OCTOBER 20, 2014 EARTH SCIENCE Watching El Niño See page 12 www.spacenews.com VOLUME 25 ISSUE 41 $4.95 ($7.50 Non-U.S.) PROFILE/22> A Decade into a New Spaceflight Era, REP. MIKE ROGERS A Mixture of Frustration and Optimism (R-ALA.), CHAIRMAN, JEFF FOUST, LAS CRUCES, N.M. U.S. HOUSE ARMED SERVICES STRATEGIC FORCES SUBCOMMITTEE en years after the com- pletion of the Ansari X TPrize appeared to open a new era of commercial human spaceflight, company executives INSIDE THIS ISSUE and government officials at a commercial space conference CIVIL SPACE expressed a mixture of optimism about the future of the industry and impatience at the perceived Obama Taps MIT Professor for NASA Deputy lack of progress over the last Dava Newman, President Barack Obama’s choice to succeed Lori Garver as NASA deputy admin- decade. istrator, still needs to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate. See story, page 5 “I’m actually quite frustrated with the pace of commercial space,” said Brett Alexander, NASA Pulling the Plug on Sunjammer Mission director of business development Instead of the light-propelled Sunjammer spacecraft it signed up for, NASA will have only blueprints and strategy for Blue Origin, when it lets a 4-year-old contract for the solar sail mission lapse in December. See story, page 4 the privately funded spaceflight company led by Amazon.com LAUNCH INDUSTRY founder Jeff Bezos. “It really has been frustrating Alaska Puts Up $21M To Lure Launch Business to be 10 years into commercial The operator of an underutilized Alaska launch site is offering more than $20 million to launch space, 10 years from the X Prize, and not see a proliferation of companies in a bid to attract a larger class of launch vehicles. See story, page 7 activity, of people flying regu- larly,” he said in a presentation Aerojet Takes a Loss on AJ-26 Problems at the International Symposium Aerojet Rocketdyne took a $17.5 million loss last quarter because of issues with the AJ-26 en- for Personal and Commercial gine that it provides for Orbital Sciences Corp.’s Antares launch vehicle. See story, page 10 Spaceflight (ISPCS) here Oct. 15. Alexander was referring to the flights of SpaceShipOne Orbital Picks Provider But Won’t Say Who on Sept. 29 and Oct. 4, 2004, Orbital Sciences told investors it has selected a main-engine manufacturer for Antares launches that won the $10 million Ansari starting in 2017 but would not say who it is. See story, page 11 X Prize for vehicle developer Scaled Composites and the proj- SATELLITE INDUSTRY ect’s financial backer, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. At the PHOTO BY HERIBERTO IBARRA time, those flights appeared to > “It really has been frustrating to be 10 years into commercial space, 10 years from the X Prize, and Hosted Payload Program Lacks Military Users signal the beginning of a major not see a proliferation of activity, of people flying regularly,” Brett Alexander, director of business devel- A U.S. Air Force contracting vehicle for hosting payloads on commercial satellites likely will be expansion of commercial space opment and strategy for Blue Origin, said in his presentation at ISPCS. used exclusively for civilian missions for the first three to five years. See story, page 11 activities, including suborbital space tourism. George Whitesides said the about the next six months,” Argentina Takes a Seat at Satcom Table The company most closely company had just completed Whitesides said. The Ariane 5 rocket’s 62nd consecutive successful launch brings Argentina to the table of nations linked to that vision of commer- ground qualification tests of The ISPCS, marking its 10th that have built and operated their own geostationary-orbiting spacecraft. See story, page 14 cial spaceflight has been Virgin a new hybrid rocket motor for year, is itself an outgrowth of the Galactic, which announced its SpaceShipTwo. “We expect to get X Prize. The conference started plans to partner with Scaled back into powered test flight quite in 2005 as the International Composites on what would soon,” he said. Symposium for Personal >FEATURES become SpaceShipTwo shortly As is customary for the Spaceflight, a one-day event before those X Prize flights. At company, Whitesides did not held on the New Mexico State the time of the original announce- give a schedule for when commer- University campus here just before 3 NEWS BRIEFS/ ment, Virgin Galactic proposed cial SpaceShipTwo flights would the X Prize Cup, a space-themed starting commercial service as begin, although the company’s airshow held at the local airport. 