Credits: NASA / Jamie Lee Adkins
A Terrier-Improved Orion suborbital sounding rocket was successfully launched at 7:05 a.m. EST, March 7, from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility. The rocket carried three space technology development projects.
The payload with the projects flew to an apogee of more than 99 miles as planned. The payload has been recovered and will be returned to Wallops today. Engineers will then be able to more closely analyze the results from their instruments.
A replay of the launch is available on the Wallops Ustream channel.
The next launch currently scheduled from Wallops is a Terrier-Improved Orion sounding rocket carrying the RockOn/RockSat-C payload at 6 a.m. June 23.
Keith Koehler
Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia
Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia
Last Updated: March 16, 2016
Editor: Patrick Black
Tags: Launches, Sounding Rockets
Current commercial suborbital spaces launch providers that are under contract for the Flight Opportunities Program.
Credits: NASA Collage / Monroe Conner
NASA has been working with commercial space companies for several years to deliver astronauts and supplies to the International Space Station. The agency has also sought commercial suborbital space companies to verify the performance of technologies and systems in suborbital space with the goal of reducing the cost and risk of future orbital space missions.
NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate’s Flight Opportunities Program has re-opened itssolicitation seeking to on-ramp suborbital reusable launch vehicle services that will fly NASA internally sourced or NASA-directed research and development technology payloads. The suborbital flights will provide these payloads exposure to space, reduced gravity or high-altitude environments required to test technology performance and advance technology readiness levels.
NASA awarded the first on-ramp solicitation to Near Space Corporation, Tillamook, Oregon, in September 2015, that joined original vendors Masten Space Systems, Mojave, California; UP Aerospace, Littleton, Colorado; Virgin Galactic, New York City; and World View, Tucson, Arizona, in providing flight services using suborbital launchers and balloons.
The on-ramping solicitation allows for additional suborbital space companies with a proven flight record to qualify as new flight providers for the program. Aircraft microgravity flight services are outside the scope of this solicitation.
Last Updated: March 8, 2016
Editor: Monroe Conner
Credits: NASA/Allison Stancil
The Multiple User Suborbital Instrument Carrier or MUSIC payload was successfully launched at 9:50 a.m. today on a Terrier-Improved Malemute suborbital sounding rocket from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility.
The payload flew to approximately 115 miles apogee and preliminary analysis shows good data was received. Payload recovery is in progress.
The next launch from Wallops is between 7 and 10 a.m. EST, Monday, March 7. Three space technology payloads will be carried on a Terrier-Improved Orion suborbital sounding rocket.
Last Updated: March 2, 2016
Editor: Patrick Black
The launch of a suborbital sounding rocket between 7 a.m. and 10 a.m. EST, March 7, from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia will carry three new technologies in the microgravity environment of suborbital space. The backup launch days are March 8 – 12.
Before an instrument or new technology is installed on a spacecraft it should be flight tested and shown that it can operate in the harsh environment of space where it will need to function.
The technologies flying on the Terrier-Improved Orion rocket are the Radiation Tolerant Computer System (RadPC) from Montana State University, Bozeman; the Vibration Isolation Platform (VIP) from Controlled Dynamics, Huntington Beach, California; and Sub-Orbital Aerodynamic Re-entry Experiments-9 (SOAREX-9) from NASA’s Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California.
For the RadPC, engineers are looking to increase its technology readiness level by demonstrating it in increasingly challenging space environments. The system has been tested on commercial high altitude balloons, NASA scientific balloons and commercial suborbital rockets.
“The computer system uses a novel architecture where spare circuits are brought online to replace other circuits that may have been struck by ionizing radiation,” said principal investigator Brock LaMeres from Montana State. “The computer is built using off-the-shelf parts so it promises to deliver increased computation at a fraction of the cost of an existing space computer, if we can successfully demonstrate a fault mitigation strategy.”
For the VIP, the flight will demonstrate a vibration isolation device to reduce spacecraft disturbances during microgravity. VIP was also flown on developmental flights on both the space shuttle mission STS-73 and two commercial suborbital rockets.
“The VIP provides a free-floating mounting platform that is completely isolated from the disturbances and vibrations of the host vehicle or other payloads. Non-contact isolation allows the experiment to float freely in the sway space between the host vehicle and the platform,” said principal investigator Scott Green.
