NASA/TM–2014-218315 

Chronology of KSC and KSC Related 

Events for 2013 

Elaine Liston 

Abacus Technology 

Kennedy Space Center, Florida 

February 2014
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NASA/TM–2014-218315

Chronology of KSC and KSC Related 

Events for 2013

Elaine Liston

Abacus Technology

Kennedy Space Center, Florida

February 2014

National Aeronautics and

Space Administration

John F. Kennedy Space Center

Kennedy Space Center, Florida 32899
Available from:

NASA Center for AeroSpace Information National Technical Information Service

7115 Standard Drive 5285 Port Royal Road

Hanover, MD 21076-1320 Springfield, VA 22161

(301) 621-0390 (703) 487-4650
FOREWORD 

This 2013 Chronology is published to describe and document KSC’s role in NASA’s 

progress. 

Materials for this Chronology were selected from a number of published sources. The 

document records KSC events of interest to historians and other researchers. 

Arrangement is by date of occurrence, though the source cited may be dated one or more 

days after the event. 

Materials were researched and compiled for publication by Archivist Elaine Liston. 

Comments on the Chronology should be directed to the John F. Kennedy Space Center, 

Archives, Library-E, Kennedy Space Center, Florida, 32899. The Archivist may also be 

reached by e-mail at Elaine.Liston@nasa.gov, or (321) 867-1515. 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 

January...................................................................................................................... 1 

February.................................................................................................................... 20 

March........................................................................................................................ 33 

April ......................................................................................................................... 45 

May ........................................................................................................................... 60 

June ........................................................................................................................... 76 

July ........................................................................................................................... 91 

August ...................................................................................................................... 106 

September ................................................................................................................. 122 

October ..................................................................................................................... 138 

November ................................................................................................................. 150 

December.................................................................................................................. 164 

Appendix A [2013 Major NASA Launches] ............................................................ 177 

Appendix B [2013 Major Launches, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station] ................ 178 
1

JANUARY 

January 1: SpaceX, Orbcomm renegotiate launch contract 

SpaceX and Orbcomm Inc. have agreed to new contract terms for the launch of 18 data 

communications satellites beginning in mid-2013, according to a filing with a U.S. regulatory 

agency. The $42.6 million contract covers the launch of 18 second-generation Orbcomm 

satellites on two Falcon 9 rockets between the second quarter of 2013 and the second quarter of 

2014, Orbcomm wrote in a Dec. 27 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. 

Orbcomm's second-generation, or OG2, satellites will improve the company's messaging service 

with faster transmission speeds and increased throughput. Sierra Nevada Corp. is building the 

satellites. Eight OG2 satellites will launch on a Falcon 9 rocket in mid-2013. Another Falcon 9 

launch in 2014 will launch the other 10 satellites. Orbcomm's previous launch contract with 

SpaceX, signed in August 2009, provided for satellite launches on an enhanced version of the 

company's smaller Falcon 1 booster. SpaceX has since discontinued production of the Falcon 1 

launcher. With the future of the Falcon 1 in doubt, officials with both companies planned to 

move the Orbcomm OG2 satellites to a Falcon 9 booster. The firms reached a deal Dec. 21, 

according to the SEC filing. The value of the Falcon 1 contract was $46.6 million, according to 

Orbcomm. Web posted. (2013). [SpaceX, Orbcomm renegotiate launch contract [Online]. 

Available WWW: http://www.spaceflightnow.com/ [2013, January 1].] 

January 2: U.S. space programs get reprieve from budget cuts 

NASA and U.S. military space programs, along with all other government agencies, were granted 

a two-month reprieve from massive budget cuts when Congress passed a bill Tuesday to put off 

the across-the-board spending reductions and extend current tax rates for most Americans. The 

automatic budget cuts were due to take effect Jan. 2, slashing 8.2 percent from non-defense 

government agencies and 9.4 percent from military programs. Congress voted Tuesday to extend 

the deadline until March 1, giving lawmakers and the White House another two months to come 

up with an alternative plan to identify $1 trillion in savings from the overall federal budget. The 

bill, which was passed by the Senate in the wee hours of Tuesday morning and approved by the 

House on Tuesday night, extended current tax rates for most Americans and averted the so-called 

fiscal cliff, a combination of tax hikes and dramatic spending cuts which experts said would have 

put the U.S. economy in jeopardy. The spending cuts, or sequestration, will now take effect 

March 1 unless Congress and President Obama reach another agreement for more targeted 

savings. Like other non-defense agencies, NASA would be hit with a 8.2 percent reduction, 

equivalent to nearly $1.5 billion less than its fiscal 2013 budget request of $17.7 billion. NASA's 

day-to-day operations are not expected to change dramatically immediately after sequestration 

takes effect, but the agency may have to consider furloughs if it operates under a reduced budget 

for an extended period of time, according to a letter to employees from Charles Bolden, the 

agency's administrator. Web posted. (2013). [U.S. space programs get reprieve from budget cuts 

[Online]. Available WWW: http://www.spaceflightnow.com/ [2013, January 2].] 

New Towers Constructed for Antenna Test Bed Array 

At NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, new towers are being constructed for the Antenna 

Test Bed Array for the Ka-Band Objects Observation and Monitoring, or Ka-BOOM system. The 

construction site is near the former Vertical Processing Facility, which has been demolished. 

Workers soon will begin construction on the 40-foot-diameter dish antenna arrays and their 

associated utilities, and prepare the site for the operations command center facility. The KaBOOM project is one of the final steps in developing the techniques to build a high power, high 

resolution radar system capable of becoming a Near Earth Object Early Warning System. While 

also capable of space communication and radio science experiments, developing radar 

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2

applications is the primary focus of the arrays. [Photo No. KSC-2013-1002, 

http://www.mediaarchive.ksc.nasa.gov , January 2, 2013.] 

Risk-Sharing Regime Extension for the Space Launch Industry 

The Commercial Spaceflight Federation today thanked Members of Congress for the extension of 

government risk-sharing for commercial launch companies. A bill to extend the current 

framework for one year passed the House and Senate in the closing hours of the 112th Congress, 

and has been sent to the President for signature. The previous law expired on December 31, 2012. 

The Senate action on Monday and House action today extends a liability risk-sharing regime 

created by Congress that requires commercial launch companies to purchase insurance for any 

reasonable risk of damage to third parties, and provides an expedited appropriations backstop 

above that amount and below a statutory limit. Since it was first put into place in 1988, the regime 

has never been triggered, but it has provided risk-management support to the industry and helped 

keep high-tech jobs in America. Other countries that provide launch services, including China, 

Russia, France, and Japan, have expansive government risk-sharing for launch providers. Web 

posted. (2013). [The Commercial Spaceflight Federation Applauds the Passage of a Government 

Risk-Sharing Regime Extension for the Space Launch Industry [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.spaceref.com/ [2013, January 2].] 

Florida pursues studies on new commercial launch complex 

The state is pressing forward with studies related to the commercial launch complex it has 

proposed establishing at the north end of Kennedy Space Center, while awaiting word on whether 

NASA will make the property available. Space Florida recently asked interested companies to 

describe launch and recovery operations they might pursue at the proposed “Shiloh” complex, 

named for the citrus community located there before NASA seized the land to support Apollo 

program moon missions. That information will inform environmental studies of impacts to 

roughly 150 acres that fall within the Merritt Island Wildlife National Refuge near the the 

Brevard-Volusia county line. “We’ll initiate our environmental assessments around the kind of 

operating launch profiles, the concepts of operations that we receive back from industry,” Space 

Florida President Frank DiBello said. The state requested title to the land from NASA last 

September, citing market demand for a launch complex that operated near but independently from 

existing Cape facilities controlled by NASA and the Air Force’s Eastern Range. SpaceX is known 

to be pursuing such a site in locations across the country, including Texas and Georgia. NASA 

has said it is reviewing the proposal. The state’s request for information, released Dec. 14, adds 

some detail to what has previously been outlined about the Shiloh site, including: • It is expected 

to house launch and processing facilities “for one, and potentially two, commercial launch 

providers operating dedicated pad areas independently.” • The complex would serve “existing and 

emerging” rockets with only liquid-fueled primary boosters, in the class of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 or 

Falcon Heavy; United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V, Delta IV and Delta IV Heavy; and Orbital 

Sciences Corp.’s Antares. • The requested 150 acres are still undefined and may not be 

contiguous to accommodate sensitive wildlife or cultural resources. • The state may secure about 

75 acres for an initial operator and reserve a similar amount for a potential future development by 

a second operator. • According to a map, the “proposed site evaluation area” straddles the county 

line west of State Road 3. In responses due Jan. 23, companies were asked to include information 

about their plans for rockets, facilities, flight paths, flight rates and any booster recovery 

operations envisioned at the site. Environmental assessments could begin in the first quarter of 

this year, concurrent with NASA’s deliberation about the property, and take 12 to 18 months. 

Overall, DiBello said early dialogue with environmental, political and aerospace stakeholders has 

been encouraging. The state thinks commercial and natural interests can be satisfied “with a 

very, very small fraction of the property that’s up there, and without disturbing in any major way 

the environmental sanctity that’s appropriate to the area,” he said. Web posted. (2013). [Florida 

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3

pursues studies on new commercial launch complex [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, January 2].] 

NASA Awards Contract for Institutional Support Services 

NASA has awarded the Kennedy Space Center Institutional Support Services III, or KISS III, 

contract to Wichita Tribal Enterprises, LLC of Tulsa, Okla. KISS III begins Feb. 1. The contract 

has a seven-month base period and options to extend the work through Sept. 30, 2016. If all 

options are exercised, the maximum potential value for the three-year, seven-month indefinitedelivery-indefinite-quantity contract is $48 million. Wichita Tribal Enterprises will provide 

institutional support services in areas such as technical training, clerical support, financial 

management support, personnel program activity, employee development and training, employee 

benefits, personnel action processing, procurement administration and analyst support, business 

systems support, and records management. REDE/Critique JV of New Orleans, La., will perform 

work on KISS III as a subcontractor to Wichita Tribal Enterprises. [“NASA Awards Contract for 

Institutional Support Services,” NASA Contract Release #C13-001, January 12, 2013.] 

January 3: Stacking of Atlas 5 rocket begins for NASA launch 

Cape Canaveral's 2013 launch season began taking shape today as technicians started assembling 

the Atlas 5 rocket for the year's first Space Coast mission -- delivery of a NASA communications 

satellite into orbit on Jan. 29. The United Launch Alliance-made rocket will haul the Tracking 

and Data Relay Satellite K (TDRS K) to space to reinforce NASA's communications network that 

routes voice calls, telemetry streams and television signals from the International Space Station, 

as well as science information from the Hubble Space Telescope and other orbiting spacecraft. 

Liftoff is targeted for Jan. 29 during a 40-minute launch window opening at 8:52 p.m. EST (0152 

GMT) from the Cape's Complex 41. Putting the two-stage rocket together got underway this 

morning as ULA workers brought the bronze-colored first stage to the Vertical Integration 

Facility for stacking operations. By late morning, the booster was secured aboard its mobile 

launcher, anchored on small supports that protrude from the platform. At liftoff, explosive bolts 

free the rocket and those supports will retract into the platform walls as the vehicle powers its 

way off the pad on 860,000 pounds of thrust. Web posted. (2013). [Stacking of Atlas 5 rocket 

begins for NASA launch [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.spaceflightnow.com/ [2013, 

January 2].] 

January 4: 111 KSC United Space Alliance workers lose jobs today 

United Space Alliance today lets go 111 local employees, a month after cutting 119 positions at 

Kennedy Space Center. The layoffs come as transition and retirement of the shuttle program 

nears completion, ending the work for most of the Houston-based contractor's employees. The 

cuts will drop USA's headcount to 785 in Florida, with another 836 in Texas. The joint venture 

between The Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp. has now laid off more than 6,000 total 

employees since 2009, including more than 4,300 from KSC. More cuts are planned in March 

and April. All laid off employees are eligible for severance packages and support finding new 

jobs. Web posted. (2013). [111 KSC United Space Alliance workers lose jobs today [Online]. 

Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, January 4].] 

 Delta 4 Launch of WGS-5 Delayed to Late March 

Launch of the U.S. Air Force’s fifth Wideband Global Satcom (WGS) X- and Ka-band 

communications satellite will be delayed until at least late March due to ongoing industry and 

government investigations of the spacecraft’s Delta 4 carrier rocket, according to United Launch 

Alliance (ULA). “There is more work to be done to close the investigation overall and to clear 

Delta missions for launch,” ULA spokeswoman Jessica Rye said in a Jan. 3 email. “Preparations 

are underway for some engine testing over the next couple months to further refine the 

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4

investigation conclusions. As a result of this testing and other investigation related activities, the 

WGS-5 launch will be no earlier than late March.” ULA manufactures and operates the Delta 4 

and Atlas 5 rockets that launch the vast majority of U.S. government satellites. During Delta 4’s

otherwise successful Oct. 4 launch of the Air Force’s GPS 2F-3 satellite from Florida, the 

rocket’s Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne-built RL-10 upper-stage engine underperformed. In early 

December, ULA said the anomaly was due to a fuel leak in the interior of the RL-10’s thrust 

chamber. Web posted. (2013). [Delta 4 Launch of WGS-5 Delayed to Late March [Online]. 

Available WWW: http://www.spacenews.com/ [2013, January 4].] 

January 7: NASA, Bigelow Deal Puts Inflatable Module Closer to Orbit 

NASA and Bigelow Aerospace have reached an agreement that could pave the way for attaching 

a Bigelow-built inflatable space habitat to the international space station, a NASA spokesman 

said. The five-year, $17.8 million firm-fixed-price contract signed Dec. 20 calls for Bigelow “to 

provide and operate the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) on-board the 

international space station,” according to a notice on NASA’s procurement website. “This effort 

is for Phase 2 of the BEAM ISS Demonstrator Module Project, and establishes the requirements, 

performance metrics, costs, and management of the effort that will be used to design, deliver and 

operate the BEAM,” the procurement notice states. NASA spokesman Trent Perrotto declined 

Jan. 7 to provide more details about the agreement. He said a formal announcement is in the 

works. The deal signed Dec. 20 follows a nonpaying NASA contract Bigelow got in 2011 under 

which the company produced a list of procedures and protocols for adding BEAM to the space 

station. Bigelow got that contract, which did not call for any flight hardware, in response to a 

2010 NASA Broad Agency Announcement seeking ideas for support equipment and services 

meant to help the U.S. portion of the international space station live up to its billing as a national 

laboratory. Last March, NASA spokesman Josh Buck said the agency would tap one of its 

Commercial Resupply Services contractors, Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) or 

Orbital Sciences Corp., to get BEAM to the space station. SpaceX and Orbital are under contract 

for space station cargo deliveries through 2016. Web posted. (2013). [New NASA, Bigelow Deal 

Puts Inflatable Module Closer to Orbit [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.spacenews.com/

[2013, January 7].] 

January 8: No shortage of work and launches for Eastern Range 

While Kennedy Space Center has shipped out the space shuttles to retirement homes and NASA 

awaits arrival of its heavy-lift rocket later in the decade, launch pads across the river at Cape 

Canaveral Air Force Station continue to send boosters to Earth orbit and beyond. It's a point 

articulated Tuesday by the Air Force general running the Eastern Range at the Florida spaceport. 

"People ask me all the time what I do now that shuttle program is over," said Brig. Gen. Anthony 

Cotton, commander of the 45th Space Wing. "I launch rockets." The wing had long supported 

space shuttle launches and landings at the spaceport, but shutting down the winged spaceplanes 

left a widespread perception that the Cape went out of business along with the orbiters. Nothing 

could be further from the truth, Cotton said, pointing to the accomplishments of 2012 that 

featured 10 rocket launches from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station -- five Atlas 5s, three Delta 

4s and a pair of Falcon 9s -- plus six missiles from submarines off the coastline that were tracked 

through the resources of the Range. Cotton wants the public to know the Cape still is in business, 

and Tuesday he summoned the press to the rarely-toured Morrell Operations Center, the 

command and control hub of the Range. "There's still a viable space business on this coast and it's 

not going anywhere," Cotton said. The Air Force operates this vast network stretching from 

Florida across the Atlantic to track rockets and missiles as they travel downrange, providing the 

vital telemetry-relay, optical and radar monitoring of a vehicle's flight path and the command 

destruct authority to protect the public from a wayward booster. Web posted. (2013). [No 

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5

shortage of work and launches for Eastern Range [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/ [2013, January 8].] 

McCartney award bestowed on Air Force major from Florida 

An Air Force officer who provides critical support to Special Operations Forces on Tuesday 

became the first recipient of a national defense award renamed in honor of the late Forrest 

McCartney, a retired Air Force lieutenant general and former director of NASA’s Kennedy Space 

Center. Maj. Kenneth Holmes of Air Force Special Operations Command at Hurlburt Field in the 

Florida panhandle was named the first recipient of the Forrest S. McCartney National Defense 

Space Award. Web posted. (2013). [McCartney award bestowed on Air Force major from Florida 

panhandle [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, January 8].] 

Jacobs lands $1.37B NASA contract to support KSC 

NASA awarded a testing and operations support services contract to Jacobs Engineering Group, 

Inc. that represents a potential maximum value of $1.37 billion. The award includes a base 

period of one year and seven months, plus two two-year option periods and four one-year option 

periods. Under the terms of the contract, Jacobs will provide overall management and 

implementation of ground systems capabilities, flight hardware processing and launch operations 

at Kennedy Space Center. The Jacobs team that received the contract includes two 

subcontractors: ERC Inc. and Aerodyne Industries LLC. Pasadena, Calif.-based Jacobs 

Engineering Group Inc. (NYSE: JEC) is one of the world's largest providers of technical, 

professional and construction services. Web posted. (2013). [Jacobs lands $1.37B NASA 

contract to support Kennedy Space Center [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.bizjournals.com/ [2013, January 8].] 

January 9: NASA, partners: Commercial-crew flights on track 

NASA and industry partners on Wednesday touted progress they’ve made developing private 

spacecraft that could fly astronauts from Florida to the International Space Station by 2017. Soon 

after the briefing at Kennedy Space Center, NASA’s independent Aerospace Safety Advisory 

Panel released a report confirming progress while identifying several concerns with the agency’s 

Commercial Crew Program. “The ASAP is pleased to see that progress has been made with the 

CCP over the last year, but many challenges remain that will require resolution at the earliest 

possible time,” the panel’s 2012 annual report said. NASA has committed about $1.5 billion to 

develop commercial crew systems since 2010, with most of that awarded last year to The Boeing 

Co., Sierra Nevada Corp. and SpaceX. Those three companies hope to complete system designs 

in 2014 and could launch crews on test flights as soon as 2015 or 2016. Among the safety panel’s 

concerns is the possibility that NASA could ask its commercial partners to fly orbital test flights 

with their own crews before NASA astronauts board the new vehicles. The optional tests, the 

report says, raise questions about who would certify their safety and whether NASA could be 

seen as “irresponsible in its sponsorship/facilitation or tacit acceptance of a high-risk activity.” 

NASA has told the panel it has no plan to exercise those flights. Ed Mango, manager of the 

Kennedy-based commercial crew program, said Wednesday that the commercial crew program’s 

goal was to develop and certify systems that could fly NASA crews to the space station and also 

enable commercial flights to other destinations. As such, the agency wanted companies to say 

when they would be ready to put their own crews at risk. Web posted. (2013). [NASA, partners: 

Commercial-crew flights on track [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/

[2013, January 9].] 

January 10: NASA Prepares Next Earth Observation Satellite 

NASA's Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) is scheduled to launch Feb. 11 from 

Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. A joint NASA and U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) 

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6

mission, LDCM will add to the longest continuous data record of Earth's surface as viewed from 

space. LDCM is the eighth satellite in the Landsat series, which began in 1972. The mission will 

extend more than 40 years of global land observations that are critical in many areas, such as 

energy and water management, forest monitoring, human and environmental health, urban 

planning, disaster recovery and agriculture. NASA and the USGS jointly manage the Landsat 

Program. LDCM carries two instruments, the Operational Land Imager (OLI), built by Ball 

Aerospace & Technologies Corp. in Boulder, Colo., and the Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS), 

built by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. These instruments are designed 

to improve performance and reliability over previous Landsat sensors. The LDCM spacecraft, 

built by Orbital Sciences Corp. in Gilbert, Ariz., will launch from Vandenberg's Space Complex 3 

aboard an Atlas V rocket provided by United Launch Alliance. NASA's Launch Services 

Program at Kennedy Space Center is responsible for launch management. [“NASA Prepares for 

Launch of Next Earth Observation Satellite,” NASA Release #13-010, January 10, 2013.] 

January 11: Brown, Collins and Dunbar to enter Astronaut Hall of Fame 

A trailblazing commander, the commander of a trailblazer, and a payload commander will be 

inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame this April. Eileen Collins, the first woman to lead 

a shuttle mission, Curtis Brown, who commanded John Glenn's triumphant return to space and 

Bonnie Dunbar, who managed life and science experiments on Spacelab and Mir space station 

missions, were confirmed as this year's honorees by the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation (ASF), 

which oversees the Hall of Fame's annual selections. The three veteran shuttle crew members 

will be added to the 81 astronauts enshrined in the Astronaut Hall of Fame since 1990, including 

NASA's Mercury, Gemini and Apollo program pioneers. An induction ceremony will be held on 

Saturday, April 20, at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida, where the Astronaut 

Hall of Fame is located. The Astronaut Scholarship Foundation will host a gala in the three 

astronauts' honor on Friday, April 19, with many of the Hall's earlier inductees expected to attend. 

Web posted. (2013). [Shuttle vets Brown, Collins and Dunbar to enter Astronaut Hall of Fame 

[Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, January 11].] 

 Satellite provides communications upgrade for NASA 

Video of International Space Station crew members at work. The Hubble Space Telescope’s latest 

images of the early universe. Views of threatening weather and other Earth observations. All are 

beamed to the ground through an aging network of seven NASA communications spacecraft 

called Tracking and Data Relay Satellites, the oldest of which has been in orbit for nearly a 

quarter-century. The constellation’s newest member is on track to move to a launch pad in a 

week in preparation for an 8:52 p.m. Jan. 29 blastoff from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. 

The $500 million mission would be the Space Coast’s first launch of 2013. Web posted. (2013). 

[Satellite provides communications upgrade for NASA [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, January 11].] 

January 13: NASCAR tests at Space Center 

NASCAR teams are always searching for new places to test, and apparently Daytona 

International Speedway isn’t the only facility on Florida’s Sun Coast where competitors can 

shake down their latest and greatest efforts. Research and development teams from Richard 

Childress Racing, Joe Gibbs Racing and Michael Waltrip Racing have discovered the NASA 

Shuttle Landing Facility just south of Daytona on Merritt Island in Brevard County — part of the 

Kennedy Space Center. The 15,000-foot concrete runway, built for the Space Shuttle landing in 

1984, is ideal for straight-line testing — where teams gather aerodynamic data. It’s also more 

economically feasible than transporting cars from North Carolina to the proving grounds in 

Arizona. “We use the landing strip at Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral just because it’s 

a long, smooth straightaway, and it’s warm, so in the wintertime you can test there with pretty 

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7

controlled conditions,” Richard Childress Racing director of competition Dr. Eric Warren said. 

“You work out a relationship with those guys and pay for the use of the facilities — like any 

other testing facility. They have their own on-site emergency crews, so the safety side of it is 

really nice. “It’s closer (than Arizona). The weather is warmer, and it’s a great wintertime 

alternative to going to places out West. Most of them are ovals and the straight-line facilities are 

up north — around Michigan and the OEMs (original equipment manufacturers). We can do two 

straight-line segments there — as far as coast down. This place has plenty of distance.” Web 

posted. (2013). [NASCAR tests at Space Center [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://msn.foxsports.com/ [2013, January 13].] 

January 14: Funding Is Human Exploration’s Big Question 

Congress took time out from its last-minute hustle away from the “fiscal cliff” to declare its 

continued support for NASA's plans to send human explorers beyond low Earth orbit. The White 

House position is a little less clear. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) still hasn't 

responded to the space agency's internal budget proposal, known as a “pass-back,” leaving 

program planners guessing on the critical question of future funding even as they march ahead on 

the technical work. Top exploration-systems managers will meet for three days in Houston this 

week to review how well the separate human-exploration systems will work as an integrated 

whole, and identify the issues that must be resolved before humans fly into space on the vehicles 

they are developing. They don't expect any major technical issues, but their funding expires in 

March, and that is a problem. Lawmakers reaffirmed their support for NASA's current spending 

priorities in a housekeeping measure adopted in the final hours of the 112th Congress Jan. 2. The 

legislation, needed to extend government indemnification of third-party damages from 

commercial space launches and allow NASA to continue buying human-spaceflight services from 

Russia, also included “sense-of-Congress” language reaffirming support for a mix of government 

and commercial human space vehicles. The law specifically lists the heavy-lift Space Launch 

System (SLS), the Orion multipurpose crew vehicle, and commercial crew and cargo space 

vehicles under development with NASA backing as “inherently complementary and interrelated,” 

and it forbids the use of SLS or Orion funding to pay for commercial-vehicle development. The 

sense-of-Congress approach isn't binding on the White House, which has made no secret of its 

preference for commercial human spaceflight over the government-backed SLS, sometimes 

dubbed the “Senate Launch System.” But it sends a signal that Congress still supports the 

compromise embodied in NASA's 2010 authorization act. To be fair, uncertainty over the 

outcome of fiscal cliff negotiations may have delayed the OMB passback. But things are pretty 

far along for senior managers to be in the dark about their funding. The systems definition review 

at Johnson Space Center this week will build on design work already done on the SLS, Orion and 

modifications at Kennedy Space Center to make sure all of the requirements and interfaces 

match. A highlight will come on Wednesday with formal announcement of the European Space 

Agency's participation in developing the Orion service module, using propulsion-system 

hardware from ESA's Automated Transfer Vehicle (AW&ST Nov. 26, 2012, p. 13). Web posted. 

(2013). [Funding Is Human Exploration’s Big Question [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.aviationweek.com/ [2013, January 14].] 

Safety Panel Questions Commercial Crew Plans 

A mismatch between funds and ambitions likely will force NASA to revise its commercial crew 

strategy and schedule in the future, according by an external safety advisory group. NASA wants 

at least one of three commercial crew systems currently under development to begin flying 

missions to the international space station this decade. But Congress has not funded the program 

at the levels sought by the White House. “For the last two years, the [Commercial Crew 

Program] appropriation has been approximately one half of the budget request,” the Aerospace 

Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) said in its latest annual report. “We predict this planning-funding 

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8

disconnect will again drive a change to acquisition strategy, schedule, and/or safety risk.” The 

White House in February said it needed $850 million a year for the Commercial Crew Program, 

but Congress has since signaled a willingness to provide as much as $500 million a year. Under 

the continuing resolution funding federal activities for the first six months of 2013, the 

Commercial Crew Program is funded at a rate equivalent to $400 million per year. In August 

NASA awarded a combined $1.1 billion in Space Act Agreements to three commercial crew 

hopefuls — Boeing, Sierra Nevada Corp. and Space Exploration Technologies Corp. — that 

covers design and development work for a two-year period. NASA says it cannot certify designs 

as safe under Space Act Agreements, and in December awarded the three companies so-called 

Certification Products Contracts worth $10 million each that allow NASA to enforce safety 

standards. However, NASA has left the door open for performing certification-related activities 

via optional milestones under the Space Act Agreements. All three companies have said they 

could perform orbital tests with non-NASA crews under these optional milestones, and that data 

gathered during these flights could be made available to the agency for certification purposes. 

The ASAP was particularly concerned about using optional test-flight milestones in the 

Commercial Crew Program. Doing so “could yield two standards of safety — one reflecting 

NASA requirements, and one with a higher risk set of commercial requirements,” the panel said. 

Web posted. (2013). [Safety Panel Questions Commercial Crew Plans [Online]. Available 

WWW: http://www.spacenews.com/ [2013, January 14].] 

January 15: Renaming Dryden Flight Research Center 

The renaming of Dryden Flight Research Center after Neil Armstrong (H.R. 6612) did pass the 

House, but not the Senate, so died at the end of the Congress. Web posted. (2013). [Renaming 

Dryden Flight Research Center [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.spacepolicyonline.com/

[2013, January 15].] 

House Passes Hurricane Sandy Supplemental 

Preparations for the test launch of Orbital Sciences Corp's Antares rocket from NASA's Wallops 

Flight Facility on Virginia's Eastern Shore were delayed by Hurricane Sandy. The House passed 

a FY2013 supplemental appropriations act for the victims of Hurricane Sandy (H.R. 152) this 

evening, including $15 million to cover damages to NASA facilities at Wallops Flight Facility 

and Cape Canaveral. How to deal with the damage from Hurricane Sandy was a hard-fought 

issue two weeks ago as the 112th Congress ended. The Senate passed a $60.4 billion disaster 

relief bill, but House Speaker John Boehner refused to bring the bill to the floor. Instead, the 

House passed a $9.7 billion bill strictly to keep the National Flood Insurance Program solvent. 

Web posted. (2013). [House Passes Hurricane Sandy Supplemental With NASA Funds Intact 

[Online]. Available WWW: http://www.spacepolicyonline.com/ [2013, January 16].] 

January 16: 10 years ago, space shuttle Columbia lifted off for the last time 

Ten years ago, space shuttle Columbia launched from Kennedy Space Center on what would be 

its final mission. The launch seemed routine as seven astronauts were carried into space on a 

Thursday morning not aware they wouldn't be coming home. The day of the launch was a 

celebration and a day of firsts. Astronaut Ilan Ramon was the first Israeli ever to travel into space, 

and the mission itself was to be the first of six planned for 2003 after two years of working 

through delays to get the program off the ground. The date was Jan. 16, 2003. Sixteen days later 

the shuttle program's 113th mission overall would end in tragedy as the orbiter disintegrated upon 

re-entry on early Saturday morning Feb. 1 killing all aboard. The shuttle's crew were commander 

Rick Husband, Ramon, shuttle pilot William McCool, Michael Andersonm, David Brown, 

Kalpana Chawla and Laurel Clark. Web posted. (2013). [10 years ago, space shuttle Columbia 

lifted off for the last time [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/ [2013, 

January 16].] 

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9

Report Incorrect, NASA Has No Plans to Abandon LC-39A 

A recent article which stated that NASA’s famous Launch Complex-39A is poised to be 

abandoned – is not correct. Rather the space agency is looking at having commercial space 

companies launch their rockets and spacecraft from LC-39A. When the report came out that 

NASA intended to abandon LC-39A, AmericaSpace reached out to NASA directly to clarify what 

the space agency actually has planned for the pad. “We are going to maintain LC-39A for use for 

a potential customer and we have parties that are interested in utilizing the complex, but none that 

we can name specifically at this time,” said NASA Public Affairs Officer Mike Curie. 

“Preserving LC-39A from a historical standpoint is a moot point because it is our intent to make 

it available for commercial use and we are discussing this with interested parties.” Web posted. 

(2013). [Report Incorrect, NASA Has No Plans to Abandon LC-39A [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.americaspace.com/ [2013, January 16].] 

KSC director Bob Cabana to speak to Technical Network 

Bob Cabana, director of the Kennedy Space Center, will address members of the Space Coast 

Technical Network on Friday morning [January 18th], discussing some of the latest developments 

in the space program and how it affects activities in Brevard County. Cabana is a veteran of four 

space shuttle flights and was a retired Naval flight officer and aviator with the United States 

Marine Corps. Upcoming speakers for the weekly Space Coast Technical Network meetings 

include, Bill Allen, president of The Proposal Network; Ron Jones, president of Rocket Crafters 

Inc.; Jason Joiner of Volt Workforce Solutions; Ruben Nunez, founder of Earthrise Space Inc. 

and Lynda Weatherman, president and chief executive officer of the Economic Development 

Commission of Florida’s Space Coast. Web posted. (2013). [KSC director Bob Cabana to speak 

to Space Coast Technical Network [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/

[2013, January 16].] 

Wolf Demands List of NASA’s Active Space Act Agreements

U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.), the lead NASA appropriator in the House of Representatives, is 

asking the agency to turn over a list of all its active Space Act Agreements by the end of the 

month. In a Jan. 14 letter to NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, Wolf gave the agency a Jan. 

31 deadline for providing him and House Science Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) 

with “a full list of active [Space Act Agreements], both with foreign and domestic entities.” Wolf 

chairs the House Appropriations commerce, justice, science subcommittee, which writes annual 

appropriations bills for NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and other 

agencies. NASA says it enters about 250 new Space Act Agreements each year, many of which 

involve allowing private companies, universities and other federal agencies to use NASA 

facilities for free or on a cost-reimbursement basis. NASA also uses funded Space Act 

Agreements as an alternative to traditional government contracts for funding certain projects. 

NASA’s $1.2 billion Commercial Crew Integrated Capability program, the third round of the 

Commercial Crew Program to get a privately operated astronaut taxi flying by 2017, is an 

example of a funded Space Act Agreement. The funds are going toward design and development 

work on three crew transportation systems. Web posted. (2013). [Wolf Demands List of All 

NASA’s Active Space Act Agreements [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.spacenews.com/

[2013, January 16].] 

January 17: NASA official named director of UCF's Florida Space Institute 

Ray Lugo, a longtime Kennedy Space Center manager and until recently director of NASA’s 

Glenn Research Center in Ohio, has been named director of the Florida Space Institute at the 

University of Central Florida. A former Merritt Island resident, Lugo began his NASA career at 

KSC in 1975 and rose to become deputy director of the center’s Launch Services Program, which 

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10

oversees the launches of NASA missions on expendable rockets. He was Glenn’s deputy director 

from 2007 to 2010, then its director until his retirement from NASA this month. He replaces 

Alan Stern, who became the institute’s part-time interim director in late 2011 and helped search 

for a full-time replacement. Established in 1996, the institute’s mission is to support space 

research, development, and education activities within UCF and other member institutions, which 

include Florida Tech and Brevard Community College. Lugo will oversee a nearly $1.6 million 

budget. Web posted. (2013). [NASA official named director of UCF's Florida Space Institute 

[Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, January 17].] 

NASA confident SpaceX engines ready for March launch 

NASA and SpaceX have not closed their investigation into an engine failure during a Falcon 9 

launch last fall, but are confident the company’s next rocket will be safe to launch March 1 from 

Cape Canaveral to the International Space Station. "As is often the case with a failure like this on 

a system you don’t get back, it was hard to find a specific smoking gun to point to, but a number 

of things were believed to be contributors that have been looked at," said Mike Suffredini, 

NASA’s ISS program manager. Suffredini said a significant amount of pre-launch testing may 

have contributed to the early shutdown of one of nine Falcon 9 engines during the Oct. 7 launch 

of an unmanned cargo resupply mission. The rocket successfully deployed a Dragon capsule to 

orbit, but the engine problem kept a commercial communications satellite from reaching its 

intended orbit. The engines flying on the next Falcon 9 are new and have not been tested beyond 

what is required to certify them for flight, and have all undergone recent inspections. Web posted. 

(2013). [NASA confident SpaceX engines ready for March launch [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, January 17].] 

MOAS exhibit celebrates Florida's place in space history 

Elements of art and science will intersect when an exhibit of NASA's art collection opens in 

Daytona Beach on Saturday. The Museum of Arts & Sciences newest exhibit, "Florida 

Celebrates Space," features 40 works of art depicting American space exploration by artists such 

as Annie Leibovitz , Andy Warhol, Jamie Wyeth and Robert Rauschenberg. Until recently, the 

artwork was a permanent collection at Kennedy Space Center's Visitor Complex in Melbourne. 

The art exemplifies the history of American space flight from 1958 through the conclusion of the 

space-shuttle era. MOAS Chief Curator Cynthia Duval said that the exhibit coincides with the 

500th anniversary of Ponce de Leon's discovery of Florida. Web posted. (2013). [MOAS exhibit 

celebrates Florida's place in space history [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.newsjournalonline.com/ [2013, January 17].] 

LEAD Brevard announces leadership awards 

LEAD Brevard today announced the "2013 LEAD Brevard Leadership Awards," featuring the 

ninth annual 4 Under 40 Recognition ceremony scheduled for March 1 at the Studio Theater at 

the Maxwell C. King Center for the Performing Arts. The 4 Under 40 Recognition recognizes 

young adults making a “positive impact” in Brevard County through their leadership and 

commitment to community service. LEAD Brevard on March also will recognize the 2013 

recipients of the Rodney S. Ketcham Leadership Icon Award and the Leadership Brevard 

Distinguished Alumni Award. Finalists for the recognition of ‘4 Under 40’ are: Steven Allender, 

Allender & Allender; Sky Beard, Early Learning Coalition of Brevard; Bradley Evers, Harris 

Corporation; Aliona Groh, Embraer Executive Jets; Elizabeth Huy, EDC of Florida’s Space 

Coast; J. Travis Kerr, Architects in Assoc. Rood, Zwick & Kerr, Inc.; Tiffany Nail, NASA/ 

Kennedy Space Center; Amar Patel, Brevard Achievement Center,; Julie Roslin, EDC of 

Florida’s Space Coast; Alex Rudloff, TEDx; Sarah Soliven, student, Melbourne High School; and 

Rachad Wilson, Brevard Public Schools/Endeavour Elementary. Web posted. (2013). [LEAD 

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11

Brevard announces leadership awards [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/

[2013, January 17].] 

January 18: NASA: SpaceX's Merlin engines 'good to go' for ISS trip 

NASA is confident SpaceX can safely launch another International Space Station resupply 

mission on March 1 from Cape Canaveral, although a joint investigation into an engine failure 

last fall is not yet closed. All indications are that the next set of Falcon 9 rocket engines are 

“good to go,” said Mike Suffredini, NASA’s ISS program manager, during a Thursday press 

conference updating the status of station systems and activity. The Merlin engine that shut down 

79 seconds into an Oct. 7 launch had undergone considerable pre-flight testing, though not 

beyond levels it was designed to handle. Investigators think that extra testing may have 

contributed to a pressure chamber breach, Suffredini said. Debris shot from the bottom of the 

rocket, prompting speculation the engine had exploded. In fact, SpaceX said the engine — one of 

nine powering the rocket’s first stage — shut down as designed and sensors continued to record 

data. And the debris was likely from an aerodynamic cover shattered by the release of pressure. 

A Dragon cargo spacecraft visited the space station as planned, but a small communications 

satellite failed to reach its intended orbit. The next engines in line to fly have been inspected 

thoroughly, and none has been tested beyond the levels needed to certify them for flight. A testfiring of the rocket’s main engines is planned late this month, to be followed by a test launch in 

the spring and a demonstration mission this summer that will attempt to berth a Cygnus at the 

station. Web posted. (2013). [NASA: SpaceX's Merlin engines 'good to go' for ISS trip [Online]. 

Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, January 18].] 

NASA, ESA Forge Space Alliance With Orion Partnership 

The European Space Agency (ESA) will leverage its International Space Station (ISS) experience 

with the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) into a critical-path responsibility in the early 

development of NASA’s Orion/Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle. ESA will provide a service module 

for one and possibly two test flights of the new capsule and the new Space Launch System (SLS), 

the two agencies announced Jan. 16. The preliminaries, including hardware responsibilities and 

contractor roles, have been in the works for months. ESA ministers pledged a 60% commitment 

of their cost — about €450 million ($600 million) in late 2012 — with plans to consider the 

remaining investment in mid-2014, said Thomas Reiter, ESA’s director of human spaceflight and 

operations. Specifically, ESA’s pledge to provide five ATV cargo resupply missions to the sixperson orbiting space lab will end with a fourth delivery mission this year, followed by a fifth in 

2014. Elements of ATV technology will now be adapted for NASA Exploration Space Mission1, an unpiloted 2017 test flight of the Orion capsule and the smaller version of the SLS on a flight 

to the lunar environs, says Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA’s associate administrator for human 

exploration and operations. Spare service module components developed under the new 

agreement, if available, could be rededicated to the service module portion of Exploration Space 

Mission-2, a 2021 piloted test of the Orion and SLS on a similar trajectory. The two agencies 

expressed cautious optimism about the future course of the partnership, the first international 

involvement in NASA’s deep-space ambitions, which are focused on a human mission to a nearEarth asteroid in 2025. Under the terms, NASA will furnish the Orion capsule, launch abort 

system, and adapters that protect the capsule’s heat shield, and merge the service module to the 

SLS as well as jettisonable fairings. ESA will provide the actual service module structure holding 

the propulsion and solar power components as well as the life support needs of the Orion crews. 

The first service module will integrate spare NASA shuttle Orbital Maneuvering System 

components. The Europeans will also provide sustaining engineering for their hardware. NASA 

has no plans to alter its $6.6 billion agreement with Lockheed Martin, the Orion/MPCV prime 

contractor, says Mark Geyer, NASA’s Orion project manager. Plans for a late 2014 unpiloted test 

flight of the Orion atop a Delta IV heavy will not be affected by the ESA agreement. That test 

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12

will feature a high-speed re-entry of the capsule to test the heat shielding and verify other systems 

prior to the capsule’s planned critical design review. Web posted. (2013). [NASA, ESA Forge 

Deep Space Alliance With Orion Partnership [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.aviationweek.com/ [2013, January 18].] 

