Category: Space Exploration

Image credit: Whitehouse.gov

As predicted for several months, US President George W. Bush announced his plan for the future human exploration of space. Bush was joined by NASA administrator Sean O’Keefe and the press briefing was introduced by the commander of Expedition 8, Michael Foale – currently aboard the International Space Station.

Under the new plan, the United States would complete its work on the International Space Station by 2010, which is being developed by 15 countries, and then retire the space shuttle fleet. In tandem with this, NASA will develop a new program of human space exploration which will eventually return humans to the Moon.

As predicted for several months, US President George W. Bush announced his plan for the future human exploration of space. Bush was joined by NASA administrator Sean O’Keefe and the press briefing was introduced by the commander of Expedition 8, Michael Foale – currently aboard the International Space Station.

Under the new plan, the United States would complete its work on the International Space Station by 2010, which is being developed by 15 countries, and then retire the space shuttle fleet. In tandem with this, NASA will develop a new program of human space exploration which will eventually return humans to the Moon.

The first robotic explorers would reach the Moon in 2008; human explorers would follow by 2015-2020. Although Bush was expected to announce a permanent lunar base, no details were given. Bush hinted, but didn’t provide any details about follow-on human missions to Mars.

The plans call for a new kind of spacecraft, called the Crew Exploration Vehicle; a general purpose spacecraft which would be capable of servicing the International Space Station and reaching locations beyond low-Earth orbit, such as the Moon, asteroids, and the Lagrange points (stable places in space which are balanced between the gravity of two objects, such as the Earth and Moon).

NASA has said that this new vehicle will be dramatically different from the Orbital Space Plane, which NASA was developing as a replacement spacecraft to travel to and from the International Space Station. NASA had originally intended to award contracts for the OSP in 2004, which would eventually cost $15 billion US.

In order to finance this new plan, the president will be asking Congress in February to provide NASA with an additional $1 billion US in 2005, spread out over five years. Additional funds for the program would come from reorganizing NASA’s existing projects, like retiring the space shuttle by the end of the decade.

Maintaining and launching the space shuttle costs approximately $4 billion a year and the International Space Station costs $1 billion a year. It’s not clear what effect winding down the shuttle will have on the thousands of workers and contractors employed by the program; although, Bush did say that it would be “with existing programs and personnel.”

Bush called this new initiative a “journey, not a race”, and encouraged international partners to join the United States in exploring the solar system with human beings.

He said that the next step will be the formation of a special commission to “explore the vision I have outlined today”. This commission, led by former Air Force Secretary Peter Aldridge, will deliver a report to President Bush within four months.

More background on the new space initiative is available here.

President Bush is set to announce next week that the United States will return to a bold human space exploration program. The proposed plan will see the completion of the International Space Station as soon as possible, humans returning to the Moon by 2013, the construction of a base on the Moon. The long term plan will see astronauts visit asteroids, and eventually, a human journey to Mars. As part of this plan, the US will need to develop a whole new group of spacecraft, but they’ll use European rockets in the interim. The President will ask Congress for an additional $800 million for NASA in 2005, and then increase NASA’s budget by 5% over the next five years.

Image credit: NASA/JPL

A new ion engine design, under consideration for NASA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter mission, has been successfully tested. This was the first performance test of the Nuclear Electric Xenon Ion System, which will use a nuclear reactor to generate electricity for the spacecraft’s ion engine – previous ion engines, like on Deep Space 1 and SMART-1 are solar powered. The new engine operated with 10 times the thrust of Deep Space 1, and should be able to run for 10 years; enough time to visit each of Jupiter’s icy moons which are potential candidates for life.

A new ion propulsion engine design, one of several candidate propulsion technologies under study by NASA’s Project Prometheus for possible use on the proposed Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter mission, has been successfully tested by a team of engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

The event marked the first performance test of the Nuclear Electric Xenon Ion System (Nexis) ion engine at the high-efficiency, high-power, and high-thrust operating conditions needed for use in nuclear electric propulsion applications. For this test the Nexis engine was powered using commercial utility electrical power. Ion engines used on the proposed Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter spacecraft would draw their power from an on-board space nuclear reactor. The ion engines, or electric thrusters, would propel the orbiter around each of the icy worlds orbiting Jupiter — Ganymede, Callisto and Europa — to conduct extensive, close-range exploration of their makeup, history and potential for sustaining life.

