Orion

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NASA's Exploration Ground Systems‏Подлинная учетная запись @NASAGroundSys 2 ч. назад

The actual EM-2 crew capsule that will carry humans to the moon. #Moon2Mars

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Loren Grush‏Подлинная учетная запись @lorengrush 21 мин. назад

Bridenstine first touts need for SLS, but says NASA is looking into possibility of launching Orion around the Moon on a commercial vehicle in 2020

[triage]

О... двухпусковая схема для Ориона на коммерческих ракетах из-за неготовности SLS

https://twitter.com/jeff_foust/status/1105837485622468613
 13 мар. 2019 г.

Wicker: whose rocket, and when?

Bridenstine: don't have a rocket right now to do that. Could do mission on two rockets, one with Orion and other with upper stage for mission around the Moon.

 https://twitter.com/jeff_foust/status/1105836930460200960

Sen. Wicker asks about status of EM-1, first SLS/Orion mission. NASA has informed Congress of further delays, he said.

Bridenstine: SLS is struggling to meet its schedule. Looking at options, including launching Orion by June 2020 on a commercial rocket (!)

 https://twitter.com/jeff_foust/status/1105837906613145600

Wicker: when can you make a decision?

Bridenstine: it can be done in the next couple of weeks.

Wicker: cost?

Bridenstine: might require some help from Congress.

https://twitter.com/NASAWatch/status/1105837853223858177

Wicker: you are looking at using a commercial rocket to send Orion/Service module around the Moon. Whose rocket?

Bridenstine: no rocket exists - yet. We could use 2 rockets to put Orion/service module and another to put a booster into orbit, dock them, and send it to the Moon.

https://twitter.com/NASAWatch/status/1105836767335366657

Sen. Wicker says @NASA said that NASA says EM-1 will be delayed further.
@JimBridenstine says that @NASA_SLS is the largest rocket built in American history.

https://twitter.com/NASAWatch/status/1105837206357360640

SLS Launch was supposed to be later than June 2020. As an agency we need to stick to our committments. We should launch around the Moon in June 2020. I think it could be done. Orion and Service module could be launched on a commercial rocket @JimBridenstine

Ха-ха - красивый комментарий

 https://twitter.com/NASASpaceflight/status/1105847644449054720
The clue is in the date. Business end of the 2020 election for his boss.

[Astro Cat]

Ну вообщем кранты СЛС? Строили-строили и не построили! Позорники!

[triage]

Astro Cat пишет:
Ну вообщем кранты СЛС? Строили-строили и не построили! Позорники!

пока только в вашей голове.

В соседней теме жаловались что Дракон не многоразовый, так и Орион пока (на первые запуски) не многоразовый (это было понятно давно)

https://twitter.com/SpcPlcyOnline/status/1105157421981409281
17:23 - 11 мар. 2019 г.
Bridenstine:  need reusability in entire lunar architecture.  Working with Lockheed Martin to make parts of Orion reusable by EM-4, maybe even pressure vessle.  SLS is NOT reusable, but is "critical piece of architecture to deliver reusability" to the Moon (with Gateway etc)

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https://tass.ru/kosmos/6213508

13 МАР, 19:51
NASA рассматривает возможность отправить корабль Orion на коммерческой ракете

В ведомстве планируют осуществить запуск ракеты к июню 2020 года

ВАШИНГТОН, 13 марта. /ТАСС/. Национальное управление США по аэронавтике и исследованию космического пространства (NASA) рассматривает возможность отправки к Луне своего космического корабля многоразового использования Orion на коммерческой ракете. Об этом сообщил в среду руководитель ведомства Джеймс Брайденстайн, выступая в среду на слушаниях в комитете по торговле, науке и транспорту Сената Конгресса США.

Ранее управление планировало вывести в космос Orion при помощи предназначенной для него тяжелой ракеты-носителя Space Launch System (SLS).

"[Строительство] SLS с трудом укладывается в предусмотренные сроки. Мы рассматриваем различные варианты, в том числе запуск Orion к июню 2020 года на коммерческой ракете", - отметил Брайденстайн.

Отвечая на вопрос сенатора Роджера Уикера (республиканец от штата Миссисипи) о том, на каких ракетах NASA планирует отправить Orion к Луне, глава управления отметил, что "на данный момент ракеты для этого нет". "Мы могли бы использовать две ракеты. Одну - с целью вывести Orion на околоземную орбиту, а другую - для выведения их на орбиту, стыковки и отправки на Луну", - пояснил Брайденстайн.