Brevard space organization resets focus, changes name 

The space program is changing, and with it one of the area’s leading advocacy organizations. 

This week, the Space Coast chapter of the National Space Society unveiled a new name that it 

says better reflects its mission and goal to grow a broader and more active membership. The 

chapter’s new identity: Florida Space Development Council. “We found that to be a more 

descriptive title,” said chapter president Laura Seward. “We wanted something a little more 

inclusive.” The chapter — not to be confused with the National Space Club Florida Committee 

— aims to act as a grassroots advocacy group welcoming anyone with a general interest in space. 

Started in 2006, the chapter in 2009 hosted the national society’s annual International Space 

Development Conference in Orlando, but nearly dissolved after that. It has rebounded to about 

40 paying members. Seward said changes in space policy and in Brevard County in recent years 

contributed to a desire to rebrand and reinvigorate the chapter, one of two in the state. Web 

posted. (2013). [Brevard space organization resets focus, changes name [Online]. Available 

WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, January 18].] 

SpaceX Plans Dragon Pad Abort Test in December 

Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) plans to blast off a Dragon capsule — sans 

rocket — from its Florida launch site at the end of the year, the first of two tests to demonstrate 

how passengers aboard the spacecraft could safely fly away from a malfunctioning Falcon rocket. 

The pad abort test, slated for December, will be staged from the company’s launch complex at 

Cape Canaveral Air Force Station adjacent to the Kennedy Space Center. For the test, a flightlike, full-scale Dragon capsule will ignite its SuperDraco thrusters, fly itself out over the Atlantic 

Ocean and parachute into the water. “We’re going to demonstrate our ability to get away from 

the Falcon 9 from zero altitude and zero airspeed if we were ever having a bad day on the pad,” 

said Garrett Reisman, a former NASA astronaut who now heads SpaceX’s commercial crew 

program. “This is not a demonstration. This is a full-scale pad abort test for certification as well 

as risk mitigation,” Reisman said. The capsule will be attached to a stand with an interface that is 

identical to one used to connect Dragon capsules to their Falcon 9 launchers. The Dragon should 

reach an altitude of 1,200 to 1,500 meters before its parachute opens and it splashes down into the 

Atlantic Ocean. A second, more ambitious in-flight abort test is planned for 2014 when another 

Dragon capsule will fly itself away from a Falcon 9 rocket firing at full speed. The in-flight abort 

test, scheduled for April 2014, marks the last of 14 milestones SpaceX must complete under its 

current $440 million Commercial Crew Integrated Capabilities contract with NASA. Depending 

on follow-on funding, the tests would position SpaceX to conduct its first crewed Dragon flight 

with company astronauts aboard in 2015. Web posted. (2013). [SpaceX Plans Dragon Pad Abort 

Test in December [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.spacenews.com/ [2013, January 18].] 

January 20: NASA satellite lifted atop Atlas V rocket for Jan. 29 launch 

A NASA communications satellite this morning was hoisted atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas 

V rocket in preparation for a launch planned a week from Tuesday from Cape Canaveral Air 

Force Station. The launch is targeted from 8:52 p.m. Jan. 29, the opening of a 40-minute window. 

The Tracking and Data Relay Satellite, called TDRS-K, moved to Launch Complex 41 from 

Astrotech's payload processing in Titusville. The satellite will join a constellation of seven in 

geostationary orbit that relay data and video to the ground from NASA missions flying in low 

Earth orbit, including the International Space Station and Hubble Space Telescope. The Boeingbuilt satellite is the first of three in an upgraded series featuring more powerful solar arrays and 

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13

increased bandwidth. Web posted. (2013). [NASA satellite lifted atop Atlas V rocket for Jan. 29 

launch [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, January 20].] 

NASA not interested in handing over Shiloh site 

NASA has rebuffed the state's request to take over property at the north end of Kennedy Space 

Center for development of a commercial launch complex, a potential setback in Florida’s effort to 

keep SpaceX from moving some launches to another state. But the space agency may be open to 

alternatives that don’t involve transferring ownership of land NASA says it still needs to support 

future missions. “We believe that there may be solutions to this need other than full conveyance 

of these properties to the state,” Seth Statler, associate administrator for legislative and 

intergovernmental affairs at NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C., wrote in a recent letter to 

Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll, the head of Space Florida's board. Space Florida President Frank 

DiBello expressed disappointment in an email last week to Carroll’s chief of staff, John Konkus, 

that was released publicly on the governor’s Project Sunburst site. “The response is 

disappointing in that it does not reflect either the sense of urgency or commitment for commercial 

market thinking and opportunities ahead of us,” DiBello said. “This is only one step in what is 

likely to be a long process, however we will do everything we can to shorten it.” Carroll last 

September wrote the administrators of NASA and the U.S. Department of Transportation to 

request roughly 150 acres to establish a launch complex that would operate independently from 

NASA and the Air Force’s Eastern Range. The complex would be located near the BrevardVolusia county line in the former citrus community of Shiloh, just inside the borders of KSC and 

the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. Environmental studies would help identify the exact 

site. Though more than one company could use the complex, it represents the state’s attempt to 

keep SpaceX from committing to Texas, Georgia or other states where it is exploring the 

feasibility of a new pad for launches of commercial payloads. Anticipating a significant increase 

in its flight rate, SpaceX wants a pad that offers easier access, more control over launch schedules 

and lower operating costs than might be possible inside secure government facilities such as KSC 

or Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. If the Shiloh site is federally owned, it would remain part of 

the Eastern Range’s jurisdiction. Statler said NASA has not deemed the Shiloh property “excess,” 

or unneeded. “Furthermore,” he wrote, “this property continues to serve NASA’s long-term 

mission requirements, as a buffer zone between NASA mission and local communities and as a 

potential site for future mission requirements.” The state had also asked NASA to transfer 

ownership of Kennedy’s shuttle runway, which could become a hub for privately operated space 

planes. The center already plans to turn the Shuttle Landing Facility over to a non-NASA 

operator later this year and is evaluating proposals. Statler said the state request would be 

considered separately after that process was complete. Future negotiations will continue between 

DiBello and Kennedy’s Center Planning and Development Office, led by Joyce Riquelme. 

DiBello told Carroll’s office he would seek clarity on NASA’s interest in supporting the Shiloh 

proposal. Space Florida has already solicited input from companies interested in launching 

rockets there, and plans to start an environmental assessment of the site soon. Web posted. 

(2013). [NASA not interested in handing over Shiloh site [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, January 20].] 

January 21: Mars rover and future astronaut craft in parade 

A pair of high-profile NASA projects -- the nuclear-powered Mars Curiosity rover and Orion 

deep-space capsule -- were showcased Monday in Washington during the inaugural parade, 

gaining visibility in the nation's capital. Two floats carrying a full-size replica rover and a 

mockup of the spacecraft traveled along the parade route and passed by the presidential 

observation box in front of the White House, where President Barack Obama, the First Family 

and the Biden's watched the bands and displays. C-SPAN showed the NASA exhibits passing the 

president. The Orion program will perform its first flight-test next year, launching atop a Delta 4-

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14

Heavy rocket on a three-orbit shakedown cruise to gather data on system performance, including 

high-velocity re-entry speeds that the heat-shield would see on a lunar return. A full-up 

spacecraft will fly on the Space Launch System rocket in 2017, leading to a manned debut in 

2021. Orion is the vehicle being developed by NASA and Lockheed Martin to take astronauts on 

deep-space missions to asteroids, the moon and Mars. Web posted. (2013). [Mars rover and 

future astronaut craft in parade [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.spaceflightnow.com/

[2013, January 21].] 

January 23: Suspect part delays Atlas V rocket launch from Cape 

The Space Coast’s first launch of 2013 has been pushed back a day so technicians can replace a 

faulty rocket component. Liftoff of a next-generation NASA communications satellite from Cape 

Canaveral Air Force Station is now targeted for 8:48 p.m. next Wednesday, at the opening of a 

40-minute launch window. NASA said United Launch Alliance needed time to swap out a small 

box on the first stage of an Atlas V rocket that is responsible for sending signals to explosive 

devices used to separate the booster from the rocket’s Centaur upper stage. The Ordnance 

Remote Control Assembly produced unacceptable signals during tests before connections were 

made to the explosives. ULA planned to fly in a new box from its manufacturing facility in 

Decatur, Ala., then install and test the device in the rocket’s vertical processing tower at Launch 

Complex 41. Additional preparations to launch NASA’s next Tracking and Data Relay Satellite, 

called TDRS-K, continue with a Flight Readiness Review today and a countdown rehearsal 

Friday. A Launch Readiness Review follows Monday morning. The 192-foot rocket and 

spacecraft are expected to roll a short distance to the launch pad around 10 a.m. Tuesday. Web 

posted. (2013). [Suspect part prompts delay of Atlas V rocket launch from Cape [Online]. 

Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, January 23].] 

January 24: SLS launch to Orion separation – sequence outlined by NASA 

The NASA teams working on the Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion spacecraft are 

continuing to build a huge collection of documentation that will provide the tools to launch and 

flight controllers tasked with sending the US monster rocket and its Orion passenger into space. 

The huge Space Launch System is scheduled to make its debut flight at the end of 2017, lofting 

Orion into orbit ahead of its journey to the Moon on Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1). The Block 1 

70mT capable vehicle will actually be the smallest version of the Heavy Lift Launch Vehicle 

(HLV), but still far more powerful than a Space Shuttle. This will be noticeable to the hundreds 

of thousands of spectators that are likely to be in attendance, many of whom were last at the 

Kennedy Space Center (KSC) to witness a Shuttle making her majestic rise into the heavens. 

With two larger five segment Solid Rocket Boosters (SRBs) and four Pratt & Whitney 

Rocketdyne RS-25D (Space Shuttle Main Engines) powering SLS off the pad, the uncrewed EM1 launch will be accompanied by the intense light show and impressive rumble the Shuttle used to 

provide, as it rises into the Florida sky. Some finite details and timings are still being worked out, 

per the pre-launch sequence that is likely to mirror large amounts of the business end of a Shuttle 

countdown, not least the powering up of the RS-25Ds seconds prior to T-0. The SLS Launch 

Operations Support Team (KSC) will transition control of the launch vehicle to the SLS Flight 

Operations Support Team (JSC) after liftoff and supports the mission through ascent and disposal. 

Web posted. (2013). [SLS launch to Orion separation – sequence outlined by NASA [Online]. 

Available WWW: http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/ [2013, January 24].] 

January 25: NASA Day of Remembrance Feb. 1 at Kennedy Space Center 

NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Fla., will pay tribute to the crews of Apollo 1 and space shuttles 

Challenger and Columbia, as well as other NASA colleagues, during the agency's Day of 

Remembrance observance on Friday, Feb. 1, the 10th anniversary of the Columbia tragedy. 

Media and the general public are invited to a wreath-laying ceremony at 10 a.m. EST at the Space 

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Mirror Memorial at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, hosted by the Astronauts 

Memorial Foundation. NASA's Day of Remembrance honors members of the NASA family who 

lost their lives while furthering the cause of exploration and discovery. The Astronauts Memorial 

Foundation, a private, not-for-profit organization, built and maintains the Space Mirror Memorial. 

It was dedicated in 1991 to honor all astronauts who lost their lives on missions or during training 

and has been designated a National Memorial by Congress. Web posted. (2013). [NASA Day of 

Remembrance Feb. 1 at Kennedy Space Center [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.spaceref.com/ [2013, January 25].] 

January 26: Safety panel pushes for NASA oversight of private test flights 

NASA won’t ask private crews to fly commercial spacecraft on their first orbital test flights 

unless the agency takes more responsibility for their safety, an independent safety panel reported 

Friday at Kennedy Space Center. The Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel, or ASAP, also said 

budget concerns could create delays and other problems for NASA’s commercial crew and 

human exploration programs. “In the panel’s opinion, a consensus between the Congress and 

NASA will be required to resolve this conundrum,” said panel chair Joseph Dyer, a retired Navy 

vice admiral. The nine-member panel, established after the launch pad fire that killed three 

Apollo 1 astronauts 46 years ago this Sunday, met Wednesday with managers from The Boeing 

Co. and United Launch Alliance and Thursday with NASA officials before holding a 90-minute 

public session Friday. The panel previously had expressed concern about potential test flights of 

new commercial space taxis by company crews before NASA astronauts strap in for rides to the 

International Space Station. NASA has committed up to $1.1 billion to three companies —

Boeing, Sierra Nevada Corp. and SpaceX — to design private spacecraft under non-traditional 

contracts that limit NASA’s oversight, called Space Act Agreements. The agreements include 

options for orbital test flights that the companies say could be flown as soon as 2015 or 2016. 

The ASAP believed those options raised troubling questions about who would certify the flights’ 

safety, and whether different standards would apply to private and government astronauts. 

Meanwhile, NASA already has some concern about whether its new heavy-lift exploration rocket, 

called the Space Launch System, will be ready for a first, unmanned launch from KSC in late 

2017, reported ASAP member Don McErlean, senior director for federal programs at L-3 

communications. Typically for such complex development projects, funding ramps up early on, 

peaks as a design matures and then drops off until production work begins. But the SLS program 

has a flat budget of about $1.4 billion proposed annually through 2017. The panel said a test 

flight of the Orion crew capsule remains on track for 2014. A Delta IV Heavy rocket will blast 

the test capsule into orbit from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Web posted. (2013). [Safety 

panel pushes for NASA oversight of private test flights [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, January 26].] 

Ellen Ochoa becomes JSC’s new Director

Dr. Ellen Ochoa became the first Latina to go to space when she boarded the space shuttle 

Discovery in 1993. She made history again this month by becoming the first Hispanic and second 

female director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center. The 54-year-old succeeds Michael L. Coats, 

who retired at the end of last year after leading the Johnson Space Center (JSC) since 2005. 

Before taking her new position, Ochoa was the deputy director at the Center for five years. Web 

posted. (2013). [Ellen Ochoa, the first Latina in space, makes history again [Online]. Available 

WWW: http://www.voxxi.com/ [2013, January 26].] 

January 28: For NASA, a Somber Week of Space Disaster Anniversaries 

This week marks a somber time for NASA, with the anniversaries of three U.S. spaceflight 

disasters recalling the memories of those astronauts who made the ultimate sacrifice in the pursuit 

of space exploration. On Friday (Feb. 1), NASA will pause to honor the memories of the three 

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astronauts killed in the Apollo 1 fire of 1967, the seven astronauts killed in the Challenger shuttle 

disaster in 1986, and the seven astronauts who died when the space shuttle Columbia broke apart 

during re-entry on Feb. 1, 2003. This year's Day of Remembrance ceremony is especially 

poignant — it will mark the 10th anniversary of the Columbia disaster that led to the end of the 

space shuttle program. “NASA's Day of Remembrance honors members of the NASA family 

who lost their lives while furthering the cause of exploration and discovery," NASA officials 

wrote in an announcement. "Flags across the agency will be flown at half-staff in their memory." 

NASA will hold a televised ceremony on Friday at the Kennedy Space Center's Space Mirror, a 

memorial to astronauts who died during spaceflight. The service, hosted by the Astronaut 

Memorial Foundation, will begin at 10 a.m. EST (1500 GMT) and be webcast live via NASA TV. 

SPACE.com will carry the NASA video stream live. Web posted. (2013). [For NASA, a Somber 

Week of Space Disaster Anniversaries [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.space.com/

[2013, January 28].] 

January 29: Weather iffy for Atlas V launch on Wednesday 

A powerful Atlas V rocket will roll out to its launch pad today amid final preparations for the 

planned launch of a NASA communications satellite at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The 

192-foot-tall United Launch Alliance rocket is scheduled to blast off from Launch Complex 41 at 

8:48 p.m. Wednesday. The launch window will extend through 9:28 p.m. Launch managers will 

be keeping close tabs on the weather. Mounted atop the Atlas V is a NASA Tracking and Data 

Relay Satellite. The Boeing-built spacecraft will relay voice communications and data between 

the International Space Station and ground stations on Earth. Many other NASA spacecraft, 

including the Hubble Space Telescope, also use the TDRS satellites; U.S. Department of Defense 

satellites also employ the satellites. In the event of a delay Wednesday, the weather is expected 

to worsen. Gusty ground winds would be a concern. Launch weather officer Joel Tumbiolo said 

there is a 60 percent chance conditions would prohibit a launch on Thursday. Web posted. 

(2013). [Weather iffy for Atlas V launch on Wednesday [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, January 29].] 

State scrambles to get NASA's OK for land to build launchpad 

NASA is balking at plans by Space Florida to build a new commercial launchpad near Kennedy 

Space Center, and now state officials — in both Tallahassee and Washington -- are racing to 

persuade the space agency to change its mind. Why the hurry? SpaceX of California is expected 

— possibly this year — to choose where it wants to locate its next launchpad — a potential cash 

cow for whatever state lands the facility. Texas already has an early edge, and if Florida doesn't 

show progress soon in securing the necessary land, then the state could lose out. "The future of 

space in Florida will be decided in the next few months," said Dale Ketcham, director of the 

University of Central Florida's Spaceport Research and Technology Institute. Lt. Gov. Jennifer 

Carroll and members of Space Florida, the state's aerospace-booster group, are scheduled to meet 

today in Tallahassee to plan their next step, and those close to the group said Space Florida has 

got only about four months to make a breakthough. The proposed Florida site is the abandoned 

citrus town of Shiloh, which straddles the county border of Volusia and Brevard and sits at the 

northern boundary of Kennedy Space Center. State officials want to convert 150 acres of that 

property into a spaceport with two launchpads far enough from KSC and Cape Canaveral that a 

company such as SpaceX could launch its rockets without having to schedule missions between 

ones flown by NASA and the Air Force. But before Space Florida can do anything, it first must 

get the land from NASA. "The property identified in your request has not been reported as 

excess. Furthermore, this property continues to serve NASA long-term mission requirements, as a 

buffer zone between NASA mission and local communities and as a potential site for future 

mission requirements," responded agency officials. Since then, both NASA and Space Florida 

officials said that they are working on some sort of compromise, possibly even leasing the land. 

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Indeed, NASA recently released a statement that noted it has not "rejected" the state's proposal 

and was looking to find another path. Looming over these negotiations, however, are longstanding concerns from environmentalists who fear another spaceport could harm the 15 or more 

threatened or endangered species in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, a 140,000-acre 

sanctuary that overlays KSC. Their opposition in 2008 helped stop a similar proposal, and 

mitigating environmental impact could be critical in ensuring the project moves forward. Though 

the company already has a pad at Cape Canaveral for NASA flights, it wants another for 

commercial customers. SpaceX officials were coy, however, on how soon it would make a 

decision. "We are considering multiple areas, including Florida, Texas, Georgia and Puerto Rico, 

for a future private launch facility, but we are in the early stages of that process," spokeswoman 

Emily Shanklin said. Web posted. (2013). [State scrambles to get NASA's OK for land to build 

Launchpad [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/ [2013, January 29].] 

Rocket launched from Wallops Island 

NASA successfully launched a rocket from the Wallops Flight Facility Tuesday night. The 

rocket went up at about 5:50 p.m. It will test technology for future projects. During the flight, 

two red-colored lithium vapor trails were visible through parts of the mid-Atlantic region. 

Another Wallops Island launch using lithium vapor trails is scheduled for June, the release said. 

Web posted. (2013). [Rocket launched from Wallops Island [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.hamptonroads.com/ [2013, January 30].] 

Congress Approves $15M in Sandy Relief for NASA 

The U.S. Senate approved a House-passed disaster relief bill Jan. 28, clearing the way for 

President Barack Obama to sign the measure and deliver $15 million to NASA to repair facilities 

damaged by Hurricane Sandy in October. Obama has said he will sign the bill. The NASA funds 

are part of H.R. 152, a $51 billion emergency appropriations bill the House passed Jan. 15. 

Combined with a $10 billion flood insurance bill signed earlier this month, the House has now 

approved almost all of the $61 billion in storm-related disaster relief the Senate tried, but failed, 

to enact in the last session of Congress, which ended Jan. 2. “The administration's supplemental 

appropriations request addresses urgent repair requirements for NASA, including barrier island 

dunes and berms protecting launch facilities at the Wallops Island Flight Facility and the 

Kennedy Space Center,” NASA spokesman Allard Beutel wrote in a Jan. 25 email. “In addition, 

Sandy caused severe erosion of the coastal profile at Wallops that requires beach replenishment to 

provide continued protection against future storms.” Web posted. (2013). [Congress Approves 

$15M in Sandy Relief for NASA [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.spacenews.com/

[2013, January 29].]

January 30: NASA Launches Next-Generation Communications Satellite 

The first of NASA's three next-generation Tracking and Data Relay Satellites (TDRS), known as 

TDRS-K, launched at 8:48 p.m. EST Wednesday from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in 

Florida. The TDRS system provides tracking, telemetry, command and high-bandwidth data 

return services for numerous science and human exploration missions orbiting Earth. These 

include the International Space Station and NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. TDRS-K was 

lifted into orbit aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex-41. 

After a three-month test phase, NASA will accept the spacecraft for additional evaluation before 

putting the satellite into service. The next TDRS spacecraft, TDRS-L, is scheduled for launch in 

2014. TDRS-M's manufacturing process will be completed in 2015. NASA's Space 

Communications and Navigation Program, part of the Human Exploration and Operations 

Mission Directorate at the agency's Headquarters in Washington, is responsible for the space 

network. The TDRS Project Office at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., 

manages the TDRS development program. Launch services were provided by United Launch 

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Alliance. NASA's Launch Services Program at the Kennedy Space Center was responsible for 

acquisition of launch services. [“NASA Launches Next-Generation Communications Satellite ,” 

NASA Release #13-035, January 30, 2013.] 

January 31: NASA eyes future with 'Swamp Works' 

Lockheed Martin runs its secretive Skunk Works, speeding advanced aircraft development 

projects. Boeing operates its covert Phantom Works, a rapid prototyping outfit that works on 

highly classified defense and national security projects. Now NASA boasts its own Swamp 

Works at Kennedy Space Center, but there is no mystery about its mission. In a small, nondescript federal building in the KSC Industrial Area, about 40 engineers and scientists aim to 

open up the solar system to human exploration and exploitation. And much of their work 

involves tapping planets, moons and asteroids for water, minerals, metals and other resources so 

explorers from Earth don’t have to haul them along. “We are very, very rich in resources in outer 

space. The solar system has billions and billions times more resources than we have here on 

Earth,” said senior NASA technologist Robert Mueller. “So if we can harness the resources in 

outer space that is the key to expanding civilization into outer space.” Walk into the former 

Apollo Flight Crew Training Building. Jim Smith is designing an instrumented rover that he 

hopes will be able to verify the presence of water and other resources in regolith at the lunar 

poles. His team tested a rover prototype in lunar-like soil high atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii last 

year, and aims to launch a rover to the moon in 2017. Phil Metzger and a small group of 

engineers and physicists are working in NASA’s Regolith Operations Lab. His team is 

developing robots to excavate lunar dirt and ice and then use the material to build raised banks, 

roads and landing pads. And since lunar dirt is very abrasive, very intrusive, and could do serious 

damage to lunar base electronics and equipment, Carlos Calle is working in an Electrostatics and 

Surface Physics Lab to lessen the type of problems Apollo astronauts encountered with lunar 

dust. “It’s similar to what Lockheed Martin did with the Skunk Works when they created their 

planes in the 1960s — small team, multi-disciplined, hands-on, empowered to be creative and 

innovative, and to make things happen,” said Jack Fox, Chief of NASA’s Surface Systems Office. 

“So, since we’re Florida, and we’ve got a swamp right outside, we thought we would call it the 

Swamp Works.” Their mascot: A robot alligator. Web posted. (2013). [NASA eyes future with 

'Swamp Works' [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, January 31].] 

 Lockheed Martin joins Sierra Nevada's Dream Chaser team

Lockheed Martin has joined Sierra Nevada Corp.'s Dream Chaser team, officials announced 

Wednesday. The aerospace giant has two contracts with Sierra Nevada for safety certification and 

construction work, according to Mark Sirangelo, Sierra Nevada's executive vice president and 

chairman of its space systems division. The companies did not disclose the value of the contracts. 

Jim Crocker, vice president and general manager for civil space at Lockheed Martin Space 

Systems Co., said the Sierra Nevada partnership will leverage Lockheed Martin's expertise in 

human spaceflight and composite aerospace structures. Lockheed Martin will assemble the 

composite structure for the first space-bound Dream Chaser vehicle at NASA's Michoud 

Assembly Facility in New Orleans. The company will use composites developed for the F-22 and 

F-35 fighter planes, Crocker said. Sierra Nevada is developing the Dream Chaser spacecraft 

under NASA's commercial crew program, vying to transport astronauts to the International Space 

Station. NASA is turning to the private sector for human transportation to low Earth orbit after 

the retirement of the space shuttle. The Dream Chaser would launch atop a United Launch 

Alliance Atlas 5 rocket, carry up to seven astronauts to the space station, and return to Earth to a 

landing on Kennedy Space Center's shuttle runway. Web posted. (2013). [Lockheed Martin joins 

Sierra Nevada's Dream Chaser team [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/ [2013, January 31].] 

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19

NASA marks 10th anniversary of Columbia disaster 

Ten years ago Friday, a crowd of several hundred people gathered at NASA's Kennedy Space 

Center in Florida for the anticipated landing of space shuttle Columbia and its crew of seven 

following 16 days in space. The craft and its occupants never arrived. "All of a sudden we 

realized things were not as they were supposed to be,'' recalls Wayne Hale, retired shuttle 

program manager. "We were in a state of shock, quite frankly.'' Family members of the crew of 

five men and two women were hustled into vans and whisked to private quarters, where they 

were given the tragic news as scientists, engineers and managers of NASA pored through data 

chronicling the catastrophic end of Columbia and its mission, code-named STS-107. NASA is 

marking the anniversary with low-key ceremonies in Florida and Texas honoring the crew of 

Columbia as well as those who died in the Jan. 28, 1986, Challenger shuttle explosion and earlier 

lost astronauts. Among those participating are some of the crew family members who were at 

Kennedy on Feb. 1, 2003. Lost were Commander Rick Husband, co-pilot William McCool, 

specialists Kalpana Chawla, Laurel Clark, Michael Anderson, David Brown, and Ilan Ramon, an 

Israeli fighter pilot. The shuttle broke apart as it re-entered the atmosphere and streaked across 

the nation's skies. Parts of the shattered spacecraft rained down across a broad expanses, much of 

it centered over Hemphill, Texas. President Obama issued a statement marking the anniversary. 

"Ten years ago, seven brave astronauts gave their lives in the name of exploration when 

America's first flight-ready space shuttle, Columbia, failed to return safely to Earth,'' he said. 

"Space exploration and the sacrifice these pioneers made benefits us all. Today, we honor their 

lives and recommit ourselves to living up to their shining example.'' The shuttle fleet was 

grounded and although missions resumed in 2005, President George W. Bush decided to wind 

down the shuttle program. The last shuttle flew in 2011, and the remaining shuttles have become 

museum pieces. Web posted. (2013). [NASA marks 10th anniversary of Columbia disaster 

[Online]. Available WWW: http://www.usatoday.com/ [2013, January 31].] 

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20

FEBRUARY 

February 1: Columbia taught NASA to push limits but keep asking questions 

Mission commander Rick Husband sang with the voice of an angel. Pilot Willie McCool was the 

picture of the All-American Boy-Next-Door. Crewmate David Brown was a super-achiever, a 

Navy captain, a medical doctor, a pilot, a college gymnast — even a circus acrobat, unicyclist and 

stilt-walker. All seven astronauts lost in the Columbia accident 10 years ago were remembered 

Friday as people with special talents, as brave adventurers who advanced the exploration of 

space. Husband’s crew also included payload commander Michael Anderson, mission specialists 

Laurel Clark and Kalpana Chawla, and payload specialist Ilan Ramon. All seven sacrificed their 

lives, and there is one grand way to honor them: Carry on. And in doing so, stay ever vigilant 

about flight safety. “Ten years ago, it would have been easy to pull back from the frontier of 

space, and say it was too risky to pursue. But instead, we rededicated ourselves to improving how 

we push the boundaries of space exploration. And we vow to continue with our eyes open,” 

NASA human spaceflight chief William Gerstenmaier told hundreds of people at a ceremony at 

the Space Mirror Memorial at Kennedy Space Center that paid tribute to the Columbia astronauts. 

Also honored: seven astronauts killed in the 1986 Challenger explosion, three who perished in the 

1967 Apollo 1 launch-pad fire and seven others who died in the line of duty. “We cannot be 

afraid of risk, and we cannot be ignorant of it either,” Gerstenmaier said. “Our lasting tribute to 

those we have lost is to carry on with the cause that they believed was worth the ultimate 

sacrifice.” Think back to Jan. 16, 2003: 81 seconds after liftoff, a 1.67-pound chunk of foam 

insulation broke free from Columbia’s 15-story external tank. A second later, it blasted a six- to 

10-inch hole in the leading edge of the ship’s left wing. The damage went undetected during a 

16-day space science mission. During re-entry, hot gases blow-torched through the wing. The 

ship disintegrated over east Texas. The crew was lost just 16 minutes before family members 

expected to witness a planned landing at Kennedy Space Center’s three-mile-long shuttle runway. 

Widow Evelyn Husband-Thompson described it as a “traumatic, shocking day.” There is a lesson 

to be learned here. “We need to stay vigilant and recognize that even the smallest potential flaw 

can become a big problem. We need to keep asking questions and looking beyond that initial 

close call. We need to learn from these seemingly small, inconsequential events,” Gerstenmaier 

said. “In the honor of the Columbia crew, it is our job to be aware of the technical subtleties, and 

be creative about understanding them and the underlying problems,” he said. “Even small 

problems can surface as major failures.” Web posted. (2013). [Columbia tragedy taught NASA to 

push limits but keep asking questions [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/

[2013, February 2].] 

February 4: KSC launch pads a symbol of the future of space program 

Beneath the launch pads at the Kennedy Space Center is a room that is a part of history. The 

"rubber room" was the place where astronauts and pad workers could go in the event of a launch 

emergency. The shelter is designed to absorb the explosion of a Saturn V rocket. Astronauts 

would strap themselves into chairs for protection. They also had food and supplies to wait out a 

safe exit for days. It was a room NASA never had to use. But Kennedy Space Center officials 

say these historic aspects of the launch pads also hold the key to the space program's future. 

"Over the next six months or so you'll see a lot of announcements about agreements toward 

facilities here at Kennedy," said spokesperson Amber Philman. On the heels of the shuttle's 

retirement, NASA's new heavy lift rocket is still a few years away. Those launches will take place 

on a mobile launcher at a modified Pad 39B. This pad, and really the whole space center, is being 

readied for private launches. "The biggest draw is that there's several hundred million dollars 

work of equipment, facilities, land and services," said Steve Bulloch, NASA pad manager. 

Services which abound here are for any commercial spaceflight entity -- and Kennedy Space 

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21

Center leaders say look no further. Another feature at Launch Pad 39-A is the heart of the 

structure. The place where cool, dry air is pumped into a spacecraft on the pad. This area was 

crucial decades ago for the Apollo rockets, and as recent as the shuttle program. It will become 

important again. "Kennedy is really busy. We're transforming into a multi user spaceport," 

Philman said. Web posted. (2013). [KSC launch pads a symbol of the past, future of space 

program [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.baynews9.com/ [2013, February 4].] 

February 5: Mobile Launcher redesign plan for SLS nears completion 

Teams at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) are expected to complete a redesign plan for the giant 

Mobile Launcher (ML) by the end of the month. Re-purposed for the Space Launch System 

(SLS), companies will soon be able to bid for contracts to carry out the conversion process. The 

ML – designed by RS&H (base and structure), along with ASRC Aerospace Corporation (prop 

systems etc.) – consists of the main support structure that comprises the base, tower and facility 

ground support systems, which include power, communications, conditioned air, water for 

cooling, wash-down, and was designed with ignition over-pressure protection in mind. Hensel 

Phelps engineers worked on the structure at the mobile launcher park site area just north of the 

VAB, with trestles and girders arriving by barge in February of 2009, beginning the opening 

phase of work to create a base platform – one which is lighter than the current Mobile Launch 

Platforms (MLPs) that previously hosted the Space Shuttle stack. Fabrication of the 345-foot 

LUT begin in May of 2009, in preparation for being placed on top of the ML’s platform as the 

LUT’s base, prior to the addition of nine additional sections via a giant crane at the build site. 

The installation of the first section was conducted on September 24, followed by a second section 

on October 15, a third on October 27, a fourth and fifth section in November, a sixth and seventh 

in December, followed by the final three sections, resulting all 10 sections being installed by 

January 28, 2010. This was followed by the installation of the launch mount – highly specific for 

only the since-cancelled Ares I vehicle – on the platform in the Spring of 2010. Parked up near 

the VAB, rumors of what would happen to the ML ranged from pulling the structure apart for 

scrap, through to a joke that was circulated throughout the KSC workforce claiming there was 

interest from Disney for turning it into a fun ride. Ironically, Disney engineers had already 

worked with the KSC team on the roller coaster Emergency Egress System (EES) – a giant 

structure that is still in the running to be the EES for the SLS. Although the ML is highly suited 

to the SLS vehicle, modifications – mainly to the Ares-specific elements of the structure, such as 

the launch mount – will be required, ahead of the Heavy Lift Launch Vehicle’s debut in 2017. 

Such modification planning has been taking place in addition to the umbilical set up required for 

SLS – a completely different set up to that planned for Ares I. KSC managers have already sent 

out a request for information about potential sources for the labor, equipment, and materials to 

deconstruct and modify the existing Mobile Launcher for SLS – work that will be carried out at 

the ML Park Site 3 near the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB). Web posted. (2013). [Mobile 

Launcher redesign plan for SLS nears completion [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/ [2013, February 5].] 

February 6: Orion Abort Test Delayed Until After Maiden SLS Flight 

NASA has delayed a planned flight test of the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle’s launch abort 

system at least two years in an effort to hold down near-term costs on a $3 billion-a-year program 

aiming for a 2017 debut of Orion’s heavy-lift launcher. NASA had planned to conduct a highaltitude test of the Orion deep-space capsule’s launch abort system in 2015. But NASA’s deputy 

associate administrator for exploration systems development, Dan Dumbacher, told a 

congressionally chartered review panel here Feb. 4 that because of budget constraints the abort 

test will not happen until after the Space Launch System (SLS) makes its 2017 debut lofting an 

unmanned Orion capsule toward the Moon — a possibility acknowledged back in June by Jose 

Ortiz, NASA’s lead systems engineer for the Orion abort system at the Langley Research Center 

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22

in Hampton, Va. NASA still plans to launch an unmanned Orion into orbit in 2014 atop a United 

Launch Alliance Delta 4 rocket to test the capsule’s heat shields and landing systems. The capsule 

will then be refurbished for a seven-day unmanned mission to lunar space in 2017 followed in 

2021 by the first crewed launch, a 10- to 14-day mission out to the Moon and back. Between the 

2017 and 2021 Orion-SLS missions, engineers at NASA and Orion prime contractor Lockheed 

Martin Space Systems, Denver, will shift work on crew support systems into high gear and 

conduct the launch abort test, Dumbacher told the committee. No firm date has been set for the 

so-called Altitude Abort test, which Dumbacher told SpaceNews entails launching an unmanned 

Orion capsule from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., on a converted Peacekeeper missile 

stage provided by Orbital Sciences Corp. of Dulles, Va. The test will evaluate whether the 

capsule’s abort system performs as well in midflight as it did in a 2010 pad test at the White 

Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. Meanwhile, NASA is moving swiftly to conduct Orion’s 

first spaceflight by what Dumbacher’s boss — NASA human spaceflight chief William 

Gerstenmaier — said last summer was the earliest possible launch date: September 2014. Orion, 

which is now being tested at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, will have to undergo repairs 

by Lockheed before it is ready for its space debut in 2014. The capsule’s aft bulkhead cracked 

during a stress test in November, and Lockheed now needs to fit the capsule with a piece of 

pressure-distributing hardware called a doubler, Orion program manager Mark Geyer said in 

January. Congress ordered NASA to build SLS and finish Orion in response to U.S. President 

Barack Obama’s 2010 decision to cancel the Constellation Moon-return program, which featured 

separate space shuttle-derived rockets for crew and cargo missions. SLS will fly its first two 

missions in a 70-metric-ton configuration, powered by five-segment solid-fueled boosters that 

Utah-based ATK was building to serve as the main stage for Constellation’s canceled Ares 1 

crew rocket. For its earliest flights, SLS will use surplus space shuttle engines from Pratt & 

Whitney Rocketdyne of Canoga Park, Calif., and a Delta 4 upper stage. Later SLS configurations 

will use an expendable version of the space shuttle main engine, the J-2X upper-stage engine 

being developed by Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, and a new set of competitively procured 

boosters. The booster competition is expected to begin in 2015. Web posted. (2013). [Orion Abort 

Test Delayed Until After Maiden SLS Flight [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.spacenews.com/ [2013, February 6].] 

Embry-Riddle hopes for commercial space degree program 

Commercial spaceflight has graduated into academia with a first-of-its-kind college degree 

intended to prepare students for the field. Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University on Wednesday 

announced plans to launch an undergraduate degree in Commercial Space Operations this fall at 

its Daytona Beach campus. “The commercial space industry is new and exciting, it’s the next 

step, really, in spaceflight for the entire world,” said Rebecca Zgorski, an Embry-Riddle senior 

who helped faculty develop the program. “It really is an exciting time to get into the industry.” 

With SpaceX now flying cargo to the International Space Station for NASA — the next resupply 

mission is targeting a March 1 launch from Cape Canaveral — a competition under way to fly 

crews commercially and companies such as Virgin Galactic and XCOR Aerospace nearing 

manned suborbital flights, university officials said the timing was right for a specialized program. 

Such companies typically are dominated by engineers as they design and test their new rockets 

and spacecraft, said Lance Erickson, the program’s coordinator. But as they embark on regular 

commercial flights, they’ll need more employees trained in how to plan and execute missions 

safely. That activity is expected to pick up within four or five years, just as the program 

graduates its first students. The university introduced the new degree plans at the Federal 

Aviation Administration’s Commercial Space Transportation Conference in Washington, D.C. 

The program still awaits approval by Embry-Riddle’s board of trustees next month. Kennedy 

Space Center Director Bob Cabana and Space Florida President Frank DiBello are among those 

who have submitted letters of support. The program will include some core space-related courses 

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23

like orbital mechanics and propulsion, but industry input also recommended a focus on policy, 

regulatory, training and safety issues that are still being sorted out between the FAA, NASA, 

spaceports and international agencies. Embry-Riddle isn’t the only area university pursuing 

studies and research related to commercial space. Web posted. (2013). [Embry-Riddle has high 

hopes for commercial space degree program [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, February 7].] 

February 8: Angry Birds to invade Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex 

The Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex is undergoing $100 million enhancements for 2013 

and now we know of a new, one-of-a-kind attraction that is sure to excite children. Kennedy 

Space Center Visitor Complex has partnered with Rovio Entertainment, creator of the globally 

successful Angry Birds franchise, including Angry Birds Space, to bring the popular game and 

characters to life. The Angry Birds Space Encounter, set to open at the Visitor Complex in the 

spring, is the first comprehensive, interactive Angry Birds attraction in the United States and is 

specially designed to engage children. “Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex is an absolute 

must-see destination, and in 2013 our guests will find more to enjoy and experience than ever 

before,” said Bill Moore, chief operating officer of Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. The 

complex is also building the new home for shuttle Atlantis, expected to open this summer. The 

90,000-square-foot, interactive Atlantis exhibit tells the compelling story of the 30-year Space 

Shuttle Program and highlights the future of space exploration. Atlantis made the historic final 

journey to its new home on Nov. 2, 2012, traveling 10 miles from the Vehicle Assembly 

Building, accompanied by a parade of more than 30 former astronauts. Web posted. (2013). 

[Angry Birds to invade Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.cfnews13.com/ [2013, February 8].] 

KSC seeks Sandy money as ocean chews toward launch pads 

As the ocean closes in on two historic launch pads, Kennedy Space Center officials have yet to 

hear how much they’ll see of the $15 million Congress just allocated for NASA as part of the $51 

billion Hurricane Sandy relief bill. KSC hopes for at least $4 million to fix 1.2 miles of eroding 

dunes that stand between the Atlantic Ocean and the two former space shuttle launch pads — 39A 

and 39B. Those pads hold the future of human spaceflight, but an ever-encroaching ocean 

imperils their future. “If we have a tropical storm and we have our dune breached, there could be 

impacts to the pad,” said John Shaffer, a physical scientist at KSC. “If we don’t do something 

now, the infrastructure is going to be irreparably damaged.” Fox News, the New York Post and 

the blogosphere blasted the $4 million for NASA beach repairs that President Barack Obama 

included in his request to Congress for Hurricane Sandy relief. After all, the storm’s center passed 

far off Florida, they noted, some 220 miles off Cape Canaveral. Last month, “Fox & Friends” 

aired a graphic titled “Sandy Scam,” listing the $4 million for KSC among six spending items. 

