The White Room

This is the access arm used by crews to enter the Space Shuttles. It was installed 45 meters up in Pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center. The first crew to board via this arm was the ill-fated Challenger mission in 1986. It was also used by STS-26 for the return to flight following Challenger. A total of 53 Shuttle missions boarded via this arm from Pad 39B.

The arm led to the White Room, a sealed area from which astronauts entered the spacecraft. The room also contained racks for helmets and equipment. Shuttle astronauts rode to the pad without their headgear, which was donned as they boarded. The White Room, access arm and rotating service structure swung away after the hatch was closed. Pad 39B hosted launches until 2006.

Atlantis (right) on Pad 39-A and Endeavour (left) on 39-B during 2009. Pad 39-B has lightning towers installed in anticipation of the Ares 1-X test. In 2009 this pad was briefly used by Endeavour as a backup for STS-125, the last Hubble Space Telescope repair flight. After STS-125 returned safely, Pad 39-B was modified for the Ares 1-X test. On October 18 the Servicing Arm and White Room arrived in Johnson Space Center, where they will be put on permanent display. Pad 39-A, where crews launched for the Moon, has been kept intact for the future.

Enterprise

The Udvar-Hazy center of the National Air and Space Museum, close to Dulles Airport, is home to the test vehicle Enterprise. During the 1970's Enterprise was drop-tested from a 747 as preparation for the Shuttle program. Last week, in The Latest from NASM, we saw the original Starship Enterprise miniature on display by the Washington Mall. The name Enterprise was the result of a letter-writing campaign by thousands of STAR TREK fans. At the end of the Shuttle journey, we can think about the future.

Presently this room is slated to be taken over by the Shuttle Discovery. Enterprise would then be transferred to the Intrepid Air Space museum in New York City. The Intrepid is just a 4.5 hour drive from Washington, and the choice leaves the middle of the US without a Shuttle. Space Center Houston and the Air Force Museum in Dayton, who were not awarded Shuttles, are quite unhappy with the choice. Sadly, even on Earth there are not enough Shuttles to go around.

Beneath Enterprise's port wing is a small display case with early Shuttle concepts. Originally the system was envisioned as being fully reusable. A winged first stage would glide back to Earth after each launch, to be refueled and used again. The configuration finally built, with solid rocket boosters and an expendable tank, was less expensive to develop but had much higher operating costs. As this system was being built, NASA envisioned 50 flights per year. Such a flight rate proved to be impractical. The dream of a fully reusable Space Transportation System has still not been realized.

As we heard from Elon Musk in Washington, SpaceX is planning a fully Reusable booster. His concept is different, with wingless unmanned boosters automatically returning to land vertically. Elon claims that the fully reusable concept could reduce launch costs a hundredfold. We can wish him the best of luck.

We are able to economically travel to Washington DC because of reusable aircraft. Most of the denizens of the Air and Space Museum, from the Wright Brothers' plane, were designed to be used repeatedly. The Starship Enterprise of the future is, like a Navy ship, fully reusable. The Enterprise design that sits in Udvar-Hazy is the result of many compromises. An economical fully reusable Space Transportation System is still in the future.

Space Launch System

Today NASA formally unveiled this Space Launch System (SLS), which would replace Ares to launch missions beyond Earth orbit. This design resembles the DIRECT system championed by rebel engineers. It is planned to initially launch 70 ton payloads to low Earth orbit, eventually evolving to 130 tons. SpaceX's planned Falcon Heavy would launch 53 tons. This plan will leverage the expertise and human resources of the Shuttle program.

STS-133 Memories

A couple more photos to remember the STS-133 launch. Waiting by the river in Titusville with about 100,000 others. Spaceflight has many supporters, of all ages worldwide and across the political spectrum.

Go, baby go! The STS-133 launch and smoke trail. It is amazing that humans can accomplish something like this.

STS-133 Update

Everyone, be careful while on bicycles! Last Saturday, astronaut Tim Kopra was riding right in front of his home. While turning into his driveway he hit a spot with low coefficient of friction, fell and broke his hip. That was rainy day here in Houston. Kopra been replaced on the STS-133 crew by Steve Bowen.

