Oct 1 2012

From The Space Library

RELEASE: 12-339 NASA AWARDS SPACE LAUNCH SYSTEM ADVANCED BOOSTER CONTRACTS

WASHINGTON -- NASA has awarded three contracts totaling $137.3 million to improve the affordability, reliability and performance of an advanced booster for the Space Launch System (SLS). The awardees will develop engineering demonstrations and risk reduction concepts for a future version of the SLS, a heavy-lift rocket that will provide an entirely new capability for human exploration beyond low Earth orbit. The initial 77-ton (70-metric-ton) SLS configuration will use two 5-segment solid rocket boosters similar to the boosters that helped power the space shuttle to orbit. The evolved 143-ton (130-metric-ton) SLS vehicle will require an advanced booster with more thrust than any existing U.S. liquid- or solid-fueled boosters. These new initiatives will demonstrate and examine advanced booster concepts and hardware demonstrations during a 30-month period. The companies selected for SLS Advanced Booster contracts are: -- ATK Launch Systems Inc. of Brigham City, Utah, which will demonstrate innovations for a solid-fueled booster. The contract addresses the key risks associated with low-cost solid propellant boosters, particularly in the areas of composite case design and development, propellant development and characterization, nozzle design and affordability enhancement, and avionics and controls development. -- Dynetics Inc. of Huntsville, Ala., which will demonstrate the use of modern manufacturing techniques to produce and test several primary components of the F-1 rocket engine originally developed for the Apollo Program, including an integrated powerpack, the primary rotating machinery of the engine. Additionally, the contract will demonstrate innovative fabrication techniques for metallic cryogenic tanks. -- Northrop Grumman Corporation Aerospace Systems of Redondo Beach, Calif., which will demonstrate innovative design and manufacturing techniques for composite propellant tanks with low fixed costs and affordable production rates. Independent time and motion studies will compare demonstration affordability data to SLS advanced booster development, production and operations. Additional contracts may be awarded following successful negotiation of other proposals previously received for this NASA Research Announcement (NRA), subject to funding availability. Designed to be flexible for launching payloads and spacecraft, including NASA's Orion spacecraft that will take humans beyond low Earth orbit, SLS will enable the agency to meet the Obama Administration's goal of sending humans to an asteroid by 2025 and to Mars in the 2030s. The first flight test of NASA's SLS, an uncrewed mission to lunar orbit, which will feature a configuration for a 77-ton lift capacity, is scheduled for 2017. As SLS evolves, a two-stage launch vehicle configuration will provide a lift capability of 143 tons and include the improved, more powerful advanced booster. These new contracts are funded under an NRA risk mitigation effort and acquisition. There will be a future competition for design, development, testing and evaluation for the SLS advanced booster. This future competition is planned for 2015 and will be acquired through a separate solicitation. The 2015 competition will not be limited to awardees announced in this NRA. Successful offerors to this NRA are not guaranteed an award for any future advanced booster acquisition. As NASA endeavors to send humans to a range of new destinations, agency initiatives are helping develop a U.S. commercial space transportation industry with the goal of achieving safe, reliable and cost-effective transportation to and from the International Space Station and low Earth orbit. Ongoing advances made by NASA's commercial space partners are paving the way for regular contract flights of cargo to the space station and marking progress toward a launch of astronauts from U.S. soil in the next five years. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. manages the SLS Program for the agency. SLS will launch from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

RELEASE: M12-342 AMERICAN RESUPPLY MISSIONS TO THE SPACE STATION PROGRESSING

WASHINGTON -- Orbital Sciences Corporation Monday rolled the first stage of its Antares rocket to the launch pad of the nation's newest spaceport - the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at Wallops Island, Va. - while in Florida, Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) moves ahead with preparations for an Oct. 7 launch to the International Space Station for NASA's first Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) mission. These developments mark progress in returning space station resupply missions to American soil. With rollout of the Antares rocket, Orbital continues toward a series of tests at the launch pad that will lead to a planned flight test later this year. The company also will fly a demonstration mission to the space station to test both the Antares rocket and Cygnus cargo spacecraft in the coming months. The milestones will be completed prior to beginning formal cargo delivery missions to the space station under NASA's CRS agreement. Sunday, SpaceX conducted a successful static fire test of its Falcon 9 rocket. The test was part of a full dress rehearsal in preparation for the first of 12 contracted flights by the company to resupply the space station following a successful demonstration mission in May. The Oct. 7 launch is scheduled for 8:35 p.m. EDT from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. "Today's rollout of Orbital's Antares test vehicle and the upcoming SpaceX mission are significant milestones in our effort to return space station resupply activities to the United States and insource the jobs associated with this important work," said NASA Associate Administrator for Communications David Weaver. "NASA's commercial space program is helping to ensure American companies launch our astronauts and their supplies from U.S. soil."

MEDIA ADVISORY: M/12-196 NASA CHIEF TECHNOLOGIST VISITS EMERGENT SPACE TECH IN MARYLAND OCT. 15

WASHINGTON -- NASA Chief Technologist Mason Peck will visit Emergent Space Technologies Inc. of Greenbelt, Md., at 3:30 p.m. EDT Monday, Oct. 15. The visit is part of NASA's ongoing recognition of American small businesses, which create new technologies that enable future missions while also creating new products, services and jobs. Journalists are invited to join Peck and Emergent President George Davis during the one-hour tour of Emergent Space Technology's offices, located at 6411 Ivy Lane, Suite 303, in Greenbelt. Officials will be available to speak with reporters and take part in a photo opportunity during the tour. Emergent Space Technologies provides consulting and engineering services to the civil, commercial, and military space industries around ITS core competencies of systems engineering; guidance, navigation and control; software development, and space mission automation. A recipient of numerous NASA Small Business Innovation Research awards, the company is a provider of advanced technology to NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt as well as other NASA centers around the country.