Unmentioned, though, was the fact that Sandy still sent pounding waves ashore on the Space 

Coast, causing erosion — in some spots severe — along Brevard County’s 72-mile shoreline. 

Brevard County estimated $25 million in damages to its beach areas. Despite the criticism that 

Obama’s request was “pork,” Congress increased the amount of NASA emergency aid to $15 

million. And KSC officials defended their planned dune repair as only a Band-Aid fix for a much 

larger erosion problem that’s crept inland for years. “That is just to restore our primary dune and 

get some of our railroad track out of the way,” Shaffer said. “We get impacted by high tides 

now.” KSC plans to remove and possibly move back now-unusable railroad tracks that once 

hauled liquid hydrogen fuel to the space shuttle. The tracks, built in the 1960s, now teeter on the 

dune’s edge. Since 1943, the ocean has thinned KSC’s beach width by up to 66 yards between 

the pads, NASA officials say. Sandy’s October surprise put an exclamation point on that damage. 

Along almost two miles of beach, dunes retreated seven feet landward. The ocean undercut the 

railroad track along a 218-yard stretch near Pad 39A, where waves topped the tracks, flooding a 

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24

nearby lagoon and partially washing away some of the railway base. For the dune repair, NASA 

would mine new sand from inland, possibly Canaveral Air Force Station, but specific sources 

have yet to be identified. Trucks would haul the sand to the dune. The project would include a 

drift fence to capture windblown sand and native plants to secure the dune. The space agency is 

preparing Pad 39B for launches of crews on deep space missions aboard its heavy-lift Space 

Launch System rocket and Orion capsule. But the first, unmanned test launch of the heavy lift 

rocket won’t happen until late 2017, followed by a first crewed flight in 2021. NASA mothballed 

Pad 39A after the shuttle program ended but has offered it up to any interested commercial takers. 

None has stepped forward so far. Web posted. (2013). [KSC seeks Sandy money as ocean chews 

toward launch pads [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, February 

8].] 

February 11: Atlas 5 rocket launch continues legacy of Landsat 

A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket, making its first West Coast deployment mission for 

NASA, ignited the kerosene-fueled main engine at 10:02 a.m. local time (1802 GMT) to begin 

the 78-minute flight from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. Lumbering off Space Launch 

Complex 3-East and clearing the "classic" pad's umbilical tower, the 19-story-tall booster pitched 

southward and headed for polar orbit carrying the three-ton, SUV-sized satellite. Traveling at 

16,760 miles per hour, or 4.7 miles per second, LDCM should be ready for service in about 100 

days and renamed Landsat 8 to continue writing the scientific records of how Earth's land surface 

is changing through natural and manmade events. Web posted. (2013). [Atlas 5 rocket launch 

continues legacy of Landsat [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.spaceflightnow.com/

[2013, February 11].] 

Poll: Americans Support Manned Mars Mission 

Americans overwhelmingly believe NASA should be working on sending a man to Mars and are 

optimistic that humans will reach the planet sometime in the next two decades, according to a 

new poll released Monday. The poll found that nearly 75 percent of Americans believe that 

humans will land on Mars by 2033, and more than half of Americans believe NASA should either 

"play a strong role" in helping a commercial company run the mission or should go there itself. 

The poll was prefaced with information that NASA spending (about $18.4 billion in 2011) 

represents about half a percent of the overall federal budget. Poll respondents incorrectly 

estimated that NASA's budget represents about 2.5 percent of the total budget. Given that 

information, 75 percent of poll respondents said that NASA's funding should be increased to 

about 1 percent of the total federal budget in order to fund a Mars mission. Web posted. (2013). 

[Poll: Americans Overwhelmingly Support Manned Mars Mission [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.usnews.com/ [2013, February 11].] 

Joplin company’s tile murals to greet space center visitors

Paul Whitehill has taken on hundreds of projects over the years, but one of his latest ones is out of 

this world. Whitehill's company, Images on Tile, used photos of Saturn, Jupiter, Mars and Earth 

sent by the Hubble Space Telescope and the Voyager spacecrafts to decorate the exterior of four 

new buildings constructed at the entrance to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex at Cape 

Canaveral, Fla. The work was part of a space center renovation project that revolved around 

building a six-story exhibit space for the retirement of Space Shuttle Atlantis. Images in Tile was 

contracted by the project designer, PGAV Destinations, of St. Louis, to make the tile murals that 

would be applied to the exteriors of buildings where admission tickets are sold and tour groups 

are launched. The building shapes were round or angled. A lot of engineering work went into 

figuring out how to apply flat tiles to those shaped surfaces. The answer did not involve a shaped 

or curved tile, though. The 4,400 square feet of building exterior took about 7,000 tiles to cover. 

Each building was about 1,100 square feet. Once the tiles were made, the installation work was 

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25

completed in about two months. The company relied on a recently developed type of ceramic 

toners that are fired onto the tiles in a kiln. The tiles, he said, are incredibly durable and UV 

stable, so they remain unchanged under the duress of the sun's degrading UV rays. The Kennedy 

Space Center project was not the first one where the new process was used, but it is the largest, he 

said. He believes the durability of the tiles is at least 40 to 50 years, adding that through history, 

ceramic pigment murals have lasted hundreds of years. Whitehill said he sees the Kennedy Space 

Center project as a significant accomplishment. "We were real excited to be a part of this 

project," he said. "This is a national monument shared by people from all over the world." Web 

posted. (2013). [Joplin company’s tile murals to greet space center visitors [Online]. Available 

WWW: http://www.joplinglobe.com/ [2013, February 11].] 

February 12: Kennedy Space Center to act on aging facilities 

Kennedy Space Center will take steps to mothball, abandon or demolish unneeded shuttle 

facilities unless new tenants are found by next month, according to an audit report released 

Tuesday. The report by NASA’s Inspector General, an internal watchdog office, reviewed 

NASA’s progress reducing a vast and aging property footprint as the agency’s missions change 

and budgets tighten. It identified eight Kennedy facilities among at least 33 that NASA “was not 

fully utilizing or for which Agency managers could not identify a future mission use.” They 

include launch pad 39A, two unoccupied shuttle processing hangars, the former shuttle runway, a 

parachute refurbishment facility and several involved in the recovery and refurbishment of solid 

rocket boosters. Their annual operations and maintenance costs total $30.4 million, including 

$21.4 million for pad 39A, the audit shows. “Timely decisions on the future of these facilities is 

vital in light of the amount of time the Agency had to plan for the Shuttle Program’s end and the 

high costs associated with continuing to maintain them,” the report says. In partnership with 

Space Florida, NASA has been negotiating with potential commercial or other government users 

for many KSC facilities left “underutilized” after the shuttle’s retirement in 2011. The Boeing 

Co. plans to take over one of the three orbiter hangars to start manufacturing its CST-100 

commercial crew capsule. Sierra Nevada Corp., another competitor in NASA’s commercial crew 

program, intends to base operations at KSC. The center has said it plans to transfer the runway to 

a new operator this year. March is a key time because that’s when NASA’s shuttle Transition and 

Retirement program will stop paying to maintain former shuttle facilities. After that, “the Center 

plans to place the facilities in inactive states and seek funds for eventual demolition,” the report 

says. However, Kennedy officials said March represents only a general target date for finding 

tenants and maintenance could be extended through other programs. And while facilities that no 

program needs will be placed on an abandon list and scheduled for demolition, pad 39A is still 

considered a potentially valuable launch site for NASA or other users. NASA Inspector General 

Paul Martin cited changing mission requirements, agency culture, political pressure and 

inadequate funding as factors hindering NASA’s ability to “right-size” excessive infrastructure 

holdings, whose replacement value exceeds $30 billion. Booster recovery facilities located at 

Cape Canaveral Air Force Station were highlighted as an example of how mission uncertainty has 

affected property disposal decisions. NASA does not plan to recover the solid boosters used 

during the first two launches of its heavy-lift exploration rocket, the Space Launch System, in 

2017 and 2021. But a decision won’t be made until 2015 about whether later flights continue to 

use solid boosters, and if so, whether they will be recovered. As a result, NASA plans to continue 

to maintain most of the recovery infrastructure until then at a cost of $2.6 million per year. The 

audit credited NASA with taking several positive steps to better analyze what facilities it really 

needs and identify opportunities for consolidation, but questioned whether they will succeed. The 

Inspector General concluded that a process similar to that used to close military bases may be 

needed to enforce unpopular decisions about downsizing NASA centers. Web posted. (2013). 

[Kennedy Space Center to act on aging facilities [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, February 12].] 

DISCLAIMER - NOTICE OF COPYRIGHT This compilation is published under 17 U.S.C. § 108(a) as a library archival copy. Each individual article is subject to copyright protection under Title 17 of the United States Code. Unless an exception applies, permission from the article's copyright holder is necessary for any reproduction from this compilitation.
26

Spaceports, Spaceports, Everywhere 

For a country that had a mere 13 orbital launches last year and a handful of suborbital ones, the 

United States certainly has an embarrassments of riches in terms of places from which to launch. 

The nation has 18 launch sites and spaceports in eight states and one foreign country (Marshall 

Islands). That doesn't include Sea Launch, a company that launches from an ocean platform in 

international waters using a U.S. based platform. And if that wasn't already enough, there are 10 

more proposed facilities that are under consideration or being actively pursued by different 

entities. So, whenever companies can actually start increasing the rates for orbital and suborbital 

flights, the country's ready to accommodate it. In the meantime, we've got a lot of underutilized 

infrastructure. The 18 launch sites are a little misleading because of the co-location of 

government and commercial launch facilities. For example, the Kennedy Space Center, Cape 

Canaveral Spaceport and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station are all located in one area. The same 

goes for Wallops Flight Facility and the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport in Virginia, and 

Vandenberg Air Force Base and the California Spaceport in the Golden State. Web posted. 

(2013). [Spaceports, Spaceports, Everywhere (But Very Little to Launch) [Online]. Available 

WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, February 12].] 

NASA's Orion Lands Safely on Two of Three Parachutes 

NASA engineers have demonstrated the agency's Orion spacecraft can land safely if one of its 

three main parachutes fails to inflate during deployment. The test was conducted Tuesday in 

Yuma, Ariz., with the parachutes attached to a test article. Engineers rigged the parachutes so 

only two would inflate, leaving the third to flag behind, when the test capsule was dropped from a 

plane 25,000 feet above the Arizona desert. Orion's parachutes will perform in ways no landing 

system for a spacecraft carrying humans has been required to do before. Because Orion will 

return to Earth from greater distances, it will re-enter Earth's atmosphere at speeds of more than 

20,000 mph. After re-entry, astronauts will rely on the parachutes to slow the spacecraft for a 

gentle splashdown in the Pacific Ocean. This 21,000-pound capsule needs only two main 

parachutes and one drogue parachute. But NASA spacecraft, particularly those carrying humans, 

are designed to keep working when something goes wrong. So, Orion will be equipped with three 

main parachutes and two drogues, providing each system one backup parachute. Tuesday's test 

was the eighth parachute engineering development drop test. The next is scheduled for May. The 

system also will be put to the test in 2014 when Orion makes its first flight test. During the 

mission, an uncrewed capsule will travel 3,600 miles from Earth, farther than any spacecraft 

designed to carry humans has gone in more than 40 years. [“NASA's Orion Lands Safely on Two 

of Three Parachutes in Test,” NASA Release #13-048, February 12, 2013.] 

February 13: KSC Director wins Space Club Award 

Robert D. Cabana, director of NASA’s John F. Kennedy Space Center, has been selected to 

receive its 2013 Dr. Kurt H. Debus Award from the National Space Club. Cabana will be honored 

at the Debus Award Dinner on April 27 at the Debus Conference Facility at the KSC Visitor 

Complex. The award is named for KSC’s first director. Cabana is the tenth director of KSC, 

where he manages approximately 8,600 employees. The former space shuttle commander served 

as the director of NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. Originally from Minneapolis, 

Cabana graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1971. He is a distinguished graduate of the 

U.S. Naval Test Pilot School and has logged over 7,000 hours in 36 different aircraft. Cabana 

was selected as an astronaut candidate in 1985. He has flown four space shuttle missions, serving 

as commander on the final two. Cabana also served as deputy director of NASA’s Lyndon B. 

Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. He is married to the former Nancy Joan Shimer. They 

have three children. Web posted. (2013). [KSC Director wins Space Club Award [Online]. 

Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, February 13].] 

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27

February 17: Is Kennedy Space Center ready for the future? 

Since before the shuttle’s retirement, NASA has touted plans to transform Kennedy Space Center 

into a futuristic spaceport supporting launches of every kind of government or commercial 

mission. Concept images show multiple rockets being processed simultaneously inside the 

Vehicle Assembly Building and sharing a common launch pad, while more rockets blast off 

across the Cape and space planes zip in and out of the former shuttle runway. NASA established 

the “21st Century Space Launch Complex” program to help implement the vision, which 

promised to make Kennedy less dependent on a single government space program and attract jobs 

with more frequent launches. That future may yet come, but a review of more than $1.3 billion 

committed to Kennedy’s modernization since 2011 shows an overwhelming focus so far on one 

user: NASA’s own Space Launch System rocket. Three-quarters of the money has been directed 

exclusively at preparing for an unmanned first launch of NASA’s heavy-lift SLS rocket and an 

Orion capsule in late 2017. That includes this year’s request for $454 million in SLS-related 

“exploration ground systems” at KSC, nearly 10 times the $45.7 million requested for “21st 

Century” improvements intended to benefit multiple users. Of the $228 million in 21st Century 

funds obligated through last year, roughly half went to projects for which SLS is the only certain 

user. For example, a crawler-transporter designed in 1962 to carry moon rockets and later 

adapted to carry shuttles is receiving a $35 million overhaul thanks to the 21st Century program. 

It could move any rocket, but is being upgraded primarily to haul the 321-foot, 5.5-million pound 

first version of the SLS. Another $71 million helped modify launch pad 39B and the assembly 

building, which also are required for SLS missions. Each of those assets is now said to have 

“multi-use” capability, but no company has committed to using them. Discussions with the major 

launch companies continue. Kennedy officials say they are laying the foundation for their longterm vision of a multi-user spaceport, while making the most of limited funding for the agency’s 

flagship human exploration program. “That is our primary mission, there’s no question about 

that. We have to get that off the ground,” said Scott Colloredo, chief architect of KSC’s Ground 

Systems Development and Operations program. “Can we make some modest investments to what 

we’re already doing to allow (commercial users) to come along later? What we’ve learned is, yes, 

there are some cases where it’s a very nice fit.” In the VAB high bay designated for SLS, for 

example, flexible platforms were installed that could fit around different rockets. Upgrades to 

cranes, vertical lift doors and other systems were broadened to cover more high bays than just the 

one SLS will use. Moveable flame deflectors were installed at pad 39B. An assortment of less 

visible 21st Century projects, worth $122 million, has helped modernize outdated systems and 

plan for the future. They include improvements to the Eastern Range, in cooperation with the Air 

Force, that benefit any launcher; a new center master plan and environmental studies; and 

upgrades to various utilities, a railroad bridge and a paging and warning system. Still, the work 

hasn’t yet spurred much enthusiasm among emerging commercial space firms that must add or 

expand operations at the Cape for the 21st Century vision to be realized. Three years ago, the 

Obama Administration proposed spending $2 billion over five years to make Kennedy and Cape 

Canaveral Air Force Station more efficient, attractive launch sites. Last month, while showing 

off a prototype of the Orion crew capsule that will fly atop the SLS, KSC Director Bob Cabana 

emphasized the center’s broader transformation. “Not many times in history do you have the 

opportunity to define your future and make it what you want it to be, and that’s what we’re doing 

right now at the Kennedy Space Center, in cooperation with the state of Florida, working to 

enable our commercial customers to be successful,” he said. “We are turning the Kennedy Space 

Center into a true multi-user space complex of the future, supporting both commercial and 

government crew and cargo to space.” But Kennedy officials say there are limits to how much 

NASA can do to attract commercial customers. NASA says it’s not allowed to modify or build 

new facilities for any single company, which could give it an advantage going after future 

contracts. Apart from KSC’s vertical launch pads, the shuttle runway is considered to have 

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28

excellent potential to serve multiple companies like XCOR that launch or land spacecraft 

horizontally for suborbital or orbital flights. But the 21st Century program has invested just $7 

million in the Shuttle Landing Facility. The program, which reports to top human spaceflight 

officials at NASA Headquarters, has steered slightly more money to the Wallops Flight Facility 

in Virginia and four times as much to Johnson Space Center in Houston. (Ninety percent of the 

money has gone to KSC.) Why so little for KSC’s “multi-user” runway? No NASA mission 

needs it, and the agency’s priority is to clear roughly $2 million in annual operations and 

maintenance costs from its books. Kennedy is close to selecting a new operator for the facility 

that will pick up those costs and continue efforts to lure new tenants. Ultimately, KSC’s 

transformation into a 21st Century spaceport that attracts more commercial operations may 

depend less on millions for infrastructure than on a willingness to change how NASA does 

business. Web posted. (2013). [Is Kennedy Space Center ready for the future? [Online]. 

Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, February 17].] 

February 18: Shuttle boosters won't go out with a bang 

Next week, the last gasps of the space shuttle program will vent from leftover small motors that 

once separated the spacecraft from its twin solid rocket boosters. Florida environmental 

regulators issued an emergency permit to Kennedy Space Center to detonate up to 33 booster 

separation motors this month. These final shuttle-related “ignitions” will remove what state 

environmental regulators called “an imminent hazard” to people and property nearby. But there’s 

no risk to the general public, NASA assures, nor will these final shuttle-related “blast offs” 

deliver much of a bang to local ears. DEP received an application from KSC for the emergency 

permit on Dec. 20. According to the permit, perchlorate crystals have formed on the exposed 

portion of the propellant and inside the motors, making them “an imminent hazard” and unsafe 

for shipping off the space center. The motors are stored in KSC’s Ordnance Storage Facility. 

Other excess booster separation motors had previously been disposed of at the 45th Space Wing 

Explosive Ordnance Detachment Range at Canaveral Air Force Station. Florida environmental 

regulators issued an emergency permit to Kennedy Space Center to detonate up to 33 booster 

separation motors this month. Web posted. (2013). [Shuttle boosters won't go out with a bang 

[Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, February 18].] 

February 19: Book recounts company who restored NASA's Saturn V rocket 

NASA's Saturn V moon rocket was an engineering wonder, mankind's most powerful, audacious 

machine. With its mighty F-1 engines unleashing the force of 86 Hoover Dams to break free of 

Earth's gravity, the Saturn V safely ferried a dozen astronauts to the moon during the Apollo 

program. But when Paul Thomarios saw Kennedy Space Center's surviving Saturn V up close 

in 1995, it looked more like a junkyard cast-off than an icon. Two decades in the Florida sun and 

salt air had ravaged the once-pristine rocket, which rested on its side at the space complex as 

busloads of tourists trundled by. "You got inside and you could put your foot through the rocket 

itself," said Thomarios, whose Akron painting and construction firm had been hired to restore the 

nation's biggest, most awe-inspiring space artifact. The little-known story of the Akron 

company's moon rocket rescue is the subject of a 2012 book, “The Final Journey of the Saturn 

V,” by Thomarios and University of Akron business professor Andrew Thomas. Web posted. 

(2013). [New book recounts how Akron's Thomarios company restored NASA's Saturn V moon 

rocket [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.cleveland.com/ [2013, February 19].] 

February 21: KSC's new Atlantis exhibit officially named 

The $100 million Atlantis exhibit at Kennedy Space Center will open June 29 and simply be 

called Space Shuttle Atlantis, officials said today. A new logo that is both "patriotic and 

monumental" also was unveiled. The logo is has a black background and orange lettering. The 

"A" in the word Atlantis is a shuttle orbiter silhouette. Web posted. (2013). [KSC's new Atlantis 

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29

exhibit officially named [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, 

February 21].] 

US Military's Robot Space Plane Settles Into Mystery Mission 

The U.S. Air Force's mysterious X-37B space plane is quietly chalking up mileage in space more 

than two months after its latest launch into orbit. The robotic X-37B space plane soared into orbit 

atop an Atlas 5 rocket from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Dec. 11. The minishuttle's mission is known as Orbital Test Vehicle-3 (OTV-3), since it is the third classified 

mission under the Air Force's X-37B program. How long OTV-3 will remain in Earth orbit is 

unknown. "The mission is ongoing," Air Force Maj. Eric Badger, a spokesman for the X-37B 

program, told SPACE.com. The current flight underway has attained one known major milestone 

— that of reusability. This same vehicle was flown on the maiden voyage in the X-37B program 

back in 2010. That OTV-1 mission lasted nearly 225 days in orbit and then zoomed back to Earth 

on autopilot over the Pacific Ocean, gliding down onto a specially prepared runway at 

Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. There have been discussions about bringing the space 

plane down at the space shuttle landing strip at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, next door to 

Cape Canaveral, as a possible cost-cutting measure. "The possibility of using the former shuttle 

infrastructure for future X-37B landing operations is still being investigated," Badger said. The 

X-37B looks a bit like a miniature space shuttle. The vehicle is 29 feet (8.8 meters) long and 15 

feet (4.5 m) wide, with a payload bay about the size of a pickup truck bed. Only two X-37B 

space planes have been constructed for the Air Force by Boeing Government Space Systems, 

officials say. Flights of the space plane are conducted under the auspices of the Air Force’s Rapid 

Capabilities Office. Mission control is handled by the 3rd Space Experimentation Squadron, 21st 

Space Wing, of the Air Force Space Command in Colorado Springs, Colo. Web posted. (2013). 

[US Military's Robot Space Plane Settles Into Mystery Mission [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.space.com/ [2013, February 21].] 

Abort Motor for 1st NASA Orion Capsule Arrives at Kennedy 

A large but inert launch-abort motor for NASA’s first Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle arrived 

at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Fla., Feb. 21, where it will be integrated with the capsule 

despite having no role in Orion’s debut flight. The motor, designed to produce 2,224 

kilonewtons of thrust, would whisk Orion and its crew to safety in the event that a problem 

occurred during launch. ATK Space Launch Systems of Magna, Utah, the largest U.S. 

manufacturer of solid-rocket boosters, is providing two of the three motors for Orion’s launch 

abort system. The other is made by Aerojet of Sacramento, Calif. Orion’s 2014 flight debut, a 

stress test for the capsule’s heat shield and avionics systems, will see an unmanned version of the 

capsule launched by a United Launch Alliance Delta 4 rocket, reaching a maximum altitude of 

about 5,800 kilometers. The capsule will re-enter Earth’s atmosphere after two orbits. The main 

launch-abort motor will not be fired during the test, for which NASA is paying Orion prime 

contractor Lockheed Martin Space Systems of Denver $375 million. The main launch-abort 

motor will be tested prior to the first crewed Orion mission, currently slated for 2021. ATK is a 

subcontractor to Lockheed Martin the launch abort system and has about 15 employees working 

on the effort. Web posted. (2013). [Abort Motor for 1st NASA Orion Capsule Arrives at 

Kennedy [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.spacenews.com/ [2013, February 21].] 

February 22: NASA Coverage Set for March 1 SpaceX Mission 

The second SpaceX mission to the International Space Station under NASA's Commercial 

Resupply Services contract is scheduled to launch Friday, March 1, from Space Launch Complex 

40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. NASA Television coverage begins at 8:30 

a.m. EST. The company's Falcon 9 rocket carrying its Dragon cargo capsule will lift off at 10:10 

a.m. If needed, a backup launch opportunity is available on March 2 with launch time at 9:47 a.m. 

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30

and NASA TV coverage beginning at 8 a.m. The mission is the second of 12 SpaceX flights 

contracted by NASA to resupply the space station. It will mark the third trip by a Dragon capsule 

to the orbiting laboratory, following a demonstration flight in May 2012 and the first resupply 

mission in October 2012. [“NASA Coverage Set for March 1 SpaceX Mission to Space Station,” 

NASA Media Advisory #M13-037, February 22, 2013.] 

NASA Selects Launch Services for ICESat-2 Mission 

NASA's Launch Services Program at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida has selected 

United Launch Services LLC of Englewood, Colo., to provide Delta II launch services for the Ice, 

Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2) mission, currently scheduled for July 2016. A 

firm fixed-price launch service task order has been awarded under the indefinite-delivery, 

indefinite-quantity NASA Launch Services (NLS) II contract. NASA's total cost to launch 

ICESat-2 is $96.6 million, including payload processing, integrated services, telemetry, 

reimbursables and other launch support requirements. The Delta II rocket will place the ICESat-2 

spacecraft into a near-circular Earth polar orbit following liftoff from Space Launch Complex-2 

at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. ICESat-2 is a continuation of the global time series 

of precision ice topography measurements initiated by the first ICESat mission. ICESat-2 will 

measure changes in the elevation of the polar ice sheets to understand their contribution to current 

and future sea-level rise. It also will characterize polar-sea ice thicknesses and global vegetation 

heights to understand their connections to the Earth system. Subcontractors performing work for 

United Launch Services include Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne of Canoga Park, Calif., Alliant 

Techsystems Inc. of Magna, Utah, and Aerojet of Sacramento, Calif. United Launch Services' 

United Launch Alliance provides the Delta II and launch services. NASA's Launch Services 

Program at Kennedy Space Center is responsible for management of the ICESat-2 launch service 

acquisition and implementation. [“NASA Selects Launch Services for ICESat-2 Mission,” 

NASA Contract Release #C13-011, February 22, 2013.] 

February 24: United Space Alliance Reaches End of Mission 

Outside orbiter hangars and a tile processing shop, Mike McCulley gave a guest the lay of the 

land at Kennedy Space Center. That side of the street is Lockheed, this side Rockwell, he 

explained. Each protects its turf and information, slowing shuttle work and increasing its cost. 

“Once we’re all under one badge, I guarantee you things are going to be a lot slicker and a lot 

smoother,” McCulley, then Lockheed’s KSC site director, remembers telling Rockwell’s Kent 

Black. “And they were. These barriers just fell. One badge, one team, one company.”

The joint venture that brought the rivals together was United Space Alliance, which in 1996 

became the lead operator of NASA’s shuttle fleet and immediately one of Brevard County’s 

largest employers. Seventeen years later, most of USA’s remaining local team is preparing to turn 

in its badges and look for new work. The Houston-based company, which supported nearly 60 

shuttle missions, plans to let go 559 people Friday and another 77 from KSC on April 5. That will 

leave about 140 employees at a firm that for years boasted as many as 6,600 engineers, 

technicians and administrative personnel at KSC, out of 10,500 nationally. Parent companies 

Lockheed Martin Corp. and The Boeing Co., which acquired Rockwell International Corp.’s 50 

percent stake, have been quiet about USA’s future. But it’s widely considered a matter of time 

before it ceases daily operations. Web posted. (2013). [United Space Alliance Reaches End of 

Mission [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, February 24].] 

February 26: SpaceX fires up engines for test 

SpaceX test-fired a Falcon 9 rocket’s engines Monday in preparation for a Friday morning 

blastoff from Cape Canaveral to the International Space Station. In a statement, SpaceX called 

the test a success and said engineers were reviewing the data. “Rocket static fire @SpaceX Cape 

Canaveral launch pad looks good,” CEO Elon Musk said on Twitter. “Engines generated 433 tons 

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31

of thrust, parameters nominal.’’ Around 1:30 p.m., a flash could be seen and a plume of exhaust 

enveloped the 157-foot rocket at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station’s Launch Complex 40. The 

nine first-stage engines were expected to fire for about three seconds with the rocket bolted to its 

pad. If all systems are “go” and weather cooperates, the Falcon 9 will attempt to lift off at 10:10 

a.m. Friday carrying a Dragon capsule loaded with more than 1,200 pounds of cargo. The 

engines’ performance will be closely watched after one shut down prematurely during the 

previous Falcon 9 launch in October. The Dragon still reached orbit. The upcoming mission is 

SpaceX’s second of 12 under a $1.6 billion NASA resupply contract. Web posted. (2013). 

[SpaceX fires up engines for test [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/

[2013, February 26].] 

February 27: Interest building in Shiloh area on KSC property 

Primarily seen as a strategy to lure SpaceX missions, a proposed state-run launch complex inside 

Kennedy Space Center has drawn strong interest from another growing private space firm, public 

records show. Blue Origin, backed by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, says Space Florida’s 

proposed “Shiloh” site would be a good fit for tests of a reusable booster and eventual launches of 

cargo and crews to orbit. “Blue Origin is keenly interested in conducting orbital launch 

operations at the Shiloh facility,” the company said in response to state request for information 

from interested launch providers. Blue Origin was the only company to respond in writing to the 

state’s request by a deadline last month. However, Space Florida says it has held discussions 

with SpaceX and at least one other firm it has not identified. The state’s aerospace development 

agency last year asked NASA to give it roughly 150 acres in the former citrus community of 

Shiloh, just inside the northern border of KSC and the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge 

near the Brevard-Volusia county line. NASA initially said it would not cede ownership of the 

property but it supports Florida’s effort to bolster commercial space activity, and negotiations 

continue. The Brevard County Commission last week approved a resolution supporting the 

proposal. Blue Origin also strongly endorsed the idea that commercial and government missions 

should have separate, dedicated launch facilities, similar to commercial and military aircraft. 

“We view the proposed Shiloh facility as an opportunity to build the type of dedicated 

commercial facility that will enable the expansion of American commercial spaceflight,” the 

company said. “Blue Origin is eager to support Space Florida in developing the Shiloh site for 

this purpose.” Blue Origin received $25.7 million to help develop systems it hopes will 

“dramatically lower the cost and increase the reliability of human access to space.” The company 

proposed a spacecraft able to carry up to seven astronauts, launching first atop an Atlas V rocket 

and later on its own two-stage rocket featuring a reusable first stage booster. Blue Origin said it 

plans about 12 orbital launches a year, on average, but offered no timeframe. Blue Origin 

suggested the state consider a complex larger than 150 acres to accommodate multiple users, and 

placing a pad on the east side of State Road 3 to “further enhance public safety.” Space Florida 

has sought to minimize the proposed complex’s footprint and avoid the most environmentally 

sensitive land. The agency says environmental studies will identify the locations most appropriate 

for development. Web posted. (2013). [Interest building in Shiloh area on KSC property [Online]. 

Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, February 27].] 

February 28: Forced budget cuts could hit KSC 

Automatic federal spending cuts slated to take effect Friday could delay the resumption of human 

spaceflights from Florida and stall infrastructure projects at Kennedy Space Center. NASA’s 

Commercial Crew Program, which is funding development of private spacecraft to fly astronauts 

to the International Space Station and is headquartered at KSC, would lose funding but not be 

gutted as some initially thought. If Congress holds this year’s overall budget at 2012 levels and 

the so-called “sequestration” cuts move forward, commercial crew funding would drop by about 

$20 million to $396 million, according to Space Policy Online. That’s more than $100 million 

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32

below the total House and Senate committees had previously approved for this year, likely 

delaying NASA’s ability to pay three commercial partners for meeting milestones as they design 

and test their systems. NASA’s warning of a $441 million cut to the program was based on the 

president’s request for $837 million this year, an amount never close to being approved. Still, 

NASA says the availability of commercial crew systems, all of which plan to launch from the 

Space Coast, would be “significantly delayed,” extending reliance on Russia for rides to the ISS 

that now cost about $65 million per seat. NASA’s partners — The Boeing Co., Sierra Nevada 

Corp. and SpaceX — have said their first crewed test flights are possible in 2015 or 2016, and 

NASA hopes to start commercial flights to the station in 2017. NASA also has warned Kennedy 

would be among the locations most affected by a $251.7 million cut to a fund for facilities 

construction and environmental restoration. The cuts would “adversely impact” infrastructure 

needed for NASA’s heavy-lift Space Launch System and Orion crew capsule, which are being 

developed for deep space explorations missions and targeting a first unmanned launch in 2017. 

The 21st Century Space Launch Complex program intended to transform KSC into a multi-user 

spaceport also could be slashed. Those programs represent the bulk of KSC’s current workload 

and could mean lost jobs if projects are scaled back or postponed, a more immediate impact than 

the commercial crew. A Kennedy spokesman said the center has not received any specific 

information about how it would be impacted. Web posted. (2013). [Forced budget cuts could hit 

KSC [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, February 28].] 

NASA readies crew-escape motor for Orion test 

A critical part of the crew escape system for NASA’s Orion spacecraft is being readied at 

Kennedy Space Center for a test flight to be launched in September 2014. Made by Alliant 

Techsystems, or ATK, the 17-foot-long solid rocket motor is a powerful part of the launch abort 

system that would pull an Orion spacecraft and its astronaut crew away from an exploding rocket. 

“I guarantee you astronauts will like it. I can say that from experience,” said former NASA 

astronaut Brian Duffy, vice president of exploration systems for solid rocket motor maker ATK. 

The Orion crew escape system is similar to the launch abort towers that topped rockets during the 

Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs back in the 1960s and early to mid-1970s. It is designed 

to pull an Orion spacecraft and its crew away from an exploding booster rocket. The system 

includes the ATK-built launch abort motor, which would provide 500,000 pounds of thrust in 

three seconds, blasting an Orion spacecraft and its crew a mile high and a mile away from an 

exploding rocket. The launch abort motor for the unmanned Orion test flight in 2014 is being 

readied in the former shuttle canister rotation facility at KSC. Web posted. (2013). [NASA 

readies crew-escape motor for Orion test [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.astrowatch.net/ [2013, February 28].] 

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33

MARCH 

March 1: SpaceX to launch again to the space station 

An unmanned private rocket carrying nearly 1,300 pounds of supplies and experiments is 

scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral at 10:10 a.m. today on a three-week mission to the 

International Space Station that's being monitored closely by NASA and Capitol Hill. If 

successful, it would be the third time California-based SpaceX has delivered station supplies for 

NASA. But it follows an Oct. 7 launch that was marred by the failure of one of its Falcon 9 

rocket's engines about 80 seconds after take-off. Though the rocket's remaining eight engines 

enabled SpaceX to successfully complete that mission, the malfunction prompted an 

investigation. SpaceX officials have not released the full details of their inquiry into the 

malfunction -- citing security concerns about publicizing rocket data for other countries to see --

but they've attributed the problem to a hole in the engine covering. "There was a material flaw 

that went undetected in the jacket of the Merlin engine that resulted in a breach," said SpaceX 

president Gwynne Shotwell during a Thursday press conference at Kennedy Space Center. The 

breach caused the engine to lose pressure, and computers responded by shutting it down, she said. 

Shotwell added that the incident tested the redundant safety features that SpaceX had designed 

into the Falcon 9. In addition to the usual cargo of food and clothing, the SpaceX mission is 

carrying an experiment aimed at better understanding how plants "breathe" in the microgravity of 

space. By learning how plants respond to limited amounts of air -- caused by a lack of air flow 

aboard the station -- scientists hope to one day breed hardier plants that are more resistant to ice 

or flooding back on Earth. Another goal is that these super plants one day could accompany 

astronauts on long-term space missions to provide food and help recycle the air supply. A weather 

forecast released Thursday afternoon predicted an 80 percent chance of favorable conditions for 

launch. Web posted. (2013). [SpaceX to launch again to the space station [Online]. Available 

WWW: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/ [2013, March 1].] 

 United Space Alliance to lay off 504 workers on Friday 

United Space Alliance will lay off 504 workers at Kennedy Space Center on Friday, 55 fewer 

than previous estimates of 559. A significant number of the workers will be transferred to Jacobs 

Technology. However, the exact number has not been released, and Jacobs has declined to 

comment. An April 5 layoff is expected to affect about 100 USA employees, with three fourths 

of them in Florida and the remainder in Texas. On Feb. 1, USA had laid off 6,044 total 

employees in 11 reductions. On Feb. 26, USA had 1,606 employees total: 775 employees in 

Florida and 831 employees in Texas. Web posted. (2013). [United Space Alliance to lay off 504 

workers on Friday [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, March 1].] 

SpaceX Falcon 9 Launches But Anomaly Detected 

This morning at 10:10 a.m. EST, a SpaceX Falcon 9 with Dragon spacecraft launched 

from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on its second of 12 

NASA contracted resupply missions to the International Space Station (ISS). Less than 

24 hours after launching, the SpaceX Dragon was supposed to arrive at the ISS where the 

station crew would grapple and berth the spacecraft to the ISS for an expected three week 

visit. However, after the Dragon spacecraft had separated from the Falcon 9 launch 

vehicle, and just before the Dragon solar arrays were to deploy, an anomaly occurred 

with the thrusters where only one of four was enabled. The spacecraft appeared to be in 

the correct orbit. Web posted. (2013). [SpaceX Falcon 9 Launches But Anomaly Detected 

Which Delayed Solar Array Deployment (Updated) [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.spaceref.com/ [2013, March 1].] 

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34

March 3: Kennedy Space Center Credit Union steps in with loans 

With the forced federal budget cuts of the so-called sequester threatening a 20 percent pay cut for 

some government employees, Kennedy Space Center Credit Union will offer its furloughed 

members an interest-free loan of two-weeks net pay. “Free is the best you can do,” Kelly 

Haskins, marketing director, said. Some 5,000 to 6,000 members fall in the category that could 

be subject to furloughs in the lingering budget impasse. The credit union, with 13 locations in 

Central Florida, already has made many loan modifications and payment reductions to help 

workers who lost their jobs when the shuttle program ended in July 2011, Haskins said. 

Thousands of federal workers could be furloughed in Brevard this month. Some federal 

employees will be told to stay home one day a week, which could reduce their paycheck by 20 

percent. The credit union isn’t sure how many of its customers will need a loan. The interest-free 

loans will be limited to the amount the person brings home over two weeks. It must be paid back 

in 12 months. Web posted. (2013). [Kennedy Space Center Credit Union steps in with loans 

[Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, March 3].] 

March 4: Rocky start doesn't deter Dragon from space station 

A SpaceX Dragon unmanned freighter is moored at the International Space Station today after a 

two-day trip initially marred by steering thruster trouble. A day late due to the problems, the 

spacecraft’s high-flying arrival took place Sunday 253 miles above northern Ukraine, much to the 

delight of the six astronauts and cosmonauts onboard the complex. “The Dragon is ours!” 

tweeted Chris Hadfield, who next week will become the first Canadian to command the space 

station. “Look forward to new smells. Great!” Among the supplies: something fresh and 

nutritious from a California orchard run by the father of a SpaceX employee, company president 

Gwynne Shotwell said. Station astronauts treasure fresh fruit. They primarily subsist on mealsready-to-eat. Hadfield clearly was anxious to see what was inside the SpaceX cargo ship. In a 

good-morning tweet Sunday, the former Royal Canadian Air Force fighter pilot said he was 

looking forward to going into Dragon’s “belly & see what it brought us.” Launched aboard a 

SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, the Dragon is carrying more than a 

ton of supplies and scientific research equipment. Three of its four steering thruster pods failed to 

activate properly after it reached orbit, threatening to scuttle the cargo delivery mission. However, 

SpaceX engineers fixed the trouble, and the Dragon flew off toward the space station. A planned 

arrival on Saturday was pushed back a day. The recovery enabled the spacecraft to ignite thrusters 

in a series of firings to raise its orbit. The Dragon will return to Earth on March 25 with about 

2,600 pounds of experiment samples and other gear, a capability deemed critical now that U.S. 

space shuttles no longer are flying. The Dragon now is the only vehicle that can bring back 

significant amounts of cargo. It will make a parachute-assisted splashdown in the Pacific Ocean 

off the coast of Baja California. The ongoing cargo delivery mission is the second of 12 SpaceX 

will fly under a $1.6 billion NASA contract. Another private company, Orbital Sciences Corp., 

will begin flying commercial supply runs to the station in early 2014. The Virginia-based firm 

holds a $1.9 billion NASA contract to fly eight cargo resupply missions to the outpost. A mission 

to demonstrate the company’s ability to safely and reliably delivery cargo to the outpost is 

scheduled later this year. Web posted. (2013). [Rocky start doesn’t deter Dragon from space 

station [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, March 4].] 

