Budgets, Commercial Spaceflight Dominate The Year

In the aerospace world in 2010, you couldn't escape the word "budget." Sweeping changes were made in the NASA budget, which could change  the course of how Americans participate in space exploration, and commercial companies made great strides in both space business and space tourism.

Here, then, is a sampling of the stories ANN reported in the category of Aerospace in 2010.

January

• NASA astronaut John Grunsfeld, who participated in three spaceflights to service the Hubble Space Telescope, became the deputy director of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore. The institute is the science operations center for Hubble and the James Webb Space Telescope, which is planned for launch in 2014.
• NASA Administrator Charles F. Bolden named David D. McBride  director of the agency's Dryden Flight Research Center on Edwards Air Force Base, CA. "David has done a terrific job as the acting Dryden director, and I am pleased he will be continuing as director," Bolden said. "David's expertise, leadership and flight research acumen will benefit NASA and the entire aerospace community."

  
  David D. McBride

• NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, has captured its first look at the starry sky that it will soon begin surveying in infrared light.
• The Navy's former Master Jet Base in Jacksonville, Florida, received a Launch Site Operators License from the FAA, making it the nation's 8th designated horizontal launch commercial spaceport.
• NASA launched an extensive investigation after a small amount of cocaine was found in a restricted area of the processing hangar for shuttle Discovery at Kennedy Space Center, FL.
• The Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel, or ASAP, has released its 2009 annual report.  The congressionally-mandated group of independent experts was initially established after the Apollo 1 fire. The panel was critical of NASA's Commercial Crew plans for human spaceflight.
• Reacting to that report, The Commercial Spaceflight Federation said it agrees with the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) on its recognition of the importance of commercial spaceflight both for cargo and crew missions, but disagreed with certain other conclusions and finds some of the assertions in the ASAP's Annual Report to be incorrect.
• Pilot and skydiver Felix Baumgartner announced his intention to become the first person ever to break the speed of sound with his own body.  As a part of the Red Bull Stratos mission, Baumgartner hoped to ascend to at least 120,000 feet in a capsule lifted by a helium balloon and, protected by a pressurized "space suit," launch a freefall jump that could exceed Mach 1.0 - more than 690 miles per hour - before parachuting to Earth.
• President Obama's budget was reported to contain no money for a return to the moon. The Constellation program that was to make that possible, as well as the Ares I rocket that would have replaced the Space Shuttle, and the Ares V heavy lift booster, were all expected to be put off for years, if not a decade or more
• But the Commercial Spaceflight Federation praised NASA's anticipated announcement of a $6 billion competitive, commercial crew program, and welcomes the President's show of support for NASA with his significant planned increase for NASA's overall budget.

February

• NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden held a news conference to outline the agency's budget for fiscal year 2011, in which the President zeroed out the Constellation and Ares programs which had been intended to return men to the moon.
• Buzz Aldrin, the second man to set foot on the lunar surface " strongly endorsed" the President’s new direction for NASA.

  

• But U.S. Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL), the ranking GOP member of the Commerce, Justice, Science (CJS) and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee, issued a statement sharply criticizing the Obama Administration’s proposed NASA budget for fiscal year 2011.
• And with the President's budget moving NASA away from carrying humans into space, the agency awarded $50 million through funded agreements to further the commercial sector's capability to support transport of crew to and from low Earth orbit.
• Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) conducted a three-day long demonstration of cargo loading and unloading procedures for its Dragon spacecraft, which NASA has contracted to provide delivery services to the International Space Station (ISS) starting in 2010.
• James Cameron, the writer and director of "Avatar" and "Titanic" who served on the NASA Advisory Council from 2003 to 2005, published an op-ed in The Washington Post endorsing commercial human spaceflight and President Obama's new plan for NASA.
• NASA and its international partners began looking forward to unprecedented scientific opportunities aboard the International Space Station (ISS). With station assembly nearing completion, the ISS Partnership is looking forward to using the station to its fullest capacity.
• Two former leaders of the Republican Party, Newt Gingrich and Bob Walker, urged current members of Congress to support President Obama's NASA budget, which was unveiled earlier this month.
• The Commercial Spaceflight Federation enthusiastically welcomed NASA's announcement that the agency will fund dozens of science and education payloads to fly on commercial suborbital vehicles built by companies including Armadillo Aerospace, Blue Origin, Masten Space Systems, Virgin Galactic, and XCOR Aerospace.

