NASA and the Private Sector - Page 227

Blue Origin shipped the first "flight" version of its BE-4 rocket engine to Texas for acceptance testing six weeks ago. These tests, scheduled to take less than a month, marked the final step before Blue Origin delivered the much-anticipated rocket engines to its customer, United Launch Alliance. A second flight engine followed the first out of the factory in mid-August.

These were hopeful signs for United Launch Alliance (ULA), which is using two of the large liquid oxygen-methane engines to power its new heavy lift Vulcan rocket. At the urging of the US Department of Defense, ULA has been pressing hard to make a 2022 launch date debut.

However, neither of these flight engines have yet been shipped from Texas to ULA's rocket factory in northern Alabama. There, ULA is eagerly awaiting the engines for pre-launch processing and installation onto the rocket.

In fact, the first flight engine had to be sent back to Blue Origin's production facilities in Kent, Washington, after a minor problem was found on the test stand. ULA's director of external communications, Jessica Rye, said the flight engine presently in Washington is expected to leave for Texas "shortly." She confirmed that the other flight engine is undergoing "final acceptance testing" in Texas before shipment to Alabama.

"We are very pleased with where we are from a technical standpoint with the new BE-4 engines, and its great performance," Rye said.

Engine 1 back to the barn

Sources told Ars that the first engine was put onto the test stand in Texas early in August, but almost as soon as work began to hot-fire the powerful engine an issue was discovered with the engine build. This necessitated a shipment back to Blue Origin's factory in mid-August, as the company's test stands in Texas do not allow for more than minor work.

As a result of this technical issue, ULA now appears likely to get one flight engine this month, but it probably will not receive the other one for installation onto the Vulcan rocket before mid-October, assuming a clean battery of tests in Texas.

Almost certainly this will preclude a debut of the Vulcan rocket in 2022. It will simply not be possible for ULA to install and test the engines, move the rocket to Florida, and stand it up for launch in less than three months. However, Rye said that remains the company's goal. "ULA is planning for a launch by the end of the year," she said.

The engines are not the only factor behind a potential delay for Vulcan. The customer for the rocket, Astrobotic, has not completed final assembly of its Peregrine spacecraft that is intended to land scientific and commercial payloads on the Moon.

"Peregrine is currently undergoing final integration at Astrobotic’s headquarters in Pittsburgh and will be ready for launch aboard ULA’s Vulcan Centaur," said John Thornton, Astrobotic’s CEO, in a statement to Ars. "Our nimble team has already integrated all 24 payloads to Peregrine’s decks and successfully tested communications in July with NASA’s Deep Space Network."

However, a source with knowledge of Peregrine's development said Astrobotic is still validating the performance of thrusters built by Frontier Aerospace for the spacecraft. This raises questions about whether the Peregrine lander will be ready for delivery to ULA's launch site in Florida by the end of the year. Astrobotic may decide to fly with some thruster risks or delay Peregrine's launch to accommodate more testing.

Critical timing

The stakes are high for this mission, this rocket, and ULA. The company, which is co-owned by Boeing and Lockheed Martin, has been the US Department of Defense's main launch contractor for nearly two decades, providing reliable delivery of national security missions into space. But this is a critical period of transition. ULA both has seen its leadership in US launch usurped by SpaceX and is simultaneously developing the yet-unproven Vulcan rocket to replace its highly successful Atlas V and Delta IV Heavy vehicles, which are due to retire in the next few years.

In August 2020, as part of its National Security Space Launch Phase 2 contract, the US Air Force selected ULA to provide 60 percent of its national security launch needs during the five-year period from 2023 through 2027. SpaceX was the other provider chosen, receiving the other 40 percent of the launches. At the time of the contract award, Vulcan was projected to start flying in 2021. However, because of Vulcan delays, ULA has already had to move one military mission, USSF-51, to an Atlas V rocket. As ULA has sold all of its remaining Atlas V rockets, it urgently needs to deliver Vulcan for its most important customer, the US military, to conduct dozens of launches during the next five years.

As part of the process to "certify" Vulcan's reliability to the military, ULA plans to fly two commercial launches for the rocket's first two flights: Astrobotic's Peregrine lander and Sierra Space's Dream Chaser mission. It is not certain that both of these payloads will be ready to fly within the next 12 months.

"If our customer encounters difficulty meeting our plan, we have provisions for a mass simulator as an alternative solution for certification," Rye said. "We are committed to ensuring we fly our two certification missions and stay on schedule to achieve US Space Force certification of Vulcan in advance of our first national security space mission in fourth quarter 2023."

Assuming that Vulcan launches during the first quarter of 2023—which seems possible but not guaranteed—ULA could realistically launch its third Vulcan mission before the end of next year. The first three Atlas V rockets launched in under 11 months, from August 2002 to July 2003; and the first three Delta IV rockets launched in just nine months, from November 2002 to August 2003.