March 6: Space shuttle Atlantis under wraps as exhibit's boosters begin to rise 

With just about four months remaining before its public debut, the "Space Shuttle Atlantis" 

exhibit at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida is taking shape — both inside 

and out. The $100 million exhibit, which is scheduled to open June 29, will bring the public 

nose-to-nose — and nose-to-wing and nose-to-tail — with NASA's space shuttle Atlantis, the last 

orbiter to fly in space before the fleet was retired in 2011. Since entering the six-story building in 

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35

November 2012, Atlantis has been raised off the ground, shrink-wrapped in 16,000 square feet of 

plastic and tilted 43 degrees, the latter designed to give guests a view of what the shuttle looked 

like to astronauts aboard the International Space Station. With Atlantis shielded from dirt and 

dust, work is underway to finish walkways and theaters that will lead visitors through the history 

of the space shuttle program as they tour around Atlantis and more than 60 related exhibits. Come 

May, when the shuttle is unwrapped, its payload bay doors will be carefully opened, a replica of 

its Canadarm robotic arm will be extended and a full-scale model of the Hubble Space Telescope 

will be installed to span two floors. Meanwhile outside the facility, the finishing touches are 

being put on the building's glimmering orange facade that was designed to evoke the space 

shuttle's re-entry into the atmosphere. Nearby, the steel skeleton of what will be two, towering 

185-foot-high replica solid rocket boosters have begun to rise off the ground. Visitors will walk 

between the two rockets — and underneath a massive external fuel tank suspended from them —

to enter the exhibit. Web posted. (2013). [Space shuttle Atlantis under wraps as exhibit's boosters 

begin to rise [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.collectspace.com/ [2013, March 6].] 

March 7: Lawmaker: NASA broke law with visits by China officials 

A congressman says NASA broke a national security law last year by failing to notify Congress 

about two visits Chinese officials made to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida — a charge the 

agency flatly denies. Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., said the visits — one in June and one in December 

— were barred by a measure he authored in 2011 requiring NASA facilities such as Kennedy to 

give lawmakers at least 14 days notice before hosting "official Chinese visitors." The visits to 

Kennedy are part of what Wolf calls a troubling pattern of security lapses at NASA centers. 

Thursday, Wolf said his office has given FBI officials and federal prosecutors material from a 

whistle-blower at NASA Langley Research Center in Virginia "involving a Chinese national who 

was allegedly provided access and information he should have otherwise been restricted from 

receiving." NASA spokesman David Weaver said his agency is familiar with the Langley 

contractor and has referred the matter to law enforcement officials. "NASA takes any allegation 

of a security violation very seriously and follows long-established procedures to investigate these 

allegations quickly and thoroughly," he said in a statement issued Thursday evening. Wolf chairs 

the House Appropriations subcommittee that funds NASA. He's been one of China's loudest 

critics in Congress, particularly regarding the country's human rights record and its reported 

proclivity for spying. Wolf said he learned about the 2012 visits to Kennedy Space Center on 

Thursday, in a letter from NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. Bolden emphasized in the letter 

that NASA has complied with Wolf's 2011 security law by declining "all bilateral engagement 

with China and Chinese-owned companies." The letter said the agency has not permitted "any 

visit to a NASA-owned or -utilized facility by any official Chinese visitors where such a visit 

effectuated the bilateral participation, collaboration or coordination with China or a Chineseowned company." Bolden said NASA lawyers concluded the visits to Kennedy didn't violate the 

law because the law doesn't apply to meetings at NASA facilities of multilateral bodies that often 

include representatives from the United States and China. Chinese foreign nationals visiting 

NASA facilities do not violate the congressionally imposed restrictions on bilateral activities with 

China because these individuals are not involved in bilateral activities for or on behalf of the 

Chinese government or Chinese-owned companies, he said. In most cases, they are students at 

U.S. universities or employees of NASA contractors. Wolf declined to criticize Bolden on 

Thursday, though he said he disagrees with Bolden's interpretation of the law and NASA suffers 

from a "management culture" that has allowed security violations. Web posted. (2013). 

[Lawmaker: NASA broke law with visits by China officials [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.usatoday.com/ [2013, March 7].] 

DISCLAIMER - NOTICE OF COPYRIGHT This compilation is published under 17 U.S.C. § 108(a) as a library archival copy. Each individual article is subject to copyright protection under Title 17 of the United States Code. Unless an exception applies, permission from the article's copyright holder is necessary for any reproduction from this compilitation.
36

March 9: Two Vandenberg Workers Seriously Injured in Arc Flash Incident 

Two United Launch Alliance personnel working at Vandenberg Air Force Base were rushed to 

Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital Saturday morning with serious injuries caused by an arc flash. 

One was flown by helicopter, and the other was taken by ambulance. The incident occurred at 

Space Launch Complex-6 on the south end of the base. The base hasn’t released any more 

information on the incident, and its Public Affairs and Base Operator phone lines weren’t 

accepting calls or messages Saturday afternoon. An arc flash occurs when an electric current 

leaves its intended path and travels through the air from one conductor to another or to ground. 

According to the National Safety Council, the most common cause of arc flash accidents is 

human error, including distraction, dropping a tool or using an uninsulated tool, and the 

accumulation of dust in a work area. The most common injuries from arc flash incidents are 

second- and third-degree burns. Web posted. (2013). [Two Vandenberg Workers Seriously 

Injured in Arc Flash Incident [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.independent.com/ [2013, 

March 9].] 

March 10: Facilitating the commercial crew era for Kennedy’s OPFs

As the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) continues its transformation into a multi-user spaceport, the 

three buildings dedicated to processing the since-retired Space Shuttle orbiters are aiming to once 

again host engineers busily tending to their spacecraft. However, only one of the buildings has 

confirmed a tenant for the new era at this time. Technically, the three buildings are collectively 

known as the Orbiter Processing Facility – consisting of three “high bays” and support rooms. 

OPF High Bay 1 and 2 were constructed in the late 1970s, connected by a 233-foot-long low bay. 

They were joined by OPF High Bay 3, which has a single story-office building attached. OPF-3 

initially started life as the NASA Orbiter Modification and Refurbishment Facility (OMRF), 

before its own transition as the orbiter fleet grew in numbers. On the occasions where all four 

orbiters were at KSC, but outside of a mating or pad flow, one vehicle was hosted inside the 

Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB). Unlike a lot of KSC’s facilities – that were constructed for 

the Apollo Program before being repurposed – the OPF buildings were constructed specifically 

for the orbiters. The open bay space inside an OPF High Bay consists of 30,000 square feet of 

clear floor area with a clear height of nearly 100 feet. The buildings are made from pre-insulated 

metal siding on a structural steel frame and features specialized heavy electrical and 

environmental control systems that protected the orbiters during processing. The buildings had 

everything an orbiter needed for her processing flow, ranging from 30-ton bridge cranes, two 

rolling bridges, communications rooms, offices and supervisory control rooms and a huge array 

of platforms surrounding the vehicle to allow engineers and technicians to access all areas of the 

orbiter. OPF High Bay 3 is already deep into its transition, following the October, 2011 deal for a 

15 year lease, agreed between NASA and Space Florida – the State’s aerospace economic 

development agency. The deal between NASA and Space Florida includes the use and 

modification of OPF-3, the Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME) Processing Facility and 

Processing Control Center (PCC). This agreement allowed Space Florida to lease OPF-3 to the 

Boeing Company to manufacture and test the company’s Crew Space Transportation (CST-100) 

spacecraft, creating up to 550 jobs along the Space Coast. In addition to the October 

announcement, Boeing announced it would be locating its Commercial Crew Program 

headquarters at the world famous spaceport. Transitioning the facility has resulted in the removal 

of the platforms and orbiter-dedicated hardware, creating what is known as a “clean floor” 

workspace. It also changed call signs, from OPF-3 to the Commercial Crew and Cargo 

Processing Facility (C3PF), with work officially started in September, 2011 – for completion in 

the summer of this year. Web posted. (2013). [Facilitating the commercial crew era for 

Kennedy’s OPFs [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/ [2013, March 

10].] 

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37

March 12: 2 ULA workers hurt in explosion at Vandenberg AFB 

Two workers for United Launch Alliance were seriously injured in an electrical explosion at 

Vandenberg Air Force Base on the California coast. United Launch Alliance said in a statement 

that the two employees were transferred to a Los Angeles hospital that specializes in treating burn 

victims. “Our thoughts and support are with the employees and their families during this difficult 

time,” ULA said in a statement. ULA said the two were working at Space Launch Complex 6 

when an “arc flash” occurred. The Santa Maria Times reported the two were working where a 

Delta IV rocket is being prepared for an August launch. An arc flash happens when electric 

current leaves its intended path and travels through the air to another conductor. Officials gave 

no further details on the cause or circumstances. ULA said it has begun an investigation. The 

names and exact jobs of the workers who were injured have not been released. Web posted. 

(2013). [2 ULA workers hurt in explosion at Vandenberg AFB [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, March 12].] 

Rosarians Plant Rosebushes At KSC

“Well, a little touch of Portland is taking root all the way down in Florida. A group of royal 

Rosarians traveled to NASA to plant some rosebushes” at the Kennedy Space Center. The group 

“also placed a plaque with a touching tribute to NASA workers and their dedication to the cause.” 

Web posted. (2013). [Rosarians Plant Rosebushes At KSC [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.koin.com/ video broadcast [2013, March 12].] 

March 14: On 50th birthday, bird refuge remembers the bad and good 

One of the nation's premier bird paradises, less than 50 miles from Orlando, came to be five 

decades ago because of a relentless effort to move earth and water so the U.S. moon-landing 

program at Cape Canaveral wouldn't be plagued by mosquitoes. That effort succeeded in ridding 

the Cape of mosquitoes, but it also drove a bird unique to Central Florida into extinction — which 

now, on the 50th anniversary of the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, serves as a warning 

in the case of yet another Central Florida bird slipping toward oblivion. The refuge, created in 

1963, comprises 140,000 acres in north Brevard County that includes Kennedy Space Center, 

coastal dunes, saltwater estuaries, piney woods and desert-like scrub. Among the anniversary 

events set for this year is a talk 1 p.m. Saturday by biologist Stan Howarter about how the 

extermination of salt-marsh mosquitoes during the country's decade-long effort to put astronauts 

on the moon led to the birth of the wildlife refuge but also resulted in the death of the dusky 

seaside sparrow. "The salt-marsh mosquito and the dusky seaside sparrows are very much tied 

together, because they have the exact same kind of habitat requirements," said Howarter, a 

veteran U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist. But the mosquito was interfering with military 

activities, early rocket testing and then the rapid buildup of the U.S. moon-landing program, so 

the habitat was deemed an unnecessary evil. Salt-marsh mosquitoes lay their eggs in the dry mud 

of marsh that's only sporadically flooded by storms or tides. Because the marsh was salty, it was 

not hospitable to most other kinds of birds or animals — including the big, showy birds for which 

the Merritt Island refuge is now famous. "At the beginning of the rainy season, you'd get months 

and months of mosquito eggs all hatching at once, so there were plagues of salt-marsh mosquito, 

and it was devastating for humans to be around," Howarter said. But "that same high marsh is the 

habitat of the dusky seaside sparrow." The federal government had carpeted the salt marshes with 

the chemical DDT from 1945 to 1953, which killed not only the mosquitoes but all the insects 

that the dusky seaside sparrow ate. The bird's population began to crash. By the mid-1950s, 

mosquitoes were able to withstand DDT, so another option was pursued: Levees were built 

around the salt marsh to create "impoundments" that filled with rainwater. That made if difficult 

for the salt-marsh mosquitoes to lay eggs, and if they did manage to lay any and the eggs hatched, 

the larvae were readily consumed by fish in the impoundments. The levees also turned the salt 

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38

marsh into freshwater wetlands, which is why the area became a mecca for wading birds, shore 

birds and ducks. "A lot of people were happy that the mosquitoes were gone, and a lot of wildlife 

was happy with the new habitat," Horwarter said. "Environmentalists were saying, 'Hey, look at 

all these wonderful birds ... showing up. We've got roseate spoonbills and wood storks and tons 

of wading birds.' So this area got protection as a national wildlife refuge because of those 

impoundments." The last known dusky seaside sparrows — five of them — were captured in 

1979 from a spot of marsh in east Orange County. They were to be the core of a population bred 

in captivity, but all were males, and the last of those died in 1985. The Florida grasshopper 

sparrow, now in a similar, rapid population decline, may not survive more than a few years, 

biologists say. The overarching reason: loss of habitat. The bird lives on treeless prairies south of 

Orlando that are conducive to development and ranching, or grow into forest unless they're 

regularly burned. Web posted. (2013). [On its 50th birthday, bird refuge remembers the bad with 

the good [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/ [2013, March 14].] 

March 19: Atlas V rocket lifts eye in the sky to orbit from Cape Canaveral 

A new-generation U.S. missile-warning satellite is climbing toward a top-secret location 22,300 

miles above Earth today after launching aboard a powerful Atlas V rocket. The launch from 

Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Tuesday came just four days after Defense Secretary Chuck 

Hagel countered a growing threat from North Korea with a $1 billion bid to shore up ballistic 

missile defense on the U.S. West Coast. The timing is coincidental — preparations for Tuesday’s 

launch have been ongoing for months. Mounted atop the 189-foot-tall United Launch Alliance 

rocket, the second in a series of Space Based Infrared System spacecraft blasted off at 5:21 p.m. 

Tuesday at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Web posted. (2013). [Atlas V rocket lifts eye in 

the sky to orbit from Cape Canaveral [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/

[2013, March 20].] 

March 20: NASA Technical Reports Server Taken Offline 

"Until further notice, the NTRS system will be unavailable for public access. We apologize for 

any inconvenience this may cause you and anticipate that this site will return to service in the 

near future." Update: According to a response from NASA HQ PAO this morning "It's down for 

review to ensure there is no sensitive content on the server." Web posted. (2013). [NASA 

Technical Reports Server Mysteriously Taken Offline [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.nasawatch.com/ [2013, March 20].] 

NASA locks out foreigners, orders security review 

NASA has locked its facilities to foreigners, disabled online research databases and ordered a 

complete review of access by foreign nationals to its facilities, as allegations swirled of foreign 

spies within the space agency. The reports came to a head this weekend with the arrest of former 

consultant Bo Jiang as he was leaving the country with a one-way ticket to China -- carrying 

several data storage devices, including hard drives, flash drives and computers that likely 

contained sensitive information. In testimony Wednesday before Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., 

chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee that funds the space agency, NASA chief 

Charles Bolden said associate administrator Robert Lightfoot would head a complete 

investigation into the issue. External investigations would likely follow. “I’ve ordered a 

complete review of the access that foreign nationals are granted at NASA facilities,” Bolden said. 

“Within a week we probably will ask [the National Academy of Public Administration] to do an 

external review,” he added. In addition to the security review, Bolden announced that he had 

closed down a publicly available NASA technical reports database due to the risk of confidential 

information leaking out. A message on the site indicates that “until further notice, the NTRS 

system will be unavailable for public access. We ... anticipate that this site will return to service 

in the near future.” NASA also instigated a moratorium on access to NASA facilities and data 

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39

from several foreign countries, including China, Burma, Eritrea, Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan. 

Remote computer access from those countries will be terminated as well, he added. “This is about 

national security, not NASA security. And I take that seriously. I will hold myself accountable 

once the review is completed,” Bolden said. Perhaps it’s the ambitions of the space agency that 

make it such a target for espionage. Wolf told Discovery News earlier this week that “the Chinese 

have the most comprehensive spying program in Washington that has ever been. They make the 

KGB look like they were the junior varsity or freshman team.” Citing Robert S. Mueller, the 

director of the FBI, Wolf said NASA centers are significant targets for this espionage -- a risk that 

is more substantial today than it was a decade ago. “NASA and the Congress have to work 

together to heed his words,” he said. Web posted. (2013). [NASA locks out foreigners, orders 

security review following concerns of Chinese spying [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.foxnews.com/ [2013, March 20].] 

March 21: NASA blocks access to China, 7 suspect nations 

Visitors from China and several other suspect countries will be denied access to NASA facilities 

until the agency finishes investigating its cybersecurity measures involving foreign nationals, 

NASA’s administrator told congressional lawmakers Tuesday. Administrator Charles F. Bolden 

Jr. announced the ban after the arrest Saturday of a Chinese researcher who once worked at the 

NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., and may have tried to provide sensitive 

information to Beijing. Access to NASA facilities will be denied to all visitors, including 

researchers and scientists, from China, Burma, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, 

and Uzbekistan. Those “designated countries” are drawn from State Department and Commerce 

Department lists of nations the U.S. considers suspect because they have no diplomatic relations 

with this country, they are under sanction or embargo, they are considered state sponsors of 

terrorism, or they are a source of concerns about missile proliferation, NASA spokesman David 

Weaver said. The restrictions do not apply to the 281 foreign nationals “including 192 from 

China’’ already working at NASA facilities, he said. Earlier this month, Wolf accused NASA of 

breaking an anti-espionage law he wrote by failing to notify Congress about two visits Chinese 

officials made to the Kennedy Space Center last year. Web posted. (2013). [NASA blocks access 

to China, 7 suspect nations [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, 

March 21].] 

Business tour spotlights a post-shuttle Brevard 

Local economic leaders never get tired of showcasing Embraer jet’s North American 

headquarters at Melbourne International Airport. They were at it again Wednesday, choosing the 

site to open a four-day tour of Brevard County’s economic jewels for international journalists and 

site-selection executives. The tour includes the area’s substantial defense and aerospace 

presence, not to mention the area’s beaches and cruise ship industry. The point local leaders hope 

to drive home is that while the end of the space shuttle program in 2011 hurt the area, it wasn’t 

the fatal blow that some contended it might be. After the Embraer’s Wednesday visit, which 

included a reception in the jet maker’s international customer center, the schedule over the next 

three days calls for panel discussions on the area’s aerospace, aviation and defense industries and 

then extensive tours of the Kennedy Space Center and the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. 

Other parts of the tour include a visit to Harris Corp., Craig Technologies, a Royal Caribbean 

cruise ship and a Washington Nationals baseball game. The final day includes a helicopter tour 

of the Space Coast and possibly a Zero-G Experience “weightlessness” flight. Web posted. 

(2013). [Business tour spotlights a post-shuttle Brevard [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, March 21].] 

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40

Saturn V rocket engines lifted from sea floor 

For decades they lay in darkness nearly three miles below the Atlantic Ocean’s surface. Now, the 

rusted and mangled remains of Saturn V rocket engines that may have launched the first men to 

the moon sit aboard a salvage ship expected to arrive this morning in Port Canaveral, their first 

stop en route to museums. A three-week expedition funded by Amazon.com founder and CEO 

Jeff Bezos successfully recovered enough components to restore and display two of the F-1 

engines that helped Apollo missions blast off from Kennedy Space Center, Bezos said 

Wednesday. “We’ve seen an underwater wonderland — an incredible sculpture garden of twisted 

F-1 engines that tells the story of a fiery and violent end, one that serves testament to the Apollo 

program,” Bezos wrote in an update posted online. Bezos, who also started the private space firm 

Blue Origin, announced a year ago that his team had located the five engines that blasted the first 

moon landing mission off its pad in 1969. However, it’s not yet known on which missions the 

recovered engines flew. The parts’ serial numbers were all or partly missing, erased by the 

engines’ high-speed ocean impacts or corrosion from sitting more than 40 years in salt water on 

the ocean floor. Still NASA property, the engines, once restored, are expected to be displayed at 

the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum and the Museum of Flight in 

Seattle. “This is a historic find, and I congratulate the team for its determination and 

perseverance in the recovery of these important artifacts of our first efforts to send humans 

beyond Earth orbit,” NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said in a statement. NASA blessed the 

recovery project and is now assisting efforts to research the flight hardware’s history, but 

otherwise was not involved in the privately funded expedition. A cluster of five powered the first 

stage of Saturn V rockets with a combined 7.5 million pounds of thrust at liftoff. Intact, each 

engine measured 19 feet tall by 12 feet wide and weighed over 18,000 pounds. Web posted. 

(2013). [Saturn V rocket engines lifted from sea floor [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, March 21].] 

SpaceX's Dragon capsule 'go' for return to Earth on Monday 

International Space Station managers this morning gave a “go” for SpaceX’s Dragon cargo 

capsule to depart the outpost early Monday. Station astronauts Tom Marshburn and Chris 

Hadfield plan to pull the Dragon from its docking port with a robotic arm at 5:05 a.m. EDT, then 

release it into space at 7:49 a.m. Packed with 2,668 pounds of equipment and science 

experiments, the Dragon is expected to re-enter the atmosphere and splash down in the Pacific 

Ocean off the coast of Baja California at 1:19 p.m. EDT. Recovery ships will return the 

spacecraft to Los Angeles, and it will then be transported to SpaceX’s facility in Texas. The 

Dragon launched from Cape Canaveral atop a Falcon 9 rocket on March 1 and berthed at the 

station two days later. The mission is SpaceX’s second of 12 planned under a $1.6 billion NASA 

resupply contract. Web posted. (2013). [SpaceX's Dragon capsule gets 'go' for return to Earth on 

Monday [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, March 21].] 

March 22: NASA Partners With Micro Aerospace Solutions 

NASA has signed an agreement with Micro Aerospace Solutions (MAS) of Melbourne, Fla., for 

use of an offline hardware processing "clean room" laboratory and office space at Kennedy Space 

Center's Space Station Processing Facility. Micro Aerospace Solutions will utilize the area to 

perform small satellite flight hardware and payload assembly, as well as testing and checkout 

operations. The initial two-year agreement will allow Micro Aerospace Solutions access to the 

facility to begin work on April 1, 2013. Micro Aerospace Solutions is a small business 

established in 2000, specializing in software, electrical and mechanical design engineering 

services. The company is involved in a wide variety of engineering disciplines including software 

engineering, thruster designs, propulsion systems, attitude control, command and data handling, 

as well as computer and communications systems for small and nanosatellites. Micro Aerospace 

Solutions will relocate current employees to Kennedy to perform the work. More employees may 

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41

be added depending upon pending project announcements. MAS is lead avionics integrator and 

software developer for the NASA Sunjammer small satellite mission to demonstrate a solar sail 

for propulsion in space. [“NASA Partners With Micro Aerospace Solutions To Use Kennedy 

Labs,” NASA Release #05-13, March 22, 2013.] 

‘Angry Birds’ arrive at Kennedy Space Center

Excited children tried out the newest attraction at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. Angry 

Birds Space Encounter opened Friday. The Complex partnered with the game's creator, Rovio 

Entertainment, to bring the characters to life. There are six interactive stations as the birds follow 

their kidnapped eggs into an intergalactic wormhole and face off against space pigs. Visitors can 

even create their own Angry Bird and print it out as a keepsake. They can also square off against 

other guests by launching mini birds through slingshots. The exhibit comes ahead of the 

complex's grand reopening in June when visitors can see the Space Shuttle Atlantis in its new 

home. Web posted. (2013). [‘Angry Birds’ arrive at Kennedy Space Center [Online]. Available 

WWW: http://www.mynews13.com/ [2013, March 21].] 

March 26: Space station capsule headed for Pacific Ocean splashdown 

A private capsule carrying cargo from the International Space Station is on its way back to Earth 

after being released Tuesday from the station's 57-foot robotic arm. Flight controllers in NASA's 

Mission Control Center in Houston grappled the unmanned SpaceX Dragon capsule with the arm 

at 4:10 a.m. ET and moved it away from the Earth-facing port of the station's U.S. Harmony 

module. U.S. astronaut Thomas Marshburn and Chris Hadfield of the Canadian Space Agency let 

the spacecraft fly free at 6:56 a.m. from a work station in the complex's Cupola module, a sevenwindow observation deck on the U.S. side of the outpost. Once released, thrusters on the 

spacecraft ignite to push the Dragon away from the outpost. Three thruster firings move the 

carrier out of the station's immediate vicinity. A retrograde thruster firing will take place at 11:42 

a.m. EDT, slowing the spacecraft enough to drop it onto a supersonic plunge back through the 

atmosphere. A parachute-assisted splashdown about 250 miles off the coast of Baja California is 

scheduled at 12:34 p.m. EDT. Web posted. (2013). [Space station capsule headed for Pacific 

Ocean splashdown [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, March 

26].] 

March 27: Can NASA vet all material in its shuttered tech database? 

When NASA recently took its large Technical Reports Server (NTRS) offline, following the 

arrest of a suspected spy, it removed a database of aerospace information that had been shared 

with scientists and the general public for 19 years. And at least one analyst predicted it might stay 

shuttered. NTRS, which had been available online since its inception in 1994, contains 

conference papers, journal articles, meeting papers, patents, research reports, images, movies and 

technical videos related to aeronautics and aerospace. Researchers, students, educators and the 

public have used the massive amount of data in NTRS, which holds approximately 500,000 

aerospace related citations, 90,000 full-text online documents, and 111,000 images and videos. 

But after the FBI last week arrested Bo Jiang, a Chinese citizen had been working as a contractor 

at NASA’s Langley Research Center, NASA shut down NTRS. Space policy analyst Dwayne 

Day predicted the database will stay shuttered if NASA has to comb through all material before 

posting. “I’d also note that a large amount of historical Mercury/Gemini/Apollo documents that 

were previously available at [the National Archives at] Fort Worth is now apparently withdrawn 

due to ITAR [export controls],” Day said. NASA’s decision to close down NTRS came after 

comments on Jiang’s arrest by Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.), about the potential security issues of 

NASA’s technical data being available to the public. Wolf said that the documents “were 

available for the world to access, including countries of concern like China and Iran. There are 

reports that this website was accessed extensively from foreign countries of concern. This website 

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42

is still active and should be taken down immediately and should undergo appropriate security 

reviews.” Shutting down a database the size of NTRS could raise concerns for public-sector 

agencies that in recent years have moved aggressively toward opening up their data stores and 

sharing datasets as part of a move toward transparency. Agencies don’t intend to disclose 

sensitive or classified information, of course, but the volume of available information leaves open 

the possibility. And the subsequent challenge with shutting down an open database is that a lot of 

that information already has been shared. Web posted. (2013). [Can NASA vet all material in its 

shuttered tech database? [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.gcn.com/ [2013, March 27].] 

Feds study impact triathlon will have on wildlife at refuge 

A bicycle race planned to roll through the refuge surrounding Kennedy Space Center and loop 

around the space shuttle launch pads hinges on whether the feds think birds, snakes and other 

frequent refuge visitors can bear so many bikes. An estimated 1,500 people from 14 countries 

would participate in the bicycling portion of the 2013 Rocketman Florida Triathlon, planned to 

pedal through the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge May 5. But the race through the refuge 

and KSC awaits a decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. They’re reviewing whether so 

many bicyclists pedaling through the refuge is compatible with the animals and visitors there. 

“It’s a non-traditional use; we can’t find any refuge in the country that’s allowed it,” said Layne 

Hamilton, the refuge’s manager. Last month, the event’s organizers asked the wildlife service for 

a special-use permit for the bike race, but the agency turned them down. Refuge officials said the 

commercial event was inappropriate based on the National Wildlife Refuge System Improvement 

Act of 1997. Under that act, the refuge can be used for hunting, fishing, wildlife viewing and 

environmental education. But Titusville Mayor Jim Tulley and U.S. Rep. Bill Posey, RRockledge, asked the refuge to reconsider. Hamilton said the refuge has since been working with 

race organizers to come up with stipulations that would make the event fit in with the refuge 

system’s mission. The original plan had been to bring racers through Canaveral National 

Seashore as well, but federal parks service officials denied the triathlon permission to use the 

park. They have stricter rules against “high-density” recreation uses. Commercial athletic events 

were not considered during the development of the refuge’s 15-year management plan in 2007. 

So the wildlife service has put together a draft assessment examining the potential impacts and 

released the document for public comment. The public has until April 24 to weigh in. Web 

posted. (2013). [Feds study impact triathlon will have on wildlife at Merritt Island refuge 

[Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, March 27].] 

March 28: Angry Birds and pigs in space 

I pull back on the slingshot and release an attack on the pig glaring smugly back at me from the 

facing wall. Today I am an Angry Bird. Actually, I’m one of a half-dozen angry birds, standing 

behind a row of giant slingshots. And we’re sending our arsenal of cartoonish stuffed birds in 

flight as we aim at the framed pig faces. Lights flash if we hit our targets, and points register on a 

board. We are at Angry Birds Space Encounter, which opened March 22 at the Kennedy Space 

Center Visitor Complex. The exhibit, a joint venture with Rovio Entertainment, creator of the 

ubiquitous mobile app game, brings the game to life at seven interactive stations. In the game, 

birds with different superpowers use slingshots to hurl themselves at the pigs who stole their 

eggs. The Space Center exhibit is the first Angry Birds attraction in the United States designed 

for all ages. My family and I visited opening day. I’d never played the game before, so my kids 

talked me through Angry Birds Rio, one of several game versions, using the iPad on the drive up 

from South Florida. So here I stand, at the Eggsteroids Slingshot, next to a can of stuffed, 

apparently pretty ticked-off birds, not knowing what to do. “You have a blue bird on your 

slingshot, so you aim at the blue pigs,” says the resident expert next to me, a boy who comes up 

to my waist. He gestures towards the wall of blue and red pigs. The buzzer sounds, and we send 

one bird after another flying to smack the pigs. I suck at it. But my neighbor is really good, as is 

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43

every other kid in the place. The family and I head to the Danger Zone, a labyrinth of mirrored 

walls, strobe lights and sound effects where Angry Birds apparently hang out to surprise Space 

Center visitors. I pity the mom with several small boys in front of us. One starts to cry. One yells, 

“We’re lost!” but then they’re all smiles as we are deposited in the customary end to any Florida 

attraction: the gift shop. If you’ve never played Angry Birds, it’s strangely addicting, as I learn 

firsthand in the Game Zone. Two rows of gamers, sized from knee-high to full-grown, 

hypnotically tap and swipe at the mounted iPads. The room is quiet. The story goes that the 

original idea for the Angry Birds Space game came in a Twitter message from @NASA to Rovio 

that said: “Hey @RovioMobile, our computers are a bit better than they were in ’69. We might be 

able to help you launch birds if you find pigs in space.” That Tweet led to NASA’s partnership 

with Rovio and the creation of the Angry Birds Space game and Angry Birds exhibit. At the 

exhibit, even if you don’t want to play the game, you can check out the brain-teasing digital 

puzzles and just-for-fun activities on mounted iPads. For me, the Red Planet Lazer Challenge is 

the highlight of the exhibit. The object is to maneuver your way through a maze of crisscrossed 

laser beams as you search for golden eggs. Ian and I decide to play together. He wants to play the 

expert level. I overrule and choose “easy.” It seems that’s my word for the day. Web posted. 

(2013). [Angry Birds and pigs in space [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.miamiherald.com/ [2013, March 28].] 

March 30: Closing the doors on the shuttle program 

NASA decommissioned the Merritt Island Launch Annex tracking station a week after the final 

shuttle landing in July 2011, ceremonially pointing a 30-foot antenna skyward. Just over a year 

later, the station’s control center, two S-band antenna stands and supporting structures were gone. 

“It looks like a golf course now,” said Dan Tweed, associate director for facilities at Kennedy 

Space Center. The tracking station was among the first shuttle-related facilities razed at KSC, 

and dozens more – ranging from buildings to small substations and fuel tanks – are slated to come 

down over the next few years. That work, plus final contract closeouts, is what remains to be 

done after an 18-month effort to shut down the shuttle program across the country. NASA’s 

Shuttle Transition and Retirement program officially disbands Sunday. Since September 2011, it 

transferred or disposed of a million line items of shuttle program property worth $18 billion, 

including the orbiters. The fate of some of Kennedy’s biggest and best-known shuttle facilities, 

including two vacant orbiter hangars and a mothballed launch pad, is still to be determined as 

NASA seeks new commercial or government users for them. But as the T&R process ends, 130 

facilities not wanted by NASA’s exploration program or commercial partners, or otherwise 

deemed obsolete, are scheduled to be abandoned and eventually demolished. Another 40 already 

have been removed. Between last year and 2015, the center expects to demolish 760,000 square 

feet of space, including offices inside the Vehicle Assembly Building, at an estimated cost of 

more than $27 million. Targeted for demolition are the gantry that hoisted orbiters on and off 

their 747 carrier aircraft; some buildings where shuttle thrusters were serviced; a facility that 

hazardous operations teams used; and some Cape-side hangars. Any could be saved if a partner 

emerges soon to take on operations and maintenance costs. The last T&R funding support dries 

up this month. Tweed said most of the facilities are small or located in outlying areas the public 

rarely sees, so they’re unlikely to be missed except by people who once worked in them. More 

significant than the buildings to be razed has been the shuttle shutdown’s human impact. This 

month saw the last big shuttle-related layoff of more than 500 contractors; one more round is 

expected in early April. KSC’s workforce numbered 8,450 at the end of last year, according to 

NASA’s most recent numbers, down 45 percent since mid-2009. The post-shuttle demolition 

plan fits into a broader strategy to consolidate operations and “right-size” Kennedy into a more 

modern, efficient and cost-effective operation. The strategy includes construction of a new 

Central Campus, an office and data center complex planned by 2015 whose $85 million first 

phase will enable demolition of another 600,000 square feet of outdated buildings, including 

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44

KSC’s headquarters building. “It’s a major transformation of the center when you include the 

Central Campus,” said Tweed. Web posted. (2013). [Closing the doors on the shuttle program 

[Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, March 30].] 

 Win A VIP Trip To A NASA Visitor Center 

A new contest from the NASA Visitor Centers wants to fly you and your family to visit one of 

them (Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, Space Center Houston or the U.S. Space and 

Rocket Center) if you create the most impressive 1-2 minute video explaining “Why Space 

Matters”. Unlike NASA social events, your travel and accommodation expenses are paid if you 

win this trip. Now that’s a great reason to give it a go! Hurry! The deadline is midnight on April 

7th, 2013. Web posted. (2013). [Win A VIP Trip To A NASA Visitor Center! Why Space Matters 

Video Contest [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.scientificamerican.com/ [2013, March 

30].] 

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45

APRIL 

April 1: Apollo Rocket Engines Land in Kansas for Conservation 

The historic NASA rocket engine parts raised off the ocean floor by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos 

have landed at a Kansas museum, where the 40-year-old artifacts’ conservation will soon begin in 

view of the public. The Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center announced March 25 the arrival 

of more than 11,000 kilograms of Apollo-era F-1 engine components, which just four days earlier 

had arrived on shore in Cape Canaveral, Fla. Now at the Cosmosphere’s SpaceWorks, a 1,800-

square-meter facility, conservators, artisans, craftsmen and engineers will carefully separate the 

engine components of each recovered piece, some weighing more than 900 kilograms, and 

continuously flush each piece in basins containing water and anti-corrosion agents to remove 

ocean debris and prevent further decay. Once each F-1 rocket engine part is stabilized, it will 

undergo a detailed conservation process involving a thorough cleaning, photo documentation, and 

a studiously prepared provenance of its components, manufacture and use. The SpaceWorks’ 

five-member team will be assisted by a conservator, maritime archeologist and a partnership with 

aerospace engineers from the Wichita State University’s National Institute for Aviation Research 

(NIAR). The Cosmosphere has also recruited former space shuttle astronaut Steven A. Hawley, 

now with the Department of physics and astronomy at the University of Kansas, and materials 

corrosion expert Carl Locke, the former dean of the University of Kansas, School of Engineering. 

Despite Bezos having funded the location, recovery and now conservation of the F-1 engines, the 

artifacts remain the property of NASA. The work being conducted by the Smithsonian-affiliated 

Cosmosphere is being done with the space agency’s knowledge. Web posted. (2013). [Jeff 

Bezos’ Apollo Rocket Engines Land in Kansas for Conservation [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.spacenews.com/ [2013, April 1].] 

NASA employees face second identity theft scare 

Less than 12 months after dozens of National Aeronautics and Space Administration fire and 

safety employees had their Social Security numbers stolen a second “potential compromise” has 

been reported in Washington. NASA Associate Deputy Administrator Richard J. Keegan Jr., 

issued a letter to Space Coast employees confirming the theft of “official NASA documents and a 

laptop computer” from an employee’s “locked vehicle.” According to Keegan NASA learned of 

the break-in on October 31, 2012. The notice to employees was delivered two weeks ago. 

Richard Thomas a fire and safety employee with NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, says he 

couldn’t believe it was happening again. Thomas says he discovered someone else had filed a tax 

return using his personal identity last year. He is one of 39 local NASA employees caught in the 

tax identity web. Thomas’ social security number was used by an imposter who filed for a 

$12,198 refund. Thomas says he received a check in his name for the same amount even though 

he owed the IRS $200. Union President Kevin Smith says the only common link is applications 

filed with G4S Government Solutions, the company brought in by NASA to hire fire and safety 

employees last year. The company said it investigated and found no security system breach. 

According to Smith G4S ”did not look for internal problems or an internal mole.” The October 

theft is different but the potential damage is the same. NASA has advised employees that it will 

encrypt all employee personal information and provided every employee that might be impacted 

with a year of protection from "ID Experts," a firm that specializes in identity monitoring. Law 

enforcement agencies say the TAX identity theft can happen to anyone. Brevard County Sheriff 

Wayne Ivey says tax payers need to check their credit reports several times a year because thieves 

will collect identifications and then hit” in waves.” Web posted. (2013). [NASA employees face 

second identity theft scare [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.clickorlando.com/ [2013, 

April 1].] 

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46

April 2: Brush fire burns near Kennedy Space Center 

A 2,200-acre Brevard County brush fire burning near Kennedy Space Center has forced the 

evacuation of a campground on Merritt Island, officials said. The KARS Park campground near 

Hall Road was evacuated Tuesday afternoon because of the blaze, Brevard Fire officials said. At 

least a dozen Kennedy Space Center employees were evacuated from facilities in the area around 

the fire. A lightning strike sparked the fire around 5 p.m. Monday, and it's grown to 2,200 acres, 

fire officials said. The blaze fire is about 50 percent contained, officials said. The blaze is 

burning south of the KSC's main facility and visitor complex, but no damage has been reported, 

and no one has been injured in the fire. Ashes from the fire could be spotted along Courtenay 

Parkway, which runs north-south outside the space center. Web posted. (2013). [Brush fire burns 

near Kennedy Space Center [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.clickorlando.com/ [2013, 

April 2].] 

Pad 39B transition making good progress ahead of SLS debut 

Kennedy Space Center’s Pad 39B is fast returning to the status of an active launch pad, with new 

elevator towers now visible on the surface of the former Shuttle launch site. The “clean pad” will 

be able to launch a number of vehicles, although its primary role will be the launch pad for the 

Space Launch System (SLS). Shuttle Discovery was the last crewed vehicle to launch from Pad 

39B. With all the remaining Shuttle missions reverting to the use of Pad 39A, engineers began 

converting 39B for the Constellation Program (CxP), with the first notable change relating to the 

construction of three giant lightning protection system towers. The towers were completed ahead 

of one final swansong with a Shuttle stack, as Endeavour paid a short visit to 39B during her 

STS-400 role as the Launch On Need (LON) support for Atlantis’ STS-125 mission to service the 

Hubble Space Telescope. With Endeavour sat on pad as Atlantis successfully launched on her 

flagship mission to Hubble from 39A, this period marked the 39B’s final role with Shuttle. 

Endeavour eventually launched from 39A on her STS-127 mission, following the standdown 

from her rescue support requirement. Pad 39B then transitioned into the Constellation Program, 

marked by Ares I-X rolling to the pad out for its test launch in 2009. With the realignment 

towards the Space Launch System, most of the Pad’s past and future transition proved to be a nice 

fit for the Heavy Lift Launch Vehicle (HLV), with the giant towers ably protecting all variants of 

SLS along with the “clean pad” scenario allowing for the monster rockets to roll up to the pad just 

as Ares had planned. Controlled demolition of Pad B’s Shuttle structures began in September, 

2010 – with deconstruction work commencing on the Rotating Service Structure (RSS), ahead of 

the removal – block by block – of the Fixed Service Structure (FSS), rendering Pad B a clean pad 

for the first time in over 30 years, back when the pad hosted the giant Saturn V launch vehicles. 

Preparations for the modern day Saturn V – the SLS – have proceeded to plan, allowing for a mix 

of the old and the new, as renovations took place on infrastructure such as the Water Tower –

which is used to holds hundreds of thousands of gallons of water, in turn providing the required 

rush of water to supply the Sound Suppression System, used to protect the launch vehicle from 

acoustical energy reflected from the platform during lift-off. Under the guidance of the Ground 

Systems Development and Operations (GSDO) Program office, along with Center Operations at 

KSC, 39B now has a steel and concrete structure that houses two elevators and the associated 

machinery. These elevators will provide access from the pad surface to the “0′′ level, or deck, of 

the new ML. The two new traction elevators replaced a single old hydraulic elevator was left on 

the pad surface from the Shuttle days. Pad 39B has also enjoyed modifications to the Pad 

Terminal Connection Room, replacing the old Halon fire system with a new sprinkler system, and 

removal of Shuttle’s hypergolic fuels and the oxidizer farms – although the liquid hydrogen and 

liquid oxygen spheres remain. They have undergone repairs, sandblasting and have been 

repainted. Other work that is set to take place includes refurbishing or modifying the piping that 

will interface with the ML and replacing the water lines and unused piping beneath the pad, in an 

area called the catacombs. The liquid hydrogen, liquid oxygen and other interfaces on the pad or 

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47

pad structures will be updated, while the pad structure in the Environment Control Room, ducts 

will be removed, and a new system will be designed and built to replace the old Shuttle-related 

equipment. Web posted. (2013). [Pad 39B transition making good progress ahead of SLS debut 

[Online]. Available WWW: http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/ [2013, April 2].] 