Many of us were awaiting the STS-133 launch November 1 from Florida. Since then the flight has been grounded by cracks in stringers supporting the External Tank. The legendary Flight Controller and JSC Director Chris Kraft suggested that "material properties" were to blame. The current JSC Director reports that the problem has been traced to a single batch of stringers produced in 2002. The stringers were not made too weak, but unusually rigid. As such, they had a tendency to crack under stress rather than bend. NASA engineers are currently working the problem, still hoping for a launch February 24.

Though Congress has not yet appropriated the funds, JSC is still working on STS-135 with a tentative launch date of June 28. This or STS-134 could be the last flight of the Space Shuttle.

Faster, Cheaper, Better?

Dr. Paul Spudis of the Lunar and Planetary Institute has been distributing this graph of heavy lift options available to NASA. By far the least expensive and quickest to develop is Sidemount, what used to be called a Shuttle-C. It makes use of the existing Shuttle infrastructure--External Tank, Solid Rocket Boosters, avionics, VAB, Crawler Transporters, Launch Complex 39 and the people who know how to run those things. Presently those production lines are being shut down and the people laid off. Sidemount also would have some of the costs of Shuttle, so it will never be inexpensive as private rockets. It would guarantee that we can send people beyond LEO until private rockets are ready. The Sidemount booster could even send crews toward the Moon.

The Lunar Orbit Rendezvous also allows the lander to put cargo on the Moon unmanned. Indendently, the crew vehicle could be sent on missions to lunar orbit, Lagrangian points or the asteroids. The US Congress has directed NASA to build a heavy lift launch vehicle. Sidemount may be the only option that can fulfill Congressional requirements within NASA budget. NASA leaders should consider this if they want a future in Space.

Sidemount Reconsidered

When the Space Shuttle system was new, NASA planned a Shuttle-C for Cargo. The winged orbiters would be replaced by a cargo pod, powered by the same Space Shuttle Main Engines (SSME) and Orbital Maneuvering System. Without the burden of wings or crew compartment, this configuration could lift twice as much payload to orbit without risk to crew. During the first Bush administration, Shuttle-C was promoted as a heavy-lift vehicle for the Moon and Mars. The new booster's cost, over 5 billion USD, led to it being abandoned.

On June 17 before the Augustine Commission, Shuttle Program Manager John Shannon described this "Sidemount" booster, similiar to Shuttle-C. Because so many components are common with Shuttle, this could be built for about 6.6 billion USD. This is slightly more than the shutdown costs of Constellation (2.5 billion) combined with the proposed R&D budget for boosters (3.1 billion). For an extra cost, the Sidemount booster could be human-rated. A Moon mission would launch Orion with an extra stage to boost the crew into lunar orbit for rendezvous with the lander. Launch Complex 39 and much of the Shuttle workforce would be maintained.

As promising as Commercial Crew is, terminating all of Constellation might be foolish. A Crew Exploration Vehicle is needed to move beyond Earth orbit. The parts to build Sidemount already exist, along with people who know how to build and launch them. Abandoning the production of tanks and Solid Rocket Boosters would lose those technologies indefinitely. Laying valuable people off would be a poor reward for a successful Space program. When the President visits Kennedy Space Center on April 15, he should consider building a new rocket.

Rewards

Last Tuesday March 16, 2010 at the Sheraton Waikiki: Geologist and Moonwalker Harrison Schmitt (in an Aloha shirt) receives a medal from the American Society of Civil Engineering. The ASCE Earth/Space Conference was attended by engineers and scientists from across the Pacific, energized by ideas of engineering in Space.

Last night March 23, 2010 at Johnson Space Center in Houston: We greet the crew of STS-130. Their mission installed a Node and viewing Cupola to the International Space Station.

Equally important, Lockheed contractor Blake Dumesnil was named winner of the Shuttle patch design contest. His patch is symbolic of the entire Shuttle program.

