A conversation with Buzz Aldrin Paradigm shift in U.S. space policy Dazzling images from our nearest 2010 APUBLICATIONOFTHEAMERICANINSTITUTEOFAERONAUTICSANDASTRONAUTICS June

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June 2010

DEPARTMENTS COMMENTARY 3 U.S. civil space policy: Clearing the fog.

INTERNATIONAL BEAT 4 Page 4 “Smart” procurement falters in Europe.

WASHINGTON WATCH 8 Disagreements and hard decisions. Page 8

CONVERSATIONS 12 With Buzz Aldrin.

SPACE UPDATE 16 U.S. space launch: Growth and stagnation.

OUT OF THE PAST 46 CAREER OPPORTUNITIES 48

PHOTO ESSAY DAZZLING IMAGES FROM OUR NEAREST STAR 20

FEATURES

EARTH-SHAKING SHIFT IN SPACE POLICY 22 Page 22 The killing of Constellation is not the only drastic change in the administration’s new space policy, which continues to draw both praise and criticism. by James W.Canan

MAKING THE MOST OF GOCE 30 Favorable on-orbit conditions are bringing major benefits for GOCE’s investigations of Earth’s gravity field and ocean currents. by J.R.Wilson Page 16 AIRBORNE LASER SHOOTDOWN:DEFYING THE ODDS 40 Despite its recent success, the Airborne Laser Test Bed program faces an uphill political battle. by J.R.Wilson

BULLETIN Page 30 AIAA Meeting Schedule B2 AIAA Courses and Training Program B4 AIAA News B5 Meeting Program B13 Calls for Papers B35

COVER This image of the was taken taken immediately after the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly CCD camera on the Solar Dynamics Observatory cooled,on March 30,2010.See the photo essay on page 20. Page 40

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is a publication of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics

Elaine J. Camhi Editor-in-Chief Patricia Jefferson U.S.civil space policy: Clearing the fog Associate Editor Greg Wilson It is time to begin clearing the fog surrounding current U.S. civil space policy. Production Editor Jerry Grey, Editor-at-Large Recent weeks have seen much airing of strong views both attacking and de- Christine Williams, Editor AIAA Bulletin fending President Barack Obama’s revised plans for human space exploration and related programs. Correspondents The foremost issue, in terms of U.S. international stature, is the half dec- Robert F. Dorr, Washington Philip Butterworth-Hayes, Europe ade or more gap in U.S. capability for human transport to and from the space Michael Westlake, Hong Kong station. But retiring the shuttle after 30 years is certainly a valid step, both fis- cally and in the interests of future crew safety. Shuttle technology is based on Contributing Writers what we knew nearly a half-century ago: Imagine using 40- or 50-year-old in- Richard Aboulafia, James W. Canan, Marco Cáceres, Edward Flinn, Tom formation technology today! Constellation was also based on aged technology, Jones, Théo Pirard, David Rockwell, though it is true that, as with the shuttle, much significant modern technology Frank Sietzen, J.R. Wilson had been introduced. Besides, Constellation would also leave that gap. Offering the private sector an opportunity to do what they’ve been clamor- Fitzgerald Art & Design Art Direction and Design ing for over at least the past two decades is also a step forward. If they succeed, it could help space transport emulate the highly successful communica- Craig Byl, Manufacturing and Distribution tions industry; if they fail, their contention will at least finally have been put to Mark Lewis, President rest. The initial investment in commercial cargo transport to the ISS has al- Robert S. Dickman, Publisher ready been committed, and will begin to show results, positive or negative, very STEERING COMMITTEE soon. These contracts can then be used as indicators to assess the validity of Michael B. Bragg, University of Illinois; Obama’s planned $6-billion investment in commercial carriers. And the proven Philip Hattis, Draper Laboratory; Mark S. IV and V are available, too. Maurice, AFOSR; Laura McGill, Raytheon; Meanwhile the president is carefully hedging his bet. He plans to retain the Merri Sanchez, National Aeronautics and Orion concept and the heavy-lift option characterized by . Together with Space Administration; Mary Snitch, Lockheed the obvious need in any heavy-lift design for thrust augmentation by solid-pro- Martin; Dave Thompson, Orbital pellant rockets, these actions could help ameliorate the economic impact of EDITORIAL BOARD canceling Constellation, use some of the $9 billion already spent, and assuage Ned Allen, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics; the DOD’s concern about loss of industry capability. A valid criticism is that this Jean-Michel Contant, EADS; Eugene should start sooner—why wait until 2015? Covert, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Most important, the president’s intent to invest in new technology initia- L.S. “Skip” Fletcher, Texas A&M University; tives could address the knottiest problem in human space exploration: reducing Michael Francis, United Technologies; Christian initial mass (and therefore cost) in LEO, with the corollary benefit of reducing Mari, Teuchos; Cam Martin, NASA Dryden; times for ’ exposure to cosmic . Two technologies Don Richardson, Donrich Research; Douglas Yazell, Honeywell that have been developed and could be demonstrated in less than a decade are upper stage nuclear thermal propulsion and orbital assembly. This aspect of ADVERTISING the plan also addresses the issue of U.S. leadership in space. Other countries National Display and Classified: may get humans to the sooner, but the best technology will win in the Robert Silverstein, 240.498.9674 long term. The British Comet was the first commercial jet transport; the Boe- [email protected] ing 707 came later. Which one dominated the skies? West Coast Display: Greg Cruse, Opponents point to a lack of specific goals and deadlines. But there are 949.361.1870 / [email protected] goals: extending the ISS to 2020 (and perhaps to 2028, as is now being stud- Send materials to Craig Byl, AIAA, 1801 ied); exploring near-Earth asteroids; building observatories at deep-space loca- Alexander Bell Drive, Suite 500, Reston, VA tions such as Lagrange libration point L2; returning to the Moon to set up ob- 20191-4344. Changes of address should be servatories and search for water; and of course going to Mars. Perhaps the sent to Customer Service at the same address, wisest element of the plan, however, is not setting specific deadlines or total by e-mail at [email protected], or by fax at costs of these missions. It is sheer fiscal irresponsibility to do so; we have no 703/264-7606. idea how much they will cost, nor how long they will take. But we do know Send Letters to the Editor to Elaine Camhi at the same address or [email protected] that an annual NASA budget of about $19 billion is acceptable, and that would allow us to make substantial (and measurable) progress toward those goals, June 2010, Vol. 48, No. 6 without emasculating any of NASA’s other important functions. As the fog clears, a new era of human space exploration will lie before us. Jerry Grey Editor-at-Large BEATlayout610.qxd:AA Template 5/14/10 12:24 PM Page 2

“Smart”procurementfalters inEurope

IN MARcH OF THIS yEAR EADS AND ITS cUS- and governments have been slowly mov- the second phase encompasses design/ tomers reached an agreement on fund- ing toward a better understanding of how development—during which the techno- ing for the Airbus A400M military trans- to procure complex military systems. The logical risks are evaluated, and which cur- port. It entails a €2-billion increase on lessons of the Eurofighter Typhoon, the rently lasts longer than in past programs. the original €19-billion contract for de- NH-90 helicopter and, most recently, the This third phase is the production phase. velopment and production of the air- A400M programs have resulted in a …In more complex programs sometimes craft, a further €1.5 billion of new funds clear set of basic principles that should there is a fourth phase between the defi- for the project (in exchange for a share underpin the acquisition of any complex, nition and development phase, essen- of future export sales), a waiver on cur- multinational military platform. tially the risk reduction phase (for simula- rent delay penalties and an accelerated In essence, these principles are: Re- tions and pre-tests).” rate of payment for aircraft between duce the number of phases that require Generally speaking, “smart procure- 2010 and 2014. political authority; identify risk and risk ment” means looking at the full life cycle of any new program at the very early stages, so system enhancements and up- grades can be planned and budgeted for A-400M many years in advance. It also means the roles of industry and government cus- tomers can be managed so technical and financial risks can be shared.

The U.K.strategy The U.K. introduced its smart procure- ment initiative in 1988 and redefined it in 2001 as the “smart acquisition pro- gram.” This became part of a broader new defense industrial strategy in 2005. The U.K. was the first European coun- try to adopt smart procurement and “public/private finance initiative” acqui- sition policies, which have seen private contractors becoming responsible for Although this was an important reduction programs at an early stage military aircraft maintenance, pilot train- breakthrough for both customers and (preferably the predefinition phase); and ing, air traffic control and, most re- manufacturer, the agreement has again develop integrated teams of industry and cently, the management of the RAF’s highlighted the difficulties Europe has in customer/government qualified person- air-to-air re-fueling operation. procuring complex, multinational mili- nel, with real decision-making powers, to A further defense industrial strategy tary equipment. In 2003 the unit cost of jointly manage key aspects of the pro- will be launched in the next few years, as an A400M was around $80 million, and gram. If there are technical problems or well as a new plan for acquisition reform, it was due to enter service in 2009; now, delays as a result of budgetary issues—or in which the Ministry of Defence (MOD) the unit cost is more likely to be between a change in operational requirements— will establish procurement frameworks $120 million and $130 million, and the the expense for these should be allo- based on 10-year planning horizons. entry-into-service date is 2013. cated fairly between the government Meanwhile, the MOD has stream- Despite huge efforts to introduce customer and industry. lined its acquisition process for urgent “smart” procurement practices over the “There is a tendency to have fewer operational requirements (UORs), ap- past 10 years, the trends are pointing to phases (usually only three) in a program,” proving over £3.6 billion of UORs for more cost overruns and further delays to according to a recent report, Lessons Iraq and Afghanistan since operations future cooperative ventures. Learned from European Defence Equip- began, mostly related to protecting ment Programs, from the EU’s Institute troops in the field. Recent UOR acquisi- Principles take shape for Security Studies. “The first phase tions have included General Atomics For the past 30 years Europe’s industry now consists of the predefinition phase, MQ-9 Reaper unmanned air systems—

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Eurofighter Typhoon with just 12 months between the original in the range £900 million- purchase request and the aircraft’s use in £2.2 billion per annum.” operations by the RAF in Afghanistan— This is not good news and airborne defensive aid suites. for the next round of large equipment acquisition pro- Long-term difficulties grams, such as the pur- Although short-term acquisition pro- chase of 140 Joint Strike cesses have improved, many of the min- Fighters and two aircraft istry’s long-term strategic programs are carriers. According to a re- late and over budget. The MOD ordered cent House of Commons 21 Nimrod MR4 reconnaissance and sur- defense select committee veillance aircraft for operation in 2003; report, delaying the carrier this order has been cut to nine, with an program has generated operational date of 2012. £450 million in savings in Pressure on defense budgets to re- the short term but added duce spending has also contributed to £674 million in the longer delays and cost overruns as equipment term (over 10 years) of the procurement is slowed down. program. An independent audit into MOD ac- quisition processes commissioned by the French twist U.K. government and released in Octo- In France, acquisition re- ber 2009 found that a consequence of form has taken a different using delays to manage the funding gap turn. Responsibility for mil- between available resources and acquisi- itary purchases lies with the tion commitments “has meant that pro- Direction Générale pour grammes take significantly longer than l’Armement (DGA), a state originally estimated, because the Depart- organization sitting be- ment cannot afford to build them at the tween the armed forces originally planned rate…. Across a large and the Defense Ministry, range of programmes, this study found staffed by highly qualified that the average programme overruns by technical personnel with 80% or around five years from the time both industry and govern- specified at initial approval through to in ment experience, favoring service dates. The average increase in fixed-price contracting but cost of these programmes is 40% or with flexible contractual around £300 million. This study also es- renegotiating principles. timates that the ‘frictional costs’ to the In France, as elsewhere, over 50% of tracts are renegotiated at some stage. “In Department of this systematic delay are all military equipment purchasing con- response, the French have introduced a ‘responsibility principle’ to fixed-price contracting, meaning that those who are NH-90 actually responsible for failing to meet contractual obligations, whether govern- ment or industry, must generally pay the costs,” according to a December 2009 U.S. Center for New American Security policy brief. Although PFI (private finance initia- tive) government-industry contract deals are commonplace within the U.K., in France they are rare. One of the first was signed in 2007 between the Defense Ministry and the HeliDax company for the supply of up to 22,000 helicopter flight hours to the EA-ALAT (Ecole d’Ap- plication de l’Aviation Légère de l’Armée

