Tag: nasa

A Week of Peaks and Valleys

This past week was interesting from my point of view at work.

Peaks and valleys: I listened to Inspirational words regarding space exploration, and saw back to back accidents, one of which took a life..

It was certainly a tough week for a few Commercial Aerospace Companies. Orbital, Virgin Galactic, and Scaled Composites all had setbacks. From an Antares Rocket with payload for the ISS exploding seconds after lift off to Spaceshiptwo breaking up over the Mojave Desert with a loss of one life and serious injuries to another, both disasters contain many lessons to be learned.

My heart goes out to the test pilot who gave his life for the pursuit of sub-orbital flight, and I wish a speedy recovery to the other pilot who was able to parachute prior to the crash.

“Space is Hard” was repeated many times this week from those in the Space Industry.

 

The week started with an upbeat press conference on Monday, at NASA, Marshall Space Flight Center with the three NASA Exploration Systems Programs, Space Launch System (SLS), Orion, and Ground Systems, giving an update on progress of work towards deep space exploration. Everything is progressing, a good sign.

 

Tuesday was the Antares “mishap” (as NASA labelled it), My wife and I watched about 5 minutes of the mainstream media getting many things wrong before I turned off the TV and waited for the Press Conference later that night. We concluded the investigation will take awhile.

 

Wednesday brought the annual, Von Braun Memorial Dinner, which is the one classy affair I look forward to each year. This year the keynote speaker was Jean-Jacques Dordain, Director General of the European Space Agency (ESA). Earlier in the evening, prior to his remarks, I was thoroughly enjoying myself with colleagues, customers (NASA), Corporate heads (the Company I work for mostly), and spouse (my wife, Kathryn, was more stunning than normal that evening).

As Mr. Dordain took the podium I hadn’t really thought much about listening to what he had to say, I was still wrapped up in all the festivities of the party.

This changed when I heard him speak about the United States role of leadership in Space. I immediately started taking notes on my Iphone. Here is a recap of what I heard:

Everyone is waiting on the US. They have always been in the lead. They are the leaders, and the rest of the world is waiting for them.

Cooperation is much more difficult than Competition. Competing with the Soviet Union to see who would reach the moon first was much easier than today, with the ISS and the partnering countries relationships.

And finally, don’t make the destinations too far and too long to get to, for the youth of today are not going to wait. (It’s ok, and makes sense to go back to the moon)

Director General Dordain said many other things, some very difficult to understand due to his thick French accent, but these main points, I got. I could go on and on about how screwed up the current U.S. space policy is due to the dysfunction of some of those in political power, but I won’t, that’s for someone else to write.

The words I heard were powerful and inspirational.

On Friday, when Spaceshiptwo crashed the Twitterverse exploded with the news. I had taken most of the day off, but took notice when I started seeing the tweets concerning the crash. This was an even worse tragedy since a human life was lost.

This week we suddenly saw leaders in a fledgling suborbital and commercial space industry, having to address a tragic situation. Is the resolve there to continue, and see it through to successful flights again?

I most certainly hope and pray this is so.

 

Building Rockets in the South

Building Rockets in the South

The locals and NASA folk call it MAF. To the general public it’s the Michoud Assembly Facility, the place where really large rocket parts are manufactured. Located in East New Orleans, MAF has a rich history of successful rocket building for America’s space programs.

The first time I visited was 2006, about six months after Katrina hit. I was down to manage the logistics for a NASA Industry day, an event to showcase opportunities to local/regional business for the new Constellation Program’s Ares One vehicle project. The upper stage was slated to be built at MAF. I’ll never forget the immenseness of the main building, where all the metal gets fabricated and assembled. They had placed a shuttle external tank (ET) in the middle of one of the main aisles of the building for this particular event and it was huge comparative to all the pictures I had seen.

In 2011 I had another opportunity to come support an Industry Day for the Space Launch System (SLS) Program. The Shuttle’s External Tank contract had just ended, the Constellation Program was canceled, and the place was desolate. All the big tools were wrapped in blue shrink wrap, major areas of the main floor were dark to save money on electricity, and there were not many people around. The once bustling cafeteria was closed, the numerous bicycles previously used by the skilled labor to get around the immense 43 acre building were leaning against walls and in bike racks throughout the facility. Sad, lonely, a bit scary.

MAF has a rich history which dates back close to 200 years. Antoine Michoud, a son of one of Napoleon’s staff bought the property and moved to New Orleans in 1827 to set up a sugar plantation on the tract of land where MAF now sits. The plantation was never truly successful. The only remnants left are two brick smoke stacks from the original refinery.

Flash forward to 1942 when the New Orleans Higgins Industries won a contract to build 200 Liberty Ships. The land was dredged and drained and the facility was set to be built. As the facility was nearly half completed the contract was canceled due to a shortage of steel. Higgins later received a letter of intent to purchase wooden cargo planes from the Army Air Corps, but that contract, was also canceled after only two planes were produced.

In 1945 the plant was closed and turned over to the War Assets Administration which entered into an agreement with the New Orleans Dock Board to rent the facility for 15 years with the intent for the Dock Board to acquire the property at the end of the period. The facilities were never fully utilized until the Korean conflict when the U.S. government once again took over the facility under the management of the Army Ordnance Corps and issued a contract to the Chrysler Corporation to make tank engines.

After the end of the Korean conflict the facilities once again lay dormant, and decay set in until 1961 when NASA chose the location to manufacture the first stages of the Saturn I-B and massive Saturn V rocket which was instrumental in getting men to the moon. This production line continued through 1970 when the Apollo program was canceled by President Nixon. A test article of the massive first stage Saturn V still remains outside near the main entrance as a reminder of past legacy.

With the go ahead of the Space Shuttle program in the early 70s, the Martin Marietta Corporation (now Lockheed Martin) was awarded the contract to build the shuttle’s external tank. One of the stipulations of the contract was for it to be built at MAF. So, the entire manifest of external tanks for the shuttle program was built at MAF. The last remaining external tank is sitting outside of the massive manufacturing building to this day.

I am happy to report, as of this posting, the place is bustling once again with people. The last three times I have visited I witnessed the manufacturing of flight hardware for the first SLS flight, scheduled in a few years. One of the high bay cells contains the world’s largest vertical welding and assembly tool which will assemble the immense core stage of the SLS rocket. It’s a beautiful sight to behold.