The view from my room at the Sheraton Waikiki. Also Tuesday I delivered a talk on lunar research to the same international audience. That girl with ideas about light will never amount to anything, will she? More pictures from Hawaii coming soon!

Landram

For friends at Car Lust, this is the "Landram" vehicle from the classic 1978-79 BATTLESTAR GALACTICA. This episode, "Gun on Ice Planet Zero" made the most extensive use of this vehicle. The Landram was based upon the Thiokol "Imp" snow vehicle. Thiokol earned a mention in GALACTICA's closing credits, and also won the contract for the Space Shuttle solid rocket boosters!

Shuttle Reconsidered

The Vision for Space Exploration called for the Space Shuttles to be retired by 2010. Normal delays will stretch the last flight until at least 2011. With 6 flights left, many people are reconsidering that end. The Augustine Commission believes that Ares-Orion will not be ready to replace Shuttle until 2017. Today the head of Russia's Roskosmos expressed hope that Shuttles will fly longer.

Last Friday former Shuttle Program Manager Bob Thompson spoke at University of Houston. Thompson was in charge of Shuttle development through the 1970's. He described the many decisions made on the way:

The first designs called for a manned flyback first stage (left), but that was thought too expensiveand risky. Eventually NASA settled on the design (right) we all know.

Contrary to what we have heard before, Air Force requirements did not drive Shuttle design. The large payload bay proved handy for the Hubble Telescope and Space Station modules. The delta wings gave crossrange capability in abort situations. Overall Thompson claimed that USAF had minimal impact on the design.

Without naming names, Thompson warned against junking Shuttle in favour of a 'safer' vehicle that has yet to fly. Concluding, Thompson
broadly hinted that he would like to see Shuttles flying longer. As for the Moon, he showed this timeline for Antarctica. From the first landing to settlement was 136 years, and the South Pole is closer and less hostile than the Moon. Settling the Moon will take a lot of patience.

X-15

Test pilot and astronaut (STS-2) Joe Engle explaining the X-15

2009 is also 50th birthday of the first reusable spaceship. In October 1959 the X-15 made its first flights, starting a test programme that lasted until 1968. Wednesday at Johnson Space Center pilot Joe Engle remembered his involvement with the most successful test plane ever.

X-15 flights had a great influence on the Shuttle program, since reentry parameters were very similiar. For instance, the X-15 landed "dead stick" without power. X-15 flights convinced Shuttle designers that extra turbojet engines for landing were not worth the extra weight. The X-15 flew to heights of 67 miles, earning astronaut wings for some of the pilots. Joe Engle and the other X-15 pilots flew the first spaceship.

Remembering Moonraker

The International Astronomical Union meeting in Rio de Janeiro officially ends today. We are on the summit of Sugar Loaf mountain with Copacabana far below. 2009 is not just the 400th birthday of Galileo's telescope and 40th anniversary of the first Moon landing. This Summer is also 30th anniversary of the spaciest James Bond movie ever, MOONRAKER!

Ian Fleming's original novel took place entirely in Britain. Hugo Drax was a mysterious aerospace executive building a ballistic missile for the crown. In reality Drax is a Nazi with evil plans for the Moonraker. The image of a gleaming silver rocket in its silo found its way into movies from THE INCREDIBLES to Bond's own YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE.

In 1977 Bond found BO gold underwater in THE SPY WHO LOVED ME. The biggest grossing movie of that year was, of course, STAR WARS. For Bond's next adventure the producers decided to put him in Space. Now Hugo Drax was building Space Shuttles as part of his evil plot. The pre-credits sequence launches the Shuttle from a 747, as ENTERPRISE had been carried in 1977.

Bond's search for a missing Shuttle takes him to Rio, where he does some spying from the summit of Sugar Loaf. The villainous JAWS, he of the shiny teeth, meets Bond on the cable car line. Bond overcomes his fear of heights before being launched into Space.

A descent from summit to midpoint is surprisingly quick, about 1 minute 45 seconds. Note the ascending car passing at the halfway point so that Jaws can leap over.