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de Terre), a helicopter training school in Events Calendar Dax, southern France. Currently, according to the DGA, JUNE 1-4 new military equipment procurement Fourth International Conference on Research in Air Transportation, programs are running about two months Budapest, Hungary. behind schedule, with an increasing de- Contact: Andres Zellweger, [email protected] mand to meet new UOR purchases. Al- JUNE 7-9 though a cause for concern, this sug- Sixteenth AIAA/CEAS Aeroacoustics Conference, Stockholm, Sweden. gests France is coping with complex Contact: Hans Bodén, [email protected] military procurement issues somewhat more successfully than is the U.K. JUNE 8-10 But a recent government audit of all Third International Symposium on Systems and Control in Aeronautics military programs since 2005 costing and Astronautics, Harbin, People’s Republic of China. more than €5 billion—including the Das- Contact: Zhenshen Qu, [email protected] sault Rafale, NH-90 helicopter, A400M JUNE 14-18 airlifter and Eurocopter Tiger helicop- ASME TurboExpo 2010, Glasgow, Scotland, U.K. ter—has shown that 75% of these major Contact: www.turboexpo.org projects are impacted by delays or cost overruns. Among the main reasons for JUNE 28-JULY 1 these problems, according to the audit, Fortieth AIAA Fluid Dynamics Conference and Exhibit; 10th have been underfunding of programs, AIAA/ASME Joint Thermophysics and Heat Transfer Conference; underestimation of program costs, inter- 27th AIAA Aerodynamic Measurement Technology and Ground Testing national cooperation terms that have Conference; 28th AIAA Applied Aerodynamics Conference; 41st AIAA driven up costs and the simultaneous Plasmadynamics and Lasers Conference; Fifth AIAA Flow Control launch of several large programs. Conference. Chicago, Ill. Contact: 703/264-7500 Pressures grow JUNE 28-JULY 2 With increasing pressure on the defense Eighth International LISA Symposium, Palo Alto, Calif. budget, it is likely that delays and over- Contact: Sasha Buchman, 650/725-4110 runs will escalate in the coming years, in JUNE 30-JULY 3 France and elsewhere. The delays and ICNPAA 2010—Mathematical Problems in Engineering, Aerospace and cost overruns to the A400M program Sciences, Sao Jose dos Campos, Brazil. will not help the cause of those con- Contact: Prof. S. Sivasundaram, 386/761-9829, [email protected] vinced that private contractors need to be given more responsibility for manag- JULY 10-15 ing complex new defense equipment Twenty-seventh International Symposium on Rarefied Gas Dynamics, programs. Pacific Grove, Calif. The U.K. and France are not the Contact: Deborah Levin, 814/865-6435, [email protected] only major European countries to con- JULY 11-15 sider a fresh overhaul of defense equip- Fortieth International Conference on Environmental Systems, ment procedures. The new German de- Barcelona, Spain. fense minister, Karl-Theodor Freiherr zu Contact: 703/264-7500 Guttenberg, has promised to improve the future German acquisition policy. JULY 18-25 The A400M delays, coupled with the Twenty-eighth Scientific Assembly of the Committee on Space Research, controversy of the EADS KC-X tanker Bremen, Germany. bid and a naval fleet-support ship con- Contact: www.cospar2010.org tract that is well over budget, have con- JULY 25-28 centrated minds in the German defense Forty-sixth AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference and ministry on how far smart procurement Exhibit, Nashville, Tenn. principles should be taken. Contact: 703/264-7500 Ironically, it was the poor perform- ance, in terms of delays and cost over- JULY 25-28 runs, on the multinational Eurocopter Eighth International Energy Conversion Engineering Conference and Tiger and the NH-90 military transport Exhibit, Nashville, Tenn. helicopter that persuaded the German Contact: 703/264-7500 defense ministry that EADS would have to bear so much of the brunt of costs and

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tions, delivering up-to- Franco-German-Spanish EADS Talerion date, high-resolution im- ISTAR (intelligence, surveillance, target ages from virtually all re- acquisition and reconnaissance) UAV, gions of the world. where a decision on the future of the Responsibility for manag- program is due to be made this year. ing the system was given to a consortium of com- vvv panies led by OHB-Sys- The current economic crisis should mean tem AG. that governments will look increasingly The first satellite was for private industry partners to take more launched on a Russian responsibility for managing and support- SAR-Lupe constellation Cosmos 3M launcher in ing complex new military systems. But December 2006, and all there is little evidence that, beyond the five are now in U.K., this is happening. Rather, in these compensation if the aircraft were de- place. Delivery of the overall system was straitened times, politicians are coming layed or if it underperformed, a policy officially accepted by the customer, the under increasing pressure to support that seems to have backfired. German Federal Office of Defense Tech- their domestic industries, delay expen- Like France, Germany has been nology and Procurement BWB, in Sep- sive decisions on major programs for a fairly slow in adopting smart procure- tember 2008, on time and within budget; few more years and concentrate on ment principles, one of the first being OHB is under contract to operate the short-term troop protection acquisitions the €320-million military SAR-Lupe system for 10 years. to support expeditionary operations. satellite constellation, a global military But Germany, like the rest of Eu- Philip Butterworth-Hayes surveillance system to operate night rope, now faces some tough choices on Brighton,U.K. and day, independent of weather condi- major strategic programs such as the [email protected]

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Disagreementsandharddecisions

WHEN PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMAAP- Following the president’s statement peared at the in and the astronauts’ letter, NASA admin- Florida on April 15 to announce a shift istrator Charles Bolden went to Capitol in human spaceflight policy, he drew Hill on April 22 to defend the policy praise from several advocates of private- change. Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) sector spacecraft development, including charged that Bolden is an “impediment Apollo 11 Buzz Aldrin (see to moving forward” who lacks credibility “Conversations,” page 12). He also took among lawmakers. Shelby also accused lumps from critics who say the White the administrator of ceding human space House is grounding U.S. space efforts. exploration to the Russians, the Chinese On the Hill, the USAF tanker issue and the Indians. remains unresolved, and “prompt global Similarly critical if more soft-spoken, strike” is on the DOD’s radar screens. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) told Bolden that NASA is “relying too heavily Defining the human space effort on commercial entrepreneurs who The president is seeking to extend fund- [won’t] be ready to send astronauts into Sen. Barbara Mikulski ing for the international space station space anytime soon.” Sen. Barbara Mi- until 2020 and wants NASA to pour $6 decade of this century, but enunciated kulski (D-Md.) was easier on Bolden but billion into developing commercial space no specific plan for achieving this. questioned the new policy, asking, “How taxi services to give astronauts access to Many in Washington believe that de- could a commercial vehicle be able to the station in the postshuttle era. signing, developing and flying spacecraft meet a three-year timeframe” for launch- Obama also wants to kill the Constel- is a strength of the government agency ing astronauts. Apparently not yet de- lation program, including the Ares rock- that has done the job for the past half- cided, Mikulski said she will formulate ets NASA has been developing for six century and that the private sector—even her position on the administration’s years at a cost of $9 billion. It does re- with federal funding—is not yet ready to budget request for NASA “only after tain a scaled-down version of the pro- take over the building of the only U.S. more hearings and further research.” gram’s Orion crew exploration vehicle, spacecraft that will carry crews. Others which would be launched, unmanned, to feel, despite White House assurances, Tanker déjà vu (again) the station and be parked there as an that shifting to private-sector spacecraft The Air Force’s decade-long effort to ac- emergency rescue vehicle but would not, will cost jobs during a time of economic quire a new air-refueling tanker took a as previously planned, take astronauts to challenge. One Washington observer new turn April 21 when EADS an- the Moon and beyond. The president says the administration’s policy “is not nounced that it will enter the $35-billion said it would still be possible for U.S. as- yet a done deal,” because it faces robust KC-X competition. Previously partnered tronauts to reach Mars in the fourth opposition on Capitol Hill. with Northrop Grumman, which decided Moreover, astronaut Neil Armstrong, in March not to participate, EADS will Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison the first person to walk on the Moon, challenge Boeing for an opportunity to joined two other Apollo veterans in ex- build 179 aircraft to begin replacing 50- pressing “substantial reservations” about year-old KC-135 Stratotankers. the administration’s plan. If the policy is Air Force officers say privately that implemented, Armstrong, Jim Lovell either of the aircraft likely to be submit- and Gene Cernan wrote, “It appears we ted as a KC-X entry would serve their will have wasted our current $10+ billion needs. Boeing is expected to press investment in Constellation” and that ahead with a version of its 767-200, “the United States is far too likely to be which is smaller and has less fuel and on a long downward slide to medioc- cargo capacity but is likely to have lower rity.” Public utterances by the almost maintenance and operations costs. reclusive Armstrong—in this case, differ- EADS will propose a version of the Air- ing with his crewmate Aldrin—are very bus A330-300, which it now calls the rare and are taken seriously in the na- KC-45, that is more robust and can off- tion’s capital. load more fuel, but may be larger than

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what the Air Force needs. (For a brief period, KC-45 was the official military designation for the next-generation tanker but it is now an industry term.) Boeing has the advantage of already operating a production line in Everett, Washington, and an outfitting facility in Wichita, Kansas, but has not yet put a prototype of its proposed tanker into the air or tested its proposed advanced air- refueling boom. EADS plans to build an assembly line in Mobile but is still a long way from dipping its first spade into the Alabama earth. EADS has a “production representative” version of its KC-45 and of its advanced refueling boom in the flight test stage. Each company claims that its aircraft can be ready on Air Force As the tanker competition ramps up once again, the KC-135 soldiers on. ramps sooner than the other. The KC-X competition evokes pow- erful feelings at the highest levels in the mans can make it. In fact, that emphasis Prompt global strike nation’s capital and overseas. French on fairness means that Gates is recused The Obama administration has asked President Nicolas Sarkozy said on March from the selection process, which will be Congress for $250 million in FY11 to 30 that he trusts Obama’s promise that conducted by acquisitions professionals, continue exploring a new weapon that the tanker competition will be “free and to avoid the appearance of unfair com- uses an ICBM to boost an unmanned fair.” Many in Washington heard Sar- mand influence. spaceplane into the upper atmosphere. kozy’s words as a plea, if not a demand, Pentagon officials extended a dead- Once called “precision global strike” and rather than an assurance of a high com- line for KC-X bids from May 10 to June now renamed “prompt global strike” to fort level. Standing beside the French 9, a move that benefits EADS. Boeing emphasize its potential for rapid re- president at a low-key press conference, says it was ready to offer its tanker on sponse capability, PGS would enable the Obama repeated that the KC-X would be the earlier date. U.S. to transport a conventional war- This project, more head to a high-value target in as little as than any other aircraft pro- an hour. Partly in support of PGS, on gram—even the behind- April 22 the Air Force launched an Atlas schedule, over-budget F-35 V rocket from Cape Canaveral carrying Joint Strike Fighter— X-37B orbital test vehicle 1, a 29-ft, evokes strong feelings in Congress as well. Sen. Sen. Patty Murray Patty Murray (D-Wash.) is- sued a statement criticizing the inclusion of EADS, pointing to a recent World Trade Organization finding that Airbus’s parent com- pany received illegal subsi- dies from involved Euro- President Obama and French President Nicolas Sarkozy held a joint pean governments. press conference on March 30. Sen. Shelby, on the a fair competition. He also told reporters other hand, said the EADS tanker would that he has no intention of usurping De- create more jobs and give the Air Force fense Secretary Robert Gates’ control a better plane. Split on which plane and over the competition. which planemaker to support, Capitol This was the latest of several state- Hill lawmakers are likely to object to any ments by key figures stressing that the decision ultimately reached by the KC-X KC-X competition will be as fair as hu- acquisitions team.

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ers to launch conventional weapons be- scheduled to join the B-2’s arsenal after cause of the hairtrigger alert status of a flight program is concluded later this U.S. and Russian ICBM forces. Almost year. Development of the MOP is widely unnoticed by the public, Washington and understood to be a direct response to Moscow continue to maintain hundreds Iran’s nuclear development program, of ICBMs in “launch on warning” mode, which includes extensive underground meaning that one superpower would un- construction. leash its missiles if it believed it was All 20 operational B-2s belong to the about to be attacked by the other. 509th Bomb Wing at Whiteman AFB, At a high-level meeting in 2006, Mo. Brig. Gen. Robert Wheeler, 509th Russia’s then-President Vladimir Putin commander, told Angus Batey of the told President George W. Bush that he London Daily Mail: “The MOP can hold opposed a PGS-type weapon because any target at risk. It’s a psychological de- Russia would not know if a newly terrence weapon as well as a capability. launched missile carried a conventional There’s no leadership that can hide from or a nuclear warhead. Acknowledging that particular weapon.” that the idea “really hadn’t gone any- A source told Aerospace America where in the Bush administration,” De- that the Pentagon wants to be able to act fense Secretary Robert Gates, who also quickly on short-notice intelligence and held the top Pentagon post under Bush, to attack a high-value target “within min- told ABC’s “This Week” that the Obama utes rather than over a period of hours.” team has “embraced” a conventional The advantage of a Minuteman/X-37B weapon that uses a rocket booster. PGS weapon over the B-2/MOPS com- The appeal of PGS was spelled out bination lies only in the timing: Launched by David E. Sanger and Thom Shanker from Whiteman, a B-2 would take 10 hr in an April 23 New York Times article. to reach a target along the Afghanistan- The new weapon, they wrote, “is de- Pakistan border; a missile-boosted space- signed to carry out tasks like picking off plane might reach the target in an hour. Osama bin Laden in a cave, if the right While the April 22 X-37B launch— On April 22 the Air Force launched an cave can be found; taking out a North about which, apart from Payton’s com- rocket carrying this X-37B orbital test vehicle. Korean missile while it is being rolled to ments, nothing has been said publicly— the launch pad; or destroying an Iranian is part of the PGS effort, other pieces of 11,000-lb unmanned that nuclear site”—all without the U.S. being the program are in the DOD’s “black” can remain in orbit for months and land forced to resort to nuclear weapons. budget and apparently include vehicles via remote control. The U.S. will soon have a slower re- that have not been revealed in public. A The Air Force “doesn’t know when sponse version of the same capability us- senior source told this column that a part it’s coming back,” Gary Payton, deputy ing the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber and the of the program is located at the Air undersecretary for USAF space pro- Air Force’s massive ordnance penetrator Force’s Groom Lake, Nev., facility. grams, told reporters. Without confirm- (MOP), a 30,000-lb bunker-busting bomb The issue that must be resolved in ing a link between PGS and the X-37B Washington: Given the very high (but as mission, Payton said of the latter, “I yet unknowable) cost of a PGS system, don’t know how this could be called does the nation really want to give up a weaponization of space. It’s just an up- next-generation bomber for it? A skeptic dated version of the space shuttle-type of pointed out that bin Laden is probably activities in space.” Others say an LGM- living in a house, not a cave, and that the 30G Minuteman III ICBM body will U.S. would have blown down the roof eventually replace the Atlas V and be long ago using existing technology if melded with an upgraded X-37B to be- leaders possessed accurate intelligence come an operational PGS system. Fund- on the al-Qaeda figure’s whereabouts. ing for a more conventional next-gener- The nation’s leaders must also deter- ation bomber is being postponed while mine whether the U.S. can field a PGS the Air Force proceeds with PGS work. capability without violating at least the Because PGS is suborbital, it will not spirit and possibly the letter of existing violate international agreements or long- arms treaties, including a pact signed by standing tradition against putting war- Obama and Russian President Dmitri A. heads into orbit. Still, previous adminis- Medvedev in Prague on April 8. trations led by both parties have resisted The flight program for the massive ordnance Robert F.Dorr using ballistic-missile-style rocket boost- penetrator should be concluded later this year. [email protected]