17LAUNCH REPORT/ soon as late 2007. Those flights founder, Sir Richard Branson, said While the X Prize Foundation are still at least several months in September that he expected to ended the X Prize Cup after the 18COMMENTARY in the future. be on the first commercial flight 2007 event, the conference has In an Oct. 15 ISPCS speech, in February or March of 2015. “I, Virgin Galactic Chief Executive personally, am incredibly excited SEE COMMERCIAL PAGE 7 PERIODICALS-NEWSPAPER HANDLING Launch Smart arianespace.tv @arianespace @arianespaceceo www.spacenews.com 3 October 20, 2014 NEWS BRIEFS Accountability Office Sept. 26. On Oct. Top Managers Ousted from 9, NASA lifted the order, citing “statutory authority available to it” in order to keep Silicon Valley Satellite Maker the program on schedule. Canopus Systems LLC, a small-satel- Mark Sirangelo, corporate vice president lite startup in Silicon Valley, underwent for Sierra Nevada Space Systems, said in an a shake-up in early October when Chief interview at the International Symposium Executive Tomas Svitek was fired and Chief for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight in Operating Officer Megan Nunes resigned. Las Cruces, N.M., Oct. 16 that the company Established in early 2013 to develop and went to court to keep NASA from getting too manufacture inexpensive small satellites, far ahead on the CCtCap contracts while the Canopus of Mountain View, California, is GAO reviews its protest. “We want to protect affiliated with Dauria Aerospace, which has our interests,” he said. BALL AEROSPACE PHOTO its headquarters in Munich and offices in NASA justified the decision by warning Ball employee works on NASA’s Green Propellant Infusion Mission Mountain View and in Skolkovo, the high- that any delay in carrying out the contracts technology hub near Moscow. “poses risks” to the international space station Dauria Aerospace founder and President crew and could jeopardize operations of Green Propellant Mission To Host 3 DoD Experiments Mikhail Kokorich confirmed Svitek’s depar- the station. “NASA has determined that it A NASA mission aimed at developing a Research Laboratory mission to measure ture. “We value our collaboration with Tomas, best serves the United States to continue nontoxic propellant for satellite thrusters plasma densities and temperatures; and who is an excellent engineering mind, with a performance of the CCtCap contracts,” the will host three experimental payloads an Air Force Institute of Technology good sense of disruptive technologies in the agency said in a statement posted on the for the U.S. Defense Department when experiment that will test space collision satellite industry,” Kokorich said by email. commercial crew program website. it launches in 2016. avoidance measures. “As Canopus has now reached its next stages Sierra Nevada, in its court filings, argued The Defense Department’s Space Earlier versions of the Air Force of strategy development, we are currently that NASA had not made the case that the Experiments Review board has selected Academy and Naval Research Lab undergoing a process of optimizing the stop-work order should be lifted, and that three payloads to be hosted aboard payloads flew on the second Space Test management structure of the company.” it should therefore be reinstated while the NASA’s Green Propellant Infusion Program satellite, known as STPSat-3, Kokorich declined to say who would GAO protest continues. Mission (GPIM), according to an Oct. which launched in 2013. replace Svitek and Nunes. Svitek also declined “NASA’s override is arbitrary and capri- 15 press release from Ball Aerospace & The GPIM is part of the Air Force’s to answer questions but confirmed he no cious, an abuse of discretion, and is contrary Technologies Corp., the program’s prime STP-2 mission package slated to launch longer works for Canopus. to law,” Rogers Joseph O’Donnell, the law contractor. Boulder, Colorado-based Ball on the second flight of the Falcon Svitek remains president of Stellar firm representing Sierra Nevada, argued in received a $3.4 million contract from Heavy rocket being developed by Explorations Inc. of San Louis Obispo, its request for an injunction. “The override NASA to integrate the payloads with the Space Exploration Technologies Corp. California, a company focused on scientific constitutes NASA’s unreasonable decision GPIM space vehicle, the press release said. of Hawthorne, California. SpaceX’s and space exploration projects, including the unnecessarily and unjustifiably to direct The selected payloads are: an Air Force public manifest shows the STP-2 mission Planetary Society’s LightSail, a solar-powered the awardees to proceed with contract Academy mission to characterize Earth’s launching in 2015, but Ball said it has spacecraft scheduled to launch in 2016. performance.” ionosphere and thermosphere; a Naval pushed to 2016. Space industry officials offered a variety Sierra Nevada’s full complaint, filed with of explanations for the shake-up, which the court along with the request for the claimed the jobs of four Canopus Systems restraining order and preliminary injunc- spaceplane is managed by the Air Force 10 separate beams. engineers in addition to Svitek and Nunes, tion, were not immediately available. The Rapid Capabilities Office and the program ABS Chief Executive Thomas Choi reducing the firm’s overall workforce from company requested that the complaint be performs “risk reduction, experimentation declined to comment on the anomaly, 25 to 19 employees.