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September 2015 Two views on Two views on Bright future or...program in decay? Page 20 JPL’s Elachi on space tech /14 Safer ejection seats /28 Future airliners /32 A PUBLICATION OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF AERONAUTICS AND ASTRONAUTICS To Ka band and beyond! The future is Ka band. Now, there’s a rugged, dependable handheld designed to deliver precise, lab-grade measurements up to 50 GHz. At only 7.1 lbs., it’s an all-in-one cable and antenna tester (CAT) + vector network analyzer (VNA) + spectrum analyzer and more. Which means, now you get comprehensive system performance insight at higher frequencies. Plus with easy upgrades and multiple confi gurations, you’ll be ready to go where no handheld has gone before — today and beyond. Keysight FieldFox Handheld Analyzers 6 new models to 50 GHz MIL-PRF-28800F Class 2 rugged Agrees with benchtop measurements CAT + VNA + spectrum analyzer Explore FieldFox. Get app notes, webcasts & more. www.keysight.com/find/KaAndBeyond US A: 800 829 4444 CAN: 877 894 4414 © Keysight Technologies, Inc. 2015. Photo courtesy of INTELSAT. September 2015 DEPARTMENTS EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK 2 Relying on Russia INTERNATIONAL BEAT 4 Aerospace outsourcing; Russian-Chinese airliner IN BRIEF 6 Naval missile interceptor; NGA seeks new recruits; lasers comm Page 32 PROPULSION & ENERGY 2015 10 Highlights from the forum in Orlando THE VIEW FROM HERE 12 Page 12 Planetary defense CONVERSATION 14 Space explorer BOOKS 18 An airline pilot enchanted by flight OUT OF THE PAST 44 Page 4 CAREER OPPORTUNITIES 46 FEATURES VIEWPOINT: TWO VIEWS ON RUSSIAN SPACE 20 A spate of Russian launch failures and fiscal mismanagement has stirred angst from the Kremlin to Congress. Two space experts provide divergent opinions. by Anatoly Zak and James Oberg Page 28 SAFER EJECTION SEATS 28 Ejecting from a warplane has always been hazardous, but many pilots face more danger because their ejection seats weren’t designed to accommodate modern helmets. A solution may be at hand. by Keith Button TUBE-AND-WING: WHAT’S NEXT? 32 Since the dawn of jet travel in the 1950s, the basic configuration of airliners has barely budged. The tube-and-wing design won’t become a relic anytime soon, but that doesn’t mean engineers can’t make progress toward quieter, more fuel-efficient aircraft. by Michael Peck REUSABLE ROCKET RENAISSANCE 38 Attempts to build spacecraft that can be flown more than once are littered with failures. Led by SpaceX, the commercial launch industry is trying again to find ways to reuse engines, stages and perhaps someday Page 38 the entire vehicle by reassembling it after launch. by Debra Werner BULLETIN AIAA Meeting Schedule B2 AIAA News B5 ON THE COVER International Launch Services Proton rocket. Photo illustration by Jane Fitzgerald and John Bretschneider Aerospace America (ISSN 0740-722X) is published monthly by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc. at 1801 Alexander Bell Drive, Reston, Va. 20191-4344 [703/264-7500]. Subscription rate is 50% of dues for AIAA members (and is not deductible therefrom). Nonmember subscription price: U.S., $200; foreign, $220. Single copies $20 each. Postmaster: Send address changes and subscription orders to address above, attention AIAA Customer Service, 703/264-7500. Periodical postage paid at Reston, Va., and at additional mailing offices. Copyright 2015 by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc., all rights reserved. The name Aerospace America is registered by the AIAA in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. 40,000 copies of this issue printed. This is Volume 53, No. 8 ® is a publication of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Editor’s Notebook Ben Iannotta Editor-in-Chief Kyung M. Song Associate Editor Greg Wilson Relying on Russia Production Editor Jerry Grey The biggest value of our cover package about the health of Russia’s space Editor-at-Large program might be that it challenges assumptions on both sides of the debate Christine Williams about the state of Russia’s space infrastructure and, by extension, the safety of Editor AIAA Bulletin its Soyuz rockets and crew capsules. In the U.S., the safety debate about these vehicles has played out too quietly for Contributing Writers my tastes, given the human stakes of launching American astronauts in them. The Philip Butterworth-Hayes, Keith Button, criticism has often boiled down to nationalism, as in the U.S. should be ashamed Kristin Davis, Jim Hodges, Duane Hyland, that it is relying on Russian equipment and expertise to transport its astronauts. Tom Jones, Katie Kriz, James Oberg, It’s time to move the conversation beyond that criticism. The articles by analyst Michael Peck, Hannah Thoreson, Robert van der Linden, Debra Werner, James Oberg and space journalist Anatoly Zak help to do so by offering very Frank H. Winter, Anatoly Zak divergent perspectives on Russia’s space program. The bigger policy questions for Americans should be: 1) Where does the safety Jane Fitzgerald Art Direction and Design threshold lie beyond which it would be foolhardy to launch American astronauts onboard these Russian vehicles? 