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BuzzAldrin

The whole world saw you walking up coming home from the ISS would sus- tors. But Charlie Bolden has a tough job the stairs to Air Force One last April tain a more benign environment aboard ahead of him as he wrestles his agency arm in arm with President Obama. a glider. into a new focus. The forces that sup- You were headed to the space confer- Now, for deep space missions, a port the status quo are very entrenched. ence in Florida. What were you talk- capsule would be preferred for its ability ing about? to aerocapture and to otherwise sustain So you’d abandon the Moon entirely? He thanked me for my help in sup- reentry speeds coming back from a deep No, I believe we should go back to porting his space plan. space or planetary entry. There, wings the Moon, only this time as part of an in- and a lifting shape become problems for ternational partnership that establishes a That’s it? the heat shield and the higher heating lunar development authority. We are a He’s a very smart guy. loads and g forces. So I think an Orion- great power and have the experience to like vehicle would be preferred for use help the other nations that want to de- Much of the program you’ve advo- with a deep space vehicle, and a lifting velop the Moon. Same for the station. cated for years is included in the new body preferred for returning taxi mis- Our role today is to express our leader- plan. Do you feel vindicated? sions from ISS. Each has a place. ship by facilitating the space programs of No, because there is a lot of work to our partners. be done. We didn’t get everything we For years, policymakers have ignored sought. many of your ideas. Now they’re being “Things are really bad,and codified into policy. Why now? What that’swhen change becomes What, for example? has changed? possible.” There is still a need to develop a Things are really bad, and that’s runway lander type vehicle for the space when change becomes possible. Gov- China, India, South Korea, Brazil all taxi, not a space capsule. And I urged ernment bureaucracies aren’t known for are seeking to develop advanced space the shuttle be extended so as to speed their ability to make substantial changes; programs, some of which include the development of a shuttle-derived they’re not very agile. NASA faces diffi- manned space programs. We can help heavy-lift vehicle. That doesn’t seem to cult times in transitioning from the shut- make that a reality. And when we do, be likely now. tle era to an agency more focused on re- our stature increases, which strengthens search and deep space manned flight. our strategic interests. So you have no use for capsules? This opens up the possibility of No, I didn’t say that. Making the hearing new approaches. Under Con- Why the focus on Mars for all these space taxi that flies to and from the in- stellation, the program of record was years? ternational space station a capsule is a falling so far behind schedule that there Our survival requires us to become a true multiplanet species. We need to identify places we can go in the solar sys- “Making the space taxi that flies to and from the international tem that could be candidates for habita- space station a capsule is a pretty dumb idea.” tion and colonization. Mars offers us tremendous scientific benefits, in under- pretty dumb idea. But a space capsule was no funding to build the Ares V or standing global climate change, possible would work in a deep space mission. the lander. It needed all of the life—and even, during the period when it funding just for “Apollo on steroids.” was wet, advanced life. It is the best can- What difference does it make? That’s because under [former NASA Ad- didate we know of to support a human A space taxi, by definition, should ministrator] Mike Griffin the focus be- colony. So that’s why Mars should be be able to return crew and ISS experi- came returning to the Moon, rerunning our focus, not the Moon. ments to a runway to speed their pro- the Moon race we won 40 years ago. cessing and to carry the larger payloads I have had a unified strategic vision What’s the relationship between Mars that a lifting body runway lander can de- for space that is appropriate for the and heavy lift? liver. A space capsule shape strongly lim- 21st-century world we face. The Cold A heavy-lift system is a better way its the down mass and increases the g War is over. Today, to demonstrate to launch an interplanetary deep space forces sustained during reentry. I have global space leadership requires that you vehicle into than two ve- flown reentry profiles aboard capsules, collaborate and build coalitions with hicles. Using today’s EELVs would re- and I can tell you that delicate samples other nations, not see them as competi- quire half a dozen launches of small

12 AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2010 CONVERSATIONS610a.qxd:AA Template 5/14/10 12:31 PM Page 3

Interview by Frank Sietzen

packages; that would not be desirable. capabilities like the VASIMR plasma Recently the LCROSS [Lunar Crater To go anywhere beyond Earth orbit re- rocket and other designs, to shrink the Observation and Sensing Satellite] quires greater lift than we have today. transit times to Mars or asteroid ren- mission detected substantial amounts dezvous. We also need more research in of water on the Moon. Would you So you endorse the president’s pro- radiation shielding. And a heavy-lift take advantage of this in your Mars posal to speed up a heavy-lift vehicle? booster and possible advanced upper scenario? It won’t take us five years to design. stages. We should be working on these Robots can mine the water on the areas now, and I think the new R&D Moon, and we could teleoperate those How long would it take? budget supports this. In-space refueling robots from a deep space vehicle on a If we used the existing space shuttle of upper stages is a technology we lunar flyby test flight—or by students infrastructure we could start now. That’s should develop. back here on Earth. You don’t need a why shuttle extension was so critical. But that doesn’t seem to be in the planning, so we may have to change course and Buzz Aldrin was educated at the U.S.Mili- the first lunar samples to be returned by an try a “clean sheet” approach. tary Academy atWest Point,graduating Apollo crew. third in his class with a B.S.in mechanical You no longer favor a shuttle-derived engineering.He then joined the Air Force, Upon returning from the Moon,Aldrin was heavy-lift design? where he flew F-86 Sabre Jets in 66 combat decorated with the Presidential Medal of That’s my preferred approach, but missions in Korea,shot down two MiG-15s Freedom,the highest U.S.peacetime without shuttle extension you lose the and was decorated with the Distinguished award.A 45-day international goodwill workforce and the shuttle systems. So an Flying Cross.After a tour of duty in Germany tour by Aldrin and the crew followed,with entirely new approach may be needed. flying F-100s,he earned his doctorate of 23 other countries bestowing numerous science in astronautics at MIT and wrote distinguished awards and medals.Asteroid And you didn’t support the and his thesis on manned orbital rendezvous. 6470 Aldrin is named for him,as is the Ares V vehicles? Aldrin Crater on the Moon. The Ares I used five-segment mo- Selected by NASA in 1963 into the third tors that were unproven and underpow- group of astronauts,Aldrin was the first Since retiring from NASA and the Air Force, ered for the weight of the Orion. And with a doctorate and became known as Aldrin has devised a master plan for Ares V was too big. So it was clear to me “Dr.Rendezvous.”The docking and missions to Mars known as the Aldrin Mars that we needed a different approach to rendezvous techniques he devised for Cycler—a spacecraft system with perpetual heavy lift. spacecraft in Earth and lunar orbits cycling orbits between Earth and Mars. became critical to the success of the Gemini He has received three U.S.patents for his How can NASA develop a deep space and Apollo programs and are still used. schematics of a modular space station, vehicle under their budget pressure? He also pioneered underwater training Starbooster reusable rockets and If we utilize the spare parts left over techniques,as a substitute for 0-g flights, multicrew modules for spaceflight.Aldrin from the ISS construction, or inflatable to simulate spacewalking. founded Starcraft Boosters,a rocket design technology, we can get at least to the company,and the ShareSpace Foundation, prototype stage fairly quickly without a In November 1966 during the Gemini 12 a nonprofit devoted to advancing space huge expenditure of funds. There is al- mission,he performed the world’s first education, ways the tendency to go for the most ex- successful spacewalk,overcoming prior exploration pensive approach, the Cadillac, when difficulties experienced by Americans and and affordable something cheaper is available. The idea Russians during extravehicular activity spaceflight is to get us out into deep space as soon and setting a new EVA record of 5 hr 30 min. experiences. as we can start. On July 16,1969,Aldrin,Neil Armstrong Aldrin and Michael Collins were launched published an What is the most difficult thing about aboard the Apollo 11 mission.On July 20 autobiography, a manned Mars mission? Aldrin and Armstrong landed their lunar Magnificent We don’t have the technology to module, Eagle,on the Moon’s surface, Desolation, sustain a Mars crew for the long trip re- spending 21 hr on the Sea ofTranquility. in 2009. quired by chemical rocket propulsion Apollo 11 returned 46 lb of Moon rocks, systems. That’s why we need to develop

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Moon base to do that. And when we do tal vehicle processing. The trajectory for see that while shifting to a focus on ex- return to the Moon, the lunar develop- the asteroid intercept would be highly ploration missions. Routine space trans- ment corporation will set out extraction optimized for minimal transit times. portation can be performed by com- plans and those nations that wish to will Then the design of the spacecraft. mercial industry. Gives us more options participate. The habitat would have to be sized to ac- and a greater number of systems that can be developed.

“There is always the tendency to go for the most expensive Isn’t there a risk in trusting the lives of approach,the Cadillac,when something cheaper is available.” astronauts to unproven vehicles? They won’t be unproven by the time astronauts fly on them. They will If you compare your Apollo 11 flight commodate both the crew and optical have to follow man-rating requirements to an asteroid rendezvous mission to- instruments and telescopes, the ability to and submit to NASA regulation. day, which would you say is the more catalog data from observations. Some difficult to accomplish? means to possibly either land on an as- Your former colleagues, like Neil Arm- The asteroid mission will be very teroid or extract a sample and bring it strong, Jim Lovell and Gene Cernan, challenging, but it’s a good precursor to back into the ship. A capsule like Orion don’t agree—they call this shift the missions to Phobos and Mars settlement. docked to one end that can become a end of American human spaceflight. lifeboat in an emergency, but also per- A commercial industry that will have Why Phobos? Why not just go straight form an aerocapture maneuver at the multiple crew vehicles flying in space, on to a Mars landing? end of the flight. The capsule could dock NASA developing Orion for deep space Because the gravity on Phobos is with a runway lander lifting body for the missions, a manned, heavy-lift launch ve- substantially less than Mars, meaning return trip back to Earth, or land itself. hicle, a budget that increases $6 billion that missions to Phobos can build a sus- Above all, the technology to allow over five years—how is that the end of tainable base, and building our first set- the crew to survive the high-radiation en- human spaceflight? tlement off-world would be less compli- vironment. New in-space propulsion sys- cated on Phobos. tems to maneuver around the asteroid You call your ideas a unified vision. once the capsule/habitat is in orbit, and How is it unified? Why is an asteroid mission a good the propulsion to break out of orbit to It combines exploration, commer- precursor to a Mars mission? the return trajectory. cial development, science and security. It tests many of the same technolo- None of these capabilities exists to- Furthermore, all of the elements support gies, plus planetary defense. Unless we day. Ideally, I would like to see that HLV each other—shuttle extension to speed want to go the way of the dinosaurs, we be fully reusable at some point, which the development of heavy lift, runway need to understand these NEOs [near- would require flyback boosters. landers for ISS taxi services, a capsule Earth objects] and develop ways to de- and habitat for deep space missions, flect any that may threaten the Earth in Why not just build new Vs? partnering with other nations to advance the future. Under the Constellation pro- The technology is dated, as are the use of the ISS and the lunar surface, mis- gram there just wasn’t any funding avail- engines, structures and guidance. Plus sions to Phobos that establish the tech- able for any of this. the tooling and construction facilities are nology for colonization of Mars. It’s a gone. The best approach is either an in- strategic approach. What are the technologies needed for terim step, which would be an all-cargo the asteroid mission? shuttle-derived solution using the shuttle Okay, I have to ask about [your TV ap- First is a heavy-lift launch system, facilties, workforce, engines, tank and pearance on] Dancing with the Stars. preferably with an upper stage that can boosters, followed by the new design. Why did you do that? be refueled. You’d launch the stage, and You may have to get there in incremen- To call attention to the successes of after it performs its [injection] mission it tal steps. But an advanced reusable vehi- the Apollo program and get people to remains in space, available for the next cle should be our technological objective. think about the future, support our military payload. The HLV [heavy-lift vehicle] personnel, those who also supported our would use the new hydrocarbon booster There has been concern over the shift space program, and old geezers like me. engines called for in the FY11 budget, in space taxi services from Orion CEV/ new stronger but lightweight stage struc- Ares I to commercial entrepreneurs. So you admit to being an old geezer? tures and bulkheads, a new launch facil- You’ve supported this change. Why? I wanted to show people of my age ity in Florida that incorporates shuttle ex- Private contractors are well within that you can go out and get up and try perience along with the experiences of the capability to carry both crews and to do new things. Be active. I’m 80 years other launch systems. Perhaps horizon- cargoes to the station. NASA can over- old, so if I can do it so can you.

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U.S.spacelaunch:Growth andstagnation

SPEAKING AT THE SPACE FOUNDATION’S Pentagon and NASA fulfill their require- ists. This was unfortunate, because it 26th National Space Symposium this ments for products such as satellite im- missed an opportunity to address a key April, , the president of agery and human/cargo spaceflight ser- question for both NASA and the U.S. Space Exploration Technologies, or vices. The topic was prompted by the launch services industry as the paradigm SpaceX, noted the importance of grow- termination of NASA’s Constellation shift in U.S. human spaceflight emerges: ing the space launch services market. program in February and the realization How do you keep the industry from Shotwell was part of a panel discussing that the U.S. will soon be without a na- growing overly dependent on NASA, be- the “changing paradigm” of how the tional human spaceflight capability. coming discouraged from competing for Once the space shuttle fleet is retired other business and thus having its spirit later this year or early next, the U.S. gov- of innovation damaged? ernment will no longer be in the business As the paradigm shifts, it would be of owning and operating its own piloted shortsighted for the U.S. launch services space . NASA is preparing industry to emphasize growth in its vol- to embark on a new operating plan that ume of business without giving equal or will require it to depend initially on the more attention to diversifying its cus- Russians and their rockets and tomer base. While it makes sense for Soyuz/Progress capsules, then eventually NASA, for example, to serve as a guar- on U.S. companies like SpaceX and Or- anteed anchor client that will help bital Sciences, firms that offer leased ca- SpaceX and Orbital Sciences lower their pacity on their own commercially mar- financial risk as they develop the Falcon keted space vehicles. 9/Dragon and Taurus II/Cygnus launch Shotwell’s comment about the need systems, this should be viewed as only an to grow the market in which her com- initial incentive for these and other com- pany competes was said in a matter-of- panies to enter and help expand the fact way and was so generic and obvious market for commercial human/cargo that it failed to elicit a follow-up question spaceflight services. from the moderator or to stimulate an Teal Group thinks it would be a huge exchange with any of the other panel- mistake for companies like SpaceX and

In the early going, the U.S. will rely on Soyuz and Progress capsules (below, docked at the ISS) and Soyuz rockets (left) for access to the space station.

