Rocketeers.co.uk - a British view of commercial spaceflight

UK Skynet military satellite system extended

Jeff Foust is posting notes on his Twitter page from the Goddard Memorial Symposium happening today in Greenbelt, Maryland. The first talk was by Lori Garver. A sampling of his notes:
/-- Garver: NASA heavy-lift program starts now under new plan; would not have started until >2015 under old plan.
/-- Garver: past programs have been vehicle-centric, not space transportation-centric: focus has been on the vehicle and not the payload.
/-- Garver: NASA very supportive of prizes, talking about potential collab on Google Lunar X Prize, such as making a data purchase.
/-- Ed Weiler: NASA SMD budget "is a good news budget and a great news budget". Good for space sci, great for Earth sci.
/-- Weiler: finally confident MSL on track for launch in Oct 11 after final actuator passed tests 2 weekends ago.
/-- David Radzanowski, SOMD: no sign of an increase in attrition or performance problems with shuttle workforce despite looming end of program.
/-- Radzanowski: technically possible to extend shuttle, but anything possible with enough $ and workforce. Still would have 2-3 yr gap.
/-- Doug Cooke, ESMD: hoping to find multiple users in industry for hydrocarbon engine to be developed in new plan.
/-- Cooke: working now on developing human-rating reqs for comm'l vehicles. Want something that is well thought out, but not excessive.

On March 13, 2008, the International Space Station passed across the field-of-view of Germany's remote sensing satellite, TerraSAR-X, at a distance of 195 kilometers, or 122 miles, and at a relative speed of 34,540 kilometers per hour, or more than 22,000 mph. In contrast to optical cameras, radar does not 'see' surfaces. Instead, it is much more aware of the edges and corners which bounce back the microwave signal it transmits. Smooth surfaces such as those on the station's solar g [...]

MOSCOW, (RIA Novosti) - China's fourth space center, Wenchang, will be put into service between 2014 and 2015, not in 2013 as it was previously announced, the CCTV channel reported on Tuesday. Located in a forest of coconut palms on the northeast coast of the Hainan tropical island, Wenchang will be the country's first low-latitude space center. Its latitude of only 19 degrees north of the equator will contribute to lower fuel consumption and maximum payload. "The construction of the fourt [...]

Today SpaceX performed our first Static Fire for the Falcon 9 launch vehicle. We counted down to an T-2 seconds and aborted on Spin Start. Given that this was our first abort event on this pad, we decided to scrub for the day to get a good look at the rocket before trying again. Everything looks great at first glance. As part of the abort, we close the pre-valves to isolate the engines from the propellant tank and purge the residual propellants. The brief flames seen on the video are normal [...]

(NASA) - Robotics and handover activities took center stage Tuesday aboard the International Space Station as Expedition 22 draws to a close and the crew prepares for new residents and a visit by space shuttle Discovery. After breakfast and a checkout of station systems, Flight Engineer Soichi Noguchi began his day with a ham radio call to students at Ikaruga Elementary School in the town of Taishi, Hyogo, Japan. Afterwards, Noguchi joined Commander Jeff Williams and fellow flight eng [...]

(NASA) - Like a hard-driving athlete whose joints need help, the giant "Mars antenna" at NASA's Deep Space Network site in Goldstone, Calif. has begun major, delicate surgery. The operation on the historic 70-meter-wide (230-foot) antenna, which has received data and sent commands to deep space missions for over 40 years, will replace a portion of the hydrostatic bearing assembly. This assembly enables the antenna to rotate horizontally. The rigorous engineering plans call for lifting about  [...]

(Arianespace) - Satellite preparations for Arianespace’s first mission of 2010 have transitioned into their final phase, with the ASTRA 3B payload making its first contact with Ariane 5 launcher hardware. During activity inside the Spaceport’s S5 payload integration building, ASTRA 3B was installed atop a two-piece adapter unit that will serve as the satellite’s interface with Ariane 5. This clears the satellite for integration in Ariane 5’s payload “stack,” which will be co [...]

It was very nice to see my story about the new Skynet 5D spacecraft riding high in the "most read" list of stories on Tuesday, but I'm not so naive as to think this was just because of my incisive writing.

The truth is that a headline which reads "Skynet satellite system extended" is going to attract readers looking for information on a chap called John Connor and a relentless crowd of killer robots.

But I hope these "misdirected" visitors will have stuck around long enough to learn something new about the UK's biggest space project.

The name Skynet in the context of British military satellite communications goes back to 1969 - long before it was used to describe the self-aware computer system in The Terminator movie franchise.

In its latest guise, the satellite system is absolutely top-notch, and incorporates a range of leading technologies (some of them classified) to provide a secure, high-bandwidth voice and data transmission to UK forces across the globe.

What has attracted much attention, however, is the way the Skynet 5 system was set up and funded.

In a standard procurement, the Ministry of Defence would have bought the entire programme - from the satellites in the sky to the control centres on the ground, including the antennas on ships and dedicated vehicles.

