NASA and the Private Sector - Page 144

(Reuters) - Elon Musk-led SpaceX has raised $100 million by selling shares, in an extension to a financing round earlier this year that raised up to $350 million, a regulatory filing showed on Monday.

SpaceX’s funding round in July had valued the rocket maker at about $21 billion, according to news reports.

In May, Space Exploration Technologies Corp launched its first satellite for the U.S. military with its Falcon 9 rocket, breaking a 10-year monopoly held by a partnership of Lockheed Martin (LMT.N) and Boeing (BA.N).

The Hawthorne, California-based company also has also outlined plans for a trip to Mars in 2022, to be followed by a manned mission to the red planet by 2024.

Besides SpaceX, Musk also leads electric car maker Tesla Inc (TSLA.O).

With Sierra Nevada Corporation’s Dream Chaser spaceplane through a successful and critical Approach and Landing Test milestone, the company is now shifting gears to focus on the all-important first orbital flight of Dream Chaser No Earlier Than 2020. That orbital flight will be part of Sierra Nevada Corporation’s fulfillment of NASA’s CRS2 Commercial Resupply Services cargo transportation effort for the International Space Station.

Dream Chaser’s second Approach and Landing Test (ALT-2) was a resounding success, with Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) noting that all flight objectives were achieved and data points obtained – including some regarding the Thermal Protection System and flight avionics software that flew for the first time on the second ATL flight.

During a post-ALT-2 press conference, Steve Lindsey, Vice President of Space Exploration for SNC, provided an overview of the changes made to the Engineering Test Article (ETA) Dream Chaser between its first ALT in 2013 and its second in November 2017.

According to Mr. Lindsey, “We took steps to put in orbital vehicle development and build processes and really ramp up the impact of our processes. But we also wanted to put specific orbital vehicle equipment on this [ETA] to get certification requirements from this and really determine how it will fly back from space.”

This drive led to the inclusion of actual flight software that will fly on the orbital version of Dream Chaser as well as redundant sets of flight computers and navigation sensors, all of which Mr. Lindsey noted will fly on the actual Dream Chaser space vehicle.

“We upgraded with all of those systems; we put additional redundancy on the vehicle to make it more robust,” stated Mr. Lindsey.

A rather significant visual change to Dream Chaser for ATL-2 was the removal of the boom on the vehicle’s nose that provided aerodynamic and angle of attack information during the first ALT.

For ALT-2, the boom was removed and replaced with a Flush Air Data System (FADS) that will fly on the orbital vehicle.

FADS uses a series of pressure ports on the nose of Dream Chaser to collect aerodynamic and angle of attack information that then feeds into the software and flight algorithms for control and stability during flight.

Inclusion of FADS on ALT-2 allowed SNC to gain critical data on how the system will perform during flight – something that will greatly aid the company as it pushes forward with finalization of all Dream Chaser system designs for flight.

Moreover, a slightly less obvious visual change was on the landing skid at the forward underside of Dream Chaser.

Unlike ALT-1, the second test afforded the opportunity to adhere actual Thermal Protection System (TPS) tiles that will fly on Dream Chaser to test those tiles’ ability to handle the skid landing system and assess how the tiles react once the skid hits a concrete runway surface.

“We actually flew real Thermal Protection System tiles … to test the manufacturing installation process and to characterize what would happen with a thermal protection system when we landed on a runway,” noted Mr. Lindsey.

“It gave us a chance to manufacture actual flight tiles and install those tiles and secure them onto are nose skid, and we were able to test what happened to those tiles when that skid contacted the runway.

“Because the tiles are fragile and have a low shear force, we wanted to characterize it and how it would affect our landing performance. And we were able to get all those objectives.”

Mr. Lindsey noted several times during the press conference that information was still being delivered and reviewed from ALT-2 and that some of the information was not available to discuss publicly at this point.

However, he did note that all test objectives appear to have been met successfully, with the 14,000 lbs Dream Chaser ETA gliding to its targeted point on runway 22L at Edwards Air Force Base, California, after a 60 second free flight that saw the vehicle achieve an angle of attack of 16.5 degrees and a nominal touchdown speed of 191 miles per hour (170 knots).

Once Dream Chaser touched down, the vehicle rolled out for 4,200 feet before coming to a stop, which SNC noted was slightly less than what they anticipate the heavier, operational Dream Chasers will achieve when they land at the Shuttle Landing Facility (SLF) at the Kennedy Space Center and the end of their missions

“We were a little limited on our test vehicle’s weight because of the helicopter,” noted Mark Sirangelo, corporate Vice President of SNC’s Space Systems. “The orbital vehicle will likely roll out a little bit further than that as it’s going to be a little heavier than our test vehicle.”

With the SLF at KSC being 15,000 feet long, a great deal of margin exists for landing operations of Dream Chaser at the Spaceport in Florida.

The Bigelow Expandable Activity Module, known as BEAM, will remain attached to the International Space Station to provide additional performance data on expandable habitat technologies and enable new technology demonstrations. NASA awarded a sole-source contract to Bigelow Aerospace to support extension of the life of the privately-owned module, and its use to stow spare space station hardware.

After NASA and Bigelow successfully completed collaborative analyses on BEAM life extension and stowage feasibility, astronauts began the process to provide additional storage capability aboard the station by removing hardware used for the initial BEAM expansion. They then converted sensors that monitor the BEAM environment from wireless to wired (to prevent interference from future stowage items on transmission of sensor data). Next they installed air ducting, netting, and large empty bags to define the stowage volume for hardware inside BEAM. NASA and Bigelow later will likely add a power and data interface to BEAM, which will allow additional technology demonstrations to take place for the duration of the partnership agreement.

This new contract, which began in November, will run for a minimum of three years, with two options to extend for one additional year. At the end of the new contract, the agency may consider another extension or could again consider jettisoning BEAM from the station.

The space inside BEAM will hold up to 130 Cargo Transfer Bags of in-orbit stowage. Long-term use of BEAM will enable NASA and Bigelow to gather additional performance data on the module’s structural integrity and thermal stability and resistance to space debris, radiation, and microbial growth, to help NASA advance and learn about expandable space habitat technology in low-Earth orbit for application toward future human exploration missions. Using BEAM for stowage will free up about 1.87 cubic feet (0.53 cubic meters) of space in other station modules for research.

NASA’s use of BEAM as part of a human-rated system allows Bigelow Aerospace to demonstrate its technology for future commercial applications in low-Earth Orbit. Initial studies have shown that soft materials can perform as well as rigid materials for habitation volumes in space and that BEAM has performed as designed in resistance to space debris.

BEAM launched on the eighth SpaceX Commercial Resupply Service mission in 2016. After being attached to the Tranquility Node using the station’s robotic Canadarm2, it was filled with air to expand it for a two-year test period to validate overall performance and capability of expandable habitats. Since the initial expansion, a suite of sensors installed by the crew automatically take measurements and monitor BEAM’s performance to help inform designs for future habitat systems. This extension will deepen NASA’s understanding of expandable space systems by making the BEAM a more operational element of the space station to be actively used in storage and crew operations.

Space station crew members have entered BEAM more than a dozen times since its expansion in May 2016. The crew has conducted radiation shielding experiments, installed passive radiation badges called Radiation Area Monitors, and routinely collect microbial air and surface samples. These badges and samples are returned to Earth for standard microbial and radiation analysis at the Johnson Space Center.

The public-private partnership between NASA and Bigelow supports NASA’s objective to develop deep space habitation capabilities for human missions beyond Earth orbit while fostering commercial capabilities for non-government applications to stimulate the growth of the space economy.