  

• The Space Exploration Alliance (SEA), the nation's largest coalition of non-profit space advocacy groups, made plans for its annual visit to Capitol Hill.

March

• The USAF X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle arrived in Florida to begin processing in anticipation of an April 19 launch aboard an Atlas V rocket.  The robotic spacecraft is a continuation of the X-37 program originally designed by NASA to test next-generation spaceflight technologies and transferred to DARPA in 2004.

  
  X-37B

• The Obama administration's desire to hand the reigns of human space flight over to private companies ran into stiff opposition on Capitol Hill, and NASA Administrator Charles Bolden is finding his management style the subject of some intense criticism as well.
• Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), Ranking Member on the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, introduced legislation to close the gap in U.S. human space flight that will occur if the space shuttle is retired before the next generation of space vehicle is developed.
• Boeing officially turned over the U.S. on-orbit segment of the International Space Station (ISS) to NASA with the signing Friday of government form DD-250 at the conclusion of an Acceptance Review Board meeting in Houston.
• At a meeting of the heads of the space agencies from the nations partnering in the International Space Station program, the group reaffirmed the importance of full exploitation of the station's scientific, engineering, utilization, and education potential.
• SpaceX announced a successful test firing of the inaugural Falcon 9 launch vehicle at Space Launch Complex 40 located at Cape Canaveral, FL.
• Two of the men who were part of NASA's lunar program told the BBC that the Obama Administration's decision to scrap a manned return to the moon could damage the nation's space program.
• Virgin Galactic announced that its commercial manned spaceship, VSS Enterprise, successfully completed its first "captive carry" test flight, taking off at 0705 PST from Mojave Air and Spaceport in California. 

April

• Roger L. Easton was recognized by the National Inventors Hall of Fame for pioneering achievements in spacecraft tracking and timing and navigation technology (TIMATION) that led to the development of critical enabling technologies of the NAVSTAR-Global Positioning System (GPS).  
• For the first time since women began flying in space 50 years ago, four were in space at the same time aboard ISS when Space Shuttle Discovery docked at the outpost.
• A team led by NASA and Boeing completed the first phase of flight tests on the subscale X-48B blended wing body aircraft at the agency's Dryden Flight Research Center in Edwards, CA.

  
  X-48B

• NASA signed a $335 million modification to the current International Space Station contract with the Russian Federal Space Agency for crew transportation, rescue and related services in 2013 and 2014.
• The first man to walk on the moon said President Obama's proposal to radically alter the nation's manned space program is "devastating."
• President Barack Obama spoke to about 200 people at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, saying that he is "100 percent committed to the future of NASA." The President had a mockup of the Orion crew capsule as a backdrop for the speech, which earlier this week he decided should be back in the NASA budget as an escape vehicle for ISS. 
• Air Force officials prepared to launch the U.S.'s newest and most advanced unmanned re-entry spacecraft April 21 at Cape Canaveral Air Station, FL.
• NASA made some changes to the target launch dates for the last two scheduled space shuttle flights. 

May

• Potential major changes in the NASA budget not withstanding, NASA's Pad Abort 1 flight test, a launch of the abort system designed for the Orion crew vehicle, lifted off at 0700 MDT Thursday at the U.S. Army's White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) near Las Cruces, NM.

