CST-100

[Grumant]

Союзы долго наращивали свой ресурс, прежде чем отпала необходимость в замене кораблей на орбите. Американские капсулы сразу по полгода летать будут?

[fredddy]

Grumant пишет:
Союзы долго наращивали свой ресурс, прежде чем отпала необходимость в замене кораблей на орбите. Американские капсулы сразу по полгода летать будут?

Конечно же не сразу. Тоже будут наращивать ресурс.
Вот например x37 так наращивал - 225 дней, 468, 674 дня.

[Grumant]

X37 беспилотно наростил свой ресурс. Посмотрим на возможности пилотируемых иксов.

[Grus]

sychbird пишет:
Интересно, а то что речь зашла именно о СST -100, а не о Dragone имеет какое-то значение в смысле прогнозов НАСА о времени первого полета к МКС нового поколения американских пилотируемых кораблей  :?:

Носитель CST-100 сертифицирован, сам CST-100 прошел бросковые испытания. В отличии.

[Настоящий Искандер]

значит уже выбрали

[Искандер]

Grus пишет:

sychbird пишет:
Интересно, а то что речь зашла именно о СST -100, а не о Dragone имеет какое-то значение в смысле прогнозов НАСА о времени первого полета к МКС нового поколения американских пилотируемых кораблей  :?:  

Носитель CST-100 сертифицирован, сам CST-100 прошел бросковые испытания. В отличии.

Ну, а САС?

[Антон]

Grus пишет:

sychbird пишет:
Интересно, а то что речь зашла именно о СST -100, а не о Dragone имеет какое-то значение в смысле прогнозов НАСА о времени первого полета к МКС нового поколения американских пилотируемых кораблей  :?:  

Носитель CST-100 сертифицирован, сам CST-100 прошел бросковые испытания. В отличии.

Зато основа пилотируемого дракона уже успешно в космос летает, в отличии

[Not]

Антон пишет:

Grus пишет:

Носитель CST-100 сертифицирован, сам CST-100 прошел бросковые испытания. В отличии.

Зато основа пилотируемого дракона уже успешно в космос летает, в отличии

Успешно летать в космос для Боинга проблемой не является, а значит и надобности запускать функционально ограниченные кастрюли нет, в отличии.

[Veganin]

Антон пишет:
Зато основа пилотируемого дракона уже успешно в космос летает, в отличии

Если говорить точно, то в космос летает совершенно другая машина, другое изделие.

[Salo]

http://www.spaceflightinsider.com/missions/commercial/rockets-commercial-crew-launches-begin-come-together/

Rockets for Commercial Crew launches begin to come together   

Boeing's Chris Ferguson said the first two Atlas V's to launch the CST-100 will have a parking spot on United Launch Alliance's factory floor in Decatur soon. Photo Credit: ULA         
             
