Nov. 4, 2013 Vol. 53, No. 20 Spaceport News John F. Kennedy Space Center - America’s gateway to the universe SpaceX preps for 2014 abort test By Rebecca Regan Spaceport News n preparation for a summer I2014 test, NASA partner Space Exploration Technolo- gies (SpaceX) recently laid out its plan to demonstrate the Dragon spacecraft’s ability to carry astronauts to safety in the event of an in-flight emer- gency. This review of the in-flight abort test plan provided an assessment of the Dragon’s SuperDraco engines, the soft- ware that would issue the abort command, and the interface between the Dragon and the Falcon 9 rocket on which the spacecraft will be launched. “It’s critical to have a launch abort system in which NASA and SpaceX can have confi- dence,” said Phil McAlister, director of Commercial Space- flight Development at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. The in-flight abort test will take place along Florida’s Space Coast. During the test, a Dragon spacecraft will launch on a standard Falcon 9 rocket and an abort command will Photo courtesy of SpaceX SpaceX displays its launch abort test Dragon capsule in September at its headquarters in Hawthorne, Calif., in preparations for its sched- uled in-flight abort test which will take place along Florida’s Space Coast in Summer 2014. For more information about NASA’s Commercial Crew Program and its aerospace industry partners, click on the photo. be issued approximately 73 will deploy for a splashdown in Commercial Crew Integrated seconds into the flight. Dragon the Atlantic, where a ship will Capability (CCiCap). The com- will be outfitted with about be pre-positioned for simulated pany is on track to complete all 270 special sensors to measure rescue operations. The test 15 of its CCiCap milestones by a wide variety of stresses and spacecraft will be returned to the summer of 2014. All NA- acceleration effects on the Port Canaveral by barge so data SA’s industry partners, includ- 2013 Combined Federal spacecraft. An instrumented can be retrieved and incorpo- ing SpaceX, continue to meet Campaign gets mannequin, similar to a crash rated into the system’s design. their established milestones in underway, Page 8 test dummy, also will be inside. This review was the eighth developing commercial crew The spacecraft’s parachutes milestone for SpaceX under transportation capabilities. Page 2 SPACEPORT NEWS Nov. 4, 2013 MIST takes ride on airborne Cloud Lab By Linda Herridge Spaceport News mission to study how Earth’s .atmo- A sphere affects microbes has brought together researchers from Kennedy Space Center’s Space Life Sciences Laboratory (SLSL) and engineers from the center’s Rocket Uni- versity (RU). In September, a meteorological airship containing a “Cloud Lab” flew over Ken- nedy’s Shuttle Landing Facility carrying components of NASA’s Microorganisms in the Stratosphere (MIST) experiment. According to principal investigator David J. Smith, a microbiologist in Kennedy’s Engineering and Technology directorate, MIST has two goals. One is to collect microorganisms at high alti- tudes. The other is to intentionally expose microorganisms to the atmosphere to understand how they survive while aloft. NASA/Dimitri Gerondidakis Microbes get into the atmosphere in a A meteorological airship flies over Launch Complex 39 past the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center on variety of ways. Winds are the primary Sept. 19. A team of scientists from project “Cloud Lab” are conducting a number of experiments aboard the airship as it flies across the U.S., including NASA’s Microorganisms in the Stratosphere (MIST). mechanism for lofting debris or dust particles off the ground, plant surfaces, tist from the University of Florida and standpoint, microorganisms are roads and deserts. Solar heating also co-investigator on MIST, is working on present on spacecraft at the time of causes air to rise, carrying fine particles related research at Kennedy. launch,” Schuerger said. “They’re in of organic matter, dust or microorgan- “Why does NASA care about airborne very low numbers because the Planetary isms. microbes? From a planetary exploration Protection Program within NASA spends MIST was developed at Kennedy and a great deal of effort to develop protocols will be flown at even higher altitudes to keep the microbial contamination on next year. In addition to MIST measure- spacecraft to very, very low levels." ments, Cloud Lab scientists are conduct- Schuerger’s background is in microbi- ing several other experiments as ology, plant pathology and astrobiology. the airship flies across the U.S., Currently, he is using a Mars Simulation exploring various aspects of the Earth’s Chamber to study how bacteria found on atmosphere. spacecraft may survive and potentially Smith said the relationship between the proliferate on the surface of Mars. MIST team and Rocket University has