NASA burdened by rising launch costs and delays

Considering the burdensome cost of transporting equipment, rockets, and launch personnel to Kodiak in addition to housing launch technicians, this report does not bode well for the Kodiak Launch Complex. 

Publish Date: 24 November 2010
US: The next generation of NASA remote sensing satellites and space science probes could be burdened by rising launch costs and delays as the agency incorporates new medium-lift rockets, according to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report.

The uncertainty surrounds 12 to 14 science missions through 2020 that have not yet received launch vehicle assignments, the government watchdog report said.

NASA is ending its use of the Delta 2 rocket, a workhorse launcher that has delivered nearly 60 percent of the agency's scientific satellites to space since 1998.

NASA is shifting future medium-class missions to SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket and the Taurus 2 launcher being developed by Orbital Sciences Corp. The GAO found both vehicles serve the same market as the Delta 2 and have similar costs. But the Falcon 9 and Taurus 2 are not certified to launch NASA's most expensive and important science missions.

United Launch Alliance has three more NASA missions on its Delta 2 manifest. Parts for producing five more Delta 2 rockets are also available, but there are high costs of modifying and maintaining launch pads to host any extra flights, according to the GAO.

The report addressed NASA's efforts to support the remaining Delta 2 flights and the agency's medium-class launch strategy.

Read the rest of the article here.

KLC Minotaur IV Launch = Enormous Waste of Money

Air Force spokesman Joe Davidson is in Kodiak helping coordinate the launch. He reported Thursday that the total cost of the seven satellites is $120 million. The cost of the Minotaur IV rocket including a new propulsion system is $50 million. (source: KMXT, Kodiak public radio)
This one launch would have paid for two brand new high schools in Kodiak; instead, local property owners will bear the burden of paying for the new school.

Orbital Minotaur IV launches with multiple satellites

November 19th, 2010 by William Graham Orbital Sciences Corporation used their Minotaur IV launch vehicle to loft eight satellites for the United States Government and university research programmes on Friday night. The mission, designated STP S-26, launched from the Kodiak Launch Complex in Alaska one minute into a 90-minute window, with a lift-off time of 20:25 pm Eastern (01:25 UTC).

Alaska Aerospace Once Again Begs Alaska for Handouts

Click here for a link to the Kodiak public radio station KMXT's story on Alaska Aerospace's request for an exorbitant amount of space pork from the state of Alaska.
AAC is dragging out their tired and false claim that if "we build it, they will come".  Their record of launches up to now clearly belies this tired adage.
Click on the title of this post to read about AAC's declining revenues and why, yet again, "Alaska Aerospace will turn to the state of Alaska for sustaining funding needs."   Even the Feds don't seem to want to waste any more taxpayer funds on the rusting, obsolete white elephant Kodiak Launch Complex.

Inside next week’s launch from Narrow Cape

For another local launch news story from public radio KMXT, click here.

The STP-S26 launch includes military and NASA experiments

Article published on Wednesday, November 10th, 2010 in Kodiak Daily Mirror

By SAM FRIEDMAN

Mirror Writer

The Kodiak Launch Complex has its first launch in almost two years Nov. 19, and it’s a new type of launch.
Instead of the missile defense-related work the complex has done over the last decade, the new launch is for the military’s Space Test Program and will bring 16 experiments into low earth orbit.
The experiments range from high-priority military projects to NASA technology trials and experiments built by college undergraduates. They investigate subjects including electronics, space weather, navigation and biology. But a common thread throughout the mission is projects that are small and inexpensive by aerospace standards.
The mission’s name, STP-S26, comes from the fact that it is the 26th launch carried out by the Space Test Program and contains small satellites.
Mission manger Air Force Capt. Rachel Derbis said the Kodiak launch is the most complex mission the Space Test Program has attempted in 20 years — in part because it packs in so many small payloads.
“It is our hope that these experiments will prove out the rapid access to space for small satellites and push forward the frontiers of space,” she said. “In essence, accomplishing more with smaller satellites is the true meaning of maximizing access to space.”
Among the seven satellites carrying the experiments on the Kodiak launch, four are about 400 pounds and three weigh less than 10 pounds.
In addition to making satellites small, some of the organizations with experiments on board used standardized satellite forms like the blocky CubeSat to help keep costs down.
One especially small experiment on the mission is a CubeSat called NanoSail D that is smaller than a loaf of bread before launching and costs $250,000.