If these launch targets appear challenging for ULA, perhaps the company can take heart from an exchange between Spock and Captain Kirk during a 1967 episode of Star Trek.

"Captain, you almost make me believe in luck," the Vulcan said.

To which Captain Kirk replied, "Why, Mr. Spock, you almost make me believe in miracles."

On September 20 2022 10:53 ZerOCoolSC2 wrote:
By the time people are allowed on this (another 2-3 years) they'll have done a number of orbital flights and tests. That's all they can do. And seeing as how they'll more than likely get really good data from the first couple, they can find a way to strengthen the tiles themselves, as well as find a good way to secure them beyond what they already have.

Mars is a one way trip for the first 2-3 missions anyway, plus the ships that go with supplies. I don't see them inspecting those ships very much once they get there until everything is built for us to leave the planet. And we'll be dead by then. You also have to remember that there are a lot of private companies building space stations in LEO. What's to stop SpaceX from sending a Crew Capsule up and waiting for them to transfer? The ship then can re-enter on it's own and either land or crash. The people would be safe however. That's one solution (albeit not very financially practical to be losing a $200mil ship (don't know the actual price, SB can fact check me)).

Hell, they could even double sleeve the ship behind the tiles to dampen the pressure and relieve any potential problems if it didn't mess up the mass too much. There are a lot of things we don't know that they've worked on or tried, so we just have to wait and see.

LONG BEACH, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Rocket Lab USA, Inc (Nasdaq: RKLB) (“Rocket Lab”, or “the Company”), a leading launch and space systems company, today revealed it has selected NASA’s historic Stennis Space Center in Mississippi as the location of its engine test facility for its reusable rocket, Neutron.

The Archimedes Test Complex will be located within the larger A Test Complex at Stennis Space Center across a 1 million square foot area for 10 years, with an option to extend the lease for an additional 10 years. The Archimedes Test Complex will include exclusive use and development of existing industrial NASA infrastructure and the Center’s A-3 Test Stand to develop and test Neutron’s Archimedes reusable engines. Rocket Lab has also secured a capital investment incentive from the Mississippi Development Authority to further develop the facilities and infrastructure at Stennis for Neutron. By expanding Stennis Space Center to include the Archimedes Test Complex, Rocket Lab is expected to create dozens of new jobs and make significant capital investments in the state of Mississippi.

Neutron is Rocket Lab’s reusable rocket in development, designed as a cost-effective, reliable, and responsive launch service to help build mega-constellations, deliver large spacecraft to low-Earth orbit, geostationary orbit, and interplanetary destinations, and to support a sustained human presence in space. Neutron will be powered by in-house designed and manufactured Archimedes reusable rocket engines and an advanced upper stage to enable high performance for complex satellite deployments.

Rocket Lab Founder and CEO, Peter Beck, says: “Before rockets flew to the Moon, they first had to go through Mississippi, and as we build a new rocket to reshape space access once again, Stennis is a fitting location for Neutron. Creating a test complex from scratch to the scale and complexity needed to test and develop Archimedes would have had an inconceivably long lead time, so the fact that we’ve secured Stennis and can leverage its existing infrastructure and test stand puts us on the fast-track to Neutron’s first launch. The icing on the cake is having fantastic partners like NASA and the state of Mississippi behind us to bring innovative rocketry, economic development, and new jobs to the Gulf Coast.”

Rocket Lab Vice President – Launch Systems, Shaun D’Mello, says: “The strong support, readiness and flexibility from NASA Stennis and Mississippi to bring engine test operations for Neutron to the state made Stennis the ideal location over other potential sites. Stennis Space Center’s legacy in rocket engine testing, established infrastructure, and skilled workforce will be both a boost to Neutron’s development and help grow Mississippi’s already robust aerospace test capabilities, securing a future for the state in innovative technology development.”

Rocket Lab expects to begin construction on the Archimedes Test Complex at Stennis Space Center quickly. At the same time, construction is continuing at pace on the Neutron Production Complex and launch site at Wallops Island, within the NASA Wallops Flight Facility and Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Virginia’s Eastern Shore. Combined, the two sites represent over two million square feet of operations for Neutron’s production, testing, and launch facilities. Further Neutron expansion will continue throughout the United States as the program develops toward first launch.

Tooling and moulds are the complex, time-consuming part requiring extensive design work and refinement. With these now done, the first hardware has been delivered with more in production at pace.

Rocket launch company Astra will no longer send the remaining NASA TROPICS payloads to space, but instead will launch other “comparable” scientific missions for the agency, the company announced Wednesday. The change to the launch agreement comes a little over three months after Astra’s first TROPICS launch ended in failure after the upper stage shut down prior to delivering the payload to orbit.

NASA’s TROPICS (Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation structure and storm Intensity with a Constellation of SmallSats) program includes a trio of launches aimed at sending a total of six earth science CubeSats to space. The TROPICS satellites will be used to measure variables like humidity and pressure inside storm systems — a need that’s especially prescient today, when Hurricane Ian made landfall on the west coast of Florida.