According to Schuerger, knowing been a great collaboration. Founded at which microbes can survive in Earth’s Kennedy more than two years ago, RU's dry and radiation-rich atmosphere may goal is to provide engineers and scien- improve our understanding of which spe- tists at the center with more flight system cies might survive on a planet like Mars. and hands-on experience and to move As NASA begins to explore outside concepts quickly through the mission life of low-Earth orbit with humans once cycle. again, microorganisms are very benefi- “We will piggyback on just about cial in human activity, whether it’s in the any opportunity we have to get into the human body itself or whether it's in a upper atmosphere,” Smith said. “RU’s plant-growing system that might be used Near Space Program, which launches to regenerate oxygen, water or food for balloons into the stratosphere, will allow NASA/Daniel Casper humans. us to tackle a variety of engineering and Inside the Space Life Sciences Laboratory near Kennedy "In that case, microbes would be Space Center, Dr. David J. Smith, a microbiologist in the scientific goals.” Surface Systems Office, prepares microbes for the Microor- very beneficial to human exploration," Andrew Schuerger, a research scien- ganisms in the Stratosphere (MIST) mission. Schuerger said. Nov. 4, 2013 SPACEPORT NEWS Page 3 Adversity intrinsic to spaceflight testing By Steven Siceloff controlled models in the early Curatorial Affairs for the Na- the fuselage. The third, the left Spaceport News stages of development for more tional Air and Space Museum. side’s gear, stayed retracted. radical aircraft, but it took full- “There’s theoretical work that The spacecraft touched down ierra Nevada Corpora- size planes and risks to prove needs to be done. There’s design on the concrete and then tried to tion (SNC) of Louisville, S the ideas, sometimes at tragic and review that’s mostly done compensate for the stuck land- Colo., conducted a promising costs. by computers and people oper- ing gear by keeping itself level first flight of its developmental “It isn’t that you expect any- ating equipment and then there’s as long as it could before grav- Dream Chaser spacecraft thing to go wrong,” said Peter the process of actually testing ity forced it on its side and the during a glide test Oct. 26. Merlin, historian at NASA’s hardware. Ultimately, there’s aircraft skidded off the runway. While failure of one of its land- Dryden Flight Research Center a full-size vehicle that has to “What we saw, which made ing wheels to deploy correctly adjacent to be tested in us pretty pleased, was the dealt a harsh blow to the full- Edwards real condi- vehicle’s command and control scale engineering model that and home “The idea is to mitigate tions, and system kept the vehicle from made the flight, it is thought to to decades the risks as much as possible, if you don’t lowering itself to the runway on be repairable. The test did not of cutting- do all those that side as energy dissipated,” include a pilot and produced no but you have to accept edge test some degree of risk. steps, you’re said Mark Sirangelo, vice presi- injuries or significant damage flights that probably not dent and head of Sierra Nevada to the runway at Edwards Air stretched The only time the plane going to be Corporation’s Space Systems. Force Base in California. the limits of is truly safe is when it’s in the able to fly a “That was pretty special and In the 110-year history of aerospace hangar and you don’t fly.” vehicle suc- pretty advanced and we had no aerospace, such test flights have design and Peter Merlin, cessfully.” idea how to test that and now been critically important for engineering. Historian, NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center In the we do.” advancing aviation and human “The idea is Oct. 26 Sirangelo said Sierra Nevada spaceflight. to mitigate test, SNC Corporation is taking the same In 1903, the Wright Brothers the risks as much as possible but simulated the final phase of the long-view after Dream Chaser’s had extremely limited tech- you have to accept some degree spacecraft returning from orbit free-flight testing. nology to forecast how their of risk. The only time the plane to land on a runway. Steered “This won’t set us back. We flying machines would work, is truly safe is when it’s in the by its software instead of an may even accelerate,” Siran- so they had to build aircraft and hangar and you don’t fly.” onboard or remote pilot, the gelo said. “The landing issue is fly them themselves. Into the In recent decades, computers, Dream Chaser adjusted its glide certainly one we wouldn’t have latter half of the 20th century, math models and ever-more- slope from 50 degrees to about liked to have had, but we got designers couldn’t be sure how sophisticated wind tunnel 29 degrees a few seconds after it terrific data on this lifting body.