The competition heats up: The new Russian rocket Angara is now scheduled for its first test launch on June 27.
According to the article this decision will be finalized tomorrow. The flight itself will be suborbital. The article also provides a wealth of information about the history, development, and configuration of this rocket. Very worthwhile reading.
In an interview today, a Russian official stated that they expect the Proton rocket to resume operations by September.
It appears that they are reluctant this time to rush back without being absolute certain they have corrected the problems that caused the most recent launch failure last month.
The competition heats up: On Monday ULA signed contracts with several American companies to begin development of an engine to replace the Russian built first stage engine used by the Atlas 5.
The commercial contracts between ULA and prospective U.S. engine builders cover technical feasibility analyses, high-fidelity planning, schedule, cost and technical risk assessments, and cost estimates, ULA said in a statement released Monday. … ULA did not identify which companies will undertake the engine studies. Jessica Rye, a ULA spokesperson, also declined to say how many companies signed the contracts with the launch provider. The contracts are for early-stage studies of a hydrocarbon-fueled engine optimized for first stage propulsion with “aggressive recurring cost targets,” according to ULA.
All the engine concepts will support a first launch by 2019, and ULA expects to select a future concept and engine supplier by the fourth quarter of this year, the company said. ULA will evaluate the feasibility of the new engine concepts for both private investment and the potential for government-industry investment.
For the American rocket industry this is good. The only negative I can see is the possibility that Congress will allocate a lot of cash and requirements for building the new engine, which will increase its cost, slow its development, and make it less competitive. If they instead do it like NASA has done with its commercial crew development and let companies compete to build it, they will get it sooner and cheaper, and the industry will develop more options.
Images of the crushed remains of the Soviet Union’s one flight space shuttle, damaged and destroyed by the collapse of the building roof in 2002 where it had been stored.
More capitalism: Getting the Russian Soyuz capsule prepped to take two tourists around the Moon.
The key detail in this story is not so much that they are beginning to figure out the engineering upgrades necessary to fling a Soyuz capsule around the Moon but that Space Adventures has apparantly finally gotten two passengers who have put down deposits for the lunar flight. For years they have said they had one ticket holder, suspected to be James Cameron, but without a second passenger the flight could not go forward. It now appears that they have gotten a deposit from that second person.
Posted on the road in New Mexico.
“The Peace President is starting to leave a legacy of war.”
Read it. It is an excellent analysis of the overall failures of Obama’s foreign policy and how those failures are going leave the world a much more dangerous place after Obama is gone.
The investigation into the failure of a Proton launch several weeks ago has been completed.
The May 16 crash of the Proton space rocket was due to a failed bearing in the steering engine’s turbo pump, the chief of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, Oleg Ostapenko, told ITAR-TASS. “The final version agrees with the preliminary findings made at the first stage of the inter-departmental probe. Telemetry and analytical information indicate that apparently a bearing in the turbo pump failed.
The information so far released is still a little vague in details. Whether the Russians will be more forthcoming is also not clear.
A faulty heater filled the Russian module of ISS with smoke on Tuesday.
The unit was deactivated and the smoke cleared. The Russians will now do some work to repair or replace the unit.
The investigation into the failure of the Russian Proton rocket on May 16 says it will make its report by June 8.
The story says that the results will not be “sensational” but that they will also be accompanied by further delays in future Proton launches.
The competition heats up: Aerojet Rocketdyne says it can replace the Russian rocket engines used by American rockets for $20 to $25 million per engine.
Including legacy systems and various risk-reduction projects, Aerojet Rocketdyne has spent roughly $300 million working on technologies that will feed into the AR-1, Seymour said during a June 3 roundtable with Aviation Week editors. The effort to build a new, 500,000-lb. thrust liquid oxygen/kerosene propulsion system would take about four years from contract award and cost roughly $800 million to $1 billion. Such an engine is eyed for United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) Atlas V rocket as well as Orbital’s Antares and, possibly, Space Exploration Technology’s Falcon 9 v1.1.
This is roughly the same price cited for the cost of standing up U.S. co-production of the RD-180 engine, which is manufactured by NPO Energomash of Russia and sold to ULA for the Atlas V through a joint venture with Pratt & Whitney.
Unfortunately, this announcement is part of a lobbying effort to get Congress to fund the new engine rather than a commitment by Aerojet to build it themselves. Thus, I fully expect them to go over budget and for the engine to cost significantly more once in production, facts that will make it less competitive in the future.
The competition heats up: On Monday the Russians announced that they plan to fly two tourists around the Moon by 2017.
This is in conjunction with Space Adventures and the previous tourist flights that have gone to ISS. They say they have two customers willing to pay the $150 million ticket price, but they have also been saying this for years. I am not sure I believe them anymore.
Russia has moved today to exclude access by the U.S. military to any GPS stations in its territory.
It appears the Russians have has much empty bluster as the Obama administration. When they first said they were going to block access to these stations, they made it sound like they were going to cut-off all access. Instead we learn that it is only limited to U.S. military authorities. Since the stations are mostly used by scientists for geological research, Russia is therefore not really cutting anyone off from anything.
Reminds me of the Obama administrations sanctions against Russia. A big announcement, but then they exclude everything of importance from the sanctions when it appears those sanctions might actually be irritating to either side.
