Ares SRB test fault isolated

The new five-segment Solid Rocket Booster (SRB), one segment longer than it's familiar Space Shuttle progenitor, came within 20 seconds of it's first test firing in Utah, last week, at Alliant Techsystems (ATK) facility west of Brigham City.

Technicians think they have isolated the problem to a switch that failed to activate a necessary chemical reaction, probably because of a failure of the over-all electrical ground fault assembly on the SRB test platform.

A second attempt to test the new Ares SRB has been preliminarily rescheduled for Sept. 10.

Boeing: Contrators face layoffs unless NASA moves faster on Constellation

By Andrea Shalal-Esa

Colorado Springs - March 31 (Reuters) - A senior Boeing official said March 31 American contractors working on manned spaceflight capabilities will have to lay off up to 10,000 workers unless NASA accelerates orders for Constellation.

"The Gap," the period between the end of the Shuttle program in late 2010 and the follow-on Constellation program's first flight in 2015 is a challenge for the companies involved, said Brewster Shaw, vice president and general manager of Boeing Space Exploration.

Shaw said the five biggest contractors in the sector faced combined layoffs of 8,000 to 10,000 workers, the largest among them Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Alliant Techsystems, United Technologies, Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne and United Space Alliance (a Boeing-Lockheed joint venture.

The companies and their smaller suppliers were urging lawmakers and NASA to accelerate work on Ares 5, the cargo heavy-lift booster, as well as Altair, the Constellation's lunar lander., Shaw said.

Read the Story HERE.

Big Space stops SpaceX & Orbital Sciences ISS cargo contract awards

Mere days after NASA awarded twin ISS cargo contracts to SpaceX and Orbital Sciences, the thinly disquised start-up created by Boeing, Lockheed-Martin and Alliant Techsystems (aka "Planet Space") has filed a complaint with the GAO (Government Accountability Office) forcing NASA to suspend work.

The contracts, between them worth $3.5 billion, was awarded to SpaceX and Orbital Sciences last month for 20 ATV cargo flights to the International Space Station after the Space Shuttle is presently scheduled for retirement in 2010.

The GAO gave NASA 30 days to comment on the protest and said it would issue a ruling April 29.

According to a Reuters report, "Planet Space" claims their proposal, "represented better value to the government," and "we believe the GAO will find flaws in the procurement that justify awarding the contract to PlanetSpace. We look forward to the GAO's review of this case."

"NASA decided to use commercial contractors for deliveries to the space station rather than relying on the Russian Progress cargo vehicles, which also transport cargo to the $100 billion orbital complex, a project of 16 nations that has been under construction for more than a decade.

Russia will transport U.S. astronauts to and from the station on its Soyuz capsules after the shuttles are retired in 2010. The proposed shuttle replacement will not be ready to fly until about 2015."

The possibility that an award to the Military-Industrial might represented by "Planet Space" as a combined effort of three corporate giants fed by federal contracts for generations might represent an anti-trust violation has not yet been addressed.

In addition, the legal efforts by these companies, well-represented in Washington, and the possible opening of unexpected opposition to true commercial space start-ups from established companies has presented a new and unexpected concern for NewSpace entrepreneurs.

NASA and ATK Investigate Failed Launch Of Hypersonic Experiments

WALLOPS ISLAND -- An Alliant Techsystems suborbital rocket carrying two NASA hypersonic experiments was destroyed by range safety officials shortly after liftoff from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia Friday. No injuries or property damage were reported.

Most debris from the rocket is thought to have fallen in the Atlantic Ocean. However, there are conflicting reports of debris being sighted on land. This debris could be hazardous. People who think they may have encountered rocket debris are advised not to touch it and to report it to the Wallops Emergency Operations Center at 757-824-1300.

NASA is very disappointed in this failure but has directed its focus on protecting public safety and conducting a routine confirmation of the effectiveness of its range safety operations. NASA has a response team in the field. Alliant Techsystems, also known as ATK, of Salt Lake City, is conducting the investigation of the rocket malfunction. NASA will consult with ATK and support the investigation.

The exact launch time was 5:10 a.m. EDT. The anomaly that caused the failure occurred approximately 27 seconds into flight and is not known.