Friendship 7's Flight 50 Years Ago

As a child, I remembered asking my parents to go outside into the backyard to see if I could look up in the sky to see the Mercury capsule that was supposely flying over Texas at the time.

I would have been 2-3 years old when that happened and this memory just came up while thinking about the true meaning of this post... 50 years ago, one John Glenn Jr. in his capsule, the Friendship 7; soared into history.

Glenn's flight also marked the first time that NASA used the Atlas rocket to launch a manned Mercury capsule.

Only three orbits were made.  A decision was made to end the flight sooner rather than later due to the heat shield issue.  Glenn survived the successful re-entry by keeping the thruster pack in place - thus hold the heat shield in place.  He became a hero at that point and there was no turning back.  Politics kept him on the ground after that flight.

Fifty years is a long time.  We still have the USAF B-52s and C-130s still flying (aircraft can always be upgraded).  As for space, the Atlas has grown into the Atlas V and it too (in a sense, is still flying).

United Launch Alliance is prepping the Atlas V to be able to take three different types of spacecraft up to the International Space Station. Boeing has the CST-100 spacecraft that they are building. Then there is Sierra Nevada Corp's Dream Chaser mini-shuttle that can be stuck on top of a Atlas V.

But, getting back to John Glenn now.  He denies it, but the movie and book title "The Right Stuff" is firmly attached to his name for the rest of eternity.

Quoting the NSS blog post:  “A true American hero, Glenn ushered in American orbital spaceflight 50 years ago and brought the U.S. into the space age in earnest,” said NSS Executive Director Paul E. Damphousse.  “His service to this nation reminds us of the bravery, determination, and excitement needed to achieve these ambitious goals – we hope his example will serve to further motivate our progress in space.” end quote.

Let's also not forget that SENATOR John Glenn also has the record for being the oldest person (so far) to have travel in space.  He flew on STS-95 (shuttle Discovery) at the ripe old age of 77 for a nine-day mission.

John Glenn Jr. is a member of the NSS Board of Governors and NSS Executive Director Paul E. Damphousse added this quote:  “We expect to build upon his legacy as we advance our goals in space over the next 50 years.”  end quote.



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Ref.
1. SpaceFrontier.org."Friendship 7’s legacy is safe with Commercial Crew" by Space Fontier Foundation.  February 20, 2012. ( http://spacefrontier.org/2012/02/20/friendship-7s-legacy/ ).
2. NSS Blog. "NSS Salutes John Glenn on 50th Anniversary of Friendship 7 Space Flight" February 20, 2012. (http://blog.nss.org/?p=3300).
3. image from nasa files of Atlas/Frendship 7 launch. (http://grin.hq.nasa.gov/IMAGES/SMALL/GPN-2000-000686.jpg).

Orbital Sciences Corp Offers Up Shuttle Replacement

The Dulles, Viginia, based Orbital Scien

ces Corp. announced on Tuesday, that it had

officially submitted a proposal to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to build a winged space vehicle for astronaut transportation to and from earth orbit once NASA’s space shuttle is retired.

The design is of the "blended lifting body" type. Its design history goes back to 2002/2003 when Orbital did a study for NASA back then. The vehicle is designed with four seats allowing room for commercial passengers.

This new vehicle would normally use the Atlas V rocket as its booster and return for a conventional landing on a runway after its mission was completed.

Lockheed Martin Corp however, is going along with a capsule sim

ilar to Apollo/Orion with parachute landing.

My personal opinion on this matter is that I hope Orbital beats the pants off of the Lochkeed Martin proposal. Does anybody remember VentureStar? I personally do not want to see our nation just turns its back to the idea of a winged spacecraft that is able to land on a regular runway.

UPDATE December 18, 2010: At the NASA Dryden space center, a 15% scale model of Sierra Nevada Corporation's Dream Chaser spacecraft design was test dropped from a helicopter.

The company's full size version is based upon NASA's HL-20 lifting body. The Sierra Nevada Corporation's (SNC) Dream Chaser is designed to carry up to seven people to the ISS and back. It will be launched vertically on a Atlas V rocket and recover horizontally on conventional runways.

