X-51Scramsintothefuture
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Cover-1010X.qxd:AA Template 9/16/10 10:59 AM Page 1 9 AEROSPACE AMERICA October 2010 OCTOBER 2010 X-51 scramsintothefuture Conversations with Werner J.A. Dahm Critical times for India’s space program APUBLICATIONOFTHEAMERICANINSTITUTEOFAERONAUTICSANDASTRONAUTICS VIEWlayout1010.qxd:AA Template 9/14/10 12:29 PM Page 2 Adastra:ThefutureofNASA’s astronautcorps “THERE IS NO EASY WAY FROM THE EARTH From a high of about 140 astronauts steady diet of Russian language courses. to the stars” (Non est ad astra mollis e when I left NASA in 2001, the Astro- The first few years of ISS expedition terris via) wrote the Roman philosopher naut Office numbers today about 65 training followed the Mir-era “backup Seneca the Younger in the first century flight-qualified crewmembers. In addi- crew” model, with each crew of three A.D. Given the uncertain future of tion, a dozen or more veteran astronauts shadowed by a replacement team that NASA’s human spaceflight plans, the continue to work for the agency in non- could step into the shoes of the prime Stoic’s words must resonate with present flying management roles, contributing crew right up through launch day. and prospective members of NASA’s as- hard-won operations experience. For the But such last-minute substitutions sel- tronaut corps. They face the 2011 end active astronauts, the mission is clear: To dom happened, and backup crewmem- of the space shuttle era, inaugurating a train for and fly expeditions aboard the bers were then fed back into the training decade when perhaps only 40 U.S. as- ISS, and when not flying, to support grind for a year or more before their tronauts may journey to Earth orbit. By their colleagues who do. own turns came. Watching his prime contrast, when I first flew as a shuttle The six crewmembers of each ISS crew rumble aloft from Baikonur on a crewmember, NASA launched 84 astro- expedition generally serve six-month trail of golden flame, one backup cosmo- nauts in just two calendar years, 1994- tours, and an average of a dozen astro- naut once turned to his U.S. colleague 1995. But those days are gone, and to- nauts and cosmonauts will live aboard and wryly lamented the prospect of start- day’s corps must grapple with shrinking the station annually. By partner agree- ing over: “We are now considered the flight opportunities, new training chal- ment, Russian cosmonauts fill half those dumbest cosmonauts on the planet.” lenges, and serious questions about the slots. This leaves two for other ISS part- ISS training managers have now in- future of human space exploration. ner astronauts and four for Americans, stituted a concept called “single flow to all of whom fly aboard the four Russian launch,” where the backup team trains Soyuz spacecraft, launched annually to with the prime crew through launch, The Soyuz TMA-19 rocket launches from Baikonur provide crew transport and emergency then tackles only six more months of ex- Cosmodrome on June 16 carrying Expedition 24 NASA Flight Engineers Shannon Walker and escape at the station. After 2012, the pedition-specific classes before flying. Douglas Wheelock, and Soyuz Commander number of U.S. astronauts needed to First-time flyers typically spend about Fyodor Yurchikhin, to the ISS. Photo credit: crew ISS, fill the training pipeline, and 2.5 years training for an expedition, says NASA/Carla Cioffi. cover office technical assignments is Jett, with less than two years needed for about 55, says Brent Jett, chief of flight repeat ISS flyers. crew operations at NASA Johnson. Although the travel and family sepa- ration burden is still hard on crewmem- Training for long-haul spaceflight bers, the single-flow streamlining reduces The ISS has been manned continuously those stresses and makes it more likely for nearly a decade, starting with the No- that some astronauts will volunteer for a vember 2, 2000, arrival of Expedition 1. second long-duration flight. Repeat flyers Supplying crewmembers to keep the sta- include Peggy Whitson (now chief of the tion productive and operable for another Astronaut Office) and Jeff Williams. 10 years is the challenge for the current Their colleagues Mike Fossum, Don Pet- astronaut corps. Jett, who flew four shut- tit, and Sunni Williams have all been as- tle missions and commanded STS-115 signed to their second ISS tours (29, 31, in 2006, noted in an interview that he and 33, respectively). personally envies ISS crewmembers, who “really get a chance to ‘live’ in space,” as Still hiring? opposed to just “enduring” the hectic, Shannon Walker, the last member of the flat-out sprint of a shuttle mission. 