Virgin Galactic, the private aerospace company founded by billionaire Richard Branson, successfully tested the passenger space-plane SpaceShipTwo today. SpaceShipTwo (SS2), is also called the Virgin Space Ship Enterprise, or VSS Enterprise, an obvious tribute to another space vehicle of some note. SS2 was carried to 45,000 feet (13.7km) by its mothership, named WhiteKnightTwo (WK2), or ‘Eve’, after Branson’s mother. In this initial ‘captive carry’ test of the space plane, it remained attached to the mothership for the duration of the flight.
The SS2/WK2 combo took off from a runway at the Mojave Air and Space Port in California, and flew for approximately three hours over the deserts of the Antelope Valley. SS2 is a prototype passenger vehicle that is designed to take astronauts to suborbital flight. If the remaining tests go as planned, it will eventually take a crew of two pilots and up to six passengers to the edge of space, at just over 100km (62 miles).This may happen as early as the end of 2011.
SpaceShipTwo is an all-carbon composite plane that uses a hybrid rocket motor, and will be carried to 50,000 feet (15.2 km) by WhiteKnightTwo before being released. It will then fire the rocket to propel it above the Karman line.
Here’s a video of the takeoff and landing of SS2 today:
SS2 was unveiled to the public in December of last year, and this is the first in a series of tests to determine how safe and operational the craft is before it can begin to bring passengers into space. It will undergo another captive carry flight to 50,000 feet, and then will be brought into the air by WK2 and released in subsequent tests.
SpaceShipTwo was designed by Burt Rutan of Scaled Composites, who also led the design team for SpaceShipOne, which won the Ansari X-Prize of $10 million in 2004 for completing the first series of manned commercial spaceflights.
If you have $200,000 laying around and want to go into space, SS2 is your space plane. However, you’re going to have to get in line: over 300 people have already signed up for seats on the plane.
Screenshot of the Falcon 9 rocket on Tuesday. Credit: Spaceflightnow.com
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SpaceX just released the official word on what happened with Tuesday’s 3.5 second test-fire of the Falcon 9 rocket. The test aborted immediately after it started, and a a spin start system failure forced the early shutdown. The Falcon 9 sits on Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, and from the Kennedy Space Center press site, (about 4 miles away) a muffled bang was heard at the time of ignition, 1:41 pm EST. “Today SpaceX performed our first Static Fire for the Falcon 9 launch vehicle,” said Emily Shankin from SpaceX in a press release. “We counted down to an T-2 seconds and aborted on Spin Start. Given that this was our first abort event on this pad, we decided to scrub for the day to get a good look at the rocket before trying again. Everything looks great at first glance.”
An online webcam on Spaceflightnow.com showed a brief flash and a small cloud of smoke, and then nothing. Other observers at the site said it appeared as if flight computers detected a problem and automatically shut down the engines before the test was completed. The test-firing is considered a major objective towards the first launch of the Falcon 9, now tentatively scheduled for March 22, but SpaceX officials say launch is more likely to occur in April.
Here’s the rest of SpaceX’s press release:
We completed pad preps on time and with good execution. The integrated countdown with the range included holdfire checks, S- band telemetry, C-band, and FTS simulated checks. We completed helium, liquid oxygen (LOX), and fuel loads to within tenths of a percent of T-zero conditions. Tanks pressed nominally and we passed all Terminal count, flight software, and ground software abort checks right down to T-2 seconds. We encountered a problem with the spin start system and aborted nominally.
As part of the abort, we close the pre-valves to isolate the engines from the propellant tank and purge the residual propellants. The brief flames seen on the video are burn off of LOX and kerosene on the pad. The engines did not ignite and there was no engine fire.
We detanked and safed the vehicle and launch pad. Preliminary review shows all other systems required to reach full ignition were within specification. All other pad systems worked nominally. Inspections will be complete tonight. Tomorrow will consist of data review and procedure updates. Commodities will be replenished tomorrow including TEA TEB load, LOX and helium deliveries.
We’ll look to do the next static fire attempt in three or four days.
The Falcon 9 rocket measures 47 meters long (154 feet) and 4 meters (12 feet) wide, and for the upcoming test launch the payload will be a dummy of the company’s Dragon capsule being developed to carry equipment to the International Space Station for NASA.
The nine Merlin 1C engines will produce about 825,000 pounds of total thrust, about four times the power of a 747 jumbo jet at full throttle. The engines consume about 3,200 pounds of kerosene and liquid oxygen propellants per second, according to SpaceX.