“On the very first day of performance testing, the Nexis thruster demonstrated one of the highest efficiencies of any xenon ion thruster ever tested,” said Dr. James Polk, the principal investigator of the ion engine under development at JPL.

The test was conducted on December 12, in the same vacuum chamber at JPL where earlier this year, the Deep Space 1 flight spare ion thruster set the all time endurance record of 30,352 hours (nearly 3.5 years) of continuous operation. The Nexis engine operated at a power level of over 20 kilowatts, nearly 10 times that of the Deep Space 1 thruster, which enables greater thrust and ultimately higher spacecraft velocities for a given spacecraft mass. It is designed to process two metric tons of propellant, 10 times the capability of the Deep Space 1 engine, and operate for 10 years, two to three times the Deep Space 1 thruster life.

Team members working on the Nexis engine also helped develop the first ion engine ever flown on NASA’s highly successful Deep Space 1 mission, which validated 12 high-risk advanced technologies, among them the use of the first ion engine in space.

“The Nexis thruster is a larger, high performance descendant of the Deep Space 1 thruster that achieves its extraordinary life by replacing the metal, previously used in key components, with advanced carbon based materials,” said Tom Randolph, the Nexis program manager at JPL. “The thruster’s revolutionary performance results from an extensive design process including simulations using detailed computer models developed and validated with the Deep Space 1 life test, and other component test data.”

Unlike the short, high-thrust burns of most chemical rocket engines that use solid or liquid fuels, the ion engine emits only a faint blue glow of electrically charged atoms of xenon – the same gas found in photo flash tubes and in many lighthouse bulbs. The thrust from the engine is as gentle as the force exerted by a sheet of paper held in the palm of your hand. Over the long haul though, the engine can deliver 20 times as much thrust per kilogram of fuel than traditional rockets.

Key to the ion technology is its high exhaust velocity. The ion engine can run on a few hundred grams of propellant per day, making it lightweight. Less weight means less cost to launch, yet an ion-propelled spacecraft can go much faster and farther than any other spacecraft.

“This test, in combination with the recent test of the High Power Electric Propulsion ion engine at NASA’s Glenn Research Center, is another example of the progress we are making in developing the technologies needed to support flagship space exploration missions throughout the solar system and beyond,” said Alan Newhouse, director, Project Prometheus. “We have challenged our team with difficult performance goals and they are demonstrating their ability to be creative in overcoming technical challenges.”

NASA’s Project Prometheus is making strategic investments in space nuclear fission power and electric propulsion technologies that would enable a new class of missions to the outer Solar System, with capabilities far beyond those possible with current power and propulsion systems. The first such mission under study, the Jupiter Icy Moon Orbiter would launch in the next decade and provide NASA significantly improved scientific and telecommunications capabilities and mission design options. Instead of generating only hundreds of watts of electricity like the Cassini or Galileo missions, which used radioisotope thermoelectric generators, the Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter could have up to tens of thousands of watts of power, increasing the potential science return many times over.

Development of the Nexis ion engine is being carried out by a team of engineers from JPL; Aerojet, Redmond, Wash.; Boeing Electron Dynamic Devices, Torrance, Calif.; NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.; Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colo.; Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Ga.; and the Aerospace Corporation, Los Angeles, Calif.

For more information about Project Prometheus on the Internet, visit: http://spacescience.nasa.gov/missions/prometheus.htm .

Information on the proposed Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter mission is available at: NASA Jimo MIssion .

Original Source: NASA/JPL News Release

Image credit: Scaled

Scaled Composites’ SpaceShipOne achieved an important milestone this week when it broke the sound barrier on a test flight. The suborbital prototype was carried to 14,600 metres by the White Knight carrier plane, and then released. It fired up its hybrid rocket engine and flew up to an altitude of 20,700 metres, breaking the sound barrier in the process. There was a slight problem with the plane’s landing gear, which caused some minor damage on its landing; it’s going to be easily repaired and there were no injuries. SpaceShipOne is considered the frontrunner to win the $10 million X-Prize.