After stopping at a Carnival, Bond takes a speedboat into the Amazon, where he finds Drax's secret base beneath a pyramid. There are no pyramids in South America. The location was Tikal in Guatamela, also used as STAR WARS' Rebel Base.

Accompanying Bond on his adventure is Dr. Holly Goodhead (!) astronaut candidate and first American woman in Space. (Sally Ride would not fly until 1983.) In 1979 the Shuttle had not flown either, so the movie used special effects by THUNDERBIRDS' Derrick Meddings. In miniature the FX artists recreated the launch, jettison of Solid Rocket Boosters and External Tank. Finally Bond and Holly rendezvous with a modular space station that rotates for simulated gravity, though the decks seem to be in the wrong plane.

While the plot is quite bad, the movie accurately portrays 1970's dreams of Space. Shuttles are used to supply a space station and a military Shuttle is launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base. (Shuttle Launch Complex 6 at Vandenberg was built at cost of 1 billion US but never used.) In this alternate reality, even a James Bond villain can have his own Shuttles! Today we still hope that spaceflight will someday be routine.

Change Coming

Thursday was a meeting with JSC Director Mike Coats. He was full of praise for incoming administrator Charlie Bolden. Not only were Coats and Bolden both astronauts, but they were in the same class at Annapolis years ago. There are possible changes to the Constellation program. The Orion shape is here to stay but can also fit on alternate boosters. As this is being written STS-127 is poised for launch after a delay from lightning Saturday. This is a very exciting time to be at NASA.

Sidesaddle

On June 17, before the Augustine Commission, Shuttle Program Manager John Shannon described this "Sidemount" development of the Space Shuttle. This is very similiar to Shuttle-C, a cargo version of the Shuttle that was unfortunately never built. By removing the winged orbiter, Shuttle-C could bring twice as much payload to orbit. ISS could have been built with half as many launches and less risk to crews. When Norman Augustine was proposing a course for NASA 20 years ago, Shuttle-C was part of the plan.

The Sidemount booster uses components that are proven and human-rated, like the standard External Tank and 4-segment Solid Rocket Boosters. Because so much is common with Shuttle, this could be built for about 6.6 billion, far less than Ares I. The huge, expensive Ares V would not be needed. Instead of one big and one little rocket, a Moon mission would require 2 launches of one medium-sized booster. Orion would launch with an extra stage to boost the crew into lunar orbit, where it would rendezvous with the lander. Launch Complex 39 and much of the Shuttle workforce would be maintained.

There are some tradeoffs: The weight of the lander is reduced from 48 tons to 28 tons. The Apollo Lunar Module weighed 16 tons. There is a question whether the Space Shuttle Main Engines would be used, and whether those engines would be recovered after flight. Putting an escape tower alongside the External Tank could raise separation issues. At first glance, the Sidemount appears to offer many advantages over the current Constellation architecture. In a limited time of limited budgets, this proposal needs to be examined seriously.

STS-119 Proves Goddard Right

74 years ago this week Dr. Robert Goddard launched the first liquid-fueled rocket from Aunt Effie's cabbage patch. It created such a reaction that the fire authorities asked that he cease and desist. After great difficulty with reviewers, Goddard published a paper innocuously titled "A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes." This caused the New York Times to ridicule his ideas, saying that he didn't know the physics ladled out daily in schools. According to the Times, a rocket could not work in the vacuum of Space without something to push against. This week STS-119 finally lifted off, proving once more that Goddard was right.

With a crew in orbit, this has been an exciting week at Johnson Space Center. Monday night was a special screening of the new movie MOON. Today at lunch one could stop by Mission Control to watch EVA 1. Also this afternoon at Building 30 was a talk by none other than Flight Director Gene "Failure Is Not an Option" Kranz. He talked about his experiences from before Mercury to Apollo 13. He was very encouraging to us young people, and encouraged in turn by all the young faces working at JSC. Later this afternoon at the Lunar & Planetary Institute, Peter Smith gave a talk about the Phoenix mission to Mars. Among the people to talk with afterward was astronaut Tom Jones. This is an incredibly exciting place to work.