Alan Stern Twittering during his NASTAR training. Credi: On Orbit.com
Researchers hoping to conduct scientific experiments on commercial suborbital spacecraft completed the first-ever round of training last week at the National Aerospace Training and Research (NASTAR) Center in Pennsylvania. The researchers hope to take advantage of the prospect of quick, low-cost and frequent access to the microgravity environment of suborbital space. They successfully went through full-flight simulation spins in a centrifuge and altitude chamber to simulate the physiological conditions that scientist-astronauts will experience during future missions to 100 km or more altitude. Additionally, they received training on how to best accomplish their science goals in the short 4-6 minute window of zero-g in an actual suborbital flight.
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“Man, that NASTAR centrifuge was a kick!” said Dr. Alan Stern via Twitter following his turn in the multi-axis centrifuge. Stern is the chairman of SARG and a principal organizer of the scientist training program. “At 6 G’s you really feel like you’re hauling the mail. I can’t wait to fly a couple of flights to 130 km!”
The group consisted of 11 scientists, including graduate students, professors and researchers. “It was a great group; a really diverse group of researchers from planetary sciences, life sciences and space sciences,” said Erika Wagner, member of SARG – the Suborbital Applications Researcher Group.
Wagner said the training confirmed the growing interest in conducting research and education missions aboard commercial suborbital spacecraft.
“It was wonderful to see such a great show of interest from the science community,” Wagner told Universe Today. “When we first started this about a year ago, we heard some comments that there would be no interest in this. But the second class is already full and the third class is starting to fill up.”
Stern said the scientists invested their own time and money for the training, adding, “This is a true testament to the growing excitement behind the science potential of new commercial spacecraft.”
The training simulated rides aboard Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo, and the first day of the two-day regimen focused on altitude physiology and the challenges of decompression and spatial disorientation. The second day covered acceleration physiology and how to deal with increased G-forces.
“I think the training itself really made it real for us,” Wagner said. “We’ve been talking about suborbital science for over a year, and up until now it has been a sort of abstract thing. To suddenly be able to work out the details of how an experiment will actually work during a suborbital flight is very important.” Erika Wagner, Alan Stern, and Dan Durda. Credit: OnOrbit.com
Wagner said some of the attendees had previously participated in parabolic airplane flights, like the “Vomit Comet” where researchers have 15-25 seconds of time in microgravity to do the experiments. “They were able to see the similarities and differences much more clearly,” she said. “The great thing about suborbital is you get this nice extended time of zero g, 4-6 minutes depending on the provider. But the challenge is that you only get one shot per flight, whereas in a parabolic flight, although the time is shorter, you get several attempts.”
Wagner said perhaps the best training was how to use your time most efficiently.
“You’ve got to be ready to deal with the acceleration challenges of launch and not be surprised by them, and be prepared for the challenges of getting out of your seat, unstowing your equipment and conducting an experiment in what may be a somewhat chaotic environment,” she said. “If you’ve never thought about those details before you fly, you’re not going to get very good quality science. But I think NASTAR has done a good job of making it clear to the investigators that you really want to maximize your science.”
Therefore, the most important part of the training was the least ‘flashy,’ Wagner said. “We did an exercise ‘Distraction Factors,’ which simulated the amount of space you’ll have to do your experiment, giving you five minutes to get out of your chair, gather your materials, conduct your experiment, put everything away and get back in your seat while everyone else is doing very different things around you, and then prepare for reentry. It wasn’t flashy but it highlighted the challenges of doing quality science. And also it challenges investigators to develop more efficient experiments.” Keith Cowing from OnOrbit.com, standing in front of the 25 foot centrifuge
Wagner said the most humorous, albeit sobering part of this training is that when they completed the exercise, the instructor asked them if they had seen what was on the wall. “We all said, ‘What? What wall?’ It turns out they had been showing beautiful images of the Earth and space on a huge wall to simulate what we would see from space, and none of us had any clue they had done that because we were so focused on getting the task done. That highlighted for us the amount of attention and practice it is going to take for us to do an experiment in a four minute period. Plus you’ll want to take time to enjoy the experience.”
“We want to inform researchers on this opportunity,” Wagner said,”and find out how they want to use the vehicles and any constraints they might have, and feed that back to the vehicle designers and flight providers.”
Witnesses give statements to the House Committee on Science and Technology’s Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics hearing on spaceflight safety yesterday. Image Credit: Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics
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The U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Space & Aeronautics held a hearing yesterday on the issue of how to ensure the future safety of human flight into space for both commercial and governmental agencies. The hearing was attended by a number of witnesses that represented NASA, one from the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, the CEO of a risk-analysis firm, and a former astronaut. The subcommittee was chaired by Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.