Today, a significant milestone was achieved by Scaled Composites: The first manned supersonic flight by an aircraft developed by a small company’s private, non-government effort.

In 1947, fifty-six years ago, history’s first supersonic flight was flown by Chuck Yeager in the Bell X-1 rocket under a U.S. Government research program. Since then, many supersonic aircraft have been developed for research, military and, in the case of the recently retired Concorde, commercial applications. All these efforts were developed by large aerospace prime companies, using extensive government resources.

Our flight this morning by SpaceShipOne demonstrated that supersonic flight is now the domain of a small company doing privately-funded research, without government help. The flight also represents an important milestone in our efforts to demonstrate that truly low-cost space access is feasible.

Our White Knight turbojet launch aircraft, flown by Test Pilot Peter Siebold, carried research rocket plane SpaceShipOne to 48,000 feet altitude, near the desert town of California City. At 8:15 a.m. PDT, Cory Bird, the White Knight Flight Engineer, pulled a handle to release SpaceShipOne. SpaceShipOne Test Pilot, Brian Binnie then flew the ship to a stable, 0.55 mach gliding flight condition, started a pull-up, and fired its hybrid rocket motor. Nine seconds later, SpaceShipOne broke the sound barrier and continued its steep powered ascent. The climb was very aggressive, accelerating forward at more than 3-g while pulling upward at more than 2.5-g. At motor shutdown, 15 seconds after ignition, SpaceShipOne was climbing at a 60-degree angle and flying near 1.2 Mach (930 mph). Brian then continued the maneuver to a vertical climb, achieving zero speed at an altitude of 68,000 feet. He then configured the ship in its high-drag “feathered” shape to simulate the condition it will experience when it enters the atmosphere after a space flight. At apogee, SpaceShipOne was in near-weightless conditions, emulating the characteristics it will later encounter during the planned space flights in which it will be at zero-g for more than three minutes. After descending in feathered flight for about a minute, Brian reconfigured the ship to its conventional glider shape and flew a 12-minute glide to landing at Scaled’s home airport of Mojave. The landing was not without incident as the left landing gear retracted at touchdown causing the ship to veer to the left and leave the runway with its left wing down. Damage from the landing incident was minor and will easily be repaired. There were no injuries.

The milestone of private supersonic flight was not an easy task. It involved the development of a new propulsion system, the first rocket motor developed for manned space flights in several decades. The new hybrid motor was developed in-house at Scaled with first firings in November 2002. The motor uses an ablative nozzle supplied by AAE and operating components supplied by SpaceDev. FunTech teamed with Scaled to develop a new Inertial Navigation flight director. The first flight of the White Knight launch aircraft was in August 2002 and SpaceShipOne began its glide tests in August 2003.

Scaled does not pre-announce the specific flight test plans for its manned space program, however completed accomplishments are updated as they happen at our website:
http://www.scaled.com/projects/tierone/index.htm. The website also provides downloadable photos and technical descriptions of the rocket motor system and motor test hardware.

Scaled Composites, LLC, is an aerospace research company located on the Mojave Airport:

Original Source: Scaled Composites

Image credit: Canadian Arrow

The Canadian Arrow X-Prize team has performed a successful low-pressure test of their liquid oxygen and ethyl alcohol rocket engine, bringing them one step closer to winning the $10 million X-Prize. The Canadian Arrow is based on the design of a World War II German V-2 rocket, but it’s been updated with modern technology. The team has scheduled several more tests of the rocket engine at higher pressures, and hopes to make an actual launch attempt some time in 2004.

The Canadian Arrow X PRIZE Team has successfully tested the rocket engine that is designed to, in the coming months, take passengers into space.

The test, conducted late last evening at a test site north of London confirms that the Canadian Arrow Team has successfully reengineered a World War II rocket design into a modern technology that is capable of winning the $10 million X PRIZE.

“Our team has spent five years researching, designing and building toward the test we performed tonight,” said Canadian Arrow Team Leader Geoff Sheerin. “We had a perfect ignition and good clean burn. There were a lot of smiles here, that’s for sure.”