Astra was awarded the launch contract for TROPICS in February 2021 at a total value of $7.95 million. It is unclear whether the modification to this existing launch services agreement will change the value of the contract.

The company conducted the TROPICS I launch with its Rocket 3.3 launch vehicle, a system designed to be lightweight and cheap to launch. But just a few weeks after the failure of that mission, which resulted in a complete loss of payload, Astra announced a complete change to its business plan. Instead of continuing launches with the Rocket 3, the company said it would re-manifest all launches on the considerably larger Rocket 4. That rocket, which CEO Chris Kemp said would have a payload capacity of 600 kilograms, is still under development.

“Following the first TROPICS launch attempt, Astra and NASA engaged in discussions regarding the remaining launch attempts,” NASA said in a statement. “Astra then notified NASA of its intent to discontinue its Rocket 3.3 and indicated the company would potentially not resume launches prior to the 2023 Atlantic hurricane season.”

The 12 remaining companies that are eligible to provide launch services through NASA’s Venture-Class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare missions program will be able to compete for the TROPICS contract. These companies include ABL Space Systems, Rocket Lab, Relativity, Firefly and Virgin Orbit.

In a separate update, Astra said the premature upper-stage shutdown during the TROPICS I mission was due to “a higher-than-normal fuel consumption rate.” The company added that engineers will conduct additional tests to verify the root cause of the anomaly, but that they’ve narrowed the cause to an issue with the upper-stage engines. The investigation has been conducted with the participation of the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, which is standard for all rocket flight anomalies.

NASA and SpaceX signed an unfunded Space Act Agreement Thursday, Sept. 22, to study the feasibility of a SpaceX and Polaris Program idea to boost the agency’s Hubble Space Telescope into a higher orbit with the Dragon spacecraft, at no cost to the government.

There are no plans for NASA to conduct or fund a servicing mission or compete this opportunity; the study is designed to help the agency understand the commercial possibilities.

SpaceX – in partnership with the Polaris Program – proposed this study to better understand the technical challenges associated with servicing missions. This study is non-exclusive, and other companies may propose similar studies with different rockets or spacecraft as their model.

Teams expect the study to take up to six months, collecting technical data from both Hubble and the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft. This data will help determine whether it would be possible to safely rendezvous, dock, and move the telescope into a more stable orbit.

“This study is an exciting example of the innovative approaches NASA is exploring through private-public partnerships,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “As our fleet grows, we want to explore a wide range of opportunities to support the most robust, superlative science missions possible.”

While Hubble and Dragon will serve as test models for this study, portions of the mission concept may be applicable to other spacecraft, particularly those in near-Earth orbit like Hubble.

Hubble has been operating since 1990, about 335 miles above Earth in an orbit that is slowly decaying over time. Reboosting Hubble into a higher, more stable orbit could add multiple years of operations to its life.

At the end of its lifetime, NASA plans to safely de-orbit or dispose of Hubble.

“SpaceX and the Polaris Program want to expand the boundaries of current technology and explore how commercial partnerships can creatively solve challenging, complex problems,” said Jessica Jensen, vice president of Customer Operations & Integration at SpaceX. “Missions such as servicing Hubble would help us expand space capabilities to ultimately help all of us achieve our goals of becoming a space-faring, multiplanetary civilization.

"We'll start to see tanks roll out of the factory by the end of this year," Rocket Lab USA Inc Chief Executive Peter Beck said in an interview on Wednesday, referring to the first carbon composite molds of Neutron's booster stages.

"We've got preburner tests planned very shortly, then get into full scale hot fires next year," he said of Neutron's liquid oxygen- and methane-fueled engines, named Archimedes.

A handful of small rocket-launching companies like Rocket Lab are pivoting to larger rockets as customer demand trends toward launching many satellites at once instead of individual satellites on small, dedicated launch vehicles.

Rocket Lab aims to fly Neutron for the first time in 2024. Beck said engineers are focused on development and declined to discuss specifics on customer interest.

But he noted that a number of large satellite constellations, such as Amazon's Project Kuiper, are expected to be ready for orbital deployment around that time. He said Neutron would be a suitable vehicle for launching those types of satellites.

At the Long Beach headquarters, Rocket Lab completed construction of a shiny new 10,000 square-foot (930 square- meter) satellite manufacturing facility, primarily to build 17 satellite busses for Globalstar Inc's next-generation constellation. Apple Inc will leverage that satellite network to enhance satellite connectivity directly to iPhones, an ambitious plan announced this month.

Rocket Lab also is pressing ahead with plans to turn Electron into a partially reusable rocket to cut costs. Before year's end, Beck said, it aims to make a second attempt at catching a falling Electron first-stage booster out of the sky with a helicopter.