But Skynet 5 is a Private Finance Initiative (PFI). Instead of buying the system outright, the MoD merely buys a telecommunications "service" sold to it by a company called Paradigm Secure Communications.

It is Paradigm which has commissioned the satellites and the ground infrastructure and paid for it through City loans.

Paradigm has taken on the risk, but it makes this all work by charging the MoD more than £200m a year for its service. This is guaranteed income from a contract that runs now until 2022.

And although the MoD is entitled to most of the capacity on the satellites, any spare bandwidth can be sold to "friendly forces".

This is a gain-share arrangement that enables Paradigm to boost its income further, and for the MoD to earn a bit on the side which might just limit the eventual total cost of the PFI - calculated at one stage to be £3.6bn by the National Audit Office.

All of which makes Tuesday's announcement very interesting.

The Skynet 5 system was initially supposed to comprise just two satellites. But when the build was initiated a number of rocket failures sent insurance prices spiralling and it was decided that it would be cheaper simply to build a third satellite than pay an over-the-top premium for the first two.

By the time the Skynet 5A satellite arrived at the launch pad in 2007, its Ariane 5 launcher had got past its technical woes and had become a highly reliable, very accurate rocket.

All three Skynet platforms - 5A, 5B and 5C - went into orbit without a hitch. Not only had Paradigm and the MoD saved themselves a packet on insurance, they had a huge amount of capacity on orbit.

But even as the third satellite was climbing into the sky, discussions were under way about pulling together components held in reserve to make a fourth satellite. Tuesday's announcement was the decision to go ahead with 5D, again financed by City money.
The key driver here is the data-hungry military machine. You've probably seen pictures of RAF personal sitting in Creech Air Force Base in the US remotely piloting Reaper drones flying over Afghanistan. All that video goes through Skynet and the Super High Frequency (SHF) "data pipe" needs to be extremely wide.

UHF (Ultra High Frequency) is also a big draw right now. The frequency supports "comms on the move". It is voice communications in forward deployments - SAS soldiers with backpack radios, that kind of thing. The MoD wants more of it and Paradigm can't sell enough to its third-party customers.

The new Skynet 5D satellite will therefore be reconfigured to increase its UHF capacity.

PFIs don't always get a good press. We've all heard the stories where it's gone wrong in the building of schools and hospitals. But clearly something must be going right with Skynet if all the sides in the deal - MoD, Paradigm and City financiers - want to build a new satellite so soon after launching the first three.

The success has prompted many to wonder whether the model could also now be applied to other space activity in the UK, and I've spoken before about the suggestion of a national Earth Observation PFI dubbed "Skysight".

As with Skynet, this Skysight programme would have the UK government as its "anchor tenant". The difference would be that government would be purchasing Earth imagery not bandwidth. And as with the Skynet model, spare capacity on the system would be sold to third parties.

There are other key differences, as well. Skynet is relatively simple in that there is one big customer within government - the MoD; whereas with Skysight, the demand would be spread across a range of departments - from environment and international development, to foreign and home offices.

The major benefit is that the UK would have an independent capability and British industry would get to build a new fleet of spacecraft, creating lots of highly skilled jobs - not just in satellite manufacturing but in support areas such as image processing.

We will see the government give its response to the Space Innovation and Growth Strategy before the month is out. Expect to see in that response some sort of commitment to study Skysight.

Incidentally, although Paradigm currently owns the Skynet satellites and their associated infrastructure, at the end of the contract all the assets are passed to the MoD for the sum of £1.

Watch this space (or "I'll be back", whichever you prefer)

John Logsdon explains that "NASA is not a jobs program" - FederalNewsRadio.com - Mar.9.10.

Other items:
/-- Obama's Plans for NASA Face Tough Battle at Space Summit - AOL News - Mar.9.10
/-- President Obama will talk NASA during Florida trip - Spaceflight Now - Mar.9.10

SpaceX has issued a statement about the test firing on Tuesday:Today SpaceX performed our first Static Fire for the Falcon 9 launch vehicle. We counted down to an T-2 seconds and aborted on Spin Start. Given that this was our first abort event on this pad, we decided to scrub for the day to get a good look at the rocket before trying again. Everything looks great at first glance.

We completed pad preps on time and with good execution. The integrated countdown with the range included holdfire checks, S- band telemetry, C-band, and FTS simulated checks. We completed helium, liquid oxygen (LOX), and fuel loads to within tenths of a percent of T-zero conditions. Tanks pressed nominally and we passed all Terminal count, flight software, and ground software abort checks right down to T-2 seconds. We encountered a problem with the spin start system and aborted nominally.

As part of the abort, we close the pre-valves to isolate the engines from the propellant tank and purge the residual propellants. The brief flames seen on the video are burn off of LOX and kerosene on the pad. The engines did not ignite and there was no engine fire.