2) Has that threshold been reached? James F. Albaugh, President The cover package shows how complicated it must be for NASA and the James “Jim” Maser, President-Elect White House to address those questions amid so much domestic tumult in Russia Sandra H. Magnus, Publisher and political pressure here in the U.S. to get astronauts flying on American-made Craig Byl, Manufacturing and Distribution spacecraft again. STEERING COMMITTEE The cover package immediately made me think back to something that Orbital John Evans, Lockheed Martin; Steven E. ATK’s Antonio Elias said last year in a speech at AIAA’s SciTech Forum about space Gorrell, Brigham Young University; Frank Lu, launch: “To a certain degree, reliability depends on your ability to do things the way University of Texas at Arlington; David R. you did them before.” Boeing; Lockheed Riley, Mary L. Snitch, Many things are different in Russia these days. At the same time, a lot will need Martin; Annalisa Weigel, Panoptes Systems to be proven about the reliability of the new Boeing CST-100 capsule and the EDITORIAL BOARD SpaceX Crew Dragon and the rockets that will boost them. Ned Allen, Jean-Michel Contant, Too often, the distaste of the U.S. relying on Russia to carry astronauts has been L.S. “Skip” Fletcher, Michael Francis, accompanied by two underlying assumptions: One is that American vehicles will Cam Martin, Don Richardson, Douglas Yazell automatically be safer than Russian vehicles. The other is that there is simply no choice but to ferry astronauts on Russian vehicles. The reality is that there is an ADVERTISING alternative to today’s situation, but it’s not one that anyone likes: The U.S. could Joan Daly, 703-938-5907 abandon the multibillion-dollar space station and end continuous American presence [email protected] in space. Pat Walker, 415-387-7593 Each time an American rides on a Soyuz, the U.S. has, in fact, made a national [email protected] choice not to abandon the station. That choice can either be a tacit one based on emotion or an explicit one based on evidence, transparency and judgments about LETTERS AND CORRESPONDENCE acceptable risk. The articles by Oberg and Zak are valuable because they get us Ben Iannotta, [email protected] thinking in those terms. Safety is the issue members of Congress should be exploring QUESTIONS AND ADDRESS CHANGES in their oversight roles, more so than trying to untangle the history that brought [email protected] the U.S. to this point. ADVERTISING MATERIALS Craig Byl, [email protected] Ben Ianno tta Editor-in-Chief September 2015, Vol. 53, No. 8 STANDARD MISSILE-3 AIR & MISSILE DEFENSE SOLUTIONS PROTECTION: AT SEA. ON LAND. With more than 25 space intercepts, today’s Standard Missile-3 is the world’s only ballistic missile interceptor deployable from land or sea. It offers unique fl exibility that delivers multi-service options for defending larger areas, and lowers costs by requiring fewer sites. See the world’s only sea- and land-based ballistic missile interceptor in action. Raytheon.com/sm-3 Connect with us: © 2015 Raytheon Company. All rights reserved. “Customer Success Is Our Mission” is a registered trademark of Raytheon Company. Aerospace outsourcing shows hints of waning Mexico’s aerospace and defense man- ing to the report, ufacturing industry has been growing “has never been at a 20 percent annual rate for the past an easy, short- five years. A similar trend has been term winning seen in China, Brazil, India, and other strategy” and the lower-wage countries. lure of hiring en- But there are signs that some gineers at $20 an Western companies may be rethink- hour “was always ing outsourcing. Boeing, for instance, a heavily quali- announced in October it will produce fied principle.” parts for the new 777X widebody at Paul Everitt, its assembly site in St. Louis, Missouri, chief executive of instead of relying on overseas suppli- ADS, the U.K. ers that already make similar parts for trade group for the current 777 program. That deci- aerospace, de- sion, according to aerospace consul- fense and secu- Bombardier tants and analysts, is part of a trend rity industries, by U.S. and European airframe manu- agrees. Workers at the Bombardier plant in Querétaro, Mexico, work on a Global Express facturers and large companies to bring “Anecdotal business jet. work closer to home amid concerns evidence is show- about quality, turnover among valu- ing that the benefits of outsourcing to Still, outsourcing remains a pow- able, trained workers and the lengthy low-cost economies are no quite pan- erful economic draw.