April 4: Shiloh launch site plan draws mixed reactions

A proposed state-run launch complex at Kennedy Space Center met with a mixed reception 

Thursday during the public’s first opportunity to comment at a local government meeting. After 

Space Florida briefed the Volusia County Council on its plans, about 10 environmentalists voiced 

opposition, saying it would wreck part of a vital national wildlife refuge. A handful of speakers 

supported the proposal, which they believe would attract jobs and ensure Florida doesn’t drive an 

emerging commercial launch industry to other states. NASA hasn’t yet agreed to give up the 

roughly 150 acres on which the state wants to build one or two launch pads near the BrevardVolusia county line, just inside the northern border KSC shares with the Merritt Island National 

Wildlife Refuge. But Space Florida is pressing ahead with an environmental study of the site, 

expected to start next month and take about a year. Agency CEO Frank DiBello said the project 

is vital to the state’s future if it wants to capture a projected 12 to 20 commercial launches a year, 

and not settle for government launches dropping in frequency because of the shuttle’s retirement. 

He described market demands for more flexibility and control as inherently in conflict with 

NASA and Air Force missions to protect their national security and exploration assets, despite 

strides they have made to become more business-friendly. SpaceX, which recently completed a 

third cargo mission to the International Space Station, and Blue Origin are two companies known 

to be interested in the Shiloh site. But SpaceX CEO Elon Musk recently identified Texas as the 

front-runner to win his commercial launches, and Georgia and Puerto Rico are also considered 

threats to Florida. Orbital Sciences Corp. this month plans to launch a new rocket from Virginia, 

which it chose over the Space Coast in 2008. Environmentalists repeated arguments made to 

NASA five years ago when the agency studied developing commercial launch pads at Kennedy, 

far south of the Shiloh site. Rather than disturbing a wildlife refuge, they said, the government 

and private firms should figure out how to share existing infrastructure at KSC and Cape 

Canaveral Air Force Station. The seven-member council voted 5-2 to soon consider a resolution 

supporting Shiloh, with Patricia Northey and Pat Patterson opposed. Brevard County 

commissioners in February unanimously approved a resolution backing Shiloh and state efforts to 

promote a commercial launch capability “superior to that available anywhere else in the nation.” 

Web posted. (2013). [Shiloh launch site plan draws mixed reactions [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, April 4].] 

April 5: Minn. company to take over Hangar N at Cape Canaveral AFS 

A Minnesota company will take over a local NASA facility and its inspection equipment, 

preserving it for potential future use on space systems, Kennedy Space Center announced today. 

PaR Systems Inc. signed a 15-year lease to take over operations and maintenance of Hangar N, a 

NASA facility located on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Hangar N specialized in nondestructive test and evaluation, or NDE. It is among the facilities once supported by the space 

shuttle program for which NASA has sought new commercial or government users. “Kennedy 

Space Center continues to work with the commercial community to find inventive ways to use 

our unique facilities and equipment,” Kennedy Director Bob Cabana said in a statement. “We 

look forward to this new partnership with PaR Systems and its contributions to America's space 

program.” Based in Shoreview, outside Minneapolis, PaR Systems is a privately held business 

specializing in process automation, robotic solutions and services for critical applications in 

demanding environments, NASA said. The company will initially employ eight people at KSC. 

Web posted. (2013). [Minn. company to take over Hangar N at Cape Canaveral AFS [Online]. 

Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, April 5].] 

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48

United Space Alliance cuts 68 jobs today in final shuttle layoffs 

United Space Alliance today lets go 68 local employees in its last round of layoffs tied to 

retirement of the space shuttle program. After the cuts, the company that served as NASA's 

prime shuttle contractor since 1996 and once employed more than 6,500 people here will have 

just 154 employees left on the Space Coast. "A small number of USA employees will remain in 

Florida to close out the Florida-based contracts/operations," a company spokesperson said in an 

e-mail. NASA closed its Shuttle Transition and Retirement office at the end of March. USA 

continues to support International Space Station operations with more than 800 employees in 

Texas and about 90 in Alabama. The joint venture owned by The Boeing Co. and Lockheed 

Martin Corp. says its parent companies continue to discuss its future. Web posted. (2013). 

[United Space Alliance cuts 68 jobs today in final shuttle layoffs [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, April 5].] 

NASA Commercial Crew Partner Boeing Completes Review 

The Boeing Company of Houston, a NASA Commercial Crew Program (CCP) partner, has 

successfully completed a preliminary design review (PDR) of the component that would connect 

the company's new crew capsule to its rocket. The review is one of six performance milestones 

Boeing has completed for NASA's Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) initiative, 

which is intended to make available commercial human spaceflight services for government and 

commercial customers. The company is on track to complete all 19 of its milestones during 

CCiCap. Boeing is one of three U.S. companies NASA is working with during CCiCap to set the 

stage for a crewed orbital demonstration mission around the middle of the decade. Future 

development and certification initiatives eventually will lead to the availability of human 

spaceflight services for NASA to send its astronauts to the International Space Station. The 

component that was reviewed is called the Launch Vehicle Adapter. The critical structure is being 

designed by United Launch Alliance (ULA) to join Boeing's Crew Space Transportation-100 

(CST-100) spacecraft to ULA's Atlas V rocket, just above the rocket's second stage. In addition 

to the Launch Vehicle Adapter PDR, Boeing recently completed two additional CCiCap 

milestones, including the Engineering Release (ER) 2.0 software release and the Landing and 

Recovery Ground Systems and Ground Communications design review. The ER 2.0 software 

release was completed Jan. 25 in Boeing's Avionics and Software Integration Facility Lab in 

Houston. This test laid the foundation for the software structure to control and fly the spacecraft, 

as well as communicate with pilots and ground systems. The landing and recovery ground 

systems and ground communications design review Jan. 16 to 18 in Titusville, Fla., established 

the baseline plan for equipment and infrastructure needed for CST-100 spacecraft ground 

communications and landing and recovery operations. [“NASA Commercial Crew Partner 

Boeing Completes Launch Vehicle Adapter Review,” NASA Release #13-098, April 5, 2013.] 

NASA wants to lasso asteroid, tow it home

President Barack Obama next week will ask Congress to accelerate plans to send U.S. astronauts 

to an asteroid, moving up to 2021 the nation’s next grand goal for human space exploration, 

officials said Friday. First, scientists would identify an asteroid, and in 2019, a robotic spacecraft 

would snare the space rock and tow it back to an orbit on the far side of the moon two years later. 

Then, on the first piloted flight of NASA’s Orion spacecraft, astronauts would rendezvous with 

the asteroid and perform spacewalking investigations. The mission would take place four years 

ahead of a 2025 challenge Obama issued in April 2010. It would shed light on the origins of the 

solar system and, officials said, enable the U.S. to develop technologies required for future human 

expeditions to Mars. And officials said it could help the U.S. develop capabilities to save the 

world – to divert any Earthbound, planet-killing asteroid in ways that only Hollywood can now. 

The Obama administration is scheduled to deliver its proposed fiscal year 2014 budget to 

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49

Congress on Wednesday. Buried deep within it will be a $100 million request that would start up 

the accelerated human expedition to an asteroid. “NASA is in the planning stages of an 

innovative mission to accomplish the president's challenge of sending humans to visit an asteroid 

by 2025 in a more cost-efficient and potentially quicker timeframe than under other scenarios,” 

said a senior government official who was not authorized to speak publicly about the plan before 

the proposed 2014 budget is unveiled next week. The official said the mission would use the 

heavy-lift rocket and deep-space capsule that have been under development for several years. 

The total cost of the robotic asteroid retrieval and human expedition is unclear. But no landing 

spacecraft is required — astronauts would do spacewalking sorties from Orion capsules — so the 

price tag is expected to be in line with NASA flagship missions. Web posted. (2013). [NASA 

wants to lasso asteroid, tow it home [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/

[2013, April 6].] 

 Meet The NASA Scientist Who's Reinventing The Wheel 

Salim Nasser never thought he'd reinvent the wheel. But he's done it, in a sense, for wheelchairs. 

Nasser, a NASA engineer, inventor and quadriplegic, has created a wheel that could dramatically 

reduce how much energy a wheelchair user expends moving his or her chair forward. Now 

Rowheels, the company he cofounded in 2012, hopes to bring the wheel to market later this year. 

If successful, it should mean more efficient mobility and healthier bodies for users, Nasser says. 

Standard manual wheelchairs require users to grasp and push a rim that extends from the chair's 

back wheels. It's a decent enough method for self-propulsion, but it taxes small, weak muscles in 

the shoulders and arms and can lead to repetitive stress injuries. Nasser's wheel helps target 

bigger muscles. How it works: Using a mechanical device called a planetary gear, Nasser 

redesigned the wheel hub so that users pull it backwards in a rowing motion to go forward. 

Planetary gears are used in automatic transmissions and power tools to reverse and reduce 

motion, but no wheelchair wheels on the market currently use this design, Nasser says. Nasser is 

a native of Colombia who now lives near the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. His day job is 

designing and analyzing equipment for mobile launchers used to assist space shuttles. Web 

posted. (2013). [Meet The NASA Scientist Who's Reinventing The Wheel [Online]. Available 

WWW: http://www.popsci.com/ [2013, April 5].] 

April 8: Merritt Island refuge matures as it turns 50 

Both spaceships and huge flocks of birds blast off from these vast, salty marshes near Cape 

Canaveral. For a half-century, the marshes buffered us from volatile rockets. But NASA’s 

Merritt Island hinterlands also guarded rare species from us. Visitors have marveled for at the 

power of this place. The thrust of Saturn V rockets thumped at the chests of those who witnessed 

man’s leaps toward the moon. Hearts pound with a different kind of awe when hunters happen 

upon an alligator snatching a duck in a death grip or when birders scope seldom-seen plummage. 

This year, the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge marks 50 years of wildlife protection 

around the Kennedy Space Center. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service plan several events before 

the official 50th anniversary arrives Aug. 28. The 140,000 acres the space agency set aside as a 

buffer has become proof to many that high-tech and wildlife can coexist. NASA asked for 

appropriations for the early land buys on Merritt Island in 1961 to support the Apollo program. 

The land would eventually become the Kennedy Space Center. The space agency bought much 

of the Merritt Island refuge’s land for more launch pads that never materialized. Naturalist Allan 

Cruickshank, who worked for the Audubon Society, prodded NASA officials to let the Fish and 

Wildlife Service take over managing the lands. In its 50 years, biologists say the refuge has 

become crucial habitat for migratory birds, bobcats, Florida scrub jays and gopher tortoises. 

More than 500 species live on the refuge and surrounding estuary, including at least 15 federally 

listed as endangered or threatened, such as the indigo snake and the manatee. Web posted. 

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50

(2013). [Merritt Island refuge matures into premier preserve as it turns 50 [Online]. Available 

WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, April 8].] 

NASA Chief: Commercial Crew Safe from Sequester, for Now 

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said the budget for the agency’s Commercial Crew 

Program, an effort to send astronauts to the international space station aboard privately owned 

spacecraft by 2017, is safe from sequestration — for now. Bolden had warned in February that 

the Commercial Crew Program could be among the first NASA efforts to be slowed by 

sequestration — automatic spending cuts that phased in March 1 and which would eliminate 

almost $1 trillion in federal spending by 2023. NASA’s share of the sequester this year was five 

percent of its $17.8 billion top line from 2012, plus a smaller cut Congress imposed to shield 

certain military and civil programs — including some at NASA — from sequestration’s full 

effect. That left the space agency with $16.65 billion for 2013, under a six-months spending bill 

signed March 26. Even under these conditions, the Commercial Crew Program actually wound 

up with a slightly bigger budget for 2013 than it had in 2012: $489 million instead of $406 

million. However, the increased funding is still far short of the $830 million the White House 

requested for the program this year. “If we aren’t able to get up to the $800 million level, then I 

will have to come back and officially notify the Congress that we cannot make 2017 for 

availability of commercial crew,” Bolden said at that hearing. Despite that possibility, NASA is 

pressing ahead with the next stages of the Commercial Crew Program, which is now in the 

middle of a $1.1 billion development phase known as Commercial Crew Integrated Capability 

(CCiCap). In the current phase, which began in August and runs through May 2014, Boeing 

Space Exploration, Sierra Nevada Space Systems and SpaceX are all working on competing 

designs for crew transportation systems. NASA will soon begin narrowing the field of 

commercial crew competitors, Bolden said at the March 20 hearing. The agency plans to issue a 

request for proposals for follow-on work to CCiCap this summer, Bolden said at the hearing. 

Web posted. (2013). [NASA Chief: Commercial Crew Safe from Sequester, for Now [Online]. 

Available WWW: http://www.spacenews.com/ [2013, April 8].] 

April 10: Boeing Executive Defends SLS as Only Deep-space Option 

The former head of NASA’s space shuttle program, now an executive with Boeing Space 

Exploration, defended the heavy-lift Space Launch System (SLS) the Houston-based company is 

helping NASA build as the only credible way to mount crewed missions beyond low Earth orbit 

using today’s technology. “If you look at a wide range of missions — anything really beyond low 

Earth orbit — you have to have more lift capability than we have commercially available right 

now, and SLS provides that,” John Shannon, international space station program manager at 

Boeing, said April 10 during a press conference at the 29th National Space Symposium. “People 

that say there are other options, or other ways to get beyond low Earth orbit — it’s just not a fact, 

it’s just not true. There are technologies you could develop that would be years and years in the 

future ... but SLS gives you the capability to do that much, much quicker.” Shannon, who spent 

25 years at NASA before joining Boeing in January, pointedly dismissed the idea that NASA has 

to identify a specific destination and mission for SLS to make the big rocket worthwhile. NASA 

is spending roughly $2.7 billion a year on SLS and its companion deep-space crew carrier, the 

four-seat Orion capsule being built by Lockheed Martin Space Systems of Denver. Orion will 

first fly to space in 2014 aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta 4 rocket for an Earth orbit and 

re-entry mission to test the capsule’s heat shield. SLS will first launch Orion in 2017, when it will 

send the craft to lunar space without a crew. NASA will repeat that mission with a crew in 2021. 

NASA’s 2014 budget request, which was rolled out by the administration of U.S. President 

Barack Obama only hours after Shannon spoke here, contained no alterations to these plans. The 

White House requested about $1.7 billion for SLS alone, about $300 million less than the 

program has this year under a $1 trillion spending bill signed March 26. This funding would be 

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51

spent on vehicle development at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., launch 

infrastructure at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and support from NASA’s national 

network of field centers. An administration official said the funding request for SLS, though 

lower than the 2013 level, is sufficient to keep the program on track. Web posted. (2013). [Boeing 

Executive Defends SLS as Only Deep-space Option [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.spacenews.com/ [2013, April 10].] 

Merritt Island students works with NASA mentors 

In a room previously used to draw blood and run tests on astronauts, high school senior Maurisa 

Orona holds a satellite not much larger than the palm of her hand. Affectionately referred to as 

the “StangSat” — after Merritt Island High’s nickname, the Mustangs — a handful of Merritt 

Island High students and their NASA mentors are adding finishing touches to a prototype that 

will soon be tested on a Prospector 18 rocket. Based on how the high-altitude launch on a Garvey 

Spacecraft Corp. rocket goes this summer, students will plan and build a second and final satellite 

to launch into space on a future NASA mission. The students are thought to be the second group 

of high schoolers to build and launch a “cubesat,” a name that references the satellite’s shape. 

More often, such a project is undertaken by college students — it’s considered critical experience 

for graduates wanting to work with satellites. As part of the daVinci Academy of Aerospace 

Technology at Merritt Island High, students were already familiar electrical engineering concepts. 

The challenge came in taking the concepts they read about in textbooks and applying them. 

Students are now fundraising for the trip to California this summer, and have so far raised nearly 

half of the $10,000 they need. Once in space, the ’StangSat will measure and transmit data it 

gathers on vibration and shock environments. The group is partnering with California Polytechnic 

State University and they believe the information will help others build similar cubesats. Web 

posted. (2013). [Merritt Island students works with NASA mentors to build tiny satellite [Online]. 

Available WWW: http://www.spacenews.com/ [2013, April 10].] 

Plan for KSC: Funding to move forward 

President Barack Obama’s proposed 2014 NASA budget includes almost $2.3 billion for 

Kennedy Space Center, enough to keep pace with planned milestones toward the next-generation 

of U.S. human spaceflight, agency officials said Wednesday. KSC Director Robert Cabana said 

the money would enable NASA to continue transforming the launch base into a multi-user 

spaceport — a home for NASA, commercial companies and other federal agencies. “I think it’s a 

great budget for Kennedy Space Center,” said Cabana, a former astronaut. “It keeps us on track to 

meet all our requirements.” And those are many. Launch Complex 39B is being converted into a 

launch site for NASA’s Space Launch System, a Saturn V moon rocket-class vehicle being 

developed for missions beyond Earth orbit. Commercial companies could use it, too. The 

Operations & Checkout Building is a production facility for the Orion crew exploration vehicle, a 

new capsule designed to carry astronauts to asteroids, the moon, and Mars. KSC also leads an 

effort to enable U.S. companies to develop commercial spacecraft to ferry astronauts to and from 

the International Space Station. The budget also calls for: * $99.2 million for repairs and 

modifications to the Vehicle Assembly Building and the Launch Control Center, among other 

Complex 39 facilities. * $39 million for the first phase of a new Central Campus that would 

replace the current KSC Industrial Area administrative office facilities. Once all is completed, 

NASA will save $6 million a year in operations costs, Cabana said. * $14.9 million to upgrade 

environmental control systems in the Launch Complex 39 area to support new Space Launch 

System rockets. “The 40- and 50-year-old facilities we have out here are in great need of repair,” 

Cabana said, “and this is going to help us stay viable for the future.” Web posted. (2013). [Plan 

for KSC: Funding to move forward [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/

[2013, April 10].] 

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52

April 11: Replica space shuttle boosters rising at the Cape

Towering replicas of the twin solid-fuel booster rockets that provided the vast majority of thrust 

to propel space shuttles skyward are being stacked outside the new Atlantis exhibit at the 

Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. A mockup of the bright orange external fuel tank that 

served as the shuttle vehicle's structural backbone for launch will be added to create a dramatic 

entrance for the $100 million Atlantis display that opens to the public June 29. "Starting June 29, 

visitors will be able to get up close to the boosters and external tank in a way that only NASA 

personnel have been able to experience before. Should guests stop for just a moment and imagine 

the brave astronauts inside Atlantis, strapped to these explosive, fuel-filled SRBs and ET and 

rocketing into space, goose bumps are guaranteed. And that's before guests even set foot inside," 

said Bill Moore, chief operating officer of Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. Privately 

financed and operated, the visitor center is constructing the sprawling new building to showcase 

the storied legacy of the 135 space shuttle missions and pay tribute to the Hubble Space 

Telescope with a life-sized model and an interactive setup depicting the International Space 

Station to climb through. The star attraction is Atlantis, the spaceplane that flew the program's 

final flight in July 2011 before being decommissioned and prepped for museum display. 

Mounted atop steel pillars and tilted to port 43.21 degrees, Atlantis will have her payload bay 

doors open and appear to spectators as an orbiter seemingly still soaring above Earth with a 

massive television screen projecting space views to complete the effect. Tourists will be able to 

walk under the vehicle, alongside on observation decks and around the rear to gaze at the replica 

main engines. Web posted. (2013). [Replica space shuttle boosters rising at the Cape [Online]. 

Available WWW: http://www.spaceflightnow.com/ [2013, April 11].] 

Space launch vehicle built in Decatur passes design review 

United Launch Alliance, which is a joint venture between Lockheed Martin and Boeing, 

completed the design of a launch vehicle adapter that will help its Atlas V rocket launch a 

manned space flight. The rocket and the adapter are built in Decatur, where Boeing completed a 

design review of the project on Friday. The goal is to replace the space shuttle fleet, and the 

Atlas V project is scheduled for test flights in 2016. Web posted. (2013). [Space launch vehicle 

built in Decatur passes design review [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.bizjournals.com/

[2013, April 11].] 

Embry-Riddle Adds New Degrees 

The Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University has added six new undergraduate and graduate degree 

programs, offering educational opportunities related to recent developments in the field. Most of 

these programs will begin this fall at various ERAU locations. As the commercial space travel 

industry is being cultivated, ERAU claims to be the first school in the world to add a bachelor’s 

degree in Commercial Space Operations. The program will cover topics such as space policy, 

operations, regulation and certification, space flight safety, space program training, management 

and planning. It will be offered at the Daytona Beach, Florida, campus. Web posted. (2013). 

[Embry-Riddle Adds New Degrees [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.flyingmag.com/

[2013, April 11].] 

April 12: KSC will fix dunes near launch pads 

Kennedy Space Center has received $2.85 million from Congress to repair 1.2 miles of dunes 

eroded by Hurricane Sandy. The money will help fix dunes that buffer the two former space 

shuttle launch pads from the Atlantic Ocean. The project has yet to be put out to bid, according to 

KSC officials, but some work is expected to begin this summer, with most of the dune repair 

happening after this year’s turtle nesting season. The money to KSC is part of the $51 billion 

Hurricane Sandy relief bill, passed earlier this year. It had been uncertain how much KSC would 

receive to fix its beaches. Kennedy Space Center officials had hoped for $4 million to fix the 1.2 

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53

miles of eroding dunes that stand between the Atlantic and the two former space shuttle launch 

pads, 39A and 39B. Those pads hold the future of human spaceflight, but an ever-encroaching 

ocean imperils their future. NASA officials worry if the dunes aren’t fixed soon, the launch 

infrastructure could be irreparably damaged, and expensive to replace. Sandy sent pounding 

waves ashore on the Space Coast, causing erosion — in some spots severe — along Brevard 

County’s 72-mile shoreline. The county estimated $25 million in damages to its beach areas. 

KSC officials say their planned dune repair is only a Band-Aid fix for a much larger erosion 

problem that’s crept inland for years. Since 1943, the ocean has thinned KSC’s beach width by 

up to 66 yards between the pads, NASA officials say. Sandy’s October surprise put an 

exclamation point on that damage. The space agency is preparing Pad 39B for launches of crews 

on deep space missions aboard its heavy-lift Space Launch System rocket and Orion capsule. But 

the first unmanned test launch of the heavy lift rocket won’t happen until late 2017, followed by a 

crewed flight in 2021. Web posted. (2013). [KSC will fix dunes near launch pads [Online]. 

Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, April 12].] 

April 15: NASA Marks Third Anniversary of Obama at Kennedy 

NASA marked the third anniversary Monday of President Obama's speech at the agency's 

Kennedy Space Center in Florida, in which he laid out a plan to ensure the United States will 

remain the world's leader in space exploration. Obama's plan includes reaching new destinations, 

such as an asteroid by 2025 and Mars in the 2030s, using NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) 

rocket and the Orion spacecraft. During an anniversary event at Kennedy's Operations and 

Checkout Building, where Orion spacecraft is being processed for a 2014 flight test, Kennedy 

Space Center Director Robert Cabana and human spaceflight officials showcased Orion's crew 

module. "Three years ago today, the president was here in an empty high bay challenging us to 

go to an asteroid by 2025," said Cabana. "Today, this is a world-class production facility with a 

flight article, a flight vehicle, Orion, getting ready to fly next year. We've made tremendous 

progress in our transition to the future. And now with the announcement from the budget rollout 

last week about our plans to retrieve an asteroid and send a crew to it, we're moving forward to 

meet the president's challenge." Following the president's 2010 visit to Kennedy, Congress 

passed the bipartisan NASA Authorization Act of 2010. The agency continues to implement the 

ambitious national space exploration plan outlined in the act. It will enable scientific discovery 

and technological developments for years to come and make critical advances in aerospace and 

aeronautics to benefit the American people. The 2014 flight test will be the first launch of Orion. 

NASA also is progressing toward a launch of Orion on top of the SLS rocket during a 2017 flight 

test. The SLS Program is on track to complete the rocket's preliminary design review this 

summer. In addition, the agency is working with the private sector to develop a strong 

commercial capability to deliver cargo and crew to low-Earth orbit. The Boeing Co. of Houston 

plans to use a former space shuttle hangar at Kennedy to process its CST-100 vehicle, one of 

several spacecraft in development for commercial providers to take astronauts to low-Earth orbit 

from American soil in the next four years. The agency continues to develop technologies for 

traveling farther into space, such as solar electric propulsion, which will power a mission to 

capture an asteroid and return it to an orbit nearer to Earth. Then astronauts will launch from 

Kennedy aboard an SLS rocket and fly to the asteroid to study it in an Orion spacecraft by as 

early as 2021. [“NASA Marks Third Anniversary of Obama Support of Space at Kennedy,” 

NASA Release #13-110, April 15, 2013.] 

April 16: Orion on track for 2021 asteroid mission, KSC chief says 

President Barack Obama’s push to accelerate a human expedition to an asteroid is a daunting 

gauntlet for NASA, but one that can be accomplished, agency officials said Monday. “This is not 

going to be easy,” said Kennedy Space Center Director Robert Cabana, who piloted two shuttle 

flights and served as mission commander on two others. NASA will have to develop a number of 

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new or emerging technologies to get the job done. “We have lots of work ahead of us on that 

challenging and complex mission,” said Dan Dumbacher, NASA’s deputy associate administrator 

for exploration system development. “But NASA is up to the challenge, and the team you see 

here is ready to take it on.” Cabana, Dumbacher and others gathered in the same building where 

President Obama – three years ago Monday – challenged NASA to send astronauts to an asteroid 

by 2025. President Obama’s 2014 spending plan, which was delivered to Congress last week, 

includes a proposal that effectively would move that goal up to 2021. A robotic spacecraft would 

be sent to snare a small asteroid and haul it to an orbit on the far side of the moon in 2019. 

Astronauts on the first piloted Orion flight then would rendezvous with the ancient space rock 

and return samples to Earth. NASA’s plan for that first Orion flight had been to send a crew on a 

loop around the moon. Now astronauts would also visit an asteroid – a first in terms of space 

exploration. “I think it’s really neat that the first time we fly (Orion) with crew, they’ve got some 

place to go with it, and something to accomplish with it,” Cabana said. “We’re excited about it. 

Absolutely.” The first unmanned test flight of an Orion spacecraft is scheduled to launch in 

September 2014 on a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket at Launch Complex 37 at 

Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Now being assembled in the Orion production facility, the 

spacecraft will fly a loop around Earth at an altitude of 3,600 miles and then re-enter the 

atmosphere at a velocity that will simulate a return from an asteroid, the moon or Mars. Web 

posted. (2013). [Orion on track for 2021 asteroid mission, KSC chief says [Online]. Available 

WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, April 16].] 

Shuttle exhibit at KSC gets a boost 

A 200-foot crane this week hoisted two massive steel-and-fiberglass cylinders, reproductions of 

shuttle rocket boosters, into place flanking the entrance to the unfinished Atlantis exhibit at 

Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. The orange-ringed structures stand taller than the 

nearby building, and will only get higher as work continues. Officials will add a third segment 

and an orange external fuel tank to the full-size replicas, bringing the grand entrance to a total of 

184 feet. Visitors will walk through the massive structure just minutes before they see the shuttle 

Atlantis on display inside. The rocket boosters are only halfway complete. Before the exhibit’s 

opening date, cone-shaped booster nozzles, or “aft skirts,” will be added and then nose cones will 

top each tower. A replica external fuel tank — without the more than 535,000 gallons of fuel 

carried to propel shuttles into space — will be placed in between, suspended 24 feet above 

ground at its base. The public will get the closest look ever at the equipment. “Upon the entry, 

you’re already looking at something iconic to the space program,” said Andrea Farmer, public 

relations manager for the visitor complex. “And getting a sense of how big the space program is. 

... This is the first time anyone outside of NASA has been this close to this.” The boosters are 

anchored with piers that descend some 50 feet into the ground, a measure taken to ensure they 

weather severe storms. The $100 million visitor center facility is slated to open June 29 and 

highlights the 30-year history of the shuttle program. The centerpiece is Atlantis, which for now 

remains shrink-wrapped. Macy said the shuttle’s payload doors will be opened next month. Web 

posted. (2013). [Shuttle exhibit at KSC gets a boost [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, April 16].] 

April 17: Another Atlas 5 launch campaign has commenced

Going for its fifth flight since December in an unprecedented tempo, United Launch Alliance 

workers have begun stacking an Atlas 5 rocket for blastoff May 15 carrying a vital satellite to 

replenish the Global Positioning System. The GPS 2F-4 spacecraft will ascend into a 

constellation of satellites circling 11,000 nautical miles above Earth that provides precision 

navigation and timing to U.S. military forces and civilian users worldwide. The May 15 liftoff is 

scheduled during a window stretching from 5:39 to 5:58 p.m. EDT. It marks the first time Atlas 

and GPS have been paired together for a launch since 1985, when the last craft was carried aloft 

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55

in the original batch of research and development satellites for the navigation system. Atlas 

boosters conducted 11 launches of the Block 1 series from February 1978 through October 1985 

from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Since then, the Delta family of rockets deployed 

and serviced the operational network of GPS satellites that grew from a military system into a 

global phenomenon that touches everyday life for millions. Web posted. (2013). [Another Atlas 

5 launch campaign has commenced [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.spaceflight.com/

[2013, April 17].] 

April 19: Women have advantage in Astronaut Hall of Fame's 

Eileen Collins is an accomplished aviator and astronaut, the first woman to pilot a space shuttle, 

the first women to command a U.S. space mission and one of the first women to graduate from 

U.S. Air Force test pilot school. Collins, 56, will be inducted Saturday into the U.S. Astronaut 

Hall of Fame along with fellow fliers Curt Brown and Bonnie Dunbar. The 2013 Hall of Fame 

class is the first to include two women, and the first in which women outnumber men. Brown, 

Collins and Dunbar will join the ranks of Neil Armstrong, John Glenn, Sally Ride, Alan Shepard, 

Jim Lovell and John Young during a 2 p.m. ceremony Saturday at the Kennedy Space Center 

Visitor Complex. More than 30 Hall of Fame astronauts will be on hand to welcome the new 

inductees. Among those expected: moonwalkers Buzz Aldrin, Edgar Mitchell and Charlie Duke; 

veteran shuttle pilot and mission commander Robert Crippen. Brown, 57, flew on six shuttle 

missions. He commanded Discovery on a 1998 flight that returned legendary Mercury astronaut 

John Glenn to space at age 77, some 36 years after Glenn became the first American to orbit 

Earth. Dunbar, 64, flew on five shuttle missions, including a German Spacelab mission in 1985 

that was the only flight to carry a crew of eight. Collins, 56, a retired Air Force colonel, piloted 

Discovery on a 1995 mission to rendezvous and make a close approach to the Mir space station, 

and then the sixth shuttle-Mir docking mission in 1997. In 1999, Collins commanded Columbia 

on a mission to deploy one of NASA’s Chandra X-Ray Observatory. Then in 2005, Collins 

commanded the crew on the first post-Columbia test flight, a mission that returned the United 

States to human space exploration after a 2.5-year hiatus. Web posted. (2013). [Women have 

advantage in Astronaut Hall of Fame's Class of 2013 [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, April 19].] 

April 21: Orbital Sciences Test Launches Antares Rocket 

Orbital Sciences Corporation Sunday launched its Antares rocket at 05:00 p.m. EDT from the 

new Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport Pad-0A at the agency's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. 

The test flight was the first launch from the pad at Wallops and was the first flight of Antares, 

which delivered the equivalent mass of a spacecraft, a so-called mass simulated payload, into 

Earth's orbit. Web posted. (2013). [Orbital Sciences Test Launches Antares Rocket [Online]. 

Available WWW: http://www.spaceref.com/ [2013, April 21].] 

April 23: Sun probe arrives at launch site for mating to booster 

A solar observatory designed to study how the Sun's atmosphere is energized has been trucked to 

Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, the ground base where the air-launched Pegasus rocket 

booster will be readied to propel the NASA satellite into orbit in June. The Interface Region 

Imaging Spectrograph spacecraft, or IRIS, was developed by the Lockheed Martin Advanced 

Technology Center. It is outfitted with an ultraviolet telescope and spectrograph to help scientists 

understand a mystery about the Sun's working forces. After departing from the runway at 

California's Vandenberg Air Force Base on June 26, an L-1011 carrier jet will haul the winged 

rocket over the Pacific Ocean and release it at 7:27 p.m. local time (10:27 p.m. EDT). The IRIS 

spacecraft, weighing about 440 pounds and stretching 7 feet in length, is ideally sized for the 

Pegasus launch that will be making its 42nd flight. Its heritage includes deploying over 70 

satellites since 1990 for NASA, commercial customers and the U.S. military. Web posted. 

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56

(2013). [Sun probe arrives at launch site for mating to booster [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/ [2013, April 23].] 

April 24: Sequestration cuts in 2014 put NASA timetable in peril 

NASA's agenda of missions beyond low-Earth orbit would face delays if the federal government 

has to weather another year of sequestration spending cuts, a top agency official told a Senate 

panel Tuesday. A flight to corral an asteroid and explore it in 2021 as well as a crewed journey to 

Mars sometime during the 2030s — which some critics say isn't soon enough — are among 

projects that would be pushed back by continued budget-trimming, William Gerstenmaier, 

NASA's chief of human exploration, told members of a Senate Commerce, Science and 

Transportation subcommittee. If the forced budget cuts remain in effect during fiscal 2014, 

which begins Oct. 1, “we can't deliver the programs that we committed to you that we would 

deliver,” Gerstenmaier said. The automatic cuts that began March 1 were agreed to under a 2011 

deal Congress brokered with the White House to avoid defaulting on the national debt. Under its 

terms, deep cuts in domestic and defense programs would continue through fiscal 2021 unless 

Congress rescinds them. Despite criticisms by both Democrats and Republicans, no compromise 

has yet been reached. Web posted. (2013). [Sequestration cuts in 2014 put NASA timetable in 

peril [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, April 24].] 

Space shuttle external tank, astronaut mover on barge for museum 

The last of the space shuttle's massive orange external fuel tanks located at NASA's Florida 

launch site left Kennedy Space Center by barge on Wednesday (April 24) — but it's not going 

very far. The 154-foot-long (47-meters) external tank, one of the shuttle program's original test 

articles that for years was displayed at Kennedy’s visitor complex, departed the spaceport for the 

Wings of Dreams Aviation Museum at the Keystone Heights Airport in Starke, Fla., about an 

hour southeast of Jacksonville. Known as the Structural Test Article (STA), the external tank 

was built in 1977 and used for loading and stress analysis tests. It was then exhibited at NASA's 

Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama. In 1987, it was shipped to the Stennis Space Center in 

Mississippi for display where it remained for 10 years, prior to its transfer to Kennedy. The tank 

was displayed in Florida until November of last year, when it was moved to make way for the 

retired space shuttle Atlantis and its new exhibition facility. A mock external tank is set to be 

erected outside Atlantis’ building next month. The displaced real tank, along with several other 

large shuttle artifacts including a nose cone and aft skirt of a solid rocket booster and the crew 

transport vehicle that astronauts rode in after landing the shuttle at Kennedy, were making the 

first leg of their journey to the Wings of Dreams by water, before embarking on a still-to-bescheduled 55-mile (88.5-kilometer) road trip to the museum. Leaving the turn basin located 

opposite the 52-story Vehicle Assembly Building where external tanks were once mated with the 

shuttle orbiters they would help launch, the artifact-laden barge set sail by tugboat to the 

Intracoastal Waterway. It was then to head down the St. Johns River to end up in Green Cove 

Springs in about 30 hours time, where the shuttle parts will be offloaded for eventual delivery to 

the Wings of Dreams. NASA is inviting the public who "Spot the Tank" and the other shuttle 

artifacts on their way to the Wings of Dreams Aviation Museum to share any photos they take 

with the Kennedy Space Center through social media. Web posted. (2013). [Space shuttle 

external tank, astronaut mover on barge for museum [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.collectspace.com/ [2013, April 24].] 

April 25: Launch services: Existing providers have the market cornered 

The government expects to spend about $46 billion on launch activities from 2013 through 2017, 

according to the Government Accountability Office. Increased competition could drive those 

costs down, but current policy makes it hard for new entrants to get to the launch pad. The major 

competitors for launch services — including satellite missions, the focus of a GAO report 

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57

released Wednesday — include Dulles-based Orbital Sciences Corp.: Hawthorne, Calif.-based 

SpaceX; and United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of Bethesda-based Lockheed Martin Corp. 

and The Boeing Co. in Chicago. Other players exist, of course, but those three are among the 

mainstays that have emerged in recent years, growing rapidly through massive contract awards 

from the Defense Department and NASA. Generally speaking, new players are few and far 

between, and the lack of competition is one reason the government spends so much on launch 

services. The GAO estimated the cost of each launch at $100 million to more than $200 million, 

with additional money spent to support launch infrastructure. The government has tried to attract 

new launch providers, but it's faced challenges. Specifically, in 2011, the Air Force, NASA and 

the National Reconnaissance Office began implementing a coordinated strategy—called the Air 

Force Launch Services New Entrant Certification Guide — to certify new entrants that could 

provide launch capability. One promising note: The Air Force and other Defense Department 

offices are considering different acquisition models, including the development of smaller, lesscomplex satellites that could use small, less-costly launch vehicles. And that, perhaps would open 

doors for providers that can't currently meet the minimum requirement for vehicles to be able to 

launch at least 20,000 pounds to low Earth orbit. Web posted. (2013). [Launch services: Why 

existing providers have the market cornered [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.bizjournals.com/ [2013, April 25].] 

Bolden: NASA deep-space missions on target 

NASA's administrator tried to reassure wary lawmakers Thursday that his agency isn't footdragging on a rocket to take astronauts into deep space by the next decade. “We need a 70 

metric-ton vehicle, and we are on schedule, on target and on cost to provide that 70 metric-ton 

vehicle,” Charles F. Bolden Jr. told members of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that 

oversees NASA funding. NASA is asking for $17.7 billion for fiscal 2014, which begins Oct. 1. 

That includes $2.73 billion to develop the Space Launch System (SLS) consisting of an Orion 

multi-purpose crew vehicle and the deep-space, “heavy-lift” rocket that will carry it first to an 

asteroid as early as 2021 and then to Mars by the 2030s. The top Republican on the panel, 

Richard Shelby of Alabama, raised concerns that the amount NASA wants for SLS is some $200 

million less than the agency received in fiscal 2012. He questioned whether the proposed 

reduction is linked to the $300 million increase NASA is seeking for the Commercial Crew 

Program to help private companies develop a spacecraft to carry astronauts to the International 

Space Station. “This budget focuses too heavily on maintaining the fiction of privately funded

commercial cargo and crew vehicles, which diverts critical resources from NASA's goal of 

developing human space flight capabilities with the SLS,” Shelby told Bolden. But Bolden said 

SLS remains one of the agency's top three priorities, along with development of the James Webb 

Space Telescope and the Commercial Crew Program. The NASA administrator told senators that 

work on the deep-space mission is well underway. He said the launch complex at Kennedy Space 

Center in Florida has been significantly upgraded, J-2X engines have been successfully tested at 

Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, and a major engine component has been tested at Marshall 

Space Flight Center in Alabama. NASA simply doesn't need more than the $2.73 billion it's 

asking for SLS this year, Bolden said. “We are confident that we can carry out his program with 

the budget that we had requested,” he said. Thursday's exchange reflected the tension between 

Congress and the administration over the direction of the space program in recent years, 

especially when budgets have grown tighter. Web posted. (2013). [Bolden: NASA deep-space 

missions on target [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, April 26].] 

April 26: Form-fitting plastic cover removed from Atlantis 

The space shuttle Atlantis, now a museum piece at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, 

has emerged from the protective plastic cocoon that had encased the spacecraft since November. 

Cutting away strips at a time to reveal the nose and windows, then the tail and main engines 

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58

before breaking for the day Thursday, workers resumed the process Friday morning to fully 

reveal the retired orbiter in preparation for opening the public display June 29. "It's going to be 

so inspirational to the people who come here to see Atlantis," said Eileen Collins, the first woman 

space shuttle pilot and commander and a veteran Atlantis flier. "I hope you spread the word and 

get your friends to come down and visit." The shuttle tribute is the centerpiece of a $100 million 

revitalization project at KSC's privately-operated museum, and after months of work tourists will 

soon get their chance to see the new attraction. While construction of the 90,000-square-foot 

building to showcase the shuttle has continued ever since, workers took the precautionary step to 

cover Atlantis with a thick plastic shrink wrap material to keep dirt, dust and debris off of the 

ship's delicate blankets and tiles. Through the waning weeks of 2012, the shuttle was lifted off 

of its trailer-like transporter, enveloped in the plastic shielding, painstakingly jacked and tilted 

high above the floor for displaying in a fashion to simulate still being in orbit and the back wall 

that had been left open as a doorway was erected behind Atlantis. "The day before we built the 

building, we said 'wow, this is big building! 90,000 square feet, 116 feet (tall) at the back, 55 in 

the front.' As soon as she pulled in, the first thought was 'whew, this is a small building'" quipped 

Tim Macy, KSCVC's director of project development. But with the assembly work now winding 

down, the facility purged to collect as much dirt as possible and the plastic covering on Atlantis 

"swiffered" to wipe away the dust, it was time to unwrap the spacecraft. Early Thursday, the 

long-anticipated first glimpse of the shuttle on its display pedestals, angled at 43.21 degrees, 

finally started coming into view. "This is the very first step in unveiling Atlantis. She has been in 

a plastic 16-millimeter-thick cocoon," said Macy. Web posted. (2013). [Form-fitting plastic cover 

removed from Atlantis [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.spaceflightnow.com/ [2013, 

April 26].] 

