Aug. 10, 2012 Vol. 52, No. 16 Spaceport News John F. Kennedy Space Center - America’s gateway to the universe Launch director lauds Curiosity's epic landing By Steven Siceloff "go" to start the mission, offering Spaceport News his confidence that everything he had seen showed that the rover was mar Baez completed his ready, not to mention the rocket pack eighth trip to Mars on Mon- that would fly through the Martian day when NASA's Curiosity CLICK ON PHOTO NASA/Kim Shiflett O atmosphere and lower Curiosity onto rover touched down perfectly inside the surface in a landing maneuver NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden discusses the agency's new Commercial Crew Integrated Capability the Gale Crater to begin a two- (CCiCap) partnerships from Kennedy Space Center on Aug. 3. Kennedy's Director Bob Cabana, left, that had never year geologic and NASA Commercial Crew Program Manager Ed Mango also spoke about the CCiCap initiative dur- been tried be- ing the news conference. survey of the fore. mysterious red Although he planet. As with checked out ev- Spaceport stakes claim everyone else erything several on Earth, Baez times in a pro- to commercial missions can only go to cessing hangar Mars remotely, on Earth and By Rebecca Regan efforts are based on a simple but but that doesn't worked closely Spaceport News powerful principle," said NASA diminish his with the rover's Administrator Charlie Bolden dur- excitement. he three American compa- builders and op- ing the CCiCap announcement. "By Nine months nies building next-generation erators from the investing in American companies ago, Baez was spacecraft that NASA could CLICK ON PHOTO NASA Jet Propulsion T and American ingenuity, we're spur- carefully going Laboratory in call on to carry astronauts into orbit This is the first image taken by the Navigation in the future will perform much of ring free-market competition to give over the details cameras on NASA's Curiosity rover. It shows the Pasadena, Calif., their work along the Space Coast, taxpayers more bang for the buck of Curios- shadow of the rover's now-upright mast in the he still had an while enabling NASA to do what ity ahead of center, and the arm's shadow at left. The arm home of the agency's Commercial itself can be seen in the foreground. To see the anxious night Crew Program (CCP). we do best, reach for the heavens." its launch on a latest photos from Mars taken by Curiosity, click watching the Advances made by these com- Throughout the next 21 months, United Launch on the photo. landing on TV. panies under newly signed Space Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) Alliance Atlas "I think there's Act Agreements (SAAs) through of Louisville, Colo., Space Explo- V rocket. As launch director for been roughly 7,000 people who have the agency's Commercial Crew ration Technologies (SpaceX) of NASA's Launch Services Program, worked on this," Baez said Monday Integrated Capability (CCiCap) Hawthorne, Calif., and The Boeing it was up to Baez to confirm that the morning. "There's a personal sense initiative are intended to lead to the Company of Houston will complete one-ton robotic rover was ready to of ownership and some skin that availability of commercial human their spacecraft and launch-vehicle make a 10-month voyage through went into making this happen. So I spaceflight services for government designs, test their hardware, and space to a planet 14 million miles am overjoyed. I was so ecstatic to and commercial customers. away. "Our commercial crew and cargo See CCP, Page 4 On Nov. 26, 2011, Baez gave his See CURIOSITY, Page 3 Mock-up Orion stack Chief technologist visits Firing room mods Kennedy social Inside this issue... Page 2 Page 3 Page 6 Page 7 Page 2 SPACEPORT NEWS Aug. 10, 2012 Mock-up Orion stack forging path to launch By Steven Siceloff designers came up with a framework Spaceport News and metal cylinder that would be the same dimensions as the service he Vehicle Assembly Build- module and support Orion's weight. ing's (VAB) transfer aisle NASA and Boeing prototype shops offered a glimpse of the T turned the designs into the real future recently as a full-size Orion model. spacecraft mock-up was placed An operational service module atop a model of the service module holds propellant and consumables so engineers and technicians could tanks, power-generating solar arrays, determine the exact dimensions for instruments and other hardware as- connectors that will run from the tronauts need. It stays attached to the launch pad structure to the space- Orion capsule until re-entry, when craft before liftoff. the capsule separates to return the With the first test flights of the crew to Earth. Orion scheduled in 2014 atop a Delta "Ours is built just for the ground. IV and 2017 