2004 class to fly, is now at the ISS with But that long-duration experience Expedition 24. Nearly all of the astro- has come at a high price. The normal nauts who will fly on the station in the ISS training flow has often exceeded next decade have already been hired. three years, with half the time spent at Will NASA shut down its astronaut selec- Russia’s Star City for systems classes, tion process? Not at all, says Whitson— simulations, and, for the Americans, a NASA will continue to hire them in small 18 AEROSPACE AMERICA/OCTOBER 2010 VIEWlayout1010.qxd:AA Template 9/14/10 12:29 PM Page 3 pressions and produce astronauts with the right skills and temperament to suc- ceed aboard ISS. Flight Crew Opera- tions has already refocused astronaut candidate training for the coming decade of long-duration missions. Jett says that “the astronaut corps is not immune to the fundamental changes that NASA is undergoing, the biggest in 30 years. But in many ways we were better prepared for change, because we already knew the shuttle era was end- ing.” U.S. astronauts have also known since 2005 that Soyuz would be their ticket to LEO for years, pending the de- velopment of shuttle’s successor. “Other than the current uncertainty [about NASA’s long-range direction], not much has changed,” says Jett. The curriculum for the 2009 astro- Cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin and NASA astronaut Shannon Walker, both Expedition 24 flight engineers, naut class reflects this reality. None of its occupy their seats in the Soyuz TMA-19 spacecraft. On June 28 the crew relocated the Soyuz from the members will fly on the orbiter, so except Zvezda service module’s aft port to the Rassvet mini research module 1. for a few ascent orientation sessions in the shuttle mission simulator, shuttle numbers, both to replace the few who naut candidate, or “ascan,” must fit the training has been supplanted by ISS and will leave with the shuttle’s final flight part physically. Because Russia provides Soyuz systems training, long-duration and to introduce younger crewmembers both the crew transport and emergency skills in areas such as robotics and EVA, into the corps. escape vehicles at ISS, “we won’t select and Russian language classes. “We get literally thousands of appli- a candidate [who can’t] fit in a Soyuz.” The language classes are an integral cants,” says Whitson, who served on the Who makes an ideal candidate? part of Soyuz training. Jett says that he 2004 selection board and chaired the Whitson, who spent more than a year wants to see an experienced U.S. crew- 2009 panel. “We want a diverse group on orbit with Expedition 5 and as com- member in the left, flight engineer’s seat, of candidates,” she explains. “People mander of 16, says she’s looking for working directly with the center-seat Rus- with different backgrounds—pilots, sci- “people who are easy to work with and sian commander on rendezvous, proxim- entists, engineers—can learn from each be around.” Surveys of expedition crews, ity operations, and emergency proce- other.” Test pilots share their opera- she says, have ranked traits such as “self- dures. Shannon Walker took on this tional and decision-making experience, caring, team-oriented, good follower, and demanding engineer role during her while scientists teach their classmates leadership” at the top of those desired in June launch to ISS. The right-seater is about how research—on the ground or a future astronaut. A high-maintenance less responsible for piloting tasks but still at ISS—gets done. crewmember is poison on a long-dura- has duties in orbit operations and emer- The 23 members of my 1990 “Hair- tion flight, or even a shuttle mission. gencies. Soyuz skills will carry over to ball” group trained for the challenge of My 1990 classmates were hired ei- the space shuttle; in 1990, “Space Sta- ther as mission specialists or pilot astro- The class chosen in 2009 will train in the NEEMO tion Freedom” was just a stack of view- nauts. But when the nine new U.S. hires subsea habitat. graphs, and few of us imagined we of the 2009 group complete their train- would ever fly aboard an orbiting outpost ing, they will be termed astronauts. Only called the ISS. The station is now the when named to an ISS expedition will only flight opportunity available, and as- they receive temporary designations tronaut hiring and candidate training re- such as “flight engineer,” “U.S. segment flect that reality. lead,” or “commander.” Formal astronaut qualifications are posted at http://nasajobs.nasa.gov/as- Always training tronauts/. Jett says that in addition to Although the hiring process is not per- meeting educational, professional experi- fect, Whitson thinks the training that ence, and medical standards, an astro- candidates receive can confirm first im- AEROSPACE AMERICA/OCTOBER 2010 19 VIEWlayout1010.qxd:AA Template 9/14/10 12:30 PM Page 4 recent Soyuz crew, a proficiency in largely ballistic vehicles little rusty during their such as Soyuz, Orion, or many commer- final simulator session, cial designs.