End of Constellation?

Recent events at NASA show just what the new management team will do to try to shut down the Constellation Program. The Constellation program's funding is embedded into the 2010 national budget, which is technically still in effect until the new Fiscal Year 2011 Budget is passed by congress. Constellation can not be cancelled without approval from congress, as per a clause inserted into an emergency war fund for Afghanistan. So, for all intents and purposes, the Ares rocket is still in full development.

Obviously, Constellation is not part of President Obama's new space plan. It is now a kind of thorn in the side of his plan that just will not go away. While the plan will probably not be "cancelled" any time soon, top NASA administrators have been working their magic doing what they can legally to end the program.

One of their biggest moves was reassigning the program chief Jeff Hanley. Hanley was a major supporter for the Constellation program and one of the ones keeping it "full speed ahead" even after the new space plan was laid out. He was reassigned to a deputy position at Johnson Space Center. This news sparked some fires in congress who cried foul, calling it a deliberate attempt to end the Constellation program. However, there is nothing illegal about the reassignment, as any government job as that potential.

Most recently, NASA administrators decided to fight legality with legality. Although the program cannot be cancelled yet and must remain funded by law, NASA cited the Anti-Deficiency Act. This Act requires all federal contractors to set aside a portion of their payments to cover costs in case the project is ever cancelled. Basiclly, the contractor must set aside enough money from the payment they are getting from NASA for the contract to cover all the costs associated with being cancelled. By NASA's estimates, there is a $991 million shortfall because of this, and NASA as issued stop work orders to all the Constellation contractors until this deficit is fixed. Legally speaking, this all sounds fair, and when the money is paid off, then work can resume again. Realistically, it is not that simple.

The contractor hit the hardest by this is Alliant Techsystems Inc (ATK), a Utah based group. They have an estimated shortfall of $500 million. NASA has ordered them to come up with this money before they are allowed any more of their contract payments and before they can resume work. ATK was apparently shocked by this, showing evidence that since their first contract in 1976, NASA has repeatedly told them to NOT withhold money, as they do not observe the Anti-Deficiency Act. However, ATK has not been told this since 2007, which is when the new administration took over, so NASA is still legally safe with this order.

Overall, since these contractors have been receiving their payments from NASA as spending them on the contract, the money is not there so set aside to make up for these new "shortfalls", effectively ending contract work on the Constellation program. The primary down side to this instant stop work notice is the layoffs that will have to happen for these companies to now save the money that they were instructed to by NASA. Around 5,000 people are expected to loose their jobs.

Although technically Constellation is in the works, in actuality, it is not. With manager reassigned and stop work orders sent to contractors, the program is dead in the water. This is the first real sense that the Constellation program could be over. While it is possible to get the contractors back to work, it is highly unrealistic, and for the first time, pro-Constellation members of Congress might have to look into a new agreement that does not deal with Constellation as the future of America's space program.

Falcon in Flight

The Falcon flew today, but luckily, this time it doesn't involved a crazy balloon and a cross county police chase. Even though this launch was also somewhat of a publicity stunt, it makes sense. Space Exploration Technologies, known widely as SpaceX, successfully launched their Falcon 9 rocket today, topped with a dummy version of their Dragon capsule. This launch is significant in the fact that the Falcon 9 rocket is their primary vehicle that would be used to supply the International Space Station and possibly eventually fly NASA astronauts (or private astronauts) to orbit.

SpaceX is one of the few new commercial space flight companies that are developing space faring vehicles for public use. (Some of the other companies being Virgin Galactic, XCOR Aerospace, Bigelow Aerospace, and Orbital Sciences Corporation). It is also the leading private company in spaceflight. NASA awarded SpaceX (and Orbital Sciences Corporation) contracts for resupplying the ISS once the shuttle fleet is retired and while a new NASA space vehicle is developed. SpaceX plans for three space launch vehicles. The Falcon 1, the Falcon 9, and the Falcon 9 Heavy.

The Falcon 1 first test launched in the fall of 2008, and carried it's first commercial payload on July 13, 2009. It is a smaller sized rocket with an emphasis on reliability. It can launch a 1010kg payload into Low Earth Orbit (LEO) for $10.9M (According to estimates, the Space Shuttle can launch the same payload for $44.4M). It is a two stage, liquid oxygen and rocket grade kerosene fueled vehicle with a launch thrust of 115,000 lbf (for comparison, the shuttle launches with 5,600,000 lbf).

The Falcon 9 Heavy, not yet developed, will be a version of the Falcon 9 with extra boosters on the side. It will be able to carry a payload of around 32,000lbs to LEO.