for the Space Launch It couldn't take the launch loads, System (SLS), the work is critical to making sure the designs are ac- the vibrations," Lenhardt said. "We NASA/Dimitri Gerondidakis only needed to simulate the outside. curate, said Doug Lenhardt, who is The mock-up components of an Orion spacecraft are laid out in the transfer aisle of the Vehicle As- overseeing the Orion mock-up and This is how the Orion vehicle will sembly Building at Kennedy Space Center on Aug. 6. In the foreground is the Launch Abort System, come to us from the Operations and operations planning for the Ground attached to the aerodynamic shell that will cover the capsule. To the right is the Orion capsule model on Systems Development and Opera- top of a service module simulator. All are the exact dimensions of the flight-ready Orion. For more on Checkout Building, where it is as- tions program, or GSDO. the Ground Systems Development and Operations program, click on the photo. sembled. So now we can do any of the operations, simulate them, with a After all, changing a connector on since the space shuttle. Many mock- approaches to handling the Orion a flight-ready spacecraft or heavy flight-like vehicle." ups are retired to public display, such spacecraft during launch prepara- Because the VAB's transfer aisle is piece of launch pad equipment can as the "Pathfinder" shuttle on exhibit tions at the launch pad. For instance, vast, it can be used to simulate other get costly and time-consuming. at Marshall Space Flight Center in a system of off-the-shelf scaffolds facilities, too, so work that will take "The design is pretty far along for Alabama. proved too difficult for crews in place in other areas of Kennedy to the capsule, so the sooner you can Lifting and moving the mock-ups heavy protection gear to move prepare Orion for flight can also be find flaws or details that you want also provides opportunities for tech- around on, so a new approach is be- perfected without moving the mock- the designers to change, the less ex- nicians to maintain and practice their ing developed. ups around. pensive it is, the more time they have technical skills. The Space Launch System rocket The model also includes an aero- to look at it and possibly redesign," "Actually one of the big goals of is slated to be taller than a Saturn dynamic shell that will anchor the Lenhardt said. "You don't want to the mock-ups is helping keep the V, which means operators will have LAS rocket to the spacecraft. In an test all of this out on your first flight workforce here proficient," Lenhardt to lift Orion and its service module emergency, the LAS would ignite vehicle." said. "The crane guys are good, almost to the rafters of the 525-foot- and pull the Orion spacecraft to Stacked atop each other, the Orion they're really good now because they tall VAB to place the spacecraft on crew module and service module were doing orbiters three or six times top of the SLS. safety. Workers in the VAB have not mock-ups stand 27 feet tall. Techni- a year. Now, they're not lifting any With the steel and aluminum stacked a rocket with an LAS since cians can climb inside the capsule flight vehicles, so obviously their mock-up , the engineers can find out Apollo missions ended in 1975, be- and see how the astronauts will sit skills will erode a little bit. It defi- what work needs to be done before cause the space shuttle did not have for the launch and how much room nitely does help to keep everybody the spacecraft is lifted and what can such a mechanism. is available to them during the proficient here, too." only be done with the Orion mated to "Is it better to stack the LAS when months it may take for a mission to The mock-up has been used to the top of the rocket. it's on top of the rocket? Is it better an asteroid, the moon or Mars. The show firefighters and emergency The Orion model, an exterior rep- to stack it on the ground here and model's full size gives designers a medical technicians what to expect if lica of the spacecraft that is mostly then lift the whole thing on top of greater appreciation of the scale of they have to get astronauts out of the empty on the inside save for four the rocket?" Lenhardt said. "Those the spacecraft, Lenhardt said. ship quickly. They saw very quickly model astronaut seats and hatch, was are the kinds of things we can try out "That's the first thing people say that lifting astronauts up from their used to practice stacking the launch here." when they see this, I didn't realize it seats and out of the hatch is a lot abort system, or LAS, ahead of a With the pace of work increasing was that big, that it was that tall,' " different than it was aboard a space flight test at White Sands, N.M., in and flight tests into space closer on Lenhardt said.