NASA
March 23rd, 2015          
                                 
The codes AV-073 and AV-080 may not mean much to many, but they mean a whole lot to former astronaut Chris Ferguson and the team of engineers and technicians who will assemble the first Atlas V rocket to launch a crew to the International Space Station. That test and a precursor flight without crew are part of the final development work Boeing is completing with NASA's Commercial Crew Program to certify a new crew transportation system for low-Earth orbit.
On its factory floor in Decatur, Alabama, United Launch Alliance, or ULA, is beginning to fabricate parts for the two rockets that are to launch Boeing's CST-100 spacecraft in 2017.
As Boeing's director of Crew and Mission Systems for the company's commercial crew division, Ferguson toured ULA's assembly factory this week to watch the rockets begin to take shape. Ferguson's last spacecraft, NASA's space shuttle Atlantis, already was built and had achieved veteran spaceflight status years before "Fergie," as he is known, climbed into the commander's seat for the last of the shuttle missions in 2011. Beginning later this year, the CST-100 spacecraft that will launch atop the Atlases will be assembled at another place familiar to Ferguson, a former space shuttle hangar at NASA's Kennedy Space Center.
"The last time we were at this stage of development for a human spacecraft was in the 1970s when we were building the shuttle," Ferguson said. "I have Apollo manuals on my desk — not to copy designs but to understand how they did it and to validate the decisions we've made with regard to provisions for the crew, what kind of spacesuits they wear, what kind of seats they sit in, and why they sit that way. Engineers put an enormous amount of thought into many low-level designs decades ago, but now we're trying to recreate the "why" behind all that. It's a little intimidating, but it's fun. You learn why the space program took the shape it is today over five decades ago."
Just like airplanes, rockets have unique tail numbers, or codes, that distinguish them from one another. AV-073 is the 73rd Atlas V that will be built, and AV-080 is the 80th in the line of boosters. Both have another distinguishing characteristic from other Atlas V launch vehicles, as well – since no previous Atlas V has carried people into space, these will be the first to be certified to launch humans. Up until this point, the rockets have been used to lift more than 60 critical missions without people: satellites, robotic probes and even the Mars rovers.
"To have Chris come in and talk to the team really put a face to the program," said Fred Hernandez, production operations chief engineer for ULA. "We're so used to launching things, and so to get to see the people involved in the launching of humans means we're that much closer to our goal."
The factory is building pieces of the rocket unique to the CST-100/Atlas V stack that will be used in the testing regimen. The adapter connecting the top of the rocket's upper stage to the spacecraft, for example, is a new piece that has been meticulously designed and must be built with equal care.
"There are a lot of different major structures for the flight test vehicles that are going through the factory now," Hernandez said.
Manufacturing also has begun for the fuel and oxygen tanks of the Centaur upper stage that will provide the final push to get the CST-100 and its crews into Earth obit.
"They begin constructing the rocket about 18 months in advance, so it's still a little early, but a lot of the parts that will go into our first vehicle are here," Ferguson said. "So component-level assembly's going on. We don't have a parking spot out here yet, but it comes very soon. And by the end of the year we will have an actual slot.  It'll become very, very real when that happens."

Chris Ferguson, a former astronaut, talks to engineers and technicians who will assemble the first Atlas V rockets to launch crews aboard Boeing's CST-100 to the International Space Station for NASA's Commercial Crew flight tests.
 Photo Credit: ULA
 
NASA's Commercial Crew Program relied on years of human spaceflight experience to develop the requirements needed to ensure transportation systems are qualified to fly astronauts. Through a Commercial Crew Transportation Capability, or CCtCap, contract, NASA will work with Boeing to ensure its rocket, spacecraft and associated ground and mission systems are safe and reliable.
For starters, each Atlas V will carry an extensive suite of sensors and fly with a robust computer that together will be able to detect a problem in the booster as it launches and ascends into space. Although unlikely to occur, a problem severe enough to risk the mission would trigger an abort sequence for the rocket that would automatically eject the spacecraft and carry its astronaut crew back to Earth safely. Additionally, the boosters for the CST-100 flights will use a Centaur upper stage fitted with two RL10 engines, instead of the usual single engine, to provide added performance.
"We fortunately don't see a lot of surprises in manufacturing," Hernandez said. "The Atlas line builds 10 or 11 rockets a year, and that rhythm alone helps to minimize a lot of the issues that we could have."
AV-073 will be outfitted as though it is carrying a crew but will fly the CST-100 without astronauts in an orbital flight test, a significant step on Boeing's path to certification.
AV-080 is the rocket that will carry the first people inside a CST-100 for a flight into space. Still a flight test, the objective is to launch the Atlas V from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and place the CST-100 on a path to the station. Crew members will fly to the orbiting laboratory and stay there for a few days while the spacecraft's systems are evaluated for their performance. The flight test crew would then use the vehicle to return home to the United States, completing the test.
Although still about two years away, the flight tests are close enough to prompt excitement and ramp up anticipation almost daily at the Atlas V assembly hall.
"We're obviously very proud of our success rate, and we're sort of taking the approach that we have a recipe for mission success, and we have to continue to execute on that," Hernandez said. "If we keep that focus, that will transition over into the crew vehicles as well."