This hearing comes on the tails of the Augustine Commission final report, which examined the future of spaceflight in the U.S. and laid out a “flexible path” plan that includes utilizing private, commercial firms for human transport into Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and the International Space Station.
Yesterday’s hearing was meant to help inform members of Congress about the safety concerns presented to manned flights, and what future regulations will be needed if commercial companies start to have a larger role in human spaceflight. The hearing’s charter states as its purpose:
On December 2, 2009 the Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics will hold a hearing focused on issues related to ensuring the safety of future human space flight in government and non-government space transportation systems. The hearing will examine (1) the steps needed to establish confidence in a space transportation system’s ability to transport U.S. and partner astronauts to low Earth orbit and return them to Earth in a safe manner, (2) the issues associated with implementing safety standards and establishing processes for certifying that a space transportation vehicle is safe for human transport, and (3) the roles that training and experience play in enhancing the safety of human space missions.
Witnesses at the hearing included Chief of Safety and Mission Assurance for NASA Bryan O’Connor, Constellation Program Manager Jeff Hanley, Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel Council Member John C. Marshall, President of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation Bretton Alexander, Vice President of Valador, Inc. Dr. Joseph R. Fragola, and former astronaut Lt. Gen. Thomas P. Stafford, USAF, who flew in some of the Apollo and Gemini missions.
Each witness gave statements to the panel, all of which is available in .pdf format on the committee’s site. After hearing the testimony of these witnesses, Rep. Giffords said:
“At the end of the day, I am left with the firm conviction that the U.S. government needs to ensure that it always has a safe way to get its astronauts to space and back. As I have said in the past, I welcome the growth of new commercial space capabilities in America and do not see them as competitors with, but rather complementary to the Constellation systems under development. Based on what we’ve heard today, I see no justification for a change in direction on safety-related grounds. Instead, I am very impressed with the steps that have been taken to infuse safety into the Constellation program, and want to encourage their continued efforts to make Ares and Orion as safe as possible.”
Part of the reason for the hearing was to compare the safety of commercial vehicles to the Constellation program for getting astronauts to the International Space Station after the Shuttle program is shut down. Constellation won’t be ready to go until 2015 at the earliest, so the gap of five years could potentially be filled by private contractors.
Of course, you might notice that only one of the members of the witness panel of six represents commercial interests, which has caused some critics – like the Orlando Sentinel – to call the safety hearing a “Pro-Constellation rally.” The Space Politics blog also pointed this lack of representation out.
Though commercial aerospace companies like SpaceX, Masten Space Systems and XCOR weren’t represented directly on the witness panel, they are members of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation. Bretton Alexander stressed the importance of safety in his statement, and also pointed out that private space companies could take over the majority LEO launches here at home to allow NASA and its partners the resources to go to the Moon (and beyond).
Heat shields are an important part of any space vehicle that re-enters the Earth’s atmosphere. The next generation of heat shields to protect astronauts and payloads on their re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere may use superconducting magnets to deflect the plasma that forms in front of spacecraft as they travel at high speeds in the air. The first test of such a heat shield could happen as early as ten years from now, and the basic technology is already in development.
Traditional heat shields use the process of ablation to disperse heat away from the capsule. Basically, the material that covers the outside of the capsule gets worn away as it is heated up, taking the heat with it. The space shuttle uses tough insulated tiles. A magnetic heat shield would be lighter and much easier to re-use, eliminating the cost of re-covering the outside of a craft after each entry.
A magnetic heat shield would use a superconductive magnetic coil to create a very strong magnetic field near the leading edge of the vehicle. This magnetic field would deflect the superhot plasma that forms at the extreme temperatures cause by friction near the surface of an object entering the Earth’s atmosphere. This would reduce or completely eliminate the need for insulative or ablative materials to cover the craft.
Problems with the heat shield on a spacecraft can be disastrous, even fatal; the Columbia disaster was due largely to the failure of insulative tiles on the shuttle, due to damage incurred during launch. Such a system might be more reliable and less prone to damage than current heat shield technology.
At the European air and space conference 2009 in Manchester in October, Detlev Konigorski from the private aerospace firm Astrium EADS said that with the cooperation of German aerospace center DLR and the European Space Agency, Astrium was developing a potential magnetic heat shield for testing within the next few years.