April 28: Orion test flight is on track despite heat shield concerns 

For astronauts hurtling back to Earth with a batch of asteroid samples in 2021, a spacecraft with a 

heat shield prone to cracking could be a worrisome scenario. According to a recent government 

watchdog report, concern about that possibility held up production of the heat shield for NASA’s 

first space-bound Orion capsule, threatening to delay its uncrewed flight test next year. NASA 

knew its chosen heat shield material could crack before atmospheric re-entry and has been 

studying whether any cracks could be serious enough to “threaten the safety of the crew and 

success of the mission,” the Government Accountability Office report said. NASA says the 

mission known as Exploration Flight Test-1, or EFT-1, is on schedule for September 2014, and 

that cracking concerns have diminished since the GAO reviewed the issue last summer. “Since 

then, through material testing, thermal coatings, computer analysis and operational control, we’ve 

significantly lowered the likelihood of surface cracking during EFT-1 and believe we will obtain 

the necessary test data,” said Rachel Kraft, a spokeswoman at NASA headquarters. Slated to 

launch from Cape Canaveral on a Delta IV Heavy rocket, one of the test flight’s primary goals is 

to test Orion’s heat shield as it re-enters the atmosphere at a velocity close to a return from the 

moon or asteroid. The heat shield’s “ablative” Avocat material is similar to what Apollo 

spacecraft used. It is designed to protect crews from temperatures approaching 5,000 degrees 

Fahrenheit by eroding in a controlled fashion to move heat away from the spacecraft. But at 

colder temperatures it can experience surface cracking due to different rates of expansion 

between the Avocat and its underlying structure, NASA said. “This occurred during some Apollo 

missions but never affected the safety of the crew,” Kraft said. “There is a possibility it could also 

happen on Orion’s heat shield.” Textron Defense Systems of Wilmington, Mass., is now 

applying Avocat to a shield spanning more than 16 feet in diameter before it is shipped to 

NASA’s Orion assembly factory at Kennedy Space Center. There, Orion teams last month 

finished repairs to actual cracks — unrelated to the hypothetical heat shield cracks — that 

occurred on several of the test flight vehicle’s structural ribs during pressure testing last year. 

NASA and lead Orion contractor Lockheed Martin designed brackets to cover and strengthen the 

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59

cracked areas. A new series of tests to validate the repairs starts next month. Senior NASA 

officials have praised Orion’s progress in recent public remarks. They have cited availability of 

United Launch Alliance’s Delta IV Heavy rocket, not spacecraft issues, as the key to keeping 

next year’s test flight on schedule. If the mission does expose serious heat shield problems, 

NASA has plenty of time to correct them before up to four astronauts hop on board Orion. Web 

posted. (2013). [Orion test flight is on track despite heat shield concerns [Online]. Available 

WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, April 28].] 

 The Camera Tech That Captured NASA’s Shuttle Launches

Sadly NASA’s Space Shuttle program is shuttered, but when you're feeling whimsical at 

least you can still watch footage of the behemoth being sent into space. What you might 

not know, though, is that NASA threw all kinds of camera tech at recording the launches 

for posterity—and this video shows it off. An old promotional film produced by NASA's 

photographic contractor TGS Technology, it shows some of the 138 still and video 

cameras that were pointed at the shuttle when it launched. From blast-proof camera 

housing to insane observatory-mounted scopes, there's some serious camera tech on show 

here. And arguably, it's worth watching for the soundtrack. Video title: ‘Photo Operations 

at the Kennedy Space Center – 1980s [available on: YouTube]. Web posted. (2013). [The 

Insane Camera Tech That Captured NASA’s Space Shuttle Launches [Online]. Available 

WWW: http://www.gizmodo.com/ [2013, May 2].] 

April 30: GAO Nixes Protest Over $37M Kennedy Space Center Contract 

The U.S. Government Accountability Office on Tuesday denied a small business' protest over a 

$37 million contract to support NASA’s John F. Kennedy Space Center, finding NASA had not 

treated the business unfairly by choosing a more expensive but more experienced contractor. 

Unispec Enterprises Inc. had argued that NASA favored winning bidder Wichita Tribal 

Enterprises LLC when it evaluated the contractors' past performance and technical approach. 

Web posted. (2013). [GAO Nixes Protest Over $37M Kennedy Space Center Contract [Online]. 

Available WWW: http://www.law360.com/ [2013, April 30].] 

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60

MAY 

May 1: Delta 4-Heavy rocket moved to Vandenberg launch pad 

United Launch Alliance and the Air Force are readying the next Delta 4-Heavy rocket, the largest 

booster in the U.S. arsenal that is responsible for launching the nation's elite surveillance 

satellites. The massive rocket was placed atop its West Coast pad this week, rolling out of the 

hangar at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on Monday and going vertical Tuesday for a 

high-profile mission to deliver a National Reconnaissance Office spacecraft into polar orbit. 

Liftoff is targeted for Aug. 28. Web posted. (2013). [Delta 4-Heavy rocket moved to Vandenberg 

launch pad [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.spaceflightnow.com/ [2013, May 1].] 

Russia boosts prices for trips to ISS; NASA to pay $424M 

The U.S. will pay Russia about $71 million a seat to fly six astronauts on round trips to the 

International Space Station in 2016 and 2017, an 11 percent increase over previous per-seat 

pricing. NASA recently signed the $424 million contract to ferry the half-dozen astronauts to and 

from the station on Russian Soyuz spacecraft. In 2011, NASA paid Rosmosmos $753 million to 

fly 12 astronauts to the station between 2014 and 2016 — about $63 million per seat. In 2010, 

NASA paid Roscosmos $335 million to fly six astronauts, or about $56 million per seat. Russian 

Soyuz spacecraft have been the sole means of flying astronauts to the station since the 2011 

retirement of the U.S. space shuttle fleet. Web posted. (2013). [Russia boosts prices for trips to 

ISS; NASA to pay $424M [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, 

May 1].] 

May 2: Volusia supports Shiloh complex at north end of KSC 

After three hours of debate Thursday, the Volusia County Council gave its support to a proposed 

commercial spaceport at the north end of Kennedy Space Center and the Merritt Island National 

Wildlife Refuge. By a 6-1 vote, the council approved a resolution backing Space Florida’s plan 

to develop a spaceport “in appropriate locations” after environmental surveys are performed “to 

ensure that the pristine environmental conditions of the area are duly preserved.” More than half 

of nearly 60 public speakers supported the complex known as Shiloh, where one or two pads 

could be built on 150 acres near the Brevard-Volusia county line. Space Florida says the 

complex, operated independently from NASA and the Air Force, is needed to attract commercial 

launches by SpaceX and other companies that might otherwise move to states such as Texas or 

Georgia to establish standalone commercial launch bases. NASA has not yet agreed to give up 

land for the complex. The state plans to begin an environmental review soon in partnership with 

the Federal Aviation Administration. Web posted. (2013). [Volusia supports launches at Shiloh 

complex at north end of KSC [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, 

May 3].] 

NASA awards $1.8 million to UCF professor for study 

One of the major challenges of space travel -- especially to far-off destinations such as Mars -- is 

keeping human crews focused during dangerous voyages that could take months, even years. To 

begin working that problem, NASA recently awarded two grants, worth a combined $1.8 million, 

to Eduardo Salas, a professor at the University of Central Florida who has studied ways to 

improve human performance in high-stress situations, such as law enforcement and piloting. The 

goal is to find ways to better identify, and hopefully offset, mental hardships that could impact 

astronauts' ability to complete their mission, as well as determine the best method to split 

spacecraft operations between humans and computers. “During long-term spaceflight team 

members will talk a lot, both during mission critical operations and their down time," he said in a 

statement. "By analyzing spontaneous verbal output in real-time communication, we can develop 

tools to predict problems before they arise." Web posted. (2013). [NASA awards $1.8 million to 

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UCF professor for study of long-range human missions [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/ [2013, May 2].] 

May 5: Rocketman triathlon takes off 

The secure, tightly guarded gates of Kennedy Space Center were open for 1,400 very special 

guests on Sunday — triathletes from 16 countries and 49 states, who came to race the inaugural 

Rocketman Florida Triathlon. Race Director Mitch Varnes hopes the race will become an annual 

event. “We had 40 percent of the triathletes come from outside of Florida,” Varnes said. The 

unique course gave racers an up close look at the Vehicle Assembly Building and shuttle launch 

pads as they completed the bike portion of the course. It was the first time Kennedy Space Center 

invited participants from a privately organized sports event. In addition to the typical award 

categories, this race also had a special division just for astronauts — and another for rocket 

scientists, which was open to anyone ever employed by Kennedy Space Center, NASA, or a U.S. 

space program contracting agency. Triathletes has a choice of three separate race distances; 

Classic + (swim 1/4 mile, bike 33 miles, run 3.1 miles), International + (swim .93 miles, bike 33 

miles, run 6.2 miles) and the Half Iron (swim 1.2 miles, bike 56 miles, run 13.1 miles). Web 

posted. (2013). [Rocketman triathlon takes off [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, May 5].] 

May 6: NASA Hosts Annual Lunabotics Mining Competition 

Fifty teams of undergraduate and graduate students from around the world will demonstrate their 

lunar excavator robots May 20-24 at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Practice sessions 

for the fourth annual Lunabotics Mining Competition will take place May 20-21, followed by the 

official competition. Media representatives are invited to cover the event on Wednesday, May 22, 

from 12-4 p.m. EDT, at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. The teams have designed 

and built remote controlled or autonomous robots that can excavate simulated lunar dirt. During 

the competition, the teams' designs - known as lunabots - will go head-to-head to determine 

which machine can collect and move the most simulated lunar dirt within a specific amount of 

time. The competition is a NASA Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate 

project designed to engage and retain students in science, technology, engineering and 

mathematics (STEM) fields by expanding opportunities for student research and design. The 

project provides a competitive environment to foster innovative ideas and solutions that could 

potentially be applied to future NASA missions. Although the competition is for college 

students, the event offers many opportunities for students of all ages. NASA is hosting a college 

recruitment fair for high school sophomores, juniors and seniors showcasing STEM education 

opportunities available at top colleges and universities across the nation. [“NASA Invites Media 

to Annual Lunabotics Mining Competition,” NASA Media Advisory #M13-069, May 6, 2013.] 

GPS satellite fitted to Atlas 5 rocket for upcoming launch 

An Atlas rocket and a Global Positioning System satellite were joined together for the first time 

in 28 years Monday, as the pairing of booster and payload were united for their May 15 launch 

from Cape Canaveral. Already shrouded in the launcher's 39-foot-tall, 14-foot-diameter 

aluminum nose cone, the spacecraft was hauled to the Atlas assembly building and hoisted atop 

the Centaur upper stage by United Launch Alliance workers. The fully assembled rocket, 

standing 189 feet tall for launch, will be wheeled out to the Complex 41 pad aboard a mobile 

platform on May 14. The storied history of GPS to provide precision navigation through a spacebased constellation of satellites dates back to the 1970s, and Atlas rockets gave the earliest craft 

their lift into orbit to prove the novel concept would work. Atlas boosters conducted 11 launches 

of the Block 1 series from February 1978 through October 1985 from Vandenberg Air Force Base 

in California. Web posted. (2013). [GPS satellite fitted to Atlas 5 rocket for upcoming launch 

[Online]. Available WWW: http://www.spaceflightnow.com/ [2013, May 6].] 

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May 7: Will it be Texas or Florida for SpaceX's commercial launches? 

The spotlight in a multi-state competition to win SpaceX’s commercial rocket launches today 

shifts back to Texas. At a public meeting in Brownsville, residents will weigh in on a new private 

launch complex SpaceX has proposed building on the Gulf Coast near Mexico, which the 

company says could become its “commercial Cape Canaveral.” The Texas discussion comes five 

days after the Volusia County Council voted 6-1 to support a commercial spaceport Florida hopes 

to develop at the north end of Kennedy Space Center and the Merritt Island National Wildlife 

Refuge, offering SpaceX an alternative to other states. “Given the enthusiasm which Texas is 

showing SpaceX, it is essential that Florida show it to wants to be a player in commercial space,” 

said Dale Ketcham, Space Florida’s chief of strategic alliances, of the Volusia vote’s importance. 

While a draft environmental review of the Texas launch site is already complete and will be 

discussed at today’s meeting, Florida is just getting started on its own review. NASA recently 

cleared the way for Space Florida, in partnership with the Federal Aviation in Administration, to 

proceed with an environmental impact statement for roughly 150 acres in the abandoned citrus 

community of Shiloh. NASA has not agreed to give the state the land it owns near the BrevardVolusia county line, but says it supports efforts to attract commercial launches. “KSC is 

committed to working closely with the state of Florida in enabling commercial space operations 

from KSC,” Center Director Bob Cabana wrote to the FAA. The state will soon solicit bids from 

contractors to perform the environmental study, and the FAA is expected to select one by late 

summer, Ketcham said. In Texas, SpaceX has proposed launching up to 12 Falcon 9 or Falcon 

Heavy rockets a year. The 57-acre property under consideration is nearly surrounded by Boca 

Chica State Park and Lower Rio Grande National Wildlife Refuge, but the FAA’s draft 

environmental study did not anticipate major impacts resulting from development of 20 of those 

acres. Web posted. (2013). [Will it be Texas or Florida for SpaceX's commercial launches? 

[Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, May 7].] 

May 8: NASA Awards Contract to Modify Mobile Launcher 

NASA has awarded a contract to J.P. Donovan Construction Inc. of Rockledge, Fla., to modify 

the mobile launcher that will enable the agency's Space Launch System (SLS) heavy-lift rocket to 

send humans to an asteroid, Mars and other new destinations in the solar system. The work under 

this firm fixed-price $20.7 million contract will begin in June and be completed in 18 months. 

The mobile launcher is located at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Kennedy is 

expanding its capabilities to support the SLS rocket and ground support infrastructure. The 

modifications will enable the mobile launcher to meet vehicle processing deadlines and the 

launch manifest for SLS. SLS' first launch is scheduled for 2017. It will be a flight test to send an 

uncrewed Orion spacecraft into lunar orbit. NASA's asteroid initiative, proposed in the agency's 

budget request for fiscal year 2014, would use SLS and Orion to send astronauts to study a small 

asteroid that will have been redirected robotically to a stable orbit near the moon. Midwest Steel 

Inc. of Detroit will be a major subcontractor to J.P. Donovan Construction. Web posted. (2013). 

[NASA Awards Contract to Modify Mobile Launcher [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.spaceref.com/ [2013, May 8].] 

Space Florida OKs money for pursuit of drones 

Space Florida’s board on Wednesday approved more funding to support tests of drone operations 

and awarded the agency’s chief executive a significant raise. Florida hopes to become one of six 

test ranges the Federal Aviation Administration selects to study how to safely integrate unmanned 

aerial vehicles into the national airspace. The board approved another $715,000 for that 

initiative, on top of $1.4 million previously committed. The funding will support a series of 

technology demonstrations and flight tests — not necessarily involving drones — to help prove 

Florida’s capabilities. At least 50 applicants from 37 states have said they intend to submit test 

range proposals, according to the FAA. One reason: the massive growth projected for the 

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unmanned vehicle industry. Citing an industry trade group study, Space Florida CEO Frank 

DiBello said it was projected to be a $92 billion business over the next decade “and Florida 

deserves a significant place in that market.” Space Florida’s proposal spans four areas of the 

state, includes 12 ranges and involves over 80 partners. It includes a “code of conduct” that 

attempts to address growing privacy concerns about drone operations. Web posted. (2013). 

[Space Florida OKs money for pursuit of drones [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, May 8].] 

NASA tests Orion crew module 

Completely surrounded by a massive 20-foot-high structure called the crew module static load 

test fixture, the Orion crew module is being put through a series of tests that simulate the massive 

loads the spacecraft would experience during its mission. Orion is NASA’s new exploration 

spacecraft, designed to carry humans farther into space than ever before. During its first flight test 

next year, Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1), it will travel 3,600 miles into space and return to 

Earth. This will allow NASA to evaluate Orion’s performance in preparation for future deep 

space journeys. Lockheed Martin Space Systems began static loads testing May 3 on the Orion 

EFT-1 crew module inside the Operations and Checkout (O&C) Building at Kennedy Space 

Center in Florida. Technicians will use hydraulic cylinders to slowly apply pressure to various 

areas of the vehicle to simulate the loads it will be exposed to at different phases of the mission. 

The tests will run throughout May and June, with different phases simulating launch, ascent, 

launch abort, launch abort system separation, reentry and landing. Lockheed Martin is 

conducting the tests based on a set of prototype flight requirements. “We perform these tests to 

ensure the structural integrity of the crew module,” said Carlos Garcia, a test engineer in the 

Orion Production Office at Kennedy. Web posted. (2013). [NASA tests Orion crew module 

[Online]. Available WWW: http://www.tgdaily.com/ [2013, May 8].] 

May 9: NASA Partner Sierra Nevada Completes Safety Review 

Sierra Nevada Corp. (SNC) Space Systems of Louisville, Colo., has completed its first major, 

comprehensive safety review of its Dream Chaser Space System. This is the company's latest 

paid-for-performance milestone with NASA's Commercial Crew Program (CCP), which is 

working with commercial space partners to develop capabilities to launch U.S. astronauts from 

American soil in the next few years. The Integrated Systems Safety Analysis Review provided 

NASA with hazard reports and safety and reliability plans for the major components of the 

company's integrated crew transportation system, including the Dream Chaser spacecraft, United 

Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket, and flight and ground systems. SNC is developing its Dream 

Chaser Space System under NASA's Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) initiative, 

which is intended to lead to the availability of commercial human spaceflight services for 

government and commercial customers. A Dream Chaser engineering test craft is being prepared 

for shipment to NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center in California this month for its first freeflight test later this year at the center. The test will provide data on the winged spacecraft's 

aerodynamic performance during approach and landing on a traditional runway. [“NASA 

Commercial Partner Sierra Nevada Completes Safety Review,” NASA Release #13-135, May 9, 

2013.] 

May 10: Battle looms as commercial space interests seek wildlife refuge 

The coastal ghost town of Shiloh, where the nation's rock-star rocketeer wants to build a space 

town, is for now a place of orphan oranges, turkey tracks and lonesome tombstones. Above all, 

Shiloh is surrounded by the healthiest part of Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, a 

nationally celebrated mosaic of heavy industry and delicate environment that contains Kennedy 

Space Center in its southern half and some of the country's richest bird life in the northern extent 

that includes Shiloh. An effort by Space Florida, a state economic-development agency, to build 

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64

a 150-acre launch complex at Shiloh has confronted the Space Coast with what for many is a 

distressing choice: whether to steadfastly protect the natural qualities of the refuge's lessdisturbed half, or to encourage the expansion there of a jobs-rich industry that other states want 

badly. With a federal assessment of the launch-complex proposal now unfolding, some of the 

state's most-active environmental groups have made it a priority to defeat Space Florida's plans 

by ensuring that future rocket launches continue to take place at KSC or neighboring Cape 

Canaveral Air Force Station. Generations of space workers have been both proud of launching 

rockets from the Cape and protective of the fishing, hunting, boating and bird-watching at the 

refuge and what is widely regarded as indistinguishable from the refuge, the adjoining Canaveral 

National Seashore. But with the retirement of the U.S. space-shuttle fleet two years ago, the 

pressure has been strong to regenerate some space jobs by supporting the private launch center at 

Shiloh. The main reason Space Florida wants Shiloh is to appeal to the rocket company SpaceX 

of California. SpaceX is a rising star in the aerospace world, having made history last year by 

becoming the first commercial company to successfully blast an unmanned capsule to the 

International Space Station. Although SpaceX is already committed to doing NASA launches 

from Cape Canaveral, chief executive Elon Musk wants a separate launch site for any commercial 

payloads. Musk is considering several locations, and could make a decision this year, but it's 

thought that Florida is running behind Texas in courting SpaceX. The desire to pull ahead of 

Texas has pushed Space Florida officials to make progress on their proposal for a Shiloh site. 

Notably, the Federal Aviation Administration agreed recently to lead a study on the many 

possible effects of developing Shiloh. The Florida Natural Areas Inventory describes the 40 

miles of coastline bordering the refuge and the national seashore as the longest non-urbanized 

stretch of Atlantic beach in Florida. Web posted. (2013). [Battle looms as commercial space 

interests seek piece of federal wildlife refuge [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/ [2013, May 10].] 

What's coming for NASA's Hangar S? 

Before NASA’s first astronauts rocketed into space, they trained, slept, received medical exams 

and donned spacesuits in Hangar S. Their Mercury capsules were processed in the same facility at 

Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, which was built to support the nation’s first satellite program. 

President John F. Kennedy honored John Glenn’s pioneering orbital flight there in 1962. Despite 

a history dating from the space program’s origins through the shuttle era, Hangar S has not yet 

made the cut as one of the nearly 100 local properties NASA recognizes as historically 

significant. Now an Indiana man’s objection to that perceived slight has forced Kennedy Space 

Center to take another look at its facilities and at least delay the hangar’s date with a wrecking 

ball. Similar debates are sure to play out as Kennedy continues a massive post-shuttle transition 

that will see dozens more facilities either repurposed or demolished, some historic. Next week, 

NASA will begin a survey of 11 of its properties located in the Cape’s Industrial Area, including 

Hangar S. Cultural resource management firm New South Associates of Stone Mountain, Ga., 

will determine whether they comprise a historic district and if so, which properties contribute to 

that district. KSC now counts 92 of its properties as eligible for listing on the National Register 

of Historic Places. They range from the center’s famous launch pads and Vehicle Assembly 

Building to electrical equipment buildings, a high pressure gas facility and camera pads. NASA 

officials don’t dispute that Hangar S supported historic events. But they say the structure has 

been modified so much over time that its historic elements and character are long gone, and 

what’s left is simply a shell. “We felt like the integrity was lost,” said Barbara Naylor, KSC’s 

historic preservation officer. “It’s an empty hangar.” NASA no longer has a mission for Hangar 

S and no one has stepped forward to take it — not the Air Force, not a commercial user, not the 

KSC Visitor Complex or any outside entity. Under orders to reduce its property footprint and 

maintenance costs after the shuttle program’s retirement, KSC added Hangar S to its demolition 

list. The Mercury Mission Control Center, or MCC, was part of a National Historic Landmark 

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designated in 1984 that NASA and the Air Force share at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, for 

its role in early manned spaceflight. Now, a brown historic marker is the only sign of where it 

stood. “The MCC is the epitome of a facility that was historic, and it came down,” said John 

Shaffer, head of KSC’s environmental planning office, which oversees cultural resources. “There 

wasn’t enough money to refurbish it.” No matter how historic, NASA can demolish whatever it 

wants to as long as it takes certain steps, in consultation with the state and other interested parties, 

to “mitigate” the loss. That generally means recording the history through photographs and 

detailed engineering records archived in the Library of Congress, and sometimes preserving 

selected artifacts. For the MCC, which NASA said deteriorated into an unsafe condition, the 

agency installed the historic marker, created a Web site featuring its history and removed 

consoles for display at the Visitor Complex. Total mitigation cost: about $45,000. With Hangar 

S, NASA says it has simply followed its normal process, required by the National Historic 

Preservation Act, for altering or disposing of older facilities. If the new Cape survey, which will 

cost $19,000, does deem Hangar S eligible for the historic register, it’s not yet clear what 

mitigation might be performed before it could be knocked down. That will be determined for 

other historic structures at KSC, including pad 39A, which the state is reviewing now. NASA 

hopes to transition it to commercial users. KSC’s headquarters building is listed on the historic 

register. But it’s slated to come down when a new central campus is built. Also nearing 

demolition: the Mate-Demate Device used to hoist orbiters on and off carrier aircraft, one of 

dozens of facilities a 2007 survey deemed eligible for listing because of their shuttle program 

importance. From a preservation standpoint, NASA must handle facilities the same way whether 

they are listed on the historic register or just eligible. So far, Hangar S is neither. Web posted. 

(2013). [What's coming for NASA's Hangar S? [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, May 10].] 

May 11: Atlantis' payload bay doors swing open for display

The clamshell payload bay doors of space shuttle Atlantis swung open this week at the Kennedy 

Space Center Visitor Complex as the retired ship is configured to mimic her flying days in orbit. 

Large metal clamps were attached to the support structures on the upper surfaces of the doors and 

cables were rigged from the ceiling. The contraption slowly pulled the delicate starboard door 

opened Tuesday morning, followed by deploying the Ku-band dish antenna once used for highspeed communications, television downlink and rendezvous radar. Opening the 60-foot-long port 

door went significantly quicker on Friday morning. Workers will use suspension wires connected 

to the ceiling to hold the doors in their current state forever, allowing the bulky hardware needed 

for the opening to be removed in the coming days. The Atlantis' permanent public exhibit depicts 

the shuttle in space, just pulling away from a visit to the International Space Station. She is 

mounted top beefy support struts and angled at 43.21 degrees to port, with a massive high 

definition television screen on the wall behind to run inspiring views recorded in orbit. A replica 

docking system is installed in the bay, like the one that would have been used to connect Atlantis 

to the station. A 50-foot-long inspection boom, added in the wake of Columbia, is mounted along 

the right side of the bay, although with its camera and laser package removed. A mockup robotic 

arm will soon be installed. Web posted. (2013). [Atlantis' payload bay doors swing open for 

display [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.spaceflightnow.com/ [2013, May 11].] 

May 12: Orion crack repair under scrutiny in loads testing 

Engineers are putting NASA's first space-bound Orion capsule, set to fly in orbit in 2014, through 

tests to stress the capsule's structural shell and check repairs to cracks in the pressurized module's 

aluminum bulkhead. The static loads testing began May 3 and will run through June inside the 

Operations and Checkout Building at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The pressure shell of the 

Orion spacecraft, comprised of welded olive-green aluminum-lithium metal panels, is being put 

through the tests to verify the capsule can withstand loads it will encounter during launch, reDISCLAIMER - NOTICE OF COPYRIGHT This compilation is published under 17 U.S.C. § 108(a) as a library archival copy. Each individual article is subject to copyright protection under Title 17 of the United States Code. Unless an exception applies, permission from the article's copyright holder is necessary for any reproduction from this compilitation.
66

entry and splashdown in the Pacific Ocean. The capsule's first unmanned spaceflight, called 

Exploration Flight Test-1, is scheduled to launch on a United Launch Alliance Delta 4-Heavy 

rocket in September 2014. The Orion spacecraft will launch into a 3,600-mile-high elliptical orbit 

and plunge back into Earth's atmosphere at more than 20,000 mph, exposing its Avcoat ablative 

heat shield to temperatures greater than 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit. One of the test flight's primary 

purposes is verifying the heat shield's ability to withstand re-entry, which will be faster than any 

human-rated spacecraft since the Apollo moon program. The Orion spacecraft is designed to 

ferry astronauts to destinations beyond low Earth orbit. It would be instrumental in NASA 

missions to retrieve and study an asteroid, journey to Mars and visit manned laboratories in deep 

space. Web posted. (2013). [Orion crack repair under scrutiny in loads testing [Online]. 

Available WWW: http://www.spaceflightnow.com/ [2013, May 12].] 

May 13: Weather looks good for Atlas V launch from Cape 

An Atlas V rocket is scheduled to roll out to its launch pad Tuesday in advance of the planned 

Wednesday evening launch of an advanced GPS navigation satellite. Liftoff from Space Launch 

Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station is slated for 5:38 p.m. EDT Wednesday. The 

launch window will extend through 5:56 p.m. The 19-story Atlas V will carry the fourth in a 

series of new-generation Air Force Global Positioning System satellites. Air Force meteorologists 

say there is an 80 percent chance conditions will be acceptable for launch. The prime concern is a 

chance of low-level clouds that could block the view of range safety officers during the critical, 

early part of flight. Web posted. (2013). [Weather looks good for Atlas V launch from Cape 

[Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, May 13].] 

Will competing plans hurt nation's future in space? 

President Barack Obama had grand plans for NASA three years ago. He touted a “different” 

vision for the agency that would spur competition among private aerospace firms to develop a 

replacement for the space shuttle. That plan, known as the Commercial Crew program, was 

designed to hold down costs and advance U.S. space interests. It seemed like an approach that 

would please lawmakers, including free-market-minded Republicans concerned about runaway 

spending and national security. But Commercial Crew has been a tough sell, politically. 

Lawmakers reluctantly have provided enough money for it to limp along, but not nearly enough 

to meet some of the ambitious deadlines the Obama administration originally set. And they 

question whether aerospace companies are being given too much flexibility in developing a new 

vehicle to carry U.S. astronauts to the space station. The first crewed mission to the space station 

has been delayed until at least late 2017 — and that's only if Congress approves NASA's full 

funding request for the next three years, an unlikely scenario. Competing interests, bruised 

feelings, and budget-cutting have contributed to Commercial Crew's lack of funding, observers 

say. And they say a tug-of-war between the program and NASA's plans to send astronauts to an 

asteroid and Mars is hurting the nation's space capability at a time when tight fiscal times call for 

more cooperation, not less. Meanwhile, the U.S. has been paying Russia hundreds of millions to 

ferry astronauts to the space station since the shuttle retired. NASA recently announced it had 

signed an 18-month contract extension with Russia for $424 million to provide transportation 

through June 2017. NASA's budget is expected to drop from $18.4 billion in fiscal 2011 to less 

than $16.7 billion this fiscal year. Agency officials have asked for $17.7 billion for fiscal 2014. 

They say another year of sequestration cuts would stall some of NASA's most important work. 

Space Policy Institute Director Scott Pace, who served as the associate NASA administrator for 

Program Analysis and Evaluation in the Bush administration, said the funding shortfall is fueling 

much of the dispute between Obama and Congress. Web posted. (2013). [Will competing plans 

hurt nation's future in space? [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, 

May 13].] 

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Skylab's Grave: Remains of 1st American Space Station in Australia 

NASA will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the launch of Skylab, America's first space station, 

on Tuesday (May 14), but you might be surprised where this icon of U.S. human spaceflight 

ended up. After hosting rotating astronaut crews from 1973-1974, the Skylab space station 

eventually fell back to Earth in pieces that landed in Australia. Now, decades later, many of those 

pieces are on display at Australian museums, offering a fascinating glimpse into America's first 

stab at living in space. From May 1973 to February 1974, Skylab saw a trio of three-man crews 

take up residence aboard the outpost, before it was abandoned with the plan of possibly using the 

space shuttle (then under development) to reactivate the laboratory. But with no way to reboost 

Skylab to a higher orbit to keep it aloft, and delays in getting the shuttle off the ground , the space 

station re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere over the southern Indian Ocean in 1979, with pieces 

landing inland along the south coast of Western Australia. The mostly uncontrolled re-entry was a 

media sensation at the time, with newspapers offering prizes for the first debris found and to 

persons impacted by falling pieces. NASA's attempt at sending Skylab into the Indian Ocean, out 

of harm's way, proved only somewhat successful, and the spacecraft entered several minutes 

earlier than predicted, slightly off course. Web posted. (2013). [Skylab's Grave: Remains of 1st 

American Space Station in Australia [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.space.com/ [2013, 

May 13].] 

May 14: NASA would consider making land available for Shiloh 

Kennedy Space Center Director Bob Cabana on Tuesday argued forcefully that the center is 

changing to attract commercial operations, possibly including the development of a state-run 

launch complex on NASA property that SpaceX is eyeing. NASA will not prevent Space Florida 

from establishing a commercial spaceport at the center’s northern end if environmental studies 

and other support fall into place, Cabana told an audience of several hundred at the National 

Space Club Florida Committee’s monthly luncheon meeting. “If it works out that that’s the right 

thing to do, we’ll make sure that the land is available for them to do that,” he said. Asked if 

NASA was an advocate for the proposed Shiloh launch complex, Cabana said it was a state 

initiative. “Space Florida feels that they need that site for a launch pad,” he said. “And if they can 

prove that that’s what is required and it’s supported, I support it.” Meanwhile, NASA is also 

trying to interest companies in its two pads at Launch Complex 39, one of which is mothballed 

and the other being readied for NASA’s heavy-lift Space Launch System rocket. “The goal here 

is to bring commercial companies to the Cape in the best way possible,” Cabana said. “And I will 

do whatever is required to get those companies utilizing assets, what we have here, to make 

commercial operations a reality at the Cape.” Cabana recently agreed to let Space Florida and the 

Federal Aviation Administration proceed with an environmental impact statement for the Shiloh 

site, which proposes to use roughly 150 acres inside the northern border KSC shares with the 

Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. The study is expected to take more than a year. It comes 

as the FAA nears completion of a study of a Texas site that SpaceX is exploring as a base for 

launches of commercial missions, in addition to its existing pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force 

Station for government launches. Space Florida CEO Frank DiBello said the new study would 

help determine if Shiloh is in fact a viable launch site. NASA has not agreed to give up title to 

the land, as the state initially requested, but Cabana said other use agreements may be possible. 

More broadly in a presentation titled “Pushing the Boundaries,” Cabana on Tuesday described a 

positive future for Kennedy under President Obama’s proposed 2014 budget, which would steer 

more than $2 billion to the center through various programs. Kennedy is modifying former 

shuttle facilities to support the SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft, which hope to launch a crew to 

an asteroid in 2021. The center continues to support processing of International Space Station 

cargo, launches of science satellites and development of commercial systems that could fly 

astronauts from the Cape by 2017. He said NASA needs to respond more quickly and become 

more cost-effective to satisfy commercial operators, but took umbrage at media reports he said 

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68

have suggested KSC is not friendly to commercial space. The center’s progress will become 

more evident soon as NASA signs agreements transitioning more facilities to new users, he said, 

the same way a former shuttle hangar is being repurposed for assembly of a commercial crew 

spacecraft. But asked what the center’s greatest weakness was as it works to become a multi-user 

spaceport, he said it was a willingness to change. “I mean, we’re still talking about Apollo, you 

know?” he said. “It’s been 40 years. Give me a break. It’s the future. Let’s move on. Folks got to 

accept change, alright?” The crowd applauded. “We have tremendous history, and we can’t lose 

that,” Cabana continued. “If we’re going to survive and succeed, we have to be willing to change 

and look at things differently and move forward.” Web posted. (2013). [KSC director: NASA 

would consider making land available for Shiloh [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, May 14].] 

Space Florida and NASA-KSC Host Egg-Drop Competition 

On Saturday, May 18, Space Florida and NASA Kennedy Space Center (NASA-KSC) will hold 

the 4th Annual Planetary Lander Egg-Drop Competition at Strawberry Crest High School in 

Dover, Fla. This annual event will engage 15 high school teams, 19 middle school teams and 10 

elementary school teams from various Florida counties. Each team will build "planetary landers" 

from which a raw egg, symbolizing a payload, must remain intact as it drops nearly 20 feet, just 

as a real NASA lander would deliver a payload on the moon, Mars or an asteroid. Teams will 

build their planetary landers to fit into a 10x10x12-inch container, and the landers may be 

constructed of all forms of aluminum, plastic, wood or soft foam. The Annual Egg-Drop 

Competition is organized by Space Florida and NASA-KSC to promote student interest in 

aerospace technology, engineering and mathematics. More than 230 students are registered to 

participate in this year's event. Web posted. (2013). [Space Florida and NASA-KSC Host EggDrop Competition for Florida Students [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.spaceref.com/

[2013, May 14].] 

May 15: Lofty debut: New chief leads today's Atlas V launch 

The company that merged the Atlas and Delta rocket families aims to launch two satellitedelivery missions from Cape Canaveral in the next seven days. And with countdown clocks 

ticking toward an Atlas V liftoff at 5:38 p.m. today, a new chief will be making his debut as vice 

president of launch operations at United Launch Alliance. “It’s exciting. I’ve got to tell you, it’s 

a huge responsibility,” said Mark Dowhan, 55, of Cocoa Beach, a veteran Air Force mission 

manager and launch director who commanded the 1st and 3rd Launch Squadrons at Cape 

Canaveral Air Force Station in the late 1990s. Dowhan is replacing Jerry Jamison, a highly 

respected aerospace industry executive who is retiring at the end of June after almost three 

decades of service. A 188-foot-tall Atlas V is slated to blast off from Space Launch Complex 41 

at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station during a window that extends from 5:38 p.m. to 5:56 p.m. 

Its payload: the fourth in a series of new-generation Global Positioning System navigation 

satellites equipped with more accurate atomic clocks, a civil signal for commercial aviation and 

improved anti-jam resistance for its military signals. Then next Wednesday, May 22, a Delta IV 

rocket equipped with four solid rocket motors will blast off from Space Launch Complex 37 with 

an advanced military communications satellite. Launch window: 8:26 p.m. to 8:58 p.m. The 

upcoming Atlas V and Delta IV launches are the fourth and fifth already this year. Fifteen 

launches — 10 at Cape Canaveral and five at Vandenberg — are scheduled in 2014, including the 

launch from SLC-37 of a Delta IV Heavy and NASA’s first space-bound Orion crew exploration 

vehicle on an unpiloted test flight. Another 14 launches are slated at Cape Canaveral and 

Vandenberg in 2015, and in 2016 or 2017, he expects to start launching Atlas V rockets with 

commercial crew transportation vehicles. Web posted. (2013). [Lofty debut: New chief leads 

today's Atlas V launch [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, May 

15].] 

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ULA's Atlas V soars through crystal clear skies into orbit 

Streaking through clear blue, early evening skies, an Atlas V rocket roared off Wednesday in the 

first of two launches planned at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in just seven days. The 19-

story rocket and its payload — a new-generation GPS navigation satellite — blasted off from 

Launch Complex 41 at 5:38 p.m. — precisely on time. Countdown to the launch went relatively 

smoothly. Engineers wrestled with computer software errors that kept triggering a shutdown of a 

propellant flow-control valve on the rocket’s upper stage. However, a workaround was 

successfully put in place to fix the problem and the countdown proceeded to launch. The flight 

was one of 12 planned this year by United Launch Alliance, a joint venture partnership of 

Lockheed Martin and Boeing that merged the Atlas V and Delta IV rocket families. The company 

launches satellites for federal government agencies that include NASA, the U.S. Air Force, the 

U.S. Navy, and the National Reconnaissance Office. Next up: A ULA Delta IV rocket will 

launch a military communications satellite from Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Air 

Force Station next Wednesday. Launch time is 8:26 p.m. The launch window will extend through 

8:58 p.m. Web posted. (2013). [ULA's Atlas V soars through crystal clear skies into orbit 

[Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, May 15].] 

May 17: NASA Seeks Proposals for Commercial Operations at Pad 39A 

NASA released a synopsis Friday announcing plans to issue an announcement for proposals for 

the commercial use of Launch Pad 39A at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The 

announcement is expected next week. Use of the launch pad by industry is designed to encourage 

commercial space activities along Florida's Space Coast and fully use the historic launch 

complex. Launch Pad 39A originally was designed to support NASA's Apollo Program and later 

was modified to launch space shuttles. Today, the agency is modernizing nearby Launch Pad 39B 

to support government and commercial launches, including NASA's heavy-lift Space Launch 

System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft, which will provide an entirely new capability for 

human exploration beyond low-Earth orbit. "We remain committed to right-sizing our portfolio 

by reducing the number of facilities that are underused, duplicative, or not required to support the 

Space Launch System and Orion," said Kennedy Center Director Bob Cabana. "Launch Complex 

39A is not required to support our asteroid retrieval mission or our eventual missions to Mars. 

But it's in the agency's and our nation's best interest in meeting our commitment and direction to 

enable commercial space operations and allow the aerospace industry to operate and maintain the 

pad and related facilities." Assessments conducted by NASA show Launch Pad 39A could serve 

as a platform for a commercial space company's launch activities if the company assumes 

financial and technical responsibility of the complex's operations and management. Commercial 

use of the pad would further support NASA's goal to encourage the commercial use of property 

the agency does not need for the foreseeable future. Kennedy is positioning itself for the next era 

of space exploration, transitioning to a 21st century launch facility with multiple users, both 

private and government. A dynamic infrastructure is taking shape, designed to host many kinds of 

spacecraft and rockets capable of sending people on America's next adventures in space. 

[“NASA Seeks Proposals for Commercial Operations at Launch Pad 39A,” NASA Release #13-

146, May 17, 2013.] 