[Salo]

http://www.americaspace.com/?p=78842#more-78842

US Human Path Back to Space Rising This Summer at ULA Launch Pad and Rocket Factory       
By Ken Kremer

Launch Complex 41 gets a radical new look and use soon!
 Artist's concept of Boeing's CST-100 space taxi ready for liftoff atop a man rated ULA Atlas-V rocket showing new crew access tower and arm at Space Launch Complex 41, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fl. Credit: ULA
 
CAPE CANAVERAL AIR FORCE STATION, FL – America's human path back to space fr om U.S. soil starts rising rapidly this summer, as construction of the new crew access tower for ULA's Atlas V "space taxi" rocket moves into high gear at Cape Canaveral, Fla., while the newly human-rated booster launching from it and carrying Boeing's CST-100 crew capsule to orbit and the International Space Station (ISS) simultaneously starts assembly at ULA's rocket factory in Decatur, Ala.
The entirely new 200-foot-tall "tower structure goes up rather quickly this summer [2015] at launch pad 41," Howard Biegler, ULA's Human Launch Services Lead, told AmericaSpace during an exclusive interview detailing pad modifications and construction at the Atlas V Launch Complex 41 facility at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla.
"The entire tower will be erected over six weeks in the summer. It's like an erector set!"
Space Launch Complex-41 (SLC-41) is being significantly modified to accommodate astronaut launches now that NASA has officially sel ected the two firms—Boeing and SpaceX—to build the world's first privately developed crewed spaceships for blastoff to the ISS.
"Construction by the Hensel Phelps team effectively started in January 2015 and we are in the process of making this a reality," Biegler said.
Meanwhile, ULA has begun fabricating long lead time parts of the pair of 20-story-tall Atlas V rockets that are to launch the CST-100 spacecraft on its first uncrewed and crewed test flights in 2017 from the newly upgraded pad 41.
Those two Atlas V rockets are dubbed with unique, distinguishing tail numbers—AV-073 and AV-080—and will be the first of that family to be certified by ULA and NASA to launch humans to the ISS.
Chris Ferguson, commander of NASA's final shuttle flight and now director of Boeing's CST-100 Crew and Mission Operations, recently toured the 1.6 million square foot Decatur facility and met with the engineering teams manufacturing the Atlas Vs for the historic 2017 liftoffs. Read the exclusive interview with Ferguson here and here.

Boeing's Chris Ferguson said the first two Atlas V's to launch the CST-100 will have a parking spot on United Launch Alliance's factory floor in Decatur soon. Credit: ULA
 
To accomplish all that, the Cape Canaveral skyline will change rapidly and dramatically, starting in July with visibly tangible progress toward restoring America's manned access to space that was totally lost following the forced retirement of the shuttles after touchdown of Ferguson's crew on the STS-135 mission in 2011 at the Kennedy Space Center's shuttle landing facility (SLF).
On Sept. 16, 2014, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden announced at KSC that Boeing and SpaceX were both awarded contracts under NASA's Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) program and Launch America initiative to finalize the design and develop their CST-100 and Dragon V2 crewed spaceships respectively, aimed at returning human spaceflight launches to the United States by 2017 and end our sole source reliance on Russia.
The metal latticework for ULA's 20-story-high Atlas tower was designed to be modular for ease of construction, and literally ascends skyward as crews stack the structural steel components atop one another piece by piece with cranes.
Since pad 41 is one of the most active launch pads in the world, and ULA can't afford to halt launches on its packed manifest, construction of the crew access tower has been carefully planned to take place in between the lucrative launches for a variety of clients, including civilian and military entities from the government and commercial customers.
"The tower is comprised of 7 major tier segments," Biegler told AmericaSpace. "Each is about 20 foot square and 28 feet tall.''

ULA and Boeing executives posing atop Atlas V launch pad at Space Launch Complex 41 which will be modified to launch Boeing CST-100 spaceship to ISS – including Howard Biegler, ULA Human Spaceflight lead, 3rd from left, Dan Collins, ULA COO, John Elbon, Boeing VP Space Exploration, and Frank DelBello, Space Florida. Credit: Ken Kremer – kenkremer.com
 
The ceremonial groundbreaking ceremony to start tower construction was held Feb. 20, 2015.
The crew access tower is the first of its kind to be built in decades on the Florida Space coast and will enable astronauts and support personnel access to a rocket awaiting blastoff to space.
"The first truss segment will be transported out to the pad and installed in the July time frame," Biegler elaborated. "That will be an above ground segment."
"The rest happens quick over the course of a six or seven week period. So the remaining pieces of the tower goes up rather quickly."
"We plan to have the entire tower erected over six weeks in the summer. It's like an erector set! Its built off site in its entirety. Then it's just a matter of bolting the pieces together."

