SpaceX – Page 64 – Commercial Crew Program

CCP at 5: The Verge of New Era

Five years in, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program is at the doorstep of launch for a new generation of spacecraft and launch vehicles that will take astronauts to the International Space Station, enhance microgravity research and open the windows to the dawn of a new era in human space transportation.

The agency asked industry to take the lead in designing, building and operating a space system that would carry astronauts. NASA offered its expertise in human spaceflight and wrote out the top-level requirements for safety and other considerations to prepare for flight tests. NASA will certify the vehicles for flight tests and finally operational missions. The companies apply their own knowledge and skills in designing, manufacturing and running the systems. Ultimately, NASA will buy the flights as a service from the companies.

“It’s what we hoped the program to be and honestly a lot more,” said Wayne Ordway, who began as the manager of the Commercial Crew Program’s Spacecraft Office and rose to the position associate program manager.

This progress was hoped for, but took tremendous work and flexibility, according to members of the early efforts to transform the fledgling vision of a close partnership between NASA and private industry into a functioning organization capable of establishing requirements for a new generation of human-rated spacecraft and then seeing to it that those requirements were met.

“This is a new way of doing business, a new era in spaceflight, and when it’s all said and done, the Commercial Crew Program’s legacy will be bringing human spaceflight launches back to the U.S.,” said Kelvin Manning, who was involved in the early planning days of the commercial crew effort, and is now associate director of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. “That’s a big deal and our teams are making it happen.” Read the whole story at http://go.nasa.gov/1VVLruA

I Will Launch America: Ian Kappes

Before anything is visible to even the most discerning eye surveying the launch vehicle, computers and multitudes of sensors on the rocket can pick up minuscule problems and correct for them. Making sure they do so correctly is part of the work of Ian Kappes, lead of the launch vehicle avionics systems team for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.

“The avionics systems and its software are the brain and central nervous system of the entire launch vehicle,” Kappes said. “It is really just like our body’s nervous system – avionics tells you all sorts of information about the vehicle. It’s making the decisions necessary to fly. The avionics is telling you when equipment is within its parameters or when something will fail. It is also cross-communicating between the booster stages and the spacecraft, because the spacecraft and its crew need to know what’s going on with the vehicle.”

Kappes’ team at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida works in tandem with engineers at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Marshall Spaceflight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, and Armstrong Flight Research Center in Mojave, California, to certify the systems Boeing and SpaceX plan to use for commercial crew flights to the station. That means many hours poring over avionics architecture designs, working directly with both partners to identify and control hazards, followed by avionics component and software integrated testing. Read the full story at http://go.nasa.gov/1pyBsQ2

Commercial Crew Astronauts: Faces of the Future

Download and print your own collector cards of the four astronauts training for Commercial Crew Program flight tests now! Bob Behnken, Eric Boe, Doug Hurley and Suni Wiliams are all veteran space explorers who served as test pilots before joining NASA.

They have not been assigned specific missions or spacecraft at this point, but all four are training very closely with teams at Boeing and SpaceX to learn flight systems and details about the hardware in final development. The companies are working in partnership with NASA’s Commercial Crew Program and are independently developing human spaceflight systems that can safely fly astronauts to the International Space Station where they can increase the amount of research performed on the orbiting laboratory.

Boeing is building the CST-100 Starliner, which will launch atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket and SpaceX is working on the Crew Dragon spacecraft to launch atop its Falcon 9 rocket. Both American-made systems are to launch from Florida’s Space Coast, restoring the United States’ ability to launch astronauts from its own shores.

Click on the cards above or the names below to download the five new trading cards – one for each astronaut plus a group card – and to find out more about the four astronauts and their paths to the stars!

Bob Behnken
Eric Boe
Doug Hurley
Suni Williams
Team

Astronauts Modifying Station Comm Network for CCP Spacecraft

Today, astronauts Tim Peake and Tim Kopra worked on a communications system inside the International Space Station, specifically tailored to the needs of future visiting vehicles, including Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner and SpaceX’s Crew Dragon under development in partnership with NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. Known as Common Communications for Visiting Vehicles, or C2V2, the system uses both radio frequencies and hard-line connections to allow the station and spacecraft to talk to each other throughout rendezvous and docking operations, as well as when the spacecraft is connected to one of the station’s docking ports. The astronauts, two of the three people living and working on the station right now, are routing cables today inside the station.

The Commercial Crew Program spacecraft are designed to take astronauts to the space station using American spacecraft launching from Florida’s Space Coast. Carrying up-to four astronauts at a time plus a time critical of cargo, the spacecraft will add an additional member to the space station crew compliment, an increase that will double the amount of time astronauts have to devote to scientific research, which benefits us on Earth and prepares NASA for its journey to Mars.