The engine, with 57,000 pounds of thrust, is modeled after the German V-2 rocket engine and is believed to be the largest liquid propellant engine ever built in Canada. It is fueled by a mixture of liquid oxygen and ethyl alcohol and at full pressure, consumes approximately 250 pounds of propellant per second. Last night’s test was at partial pressure, and opens the door to higher pressure testing.

The engine and test stand are part of a 45 ft. tall structure that is surrounded on three sides by concrete walls that are two feet thick. Large berms stand between the engine test structure and the control centre that is built into the ground, and is where the team electronically directed and monitored the test.

“This has taken us a bold leap closer to our flights that will capture the X PRIZE,” said Sheerin. “It wasn’t just a test of our engine, but of our test stand, support equipment, team capabilities and many other things that will be necessary to support full launch capabilities.”

Next steps for the team will include continued testing of the engine to prepare it for actual flight onboard the first Canadian Arrow spacecraft that is scheduled for launch next year. When successful, the Arrow will make Canada the fourth nation to put humans into space.

Sheerin thanked his Team for their long hours and dedication. “Most importantly,” he told them, “we have taken the next step toward our stated goal of ‘making space for you.’

Original Source: Canadian Arrow News Release

Image credit: NASA

NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft has nearly reached the outer limits of the solar system to a region of space, called the heliosheath, where the solar wind blows against interstellar gas. In order to pass into this area; however, Voyager will first pass through a turbulent region called the termination shock. This is the first time scientists have ever gathered data about these distant areas of the solar system. Launched on September 5, 1977, Voyager 1 is now 13 billion km away from the Sun.

NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft is about to make history again as the first spacecraft to enter the solar system’s final frontier, a vast expanse where wind from the Sun blows hot against thin gas between the stars: interstellar space. However, before it reaches this region, Voyager 1 must pass through the termination shock, a violent zone that is the source of beams of high-energy particles.

Voyager’s journey through this turbulent zone will give scientists their first direct measurements of our solar system’s unexplored final frontier, called the heliosheath, and scientists are debating if this passage has already begun. Two papers about this research are being published in Nature on November 5, 2003. The first paper, by Dr. Stamatios M. Krimigis of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Md., and his team, gives evidence supporting the claim that Voyager 1 passed beyond the termination shock. The second paper, by Dr. Frank B. McDonald of the University of Maryland, College Park, and his team, gives evidence against this claim. A third paper, published October 30, 2003 in Geophysical Research Letters by Dr. Leonard F. Burlaga of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., and collaborators, gives evidence that Voyager 1 did not pass beyond the termination shock. (Refer to Image 2a for an illustration of the termination shock and heliosheath).

“The Voyager 1 observations show we have entered into a new part of the solar system. Regardless of whether we crossed the termination shock or not, the teams are excited because this has never been seen before – the observations are different here than in the inner solar system,” said Dr. Eric Christian, Discipline Scientist for the Sun Earth Connection research program at NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC.

“Voyager 1 has seen striking signs of the region deep in space where a giant shock wave forms as the wind from the Sun abruptly slows and presses outward against the interstellar wind. The observations surprised and puzzled us, so there is much to be discovered as Voyager begins exploring this new region at the outer edge of the solar system,” said Dr. Edward Stone, Voyager Project Scientist, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif.

At more than eight billion miles (13 billion km) from the Sun, Voyager 1 is the most distant object built by humanity. Launched on September 5, 1977, it explored the giant planets Jupiter and Saturn before being tossed out toward deep space by Saturn’s gravity. It now approaches, and may have temporarily entered, the region beyond termination shock.

The termination shock is where the solar wind, a thin stream of electrically charged gas blown constantly from the Sun, is slowed by pressure from gas between the stars. At the termination shock, the solar wind slows abruptly from its average speed of 300 – 700 km per second (700,000 – 1,500,000 mph). (Refer to Movie 4 to see how this heats the solar wind in the heliosheath).

The exact location of the termination shock is unknown, and it originally was thought to be closer to the Sun than Voyager 1 currently is. As Voyager 1 cruised ever farther from the Sun, it confirmed that all the planets were inside an immense bubble blown by the solar wind, and the termination shock was much more distant (Animation 1).