It is part of a larger NASA satellite with an $8 million to $12 million budget, not including experiments.
Although NASA has access to the International Space Station for space experiments, missions like STP-S26 are still useful for the space agency, said Mark Boudreau, project manager at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and the manager of one of the satellites on the STP-S26 mission.
“Launch vehicles and services (rockets or shuttles), as we all know, are expensive,” he said. “Sometimes it can take years to get even the smallest scientific or technology experiment manifested for flight. That means delaying the return of scientific knowledge.”
In addition to NASA and the military, the University of Texas at Austin and the National Science Foundation have satellites on the STP-S26. Here’s a look at all of the satellites.
• Primary Satellite: The mission’s primary satellite carries a pair of experiments off the military’s Space Experiment Review Board (SERB) list.
One experiment, the top-ranked priority from 2006, will test how well military electronics function in space. The other experiment is an ocean telemetry link, a project to relay information from ocean buoys.
• FastSat: The larger of two NASA satellites, FastSat carries a set of three instruments to measure space weather, including the temperature at the top of earth’s atmosphere and astrophysical plasma.
Also on board the FastSat is the tiny $250,000 satellite, the NanoSail D. The satellite’s mission is to unfurl into a thin sheet that uses sunlight to leave the earth’s orbit. If successful, the technology could one day be used to keep abandoned satellites out of earth’s orbit where they might damage other satellites.
• OREOS: The second NASA satellites launch is a separate set of three CubeSats that will study how micro-organisms survive in space.
• FastTrac: The FastTrac satellite is the winner of a biannual contest between American universities sponsored by the Air Force. This winning satellite on this mission will breaks into two satellites, which then communicate with each other. It was built by the University of Texas at Austin.
• FalconSat-5: Another student project, the FalconSat-5 was built by cadets at the U.S. Air Force academy in Colorado Springs. The satellite handles a pair of SERB priorities related to space communication and navigation.
• Radio Aurora eXplorer: This National Science Foundation satellite is also a CubeSat, and also like the FastSat will study astrophysical plasma to understand patterns that can disrupt communications.
• Ballasts: The mission is also a test for the Minotaur IV rocket that will take the payloads into space.
Kodiak’s launch will be the third Minotaur IV launch ever conducted. It will also be the first to test whether the rocket can drop payloads at multiple elevations. After deploying its other experiments to a 650-kilometer elevation orbit at 72 degrees inclination, the rocket will continue to 1,150 kilometers to release ballast.
The first Minotaur IV launch took place in April. The missile is made out of decommissioned Peacekeeper intercontinental ballistic missiles.
The Kodiak launch is scheduled for 4:24 p.m. Nov. 19.
Mirror writer Sam Friedman can be reached via e-mail at sfriedman@kodiakdailymirror.com.

NASA to Hold Media Telecon to Discuss Upcoming Satellite Missions

MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. -- NASA will hold a media teleconference at 10:30 a.m. PST on Tuesday, Nov. 9, 2010 to discuss the Organism/Organic Exposure to Orbital Stresses, O/OREOS and Fast, Affordable, Science and Technology Satellite, or FASTSAT -- scheduled to launch Nov. 19, 2010 on a Minotaur IV launch vehicle from the Alaska Aerospace Corporations Kodiak Launch Complex on Kodiak Island, Alaska.

The goal of the O/OREOS mission is to demonstrate the capability to conduct low-cost astrobiology science experiments on autonomous nanosatellites in space. Scientists will apply the knowledge they gain from O/OREOS to plan future experiments in the space environment to study how exposure to space changes organic molecules and biology. These experiments will help answer astrobiologys fundamental questions about the origin, evolution and distribution of life in the universe.

The Small Spacecraft Division at NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif., manages the O/OREOS payload and mission operations supported by staff and students from Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, Calif.

FASTSAT is NASA's first microsatellite that supports the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle Secondary Payload Adaptor, or ESPA -- an adapter ring developed by the U.S. Department of Defense specifically to accommodate secondary spacecraft launch opportunities. FASTSAT will demonstrate the capability to build, design and test a spacecraft platform to enable governmental, academic and industry researchers to conduct low-cost scientific and technology experiments on an autonomous satellite in space.

Teleconference panelists are:

-- Mark Boudreaux, FASTSAT project manager at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.
-- Joseph "Joe" Casas, FASTSAT science operations director at Marshall
-- Dean Alhorn, NanoSail-D principal investigator at Marshall
-- John Sigwarth, Thermospheric Temperature Imager principal investigator at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.
-- Pascale Ehrenfreund, O/OREOS project scientist, Space Policy Institute at George Washington University in Washington

Supporting experts will be online to answer questions about the experiments on FASTSAT and O/OREOS.

For dial-in information, journalists should e-mail their name, media affiliation and telephone number to Kim Newton at kimberly.d.newton@nasa.gov.

Audio of the teleconference will be streamed live on NASA's website at: http://www.nasa.gov/newsaudio

For more information about FASTSAT and O/OREOS visit: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/smallsats

UPDATE: Kodiak Launch Complex Pork Requests

KRLIG received the following clarification related to our KLC for Sale? post  from a Kodiak resident who spoke with Tom Walters who sits on the Alaska Aerospace Board of Directors.
AAC is indeed requesting ten million dollars per year for the foreseeable future from the State of Alaska.
The 80 million dollar request is to construct an air strip at Narrow Cape, a second rocket storage facility, and a second launch pad.
Mr. Walters was noncommittal on the question of whether the KLC would be offered up for sale if AAC did not receive the requested corporate welfare.
AAC has publicly admitted that launch revenues have NEVER covered the costs of operating and maintaining the KLC.
The audacity of this plea for government handouts is astounding!  No launches since December 2008 and, according to the AAC Timeline, of the fourteen launches that have occurred thus far, almost all were Missile Defense Agency (MDA) launches. The MDA has terminated its contract with the KLC for launches and providing funds to keep the facility open.
So, more rocket storage capacity and another launch pad although few, if any, launches will occur at the KLC?   Why should the state and federal government continue to pour dollars into a bottomless black hole of waste?
Narrow Cape is an important recreation, subsistence, hunting, and fishing area - further development of KLC infrastructure will contribute to substantial degradation of these uses.
The Nov 2 elections results seem to indicate that people want less government spending - zero bailouts for the KLC is an excellent step in the "right" direction. It's time to put this rusting white elephant to rest, once and for all.