Commercial Crew: Building in Safety from the Ground Up in a Unique Way

NASA’s Commercial Crew Program is set to return human spaceflight launches to the International Space Station from U.S. soil. NASA shares accountability with our commercial providers, Boeing and SpaceX, to implement a robust process for the development of safe, reliable and cost effective commercial crew transportation systems. NASA’s critical obligation is to ensure crew safety and success for NASA missions, and the providers are each responsible for safe operations of commercial crew transportation systems.

“Collectively, we say our job is to make sure that when the crew enters the spacecraft prelaunch, that they go home to their family,” said Billy Stover, commercial crew’s Safety and Mission Assurance officer. “When we say it like that, it starts to become very crystal clear, at least to our team. When we talk safety, it’s about what can hurt the crew and how can we prevent it. That makes it very tangible, very realistic and something you can actually grasp.”

Learn more about the dedicated safety professionals at NASA’s Commercial Crew Program at http://go.nasa.gov/1U7Te7H

Engineer Applies Skydiving Know-how to Spacecraft Evaluations

One of the engineers NASA depends on to assess the landing systems of the next generation of human-rated spacecraft brings 14 years of experience working with parachutes on launch systems, as well as years of skydiving. Learn how Jeff Thon is uniquely helping shape the future of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program at http://go.nasa.gov/1Qmbc0v

Astronauts Practice Crew Dragon Egress

Astronaut Anne McClain takes part in egress training for the Crew Dragon at SpaceX’s Hawthorne, California, headquarters recently as part of a larger team of astronauts and engineers evaluating processes for the new generation of American spacecraft in development to carry astronauts to the International Space Station. Working inside a mock-up built by SpaceX to simulate the actual spacecraft, the team practices leaving the spacecraft through the top hatch of the Crew Dragon as well as using the side hatch. The work is common in assessing spacecraft design. For astronauts, such rehearsals are regular exercise in mission preparations even in spacecraft that have been flying regularly.

SpaceX Tests Crew Dragon Parachutes

Four red-and-white parachutes unfurled high above the desert near Coolidge, Arizona, recently during a test of the system that initially will be used to safely land SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft carrying astronauts back from the International Space Station. The test used a mass simulator as the weight of the spacecraft connected to the parachute system. The mass simulator and parachutes were released thousands of feet above the ground from a C-130 cargo aircraft. This test evaluated the four main parachutes, but did not include the drogue chutes that a full landing system would utilize.

As part of its final development and certification work with NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, SpaceX continues to perform tests of flight-like hardware that allows engineers to assess the reliability. Later tests will grow progressively more realistic to simulate as much of the actual conditions and processes the system will see during an operational mission.

Initially, the spacecraft will splash down safely in the ocean under parachutes, but ultimately the company wants to land the vehicle on land propulsively using eight SuperDraco engines. SpaceX tested its propulsive land landing ability in Texas in November.

SpaceX and Boeing are working in separate partnerships with NASA to build a new generation of human-rated spacecraft to take astronauts to the International Space Station. Photo credit: SpaceX.

SpaceX Tests SuperDraco Descent Landing Capability

SpaceX recently tested its ability to fire engines that will be used to land a human-rated spacecraft safely on the ground with the accuracy of a helicopter at the company’s test facility in McGregor, Texas. SpaceX envisions returning people to Earth from space on the power of thrust instead of beneath parachutes. Working with NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, SpaceX is in the early phases of analysis. In November, the company conducted two tethered tests of a full-size Crew Dragon mock-up attached to a crane so engineers could refine the landing software and systems on the spacecraft. The Crew Dragon spacecraft will be equipped with eight SuperDraco thrusters that would be used to slow the vehicle’s return to Earth through the atmosphere and ultimately set the spacecraft and its crew down gently.

Propulsive landing will not be used initially for missions with NASA astronauts to the International Space Station.The Crew Dragon will splash down safely in the ocean under parachutes as its passengers return from the space station.

Eve of Launch: 2016 Goals Vital to Commercial Crew Success

jsc2015e071478 NASA’s Commercial Crew Program and its aerospace industry partners Boeing and SpaceX are on the eve of America’s return to human spaceflight launches. By the time the year closes, Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner and SpaceX’s Crew Dragon will be poised for the flight tests that allow our astronauts to travel to the International Space Station lifting off from Florida’s Space Coast.

It won’t be easy. Successful missions will require a comprehensive testing regimen of numerous systems on the ground and in space. That is why the outline of tasks for 2016 is so important. The result of each evaluation will be vital in the design of the systems. From parachute tests, to launch pad certifications, to the completion of spacecraft that will fly into orbit, this year offers both companies opportunities to build on the momentum of 2015 and carry it through to landmark space achievements in 2017. Read the details of what NASA’s Commercial Crew Program and its partners will be working on in 2016 to set us up for 2017 at http://go.nasa.gov/1UbVMjk