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ary commercial commu- nications satellites, opting instead to build and mar- ket small to medium-sized versions. The bet paid off on March 22, 1999, when the Broadcasting Satellite System of Japan awarded a contract to Or- bital for the BSAT-2A and -2B direct TV broad- cast satellites. Each satel- lite has a mass of 1,317 kg and is much smaller Orbital’s Pegasus rocket pioneered the use of air-launched expendable launch vehicles. than traditional geosta- tionary commercial com- munications satellites. That contract was fol- appear to be continuing the tradition lowed up quickly by additional awards for with the /Dragon and Taurus II/ small geostationary satellites from that Cygnus systems. company and PanAmSat. In short, Orbital has developed tech- Risks pay off for Orbital nologies and either met market demands The Taurus II is Orbital’s proposed vehicle for delivering cargo to the station. Orbital pioneered the use of air-launched that had previously gone unfulfilled, or expendable launch vehicles when it in- outright stimulated the creation of a new troduced its winged Pegasus booster in market. Orbital to view NASA as “the market,” 1990. It was among the leaders in devel- rather than as one of many potential opment and operation of LEO mobile Fast rise for SpaceX customers within many different mar- communications satellites with the de- SpaceX has not been in existence nearly kets—most of which have yet to be in- ployment of its first-generation Orb- as long as Orbital; it was founded only in vented. It would be a mistake because it comm constellation in 1998-1999. 2002. This makes its current leadership could transform these companies from During the second half of the 1990s, position in the evolving transition away hungry, innovative enterprises into con- the company also went against the pre- from government-dominated human servative and sluggish corporations that vailing trend toward heavier geostation- spaceflight all the more impressive. The prefer maintaining a status quo to taking risks with new technologies and market applications. The whole point of the Obama ad- ministration’s push for a paradigm shift in the way the U.S. does human space- flight is to energize an industry that has for too long been dominated by and de- pendent on the U.S. government. Al- though the decision to end Constellation and embark on a new vision for space- flight was based largely on the fact that NASA cannot afford to develop and op- erate its own human-rated launch vehi- cle, the reality is that the policy change presents a historic opportunity for pri- vate industry to lead. But leading, by its very nature, im- plies being creative, taking chances and exhibiting a willingness to be a pioneer. Both SpaceX and Orbital Sciences have The second launch delivered the 180-kg SpaceX is developing the Falcon 9 for delivery displayed these qualities in the past and RazakSAT in July 2009. to the ISS.

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company has accomplished probably Avoiding complacency gradually make them less commercially more than any other commercial launch Given the histories of both companies, competitive? venture in such a short period of time, the last thing you would assume is that and it has done so primarily as a result of they would become complacent with the A cautionary tale dogged determination. good fortune of having been selected by The scenario is not without precedent Although SpaceX had the advantage NASA to develop space vehicles that the within the U.S. launch services industry. of being almost entirely financed by its agency may then lease over a period of All you have to do is look at what the Air founder, , through 2006, it at least six to eight years to haul cargo Force’s Evolved Expendable Launch Ve- has had to overcome three consecutive and astronauts to and from the ISS. But hicle program has done to Boeing and failures of its Falcon 1 rocket during the Commercial Cargo Resupply Ser- Lockheed Martin. Conceived in the mid- 2006-2008. For an established launch vices contracts announced by NASA on 1990s, EELV was meant to provide the firm with a proven record in the indus- December 23, 2008, are worth $1.9 bil- DOD with assured and affordable access try, three straight unsuccessful missions lion to Orbital and $1.6 billion to to space by developing two new launch would likely have spelled the end of a SpaceX, and potentially much more if vehicle families based on modern and program, as occurred with Boeing’s you add crew transport and more resup- standardized stages, solid-rocket engines Delta III in 1998-2000. One could rea- ply missions. and payload fairings rather than the sonably have expected the same fate for All this is based on the U.S. operat- eclectic mix of previous-generation At- the Falcon 1. Instead, with an undaunted ing the ISS until 2016. However, there las, Delta and rockets. entrepreneurial spirit, SpaceX pressed is already strong support within the ad- Because of standardized parts, the ahead. ministration and Congress to extend the new Boeing Delta IV and Lockheed Mar- On September 28, 2008, barely two station’s operational lifetime through tin Atlas V families that emerged from months after its third failure, SpaceX 2020, so the real NASA business the EELV program were envisioned to achieved its first successful Falcon 1 prospects for the two companies could be easier and cheaper to maintain. The launch from within Kwa- become much more significant. vehicles were also designed to have jalein Atoll in the , de- So the question is, will such a lucra- fewer parts, consequently minimizing the ploying a 165-kg dummy payload it tive captive government market kill the amount of hardware that could malfunc- dubbed to LEO. The second Fal- pioneering and aggressive corporate tion and improving reliability. con 1 was successfully launched on July cultures of these two companies and Best of all, the new rockets were go- 14, 2009. That mission, ing to reduce launch also launched from costs sizably for the De- Omelek, delivered the fense Dept., particularly 180-kg RazakSAT Earth the heavier models that imaging satellite to LEO were expected to cost for ATSB (Astronautic less than half the price of Technology Sdn Bhd) of the Titan IVs. At the Malaysia. time, the per-mission Despite its early se- cost of a Titan IV was es- ries of failed missions, timated at $350 million SpaceX managed not The optimistic price only to stay alive but to estimates for the two build a sizable launch rockets were based partly manifest by convincing on lower operating costs people of its technical vi- for the vehicles, but ability. The company mainly on the assumption continued to win launch that Boeing and Lock- contracts from a diverse heed Martin would com- customer base that in- pete for DOD payload cludes DOD, NASA, batch launch contracts U.S. companies such as and, separately, that the Bigelow Aerospace and companies’ improved Space Systems/Loral, as commercial business with well as foreign govern- their new vehicles would ments and companies surely help offset costs to such as the Argentine the government. space agency CONAE, DOD would have two EADS-Astrium of Eu- launch vehicle families rope, MDA of Can-ada The guaranteed market for the Atlas V (left) and Delta IV allowed from which to choose, and Spacecom of Israel. the rockets’ developers to become complacent. thus ensuring regular ac-

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essence, the EELV business was so lucra- when you have a market that is both ad- tive that it made the companies want to equate and a sure thing? hedge their bets by coming together. It EELV was once touted as a kind of was a conservative move that made paradigm shift for DOD. It was supposed sense for two very established compa- to greatly ease budgetary pressures for nies that preferred to play it safe. It was the Pentagon and give U.S. private in- a bad move, though, from the stand- dustry a competitive edge in the launch point of the U.S. taxpayer. DOD is not services market. It did neither. Our view getting anywhere close to the launch is that the experience proved to be a net prices it had hoped to get. loss for the U.S. launch industry. Perhaps a bigger factor in keeping One of the main challenges for Or- Delta IV and Atlas V prices higher than bital Sciences, SpaceX and other private expected is that both programs have be- launch companies will be to avoid being come nonfactors in the commercial lulled into a similar trap of market com- launch services market. It is as if what- placency. One of the main challenges ever desire Boeing and Lockheed Martin for NASA will be not to assume that, be- may once have had to compete com- cause it will no longer own and operate mercially against the likes of Europe’s its own human spaceflight vehicle, it can 5 and Russia’s had been easily avoid continuing to dominate this undermined by EELV. After all, why segment of the space market and bother to spend resources marketing thereby stifle its expansion. your vehicle and bidding on launch con- Marco Caceres EELVs were expected to cost less than half the tracts that you are not certain to win Teal Group price of the Titan IVs, at the time estimated at $350 million. cess to space. It would have cheaper launch costs, thus allowing more flexibil- ity in the number of satellites it could af- ford to launch. It was a good deal for the government. For Boeing and Lockheed Martin, EELV also represented a good deal. Each company received $500 million from DOD to develop their vehicles and a long-term, exclusive launch market, worth billions of dollars, that was re- served only for them. All Boeing and Lockheed Martin had to worry about was competing against each other, and even then it was recognized that each would inevitably receive a certain mini- mal level of DOD business in order to keep its launch vehicle program active. Unfortunately, however, the EELV story does not have a completely happy ending. DOD does have assured access to space because it does indeed have two modern launch vehicle families. How- ever, the fundamental premise behind EELV, that having two competing pro- grams would drive down launch costs for the U.S. government, was undone when the two companies opted to reduce their risks by joining together to form in December 2006. The joint venture guaranteed that neither Boeing nor Lockheed Martin would win big or lose big under EELV. In

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DazzlingDazzling images fromimages our nearest star

The Solar Dynamics Observatory is designed to help us understand the Sun’s influence on Earth and near-Earth space by studying the solar atmosphere on small scales of space and time and in many wavelengths simultaneously.

Soon after the instruments opened their doors, the Sun began perform- ing for SDO with this beautiful prominence eruption. The Atmospheric Imaging Assembly data, from March 30, 2010, show a wavelength band that is centered around 304 Å. This extreme emission line is from singly ionized helium and corresponds to a temperature of approximately 50,000 C. The AIA images the solar atmosphere in multiple wavelengths to link changes in the surface to interior changes. Data includes images of the Sun in 10 wavelengths every 10 seconds. PI: Alan Title; PI Institution: Lockheed Martin Solar Astrophysics Laboratory. [Text and images courtesy NASA Goddard.]

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These stills from the HMI magnetic map show the Sun’s magnetic field followed by four of SDO’s 12 imaging wavebands. The Helioseismic and Mag- netic Imager provides continual full-disk coverage at higher spatial resolution and new vector magnet- ogram capabilities. PI: Phil Scherrer; PI Institution: Stanford University.

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Termination of Constellation is not the only drastic change proposed in the Obama administration’s new space policy. A larger role for private industry, an extended life for ISS and greater emphasis on robotic and Earth monitoring missions are also in the offing. The policy is continuing to draw extremes of praise and criticism, sometimes from unexpected sources.

omentous changes are in the making for U.S. space policy, programs and priorities. President Barack Obama’s new space strategy, pegged to his proposed Mcancellation of NASA’s Constellation manned space- flight program, is highly controversial and may yet be modified somewhat by Congress. Even so, the agency’s culture and ways of doing business will almost certainly never be the same. The Obama space plan focuses on finding new and less ex- pensive means of exploring space, extending NASA’s responsibil- ity for manned spaceflight to the private sector and lengthening the lifespan of the international space station. It also puts a pre- mium on fostering commercial space transportation, developing heavy-lift propulsion technologies, preparing for scientific robotic missions and developing spacecraft for climate change observation and research. Dimensions of the space policy and its rearrangement of pri- orities and financial resources are revealed in the administration’s proposed $19-billion NASA budget for FY11, a 1.5% increase over funding for the current fiscal year. That budget includes sub- by James W. Canan stantial additional funding to nurture new technologies for future Contributing writer human space exploration beyond LEO, an endeavor that ended

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P IN U.S. SPACE POLICY

with the last Apollo Moon landing in 1972. It The U.S. has invested $9 billion in Constella- also accentuates Earth observation and plane- tion, and the economic and political stakes in tary science programs. the program are high. NASA implemented the Constellation pro- Intense reactions gram in 2004 to meet the Bush administra- From the beginning, the Obama space initia- tion’s stated goals of transporting U.S. astro- tive evoked both strong support and stern crit- nauts back to the Moon and paving the way icism. Proponents hailed it as an innovative, for future missions much deeper into space, realistic, promising and affordable approach perhaps to Mars and the asteroid belt. Aban- to human spaceflight and exploration. Critics doning the program will end the development deplored it as both too radical and danger- of its Ares I and Ares V rockets, Orion crew ously dismissive of NASA’s time-tested priori- exploration vehicle and Altair lunar lander. ties and practices for manned missions. They This will leave NASA with no new man- also cast it as the beginning of the end for rated spacecraft of its own for a long time to U.S. leadership in space, saying it would re- come—maybe permanently—and compels the duce NASA to little more than a technology U.S. to turn to commercial companies to take development and demonstration agency. astronauts into orbit for the time being, and The new proposal has been strenuously perhaps indefinitely. debated in Congress and elsewhere. Scrap- The space shuttles, which have been ping Constellation, its big sticking point, can- NASA’s only manned launch vehicles for not be done without congressional approval. more than 30 years, would be retired upon