“Active stabilization allows the platform to cancel any disturbance from the experiment or connected umbilicals, and allows for precisely controlled acceleration environments uniquely tailored to the mounted payload,” Green said. "For optical payloads, this includes scanning and precision tracking. For g-sensitive research experiments, this includes programmable excitations designed to influence and optimize the research results.”
Much of the SOAREX-9 payload components have evolved from a previous test flight conducted from Wallops in July 2015.
Much of the SOAREX-9 payload components have evolved from a previous test flight conducted from Wallops in July 2015.
“Wireless Sensor Modules (WSM) are now much smaller and more capable,” said Ames’ principal investigator Marc Murbach. “Also, our camera technology is improved. In short, this is an incremental test flight of our TechEdSat-5 nano-satellite we plan to deploy from the International Space Station during the summer.”
“SOAREX-9 also will enable us to develop the techniques needed so that when we over-fly Wallops during the TechEdSat-5 mission, we will be able to get optical and WSM data through the downlink directly to the satellite telemetry receivers at Wallops,” Murbach said.
NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate is sponsoring the technologies flown on this flight.
The 448-pound two-stage rocket is predicted to reach 100-miles altitude and impact in the Atlantic Ocean 56 miles from Wallops Island 19 minutes after launch. Parachute recovery of the payload is planned.
The launch may be seen in the Wallops region from southern Delaware to the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay.
The NASA Visitor Center at Wallops will be open at 6 a.m. for viewing the launch.
Live coverage of the launch is available via UStream beginning at 6:30 a.m. on launch day. The status also can be followed on launch day on Twitter andFacebook.
The launch is conducted by NASA’s Sounding Rocket Program at Wallops. NASA’s Heliophysics Division manages the sounding rocket program.
-end-
Last Updated: March 4, 2016
Editor: Patrick Black
An UP Aerospace SpaceLoft sounding rocket soared into the sky Nov. 6 from Spaceport America, New Mexico, carrying four technology experiments for NASA's Flight Opportunities Program that funded the launch of these technologies.
The commercial suborbital space rocket reached a maximum altitude of approximately 75 miles. The experiments were recovered intact 30 miles downrange on the U.S. Army White Sands Missile Range. UP has launched several times from Spaceport but this was the first launch where payloads were ejected separately requiring independent re-entry under individual parachutes into the atmosphere.
"We had a great launch, all the payloads were exposed to the relevant environments that the researchers were seeking," said Paul De Leon, NASA Flight Opportunities Program campaign manager. "The new payload deployment capability from UP Aerospace was successfully demonstrated, opening the opportunity for future entry, descent and landing technologies to be tested and matured under Flight Opportunities."
An UP Aerospace camera captures the separation in space of the Maraia capsule from Nose Fairing launch vehicle.
Credits: Contributed Photo / UP Aerospace
Purdue University tested a new, U.S.-made green propellant that is gaining interest from the rocket industry. The experiment called Zero-gravity Green Propellant Management Technology acquired video data of the new propellant interacting with traditional designs of surface tension propellant management devices in near-weightlessness.
Building on data from a previous launch, New Mexico State University performed another suborbital test of its Robotics-Base Method for In-Orbit Identification of Spacecraft inertia. The goal of the research is to experimentally test and verify a robotics-based method for on-orbit identification of satellite inactive properties in a microgravity environment.
NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston, tested their entry, descent and landing technology for the Maraia Earth Return Capsule. The spacecraft is expected to become an inexpensive, autonomous International Space Station-based vehicle to provide on-demand return of small scientific and engineering payloads, or function as an ISS-deployed entry technology test bed.
An UP Aerospace camera mounted on the launch vehicle shows the Mariai capsule after ejecting and returning to Earth.
Credits: Contributed Photo / UP Aerospace
NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, California, tested its Affordable Vehicle Avionics project, a suite of avionics that will provide early verification of new software and hardware for delivering an affordable and capable Guidance, Navigation and Control (GNC) system and telemetry avionics. The avionics project will be applied to multiple nano-launch vehicles at one percent the cost of current state-of-the-art avionics. Using this new GNC system reduces the cost of launching small payloads into orbit as well as recurring costs of future launches.
The Flight Opportunities Program seeks to advance space technology to meet future mission needs through flight activities that foster the growth of the U.S. commercial spaceflight industry and workforce. NASA will pay for the integration and flight costs for the selected payloads. Limited funds will be provided for other costs to facilitate the flight readiness of these payloads.