The Falcon 9, launched today, is larger sized version of the Falcon 1. It uses the same fuel mixture and is also a two stage rocket. It is a bit over twice the size of the Falcon 1. It launches to LEO but also to Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GEO, the orbit where GPS satellites sit, rotating at the same speed of the Earth, so they are always in the same place). Launch costs to LEO average at $48.6M for between 8,560kg to 10,450kg. Launch cost to GEO average the same, but for payloads around 4,600kg. (According to estimates, the Space Shuttle can launch the same LEO payload average around $418.2M. It can not launch directly to GEO). Falcon 9 has a launch thrust of 1,110,000 lbf in space.

The launch today seemed to go as planned. Although the first launch attempt was aborted at T-2 seconds to liftoff, this was reported to be a feature, not a bug; a safety measure to help ensure there is nothing wrong with the rocket at launch. The vehicle did liftoff the second time around, with the vehicle payload making it to orbit. The only reported mistake so far came when the recovery ships arrived to recover the first stage of the rocket. Apparently, the parachute to slow the decent did not deploy, and it hit hard on the water breaking into pieces. This is the reason for test launches, and the problem is sure to be corrected.

Tweetup Adventure Part 2

So now (finally), part 2 of the NASA tweetup day.

After the visit to the mission control building, the group split into two groups. Our badges we were given were color coded. I was in the blue group, with the other group being the green group. This split was so we could tour more 'tight spaced' buildings without disturbing any of the work force. Mostly for the Vehicle Mockup Building, or Building 9, as the tour we got there involved walking on the floor where work and training take place. A tour no normal tourist would get.

Our group first headed to the Neutral Buoyancy Lab, or the NBL. (NASA, if you haven't noticed already, really loves to use acronyms). The name of the building is Sonny Carter Training Facility, named after astronaut Sonny Carter who died in a plane crash. This is that place you see in Armageddon and other movies with the big pool. It is the place where astronauts train for spacewalks that an upcoming mission requires. If someone has to go out and change a battery on the ISS, they they first spend many, many hours training in this huge pool on what they will do. The astronauts, in their suits, are perfectly balanced in the water, so they essentially are weightless. It is a process that pretty much all astronauts must go through before they can fly to space.

This pool is massive. It has the truss section of the ISS running the length of the pool, with room left over for a mockup of the shuttle bay. It is forty feet deep and holds 6 million gallons of water. Up to six astronauts can train at a time in the pool, with each astronaut having four divers along with them. Two to help move the air hoes and the astronaut (its difficult to move underwater.....), one helps the astronaut with picking stuff up or moving his arms into the correct position, while the fourth watches the astronauts face at all times in case of any emergency. We were lucky enough to be given our tour by the Operation Manager of the facility.

Our next stop, the second to last, was Building 9, as mentioned earlier. Inside this huge building are full scale mockups of space craft and stations that are commonly used in orbit. Such as a full scale replica of the ISS and all its modules. There is a full scale shuttle mockup as well as a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. Two flight deck mockups of the shuttle also exists. One for liftoff and landing training, and one for orbit training.  One of the coolest things that I got to see happened during our tour. The large doors on the far side of the building opened up, and inside came a vehicle of some kind. Turned out to be one of the new lunar rover prototypes coming in from testing! We soon were able to walk down there and see it up close. Very cool indeed! To bad these probably will never see real action.

The final stop was rocket park. After being to Huntsville and KSC, this wasn't much of a 'rocket park' as it consisted of three rockets, but hey, I've never seen one of them before, so it was worth it. Plus, the Saturn V there is probably the only 'real' one in existence. Real, as in it is made up of parts from the Saturn Vs intended for Apollo 19 and 20 that were cancelled. The other two rockets were Mercury Redstone rocket, and a Fat Albert I think it was called? Can't really remember the name, but is was indeed a short and fat rocket used out at White Sands, NM to test the escape systems on the Apollo capsule, which it did successfully.

Well, that pretty much wraps up the trip. I know there are many, many small details I left out the might can been seen in my pictures. I do my best story telling in person instead of by typing or writing, so me telling you this all in person would give much more detail, as well as being much more efficient than my terrible writing. The best part to me personally happened after the event at the post-tweetup gathering, but that's a story for another time. Maybe around a year or so, it will be worth telling.

But on to new stuff now. I really enjoyed this trip, and can't thank NASA enough for this opportunity of a lifetime. I am extremely grateful, and hope to one day actually be working there!