We detanked and safed the vehicle and launch pad. Preliminary review shows all other systems required to reach full ignition were within specification. All other pad systems worked nominally. Inspections will be complete tonight. Tomorrow will consist of data review and procedure updates. Commodities will be replenished tomorrow including TEA TEB load, LOX and helium deliveries.

We’ll look to do the next static fire attempt in three or four days.
Update: Stephen Clark elaborates on the SpaceX info about the engine firing test: SpaceX: Falcon 9 engine test aborted before ignition - Spaceflight Now

Some NASA policy and budget related items:
/-- Shelby seeks a critical mass - Space Politics
/-- Which track for NASA? - Huntsville Times
/-- Advice to Obama From Senator Bill Nelson - spacepolicyonline.com
/-- NASA: Money key to more space shuttle flights - msnbc.com/AP

Update: Criticism mounts against Obama's plans to change NASA strategy - washingtonpost.com.

Some comments from Elon Musk: "The problem with Constellation was that success was not one of the possible outcomes," says Elon Musk, founder and chief executive of SpaceX, a start-up rocket firm that would be in the running for one of the new NASA commercial contracts.

Musk plans to conduct the first test launch of his Falcon 9 rocket at Cape Canaveral, Fla., sometime in the coming weeks. He puts the odds of success on the first try at 70 to 80 percent.

"It's trivial to build a rocket. It's incredibly difficult to build a rocket that goes to orbit," Musk says.

The timetable could put the launch very close to Obama's April 15 space conference. That makes Musk nervous.

"It is looking oddly close to the middle of next month. Which is a little scary," Musk says. "I'd hate for any decision here to be informed by some unfortunate situation on our first launch." ===
The latest Res Communis collection of space law, regulation and policy links: Library: A Round-up of Reading - Res Communis.

Franklin Chang Diaz is proposing to NASA that they use two small VASIMR engines for reboosting the ISS. (The engines would using the station's solar generated power.): NASA could buy plasma engine for station reboost services - Flight Int.

This mosaic of images from the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explore, or WISE, in the constellation of Cassiopeia contains a large star-forming nebula within the Milky Way Galaxy, called IC 1805 or the Heart Nebula, a portion of which is seen at the right of the image. IC 1805 is more than 6,000 light-years from Earth. Also visible in this image are two nearby galaxies, Maffei 1 and Maffei 2. In visible light these galaxies are hidden by dust in IC 1805 and were unknown until 1968 when Paolo [...]

“Program manager John Shannon said Tuesday it costs $200 million a month to keep the fleet flying.”

This is why President Bush and Sean O’Keefe knew that we would have to bring the shuttle program to an end in order to have any hope of going forward with NASA’s use of space. Michael Griffin knew it. President Obama and General Bolden know this too.

Source: Money key to more space shuttle flights

Continuing on this vein, an article today in The Space Review: “Costs of US piloted programs”

“each day spent onboard by an ISS crewmember costs about $7.5 million (compared to $5.5 million for Skylab.)”

Ian O'Neill at Discovery News hosts The Carnival of Space #144.

Stephen Clark reports that the SpaceX Falcon 9 pad fire test is currently set for 1:00 pm EST today: Spaceflight Now | Falcon Launch Report | Mission Status Center.

Other info:
/-- SpaceX Falcon 9 "Hot-Fire" Slated At Cape Canaveral Today - The Flame Trench/Florida Today
/-- SLC-40 webcam - Florida Today

Update: Stephen Clark says that the firing was aborted shortly after it started. They have scrubbed the engine test for the day.

Another X-51 article: Air Force to Test New Hypersonic Aircraft - SPACE.com/SpaceNews.

(I'm very skeptical that scramjets will provide any space launch benefit but the technology is interesting nonetheless and the military is paying for its development for non-space applications.)

Here's an Air Force video (link via Michael Belfiore) about the project.

Here's an Air Force video report on one of the projects I cover in my book The Department of Mad Scientists.http://www.af.mil/news/video/index.asp?cid=3&sid=11769The X-51 project seeks to break new ground in the field of hypersonic (mach 5+) air breathing flight. If all goes well, an unmanned aircraft will drop from a B-52 bomber off the California coast, fire a solid fuel booster rocket to get Michael Belfiorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08310369260652845748noreply@blogger.com0

Subscribe to Miles O'Brien's This Week in Space at Youtube. Available also on iTunes.
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More about lunar water in the north polar area: Scientists See Fresh Signs of More Water on the Moon - NYTimes.com - Mar.8.10.
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These days it's only entrepreneurial companies that have big long term space plans and they know it will take one small step at a time to get there. In a long ago era, i.e. when I was in kindergarten, major companies in aerospace, and out, got carried away with the expectation of great things soon to happen in space: Reaching for Stars When Space Thrilled and Paranoia Ruled - NYTimes.com.

See also, Another Science Fiction: Advertising the Space Race 1957-1962