Он рассказал, что вторая ракета может быть использована для запуска разгонного блока, который потом состыкуется с Orion. "У NASA богатая история не укладываться в сроки запуска [космических кораблей], и я пытаюсь изменить все это", - сказал руководитель управления. Окончательное решение, по его словам, будет принято "в ближайшие пару недель". Отвечая на вопрос о стоимости миссии и коммерческой ракеты глава NASA подчеркнул, что "может потребоваться некоторая помощь со стороны Конгресса" США.

NASA планирует в рамках освоения Луны использовать корабль Orion и SLS. Управление рассчитывает, что в середине 2030-х с помощью "Ориона" астронавты совершат экспедицию на Марс.

[triage]

NASA планирует в рамках освоения Луны использовать корабль Orion и SLS. Управление рассчитывает, что в середине 2030-х с помощью "Ориона" астронавты совершат экспедицию на Марс.

ну этого точно не было сегодня, да и в бюджете кажется тоже не говорилось про середину и Марс....,

чуть не по теме
А вот 11 числа на вопрос строят ли второй транспортер ответили утвердительно 

 https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/transcript_fy_2020_budget_telecon.pdf
...
ALLARD BEUTEL: Next is Mark Carreau with Av Week. 
MARK CARREAU (Av Week): Thank you very much. In the last couple of years, there were appropriations for a second mobile launch platform for the SLS. What happens to that money and the project? 
ANDREW HUNTER: In '19, we are continuing to build it. It's in law that we do so, so nothing is changing there.
...

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Loren Grush‏Подлинная учетная запись @lorengrush 41 мин. назад

From a source: Right now Orion is currently in verification for EM-1, which requires running numerous simulations on the SLS design. Changing to a new vehicle would mean shelving all that work and doing new simulations with new data from either SpaceX/ULA. It's not a simple swap

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https://spaceflightnow.com/2019/03/13/facing-fresh-sls-delays-nasa-chief-opens-door-to-launching-orion-lunar-mission-with-commercial-rockets/

Facing more delays, NASA opens door to launching lunar mission with commercial rockets
March 13, 2019 | Stephen Clark


Artist's illustration of NASA's Orion spacecraft and its European-built service module, powered toward the moon by an upper stage engine. Credit: NASA

In a major shift, NASA is considering using two commercial launchers to send an unpiloted Orion crew capsule and its European-built service module on a test flight around the moon next year, maintaining the lunar test flight's schedule despite fresh delays in the development of the multibillion-dollar Space Launch System that jeopardize the heavy-lifter's 2020 inaugural flight, the agency's administrator said in a congressional hearing Wednesday.

The lunar test flight, known as Exploration Mission-1, is a precursor to NASA's plans to fly astronauts on the Orion spacecraft, build an outpost in lunar orbit, and eventually return humans to the moon's surface. But Exploration Mission-1, or EM-1, has faced repeated delays as engineers build and test the Orion capsule and the Space Launch System, the heavy-lift rocket originally designed to loft Orion spaceships and astronauts into deep space for the first time since the last Apollo moon mission in 1972.

NASA now believes the Space Launch System will not be ready for the EM-1 test flight by June 2020, the program's most recent target launch date. Jim Bridenstine, NASA's administrator, said Wednesday the space agency is weighing alternatives to keep the Orion spacecraft on track for a lunar mission in 2020 to test the capsule's European-built power and propulsion module, and assess the performance of the crew capsule's heat shield during blistering re-entry into Earth's atmosphere from the moon.

"Some of those options would include launching the Orion crew capsule and the European service module on a commercial rocket," Bridenstine said in a hearing with the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation.

Bridenstine said it is important for NASA to stick to its commitment to launch EM-1 by June 2020, and his announcement Wednesday marked the first time a NASA leader has publicly discussed launching the Orion spacecraft's first lunar mission on a commercial rocket, and not the more expensive government-run Space Launch System.

Спойлер

Artist's illustration of the Space Launch System on launch pad 39B at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Credit: NASA

"Certainly, there are opportunities to utilize commercial capabilities to put the Orion crew capsule and the European service module in orbit around the moon by June of 2020, which was our originally-stated objective, and I've tasked the agency to look into how we might accomplish that objective," Bridenstine said.