STS-119 Delayed

Shuttle mission STS-119 to the International Space Station has been delayed again. This mission will deliver the final set of solar arrays to ISS. Possible problems with flow control valves have delayed the mission from February 12 to February 19, 27 and now to an indeterminate date. If the delays stretch past March 12, STS-119 will have to be indefinitely delayed to make room for a Soyuz flight later in the month. The delay most affects Sandra Magnus aboard ISS, for STS-119 is her ride home.

STS-134 Is On

Way back in June 2008 this blog first suggested a Shuttle mission designated STS-134 to deliver the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, A Sacrifice For AMS?Today NASA has officially put STS-134 on the launch manifest with a projected launch date of September 16, 2010. The idea of retiring a Shuttle in Space was seen as so revolting that there is now funding for a full 2-way mission with a full crew.

The person who suggested STS-134 now has an office at Johnson Space Center. Just last Monday I talked with astronaut Dave Wolf, who was heavily in favour of the added mission. Astronauts have a lot of influence on what flies--they love the AMS mission because it means new physics and seven more flight slots.

Happy birthday Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln! Today everyone considers Lincoln a great president, but in his time the country was literally divided over his leadership. Darwin was also considered crazy in his time. There are people out there today who still doubt Darwin, but we will never please everyone. 200 years from now some will still think that the speed of light is fixed, like the Earth.

Wayne Hale Speaks Up

Former Shuttle program manager Wayne Hale publishes this blog. For the most part he repeats that the current Constellation architecture is best for the job. Last week he released this 10-minute video where a (fictional) NASA contractor is stifled at every turn. She has a better idea for a spacecraft, but she is (1) too junior, (2) working in spacecraft design, (3) working for a contractor that doesn't want to rock the boat. Nobody in her chain of command wants to question the current design.

"Recently I had a couple of events which affected my thinking on this. I have been out of the Shuttle Program manager job for almost a year now and a trusted coworker just a week ago told me that people in his organization had been prevented from giving me important alternative choices for some program choices that occurred a couple of years ago. This was staggering. It was happening right in front of me and I was totally unaware that people - who I trusted, who I hoped would trust me - kept their lips sealed because somebody in their middle management made it clear to them that speaking up would not be good."

What choices could Wayne Hale have been referring to?

Falling From the Sky

After Hurricane Ike, the evening of November 20 marked the first snow that Houston has seen in years. The white stuff first appeared around 8 PM. Looking out one's window into the darkness, it takes a moment to recognise snow. By 9 PM snow was falling in flurries and children were out making snowmen.

The next morning Johnson Space Center was covered in a white blanket. By lunchtime the snow had melted away and workers were outside waiting for something else to fall from the sky. The Space Shuttle endeavour was travelling back to Florida friom California. This journey takes several days on the back of a 747. After spending a night in El Paso, the Shuttle and 747 made a detour to flyby JSC.

The Shuttle era is scheduled to end in 2010. Our extra flight for the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer may push that date into 2011. Like snow, nothing lasts forever.

Mission Control

We watched Tuesday's EVA from Mission Control in Building 30, Houston. The first spacewalk of STS-126 will probably be remembered for the lost tool bag, but most of the objectives were accomplished. Bagsat is now harmlessly orbiting below and behind ISS.

Perched on the manipulator arm, Steve Bowen hand-carries the Nitrogen Tank Assembly (NTA) from the station toward the Shuttle. The coastline below appears to be the Falkland Islands.

The Flight Director has a very busy job, so we try not to bother him. On the right-hand screen Bowen can be seen approaching the Payload Bay.

From the Shuttle's point of view, Bowen appears upside down as he fastens the NTA into place. Heide Stefanyshyn-Piper is barely visible below him and to our left. The spacewalkers are hard to tell apart in those outfits, so Heide's suit has red stripes. How many women get to launch their own satellite?