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Obama takes aim at asteroids, Mars...and critics After the hue and cry that greeted President Barack Obama’s initial pres- entation of his plan for early 21st-century human exploration, a confer- ence was hastily assembled to offer some details and perhaps calm some fears. The president’s plan, which he explained in some detail in an April 15 speech at Kennedy Space Center, is a gamble that puts U.S. space lead- ership, and the careers of thousands of aerospace engineers and workers afloat—somewhere between the Moon and Manhattan-sized asteroids that are the new stepping stones to Mars. Nine previous U.S. presidents supported in principle use of the Moon as the staging point for an evolutionary human push deeper into the solar system. But neither past presidents nor the Congress acted de- cisively enough for a sustained program. Obama is abandoning the tion of the solar system. That proved not to be the case, although Moon Moon as an evolutionary proving ground for much more complex Mars rocks have provided major new information on the formation of the missions. His strategy trades the Moon for quicker, more revolutionary Earth/Moon system. human exploration of potentially threatening asteroids, as well as access The science community now believes that sampling asteroids can to Lagrangian (L) points about 1 million miles from Earth. Missions to help solve major questions about the solar system. Exploring and sam- both would be launched from NASA Kennedy by 2025. L points are in- pling both solid-body and much less dense “rubble pile” asteroids can creasingly important because spacecraft parked there remain basically also be “the ultimate ‘green’ missions,” providing critical information stationary relative to the Earth, Sun and Moon. about how to divert asteroids threatening life on Earth. Accessible aster- The president announced several spacecraft and launcher goals: oids and L points are about three to four times farther away than the •Orion Lite: Lockheed Martin development of Orion spacecraft will Moon, requiring new life support systems to support a crew for several continue, but with initial versions planned for use as crew rescue vehicles, weeks, a significant step toward even more capable systems to support parked at the ISS. They would be launched unmanned by Atlas V or Delta multimonth missions to Mars. IV EELVs. The craft will be built at Kennedy, which will become much The administration does not want the future space program to be- more of a development site for numerous technologies rather than just a come “Moon stuck”—bogged down with a major manned lunar infra- launch facility. Use of Orion as an ISS lifeboat would negate the need for structure, much like the shuttle and space station development have U.S. astronauts to rely on Russian Soyuz craft for reentry in an emer- kept astronauts trapped in LEO for 35 years. In addition to advanced en- gency. Several will be built to enable periodic change-out and refurbish- vironmental systems, the administration believes the asteroid/La- ment. Continued development also makes Orion available for future up- grangian goal will enable faster development of propulsion technolo- grade to a crew launcher, as originally intended in the Constellation gies that would enable U.S. astronauts to begin asteroid and L point program. That means that NASA will lead development of a vehicle that missions by 2025, and missions to Martian orbit with landings on its could possibly be used in place of commercial spacecraft, should commer- Phobos and Demos by the mid 2030s. There is nothing in the cial development fall dangerously behind. Obama also said Orion could Obama strategy that puts the Moon off limits, and indeed some lunar be one element of spacecraft configured specifically for trips to asteroids orbit missions will likely be flown by the early 2020s to prove out aster- or L points. Once stationkeeping with an asteroid, astronauts would only oid mission spacecraft while only three days from Earth instead of three need to use simple manned maneuvering units to fly over to land on it. weeks of travel time from an asteroid. •ISS transportation node: Obama did not say it specifically, but his vi- Manned Mars missions in the latter 2030s and after 2040 would be sion for Orion Lite includes using the ISS as an implicit transportation far more complicated, with heavier spacecraft that would dive through node for deep space missions. Some or all manned missions would stop the Martian atmosphere for landing. After surface explorations lasting at the ISS, then depart for distant destinations. weeks or months those manned vehicles would climb back out of the •Heavy-lift launch vehicle: Obama said that to replace the canceled Martian gravity well for return to Earth, stopping possibly in Martian or Ares V, NASA will finalize the design of a new heavy-lift launch vehicle Earth orbit. There will be an increased number of unmanned Martian no later than 2015, “and begin to build it.” He added, I want everybody precursor missions such as more advanced rovers, and by later this to understand: That is at least two years earlier than previously decade and in the 2020s unmanned sample return flights. planned—and that is conservative, given that the previous program was Obama aimed part of his message directly at congressional delega- behind schedule and over budget.” More than $3 billion is being poured tions that, without regard to new exploration strategy, seek to extend immediately into new heavy- lift options. That will be to develop “a vehi- the Constellation contracts now canceled by the customer—NASA. He cle to efficiently send into orbit the crew capsules, propulsion systems said, “There is a sense that people in Washington—driven sometimes and large quantities of supplies needed to reach deep space,” Obama less by vision than by politics—have for years neglected NASA’s mission said. “In developing this new vehicle, we will not only look at revising or and undermined the work of the professionals who fulfill it. modifying older models; we want to look at new designs, new materials, “Some have had harsh words for the decisions we’ve made, includ- new technologies that will transform not just where we can go but what ing some individuals who I’ve got enormous respect and admiration we can do when we get there.” for,” he continued, referring in part to astronauts and shuttle designers •Kennedy modernization: An additional $3 billion will be pumped who spoke against his changes. “But what I hope is that everybody will into the center over the next five years to modernize the infrastructure. take a look at what we are planning, consider the details of what we’ve The shift from the Moon to asteroids was made because the admin- laid out, and see the merits as I’ve described them. The bottom line is istration believes a return to the Moon would not have driven technol- nobody is more committed to manned spaceflight, to human explo- ogy. It would have been an evolutionary program, and Obama is willing ration of space than I am. But we’ve got to do it in a smart way, and we to trade a longer post-shuttle flight gap for more advanced technology can’t just keep on doing the same old things that we’ve been doing and development leading to the new targets. This shift is the single largest thinking that somehow is going to get us to where we want to go.” shakeup in American space planning history. Early planetary scientists Craig Covault believed that lunar samples would provide major insight into the forma- Kennedy Space Center

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completion of three more flights scheduled The Augustine panel estimated that Con- through this year. Once that happens, NASA stellation’s heavy-lift Ares V rocket, designed will have to rent space on Russian Soyuz to launch astronauts to the Moon, would not spacecraft to ferry U.S. astronauts to the ISS, be available until 2028 or 2030, and that an inevitable turn of events that rankles many “there are insufficient funds to develop the lu- U.S. space officials and aficionados. Obama nar lander and lunar surface systems until well proposes to give the ISS a new lease on life, into the 2030s, if ever.” The committee re- committing the U.S. to extending its opera- port asserted that “whatever space program is tional duration through 2020. ultimately selected, it must be matched with The new NASA strategy marks a sharp the resources needed for its execution.” break with the standard practice of the past, in which the government funded, controlled Industry’s role and conducted all manned space launches and Amid the debate over the plan, one thing operations. The change signals “the entrance seems certain: The U.S. space program of the entrepreneurial mindset” into the space sooner or later will require launch vehicles ca- arena, and has the potential to create thou- pable of carrying human crews into and be- sands of high-tech jobs while providing afford- yond LEO. The fundamental question is able access to space, according to NASA Ad- whether those vehicles should be built under ministrator Charles Bolden. the auspices of the government or private in- dustry—or both. Review findings Speaking shortly after the plan’s release, The U.S. space initiative is derived from the Bolden emphasized that NASA’s long-time findings of the 10-member blue-ribbon Re- launch contractors, such as Boeing and Lock- view of U.S. Human Spaceflight Plans Com- heed Martin and their joint venture United mittee—known as the Augustine committee. Launch Alliance (ULA), will be eligible to take John Holdren, director of the White House part in the privatized space operations of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, as- future, along with such relative newcomers as sembled the panel early last year to review Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), NASA’s programs and assess its future. Orbital Sciences, Sierra Nevada and others. Chaired by former Lockheed Martin CEO The NASA administrator said there is a Norman Augustine, the committee concluded misconception that the safety of the crews of that the Constellation program was badly un- private-sector spacecraft will be jeopardized in derfunded, that its key milestones were slip- the hands of untested space launch compa- ping, and that it would not succeed in resum- nies. On the contrary, he declared, NASA’s ing U.S. manned spaceflight to the Moon or commercial partners in human spaceflight will anywhere else at an affordable cost or within be the same as those already entrusted with a reasonable timeframe. “transporting our multibillion-dollar satellites.”

Work on Ares I will be terminated, despite one successful test flight.

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“Commercial launch vehicles have for funding to $4.26 billion. Almost half that— years carried all U.S. military and commercial nearly $2 billion—would be spent on closing satellites and most NASA satellites to orbit,” out the Constellation program. An additional Bolden said. And just as it did 50 years ago in $600 million is allocated to continue the close- upgrading existing rockets for the pioneering out in FY12. Moreover, NASA is requesting Gemini orbital spaceflight program, “NASA permission from Congress to divert some of will set standards and processes to ensure that the directorate’s current funding to begin these commercially built and operated crew phasing out Constellation in this fiscal year. vehicles are safe,” he asserted. NASA’s Science Missions Directorate The NASA FY11 budget provides $6 bil- gets a hefty 11% funding increase in the new lion for continued development of commercial budget, to a level of $5 billion. Most of the space transportation. It also includes $3.1 bil- $512 million in additional funds is allocated to lion through FY15 to develop new engines, the directorate’s Earth Science Division. The materials and propellants for heavy-lift launch- agency’s Planetary Science Division also re- ers to take astronauts beyond LEO. In the ceives an 11% increase to $1.485 billion, but The Augustine panel estimated same time frame, roughly the same level of the division’s astrophysics budget, which that the heavy-lift Ares V rocket would not be available until funding is projected for scouting possible funds the Hubble Space Telescope and other 2028 or 2030. space exploration targets and identifying their programs, is slightly cut. hazards and resources for human habitation. Programs to develop advanced communica- Stimulus contracts tions, sensors and robotics are slated to re- Along with its new strategy and budget, the ceive $4.9 billion. agency announced contract awards totaling $50 million to five companies under the eco- Budget increases and cuts nomic stimulus package provided by the The new space plan marks the beginning of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of NASA’s “transformative technology initiative,” 2009. The companies—Boeing, Blue Origin, an endeavor slated to receive $7.8 billion over ULA, Sierra Nevada and Paragon Space De- the next five years. Its goal is to develop and velopment—will develop crew module and demonstrate spaceflight technologies that pre- safety concepts and demonstrate new tech- sumably will cut the costs and increase the ca- nologies for future commercial support of hu- pabilities of future space systems—rendezvous man spaceflight. and docking, orbital fuel storage and life sup- Boeing, NASA’s teammate in developing port are examples. the ISS, is designing a module to carry crew NASA’s Exploration Systems Directorate and cargo to the station and to commercially takes a big hit. Its sharply reduced and redi- built and operated orbital stations aboard var- rected funding is a major issue in the debate ious launch vehicles, including the SpaceX over the Obama space policy. The directorate Falcon 9 and the ULA Delta IV and Atlas V. was created in 2004 to follow through on the Boeing’s principal partner in the crew capsule Bush administration’s plan to send U.S. astro- project is Bigelow Aerospace, which is inde- nauts back to the Moon and then on to Mars. pendently developing and testing three- and It was to have received $5.5 billion in the com- seven-person Sundancer space habitats. ing fiscal year to continue developing the Ares Sierra Nevada will spend its NASA stimu- I and Ares V rockets and the Orion vehicle. lus funds on development of its Dream Chaser The new budget cuts the directorate’s commercial crew taxi, a derivative of the HL- 20 space vehicle that NASA conceived many years ago to rescue ISS crews. Sierra Nevada is redesigning the HL-20 for launch as a lift- ing body aboard an Atlas V rocket and carry- ing a crew of up to seven astronauts bound for the ISS or other space stations. Orbital Sciences and SpaceX, among the forerunners in creating private-sector space enterprises, are on the leading edge of com- mercial crew-capsule development, with their respective Cygnus and Dragon capsules al- ready in the works. Both projects have made Sierra Nevada’s SpaceDev will spend its NASA use of NASA’s commercial orbital transporta- stimulus funds to develop the Dream Chaser. tion services funding, which NASA plans to

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Orbital Sciences’ Cygnus (top) increase by $300 million in FY11 to keep Or- and SpaceX’s Dragon crew bital Sciences and SpaceX on schedule to de- capsules are already in the liver cargo to the ISS next year under previ- works, making use of NASA’s COTS funding. ously awarded contracts with the agency.

Expanding opportunities The Augustine Committee’s 2009 report took note of the “burgeoning commercial space in- dustry” in the U.S., and declared that “if we craft a space architecture to provide opportu- nities to this industry, there is the potential— not without risk—that the costs to the govern- ment would be reduced.” As he unveiled NASA’s new budget and rearranged priorities in February, Bolden, a former astronaut, cited the Augustine panel’s findings as validation of NASA’s proposed re- orientation, and asserted: “The truth is that we were not in a path to get back on the Moon’s surface, and as we focused so much of our effort and funding on just getting to the Moon, we were neglecting investments in the that can’t work,” and that it means the nation key technologies that would be required to go is “not going to be a significant player in hu- beyond.” man spaceflight for the foreseeable future.” Rid of the Constellation program, NASA Griffin noted that during his tenure as ad- will have greater resources and be in better ministrator he favored NASA’s funding of position to explore the cosmos, develop inno- cargo-carrying spaceflights by commercial vative technologies, foster commercial part- companies. But he said that commercial firms nerships and enhance human understanding are not yet ready for the risky venture of of our planet by flying Earth-observation sys- launching humans into space. tems aboard the ISS, Bolden claimed. NASA This viewpoint is disputed by champions will use the station as a testbed for future ex- of the new plan. Bolden noted that commer- ploration technologies, he said. cial companies already launch all U.S. com- “All kinds of educators, colleges, science munications, weather, imaging, navigation institutions and other government agencies and intelligence satellites “upon which our will be using the ISS for research,” he added. lives depend at home and abroad.” He prom- “There’s so much we need to know before we ised that the commercially built space vehicles can venture safely out of low Earth orbit for “will be safe.” John Gedmark, executive di- the long term. We’re going to address practi- rector of the Commercial Spaceflight Federa- cal medical questions about astronaut bone tion, declared, “If the Pentagon can trust pri- density and the effects of radiation—how we vate industry with this responsibility, we think can reach destinations sooner to mitigate the NASA can too.” effects on space travelers of long journeys.” Salvage attempt? Opposing views Some critics of NASA’s big changes insist that The new strategy was widely endorsed in both the Constellation program is not too far off government and private circles by such promi- track and can yet be made to work. In a state- nent figures as Holdren, Augustine and for- ment, (ATK), the prime mer lunar astronaut Buzz Aldrin. But it drew contractor on the first stage of the Ares I criticism from previous NASA administrator rocket, questioned “why at this time the na- Michael Griffin and segments of the space tion would consider abandoning a program of launch industry, and from members of Con- such historic promise and capability—with so gress from states with high stakes in the Con- much invested.” ATK claimed that the Ares stellation program. development program “is meeting all major Griffin, who backed the Constellation milestones” and that “NASA and its industry program while at NASA, was widely quoted in partners have made significant progress in his opposition to the administration’s strategy. Constellation’s development, culminating in He contended that it puts the U.S. “on a path the successful Ares I-X test flight.”