NASA is just beginning to study the possibility of using commercial rockets for EM-1. United Launch Alliance's Delta 4-Heavy rocket launched an Orion capsule on its first orbital mission, known as Exploration Flight Test-1, in December 2014, sending the crew module and a mock-up service module into an orbit ranging as far as 3,600 miles (5,800 kilometers) from Earth before the capsule splashed down in the Pacific Ocean to conclude a nearly four-and-a-half-hour mission.

There are no rockets currently in service capable of sending an Orion spacecraft and its service module around the moon, but Bridenstine said a pair of commercial launches could be substituted for one SLS flight. A fully-fueled Orion spacecraft is estimated to weigh around 57,000 pounds (25,848 kilograms), near the maximum lift capability of an SLS Block 1 rocket — the heavy-lift launcher's initial configuration — on a lunar trajectory.

Bridenstine announced NASA's new look at commercial launch alternatives to the Space Launch System after committee chairman Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Mississippi, raised concerns about new SLS delays.

"Here's what we can do, potentially — again, we're starting the process now — we could use two heavy-lift rockets to put the Orion crew capsule and the European service module in orbit around the Earth, launch a second heavy-lift rocket to put an upper stage in orbit around the Earth, and then dock those two together to throw around the moon the Orion crew capsule with the European service module," Bridenstine said. "I want to be clear. We do not have, right now, an ability to dock the Orion crew capsule with anything in orbit. So between now and June of 2020, we would have to make that a reality."


NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine speaks during an event at NASA Headquarters in February. Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky

Wicker reminded Bridenstine that replanning Exploration Mission-1 would be challenging to complete by mid-2020.

"This is 2019," Wicker said.

"We have amazing capability that exists right now that we can use off-the-shelf in order to accomplish this objective," Bridenstine responded. "Just a few years ago, we launched an Orion crew capsule into deep space on a commercially-procured rocket. That has already happened. What's different now is we have this European service module, which is how we have propulsion and life support and all these capabilities that we need to last for a period of time with humans in deep space. We can use off-the-shelf capability to accomplish this objective for EM-1, but not change the direction of the SLS and EM-2."

Exploration Mission-2 is set to be the first Orion mission with astronauts on-board. The most recent schedule released by NASA projects EM-2 would be ready for launch on the SLS in 2023 on a nine-day trip around the moon and back to Earth.

Since the Orion test flight on the Delta 4-Heavy in 2014, SpaceX has debuted its Falcon Heavy rocket, with more than double the Delta 4-Heavy's lift capacity to low Earth orbit. SpaceX sold a Falcon Heavy mission sold to the U.S. Air Force last year for $130 million, while ULA says a Delta 4-Heavy mission costs around $350 million.

Neither rocket has the power to send the nearly 29-ton (26-metric ton) Orion spacecraft toward the moon on a single launch.

Exploration Mission-1 is slated to last around 25 days, during which time the Orion spacecraft and its service module would travel to the moon, swing as close as 62 miles (100 kilometers) from the lunar surface, then loop into a more distant orbit around 40,000 miles (70,000 kilometers) from the moon. If NASA sticks to EM-1's current flight plan, a dual-launch alternative using commercial rockets in 2020 would likely have to use separate launch pads, and likely two different rockets, due to the mission's relatively short duration.

Bridenstine said NASA intends to decide on the commercial launch option for Orion in the "next couple of weeks."

"Every moment counts because ... NASA has a history of not meeting launch dates, and I'm trying to change that," he said.

Wicker then asked Bridenstine how much it would cost to move the Orion capsule's launch to large commercial rockets, which customers typically purchase at least two years in advance.

"That's another discussion," Bridenstine replied. "I think there are options to achieve the objective, but it might require some help from the Congress."

Before addressing the specifics of NASA's consideration of commercial launchers for the Orion test flight, Bridenstine said in his opening statement Wednesday that NASA must be bold.

"We need to have really impressive goals and stunning achievements that the world can get behind," he said. "I can tell you, as the NASA administrator, when I meet with our international partners, one of the things that they're most excited about is the idea that we're going to go to the moon again."


A Lockheed Martin engineer works on the Orion crew module for Exploration Mission-1 at the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Credit: NASA/Rad Sinyak

EM-1 will be the first Orion flight with a fully functioning service module, built by Airbus Defense and Space and funded by the European Space Agency as an international contribution to NASA's deep space exploration program. Airbus delivered the service module delivered to the Kennedy Space Center in November for final assembly and testing with the Orion crew capsule.