Using a Bell 206B3 Jet Ranger helicopter, the model was attached to a 100-foot long cable and dropped from an altitude of 14,000 feet. Landing this time was done via a parachute. The scale model was built by a team of experts from SNC and the Research and Engineering Center for Unmanned Vehicles at the University of Colorado at Boulder (CU).

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Ref.

1. Bizjournals.com "Orbital Sciences proposes shuttle replacement" by Tucker Echols. December 15, 2010.(http://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/news/2010/12/15/orbital-proposes-shuttle-replace.html).

2.SpaceFellowship.com (http://spacefellowship.com/news/art24418/orbital-submits-proposal-for-nasa-s-commercial-crew-development-program.html).

3. Update link "Dream Chaser Model Drops in at NASA Dryden" (http://www.comspacewatch.com/news/viewsr.rss.html?pid=35563).

Space Spies & Soviet Era Spaceships to Fly Commercial Missions Now

Well, time to get back to the main focus of this blog - Aerospace Technology. Cruising through the Space.com website this weekend, I uncovered four articles that I thought were worthy of mentioned.

First was a recent posting by Space.com writer Tariq Malik about a commercial company going to re-use several Soviet-era Reusable Return Vehicle (RRV) that they used to fly up to their military space stations-the Almaz class space station in the 1970s.

Made up of two sections, the cone shape RRV can carry three people. A commander and two passengers. The RRVs will be updated with modern equipment and technology.

The announcement was made at the Moscow Air Show in Russia. Price per ticket has yet to be revealed.

That company, Excalibur Almaz Limited, based out of the Isle of Man, has managed to get a hold of several RRVs that were in storage.

Next, Robert Bigelow to the rescue to save Project Orion! He is proposing a "stripped" down version of the Orion capsule known as Orion Lite. He even had a private meeting with the White house-charted panel on the future of the space program.

Quoting that article: In a July 30 interview with Space News, Mike Gold, director of Bigelow's Washington office, said he believes a low Earth-orbit optimized version of Orion could be ready to launch atop a human-rated version of the Atlas 5 within three or four years — much sooner than NASA's discredited March 2015 target for the first crewed launch of Orion and its Ares I rocket.

Gold said the Bigelow capsule would have the same outer mold line as NASA's 16-foot (5-meter) wide Orion and possibly the same internal pressure vessel, but little else in common."

A unique twist to this proposal is the mid-air capture of the Orion lite instead of letting it splash down in the ocean. Quote: One of the biggest deviations from NASA's Orion design involves the vehicle's landing system. Whereas NASA plans call for Orion to make an Apollo-style splashdown in the ocean, Bigelow is considering midair retrieval as a safer and more economical means to land the spacecraft following atmospheric re-entry.

"Air-capture is a strategy that has been implemented many times in the past, but never done at weights as high as a capsule," Gold said.

Midair capture was used by the military during World War II to recover gliders and during the 1960s to catch film canisters dropped from Corona spy satellites orbiting overhead.

The third bit of news is now more than a year old. There was a documentary (that I never heard about sadly) about Soviet and American military space flight operations and proposed spaceflight activities. Photo attached to this post is from www.deepcold.com showing the MOL in action.

You really need to read this article and check out the www.deepcold.com website. Somehow, reading through all that - I was thinking about the Mattel 6" tall action figure known as Major Matt Mason. And the fact that the U.S. Air Force went to the trouble to have "blue" color spacesuits made for their cancelled MOL(Manned Orbital Laboratory-1965) and Dyna-Soar orbital interceptor projects. How do we know this? Because NASA uncovered them in a long-sealed room at Cape Canaveral, FL, by accident in 2005. The program was aired on PBS as "NOVA: Astrospies."

Finally, there was this article by Bill Christensen posted on February 15, 2006, entitled "Anti gravity Propulsion System Proposed."

Dr. Franklin Felber presented a paper at the 2006 Space Technology and Applications International Forum (STAIF) that was held in Albuquerque, NM, February 14, 2006.

Quote: Dr. Felber's paper states that a mass moving faster than 57.7 percent of the speed of light will gravitationally repel other masses lying within a narrow 'anti gravity beam' in front of it. This "beam" intensifies as the speed of the mass approaches that of light.