The initial test vehicle would be launched from a submarine aboard a Russian Volna rocket on a suborbital trajectory, and land in the Russian Kamchatka region. A Russian Volan escape capsule will be outfitted with the device, and the re-entry trajectory will take it up to speeds near Mach 21.
Though the scientists are currently testing the capabilities of a superconducting coil to perform this feat, there is the challenge of calculating changes to the trajectory of a test vehicle, because the air will be deflected away much more than with current heat shield technology. The ionized gases surrounding a capsule using a magnetic heat shield would also put a wrench in the current technique of using radio signals for telemetry data. Of course, there are a long list of other technical challenges to overcome before the testing will happen, so don’t expect to see the Orion crew vehicle outfitted with one!
Upcoming commercial space flights are no longer only about rich, adventure-seeking space tourists. Researchers hope to capitalize on the prospect of quick, low-cost and frequent access to the micro-gravity environment of sub-orbital space. “We’ve got these great vehicles coming online and most of the discussion about them so far have centered on the tourism market,” said Erika Wagner, member of SARG – the Suborbital Applications Researcher Group. “As researchers we felt this was a fantastic opportunity to do both science and education, as well.”
SARG was chartered by the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, and consists of around a dozen scientists and researchers from across the spectrum of the different sciences. Led by Alan Stern who formerly headed NASA’s science directorate, the group has sponsored three different workshops for scientists in Boston, Houston and Los Angeles, with another upcoming in Boulder Colorado (Feb. 18-20, 2010). “We want to inform researchers on this opportunity,” Wagner told Universe Today,” and find out how they want to use the vehicles and any constraints they might have, and feed that back to the vehicle designers and flight providers.”
About a year ago, SARG started surveying scientists, as well as getting the word out to NASA and other funding agencies that scientists were excited about sub-orbital space. “We’ve started to build some momentum now with the Commercial Reusable Suborbital Research program,” Wagner said, “and NASA has put up $2.6 million to support suborbital research in 2010. We’re putting everything in place to get everything structured to make this a viable research platform.” Erika Wagner at the International Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight. credit: ISPCS
Sub-orbital science appears to be a win-win situation for both scientists and the nascent commercial spaceflight companies. For researchers, the flights represent cheaper and more frequent access to space than anything NASA can provide with the space shuttle, parabolic flights or sounding rockets. For companies like Armadillo Aerospace, Blue Origin, Masten Space Systems, Virgin Galactic, and XCOR, adding science to their payloads represents the possibility of an additional $100 million a year in fares — roughly equivalent to the fares that would be paid out by 500 passengers.
Wagner said this new sub-orbital realm represents an entire new dimension for scientists. “The researchers hadn’t thought about it much before,” she said. “Mostly the research being done now is on the space shuttle and space station and is geared towards long duration flights. But the idea of how we use 3 or 4 minutes of microgravity is a real paradigm shift.”
“They would be able to do anything that requires being above the atmosphere but doesn’t require a Hubble Space Telescope,” Wagner continued,” or planetary science measurements, or atmospheric measurements as you go up and down. There’s a whole area that is called the “ignorosphere” – the part of the atmosphere that is too thin for planes to fly in but too thick for satellites to fly through, which has been pretty much ignored by the scientific community. But the suborbital vehicles go right through it.”
Then there’s basic fluids research- how do bubbles and fluids interact, which has implications for designing spacecraft engines –, particulates research, studying how the human body adapts to space, and other medical investigations.
Trajectory of the Vomit Comet, the KC 135 flights. Credit: NASA
“Several years ago researchers developed techniques for CPR in microgravity in case they ever need it on the space station,” Wagner said. “They tested in on the Vomit Comet, (parabolic flights) and you have only 20-30 second bursts, and it’s really hard to develop procedures for that, or especially for minor surgery or emergency procedures in that amount of time. 3-4 minutes gives you an opportunity to practice them and do training.”
Wagner, who works in life science research at MIT said what she finds most exciting is that sub-orbital opens up much more broadly the range of people that can be sent into space.
“Of the 450 or so astronauts that have been to space, all have been between 25-50 year of age, been very healthy and well trained,” she said. “Soon, there will be thousands of people who will be going into space which means we can begin to study the differences between men and women, young and old, and open it up to people who never would have been eligible to fly with NASA. Then we could study the effect of microgravity for someone who has a chronic heart condition or diabetes, or people who are on medication. For me that is the most interesting.”
A recent market analysis predicts there could be a demand for 13,000 passengers a year for commercial spaceflight, and SARG predicts there could be demand for over 1,000 flights a year for researchers.