The service module includes four solar array wings to generate electricity, a U.S.-provided engine left over from the space shuttle program, the Orion spacecraft's cooling system, and water and air tanks to keep crews alive on the journey to and from lunar orbit.

NASA and European managers say the Orion crew capsule and service module are scheduled to be ready to begin final launch preparations in early 2020. The crew capsule's heat shield was mated to the spacecraft last year, and the service module was powered on in February for the first time since arriving in Florida.

The two segments will be mated together for the first time in the coming months, and engineers plan to transfer the Orion spacecraft to NASA's Plum Brook Station in Ohio in July for a battery of tests in a thermal vacuum chamber to verify the ship's performance in the cold, airless environment of space. The spacecraft will return to Florida around October, according to a schedule released by ESA.

Concerns about the readiness of the European-built service module has previously been a factor in determining EM-1's launch date, but the element's delivery to Florida last year was a major milestone in getting the module ready for flight.

A report in October by NASA's inspector general criticized the agency and Boeing for cost and schedule overruns on the SLS core stage, which has encountered development problems that previously delayed the first SLS launch date from late 2018 to mid-2020. The core stage will contain liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellants feeding four modified space shuttle main engines. Two side-mounted solid-fueled boosters built by Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems, also derived from shuttle-era designs, will provide additional thrust.

The SLS Block 1 rocket will also have an upper stage derived from ULA's Delta 4 rocket, with a single Aerojet Rocketdyne RL10 engine.

Other than the core stage, most hardware for the first Space Launch System remains on track for a 2020 launch, including the main engines, the solid rocket boosters and the upper stage.

The Trump administration's $21 billion fiscal year 2020 budget request for NASA released Monday would defer the development of a bigger four-engine upper stage for the Space Launch System's Block 1B configuration. NASA intended the more powerful SLS Block 1B to launch co-manifested missions with Orion crew capsules and modules for the agency's planned Gateway, a mini-space station in the vicinity of the moon envisioned as a waypoint for landers traveling to and from the lunar surface.

Instead, NASA officials said Monday they plan to launch elements of the Gateway on commercial rockets, decoupling the modules from the Space Launch System.

The White House's NASA budget request also proposes launching a robotic probe to explore to Jupiter's icy moon Europa on a commercial rocket, and not with the Space Launch System. In a NASA budget bill passed earlier this year, Congress included language specifying the Europa Clipper mission should launch on the SLS.

Lawmakers led by Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Alabama, chairman of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, have long supported the Space Launch System. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, is home to the SLS program.

Congress approved $2.15 billion for the Space Launch System program in fiscal year 2019, while the Trump administration's budget request would slash that by $375 million to around $1.78 billion.

Shelby said last week that, in his role as chairman of the appropriations committee, he has "more than a passing interest in what NASA does," according to a report in Space News.

"I have a little parochial interest, too, in what they do in Huntsville, Alabama," Shelby continued in an introduction of Marshall center director Jody Singer at a luncheon in Washington. "Jody, you keep doing what you're doing. We'll keep funding you."

In his remarks Wednesday, Bridenstine said the Space Launch System remains a "critical piece" of NASA's deep space exploration plans.

"We're talking a rocket that has a throw weight larger than anything we've ever been able to throw before," Bridenstine said of the Space Launch System. "We're talking about a rocket that's larger than the Statue of Liberty, with a fairing size that can put really big objects into space, and in fact, into deep space, in orbit around he moon, even. It is a critical capability.

"Now, here's the challenge that we have with EM-1. SLS is struggling to meet its schedule. It was originally intended to launch in December of 2019 (and) no later than June of 2020. We are now understanding better how difficult this project is, and that it's going to take some additional time."

It was not clear from Bridenstine's statement Wednesday whether NASA would consider putting astronauts on EM-2, which would become the first launch of the SLS under the scenario outlined Wednesday. NASA has avoided flying a crew on the inaugural launch of a new spacecraft or rocket since the first space shuttle mission.

The Space Launch System's Boeing-built core stage will undergo a full-duration test-firing, or "green run," at NASA's Stennis Space Center in Mississippi with its four RS-25 main engines before launching for the first time from the Kennedy Space Center.

"The key is we want to test fully the Orion crew capsule and the European service module around the moon, and then ultimately maintain the SLS program, so that by the time we do EM-2, it will have done a full-up green run test ... and then, after the green run test, we will have tested the SLS, we will have tested the Orion crew capsule and the European service module around the moon, and then we can get back on track for EM-2," Bridenstine said. "The goal is to get back on track."