  
  Orion Crew Module Mockup

• The U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation held a full committee hearing on the future of U.S. human space flight. NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, Astronauts Neil Armstrong (Apollo 11) and Eugene Cernan (Apollo 17), Norman Augustine, who chaired the Augustine Commission on human spaceflight, and John P. Holdren, Director, Office of Science and Technology Policy all testified before the committee.
• The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), along with its board of directors, named Roger Myers, general manager of  Aerojet, as a 2010 Fellow.
• With spectacular weather and some of the finest professional and amateur rocket researchers and hobbyists in the world to overlook the proceedings, the 2010 TARC was an unqualified success. A team from Penn Manor High School in Millersville, PA, took first place at the Eighth Annual TARC, Saturday, earning the title of national champion.
• Virgin Galactic appointed George T. Whitesides as its first Chief Executive Officer. In this role, Whitesides will guide the business through its transition from a development project to a commercially operational business.
• Space shuttle Atlantis delivered science experiments and a new Russian laboratory to the International Space Station, continuing the transition from station assembly to continuous scientific research through the end of the decade.
• The Japanese Space Agency (JAXA) launched a mission to Venus that is carrying a probe to study the planet's atmosphere as well as a spacecraft that will be powered only by a solar sail.
• The Planetary Society joined the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Astronomical Society, the Universities Space Research Association and other groups to support the NASA budget proposal for fiscal year 2011.
• Space shuttle Atlantis and six astronauts ended a 12-day journey of more than 4.8 million miles with an 0848 EDT landing at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It was Atlantis' final planned mission.
• Masten Space Systems successfully demonstrated in-air engine re-light capability Wednesday at the company's test facility in Mojave, CA. Xombie, Masten's most-flown vehicle, became the first VTVL vehicle to successfully re-light a rocket engine in flight.

  
  Masten Xombie

June

• During a visit to the John F. Kennedy Space Center Wednesday, Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis (pictured, right) announced a grant of $15 million to assist approximately 3,200 workers who will be impacted by the impending retirement of NASA's Space Shuttle Program. 
• The day was not without its drama, but just minutes before the launch window closed, SpaceX moved a giant step closer to commercial re-supply of ISS, and boosted the fortunes of the commercial space industry literally into orbit.

  
  First Falcon 9 Launch

• Bill Nye ... yes THAT Bill Nye known to millions of television viewers as "The Science Guy" ... took the helm as the new Executive Director of the Planetary Society.
• Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), Ranking Member of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, said that NASA leadership was skirting the law to shut down the Constellation program after publicly announcing a decision to reprioritize work on the program.
• The Orion crew exploration vehicle took shape as the two halves of the crew module were fused together at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, LA.
• Former Mercury astronaut John Glenn, who later became a United States Senator from Ohio and participated in a shuttle mission as a lawmaker, says that NASA should not retire the shuttle until a new U.S. space transportation system is ready to fly.

  

• In an open letter to the United States Congress, a group of more than 50 "space leaders" ... executives, former astronauts, space scientists, space journalists, and others ... urged the legislature to both fully fund the commercial crew to Space Station program proposed in the President's FY2011 budget request for NASA, and accelerate the pace and funding of NASA's human space exploration projects beyond Earth orbit.
• NASA began to make noises that the final two space shuttle flights would be delayed by several months, extending the program until February of 2011.
• The President submitted to Congress a fiscal year 2011 budget amendment that targets up to $100 million toward spurring regional economic growth and job creation in the aerospace industry.
• NASA senior managers met with their counterparts representing other space agencies at the National Harbor, MD, to discuss globally-coordinated human and robotic space exploration.
• President Obama announced the administration’s new National Space Policy, which he said expressed his direction for the nation’s space activities, and articulates his commitment to reinvigorating U.S. leadership in space for the purposes of maintaining space as a stable and productive environment for the peaceful use of all nations.

July

• NASA adjusted target dates for the last two shuttle missions  because critical payload hardware for STS-133 would not be ready in time to support the previously planned Sept. 16 launch.
• In an interview with Al Jazeera television, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden (pictured) said his, and by extension NASA's "foremost" mission is to improve U.S./Muslim relations. And he said President Obama has given him that task.  The White House would not back up that statement, as spokesman Robert Gibbs said President Barack Obama did not assign the new NASA administrator the task of reaching out to Muslim governments.

