitude of about 1.5 km (1 mile)to simulate an emergency on the launch pad. A mock-up of the Orion crew vehicle successfully separated from the launch vehicle seven seconds into the flight and parachuted into the Atlantic Ocean. While there were some concerns about the various pieces of the MLAS possibly hitting each other, the test went without a hitch.

Meanwhile, the Ares I-X rocket is in the process of being “stacked” for a test flight later this summer.

The Ares I-X aft assembly is on its way to the Vehicle Assembly Building to be stacked on the Mobile Launcher Platform. Credit: NASA. Click the image to see more images on the Ares I-X Twitpic page.
The Ares I-X aft assembly is on its way to the Vehicle Assembly Building to be stacked on the Mobile Launcher Platform. Credit: NASA. Click the image to see more images on the Ares I-X Twitpic page.

NASA’s first choice for the escape pod is the LAS, or Launch Abort System, which has a single solid launch abort motor in a tower mounted at the top of the launch vehicle stack of the Orion and Ares I rocket. The LAS will be capable of automatically separating the spacecraft from the rocket at a moment’s notice to make possible a safe landing.

Today’s launch was a technology demonstration, and the MLAS is not intended to be a replacement for the LAS.

Read our previous article about test of the LAS

NASA says the data from today’s MLAS pad abort test is helpful in several ways for the Constellation program. MLAS is the first demonstration of a passively-stabilized launch abort system on a vehicle in this size and weight class. It is the first attempt to acquire full-scale aero-acoustic data — the measurement of high loads on a vehicle moving through the atmosphere at high velocity — from a faired capsule in flight. The test is also the first to demonstrate full scale fairing and crew module separation and collect associated aerodynamic and orientation data.

UPDATE: Here’s the video of the launch — the first part is a preview, and the launch stuff starts about 2:00 minutes in:

Source: NASA

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Faster, Cheaper (and Better?) Way to the Moon


The word this morning from several NASA Twitterers is that the stacking of the new Ares I-X rocket for its upcoming test flight is temporarily on hold. Everyone is waiting for word from a NASA executive session reconsidering the plan. And perhaps it might have something to do with an alternative plan to return to the Moon, submitted by shuttle program manager John Shannon to the Augustine Commission, the independent panel that is reviewing NASA’s current vision, including the Constellation program. Interestingly, Shannon says he was strongly encouraged by a top NASA administrator to present his idea to the panel. Shannon’s option would be faster – perhaps eliminating at least a year of the projected 5-year gap between the shuttle and Constellation. It would be cheaper: $6.6 billion vs. $35 billion for Constellation. But would it be better? Take a look at this video that Shannon presented to the Augustine Commission.
Continue reading “Faster, Cheaper (and Better?) Way to the Moon”

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

NASA’s Shuttle Program Hands Over Launch Pad to Constellation

Contruction on launch pad 39B. Credit: NASA

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It’s the end of an era, as Launch Pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center has been officially handed over to the Constellation Program. The handover took place Sunday after space shuttle Endeavour was moved to Launch Pad 39A. The ground operations team will finish modifying pad B for in time for first flight test of the Ares I-X rocket, currently scheduled for around August 30 of this year. Modifications will include removing the orbiter access arm and a section of the gaseous oxygen vent arm and installing access platforms and a vehicle stabilization system.

Since the late 1960s, pad B has been instrumental in human spaceflight programs. Originally, the pad was built for the Saturn V rockets for the Apollo flights to the moon, as well as flights to launch the Skylab space station and to send three crews to live on board. It also saw the launch of the Apollo spacecraft that was part of the Apollo Soyuz test program, where spacecraft from the US and USSR docked in space. In the 1980’s the pad was refitted for the space shuttle. Pad 39B was not ready until 1986, and the first Shuttle launch to use it was the ill-fated STS 51-L flight – the Challenger Disaster.

But now it’s time for the next generation of spacecraft and launch system. The Constellation Program is developing the Ares I and Ares V launch vehicles, the Orion crew capsule, and the Altair lunar lander — to carry humans to the International Space Station, the moon and beyond.

More info on Constellation

More info on the Ares I-X