Estimating the location of the termination shock is hard because we don’t know the precise conditions in interstellar space, and even what we do know, the speed and pressure of the solar wind, changes which causes the termination shock to expand, contract, and ripple. You can see a similar effect every time you wash dishes (Movie 3). If you place a plate underneath a stream of water, you notice the water spreads out over the plate in a relatively smooth flow. The water flow has a rough edge where the water slows down abruptly and piles up. The edge is like the termination shock, and as the water flow changes, the shape and size of the rough edge change.

From about August 1, 2002 to February 5, 2003, scientists noticed unusual readings from the two energetic particle instruments on Voyager 1, indicating it had entered a region of the solar system unlike any encountered before. This led some to claim that Voyager may have entered a transitory feature of the termination shock. Just as small bumps and “fingers” appear and disappear in the rough edge of the water flow over a plate, Voyager might have entered a temporary “finger” in the edge of the termination shock.

The controversy would be resolved easily if Voyager could still measure the speed of the solar wind, because the solar wind slows abruptly at the termination shock. However, the instrument that measures solar wind speed no longer functions on the venerable spacecraft, so scientists must use data from the instruments that are still working to infer if Voyager pierced the termination shock.

Evidence for crossing the shock includes Voyager’s observation that high-velocity electrically-charged particles (electrons and ions) increased more than 100 times during the August 1, 2002 to February 5, 2003 period. This would be expected if Voyager passed the termination shock, because the shock naturally accelerates electrically charged particles that bounce back and forth like ping pong balls between the fast and slow winds on the opposite sides of the shock.

Secondly, the particles were flowing outward, past Voyager and away from the Sun. This would be expected if Voyager already crossed beyond the termination shock, because the acceleration region in the termination shock would now be behind the spacecraft. Third, an indirect measure of the solar wind speed indicated the solar wind was slow during this period, as would be expected if Voyager was beyond the shock.

“We have used an indirect technique to show that the solar wind slowed down from about 700,000 mph to much less than 100,000 mph. This same technique was used by us before, when the instrument measuring the solar wind speed was still working, and the agreement between the two measurements was better than 20% in most cases,” said Krimigis.

Evidence against entry into the shock includes the observation that while there was a dramatic increase in low-speed particles, they weren’t seen at the somewhat higher speeds scientists believe the termination shock generates.

However, the strongest evidence against entry is Voyager’s observation that the magnetic field did not increase during this period. According to theoretical models, this must happen whenever the solar wind slows down. Imagine a highway with moderate traffic. If something makes the drivers slow down, say a puddle of water, the cars pile up – their density increases. In the same way, the density (intensity) of the magnetic field carried by the solar wind will increase if the solar wind slows down.

“The analysis of the Voyager 1 magnetic field observations in late 2002 indicate that it did not enter a new region of the distant heliosphere by having crossed the termination shock. Rather, the magnetic field data had the characteristics to be expected based upon many years of previous observations, although the intensity of energetic particles observed is unusually high,” said Burlaga.

The teams agree that Voyager 1 has seen a new phenomenon: a six-month period when low-energy particles were very abundant and flowing away from the Sun. When the unusual period ended, both agree that Voyager 1 was back in the solar wind, so if this was a temporary passage beyond the termination shock, the shock will be seen again, probably in the next couple years. Finally, the observations indicate that the termination shock is a lot more complicated than anyone thought.

For their original missions to Jupiter and Saturn, Voyager 1 and sister spacecraft Voyager 2 were destined to regions of space where solar panels would not be feasible, so each was equipped with three radioisotope thermoelectric generators to produce electrical power for the spacecraft systems and instruments. Still operating in remote, cold and dark conditions 26 years later, the Voyagers owe their longevity to these Department of Energy-provided generators, which produce electricity from the heat generated by the natural decay of plutonium dioxide.

The Voyagers were built by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., which continues to operate both spacecraft 26 years after their launch. The spacecraft are controlled and their data returned through NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN), a global spacecraft tracking system also operated by JPL. The Voyager Project Manager is Ed Massey of JPL. The Voyager Project Scientist is Dr. Edward Stone of the California Institute of Technology.