“Down the line, we see 1,000 flights a year,” Wagner said.” Right now we have just a small handful of vehicle developers that have actual hardware in hand, and double that that are in earlier stages. Virgin Galactic is talking about one flight a day or several flights a day, so eventually we can see reaching that flight volume but it will be probably be several years.” Space science on the space station. Credit: NASA
Early flights could include small payloads bolted to a rack or strapped down in the back of the vehicle, as well as passive data collection. “But once tourists start flying we can say, ‘Hey, would you mind if we took your blood pressure before the flight or would you be willing to wear an EKG harness?'” Wagner said, “– some easy things, which also might makes it more exciting for the tourists who can say they were part of an experiment on their flight.”
Later on, Wagner predicts researchers will be able to fly themselves to do hands-on science. “Does this mean that we are going to fly every scientist with his or her own payload or are there going to be a new class of payload specialists that emerge as commercial operators for science?” said Wagner. “It will be interesting to see how this develops.”
There’s plenty of potential for education, too. “Perhaps we can engage students in the work that is going on, and fly small payloads for students and actually allow them to get involved in science again,” Wagner said. “It’s been awhile since NASA has flown student payloads on the space shuttle, and these vehicles with higher flight frequency and lower costs are just custom made for getting students engaged. If commercial vehicles are flying every week, suddenly you can go end-to-end in a senior design project or have a master’s thesis where you’ve used the space environment for testing. Or you can design things that might fit in a tourist’s pocket, such as handheld sensors or iPhone apps and start to engage K-12 kids.” Alan Stern at ISPCS. Credit: ISPCS
Wagner and Stern recently spoke at a panel session at the International Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight in Las Cruces, N.M, where Wagner said the question she was asked most often was how suborbital science can contribute to the goal of humans living and working in space on a larger basis.
“For me it’s about opening the doors to the general population,” she said. “Right now if we were going to talk about sending people to Mars, it would be government astronauts — well selected, very fit, very healthy individuals. But if we are going to talk about a longer term vision of the future, where we open up that bottle and send the average Joe and Jane, now we can start to understand what might happen to you or I in space and what we need to do to support the general population – all ages, all genders, all nationalities, all health statutes. The opportunity to blow that wide open is really great.”
n Almaz Reusable Re-entry Vehicle (RRV), like this one shown here, will form the cornerstone of a private orbital spaceflight service planned by the international company Excalibur Almaz. The vehicle was originally developed to support Soviet Almaz space stations in the 1970s. Credit: Excalibur Almaz.
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An international company announced plans to launch a commercial space venture using spacecraft designed for a once classified Russian space program. Excalibur Almaz Limited plans to offer week-long orbital space flights beginning as early as 2013 with updated 1970’s era Reusable Return Vehicles, designed for flying to the USSR’s top-secret Almaz space station. Excalibur Alamaz’s press release said they would be “taking a big leap beyond the sub-orbital flight market targeted by most other private space companies.”
Excalibur Almaz (EA) is currently updating the spacecraft to conduct crew and cargo space missions for private individuals, corporations, academic institutions and national governments.
JSC MIC NPO Mashinostroyenia (NPOM) of Russia originally built the spacecraft and EA has purchased both the rockets and modules for the Almaz space station, which was never flown. The RRVs went through nine flight tests, with two RRVs flown to orbit several times.
EA Founder and CEO Art Dula said, “Through cooperation with NPOM and with the support of leading space contractors around the world and an exceptionally strong management and advisory team, EA is in a unique position to initiate a new era of private orbital space exploration.”
Cosmonaut Vladimir Titov, advisor to EA in Russia, said, “With this announcement, the dream of private orbital space exploration may become a reality in the very near future.”
Former NASA astronaut LeRoy Chiao, a current member of the Augustine Commission, is the Executive Vice President for EA.
EA is headquartered in Isle of Man, British Isles, and support contractors are located in Moscow, Tokyo, Houston and Los Angeles.
EA’s spacecraft will consist of two parts: an RRV and an expendable service module to provide crewmembers with room to comfortably operate during spaceflight. EA said they will “update the Almaz RRVs with flight-proven technologies where appropriate, while retaining tested legacy systems to ensure safety and economy of operation. A critical feature of the RRVs is their reusability, which will reduce logistical, overhead and program costs for commercial access to space.”
EA plans for its spacecraft to be compatible with a number of launch vehicles and capable of being launched from worldwide sites.