  
  Charles Bolden

• The Orion crew exploration vehicle successfully completed the Phase 1 Safety Review of NASA's Human Rating Requirements for space exploration in low Earth orbit and beyond.
• The FAA approved a Launch Site Operator's License for Space Florida to facilitate commercial launches from Space Launch Complex 46 (SLC-46).
• Scaled Composites and Virgin Galactic moved a step closer to their first suborbital passenger flights with VSS Enterprise, as the ship flew for the first time with a crew of two on board.
• Xtraordinary Adventures, in conjunction with RocketShip Tours, began taking reservations for space flights on The Lynx, XCOR Aerospace's newest fully reusable rocket powered suborbital vehicle. With the lowest published price in the industry, the RocketShip Tours / Xtraordinary Adventures offers a complete package of training, medical screening and suborbital flight for $95,000.
• The Planetary Society issued a statement about the request that the U.S. House of Representatives suspend the rules when voting on the NASA Authorization bill. 

August

• The United States Senate approved bipartisan legislation its authors say will safeguard America’s human spaceflight capabilities, while balancing commercial space investment with a robust mission for NASA.
• Flight Engineers Doug Wheelock and Tracy Caldwell Dyson completed the third contingency spacewalk to install a spare ammonia pump module on the S1 Truss. The original pump module failed July 31, and ground controllers powered down numerous station systems and readjusted them to provide maximum redundancy. 

  

• NASA hosted a forum to present an overview of common themes captured from industry responses to NASA's Commercial Crew Initiative Request For Information (RFI).
• U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson announced a plan aimed at boosting the commercial rocket industry and attracting thousands of jobs to Florida’s Space Coast and further lessen the impact from the wind-down of the space shuttle program.
• WhiteKnightTwo, which is designed to serve as the launch platform for Virgin Galactic's Spaceship Two, was slightly damaged when the aircraft had what was described by Scaled Composites as a mechanical problem with its left main landing gear.

  
  WhiteKnightTwo

• SpaceX successfully completed a high altitude drop test of its Dragon capsule - meeting 100% of test objectives. This was the last in a series of tests to validate parachute deployment systems and recovery operations before the craft's first launch.
• NASA said that it will be supportive of commercial companies who seek to build human-rated space vehicles, and hoped to be able to offer $5.8 billion to back up those words.

September

• NASA's Commercial Reusable Suborbital Research Program (CRuSR) awarded a total of approximately $475,000 to Armadillo Aerospace of Rockwall, TX and Masten Space Systems of Mojave, CA. The awards will allow the two companies to perform test flights of their experimental vehicles near the edge of space.
• NASA extended the Space Program Operations Contract with United Space Alliance, LLC of Houston to March 31, 2011. The $909,593,590 contract extension supports flight operations for the Space Shuttle and International Space Station programs.
• The Canadian Space Agency delivered a test unit of its contribution to the James Webb Space Telescope, successor of the Hubble Space Telescope, to NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.

  
  Canadian Space Agency Webb Guidance Sensor

• After undergoing a major overhaul and upgrades, the Boeing / NASA X-48B Blended Wing Body research aircraft resumed flight tests from NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base, CA.
• The International Space Station partner agencies met via videoconference to discuss continuation of space station operations into the next decade and its use as a research laboratory.
• The Commercial Spaceflight Federation said that it strongly supports Senate bill S.3729, the NASA Authorization Act of 2010, which has been approved unanimously by the Senate.   The House of Representatives approved the bill with bipartisan support by a vote of 304 to 118.

October

• The FAA announced a new grant program designed to fund projects that develop and expand commercial space transportation infrastructure. The Space Transportation Infrastructure Matching Grants will be awarded to four separate projects located in Alaska, California, Florida, and New Mexico.
• SpaceX continued preparations for the next launch of a Falcon 9 rocket, which will include the first flight of an operational Dragon spacecraft. November 8 is currently the projected launch date.