Original Source: NASA News Release

Image credit: Scaled Composites

The US government passed four new bills by voice vote that promote space and astronomy. The Commercial Space Act of 2003 hopes to better regulate commercial space launches, such as sub-orbital tourist flights. The Charles `Pete’ Conrad Astronomy Awards Act will encourage amateur astronomers to help spot potential Earth-crossing asteroids. The Remote Sensing Applications Act of 2003 will provide funding for satellite images to support various projects. And the Human Space Flight Independent Investigation Commission Act of 2003 will establish and independent commission to investigate future disasters, like the loss of Columbia.

The House Science Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics today approved four bills by voice vote, listed below.

H.R. 3245, “Commercial Space Act of 2003,” sponsored by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA)
This bill clarifies the legislative framework for commercial human space flight. Currently, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Office of Space Transportation (AST) regulates U.S. commercial space launches for television, telecommunications and imagery satellites. H.R. 3245 ensures that commercial launchers – such as those being built by entrepreneurs to take people to the edge of space – would also be regulated by AST.

Last July, the Space & Aeronautics Subcommittee held a joint hearing with the Senate Commerce Committee on the regulatory issues facing such commercial human space. All of the witnesses at that hearing called for legislation to clearly define the FAA’s regulatory responsibilities on this issue.

“I believe that most Members of Congress share my view that the aerospace industry plays a critical role in advancing America’s space frontier,” said Subcommittee Chairman Rohrabacher. “This bill tells the Department of Transportation that this new commercial human space flight industry should be nurtured by streamlined and careful regulation”

The bill authorizes $11,523,000 and $11,000,000 for fiscal years 2004 and 2005, respectively, for the AST. The bill also authorizes $1,800,000 and $2,000,000 for fiscal years 2004 and 2005, respectively, for the Department of Commerce’s Office of Space Commerce, and delegates licensing authority for private-sector remote sensing systems to this Office.

H.R. 912, “Charles `Pete’ Conrad Astronomy Awards Act,” sponsored by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA)
The Charles “Pete” Conrad Astronomy Awards Act, named for the third man to walk on the moon, establishes awards to encourage amateur astronomers to discover and track asteroids crossing in a near-Earth orbit. Earth has experienced several near-misses with asteroids that would have proven catastrophic, and the scientific community relies heavily on amateur astronomers to discover and track these objects. The bill authorizes $10,000 for each of fiscal years 2004 and 2005 for NASA to administer the program. The House approved the bill by voice vote last year.

“Pete Conrad was a pilot, explorer, and entrepreneur of the highest caliber. I think it is fitting that we honor Pete Conrad by establishing this award to encourage amateur astronomers and private citizens to keep looking up and out into the future,” said Rohrabacher.

H.R. 1292, “Remote Sensing Applications Act of 2003,” sponsored by Rep. Mark Udall (D-CO)
The Remote Sensing Applications Act, also approved by the House last year, will establish a grant program to help integrate remote sensing data to address state, local and regional needs. The U.S. already collects an abundant amount of remote sensing data, but it is often used only for scientific ventures. However, it can have countless local applications including urban planning, coastal zone management, resource supervision and disaster monitoring for state and local authorities. The bill authorizes $15,000,000 for each of the fiscal years 2004 through 2008 for NASA to carry out this program.

“The Remote Sensing Applications Act gives state and local governments 21st century tools to deal with 21st century challenges. My bill will help begin to bridge the gap between established and emerging technology solutions and the problems and challenges we face regarding growth management, homeland security, forest fire management and other issues,” said Udall. “I am pleased the Subcommittee passed the bill today, and hope the full Committee will soon follow suit.”

H.R. 2450, “Human Space Flight Independent Investigation Commission Act of 2003,” sponsored by Rep. Bart Gordon (D-TN)
H.R. 2450 would establish an independent, Presidentially-appointed investigative Commission in the event of incidents in the nation’s human space flight program that result in loss of crew, passengers, or spacecraft, including the International Space Station.

The Commission will consist of 15 members, to include the Chairman of the NTSB and 14 members appointed by the President and drawn in part from lists of candidates from the Majority and Minority Leaders of the Senate, and the Speaker and the Minority Leader of the House of Representatives. Except for the Chairman of the NTSB, no officer or employee of the Federal Government would serve as a member of the Commission.