"It's the longest work window we have this summer. So, barring unforeseen delays, the plan is for the major structure to be completed in one mod window, this summer," Biegler told AmericaSpace.
Piece parts for the truss segments are built off site and then trucked to a construction lot on the Cape by the ASOC, or Atlas Space Operations Center.
"We will start mobilizing the iron workers to start fabrication of the tower pieces later this month and in early April," Beigler stated.
Then the parts undergo final assembly into the individual major tier segments of the crew access tower by the ASOC.
"The first complete tier segment will be done by mid to late April."
The segments will then be trucked to pad 41 and stacked this summer.
"The goal is to have the major tower structure built and complete over the summer."
But before any tower assembly can take place, an area of concrete on the pad surface structure had to be demolished and hammered away. The work started right around the launch of MUOS-3 in January, and the site is now being excavated down to a depth of some 13 feet.
"Currently at the pad we have drilled and poured ten 42-inch-diameter piers, during what is known as the 3rd defined mod [construction] window. They are each 105 feet deep," Biegler explained.
"Altogether there are 15 mod, or work windows which are defined periods of time when there is no launch vehicle at the pad."
"Leading up to the last launch, which was MMS [Magnetospheric Multiscale mission for NASA on March 12], we did some concrete demolition, enough to accommodate the ten piers. We also installed the sheet piles [like a retainer wall] on the north and south sides and pond liner to catch wastewater from launches."
"Construction was demobilized briefly to accommodate the MMS launch."
Work in this work window will continue until the next Atlas launch in May, "starting with a mass excavation down to about 13.5 feet. The old MST tracks from the Titan Centaur days will also be cut out and removed. Then the dowels will be installed to secure the crew access tower."
"Right now we are working no issues with the construction effort. We are actually a little bit ahead of schedule, despite the delays in NASA awarding the commercial crew contracts from the summer until September and then the SNC protest."
"We will enter our fourth 'mod window' after the Atlas launch in May."
After the tower is erected comes all the remaining steel, electrical, plumbing, staircase, structure, testing, and calibration work over the next year.
"After the tower buildup comes the extensive work to outfit the tower with over 400 pieces of outboard steel that have to be installed. That takes much longer and will be done over the course of the next two mod windows," Biegler said.
"In parallel with that is the arm buildup."
"The completely integrated and tested crew access arm and walkway should be brought out to the launch site around May 2016 roughly."
"The arm will be fully tested with the torque tube to make sure it meets all the line requirements."
After the crew tower is installed, the look of the SLC-41 will change drastically from the current "clean pad" design, which features only the reinforced concrete hard stand and four lightning towers.
Only very minor changes are planned for the Vertical Integration Facility, a building about 1,800 feet to the south wh ere the Atlas V rocket is assembled.
"The plan is to finish all the site construction, testing [and certification] done by September 2016," Biegler explained.
The arm installation, plumbing, and hydraulic drive system installation will take about a month, followed by all the validation testing by the contractor.
"Then it's turned over to my team to do all the acceptance testing," Biegler stated.
"The work will wrap up in September 2016."
Indeed, if the funding was available to get Boeing's space taxi capsule ready sooner, the first crew could launch on the first CST-100 test flight as soon as the tower is declared operational in September 2016.
"We could launch after completion in September 2016. Earlier in the [CCP] program we had to plan for launches as early as December 2016. And we have never slipped off of our September 2016 completion date."

ULA is building a new crew access tower and access arm that will lead to the hatch opening to Boeing's commercial CST-100 crew transporter. Credit: Ken Kremer – kenkremer.com
 
"But the team has been instructed that we don't want to do anything that presents risk!"
The currently planned launch date for the first unmanned CST-100 test flight is roughly around February 2017 and subject to manifest changes.
The actual launch date hinges on the NASA budgets approved by the Obama Administration and U.S. Congress.
Since the retirement of the shuttle, American astronauts have been totally dependent on the Russian Soyuz capsule for rides to the ISS and back, at a cost now exceeding $70 million per seat.
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden has said that he doesn't want to write any more checks to Roscosmos and that any cut in CCP funding from the Obama Administration's FY 2016 budget request will delay the program and first launch.
See video below detailing construction of ULA's commercial crew access tower at pad 41:

Video caption: New Commercial Crew Access Tower Going Up. Boeing and United Launch Alliance will add to the Space Coast skyline with the 200-foot-tall tower. It will be assembled over 18 months at Space Launch Complex 41 and is designed to meet the needs of test pilots, astronauts and support personnel who will access Boeing's CST-100 before it launches atop an Atlas V. Credit: NASA
No humans have ever launched to space fr om SLC-41. And it's been over 50 years since astronauts launched on an Atlas rocket. Among them was Mercury astronaut John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth, back on Feb. 20, 1962.
For further details, be sure to read the prior articles outlining the CST-100 in an exclusive interview with Chris Ferguson, commander of NASA's final shuttle flight and now director of Boeing's Crew and Mission Operations, here and here.
Meanwhile, NASA simultaneously continues pushing forward with its deep space pillar of human spaceflight involving Orion and SLS. Read the latest updates here and here and here.
Stay tuned here for continuing updates.

Ken Kremer

[triage]

 http://sen.com/news/nasa-orders-first-station-crew-flight-from-boeing
NASA orders first station crew flight from Boeing
//Irene%20Klotz,Spaceflight Correspondent
May 28, 2015, 14:37 UTC
NASA has issued its first order for a U.S. spaceflight to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station to Boeing and expects to make a similar buy from SpaceX later this year. 
The price of the flight, slated for late 2017, was not disclosed "due to potential future competitions for missions," said NASA spokeswoman Stephanie Martin. 
NASA placed the order after Boeing successfully completed a series of preliminary milestones, including a recent critical design review of its CST-100 capsule.....
"We're not releasing what NASA will pay per flight," said Boeing spokeswoman Kelly Kaplan. 
"The price for the service missions is wrapped into the original award. " In a press release, NASA said that just because Boeing was awarded the first flight order doesn't mean that it will fly before SpaceX.......

[silentpom]

А на чем они сейчас летать собираются? Или РД-180 только пентагону запретили?

[triage]

silentpom пишет:
А на чем они сейчас летать собираются? Или РД-180 только пентагону запретили?

по ссылке к новости выше

The same number of flights is part of a second contract NASA has with SpaceX, though the total value of that award is $2.6 billion. SpaceX is developing a passenger version of its Dragon cargo ship. It will launch on the company's Falcon 9 rocket. Boeing is flying on a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5.

Пока про американские движки на Атлас 5 в 2017-2018 году не было слышно. А слышно про работы по сертификации РД-180 к пилотируемым полетам. 
а тут пишут по попытки по замене РД-180 для ВВС к 2019 году http://spacenews.com/u-s-air-force-isses-rfp-aimed-at-ending-reliance-on-russian-rocket-engine/

[triage]

в новостях на этой странице нету 

 http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2015/05/nasa-evaluating-commercial-loss-crew-mishap/
NASA evaluating CCP Loss Of Crew and Mishap procedures
May 30, 2015 by Chris Bergin
.....For Boeing, its CST-100 will first launch on an uncrewed test flight to the Station via the "Boe-OFT" mission in Apr, 2017 – on a 30 days mission, ending with a parachute assisted return. 
Should all go to plan, the second mission will involve a crew – yet to be selected – on a mission designated "Boe-CFT", launching in July, 2017, on a 14 day mission to the ISS.....

и тоже с большим текстом http://www.americaspace.com/?p=82504

[Serge]

fredddy пишет:

Grumant пишет:
Союзы долго наращивали свой ресурс, прежде чем отпала необходимость в замене кораблей на орбите. Американские капсулы сразу по полгода летать будут?

Конечно же не сразу. Тоже будут наращивать ресурс.
Вот например x37 так наращивал - 225 дней, 468, 674 дня.

А спутники и АМС вообще зачастую десятилетиями летают... , но при чем тут пилотируемая космонавтика ?

[Floppy Disk]

НАСА тестирует бронетранспортер для спасения астронавтов со стартовой площадки и готовится к запуску Boeing CST-100

[Salo]

https://twitter.com/StephenClark1/status/626090152285220865

Stephen Clark ‏@StephenClark1  
Hardware for CST-100 structural test article now at KSC for assembly. Work on Atlas 5 access tower also started.

 
 

  11:01 - 28 июля 2015 г.  

[Oleg]

когда первый запуск планируют?

[testest2]

Oleg пишет:
когда первый запуск планируют?

Апрель 2017. Но это если проблемы с финансированием не приведут к переносу сроков.