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In the speech President Obama gave on April 15 he called for a version of the Orion capsule to be parked at the ISS as an emergency escape vehicle.

The company described Ares I as “innov- “If those commercial rockets don’t work, ative” and “10 times safer than any launch ve- then for the foreseeable future we’re going to hicle in existence or on the drawing board,” be relying on the Russians just to get to our and stated, “To abandon Ares I as a baseline space station,” he continued. NASA should vehicle for an alternative without demon- continue developing and testing the Ares I strated capability or proven superiority (or rocket just in case, he said. even equivalence) is unwise and probably not Bolden said NASA intends to salvage the cost-effective.” advanced technologies being nurtured in Con- The company said it intends to continue stellation’s Ares rocket programs and Orion developing Ares I in the hope that Congress crew vehicle, and will apply them in the devel- and the administration will work together on a opment of new human spaceflight systems, revised space budget that “capitalizes on the including a heavy-lift rocket. Noting that the investments the nation has made in the Con- agency has begun working on a plan and stellation program.” timetable for transporting astronauts beyond Lawmakers from Constellation states, in- LEO, he claimed that resistance to canceling cluding Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Texas Constellation will only serve to delay develop- and Utah, were quick to call the space policy ment of that plan. too radical and misguided. Notable among The sooner Constellation is abandoned, them were Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) and “the sooner we’re going to go to the Moon Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), chairman of the Sen- and Mars and other places,” Bolden said. ate Commerce Committee’s science and space subcommittee. Job losses,and some gains Shelby declared that the new space Bolden also deplored the loss of jobs that will budget “begins the death march for the future result from phasing out Constellation, which of U.S. human spaceflight.” Nelson accused employs 11,500 people in 12 states—Ala- the Obama administration of shortchanging bama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Con- NASA by budgeting roughly $10 billion less necticut, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Ohio, for human spaceflight programs than the Au- Texas, Utah and Virginia—but claimed that gustine Committee had recommended spend- the administration’s commercially oriented ing through the next five fiscal years. manned spaceflight strategy and the budget “You can’t do it on the cheap,” Nelson increases proposed for NASA in the years asserted at a Senate Budget Committee hear- ahead will create many new opportunities and ing the day after the new space policy was an- plentiful jobs for the industry. nounced. “The problem is that you have put “This is a good investment for America,” all the eggs in the basket of assuming that Bolden said. “There will be jobs in propulsion, those commercial rockets are going to work, communications and other industries. Explo- and that NASA is not going to have to spend ration programs drive innovation throughout a lot more on making sure those commercial our economy, and NASA will be leading this rockets are safe for humans. economic competitiveness and growth.”

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ESA’s Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer satellite is yielding discoveries in the Earth’s interior and what it reveals about volcanoes and earthquakes. The satellite’s mission

Making the most of GOCE

SOMETIMES A SPACE PROGRAM’S CAPABILITIES change significantly because the operating environ- ment turns out to be markedly different from the model used in designing the mission. When this hap- pens, it usually is bad news for all involved. A spec- tacular exception is ESA’s GOCE (Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer) satellite.

Launched from northern Russia on March 17, 2009, GOCE was expected to spend 20 months orbiting at the very edge of the atmosphere, studying the Earth’s gravity field and its variations. Mis- sion models had called for six months of measurements, to be fol- lowed by four months of “hibernation” while the satellite was in a period of eclipse, then six more months of measurements. ESA hoped that the mission’s life might be extended enough for an addi- tional measurement phase if on-board fuel reserves were not de- pleted by orbital adjustments. But two developments have now given researchers far more time for measurements than they ever thought possible—an ex- by J.R.Wilson tremely precise initial orbital placement and discovering that the hi- Contributing writer bernation period will not be necessary. (See “GOCE adds gravity to

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areas ranging from ocean currents and their effects on climate to the density of is also gaining significant benefits from some surprising on-orbit conditions.

The GOCE mission is measuring high-accuracy gravity gradients and providing a global model of Earth’s gravity field and of the geoid. The geoid (the surface of equal gravitational potential of a hypothetical ocean at rest) serves as the classical reference for all topographical features. The accuracy of its determination is important for surveying and geodesy, and in studies of Earth interior processes, ocean circulation, ice motion and sea-level change. Credit: ESA.

ESA’s agenda,” July-August 2009, page 32.) lar activity is low, so actual air density is much “We have funding for the program until less than we had designed for; second, the in- the end of the nominal mission, which is April teraction between the satellite and the envi- 2011, but it is clear we have resources on ronment was different from any models we board for a longer mission,” GOCE mission had devised. The way of modeling the upper manager Rune Floberghagen tells Aerospace layers of the atmosphere, whether using a America. “When we launched, we knew solar thermal or a rarified gas model, suddenly was activity was low, but the type of air drag we very different from what we experienced. For encountered in the 280-km injection orbit was science, that is good, meaning we can fly the really remarkable, about a factor 4-6 less than mission lower than anticipated, and the delay any model we had been using. in launch from the original plans [May 2008] “There are two reasons for that—one, so- hasn’t hurt us at all.”

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Learning to fly so little. We decided 979 orbital revolutions in The GOCE satellite relies on aerodynamic 61 days was a good orbit with decent noise passive stabilization. Operating in an environ- and excellent sampling capability, so we ment unlike that for which the attitude con- stopped the decay and started the science trollers were designed did cause some early phase,” Floberghagen says. problems with these devices, but the overall To ensure constant sampling characteris- impact was stunningly positive. tics for the gravity field, the satellite’s altitude “The first thing we had to learn was how is actively maintained to within ±50 m, far to fly the satellite—which has a long, thin de- more precise than the 1-km altitude control sign very different from the typical ‘washing requirements in the mission plan. In reality, machine’ style—in this very much reduced air Floberghagen says, they have been able to drag environment. Once we got that under keep the satellite within a couple of meters of control, however, it was excellent news for the its target altitude on a steady basis. mission,” he says. “We have been moving “That means the system is working in a steadily lower in the atmosphere as a result predictable way. The ion propulsion system is and currently are at about 254.9 km, which is coupled to a controller using satellite instru- excellent for signal-to-noise, which is better ments to measure all the forces that act on the for the mission.” spacecraft. A control signal then goes to the Floberghagen and his team spent the bet- engine, so the system works in a closed loop,” ter part of the summer of 2009 “basically do- he explains. “So the altitude goes up or down ing nothing much else than letting the satellite depending on whether the bias of the system decay freely down to an altitude where the air is plus or minus. drag is within the envelope of the ion engine— “Our drag-free and sys- air levels between 1 and 20 millinewtons,” he tem does not only maintain the altitude, but adds. “What we saw in the injection altitude is makes sure it is free from any environmental that for about one-third of each orbital revolu- perturbations, so the sensor flies as if it is in a tion, there was basically no air at all, less than complete vacuum. And the system has re- half a millinewton. duced this very low air drag by at least three “For up to half an hour of every 90-min orders of magnitude. In fact, the drag-free sys- orbit, we had air drag well below the mini- tem is operating at least one order of magni- This screenshot was taken from mum capability of the engine, allowing it to tude better than spec, so even as a technology the Flight Dynamics system and overcompensate at a steady level of opera- demonstrator, GOCE is a fabulous success.” shows GOCE oriented in orbit tion. The orbit altitude then increases a little after achieving Fine Pointing and measurements become better. We could A matter of gravity Mode. The two green arrows pointing to the left are aligned, fly below 250 km, but it takes time to dive The technologies used in the satellite are not indicating that the spacecraft through the atmosphere, even when there is the only successes, however. Floberghagen is properly oriented along says the data they have collected in just a few the direction of flight, thus minimizing drag. Credit: ESA. months of operation have greatly expanded knowledge of the Earth’s gravity. Once a complete plot has been created, it will have implications for everything from bridge con- struction to space launch sites. “GOCE sees geophysical phenomena that have hitherto been hidden in previous gravity field measurements. They constitute the proof that GOCE data will definitely set a new standard in the modeling of the gravity field—and therefore in the use of gravity field models in all related areas of the geophysical sciences,” he says. “The big number-crunching job that lies ahead of us is to turn these ‘maps’ of meas- urements into a gravity field model showing the geoid or, indeed, the value of ‘g’ every- where on Earth.” (The geoid is the irregular gravity field that shapes a virtual surface at mean sea level.) “This will be done in the com- ing few months. Presentation of our first grav-

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Density variations in the Earth’s crust are an important factor in shaping the geoid. External forces such as the wind cause the actual sea surface to deviate from the geoid. The combination of sea-surface height mapped by altimeters and the knowledge of the precise ocean geoid will improve our understanding of surface currents. Credits: ESA - AOES Medialab.

ity field model is expected in June.” in full measurement mode throughout the life The initial months of calibrated measure- of the mission. ments have followed predicted existing global “Of course, while traveling through the gravity field models, but also have shown high eclipse, we will have to understand and deal spatial resolution variations, he says. The with temperature variations, because when amount of variation depends on the area be- the satellite goes from full sunlight into com- ing observed; those already well surveyed us- plete darkness and back again, there may be ing gravitometers on the ground or airborne some thermalastic results. You could have data show strong correspondence, and re- small amounts of stress or buckling of the so- gions not as well surveyed show greater differ- lar panel that would produce small vibrations— ences, resulting in models based on previously micrometer-per-second acceleration,” notes imprecise data. Floberghagen. “If you have a sheet of thermal “Now we are trying to use these meas- insulator about 5x5 cm and it moves a mil- urements to determine the underlying force limeter at 1 g, you would induce acceleration field parameters and the geoid. That is now on the satellite by six orders of magnitude just getting started, but we are confident the above the sensitivity of the instruments. results will be quite spectacular,” Floberg- “So it is of paramount importance that hagen predicts. “So far nothing hugely un- the environment aboard the satellite is ex- usual has been seen, although we have seen tremely quiet, which is why we have no mov- things moving around a bit with respect to previous models, on a spatial scale of a few hundred kilometers, not really that small. “Based on careful estimates, we now believe we have enough resources “But that could be the result of our initial to keep the mission flying for five years or so.” data processing, or varying rock densities, or Rune Floberghagen, GOCE mission manager, ESA what is inside those rocks. We really need to take a close look at all those things before say- ing anything definitive. There are high-fre- ing parts and attitude control is done by mag- quency spatial variations we will be investigat- netic torquers. There are lots of factors in ing one by one, but it is a bit early to draw any place to reduce any movement or noise, but conclusions. In six months we will know much we cannot exclude some response in the more,” he continues. structure of the satellite and main instruments to these [temperature] variations. However, Keeping quiet these effects so far have been few and far Not having to put the spacecraft into hiberna- apart, so we don’t believe we will be much tion for four months at the end of each meas- hampered by them. Which means not only do urement cycle means the satellite can operate we have the power to operate through the

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“But when we look at the mission and performance results so far, we don’t have to filter the data to get rid of striping effects or anything; it is all straight out of the box. If that also is the case later on for the gravity fields and oceanographers, it will truly be successful. But you have to gradually build a picture and do a lot of number crunching before you actu- ally understand what all those pixels mean.”