Subcommittee Ranking Democrat Gordon said, “I appreciate the subcommittee’s support for this legislation, which provides for an independent and accountable accident investigation commission if, God forbid, we have another mishap in space. I hope the rest of my colleagues in the full Science Committee will act quickly to get this bill enacted into law.”

The Subcommittee accepted an amendment offered by Chairman Rohrabacher, clarifying that only those incidents involving missions carrying out U.S. Government activities would trigger the Presidentially-appointed Commission.

Original Source: House Committee on Science News Release

People from 50 countries are celebrating space exploration as part of World Space Week – from October 4 to 10, 2003. Lance Bass, member of the pop group NSYNC, is the event’s youth spokesman, and will be traveling to various schools in the US to help build young students’ enthusiasm for space. Several other events are planned for this week, including a question and answer session with the astronauts on board the International Space Station. The first World Space Week was declared by the United Nations in 1999.

Image credit: World Space Week

He didn’t quite make it up the International Space Station, but Lance Bass, member of the Pop music group NSYNC is still interested in space. He’s going to be visiting schools in the Houston area during World Space Week (October 4-10, 2003) to help promote to children that science and math are “cool”. World Space Week was declared by the United Nations in 1999 and is celebrated in nearly 50 countries around the world. Many other events are planned for the week, including a webcast from the space station, giving people a chance to chat with the astronauts.

One year after completing his spaceflight training here, entertainer, certified cosmonaut and World Space Week 2003 Youth Spokesperson Lance Bass will return to Houston with a new, yet equally challenging mission: to convince young people that space, math and science are “cool.”

Bass will visit several Houston primary and secondary schools during World Space Week, October 4-10, to discuss the importance of science and math. He will review students’ design proposals for “Lance’s Lab,” a global youth competition in which the engineers and explorers of tomorrow design a hypothetical space station module for Bass to live and work in.

“I’m very excited about flying in space one day,” said Bass, member of popular band *NSYNC and avid space enthusiast. “What excites me even more is the possibility that eventually, nearly anyone will be able to travel in space just as easily as taking a plane from LA to Houston. But that day will only arrive if today’s young people choose to build an extraordinary future for themselves. The keys to that future are a solid foundation in math and science”

To conclude World Space Week on Friday, Bass will attend a public event that salutes the benefits space exploration brings to education and all aspects of life on Earth. The World Space Week Celebration, starting at 7 p.m. CT on October 10 at the Hyatt Downtown Houston, will support Spaceweek International Association’s programs to excite students about math and science. Celebration-goers will meet Bass, along with Houston Congressman Nick Lampson and other celebrities. Tickets are on sale to the public and can be purchased at www.spaceweek.org.

“Bass’ visits to schools will offer students and teachers the opportunity to create a renewed passion and understanding for the horizons that can be explored with math and science,” said Dennis Stone, president of Spaceweek International Association.

Declared by the United Nations, World Space Week is held October 4 – 10 each year and is marked by celebrations on all seven continents. This year, nearly 50 nations around the world are expected to participate. Events in the United States will focus on the vital role math and science education play in creating tomorrow’s space leaders and pioneers. Highlights include:

• Teachers across the U.S. will use space in the classroom all week long to excite students about science and math;
• NASA will host a Web cast from the International Space Station (ISS), October 9 at 12 p.m. CT, with an opportunity to ask questions of an ISS astronaut;
• Earth & Sky Radio will host World Space Week radio broadcasts on October 7 and 10;
• The Space Frontier Foundation will hold the “Alt.Space” conference on October 10 in Los Angeles;
• The Iowa Space Grant Consortium will host a Space Week Science Challenge from October 4-10;
• The Museum of Texas Tech University will feature a World Space Week celebration on October 4.

For detailed information on events and celebrations across the globe, visit www.spaceweek.org.

About Lance’s Lab
“Lance’s Lab” is a global youth competition, in which K-12 students are asked to design a hypothetical International Space Station module for Bass to live and work in. Lance’s Lab is a worldwide student contest that underscores the fundamental importance of math and science. Winners will meet Bass at an awards ceremony in early 2004.