  

• Space Experience Curaçao (SXC) and XCOR Aerospace, Inc. announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for the wet lease of a production version of the Lynx suborbital spacecraft, pending United States government approvals.
• The Russian Space Agency Roscosmos said that the Soyuz TMA-20 spacecraft which is intended to transport a crew to the ISS in December was damaged in transport to the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
• In a flight that moved the world a big step closer to commercial sub-orbital space tourism, Virgin Galactic successfully completed the first piloted free flight of SpaceShipTwo, named the VSS Enterprise. The spaceship was released from its mothership at an altitude of 45,000 ft and glided to a landing at Mojave Air and Space Port in California.

  
  SpaceShipTwo First Glide Flight

• President Barack Obama signed the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Authorization Act of 2010 into law setting spending levels for the space agency, and setting the stage for greater commercial participation in space.
• The Isle of Man Government hosted entrepreneurs and innovators from around the world last week for the 4th annual Google Lunar X PRIZE Team Summit.
• The New Mexico Spaceport Authority (NMSA) dedicated the nearly two-mile long "Governor Bill Richardson Spaceway" at Spaceport America , representing significant progress toward launching commercial customers into space from the desert of New Mexico.

November

• The Space Shuttle Program Mission Management Team decided to delay the final launch of Discovery by at least one day. The shuttle is scheduled for an 11-day mission to the International Space Station.  It was the first in a series of delays that would push the final launch into February.
• NASA usually goes the other way ... that is to say ... up. But when 33 miners were trapped nearly a half mile below the surface of the earth, a team of the space agency's employees was called on to assist in the rescue.
• Nov. 2, 2000, marked the 10th anniversary of the arrival of the first crew aboard the International Space Station to live and work aboard the orbiting laboratory. In a statement commemorating that event, NASA administrator Charles Bolden called the milestone significant for both NASA and its partners in the ISS.
• NASA selected 13 companies for negotiations leading to potential contract awards to conduct systems analysis and trade studies for evaluating heavy-lift launch vehicle system concepts, propulsion technologies, and affordability.
• A successful test-firing was conducted of a liquid-fuel AJ26 engine developed to power the first stage of Orbital Sciences Corp.'s Taurus II space launch vehicle at NASA's John C. Stennis Space Center in Mississippi.
• At least one traditional airline is testing the space tourism waters. KLM Royal Dutch Airlines announced that they were embarking upon a new relationship with Space Experience Curacao (SXC).

  
  XCOR Lynx Suborbital Spacecraft

• NASA Administrator Charles Bolden was among the heads of the world's space agencies to participate in a summit held specifically for those leaders in Washington, DC.
• The FAA made SpaceX the first-ever commercial company to receive a license to re-enter a spacecraft from orbit.

December

• As the International Space Station transitions from its assembly phase to full utilization as a unique scientific outpost, NASA is investing in the station's future use by ensuring a wide pool of organizations outside the agency have access to the orbiting lab. 
• The U.S. Air Force's first unmanned re-entry spacecraft landed at Vandenberg Air Force Base.
• As 2010 neared its end, United Launch Alliance (ULA) celebrated its fourth anniversary with 45 successful launches in the company's 48 months of operation.
• NASA announced that the first demonstration flight of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule for NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program was scheduled for Wednesday, Dec. 8, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The first attempt was scrubbed after engineers discovered two small cracks in the aft end of the 2nd stage engine nozzle expansion. The spacecraft finally launched successfully a few days later.

  

• NASA Administrator Charles Bolden praised SpaceX on its successful launch of a Falcon 9 rocket carrying a Dragon demonstration COTS vehicle which is slated to begin carrying cargo to ISS next year.
• Who says rocket scientists don't have a sense of humor? Before the successful launch, voyage, and recovery of SpaceX's Dragon Spacecraft, the first time in history a commercial company has recovered a spacecraft from orbit, reporters were buzzing with news of a "secret" payload, stowed on board.

  

FMI: www.aero-news.net