Studying the oceans—and below… Outside of its demonstration of new methods of construction, propulsion, attitude control and edge-of-the-atmosphere flight, determin- ing the impact of gravity variations on ocean currents remains the area in which GOCE is expected to have the greatest scientific im- pact. That has become even more important in light of new controversies surrounding the GOCE will significantly advance legitimacy of past global warming research our understanding of the eclipse phase, we also believe the measure- and models. physics and dynamics of the Earth's interior such as volcan- ments, if not exactly as accurate as during the “Given the whole debate about climate ism. Its detailed mapping along normal phase, still will be excellent.” change, a uniform height system for the world, with seismic data is expected to based on gravity and a uniform-quality gravity shed new light on the processes Asking the right questions causing earthquakes and vol- field, will allow us to revisit all the tidal records canic activity and potentially With only a few months of measurements from around the globe—for the past 200 years lead to an improvement in the completed, it is still too early for GOCE to be- in many places—and study sea-level rise and prediction of such events. gin addressing some of the major questions climate change as it impacted ocean height, in scientists hope to examine. These range from a way that has not been possible before,” using a uniform, global measurement of sea Floberghagen points out. “However, the data levels for studying ocean currents and thus im- GOCE provides must be combined with other proving climate models to providing more data sources to draw any meaningful conclu- precise information about Earth’s interior, sions with regard to climate. from magma flows to tectonic movement, “For example, we provide a reference which could give geophysicists greater knowl- service on ocean levels and deviations. But edge of volcanoes and earthquakes. you need to reprocess 20 years of altimeter “We believe we will be able to meet all the readings using the new data from GOCE to original objectives of the mission. What that better determine ocean behavior during that means in terms of how well we can measure period. Oceans truly are the planet’s climate GOCE’s final gravity map and model of the geoid will provide cubic liters or kilometers of water circulating regulators, with most heat transferred through well-defined data products that in specific areas of the oceans, we haven’t atmosphere-ocean interaction. But we need will be instrumental in advancing gotten that far yet. It will be at least a year to determine the geoid, reprocess all the al- science and applications in a longer before we can begin doing that,”says timeter sets, assimilate that into ocean models broad range of disciplines from geodesy, geophysics and survey- Floberghagen. and then into climate models. So we can’t just ing to oceanography and sea- measure gravity fields for a couple of level research. Credit: ESA. months and then declare we have new knowledge about climate.” The scientific interest in GOCE’s results extends far beyond those involved in studying climate, however, including what is happen- ing beneath the surface. “The higher the density of the planet’s core, the higher the level of gravity. If density distribution were regular, we would not be able to see the differences between various lay- ers simply from looking at surface

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data. However, if the core deviates significantly sphere through which the satellite is flying. from regular distribution, that would influence “Because our data are very different from Earth’s rotation—and there is a direct relation- what the models predicted, we are looking at ship between Earth rotation and gravity,” he addressing air density and winds in an orbital says. altitude where no one else has flown,” notes “But more important for gravity is what Floberghagen. “We should not just leave what happens closer to the crust, such as the man- we’ve found on that in the drawer, but make it tle and temporal variations. So aside from the available to build better models of the atmo- mean value of gravity, which is largely deter- sphere at this altitude. That is a byproduct we mined by the heavier material in the Earth’s are 90% sure we can produce in the next cou- core, the variations are the result of things ple of years.” that happen closer to the surface. Which is That element not only has increased the why we can see plate tectonic changes in the potential value of the GOCE mission, but also gravity data, for example.” is expected to impact the entire family of Eu- Having GOCE in orbit and making meas- ropean Earth explorer satellites, of which urements for at least five years, rather than GOCE is a member. Six essentially single-issue the originally planned 20 months, also will provide greater opportunities to measure, in real time, the impact of any future major geological events. The Sumatra earthquake in 2005, for example, led to An accurate model of the geoid will advance our understanding a vertical displacement of global ocean circulation patterns several meters in a large and sea-level rise. section of the ocean floor. The result, Floberghagen says, was a measurable change in the Earth’s rota- tion—the length of a day. “Even an instant phe- nomenon, such as an earthquake, in geological timescales, can in- satellites are being built to examine fundamen- fluence the Earth’s rotation speed. And if tal Earth science, from gravity to clouds and something like that happens during the life- aerosols, thermal issues, the magnetic field, time of the GOCE program, we certainly sea ice and so on. A seventh satellite is under could see and measure that in our data,” he study, and ESA has called for ideas for an notes. “A theory based on such data from a eighth. big event and applied to events that happened hundreds or millions of years ago would not Deciding what’s next be completely out of reality, but it would be “One discussion now running within ESA is difficult to put truly quantitative data on that. what to do with the knowledge we are gaining “We’re trying to combine all the informa- from GOCE and other early satellites. We tion we can get, but looking inside the Earth is have two branches of Earth observation mis- pretty hard to do. You try to combine gravity, sions in ESA: The workhorses, such as Global magnetic field information, data on seismic Monitoring for the Environment and Security, wave travel times and so on to deduce some- which are closely linked to the activities of the thing about an event. Gravity field information EU and the theme of the Earth observation adds to that, and gravity has a tendency to re- mission; the other is doing things that have strain the others. But if you know and under- never been done before, more along the lines stand better what might happen, you can bet- of invention and exploration,” he explains. ter prepare yourself.” “But after we have done the first generation of explorers, then what? …and the air up there “In Europe, you can propose to build an- A new and serendipitous mission goal is to im- other Earth explorer, addressing new elements prove scientific understanding of air density by learned from the first. But is that enough? looking at air-drag models of the thermo- There may be follow-on missions arising from

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different satellites. For example, an operations tial research, from GRACE [Gravity Recovery agency might be interested in picking up the And Climate Experiment, a five-year, twin- torch to do weather forecasting because of in- satellite joint effort by NASA and the German formation gathered from a first-generation space agency] to GOCE. Gravity field mis- satellite, so discussions with operating agen- sions have the potential of measuring varia- cies are being held on all the Earth explorer tions in the Earth’s mass, whether in time or satellites. But you also have very scientific ele- space, and people want to capitalize on that ments, where it might not be possible to fly a and build a platform to monitor this over next-gen immediately after the first, because longer time periods in the future,” Floberg- the first generation already was pushing the hagen says. “In the U.S., a GRACE follow- limits of technology. At this point, we really on is part of Tier 3 of NASA’s decadal survey, don’t know what may arise in that area.” and in Europe there is significant pressure for In addition to processing information this a next generation of gravity field missions. satellite is gathering, therefore, the GOCE “The idea would be to combine the capa- team also must begin putting together a clear bilities of GRACE, in terms of temporal reso- and precise report on what has been learned lution, with GOCE, in terms of spatial resolu- in terms of technological challenges to build- tion, to measure variations in the Earth sys- ing, launching and flying the satellite, whether tem, from ground water changes to ice floes it was worth the investment and whether fu- to temperature variations. We don’t know ture missions along the same line should be what will be the ultimate conclusion of all this, considered. Such evaluations also could sig- but international cooperation for the next- nificantly impact the future of international generation missions certainly is possible, cooperation and new joint missions. given the technology, scientific expertise and “It has been a great decade for geopoten- interest on both sides of the Atlantic.”

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Airborne laser shootdown Defying the odds

Recent successful tests of hen a cutting-edge technology program W finally reaches the stage of real-world the Airborne Laser Test Bed testing—and performs as advertised—those in- volved typically are exuberant, looking for- (ALTB) have demonstrated ward with great anticipation to advancing the the technology’s potential to technology and ultimately fielding the system. For the Missile Defense Agency’s Airborne change the future of warfare, Laser Test Bed (ALTB) team, however, the prevailing emotion was frustration. even according to critics. During tests in January and February, the ALTB (formerly ABL) became the first air- Yet DOD has defunded a craft-mounted directed-energy weapon to suc- cessfully shoot down real missiles during the second aircraft, calling the critical boost phase. The ALTB team con- concept “fatally flawed.” sisted of Boeing Defense, Space & Security, Lockheed Martin Space Systems and ALTB proponents argue Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems. that the program is vital to Scoring fast The first test, against a high-power MARTI maintaining the nation’s (missile alternative range target instrument), sought to demonstrate that the ALTB’s laser edge, both on the battlefield could focus a tight beam on a small target area of a fast-moving rocket for a long enough time and in the technology to destroy it. workforce. “That test was very successful and gave us the confidence to put our beam within cen- timeters of the surface of a missile going up- wards of Mach 6—find it, detect it, precisely put our beam within centimeters of where we wanted it and score,” Boeing vice president and ALTB program director Michael Rinn tells Aerospace America. “We were able to look at the size and in- tensity of the beam and how much it was by J.R.Wilson moving as we held it on this rapidly accelerat- Contributing writer ing target. We took all the data and turned the

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On July 21, 2009, at Edwards AFB, the Airborne Laser’s first chemical flight test demonstrated the safe flow of chemicals through all laser systems.

system around on 3 February and, on our first we killed it in less than half the time we had shot, we killed a Terrier Black Brant solid predicted, which is a testament to the design rocket—and did so very rapidly.” of the system and this team’s tenacity,” Rinn MDA chose not to release that informa- says. “I can say it was a very quick-burning, tion for another week, he adds, when the short boost time, which was one of the more goal would be to use the ALTB’s chemical stressing tests for ABL, rather than longer oxygen iodine laser (COIL) to destroy a boost- burning intermediate or longer range missiles. ing missile. You have to find and acquire this kind of tar- “On 11 February, seven days later, we get very quickly. engaged a liquid-fueled, no-kidding threat for- “This experiment marks the first time a eign missile and killed it in a very rapid en- laser weapon has engaged and destroyed an gagement. I can’t talk about the specifics, but in-flight ballistic missile, and the first time that

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any system has accomplished it in the mis- tion. However, the ALTB team’s reaction was sile’s boost phase of flight. ALTB has the muted by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates’ highest energy laser ever fired from an aircraft decision—announced nearly a year earlier— and is the most powerful mobile laser device not to build a second ABL aircraft, and to in the world.” move the renamed ALTB from MDA to the Pentagon’s director of defense research and A touchdown (but no extra point) engineering for “general research” use. Infrared image shows the ALTB On that same mission, the ALTB team also In a speech on July 16, 2009, Gates said (right)destoying a short-range was tasked with shooting down a second mis- ABL had failed to demonstrate its military ballistic missile. sile, of a different type, to prove the system is value despite more than a decade of R&D and capable of quickly regenerating the laser, find- some $5 billion invested in research under ing a new target and destroying it within a MDA. He followed up by failing to allocate matter of minutes. The Terrier Black Brant any specific funding for the program in the again was employed for that test. What hap- Pentagon’s 2011 budget proposal. pened next initially was reported as a mis- “The program and operating concept alignment of the laser, which would have been were fatally flawed,” Gates declared. a serious problem, but Rinn says that proved That was despite an official MDA recog- not to be the case. nition that directed energy has the potential to “We were able to turn the system around change the future of warfare: The agency had quickly, switch from a liquid to a solid target, presented its Technology Pioneer Award to acquire, track and put high power on the side three Boeing ABL engineers and three of of it. We downloaded (halted) the system be- their government and industry teammates. fore we killed it, not due to an alignment is- Boeing, the team leader, is responsible for sue—there was not an alignment issue, that weapon system integration, the heavily modi- held up very well, as designed—but a minor is- fied 747-400F freighter and battle manage- sue in one of our safety systems that down- ment, command, control, communications, loaded us back to a standby level. We under- computers and intelligence. Northrop Grum- stand that issue, and the system is ready to go man Aerospace Systems designed and devel- back into test. It was ready that night, actu- oped the COIL and the beacon illuminator ally,” he says. laser, while Lockheed Martin Space Systems “This is a test bed, and we are still learn- supplies the beam control/fire control system. ing the system, the safety measures that pro- The ABL program’s goal was to provide tect the hardware. We consider it a huge suc- combatant commanders with a speed-of-light cess that we not only killed two missiles in capability to intercept and destroy all classes seven days but were very close to killing a of ballistic missiles while they are still in the third missile on that second mission. Had we boost phase of flight, thus ensuring that any continued to lase, we would have killed it. It debris—including whatever might be in the was basically just a threshold in the safety sys- missile’s warhead—would fall back on the tem. We’ve been learning about where to set launching force rather than hitting another these thresholds and have been very cautious nation or allied force. The program had re- in that, as we should be. corded a series of successful ground and air This sequence shows a threat “That night, Gen. O’Reilly [Army Lt. tests in the two years leading up to the 2010 representative ballistic missile’s breakup resulting from a high- Gen. Patrick O’Reilly, MDA’s director], who missile shootdowns. energy laser engagement by the was on site with the team, told them they had ALTB on February 11. just scored the winning Super Bowl touch- Meeting capability goals down, but missed the extra point on the sec- The ALTB team is convinced the January and ond missile. We learned a huge amount that February airborne tests fully demonstrated the night, and it was a big success. The entire test capability goals set for the effort, meeting the bed system is performing far better than we criteria Rinn set out in an earlier interview ever expected. The intensity of the COIL, the with Aerospace America (see “Airborne laser beam correction system for the atmosphere aims at final tests,” July-August 2009, page and system pointing are behaving extremely 44). At that time, he believed successful tests well—and repeatedly.” would show the ABL test bed aircraft itself could be ready for combat use, much as the J- Muted applause STARS surveillance prototype aircraft had That level of success with a technology and been deployed to Iraq during the first gulf war. system that had never before been attempted “Based on what I know of the system, I would normally have been cause for celebra- believe we will have some emergency deploy-

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ment capability if the nation or our allies re- quire it shortly after shootdown, in 2010. There are some limitations, clearly, such as lo- gistics streams, and there is definitely more work to be done. But you would have a single ABL with some strong possibilities, similar to J-STARS during Desert Storm,” he told Aero- space America in late 2009. “In demonstrat- ing the capability of this system, both for boost phase and potentially alternative mis- sions—SAMs, cruise missiles, air-to-air mis- siles—there will be a tremendous potential.” Air Combat Command had envisioned a fleet of seven ABL aircraft—beyond the proto- types—going into service, one per year, be- tween 2018 and 2025. The conformal window on the “People have talked about directed-en- ABL is exposed in flight during a test over Edwards AFB. The ergy systems for decades; now we actually the team is working to adjust to the new reali- window essentially is a very large have a system up and running and have ties imposed by Gates and President Obama, contact lens, ground to optical demonstrated directed energy gives you very, including a decision to shelve chemical laser specifications. Optical coatings, very rapid engagement timelines and the ca- technology as insufficient for battlefield use. which make it glimmer and appear different colors, are pability for precisely pointing and putting a Instead, the plan is to continue working on necessary because the window is measured force on a target. That is something solid-state and hybrid lasers, such as a diode- the exit point for beams from unique to weapons systems developed to pumped alkali laser being developed at three lasers (tracking illuminator laser, beacon illuminator laser date,” Rinn now says. “No one has ever put a Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in and COIL) and the entry point directed-energy system of this magnitude and California. for laser beams designed to precision on an airplane before, nor accom- “The investment the nation has made in bounce off the target and come plished what we just recently accomplished. this directed-energy technology is a very smart back to the aircraft carrying a wide range of information This is an historic event. investment for the future. It opens the door needed for the mission. “Basically, everything I said we were go- for a new era of directed-energy weapons ing to do [during the 2008 interview] we have that, over the coming decades, will become done. The system was ready to shoot down at smaller, lighter and more efficient,” Rinn says. the end of 2009, but we had to wait for range “Most of the experts understand the state of time and target availability, so we were very the technology for solid-state and hybrid close to what we had predicted, which is an lasers, and those have a way to go to mature important point for this test bed. One thing before being anywhere close to what this sys- we had to do in 2009, or we would have fin- tem already is demonstrating. ished even earlier, was replace six high-pow- “So we are looking forward to using this ered optics that were designed and installed in test bed and system to push the envelope, to the turret. We discovered in February 2009 engage other types of targets—which may turn that the materials we had chosen for them out to be more important than ballistic mis- years ago were not adequate and we needed siles. By that I mean showing capability in the to go to a single crystal silicon substrate for future for this test bed to shoot aircraft at ex- those critical optics.” treme range, engage surface-to-air missiles, Lockheed Martin ALTB program director take out sensor platforms and baseline vulner- Mark Johnson notes that a process of optics abilities for UAVs at very great ranges. So replacement that typically would take two there is a potential to take a system like the years was accomplished in less than seven ALTB and expand it, which our nation needs months, allowing the program to get back on to do to show where this technology is capable schedule. At the same time, says Guy Renard, of going as these other technologies mature.” Johnson’s opposite number at Northrop MDA will continue to run the program Grumman, the laser was fired over and over through the end of this year, and the ALTB for months, producing high-megawatt energy team hopes to use remaining funds and time levels safely and consistently. to further prove the technology’s value—in- cluding additional missile shootdown tests. New realities “We are laying out plans for additional While having achieved both programmatic engagements this fiscal year. The system is up and personal goals was cause for celebration, and ready to do those,” Rinn says. “We would