Special instructional materials are available to schools at no charge, featuring space-related math and science activities for teachers to use during World Space Week. Materials are available in several languages with activities for all grade levels and require little or no teacher preparation. By participating in World Space Week, teachers can excite students about learning and receive cash grants. For details or to download educational materials, visit: www.spaceweek.org/education.html

About World Space Week
From the United States to Bangladesh, from Columbia to China, World Space Week is celebrated annually in some 50 nations, on all seven continents. It serves to celebrate the contributions of space science and technology to the betterment of the human condition.

Declared in 1999 by the UN General Assembly, World Space Week marks the anniversary of two great milestones of humanity’s expansion into space:

• 4 October 1957 — Date of the launch into outer space of the first human-made Earth satellite, SPUTNIK I, thus opening the way for space exploration;
• 10 October 1967 — Date of the entry into force of the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies

Founded in 1981, Spaceweek International Association (SIA) is non-profit organization that proudly supports the United Nations in the global coordination of World Space Week. SIA works to strengthen the link between space and society through public education, participation, and dialogue on the future of space.

Original Source: World Space Week News Release

NASA’s Orbital Space Plane program reached an important milestone this week with the completion of its Level 1 requirements review. The review evaluated designs from several contractors for a spacecraft which will provide crew rescue and transfer of personnel to and from the International Space Station. This review was to ensure the proposed vehicles are safe, reliable, affordable, and can be maintained. The review team has also put forth their Level 2 requirements, which are much detailed and describe many features that the proposed designs must include.

NASA’s Orbital Space Plane program has successfully completed its Systems Requirements Review to evaluate the concept design of the nation?s next space vehicle ? aimed at providing crew rescue and transfer for the International Space Station. In addition, the review set Level II requirements ? guidelines that further narrow the scope of the system design.

NASA’s Orbital Space Plane (OSP) program is one step closer to becoming the nation’s next space vehicle with the successful completion of its Systems Requirements Review. The review evaluated the vehicle’s concept design for providing crew rescue and transfer for the International Space Station.

The NASA-led review evaluated contractor designs based on the primary design criteria, or Level 1 requirements, set by the agency in February. The contractor teams designing the OSP, The Boeing Company, Seal Beach, Calif.; Lockheed Martin, Denver; and a team including Orbital Sciences Corp., Dulles, Va., and Northrop Grumman, El Segundo, Calif., have been working to develop system specifications, including systems analysis, trade studies, and concept feasibility in preparation for the review.

The System Requirements Review includes analysis of requirements and supporting technical documentation to ensure the system is safe, reliable, maintainable and affordable. It is one in a series of reviews that occurs before the Orbital Space Plane system is built.

In addition, the review set Level 2 requirements, guidelines that further narrow the scope and add a level of detail to the system design. The Level 2 requirements address guidelines for safety, launch, emergency-return and crew-transfer missions, mission frequency, on-orbit mission duration, contingency cargo requirements, and docking and interfacing with the Space Station. The requirements also include limits on the gravitational loads on the crew, health monitoring of the crew, communications with the Space Station and mission control on Earth, reliability, system lifetime, and logistics. Each level of requirements provides a narrower parameter for the design of the vehicle system.

“This review is a critical step in making the Orbital Space Plane a reality,” said Dennis Smith, Orbital Space Plane program manager. “These requirements are the instruction manual for designing the entire system that will provide safe, reliable access to and from the International Space Station,” he said.

The Level 2 requirements are contained in a package of technical documents and plans, which include the Orbital Space Plane Systems Requirements Document, the International Space Station Interface Requirements Document, the Orbital Space Plane to Expendable Launch Vehicle Interface Definition Document, and the Orbital Space Plane Human Rating Plan, along with other reference and guidance documentation. An executive summary of the Level 2 requirements is on the OSP Web site. Following review of the documentation for export-control and security issues, the Level 2 documentation also will be available online.

A System Definition Review is scheduled for November 2003. It will include a further, more focused evaluation of the concept design including risk reduction and breakdown of the functional elements of the system based on the Level 2 requirements. The review also will set Level 3 requirements for the Orbital Space Plane system based on evaluation of the program objectives and contractor feedback.

The program is scheduled to issue a request for proposal to the three contractor teams in November 2003. A decision to develop a full-scale vehicle system is expected in 2004.

For the executive summary and other information about the Orbital Space Plane, visit:

http://www.ospnews.com

Original Source: NASA News Release