Nose fairing camera. view of an UP Aerospace booster separating in space and ejecting the Maraia capsule.
Credits: Contributed Photo / UP Aerospace
The Flight Opportunities Program, part of NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate, is managed at NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center at Edwards, California. Ames manages the solicitation and selection of technologies to be tested and demonstrated on commercial flight vehicles.
For more information on NASA’s Flight Opportunities Program, visit:
Leslie Williams
Armstrong Flight Research Center, Edwards, Calif.
661-276-3893
leslie.a.williams@nasa.gov
Armstrong Flight Research Center, Edwards, Calif.
661-276-3893
leslie.a.williams@nasa.gov
Kimberly Williams
Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
650-604-2457
kimberly.k.williams@nasa.gov
Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
650-604-2457
kimberly.k.williams@nasa.gov
Last Updated: Jan. 15, 2016
Editor: Monroe Conner
Nov. 19, 2015
RELEASE 15-25
NASA Selects New Technologies for Parabolic Flights and Suborbital Launches
NASA's Flight Opportunities Program has selected eight space technology payloads for reduced gravity flights on board specialized aircraft and commercial suborbital reusable launch vehicles (sRLVs). These flights provide a valuable platform to mature cutting-edge technologies, validating feasibility and reducing technical risks and costs before infusion into future space missions.
Five of the newly selected proposals requested parabolic flights, which involve a flight maneuver that uses a dramatic half-minute drop of the aircraft though the sky to simulate weightlessness. Two proposed projects will fly on sRLVs for testing during longer periods of weightlessness. An additional payload will fly on both platforms.
Selected for parabolic flights on aircraft are:
- “Zero Gravity Mass Measurement Device Parabolic Flight Test” - John Wetzel, principal investigator, Orbital Technologies Corporation, Madison, Wisconsin
- “Evaluation of the Biosleeve Gesture Control Interface for Telerobotics in Microgravity” – Christopher Assad, principal investigator, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California
- “Flight Demonstration of a Gravity-Insensitive, Microchannel Membrane Phase Separator” - Weibo Chen, principal investigator, Creare Inc., Hanover, New Hampshire
- “PRIME-4.0: Miniaturized and Reusable Asteroid Regolith Microgravity Experiment for Suborbital and Orbital Use” - Josh Colwell, principal investigator, University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida
- “Testing of a Novel IVA (Intra-Vehicular Activity) Space Suit” - Ted Southern, principal investigator, Final Frontier Design, LLC, Brooklyn, New York
- “Evolved Medical Microgravity Suction Device” - Charles Cuttino, principal investigator, Orbital Medicine, Inc., Midlothian, Virginia
Selected for flights on sRLVs are:
- “Suborbital Evaluation of an Aqueous Immersion Surgical System for Reduced Gravity” - George Pantalos, principal investigator, University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky
- “Suborbital Particle Aggregation and Collision Experiment-2 (SPACE-2)” - Julie Brisset, principal investigator, University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida
- “Evolved Medical Microgravity Suction Device” - Charles Cuttino, principal investigator, Orbital Medicine, Inc., Midlothian, Virginia
The selectees’ experiments are expected to take to the skies in 2016 and 2017 on flights with U.S. commercial providers arranged by the proposers. The selected proposals requested parabolic flights from Integrated Spaceflight Services, Inc. and ZeroG Corporation. Suborbital reusable launch vehicle flights were requested from Blue Origin, EXOS Aerospace Systems & Technologies and Virgin Galactic.
This selection was made through the agency’s Space Technology Mission Directorate Research, Development, Demonstration and Infusion (REDDI) announcement, adding to more than 160 payloads that NASA has chosen for test flights through the Flight Opportunities Program.
The Flight Opportunities Program seeks to advance space technology to meet future mission needs through flight activities that foster the growth of the U.S. commercial spaceflight industry and workforce. NASA will pay for the integration and flight costs for the selected payloads, and limited funds will be provided for other costs to facilitate the flight readiness of these payloads. The next REDDI Flight Opportunities call for proposals will be released in early 2016.
The Flight Opportunities Program, part of NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate, is managed at NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center at Edwards, California. NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, California, manages the solicitation and selection of technologies to be tested and demonstrated on commercial flight vehicles.
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