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to keep these critical optical coating vendors and adaptive optics and other skills needed to integrate these systems on future platforms. The workforce is aging, and all three compa- nies are trying to bring forward a new genera- tion of engineers, but we are concerned about that,” Rinn says. “I know there is a tremendous amount of interest among nations capable of developing these kinds of complex technologies, and I be- lieve there is investment there, although I can’t cite any numbers. “The advantages are obvious. If you can see it, you can hit it at the speed of light, with timelines in seconds rather than tens of min- utes as with kinetic systems. There are pluses and minuses for both, and I expect them to complement each other in the coming decades. There are times when kinetic makes Northrop Grumman’s COIL is sense and times when directed energy has a comprised of six modules, which like to begin to explore the envelope, to ex- huge advantage. And that is being recognized were installed inside a scrap 747 tend range and other variables to show the ca- by other nations as well.” fuselage in the System Integra- tion Lab at Edwards AFB. The pabilities of this technology. And that’s really With the device already built, Rinn adds, view is looking down the center what we’re doing, so we are in sync with the even within ALTB the primary remaining area of the aisle formed by the V-6 agency for this year on the test plan and look for cost-cutting is labor—the scientists and en- configuration of the laser layout. USAF Photo. forward to the additional demonstrations.” gineers who have spent so much career time The effective range of the COIL-based moving directed energy to this point. And ALTB was one of Gates’ reasons for shutting turning attention now to newer, less developed it down. The secretary has been quoted as technologies will not provide enough jobs to saying the system could only destroy missiles attract the next generation of such specialists. at a range of 135 km, far short of the 200 km “Taking this technology to the next level in the program specifications. clearly can solve a lot of problems in main- “The actual performance is classified, but taining the industry base. With an R&D plat- I can say the capabilities we showed in the form, we can only work with our supplier base first two kills exceeded our expectations. And on a limited number of products and quanti- I believe this test bed has a lot more capability ties; we need to get into a production envi- that we need to show, which is the most im- ronment to really build and sustain that indus- portant point,” Rinn responds. “I want to try base,” Johnson warns. keep this platform and technology going for- “In terms of skills, this program has a ward so the nation has the ability to see what number of people who have invested a signifi- it can do in terms of total range and different cant portion of their careers, and we do not types of targets. There are a lot of different have a significant level of program base to ex- ballistic missiles that can be engaged at differ- pand that talent. The young people we bring ent ranges.” into Lockheed Martin to show off the tech- nologies and programs we’re working on Maintaining the edge have been very excited with what we’ve been Despite their belief in the ABL itself as a vi- doing with the ABL program. What we can able antimissile system, the ALTB contractors do is make sure we have interesting and inno- are even more concerned about the impact vative programs for young minds to work on— the effective cancellation of the program will and directed energy clearly is one of those.” have on the nation’s ability to maintain an in- dustrial infrastructure and workforce capable Proving the critics wrong of future development in directed energy. As to what ALTB has accomplished thus far, “If our nation wants to continue in the the contractors acknowledge it has been a leadership role in directed-energy systems, as program fraught with delays and high costs, demonstrated by the ALTB, then we need to but argue that this is not unusual for a highly invest in the technologies and the industrial advanced technology test bed. And the Janu- base. We are concerned about funding levels ary/February shootdowns more than justify

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that expenditure of time and money, they say. “The threat will continue to grow and ex- “The program had a genesis of some pand, including many nations not friendly to very bright people looking into the future and the U.S. There is a gap that will exist as long creating a path for the industry team to move as the ALTB remains a test bed and is not out on. Every step of the way, this team has taken further, or until we get to some future overcome obstacles, demonstrating the viabil- technology. We have invested in different ity of the technologies, and has done the re- technologies over the years and nothing has ally difficult engineering to get this platform bridged the gap to an operational system,” and system together,” Johnson says. Renard concludes. “We have demonstrated “The critics said it wouldn’t work, we the capability of this system, but the reality is couldn’t get enough beam or energy on the that what directed energy can do to engage in target, the atmosphere would create too the boost phase can thin the raid of any mis- many problems. But time and time again this siles launched toward the U.S. or an ally. team has shown those critics wrong. So we Then other parts of missile defense can take are confident in moving forward on this pro- out any remaining missiles. But the earlier you gram and pushing the envelope on what this engage, the better. technology can do.” “Where does this leave America? When I To highlight the fragility of the industrial take off my program director hat, I see we base, Renard notes that two Northrop Grum- have invested a lot in this technology; there is man suppliers have gone out of business since a gap before solid state reaches the same he became ALTB program director “because point, and I would like to see what we’ve al- we could not keep them busy, having built ready invested pay off and get out to the only one.” Nor does he expect those to be the warfighters as soon as possible. It all depends last to disappear, even as the danger of mis- on the decisions being made today within sile attack grows. DOD relative to all their priorities.”

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June 7 A Bomarc antiaircraft missile in storage at McGuire AFB, N.J., accidentally 25 Years Ago, June 1985 explodes and bursts into flames that destroy its 350-lb 10-kiloton nuclear warhead. June 19 Mission But because the high-explosive igniter designed to initiate the warhead is not ac- specialist Steven tivated, and other safety devices work properly, there is no leakage. D. Baker, Nagel becomes the Spaceflight and Rocketry, p. 103. 100th American in June 8 The 59,000-lb-thrust engine is finally installed in the X-15 rocket space as a crew- research aircraft (No. 3) after delays in its development. Up to now, the X-15s member of mission have used the so-called Interim Engine, consisting of two upgraded Bell X-1-type 51-G on the shuttle XLR-11 engines of 8,000 lb of thrust each. However, in a ground test run of the Discovery. On the XLR-99 there is an explosion in which the aircraft is damaged, although the test same mission, Sultan Salman Abdel pilot in the cockpit is not injured. E. Emme, ed., Aeronautics and Astronautics Aziz al-Saud of Saudi Arabia becomes 1915-60, p. 124. the first Arab in space. Al-Saud uses the 70-mm camera on board for pho- June 9 Semyon Alexsevich tography over his country and partici- Lavoch-kin, the famous pates in two science experiments. Soviet aircraft designer Arabsat A; Morelos 1, a Mexican credited with the first communications satellite; and the Soviet supersonic jet, Spartan 1 scientific satellite are dies at age 59. He was launched. NASA, Astronautics and graduated in 1927 from a Aeronautics, 1985, pp. 469; Washing- technical school in Moscow, ton Times, June 20, 1985, p. 3A; then served in the Red Army and in the Soviet aircraft industry. The design bureau NASA Press Release 85-69. he headed before WW II produced planes that achieved considerable success during the war, including the radial-engined La-5 and La-7. After the war he 50 Years Ago, produced the La-9 to La-11, then switched to jet designs. The Aeroplane, June 24, June 3 Martin’s upgraded Bullpup 1960, p. 758. ASM-N-7A air-to-surface missile is June 20 Persian Air Services, a freight carrier, inaugurates its first DC-7C passen- successfully test fired from a Marine ger service between Teheran and London. Each of its two craft, which it recently Corps Choctaw helicopter. D. Baker, acquired from Sabena, accommodates 35 tourist-class and 12 deluxe seats. Each Flight and Flying, p. 371. also carries up to 11,000 lb of freight, for which half the fuselage is blocked off. Flight, July 1, 1960, p. 24. June 21 The second successful firing of Britain’s two-stage Black Knight rocket is launched from Woomera test range in Australia. It reaches a height of 300 mi., with the impact of the nosecone at 70 mi. downrange, as planned. Flight, July 1, 1960, p. 5. June 22 The Navy’s Transit II-A experimental navigation satellite, plus a smaller Grab-1 or 1 satellite, are jointly launched “piggy-back” successfully from Cape Canaveral, Fla., by a -Able-Star vehicle, June 6 Well-known British aviation marking the first time two active satellites are placed in orbit by a single Black Knight journalist Harry Harper, who began vehicle. The SolRad, which has instruments to read solar writing on the subject in 1906, dies radiation and radio noise from outer space, is a highly at 81. Harper was the “air correspon- classified satellite with reconnaissance as its main task. dent” for the Daily Mail for 20 years E. Emme, ed., Aeronautics and Astronautics 1915-60, and covered such historic events as pp. 124, 148; Flight, July 1, 1960, p. 5. Louis Blériot’s takeoff across the Eng- June 28 The Smithsonian Institution bestows its highest lish Channel and the first “air meet,” honor, the Langley Medal, on U.S. rocket pioneer Robert at Rheims in 1909. Later, in 1956, he Goddard, who died in 1945. Goddard devoted most of published a book, My Fifty Years in his life to experimenting with rockets. He launched the Flying. The Aeroplane, June 17, 1960, world’s first liquid-fuel rocket on March 16, 1926, and p. 727. Robert Goddard 46 AEROSPACE AMERICA/JUNE 2010 OOPlayout610rev.qxd:AA Template 5/14/10 1:56 PM Page 3

An Aerospace Chronology by Frank H.Winter, Ret. and Robert van der Linden National Air and Space Museum

later made many other advances in rocket technology. E. Emme, ed., Aeronautics And During June 1935 and Astronautics 1915-60, p. 124. —The Coupe Feminine Helene 75 Years Ago, June 1935 Boucher is founded to encourage flying among women. The first race June 6 Fairey Aviation of for this cup is scheduled for Aug. 31, Hayes, Middlesex, England, 1935. The award, named after the introduces its Fantome as the French aviator, is open to women of world’s fastest multigun fighter. all nations; contest rules state that The biplane reaches 248 mph all the competing pilots, crews and on its first flight and carries four passengers must be women. The Browning machine guns and a course ranges from Paris to Buc and 20-mm quick-firing cannon then to Cannes. The first to reach mounted in the vee of the Cannes will win a cash prize of 12-cylinder motor. The cannon fires through the hub of the airscrew. Its magazine 40,000 francs, the second 7,500 carries 60 shells. Designed originally for the Belgian air force, the Fantome has a francs, and the third 3,500 francs. top speed of 270 mph. It can also carry four 22-lb bombs. Fairey Aircraft Since The Aeroplane, June 19, 1935, p. 704. 1915, pp. 260-263. June 13 In preparation for Pan American’s 100 Years Ago, June 1910 transpacific service, expected to begin later this June 2 Charles year, a Pan Am Sikorsky S-42 Stewart Rolls, flying boat makes its second piloting his Wright experimental flight from biplane, becomes California to Honolulu. It the first person makes the distance in 17 hr 57 min, cutting 17 min from to fly across the its previous time. Two days later, Capt. Edwin C. Musick English Channel and his crew of five leave Honolulu for an additional flight and back. A. van of 1,323 mi. to Midway Island, one of the planned stepping Hoorebeeck, La stones in the projected transpacific service. This leg takes Conquete de L’Air, p. 83. 10 hr 4 min, most of it at 6,000-8,000 ft. Aero Digest, July 1935, p. 104. June 9 The first French military flight occurs when pilots Albert Fequant and June 16 Two new international light seaplane records are claimed by Benjamin Charles Marconnet fly from Chalons King, a Washington, D.C., pilot, when he flies his float-equipped Aeronca 200 mi. to Vincennes. A. van Hoorebeeck, on an 8-gallon tank of fuel in a flight from North Beach, Long Island, to Whitney’s La Conquete de L’Air, p. 83. Landing on the Chesapeake Bay. The previous record was 76.155 mi. The Aeronca weighs less than 770 lb, which establishes a new lightweight classification for June 13 Charles Hamilton flies round seaplanes. Aero Digest, July 1935, p. 104. trip from New York to Philadelphia, a distance of 299 mi., in 6 hr 57 min, June 17 French aviator Maryse Hilz sets a to win the New York Times Prize of new women’s altitude record as she takes $10,000. A. van Hoorebeeck, La her 600-hp aircraft over Villacoublay to Conquete de L’Air, p. 84. an altitude of 38,704 ft, bettering her record of 32,114 ft. Aero Digest, July 1935, June 19 p. 104. Zeppelin Number 7, known as the June 20 Three days after Maryse Hilz Deutschland, sets a new women’s altitude mark, the completes its first Marchesa Carina Negrone breaks it with a flight. Three days flight of 39,511 ft over Celio Airport, Rome. Aero Digest, July 1935, p. 104. later, Count von Zeppelin pilots the June 23 French pilots establish a new world’s seaplane distance record on a dirigible on a 2½ hour flight with 32 2,707-mi. nonstop flight of the Southern Cross from Cherbourg, France, to people on board. A. van Hoorebeeck, Ziguinchor, Senegal. Aero Digest, July 1935, p. 104. La Conquete de L’Air, p. 84.

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