[свернуть]

[tnt22]

https://blogs.nasa.gov/bridenstine/2019/03/14/a-message-to-the-workforce-on-sls-and-orion/

A Message to the Workforce on SLS and Orion

Brian Dunbar
Posted Mar 14, 2019 at 2:30 pm

On March 14, 2019, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine sent this message to NASA employees and contractors:

Yesterday, I was asked by Congress about the schedule slip of the Space Launch System and plans to get NASA back on track. I mentioned that we are exploring the possibility of launching Orion and the European Service Module to low-Earth orbit on an existing heavy-lift rocket, then using a boost from another existing vehicle for Trans Lunar Injection. Our goal would be to test Orion in lunar orbit in 2020 and free up the first SLS for the launch of habitation or other hardware in 2021. This would get us back on schedule for a crewed lunar orbital mission in 2022 with the added bonus of a lunar destination for our astronauts.

We are studying this approach to accelerate our lunar efforts. The review will take no longer than two weeks and the results will be made available. Please know that NASA is committed to building and flying the SLS for the following reasons:

• Launching two heavy-lift rockets to get Orion to the Moon is not optimum or sustainable.
  
  
• Docking crewed vehicles in Earth orbit to get to the Moon adds complexity and risk that is undesirable.
  
  
• SLS mitigates these challenges and allows crew and payloads to get to the Moon, and eventually to Mars, safer and more efficiently than any temporary solution used to get back on track.
  

I believe in the strength of our workforce and our ability to utilize every tool available to achieve our objectives. Our goal is to get to the Moon sustainably and on to Mars. With your focused efforts, and unmatched talent, the possibility of achieving this objective is real.

Ad astra,

Jim Bridenstine

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Northrop Grumman‏Подлинная учетная запись @northropgrumman 14 мар.

#TBT to 2017 when we tested our Attitude Control Motor for NASA's Launch Abort System aboard the @NASA_Orion spacecraft. Next week, we will test the motor for a second time at our Elkton, Maryland facility. Stay tuned for updates! #NorthropGrumman

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Chris G - NSF‏ @ChrisG_NSF 24 мин. назад

The @NASA_SLS had a turbulent Ides of March. But what happened beyond the splashy "#Orion to fly on commercial heavy-lift rockets" & "Major SLS upgrade to be defunded" hoopla? We've got you covered on the meat & potatoes of #SLS turbulent week.

ARTICLE:
https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2019/03/administration-proposes-end-eus-exploration-manifest-rewrite/ ...

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Chris B - NSF‏ @NASASpaceflight 9 мин. назад

STATIC FIRE! Orion Launch Abort System (LAS) Attitude Control Motor (ACM) Qualification Hot Fire Test (that's a mouthful) has taken place.

That was a good presentation.

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Orion Launch Abort System Attitude Control Motor Qualification Hot Fire Test

NASA Video

Опубликовано: 20 мар. 2019 г.

The test is an Orion LAS ACM QM-1 (Launch Abort System Attitude Control Motor Qualification Motor-1) Hot Fire Test and will test the Launch Abort System's Attitude Control Motor to qualify the motor for spaceflight. Attached is a short info sheet that might better explain. It will be similar to the launch abort test back in Nov. at Redstone except longer. They will shoot fire from multiple areas of the LAS at different times over the course of 30 seconds. Similar to the screenshot attached.

(14:53)

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Michael Baylor‏ @nextspaceflight 1 ч. назад

Bridenstine on SLS/Orion launch dates:

EM-1: Uncrewed in 2020*
EM-2: Crewed in 2022

*Said earlier that June 2020 was unfeasible, so they must now be targetting sometime in the second half of next year.

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EM-1 Alternative Study overview.

NASASpaceFlight Videos

Опубликовано: 1 апр. 2019 г.

A fascinating overview of the EM-1 study that showed commercial alternatives didn't really work out as viable.

(6:51)

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Town Hall with NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine

NASA

Опубликовано: 1 апр. 2019 г.

Headquarters hosted an agencywide town hall with NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine on Monday, April 1, at 1:30 p.m. EDT. NASA HQ employees were invited to join the Administrator in the Webb auditorium for this important discussion on our Moon to Mars plans.

(54:31)

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Chris B - NSF‏ @NASASpaceflight 14 мин. назад

ARTICLE:
Concerning Orion – Amid SLS push, Orion requires Life Support testing -

https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2019/04/concerning-orion-sls-push-orion-eclss-testing/ ...