The link to his actual paper appears to be broken now. So I was unable to download it to read it in detail.

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Ref. Space.com "Soviet-Era Spaceships to Fly Commercial Space Missions" by Tariq Malik, August 18, 2009. (http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/090818-excalibur-almaz-spaceships.html).

Space.com. "Nevada Company Pitches 'Lite' Concept for NASA's New Spaceship." by Amy Klamper. August 14, 2009. (http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/090814-orion-lite.html).

Space.com "Space Spies Revealed in New Documentary" by Tariq Malik. February 12, 2008. (http://www.space.com/entertainment/080212-astrospies-mol.html).

Space.com "Antigravity Propulsion System Proposed" by Bill Christensen. February 15, 2006. (http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/060215_technovel_antigravity.html).

USAF X-37 Project to Fly Next Year

The joint U.S. Air Force and Boeing project known as the X-37B - the unpiloted military space plane, is gearing up for its first flight in January 2010.

It will be launched on top of a Atlas V Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) from Cape Canaveral, Florida.  Orbit the Earth, then make a auto-pilot landing in California.

The X-37B had its beginings in July 1999 with the Boeing Phantom Works.  In 2002, NASA awarded Boeing a $301 million doalr contract to develope the X-37 flight vehicle. It is a 27.5 feet long and 15 foot wingspan, and weighs five tons. 

The RE-USABLE space plane is a testbed for dozens of technologies in airframe, propulsion, and operation.

Quoting from that article, "Potential new commercial and military reusable space vehicle market applications for these technologies range from on-orbit satellite repair to the next-generation of totally resuable launch vehciles" source is past Boeing-issued briefing material.

My question to the reading public is this... Why not scale this up for manned space operations?  Used the Jupiter Booster design or even the Aries V as the primary booster?

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Ref. Space.com June 02, 2009, "U.S. Air Force Aims to Launch Space Plane Next Year" by Leonard David. (http://www.space.com/news/090602-x-37b-space-plane.html)

Obama: Pentagon and NASA To Work Ever Closer

In a article posted to Bloomberg.com (on January 02, 2009) and later on Drudge Report.com (where I found out about it); President-elect Barack Obama wants the Pentagon and NASA to work together to speed up a mission to the moon to counter what many preceive to be a new space race - between China and the United States of America. As a part of this effort to boost coperation between the two govermental agencies, the Obama team is promising to revive the National Aeronautics and Space Council which was in effect back in the First Space race era (basically from 1958 to 1973). The photograph above is of China's first space walk last year.

The Obama transition team is looking into a collaboraton between the Department of Defense (DoD) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)because the rockets used my the military are cheaper and more readly availiable than the space agency's planned Orion/Aries launch system. The later isn't expected to fly until around 2015 - five years after the shuttles are to be ground according to the rules that the President George W. Bush administration set into place.

One doesn't have to be in the Defense Department nor a Pentagon planner to be concerned over China's space ambitions. DoD is more concern over the fact of China's anti-satellite warfare capablitiy than if they land on the moon. But the technology to get to the moon such as in-orbit rendevous and docking, have our DoD sleeping less these nights.

The Pentagon's space budget is several times larger than the NASA budget. In the article, it was quoted as being about $22 billion for fiscal year 2008. That money, the Obama team sees, can be tapped in order to get the Orion/Aries moving quicker to flight status. And the Pentagon is actually in support of combining launch vehicles. NASA hasn't spoken with the Pentagon over man rating the Delta IV and or the Atlas V rockets built by United Launch Alliance (a joint venture of Boeing and Bethesda, which is a Maryland-based Lockheed Martin Corp.). The Delta IV and the Atlas V are designed for launching satellites.

One would think that it would not take too much time to man rate the newest generation of the Atlas booster. The Delta series has never launched a human occuplied space capsule. It would take longer to man rate it than the Atlas V.

As it current stands, China will be able to get their people to the moon before we can get back there. China space agency currently plans on testing a auto-docking system in 2010.

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Ref. article "Obama Moves to Counter China with Pentagon-NASA Link Part 1."by Demian McLean ( http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aOvrNO0OJ41g&refer=worldwide )