May 18: KSC and Space Florida Hosts 'Egg-cellent' Competition: 'Egg Drop' 

While it has been said, “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket,” and “Don’t count your chickens 

before they hatch,” 233 Florida students opted to not take that advice as they had their eyes on the 

prize—a single unbroken egg—Saturday, May 18, as they competed in the fourth annual 

Planetary Lander Egg Drop Competition at Strawberry Crest High School located in Dover, Fla. 

The competition was hosted by Space Florida and NASA’s Kennedy Space Center to inspire 

students from all grade levels to pursue careers in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and 

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70

mathematics) and to foster critical thinking through designing and building their own “landers,” 

designed to cushion and protect an egg. The event boasted designs from students in elementary, 

middle, and high school teams across several Florida counties. Ten elementary school teams, 19 

middle school teams, and 15 high school teams took part in the competition, in which their 

designs were judged for creativity, durability, originality, planning, and, of course, whether their 

egg “payload,” dropped from a height of 20 feet, landed intact without cracking or breaking. 

Students’ designs included lightweight materials as diverse as plastic water bottles attached 

together to form an “air cushion,” and bubble wrap, balsa wood, and streamers were added to 

increase drag; they were allowed to use a wide range of materials including aluminum, plastic, 

wood, and soft foam, with a design 10 by 10 by 12 inches across. Students also created vibrant 

posters to explain their visions; one group even wrote a rap tune about their innovative design. 

Other activities, brought to the site by Kennedy Space Center, included a hover board, a photo 

booth, and a visit from a “spaceman,” decked out in the prerequisite spacesuit, and proved to 

provide hours of space-related fun for the students. Web posted. (2013). [A Most 'Egg-cellent' 

Competition: Space Florida and Kennedy Space Center Host 'Egg Drop' [Online]. Available 

WWW: http://www.americaspace.com/ [2013, May 21].] 

May 20: NASA Signs Agreement With United Paradyne 

NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida has signed a new partnership agreement with United 

Paradyne Corporation of Santa Maria, Calif., for use of the Hypergolic Maintenance Facility, or 

HMF. The HMF previously was used during NASA's Apollo and Space Shuttle Programs. 

Because of NASA's transition from the shuttle to future commercial and government mission 

activities, this agreement allows NASA to preserve the unique facility capabilities for future 

spaceflight projects. United Paradyne will utilize the HMF to provide offline processing support 

services in the storage, delivery, handling and maintenance of hypergolic and green propellant 

commodities and satellite fueling operations. The company also will provide services to refurbish, 

manufacture and assemble test ground support equipment. Under a 15-year lease agreement, 

United Paradyne will operate and maintain the facility at its own expense. The company, which 

will access the facility in June, will employ approximately 12 aerospace workers within the first 

year and has a goal of achieving 50 new jobs over the next four years. Kennedy's center planning 

and development team and the Economic Development Commission of Florida's Space Coast 

worked with the company to establish the agreement. United Paradyne Corporation is a privately 

held business specializing in hypergolic storage facility operations and satellite fueling services. 

[“NASA Signs Agreement With United Paradyne For Use Of Facility,” NASA Release #13-13, 

May 20, 2013.] 

May 21: Atlantis Takes Flight at Kennedy Space Center Visitor 

With less than a month to go before the doors open on what could be one of the most exciting 

space exhibits ever, Space Shuttle Atlantis is one step closer to being ready to make her grand 

entrance. This past week, at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida, Atlantis’ 

payload bay doors were open; in doing so the concept behind the structure’s design was clearly 

validated. The new $100 million exhibit has 90,000 square feet of exhibit space and is funded 

without tax payer money (revenue from ticket and other sales is what empowers the Visitor 

Complex to accomplish its mission). Atlantis is now within arm’s reach of the general public, 

with the cargo bays open and the newly installed glass balcony partitions separated by only a few 

feet. The port side wing (left) was only seven feet above the finished floor when she was raised to 

36 feet off the floor, then tilted to an angle of 43.21’. Ironically 3-2-1, as in lift-off, is also the 

area code for Brevard County—home of Kennedy Space Center. Engineers have made sure to 

modify their plans to compensate for slight flaws in the initial design; one such change was made 

around the wing tip area. There is now a “pit” with guard rails to protect the wing from reaching 

hands. Crews are cleaning everything, patching cracks in the polished floor, and installing all the 

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71

multimedia aids that go along with the exhibit. Currently they are removing overhead winches 

and other non-essential equipment that assisted in the opening of the payload doors, which was 

one of the last major events before the scheduled opening. A few weeks ago Atlantis was 

unwrapped from the covering that protected her through the construction process; this week the 

outside building’s protective material that covers the simulated re-entry plume was removed, and 

now the exterior landscaping is also being prepared for the “big day,” which is currently slated to 

take place June 29, 2013. Web posted. (2013). [Atlantis Takes Flight at Kennedy Space Center 

Visitor Complex [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.americaspace.com/ [2013, May 21].] 

Company hopes to fuel growth at KSC building 

A satellite-fueling company will take over a former space shuttle facility at Kennedy Space 

Center, NASA announced Monday. United Paradyne Corp., of Santa Maria, Calif., next month 

will begin a 15-year lease of a building at the center’s Hypergolic Maintenance Facility, or HMF, 

where shuttle thrusters were serviced. The company supported that servicing and work on other 

vehicles as a propellant subcontractor at the Cape for 10 years, until a new contract was awarded 

in 2008. Initially, a small group of employees including three newly hired former shuttle workers 

will refurbish components for NASA’s Orion exploration capsule. But the company plans to bid 

on numerous contracts in the coming years, and its local team could grow to 50 during the next 

four years. Those positions would have average annual salaries of $64,000, according to the 

Economic Development Commission of Florida’s Space Coast, which partnered with NASA on 

the agreement. Details of state incentives involved in the agreement were not immediately 

available. The company plans to invest $9 million in facility upgrades. Privately held United 

Paradyne currently employs 120 people, mostly in California, where the company has a six-year 

contract to manage rocket fuel and life support services at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Hasay 

said. Many spacecraft use hypergolic propellants, which ignite upon contact with each other, to 

maneuver in orbit. The propellants are highly toxic — the sixth-deadliest chemicals on Earth, 

Hasay said — making their handling an extremely hazardous operation. The 6,500-square-foot 

Hypergols Module Processing South building that United Paradyne will use was built in 1964 to 

test Apollo spacecraft propulsion systems. The shuttle program performed maintenance there on 

orbiters’ forward thrusters, and it was once slated for demolition. Its lease is part of Kennedy’s 

plan to encourage commercial use of facilities it no longer needs. “Kennedy continues to work 

with the commercial community to find innovative ways to use and preserve our unique 

capabilities,” KSC Director Bob Cabana said in a statement. Web posted. (2013). [Company 

hopes to fuel growth at KSC building [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/

[2013, May 21].] 

May 23: NASA, Bigelow partner for human space exploration 

Privately developed space stations or moon bases could open opportunities for NASA to broaden 

its exploration reach more affordably, officials said Thursday. NASA and Bigelow Aerospace 

have partnered to study potential public-private collaborations in space, and they discussed the 

early results of their work. “We’re realizing there’s other ways of doing business,” said Bill 

Gerstenmaier, head of NASA’s human spaceflight programs. Las Vegas-based Bigelow plans to 

have two private space station modules ready for launch by 2016, and ultimately wants to 

establish a commercial lunar base. NASA might use such lower-cost systems or share them with 

other countries or companies flying astronauts on exploration or science research missions. 

Bigelow spoke to roughly 20 companies and international space agencies to produce the first of 

two reports promised to NASA under an unfunded Space Act Agreement signed in March. Web 

posted. (2013). [NASA, Bigelow Aerospace partner for human space exploration 

[Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, May 23].] 

DISCLAIMER - NOTICE OF COPYRIGHT This compilation is published under 17 U.S.C. § 108(a) as a library archival copy. Each individual article is subject to copyright protection under Title 17 of the United States Code. Unless an exception applies, permission from the article's copyright holder is necessary for any reproduction from this compilitation.
72

Student teams compete in NASA's Lunabotics competition 

More than 700 college students representing 50 universities and eight countries came to Kennedy 

Space Center Visitor Complex this week to face off in the fourth-annual Lunabotics Mining 

Competition. The event brings some of the brightest young minds together for a common 

purpose: to discover a way to mine oxygen and water from soil found on celestial bodies. 

“Everything humans need to live off the land away from the Earth exists,” said Robert Mueller, a 

Lunabotics judge and senior technologist at Kennedy Space Center. “The first step is successfully 

extracting those materials, like water and oxygen, from soil. That’s what this competition is all 

about.” Competing teams build lunar excavator robots, or lunabots, that dig regolith simulate, a 

material very similar to lunar dust that is found in waste material from road construction rock. 

NASA, which organizes the event, purchases the material from the Arizona Department of 

Transportation directly so there really is no way teams can practice before arriving at the Visitor 

Complex. Web posted. (2013). [Student teams compete in NASA's Lunabotics competition 

[Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, May 23].] 

ULA's Delta IV launch set for tonight 

A Delta IV rocket is scheduled to blast off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station today after a 

one-day delay to troubleshoot a technical problem. The 217-foot-tall United Launch Alliance 

rocket now is scheduled to launch at 8:27 p.m. today at Launch Complex 37. A 30-minute 

window will extend through 8:57 p.m. Forecasters say there is an 80 percent chance conditions 

will be acceptable for flight. An initial attempt was called off Thursday when a leak from a 

gaseous helium line could not be pinpointed and fixed in time for a launch during the 30-minute 

window. Gaseous helium is used to purge rocket propulsion systems and keep them properly 

conditioned for flight. The Delta IV will propel a $342 million U.S. military communications 

satellite into orbit. Web posted. (2013). [ULA's Delta IV launch set for tonight [Online]. 

Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, May 23].] 

ULA engineer's goal: Quicker, safer rocket launches 

Deb Huleatt is in the midst of a high-risk balancing act. She’s leading an effort to reduce the time 

it takes to prep United Launch Alliance Atlas and Delta rockets for launch from Cape Canaveral 

Air Force Station. At the same time, Huleatt must maintain safety and reliability in an 

unforgiving business — one in which the law of unintended consequences often rules. “I think in 

many ways we’re improving the safety and reducing the risk because we’re really focusing on 

those ‘no-kidding, we-have-to-get-this-right (tasks),’ and we’re eliminating distractions, and in 

many cases, duplications,” said Huleatt, 50, a married mother of two now living in Merritt Island. 

One month into a one-year tour at the Cape, the design engineer and integration manager from 

Denver now finds herself at the company’s storied launch site. In the 78 months since Boeing and 

Lockheed Martin formed ULA, the joint venture partnership has chalked up 70 near-flawless 

launches and mission successes. Tonight’s planned 8:27 p.m. launch of a Delta IV rocket and a 

$342 million military communications satellite will be the firm’s fifth of 12 flights planned this 

year. Web posted. (2013). [ULA engineer's goal: Quicker, safer rocket launches [Online]. 

Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, May 23].] 

NASA Efforts To Revamp KSC Get $20 Million Boost from Florida 

In its quest to downsize the Kennedy Space Center (KSC), NASA has found a friend in Florida, 

which intends to spend $20 million over the next year to help shift shuttle-era facilities into 

private sector hands. The money for spaceport infrastructure projects is tucked into the $74.5 

billion budget that Florida Gov. Rick Scott signed into law May 20. Florida’s new fiscal year 

begins July 1. In addition, the state agreed to give Space Florida, its Brevard County-based 

aerospace economic development agency, $10 million for operations and business development, 

$7 million for financing projects, $1.5 million for space tourism marketing and $1 million to 

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73

nurture fledgling space research and business ties with Israel. Space Florida has not yet 

determined how it will allocate the $20 million earmarked for projects at the newly emerging 

Cape Canaveral Spaceport, a commercial zone that is gradually taking over real estate and 

facilities at the Kennedy Space Center, the adjacent Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and other 

regions falling under Space Florida’s expanding footprint. Its most recent acquisition is the Space 

Coast Regional Airport in Titusville. For 2013, Space Florida earmarked $15 million for 

spaceport infrastructure that was divided among three initiatives: $5 million to support Space 

Exploration Technologies Corp.’s (SpaceX) commercial heavy-lift launch program; $5 million 

for revamping the Orbiter Processing Facility (OPF) Bay 3, a project backed by Boeing’s 

Commercial Crew Development efforts; and $5 million for work on OPF Bays 1 and 2 under a 

project code named “Coyote” that also is backed by Boeing, which is believed to be the U.S. 

military’s X-37B spaceplane. The program is built around two reusable miniature robotic shuttles, 

designated Orbital Test Vehicles, one of which has been in orbit since December on a classified 

mission. Space Florida had requested $36.5 million to continue work on those and several other 

new projects, including the Paul Allen-backed Stratrolaunch Systems and XCOR Aerospace’s 

Lynx suborbital spaceplane, both of which would make use of the shuttle’s runway. Space Florida 

also is looking at nanosatellite launchers, such as the Army’s Soldier-Warfighter Operationally 

Responsive Deployer for Space, or SWORDS, program. The spaceport development projects, 

which are funded through the Florida Department of Transportation, must be matched dollar-fordollar by nonstate funds. In addition, Space Florida has $7 million it can use for financing. A 

clearer picture of which projects move to the front of the funding line will come after June 7, the 

due date for what Space Florida calls “advocates” to update their proposals and make pitches for 

fiscal 2015 initiatives. One of the most visible projects is Kennedy’s Launch Pad 39A, one of 

two complexes NASA used for the now-retired space shuttles. ATK, which pitched its Liberty 

rocket to NASA for the Commercial Crew Program, last year submitted a proposal to Space 

Florida for Pad 39A development, but the project has been dormant. Another potential customer 

for the pad is SpaceX. Use of the launch complex may not be exclusive, NASA wrote in a 

solicitation notice released May 23, which also noted that the agency is looking for a commitment 

that begins no later than Oct. 1 and lasts at least five years. Proposals are due July 5. Web posted. 

(2013). [NASA Efforts To Revamp KSC Get $20 Million Boost from Florida [Online]. 

Available WWW: http://www.spacenews.com/ [2013, May 23].] 

May 24: Students build robots, compete at Kennedy Space Center 

Hundreds of students took part in a competition at Kennedy Space Center on Friday that could 

change the world someday -- or change some other world. The students were tasked with 

designing a robot that can mine the moon. The designs are limited only by the imaginations of a 

group of college students who really believe they can make an impact on the future. The students 

represent colleges and universities from all over the globe, including Australia, Colombia and 

Bangladesh. NASA is looking for new ideas for robots light, strong and clever enough to extract 

resources from the moon. The agency that put men on the moon is also looking to inspire a new 

generation of explorers. They even got to meet an astronaut. “You have to have passion, you 

have to have something you believe in,” astronaut Bob Cabana said. Students said there are no 

losers in the competition. Web posted. (2013). [Students build robots, compete at Kennedy Space 

Center [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.wesh.com/ [2013, May 24].] 

 Delta IV rocket launch lights up the night 

A multimillion-dollar military communications satellite is speeding around Earth today after a 

spectacular Friday night launch. A full moon was rising over Cape Canaveral Air Force Station 

when a 217-foot Delta IV rocket rumbled off its launch pad and arced over the Atlantic Ocean as 

it roared toward orbit. Its four large solid-rocket motors could be seen peeling away from the 

vehicle when they were jettisoned in pairs about 1 minute, 40 seconds into flight. About 40 

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74

minutes after the 8:27 p.m. launch, the $342 million Air Force communications satellite was 

deployed from the Delta IV rocket. The spacecraft is the fifth rocket in a series of Boeing-built 

Wideband Global SATCOM spacecraft designed to provide the U.S. Department of Defense, the 

White House and U.S. and allied troops around the world with secure, high-bandwidth 

communications. The launch was the fifth this year for United Launch Alliance and its second in 

just nine days. An Atlas V rocket launched a GPS navigation satellite from Cape Canaveral on 

May 15. Next up at the Cape: the July 19 launch of an Atlas V rocket with a Navy 

communications satellite. Web posted. (2013). [Delta IV rocket launch lights up the night 

[Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, May 25].] 

May 26: Aerojet rockets to propel crew vehicle in Orion space program 

When a rocket carrying a new crew vehicle lifts off at Cape Canaveral next year it will be the first 

big step in a decades-long odyssey to see humans travel farther into space than ever before. That 

ambitious program, called Orion, has goals that sound as if they were lifted from the pages of a 

sci-fi novel – the capture of near-Earth asteroids, bringing them into lunar orbit, a return to the 

moon, and putting astronauts on Mars. Baby steps in the odyssey are already being taken in labs 

and testing facilities across the nation. One of those is at Aerojet in Rancho Cordova. There, 

inside solemn buildings surrounded by fields of dry grass, rockets destined for the dark reaches of 

space are being designed and tested. Aerojet is supplying the large and small rockets that will 

allow the Orion multipurpose crew vehicle, designed to house four astronauts, to orient itself 

during space flight and during the re-entry to Earth's atmosphere, said Sam Wiley, head of human 

space at Aerojet. The company is also supplying a launch-abort system, which would pull the 

crew module to safety if a life-threatening event happened during launch. Web posted. (2013). 

[Aerojet rockets to propel crew vehicle in Orion space program [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.sacbee.com/ [2013, May 26].] 

May 27: EFT-1: Delta IV-H set for shipping to Florida next March 

The United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta IV Heavy – that is set to launch the Exploration Flight 

Test -1 (EFT-1) Orion into space next year – has passed the 50 percent mark in its fabrication 

process in Alabama. The vehicle will be shipped to the Florida Space Coast next March, ahead of 

its September, 2014 launch date. The ULA rocket will be tasked with lofting the first spacebound Orion on a several hour flight to an altitude of more than 3,600 miles, prior to a return to 

Earth on a high-speed re-entry at more than 20,000 mph. The most intense loads on this flight 

will occur during ascent, first stage separation, launch abort system jettison, parachute 

deployment and landing, with the test allowing NASA to evaluate Orion’s performance and 

integrity in preparation for the spacecraft’s future deep-space expeditions. The EFT-1 data will 

also be a key driver during Orion’s key Critical Design Review (CDR) that will follow the test 

flight in the middle of 2015. Web posted. (2013). [EFT-1: Delta IV-H set for shipping to Florida 

next March [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/ [2013, May 27].] 

May 29: Space Florida Welcomes New Chair, Members of the Board 

Space Florida, the state's aerospace development organization and spaceport authority, has 

recently welcomed a new interim Board Chair and three new members to its Board of Directors. 

Bill Dymond was appointed interim Chairman of the Board at the May 8, 2013 Space Florida 

Board of Directors meeting in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. Dymond is the president, CEO and 

managing partner of Lowndes, Drosdick, Doster, Kantor & Reed, P.A., a multi-practice law firm 

with more than 100 attorneys, located in Orlando. Recently, the Board also welcomed three new 

Board members: Jonathan Stanton, Julius Davis and Lewis Bear Jr. Jonathan Stanton is the 

President of LEMA Construction & Development and founder of New Advantage Corporation 

(NAC) in St. Petersburg. Julius Davis is a principal owner of VoltAir Consulting Engineers, LLC 

in Tampa. Lewis Bear Jr. is president and chief executive officer of the Lewis Bear Company in 

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75

Pensacola. "We are pleased to welcome our new Chairman and recently appointed Board 

members," said Space Florida President Frank DiBello. "We know they have the best interest of 

the state's aerospace economy at heart." Web posted. (2013). [Space Florida Welcomes New 

Chair, Members of the Board [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.spaceref.com/ [2013, May 

29].] 

May 31: Commercial Crew Partner Boeing Completes Milestones 

The Boeing Company of Houston, a NASA Commercial Crew Program (CCP) partner, recently 

performed wind tunnel testing of its CST-100 spacecraft and integrated launch vehicle, the United 

Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket. The testing is part of NASA's Commercial Crew 

Integrated Capability (CCiCap) initiative, intended to make commercial human spaceflight 

services available for government and commercial customers. Boeing and ULA also worked 

together to test a newly developed component of the Atlas V's Centaur upper stage. Boeing now 

has completed two of eight performance milestones under CCiCap and is on track to complete all 

19 of its milestones around mid-2014. "The Centaur has a long and storied past of launching the 

agency's most successful spacecraft to other worlds," said Ed Mango, NASA's CCP manager at 

the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. "Because it has never been used for human 

spaceflight before, these tests are critical to ensuring a smooth and safe performance for the crew 

members who will be riding atop the human-rated Atlas V." The wind tunnel tests, which began 

in March and wrapped up in May at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., were 

the first interface tests of Boeing's spacecraft, launch vehicle adaptor and launch vehicle. A scale 

model of the integrated spacecraft and rocket was placed in Ames' 11-foot diameter transonic 

wind tunnel. The data gathered provides Boeing with critical information it needs to ensure its 

system is safe for launching crews to low-Earth orbit. The Centaur liquid oxygen-feed duct line 

was tested in March in Murrieta, Calif., to characterize how liquid oxygen moves from the stage's 

oxygen tank to its two engines where the propellant will be mixed with liquid hydrogen to create 

thrust. The Centaur, which takes over after the Atlas V first stage runs low on propellants, will 

push the spacecraft to its intended orbit. The Centaur has an extensive and successful history of 

delivering spacecraft to their destinations, including carrying NASA's Curiosity science rover to 

Mars. Boeing is one of three U.S. companies NASA is working with during CCiCap to set the 

stage for a crewed orbital demonstration mission around the middle of the decade. [“NASA 

Commercial Crew Partner Boeing Completes New Spacecraft, Rocket Milestones,” NASA 

Release #13-166, May 31, 2013.] 

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JUNE 

June 1: Smaller 'standing army' of space workers for future NASA missions 

From the time he became a crawler-transporter engineer in 1997, Sam Dove never missed his 

“Super Bowl” — the move of a space shuttle to its Kennedy Space Center launch pad. His eyes 

still well up at the memory of the Vehicle Assembly Building’s high bay doors opening and the 

crawler inching forward on eight giant tracks, the weight of a shuttle and responsibility for a 

space program on its shoulders. Now, two years after the last rollout, Dove is among a select 

group of former shuttle contractors picked to play the next big game at Kennedy: the launch of 

NASA’s new exploration rocket, and possibly others. The 54-year-old Port St. John resident is 

one of about 500 people Jacobs Technology Inc. hired earlier this year for a new ground 

operations contract worth up to $1.4 billion over nearly 10 years. Some 5,000 individuals 

submitted more than 20,000 applications for various positions on the Test and Operations Support 

Contract, or TOSC, which NASA awarded to Jacobs in December. The contract, which began in 

March, picked up where United Space Alliance left off after closing out the shuttle program. Its 

primary focus is preparing for a 2017 test launch of NASA’s Space Launch System rocket and an 

unmanned Orion capsule, work that includes maintaining and upgrading legacy systems and 

facilities like the VAB, launch pad 39B and crawler-transporters. Also included is the packing of 

cargo for launch to the International Space Station, previously done by The Boeing Co. under 

another contract, and support for launches of NASA science satellites on expendable rockets. For 

those jobs, Jacobs interviewed more than 2,000 candidates. Like Dove, about 85 percent of the 

hires were former USA employees. Many took pay cuts for the opportunity to keep working at 

the space center. Jacobs beat out Boeing and Northrop Grumman Corp. for the contract by 

offering NASA the lowest cost, in addition to technical know-how. Though much smaller, the 

TOSC contract represents an important new beginning for KSC. After several years of quarterly 

shuttle contractor layoffs, the center’s workforce — still more than 8,000 strong — can finally 

look forward, even if it’s to a launch that’s at least four years away. Web posted. (2013). 

[Smaller 'standing army' of space workers for future NASA missions [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, June 1].] 

June 3: Opponents say spaceport location contains historic sites 

Opponents to the location Space Florida has chosen for a spaceport — south of Oak Hill near the 

Volusia/Brevard county line — hope a federal law designed to protect the nation's historic and 

environmental resources will prevent construction in the proposed location. As a site 

investigation unfolds over the next year, the spaceport's potential impacts to historic resources 

could be a game changer, said Charles Lee, advocacy director for Audubon Florida. Audubon is 

one of more than a half-dozen groups that have come out in opposition to the proposed location. 

The federal rule is contained in a Department of Transportation law that applies to all projects 

that receive money from agencies under the Federal Highway Administration, including the FAA. 

Called the 4(f), it states agencies "cannot approve the use of land from publicly owned parks, 

recreational areas, wildlife and waterfowl refuges, or public and private historical sites" unless 

there are no feasible or prudent alternatives and the action includes all possible planning to 

minimize harm. Interpreting the rule in 1971, the U.S. Supreme Court blocked the planned path 

of Interstate 40 in Memphis. Space Florida officials say they are working with the seashore to 

avoid historic sites as they hone in on a specific location, but the list of historical resources on the 

NASA land is lengthy. National Park Service documents state the land was an escape route for 

slaves fleeing St. Augustine in the 1600s, site of a large plantation and sugar mill stretching from 

Mosquito Lagoon to the Indian River in the 1700s, and part of the "Kings Road," which the 

British built between St. Augustine and Volusia County. "It was the southernmost and earliest 

sugar plantation," said Myrna Palfrey-Perez, superintendent of Canaveral National Seashore. At 

least two historic cemeteries are found on the land, as well as other remnants of AfricanDISCLAIMER - NOTICE OF COPYRIGHT This compilation is published under 17 U.S.C. § 108(a) as a library archival copy. Each individual article is subject to copyright protection under Title 17 of the United States Code. Unless an exception applies, permission from the article's copyright holder is necessary for any reproduction from this compilitation.
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American settlement. Barbara Naylor, historic preservation officer for the Kennedy Space 

Center, said the National Park Service Southeast Archaeological Center in Tallahassee has been 

working on a project to nominate the site for the National Register of Historic Places. Web 

posted. (2013). [Opponents say spaceport location contains historic sites [Online]. Available 

WWW: http://www.news-journalonline.com/ [2013, June 3].] 

NASA looks to Kourou for SLS ground ops streamlining ideas 

As development of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket continues, NASA is looking to its 

international partners for inspiration and lessons learned. Specifically, the agency sent a team to 

Kourou, French Guiana, to observe and report on the processes and ground operations employed 

by the European Space Agency for the Ariane V, with an eye toward using those processes to 

potentially streamline SLS ground processing operations at KSC. Overall, operation of the 

Guiana Space Center (CGS) is a rather lean process. With just over 1,660 employees, the 

relatively small staff is required to accomplish all of the activities of the launch site’s operations. 

Of particular note by the Ground Systems Development and Operations (GSDO) site visit team 

was the fact that all of these technicians are trained to process and launch any of the three vehicle 

types present at the space center. Web posted. (2013). [NASA looks to Kourou for SLS ground 

ops streamlining ideas [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/ [2013, June 

3].] 

June 4: NASA Prepares for Launch of Next Solar Satellite 

NASA's next scientific satellite, which is scheduled for launch June 26, will provide the most 

detailed look ever at the sun's lower atmosphere or interface region. The Interface Region 

Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) mission will observe how solar material moves, gathers energy, and 

heats up as it travels through this largely unexplored region of the solar atmosphere. The interface 

region, located between the sun's visible surface and upper atmosphere, is where most of the sun's 

ultraviolet emission is generated. These emissions impact the near-Earth space environment and 

Earth's climate. The IRIS spacecraft was designed and built by Lockheed Martin's Advanced 

Technology Center in Palo Alto, Calif. It will launch aboard a Pegasus XL rocket deployed by an 

Orbital Sciences L-1011 aircraft from Vandenberg Air Force Base on the central California coast. 

IRIS carries an ultraviolet telescope that feeds a multi-channel imaging spectrograph. The 

satellite is the first mission designed to use an ultraviolet telescope to obtain high-resolution 

images and spectra every few seconds and provide observations of areas as small as 150 miles 

across the sun. NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., will provide IRIS 

mission operations and ground data systems. The Norwegian Space Centre in Oslo, Norway, will 

provide regular downlinks of science data. NASA's Launch Services Program at the agency's 

Kennedy Space Center is responsible for launch management. IRIS is a NASA Small Explorer 

Mission, which the agency's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., manages for the 

Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The goal of the Explorers Program is to provide 

frequent flight opportunities for world-class scientific investigations from space utilizing 

innovative, streamlined and efficient management approaches within the heliophysics and 

astrophysics science areas. [“NASA Prepares for Launch of Next Solar Satellite,” NASA 

Release #13-171, June 4, 2013.] 

June 5: NASA experimental radar at KSC keeps eye on asteroids 

Consider the consequences: a killer asteroid is on a collision course with a major American 

metropolitan area. Charcoal dark, the asteroid is extremely difficult to detect. It’s a planetary 

catastrophe in the making – one foreshadowed by the devastating Chelyabinsk meteor explosion 

over Russia in February, or the asteroid impact in Mexico that wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million 

years ago. But Tuesday, in a remote area of Kennedy Space Center, NASA lifted the veil on a 

project that could lead to a sophisticated early-warning system — one that could save the world 

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from inbound asteroids that could slam into the planet and snuff out the human species. “This is 

a technology demonstration that could help us identify some of those objects,” said NASA 

Associate Administrator Robert Lightfoot – the agency’s highest ranked civil servant. And the 

three-year project also could help NASA spot an asteroid to go fetch for a human expedition 

outlined in President Barack Obama’s proposed $17.7 billion budget for NASA in 2014. The 

idea is to send a robotic spacecraft to capture a small asteroid and tow it to a stable orbit near the 

moon in 2019. If all goes well, astronauts could be launched as early as 2021 on a sample-return 

mission. Situated near alligator-infested swamps and lakes at KSC, three 40-foot-diameter radar 

antenna dishes stand in a triangular formation, each 197 feet apart. Antenna operators put them 

through the paces, commanding the dishes to make slight, repeated movements to track the sun. A 

slow, audible whoosh-whoosh washed over the site. It sounded like a giant windshield wiper at 

work. Mark Seibert, a manager with the technology development office at KSC, said the three 

antennas are linked together by computers and custom-made algorithms. They transmit a highpower, higher resolution radar signal that promises to be more flexible, and more precise, than 

current NASA dishes that are oversubscribed. Seibert and NASA project manager Michael 

Miller say that if testing goes well, and their system is scaled up, they might be able to create a 

high-power, high-resolution radar system that could be on an asteroid hunt 24 hours a day, seven 

days a week. Web posted. (2013). [NASA experimental radar at KSC keeps eye on asteroids 

[Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com [2013, June 5].] 

June 6: NASA, Craig Technologies Partnership Retains Capabilities 

In June of last year, NASA signed a partnership agreement with Craig Technologies to maintain 

an inventory of unique processing and manufacturing equipment for future mission support at the 

agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA Associate Administrator Robert Lightfoot and 

Kennedy's center director, Bob Cabana, recently toured the Cape Canaveral, Fla., facility, 

formerly known as the NASA Shuttle Logistics Depot (NSLD). In its new role, it is now the 

Aerospace and Defense Manufacturing Center (ADMC). During the space shuttle era, NASA's 

space program operations contractor, United Space Alliance, operated the NSLD providing flight 

hardware and cable fabrication. It also was used in manufacturing, repair and inspection of 

spaceflight hardware, avionics and ground support equipment. "I had the privilege of being on 

the other end of the quality products that this facility turned out keeping our shuttles flying," said 

Cabana, a former space shuttle commander. "I want you to know how much it means to me to see 

this facility still alive today. We're keeping alive a capability that we're going to need for the 

future." Under a five-year, non-reimbursable Space Act Agreement (SAA), NASA has loaned 

hundreds of pieces of equipment to Craig Technologies retaining important assets and resulting in 

a significant cost savings. The NASA inventory has been enhanced with Craig Technologies' 

assets and investment to make an even more robust capability for wider application. Established 

in 1999, Craig Technologies provides engineering and technical services to defense and 

government agencies nationwide. The company began independently operating the ADMC in 

January. "I'm just very proud and very honored to have Craig Technologies to be trusted as the 

caretaker of these NASA assets for the next four and a half years," said Carol Craig, the 

company's founder and chief executive officer. In October 2012, Craig Technologies 

consolidated its corporate headquarters and manufacturing division to occupy the 161,000-

square-foot ADMC facility where 53 people are employed. Web posted. (2013). [NASA, Craig 

Technologies Partnership Retains Crucial Capabilities [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/ [2013, June 6].] 

Orion spacecraft passes critical test at KSC 

NASA’s first space-bound Orion crew capsule passed critical tests at Kennedy Space Center this 

month, clearing key milestones along the way toward launch next year on an inaugural test flight. 

Ensconced in a 20-foot-tall fixture inside Lockheed Martin’s on-site production facility, the Orion 

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79

capsule was hydraulically pushed and pulled, and also pressurized, to simulate conditions it will 

encounter in flight. The campaign was carried out to “verify what works on paper will work in 

space,” Charles Lundquist, a NASA manager with the Orion project, said in a statement. “This is 

how we validate our design.” The Orion spacecraft, which is scheduled to launch aboard a Delta 

IV Heavy rocket in September 2014, was instrumented with 1,600 strain gauges that recorded 

vehicle responses to structural loads from as little as 14,000 pounds to 240,000 pounds. The 

spacecraft was subjected to 110 percent of eight different types of stresses will experience during 

flight. Pressure testing also verified that repairs to superficial cracks in the vehicle’s rear 

bulkhead have been properly repaired. The cracks were detected after pressure tests in November. 

The Orion spacecraft was successfully pressurized to 110 percent of conditions it will be 

subjected to in flight. Next year’s $375 million flight test will blast off from Launch Complex 37 

at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket will 

propel it on a two-orbit mission that will reach an altitude of 3,600 miles. Then the spacecraft will 

reenter the atmosphere at a speed topping 20,000 miles per hour – or about 84 percent of the 

velocity of a crew capsule returning from a mission beyond Earth orbit. NASA officials say the 

test will give engineers early data on the performance of 10 of 16 of the spacecraft systems most 

critical to crew safety. The flight test also will enable designers to identify required changes early 

in crew capsule development. Web posted. (2013). [Orion spacecraft passes critical test at KSC 

[Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com [2013, June 6].] 

Qualification testing begins on Dream Chaser’s rocket motor

Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) have begun qualification testing on the hybrid rocket motor 

that will provide propulsion to their Dream Chaser vehicle in space. The initiation of testing is 

part of the company’s Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) milestones, as they 

continue to set their sights on transporting NASA astronauts to the ISS. The data from the testing 

will help SNC fine tune their vehicle design, ahead of the major construction of their Flight Test 

Vehicle (FTV). However, it is now likely the third Dream Chaser, the Orbital Vehicle (OV), will 

be the first to head into space. Although the threat of a Commercial Crew down-select hangs over 

the heads of the three main CCiCAP participants, SNC are making good progress in presenting 

Dream Chaser as a vehicle of choice for providing NASA astronauts with domestic launch and 

transportation to the ISS. Web posted. (2013). [Qualification testing begins on Dream Chaser’s 

rocket motor [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.nasaspaceflight.com [2013, June 6].] 

June 7: Commercial Crew Gets Reprieve in NASA Operating Plan 

NASA wants to reshuffle its 2013 budget to fund a post-shuttle crew transportation program at an 

all-time high and shore up the James Webb Space Telescope and Earth Science Division with 

funds siphoned out of the Planetary Science Division. The changes are part of an operating plan 

delivered to NASA’s congressional overseers the week of May 27, according to a government 

source who has seen the document. The latest operating plan details changes NASA wants to 

make to its 2013 budget, part of the Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act of 2013 (H.R. 933) 

that was signed March 26 and funds federal agencies through Sept. 30. The entire spending bill 

was subject to the across-the-board cuts known as sequestration, and NASA’s portion of the bill 

was subject to an additional, smaller cut devised by lawmakers to protect select federal programs 

from the sequester. According to NASA’s operating plan, the space agency ended up with about a 

$16.9 billion top line for 2013, roughly $900 million below the level it had been held to since 

2011 but slightly more than the agency had feared. The Commercial Crew Program, in which 

NASA is paying competing companies to design and develop crew transportation systems the 

agency could use to transport astronauts to the international space station by 2017, would get 

exactly the level of funding prescribed by H.R. 933 before either sequestration or Congress’ 

rescission is factored in: $525 million. That marks about a 30 percent increase compared with 

2012 levels. The money for Commercial Crew came out of the space operations account, using 

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80

funds originally budgeted for a space shuttle closeout effort that has since winded down, 

according to the government source who saw the operating plan. Meanwhile, NASA’s Planetary 

Science Division, which is charged with exploring the solar system with robotic probes, would 

lose about $110 million of its 2013 appropriation under NASA’s proposed operating plan, leaving 

the division with about $1.2 billion for 2013 — roughly what it got in 2012. Of the money 

Planetary Science would lose, about $44 million would go to the James Webb Space Telescope 

and about $66 million would go to the Earth Science Division, the government source 

said. NASA’s authorization and appropriations committees have the opportunity to object to the 

changes the agency proposed and send the operating plan back to NASA for an overhaul. At least 

one “deeply disappointed” lawmaker said that he might. Meanwhile, the Orion Multi-Purpose 

Crew Vehicle and its carrier rocket the Space Launch System (SLS) would be funded at 

essentially the same levels as 2012. The SLS account, which includes not only vehicle 

development but the ground systems necessary to launch the massive rocket, would be receive 

roughly $1.8 billion, according to the government source. Orion would get about $1.1 

billion. However, Congress proposed giving SLS a boost in H.R. 933, which would have 

provided about $300 million more in 2013 for the rocket and its ground systems than the NASA 

operating plan proposes. Web posted. (2013). [Commercial Crew Gets Reprieve in NASA 

Operating Plan [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.spacenews.com [2013, June 7].] 

June 10: Atlantis showcase on track for June 29 opening day 

It's T-minus 3 weeks and counting until the grand opening of the space shuttle Atlantis attraction 

at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida, just miles from where the orbiter was 

processed and launched on 33 missions. Final touches are being made to the exhibits, interactive 

displays and simulators inside the 90,000-square-foot home purpose-built to house the retired 

shuttle, as well as topping off the full-size, high-fidelity mockup of an external tank and solid 

rocket booster stack in front of the $100 million facility. "We are on schedule to open June 29. 

Everything is a GO," said Tim Macy, KSCVC's director of project development. On Friday, 

photographers and reporters were invited inside for a sneak peek at how things are progressing. 

The life-size Hubble Space Telescope replica was being hoisted into place adjacent to Atlantis 

during the media visit, crews were hooking up spacewalk simulators and workers outside were 

busy readying the upper section of the external tank for lifting into place. Atlantis' payload bay 

doors were opened last month, the protective covers removed from the cockpit windows and a 

replica 50-foot-long robot arm was installed and secured with suspension lines from the ceiling. 

Tourists will experience Atlantis illuminated by more than 1,700 theatrical lights as a video of 

space scenes is played on a massive screen behind the shuttle. Officials expect to soon begin 

using employees and even tourists to go through the Atlantis hall for rehearsals and 

demonstration tests to ensure all systems are operating properly before opening day on Saturday, 

June 29. Web posted. (2013). [Atlantis showcase on track for June 29 opening day [Online]. 

Available WWW: http://www.spaceflightnow.com [2013, June 10].] 

June 11: Atlas 5 stacked for Navy satellite launch in July

The most powerful version of the United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket has been assembled at 

Cape Canaveral to deploy the second satellite in the Navy's new mobile communications system. 

The massive rocket, equipped with five strap-on solid-fuel boosters, will lift the 15,000-pound 

Mobile User Objective System satellite into orbit July 19 during a morning window of 8:51 to 

9:35 a.m. EDT (1251-1335 GMT). It will be the year's fifth Atlas, the third for the Pentagon and 

the first using the expansive five-meter-diameter nose cone and solid motors. The upcoming 

launch will be ULA's 72nd since its formation in December 2006. Web posted. (2013). [Atlas 5 

stacked for Navy satellite launch in July [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.spaceflightnow.com [2013, June 11].] 

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81

Space firms gear up for Brevard operations 

Three companies competing to fly astronauts to the International Space Station expect to increase 

their local activity in the second half of this year, executives said Tuesday. The Boeing Co. soon 

will start moving into a former shuttle hangar at Kennedy Space Center, where it will assemble a 

test article of its CST-100 capsule. SpaceX hopes to launch a pad-abort test of its Dragon capsule 

in December from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, after potentially several more Cape rocket 

launches. And Sierra Nevada Corp., developer of the Dream Chaser mini-shuttle, plans to staff a 

local office this year to prepare for future flight operations. NASA last year awarded the 

companies a combined $1.1 billion to complete designs of commercial transportation systems that 

could fly astronauts to the station by 2017. SpaceX is targeting a crewed test flight as soon as 

2015, Boeing as soon as 2016 and SNC, which received half as much money as the other two, 

said it could support NASA launches as planned by 2017. NASA is about a year from awarding 

the next phase of contracts that would lead to the certification of systems for flight and the start of 

operational missions. It’s likely only one or two of the companies will win those contracts, 

depending on how much funding Congress provides, but each is taking steps toward the final 

goal. Boeing is starting the second phase of renovations to the former shuttle hangar called 

Orbiter Processing Facility-3, which it has leased from the state, and expects to move in capsule 

hardware later this year. SNC’s spacecraft design work is based in Colorado but flight operations 

would be based here, and the company is looking at KSC’s Industrial Area or Exploration Park 

for horizontal processing facilities. While SpaceX progresses in the crew program, it expects to 

launch two commercial satellites from the Cape this fall and a third ISS cargo resupply mission 

late this year. Expecting its flight rate to increase to more than 12 a year, SpaceX wants to 

establish a new launch pad for commercial missions. The company has identified the Gulf Coast 

of Texas as a leading contender, but is also considering sites on KSC property and possibly in 

other states. Web posted. (2013). [Space firms gear up for Brevard operations [Online]. 

Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com [2013, June 11].] 

June 12: Antitrust probe of Lockheed-Boeing rocket venture 

U.S. regulators have opened a probe into whether a Lockheed-Boeing joint venture that launches 

U.S. government satellites into space has flouted antitrust laws. The Federal Trade Commission 

(FTC) is investigating whether United Launch Alliance (ULA), a joint venture of Lockheed 

Martin Corp and Boeing Co, violated federal antitrust laws by "monopolizing" or restraining 

competition through an exclusivity agreement with the maker of the engines used in its rockets, 

according to a FTC document obtained by Reuters on Wednesday. RD Amross, a joint venture of 

Russia's NPO Energomash and Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, a unit of United Technologies Corp, 

provides RD-180 engines for ULA rockets. Industry sources say ULA is preventing RD Amross 

from selling the engines to other rocket makers, including Orbital Sciences Corp, which is trying 

to break into the lucrative market for government rocket launches. Jessica Rye, spokeswoman for 

ULA, confirmed the investigation and said the company was cooperating with antitrust 

regulators. Industry sources said the FTC investigation follows repeated unsuccessful efforts by 

Orbital to buy the RD-180 engines for its new medium-lift Antares rocket, which was developed 

in partnership with NASA to haul cargo to the International Space Station. The first Antares 

rocket was launched from a new commercial spaceport in Virginia in April. Orbital ultimately 

used the AJ-26 engine, a refurbished Russian engine that is supplied by Aerojet, a unit of 

GenCorp Inc, to power the rocket. But that engine is no longer in production and there are only 

limited supplies available. To be a viable competitor in the future, industry sources say Orbital 

needs access to the RD-180 engine, the only liquid propulsion engine in production that is 

commercially available and can be used for Orbital's Antares rocket. Orbital developed the 

Antares rocket together with Aerojet and Alliant Techsystems as a replacement for the Delta II 

rocket built by Boeing that has been retired. Orbital has enough AJ-26 engines to support its 

resupply missions for the space station but needs more engines to be a viable competitor for 

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82

launches of medium-sized satellites that do not need larger and more expensive boosters. Orbital 

is not seeking to compete directly with ULA for heavy lift rocket launches, but says it could save 

the government money by using the Antares rocket, which costs under $100 million, to lift 

smaller payloads into space. Web posted. (2013). [Exclusive: Antitrust probe of LockheedBoeing rocket venture [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.reuters.com [2013, June 12].] 

Jobs grant is extended 

Out-of-work aerospace contractors will have another year to seek help transitioning to new 

careers thanks to the extension of a federal grant that was set to expire this week. Brevard 

Workforce received confirmation Tuesday from the U.S. Department of Labor that the $15 

million “national emergency grant” would continue for a fourth year, through June 14, 2014. As 

a result, “there will be no lapse in service,” Brevard Workforce President Lisa Rice informed her 

staff. The grant was announced in a June 2010 ceremony at Kennedy Space Center, months 

before the shuttle program was expected to end. Web posted. (2013). [Jobs grant is extended 

[Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com [2013, June 12].] 

June 13: OIG Report on Commercial Transportation Services 

NASA Inspector General Paul K. Martin today released a report examining NASA's management 

of its commercial cargo program which uses private companies to deliver supplies to the 

International Space Station (ISS or Station). In anticipation of the Space Shuttle's retirement, 

Congress directed NASA to foster the private commercial space flight industry as a means of 

developing commercial cargo transportation capabilities to the ISS. In the absence of a U.S. cargo 

capability, NASA would need to rely on its international partners to provide essential supplies to 

ISS crews and access to research conducted on the Station. To encourage commercial companies 

to build spaceflight systems that could carry cargo to the ISS, NASA used a combination of 

Space Act Agreements and fixed-price contracts. Under the Space Act Agreements, NASA 

provided funding to two private companies - Space Exploration Technologies Corporation 

(SpaceX) and Orbital Sciences Corporation (Orbital) - to further the companies' development of 

their spaceflight cargo capabilities. On a separate track, in 2008 NASA entered into a $1.6 billion 

fixed-price contract with SpaceX for 12 resupply missions to the ISS and a $1.9 billion contract 

with Orbital for 8 missions. In March 2013, SpaceX completed its second Station resupply 

mission while Orbital is scheduled to undertake its first resupply mission near the end of 2013 

after it completes a September demonstration flight to the ISS. In light of the commercial cargo 

program's importance to the ongoing viability of the Station, the OIG examined NASA's 

management of the program. The OIG review found that despite an almost 3-year delay in 

development, SpaceX completed its demonstration flights and two resupply missions to the ISS. 

Although each experienced some anomalies, none was serious enough to substantially impact the 

missions. Similar to SpaceX, Orbital has experienced delays in its development program and 

these delays in turn caused substantial delays to the planned flight schedule for the company's 

resupply missions to the Station. However, until recently NASA did not adjust its payment 

schedule to Orbital in light of these delays. In fact, the OIG found that despite the delayed launch 

schedule, NASA is on track to pay Orbital up to 70 percent of the funds associated with the 

company's first six ISS resupply missions - well in advance of lead times needed in light of the 

current launch schedule. Specifically, although Orbital has yet to complete a successful 

demonstration flight to the ISS, NASA has paid Orbital a total of $910 million through fiscal year 

2012 toward both the company's Space Act developmental efforts and for resupply missions 

under its fixed-priced contract. In order to reduce financial risks to the Agency, the OIG 

recommended that NASA ensure that contracts with the commercial cargo providers are updated 

to reflect the lead times required to meet any revised launch dates. Specifically, if launch dates 

slip further NASA should adjust the contracts to ensure that its payments to the companies reflect 

this revised schedule. NASA concurred with the OIG's recommendation. Web posted. (2013). 

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[Final Report - IG-13-016 - NASA's Management of Commercial Orbital Transportation Services 

and ISS Commercial Resupply Contracts [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.spaceref.com 

[2013, June 13].] 

NASA visitor centers launch new passport for space tourists 

Earth-bound space tourists hitting the road this summer to tour NASA's historic launch pads and 

mission controls, as well as see the retired space shuttles on display, now have their own passport. 

The "Passport to Explore Space" is now being offered by the official visitor centers for NASA's 

nationwide facilities and the museums that display the space agency’s former orbiter fleet. Guests 

to the 14 locations in nine states can get the passports stamped with commemorative markers 

representing each of the centers, earning them offers and discounts in the process. The program 

includes the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida, where space shuttle Atlantis will 

open on display June 29; the Smithsonian's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Virginia where space 

shuttle Discovery is exhibited; the California Science Center in Los Angeles where shuttle 

Endeavour is housed; and the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York City, which will 

reopen the pavilion showcasing the prototype orbiter Enterprise on July 10. Passport holders can 

receive discounts off of admission, attractions, food and souvenirs at some of the locations. For 

example, the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex offers $5 off regular price admission and 

10 percent off of merchandise and its "Lunch with an Astronaut" program. Nearly four million 

people tour the NASA centers annually, according to VisitNASA.com. Web posted. (2013). 

[NASA visitor centers launch new passport for space tourists [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.collectspace.com [2013, June 13].] 

June 14: Merritt Island High students prepare satellite for trek 

Nine Merritt Island High students and recent graduates are preparing their small satellite for a test 

flight in the Mojave Desert this weekend. The StangSat, as they named the satellite — after the 

school’s mascot, the Mustang — is scheduled to make a high-altitude flight on a Garvey 

Spacecraft Corp. Prospector 18 rocket. NASA mentors guided the students in building the 

prototype, which is not much larger than the palm of your hand. Thanks to $10,000 in community 

donations, students and two chaperones traveled to California to prepare the satellite and witness 

the Saturday morning launch. Students integrated the “cubesat,” a name that references the 

satellite’s shape, with a partner satellite built by students at California Polytechnic State 

University. On Wednesday, both teams presented a launch readiness review to NASA and 

university personnel, gaining approval for the launch. The Garvey rocket is scheduled to be 

erected, with all satellites installed, by 5 tonight. Initial data analysis will be done after the test 

flight — and will continue this summer. NASA hired two Merritt Island graduates as interns, and 

they’ll conduct vibration and shock analysis to determine what changes are required prior to the 

satellite’s launch into space. The StangSat is scheduled to launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket 

from Kennedy Space Center in August 2014. Web posted. (2013). [Merritt Island High students 

prepare satellite for trek [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com [2013, June 

14].] 

NASA’s Morpheus Lander Making Comeback After Crash

The development team for NASA’s Morpheus prototype precision planetary lander is prepping 

for a late July return to Kennedy Space Center, where engineers plan to resume the free-flight test 

campaign that was abruptly suspended last August with a fiery crash of the test vehicle. The 

liquid oxygen/methane-fueled replacement test vehicle and launch pad are being substantially 

enhanced with the addition of redundant inertial measurement units (IMUs) and a flame trench to 

address the loss of guidance data and a buildup of destructive vibro-acoustic forces identified as 

the most likely cause of the Aug. 9, 2012, crash. If this summer’s three-month campaign 

achieves all of its goals, Morpheus will close out a graduated series of test objectives at Kennedy 

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by rising 500 meters above a simulated lunarscape at the north end of Kennedy’s Shuttle Landing 

Facility. Morpheus would then fly a 1-km trajectory using laser guidance supplied by its equally 

experimental Autonomous Landing Hazard Avoidance Technology (ALHAT) system to dodge a 

network of boulders and craters to achieve a soft landing. In the 2012 mishap, the lander lost 

IMU data less than a second after lifting off on an early unrestrained flight test at Kennedy. It 

crashed 8 sec. later. The single IMU had flown on 27 previous test flights without an issue. 

Though much of the vehicle was destroyed, making the forensics difficult, the project team 

reached a consensus on the most likely cause: destructive vibro-acoustics from the main engine at 

ignition. Web posted. (2013). [NASA’s Morpheus Prototype Planetary Lander Making Comeback 

After Crash [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com [2013, June 14].] 

June 16: Prescribed burn near KSC set for today 

Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge officials will conduct a 1,000-acre prescribed burn today, 

the Brevard County Emergency Management Office reported. The prescribed burn will occur just 

south of the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. Web posted. (2013). [Prescribed burn near 

KSC set for today [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com [2013, June 16].] 

June 18: Rocket companies launch joint venture 

The merger of two storied U.S. rocket propulsion companies will reduce engine costs and save 

the U.S. government $100 million annually during 10 years, Aerojet Rocketdyne Inc. executives 

said Tuesday. Federal regulators last week approved Aerojet owner GenCorp.’s $550 million 

acquisition of Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne from United Technologies Corp. The new company, 

based in Sacramento, Calif., builds or supplies liquid-fuel engines and solid rocket motors critical 

to the nation’s primary launchers of government payloads, including two that fly from Cape 

Canaveral. The systems help boost United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V and Delta IV rockets 

locally, and Orbital Sciences Corp.’s Antares from Virginia. The vehicles launch national 

security and science satellites, plus cargo and potentially crews to the International Space Station. 

Approval from Russian regulators to acquire Rocketdyne’s 50 percent stake in RD Amross, a 

joint venture that supplies Russian-built RD-180 engines for the Atlas V, is expected within three 

to six months, Boley said. Aerojet Rocketdyne, whose legacy systems include engines for Saturn 

V moon rockets and the space shuttle, also has contracts to refurbish or develop engines for 

NASA’s new heavy-lift rocket and Orion crew capsule. Boley said a diverse line of 100 products 

spanning rocket engines, in-space propulsion, missile defense and tactical missiles offered 

significant growth opportunities. About 400 of more than 5,300 employees are based in Florida, 

mostly at an engine test site in West Palm Beach. Web posted. (2013). [Rocket companies launch 

joint venture [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com [2013, June 18].] 

June 19: NASA's asteroid-wrangling plan may get shot down 

NASA promoted its plan for a proposed human expedition to an asteroid Tuesday as 

congressional lawmakers aimed to kill the project in its infancy. Outlined in the Obama 

Administration’s proposed 2014 budget, the mission would involve capturing an asteroid with a 

robotic spacecraft, hauling it back to a lunar orbit, and then sending astronauts on a sample return 

mission. But today, a House subcommittee that draws up NASA’s budget will review a draft 

authorization bill that reportedly prohibits the asteroid mission and instead steers NASA back to 

the moon. NASA in 2014 is requesting $105 million to start up the project. Twenty percent of the 

money would go toward doubling current efforts to identify near-Earth asteroids. NASA has not 

yet estimated the full cost of an asteroid retrieval mission. NASA issued a request Tuesday for 

industry, academia, national research and development labs and the general public to provide 

ideas for its asteroid initiative. Specifically, NASA is focusing on six areas: asteroid observation; 

asteroid redirection systems; asteroid deflection demonstrations; asteroid capture systems; crew 

systems for asteroid exploration; and partnerships and participatory engagement. NASA sees the 

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asteroid expedition as a steppingstone to subsequent missions to the moon, Mars, or other deep 

space destinations. Web posted. (2013). [NASA's asteroid-wrangling plan may get shot down 

[Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com [2013, June 19].] 

June 20: Atlantis exhibit is 'go' for visitors 

Just one week from its grand opening, the Atlantis exhibit at Kennedy Space Center Visitor 

Complex is nearly ready. The final week will be one of fine-tuning inside the $100 million 

building, though a few public tours have been given a sneak-peek. “We’re ready to go,” said Tim 

Macy, director of project development for Delaware North Companies at the visitor complex. 

“We’re tweaking the sound, and doing color balance” in the theaters. The exhibit features 

Atlantis, which flew 33 missions, and gives visitors a 360-degree view of the orbiter from just 

feet away. “The first time I saw it, I had tears in my eyes,” astronaut Bob Springer, who flew two 

shuttle missions, recalled. Springer flew on Discovery in 1989 and Atlantis the following year. 

The 90,000-square-foot building also features 60 other exhibits, many interactive, which highlight 

the history of the space program. The exhibit opens to the public June 29. Web posted. (2013). 

[Atlantis exhibit is 'go' for visitors [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com 

[2013, June 20].] 

House plan cuts $1B from NASA's budget 

A NASA spending plan rolled out Wednesday by a House subcommittee would cap the agency’s

budget in 2014 and 2015 at $1 billion less than it is receiving this year. NASA’s development of 

heavy-lift rockets and next-generation crew capsules for deep space missions, and planetary 

science, would get more than President Barack Obama is requesting. Deep cuts in robotic 

exploration of Mars and Earth science would be made. The bill would prohibit funding the 

administration’s proposed strategy to robotically retrieve an asteroid and then send astronauts on 

a sample-return mission. Instead, NASA would be directed to launch human expeditions to the 

moon as a steppingstone to Mars. The spending plan called for NASA’s budget to be capped at 

$16.87 billion during each of the next two years. The bill sticks with NASA spending levels 

established by the Budget Control Act of 2011, which assumes Congress and the White House 

will not end “sequestration,” or automatic spending cuts that went into effect this year. No NASA 

appropriations bill was enacted for fiscal year 2013. The agency is operating under a continuing 

resolution that allows for an estimated $17.89 billion in expenditures during the fiscal year, which 

ends Sept. 30. A Senate version of the 2013 NASA Authorization Bill is expected by month’s 

end. Web posted. (2013). [House plan cuts $1B from NASA's budget [Online]. Available 

WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com [2013, June 20].] 

Most Southeast Volusia cities support spaceport development 

A launch facility is only one of many opportunities Volusia County could benefit from if a 

commercial spaceport is developed on its southern border. Elected officials in the cities of New 

Smyrna Beach and Edgewater have already joined Volusia County in supporting a resolution 

backing commercial space flight entities setting up shop here. However, Oak Hill city 

commissioners remain skeptical, saying during a May 20 meeting that questions still remain. 

Space Florida is talking about attracting one of a growing number of commercial companies 

developing space launch capabilities, such as SpaceX. The idea is to create a vertical launch 

complex and spaceport on 150 to 200 acres of federally owned land straddling the VolusiaBrevard county line in an area known as Shiloh. Area officials predict such a facility could 

generate jobs and foster economic development as well as expand and diversify domestic and 

international opportunities to improve the state's competitive business climate. The Shiloh locale 

is still preliminary although NASA has agreed to have environmental and archaeological impact 

studies performed on the proposed launch complex site. A growing number of local and state 

outdoors, conservation and environmental groups oppose the site, fearing a loss of access to the 

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refuge, seashore and surrounding waterways during launches, as well as damage to historic sites 

and protected plants and animals. Officials with the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge and 

Canaveral National Seashore, which manage NASA-owned land outside Kennedy Space Center, 

are among the opponents, as is Audubon Florida. The refuge and seashore are considered one of 

the premier bird-watching destinations in Florida. More than 500 species of wildlife are found at 

the refuge, including 16 federally threatened or endangered species and dozens of state-protected 

species. Web posted. (2013). [Most Southeast Volusia cities support spaceport development 

[Online]. Available WWW: http://www.news-journalonline.com [2013, June 20].] 

Space start-ups launch crowdfunding efforts 

Tapping popular interest in space exploration and science fiction, space startups are increasingly 

seeking funding from a new source: You. Through crowdfunding campaigns and other 

donations, companies and foundations are offering the public the chance to take pictures from 

space, develop a space elevator, even save the world from a cataclysmic asteroid strike. Planetary 

Resources co-founder, Peter Diamandis, hatched the idea for “SkyCube: The First Satellite 

Launched by You!” after witnessing the “mind-blowingly cool” final shuttle launch in 2011 and 

seeing a Saturn V rocket on display at Kennedy Space Center. On Kickstarter, he offered 

contributors the opportunity to take pictures of Earth or send short, tweet-like messages from 

space for as little as $1. The campaign raised nearly $117,000 from more than 2,700 backers, 

well above the original $82,500 goal. Thanks to revenue from company apps including SkySafari 

and Satellite Safari, which show the locations of stars and spacecraft when you point your phone 

at the sky, DeBenedictis said crowdfunding wasn’t necessary to pull off the estimated $250,000 

mission. But he thought it was important for supporters to share a sense of ownership in the 

project, beyond what they probably feel for the taxpayer-funded International Space Station. 

SkyCube’s 90-day mission is slated to launch from Cape Canaveral in November aboard a 

SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule, and to be deployed from the ISS. Web posted. 

(2013). [Space start-ups launch crowdfunding efforts [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.floridatoday.com [2013, June 20].] 

June 21: NASA Announces Winners of 2012 George M. Low Award 

Two companies that share a commitment to teamwork, technical and managerial excellence, 

safety, and customer service have been selected to receive NASA's premier honor for quality and 

performance, the George M. Low Award. NASA recognizes URS Federal Technical Services Inc. 

of Germantown, Md., in the large business award category and ATA Engineering Inc. of San 

Diego, Calif., in the small business award category. URS Federal Technical Services Inc. is the 

institutional services contractor at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. With 1,100 

employees and subcontractors, the company maintains 1,250 facilities, roadways, railroad tracks 

and an airfield; provides utilities, indoor climate control, life support and propellant storage; 

conducts non-destructive evaluation; cleans, samples and calibrates components; and coordinates 

logistics. Evaluators cited URS' automation initiative, which deployed tablet computers to 

employees to reduce their paperwork burden; its process for ensuring customer satisfaction; and 

the breadth of its safety program in an industrial environment with so many potential hazards. 

ATA Engineering Inc. supported development of the Mars Science Laboratory and its robotic 

rover, Curiosity, at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. The award was 

established in 1985 as NASA's Excellence Award for Quality and Productivity. It was renamed in 

1990 in memory of George M. Low, an outstanding leader with a strong commitment to quality 

products and workforce during his 27-year tenure at the agency. Low was NASA's deputy 

administrator from 1969 to 1976 and a leader in the early development of space programs. 

[“NASA Announces Winners of 2012 George M. Low Award for Quality,” NASA News 

Release #13-185, June 21, 2013.] 

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June 23: Pegasus to carry NASA craft this week 

A small satellite with a big mission of exploring the connection between the sun and Earth will 

head to space aboard an air-launched rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base on Wednesday 

evening. The winged Pegasus rocket, built by Orbital Sciences Corp., is scheduled to carry 

NASA’s Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) spacecraft into orbit. The launch is 

planned between 7:27 and 7:32 p.m. Wednesday about 100 miles northwest of Vandenberg Air 

Force Base. Unlike traditional rockets, Pegasus is carried aloft under the belly a modified L-1011 

aircraft that will release the space booster at an altitude of 39,000 feet above the ocean. The 

aircraft will take off from Vandenberg’s runway approximately 55 minutes before the planned 

launch. After free falling for five seconds, the rocket’s first-stage motor will fire to propel 

Pegasus and its payload toward space. NASA’s IRIS is a small satellite designed to perform 

complex solar observations, according to Gary Kushner, IRIS project manager with Lockheed 

Martin Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory. The spacecraft is the latest Small Explorer for 

NASA’s program in heliophysics, the oldest known science, according to Jeffrey Newmark, IRIS 

program scientist at NASA. Web posted. (2013). [Pegasus to carry NASA craft this week 

[Online]. Available WWW: http://www.lompocrecord.com [2013, June 20].] 

June 24: Orbital Sues ULA, Seeks RD-180 Engines 

Orbital Sciences Corp., which wants to buy Russian-made RD-180 engines for its medium-lift 

Antares rocket, is suing rocket maker United Launch Alliance (ULA) for blocking any such sale, 

according to court papers dated June 20. Orbital of Dulles, Va., claims Denver-based ULA has 

not only illegally prevented open-market sale of the RD-180, but also has monopolized the 

launch-services market for certain satellites in violation of U.S. antitrust laws, according to a 

complaint filed June 20 with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in 

Alexandria. Orbital wants a federal judge to strike down an exclusivity agreement ULA has with 

its engine supplier, RD AMROSS, and to force ULA to pay Orbital at least $515 million — and 

potentially more than $1.5 billion — for damages arising from ULA’s alleged monopolization of 

“launch systems and services used for medium-class payload missions,” according to court 

papers. Orbital wants the case to go before a jury. The suit marks an escalation in Orbital’s spat 

with ULA over the Russian-made RD-180 engine, which is imported to the United States by a 

company called RD AMROSS, a joint venture of United Technologies Corp. of Hartford, Conn., 

and NPO Energomash of Moscow, which manufactures the engine. United Technologies Corp.’s 

recently divested rocket propulsion division is the original U.S. partner in RD AMROSS, but the 

joint venture has not yet conveyed as part of that transaction. Because of an exclusivity 

agreement forged decades ago with Lockheed Martin, one of ULA’s two parent companies along 

with Boeing Co., RD AMROSS is only permitted to sell the RD-180 to ULA. Lockheed Martin, 

which needed a main engine for its new line of Atlas rockets, helped fund the RD-180’s 

development. The exclusivity arrangement has been the subject of an investigation by the 

antitrust division of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission since April. That review was prompted 

by complaints by Orbital, which views the RD-180 as a long-term replacement for the AJ-26 that 

currently powers the Antares rocket’s first stage. In its June complaint, Orbital alleged that 

ULA’s exclusivity agreement with RD AMROSS violates the U.S. Sherman Antitrust Act, and 

that ULA’s alleged monopolization of “medium-class payload missions” violates section four of 

the Clayton Antitrust Act. Orbital’s interest in the RD-180 stems from concerns about the longterm supply of the AJ-26, which is based on the NK-33 engine designed for the Soviet Union’s 

failed lunar exploration program, and produced during the 1960s and 1970s. Aerojet Rocketdyne 

of Sacramento, Calif., purchased and refurbished a limited number of the engines for the Antares 

and says it has secured an agreement to restart production in Russia. Orbital is under contract 

with NASA to use Antares and a cargo capsule dubbed Cygnus for eight cargo-delivery missions 

to the international space station. To begin executing on that contract, Orbital must first complete 

two successful demonstration missions: a test launch of Antares that took place in April; and a 

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launch Antares carrying a Cygnus capsule, now scheduled for September. Web posted. (2013). 

[Orbital Sues ULA, Seeks RD-180 Engines, $515 Million in Damages [Online]. Available 

WWW: http://www.spacenews.com [2013, June 24].] 

Students fly high on NASA trip 

The students of Ryan International Schools, Bangalore, visited Kennedy Space Center (KSC), 

Florida, on an educational trip. They were at the center from May 20 to 31, 2013. The 10 

students, from three different branches of the school, returned enriched by their experiences about 

space and NASA, and also the values and culture of people from another country. During the 

workshop at KSC, students performed tasks, worked on robotics, satellite tracking etc., with the 

help of instructors. Their most cherished moments included their interaction with astronaut 

Barbara Morgan. They also learnt about the life of an astronaut, what it's like to live in a shuttle 

and how a shuttle is equipped with amenities through a short movie screened at the KSC. The 

students were amazed to learn how astronauts work. Web posted. (2013). [Students fly high on 

NASA trip [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com [2013, June 

24].] 

June 25: Launch Pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center being upgraded 

Construction crews are busy at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center working on upgrades at Launch 

Complex 39. Launch Pad B is undergoing construction so it can support NASA’s Space Launch 

System. Crews are removing flame trench bricks from the launch pad that were installed in 1960s 

during the Apollo program. A new flame deflector and flame trench are currently being designed 

with construction set to begin in early 2015. Web posted. (2013). [Launch Pad 39B at Kennedy 

Space Center being upgraded [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.mynews13.com [2013, 

June 25].] 

NASA Signs Cooperation Agreement With PISCES 

NASA has agreed to provide technical support to a Hilo-based space research center on projects 

designed to allow humans to live in outer space. The Space Act Agreement between NASA’s 

Kennedy Space Center and Hilo’s Pacific International Space Center for Explorations Systems, 

also known as PISCES, has a term of five years. The projects could include a variety of 

technologies required for space exploration beyond low Earth orbit, said PISCES spokeswoman 

Mari-Ela David Chock. She said NASA support may also include technical services related to 

the ongoing operations of the Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS) 

mission. HI-SEAS, a five-year collaboration involving the University of Hawaii, Cornell 

University and PISCES, involves a simulated Mars habitat established at the 8,000-foot elevation 

of Mauna Loa. The first of HI-SEAS’ experiments focusing on food needs – and all of its 

trimmings which include consideration of packaging waste, energy needs, menu “fatigue” and 

social cohesion among the crew – has been ongoing for 69 days, with 48 days to go. Chock said 

because of its experience, NASA expertise would be invaluable in a variety of areas including the 

development of communication and habitation systems. PISCES has also signed agreements with 

a variety of organizations to develop technologies needed to allow humans to live in outer space, 

such as on the moon or Mars. The organizations include the International Society for TerrainVehicles Systems in New Hampshire and the Australian Centre for Space Engineering Research 

at the University of New South Wales. Web posted. (2013). [NASA Signs Cooperation 

Agreement With PISCES [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.bigislandnow.com [2013, 

June 25].] 

June 26: NASA's IRIS spacecraft launch delayed a day 

The launch of a NASA spacecraft that scientists hope will provide more information about the 

sun has been delayed one day. The Interface Region Imaging Spectograph, also known as IRIS, 

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is now scheduled for launch Thursday from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California from an 

Orbital Sciences’ Pegasus XL rocket. The drop of the air-launched Pegasus from Orbital’s L1011 carrier aircraft will occur over the Pacific Ocean, about 100 miles northwest of Vandenberg. 

The delay was the result of a significant power outage at Vandenberg earlier this week, NASA 

said. Web posted. (2013). [NASA's IRIS spacecraft launch delayed a day [Online]. Available 

WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com [2013, June 26].] 

June 27: NASA launches sun-watching IRIS satellite from California 

NASA has launched a satellite on a mission to examine a little-studied region of the sun that it 

hopes will improve space weather prediction. The Iris satellite is riding into Earth orbit on a 

Pegasus rocket, which was air-launched over the Pacific Ocean Thursday evening. The airplane 

carrying the rocket and satellite took off around sunset from Vandenberg Air Force Base along 

California’s central coast. It’ll take some time before ground controllers know whether Iris has 

reached its target orbit to start its two-year mission. Iris will focus on a region of the sun between 

the surface and the corona, the sun’s outer atmosphere that’s visible during eclipses. The mission 

will last two years and costs $182 million. Web posted. (2013). [NASA launches sun-watching 

IRIS satellite from California [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com [2013, 

June 26].] 

June 28: 30 astronauts gather for VIP event at Atlantis exhibit 

They gathered to dine under their spaceship. More than 30 astronauts gathered at Kennedy Space 

Center Visitor Complex tonight as part of a VIP dinner event sponsored by Delaware North 

Companies, unveiling Space Shuttle Atlantis in her new home. As they saw the orbiter, on 

display as if in flight tilted 43.21 degrees to the port side, for the first time, many wiped tears 

from their eyes. "It looks beautiful," said Frank L. Culbertson Jr, who flew on Atlantis and 

Discovery and lived at the International Space Station. "It looks like it did when it flew." And 

though they agreed the shuttle had been done justice, there was a bittersweet tinge. "It should 

still be flying," said Brewster Shaw, who flew on Atlantis in 1985 and two missions with 

Columbia. The exclusive dinner event precedes the exhibit's public opening. The $100 million 

facility, which displays Atlantis and has 60 other exhibits, opens Saturday morning to the public. 

Web posted. (2013). [30 astronauts gather for VIP event at Atlantis exhibit [Online]. Available 

WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com [2013, June 28].] 

Budget cuts scuttle tours of Cape Canaveral Air Station 

As of Thursday, the 45th Space Wing’s free tours through the historic space sites of Cape 

Canaveral Air Force Station are no more. The Air Force has canceled them, because of budget 

cuts brought on by sequestration. The free tours, which were conducted Wednesdays and 

Thursdays, showcased the mission of the 45th Space Wing and focused on the Air Force space 

program, with visits to several launch complexes, the Cape Canaveral Lighthouse and the Air 

Force Space and Missile Museum, areas not otherwise open to the general public. It also 

included the launch pads from which John Glenn and Alan Shepard launched on their Mercury 

missions. The 45th Space Wing said the suspension of the tours is a direct result of the 

sequestration from the Budget Control Act, which requires the Department of Defense to cut 

more than $487 billion from the defense base budget over 10 years beginning in fiscal year 

2013.Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex offers Cape Canaveral: Then and Now tours. Web 

posted. (2013). [Budget cuts scuttle tours of Cape Canaveral Air Station [Online]. Available 

WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com [2013, June 28].] 

NASA and Space Florida Begin Partnership Discussions 

NASA has selected Space Florida, the aerospace economic development agency for the state of 

Florida, for negotiations toward a partnership agreement to maintain and operate the historic 

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Shuttle Landing Facility (SLF). NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and the director of 

NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC), Robert Cabana, announced the selection during a news 

conference Friday at Kennedy's Visitor Complex in Florida. NASA issued a request for 

information to industry in 2012 to identify new and innovative ways to use the facility for current 

and future commercial and government mission activities. Space Florida's proposal is aligned 

closely with Kennedy's vision for creating a multiuser spaceport. "The SLF is a significant asset 

for the center that ties our historical past to the vision of the future," said Cabana. "I had the 

privilege of landing two space shuttle orbiters at the facility and look forward to beginning 

discussions with Space Florida on a future partnership that will fully utilize this unique resource." 

"The SLF provides a unique capability for new and expanding suborbital launch providers, 

unmanned aerial vehicle operators and other aerospace-related businesses to thrive in a location 

that maximizes the resources of the space center and Eastern Range operations," said Space 

Florida President Frank DiBello. "We look forward to working with NASA and KSC leadership 

in the coming months to finalize the details of this transaction in a way that will provide the 

greatest benefit to incoming commercial aerospace businesses." The SLF, specially designed for 

space shuttles returning to Kennedy, opened for flights in 1976. The concrete runway is 15,000 

feet long and 300 feet wide. The SLF is capable of handling all types and sizes of aircraft and 

horizontal launch and landing vehicles. [“NASA and Space Florida Begin Partnership 

Discussions,” NASA Release #13-199, June 28, 2013.] 

June 29: Space shuttle Atlantis' public debut thrills all 

Former United Space Alliance engineer Pablo Martinez used to pinch himself when he worked on 

the space shuttles, a reminder of just how important the vehicles were in the nation’s history. 

When he walked beside Atlantis, officially unveiled to the public for the first time on display at 

Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex on Saturday, it was a similar feeling, though a tad 

bittersweet. “I’m not happy it ended this way, but I’m happy to see it again,” Martinez said. The 

priceless artifact wowed thousands from its perch — 43.21 degrees to the port side and 30 feet in 

the air, as if in flight — inside the $100 million exhibit. The thousands included those seeing a 

space shuttle for the first time, as well as astronauts who flew Atlantis and former shuttle workers 

who for years prepped the fleet for flight. “It’s been a while since I teared up,” said astronaut 

Ken Ham, who flew on Discovery and Atlantis. “I was really glad there was a little corner over 

there I could go and be by myself before I had to talk to folks. This engineering marvel right here 

kept me and all my friends alive in one of the most harsh environments that humans have ever 

known. It’s making my skin crawl right now, it’s amazing. ... It’s just stunning.” The opening 

featured a 10-second countdown and was held in front of the replica solid rocket boosters and 

external tank that flank the exhibit entrance. “Just as the future of our space program rides on the 

shoulders of the shuttle, and those who flew her and those who worked on her, it’s made possible 

by everyone here who shared a dream of manned spaceflight,” Bill Moore, chief operating officer 

at Kennedy Space Center, told the crowd. “They worked tirelessly to make it a reality, and we 

will fly manned, from the Kennedy Space Center, again, into space.” At that, the crowd erupted 

into loud cheers and applause. The noise was only topped when the crowd went inside to see 

Atlantis’ big reveal. Web posted. (2013). [Space shuttle Atlantis' public debut thrills astronauts, 

KSC patrons [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com [2013, June 30].] 

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JULY 

July 1: NASA Launches New Website Look 

The online portal to all things NASA — NASA.gov — has a new look as of today (July 1), with a 

lightened color palette and new navigation tools. Among other changes, NASA has added a new 

window on the top right to highlight live events and upcoming news. The space agency also plans 

to integrate social media into its online features more closely. Most noticeable among the 

changes is the new look and feel of the site, which has gone from a black, grey and blue color 

scheme to a white and blue one. The site is a popular destination for space followers, and has 

been honored with numerous awards. In 2012, NASA.gov won the People's Voice Award as well 

as the Judges' Award for best government site in the annual Webby competition. Web posted. 

(2013). [NASA Launches New Website Look [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.space.com/ [2013, July 1].] 

Orion takes shape for 2014 Test Flight 

NASA is picking up the pace of assembly operations for the Orion capsule, America’s next crew 

vehicle destined to carry US astronauts to Asteroids, the Moon, Mars and Beyond. Just over a 

year from now in September 2014, NASA will launch Orion on its first test flight, an unpiloted 

mission dubbed EFT-1. At NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, expert work crews are 

already hard at work building a myriad of Orion’s key components, insuring the spacecraft takes 

shape for an on time liftoff. In 2014 Orion will blast off to Earth orbit atop a mammoth Delta IV 

Heavy booster, the most powerful booster in America’s rocket fleet following the retirement of 

NASA’s Space Shuttle orbiters in 2011. On later flights Orion will blast off on the gargantuan 

Space Launch System (SLS), the world’s most powerful rocket which is simultaneously under 

development by NASA. At the very top of the Orion launch stack sits the Launch Abort System 

(LAS) – a critically important component to ensure crew safety, bolted above the crew module. 

In case of an emergency situation, the LAS is designed to ignite within milliseconds to rapidly 

propel the astronauts inside the crew module away from the rocket and save the astronauts lives. 

The LAS is one of the five primary components of the flight test vehicle for the EFT-1 mission. 

Prior to any launch from the Kennedy Space Center, all the rocket components are painstakingly 

attached piece by piece. Final assembly for EFT-1 takes place inside the iconic Vehicle Assembly 

Building (VAB). To get a head start on assembly with the launch date relentlessly approaching, 

technicians have been practicing lifting and stacking techniques for several months inside the 

VAB transfer aisle using the 6 ton LAS pathfinder replica and mock ups of the Orion crew and 

service modules. Conducting the practice sessions now with high fidelity replicas serves multiple 

purposes, including anticipating and solving problems now before the real equipment arrives, as 

well as to keep the teams proficient between the years long launch gap between the finale of the 

Space Shuttle program and the start up of the Orion/SLS deep space exploration program. 

Delicate maneuvers like lifting, rolling, rotating, stacking, gimballing and more of heavy 

components requiring precision placements is very demanding and takes extensive practice to 

master. The same dedicated crews that assembled NASA’s Space Shuttles inside the VAB for 3 

decades are assembling Orion. And they are using the same equipment. During the unmanned 

Orion EFT-1 mission, the capsule will fly on a two orbit test flight to an altitude of 3,600 miles 

above Earth’s surface, farther than any human spacecraft has gone in 40 years. Web posted. 

(2013). [Orion takes shape for 2014 Test Flight [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.universetoday.com/ [2013, July 1].] 

July 2: SpaceX presses ahead on crew testing at Cape Canaveral 

SpaceX set the stage for a critical pad-abort test coming up at Cape Canaveral, passing a NASA 

review that’s part of an effort to certify Dragon spacecraft to fly astronauts, officials said 

Tuesday. Late this year or early in 2014, a Dragon spacecraft will be mounted on a test stand at 

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Cape Canaveral Air Force Station’s Launch Complex 40, where SpaceX launches Falcon 9 

rockets. Countdown clocks will tick to zero and abort engines on the Dragon will ignite, boosting 

the spacecraft to an altitude of about 5,000 feet. “They’re going to pretend it’s a bad day and 

abort off that test stand,” said Jon Cowart, a deputy partner manager with NASA’s Commercial 

Crew Program Office at Kennedy Space Center. If all goes well, spacecraft parachutes will 

deploy, and the Dragon capsule will splash down in the Atlantic Ocean. A capsule recovery 

operation will follow. The test will be the first of two designed to show that a Dragon and an 

astronaut crew could survive worst-case launch abort scenarios. The second test, scheduled for 

next April, will be an in-flight abort test – one that demonstrates a capability to survive a launch 

failure under worst-case dynamic loads. NASA and SpaceX recently reviewed plans for the padabort test as well as the company’s plans to certify its overall Falcon 9-Dragon system for human 

spaceflight. The human certification review outlined the testing, demonstrations, analyses, 

inspections and training that will be done as part of that effort. The two reviews were the fifth 

and sixth of 14 milestones to be completed by SpaceX by mid-2014. NASA payment for passing 

the pad abort review milestone was $20 million; the payment for the other review was $50 

million, NASA documents show. Web posted. (2013). [SpaceX presses ahead on crew testing at 

Cape Canaveral [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, July 3].] 

July 3: ULA makes $1B deal to sell 7 rockets 

Seven United Launch Alliance Atlas V and Delta IV rockets are being ordered up under a new $1 

billion deal to launch spacecraft for the U.S. Air Force and the National Reconnaissance Office. 

The Air Force purchase is detailed in a recent Department of Defense contract announcement and 

includes money for four Atlas V rockets and three Delta IV rockets. Production work on the 

launch vehicles is to be completed by 2015. The Launch Systems Directorate of Air Force Space 

and Missile Systems Center in Los Angeles awarded the contract, which was a sole source 

acquisition. Web posted. (2013). [ULA makes $1B deal to sell 7 rockets [Online]. Available 

WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, July 3].] 

July 4: The American Flags on the Moon Have All Turned White 

While lunar images have proven that the American flags planted during the Apollo missions are 

still standing on the moon, lunar scientists have now said that they probably no longer hold the 

iconic stars and stripes — radiation from the sun most likely bleached out all the colors. The 

flags are probably completely white by now. The flags were made by Annin Flagmakers. They 

are nylon and cost NASA $5.50 each. Even on the surface of the Earth, under the protection of 

our atmosphere, flags flown in bright sunlight would fade severely in the 43 years since the moon 

landings. Web posted. (2013). [The American Flags on the Moon Have All Turned White 

[Online]. Available WWW: http://www.prisonplanet.com/ [2013, July 4].] 

July 5: Shuttle soaring: Atlantis exhibit smooth flying so far 

So far, so good, for the opening of the Space Shuttle Atlantis exhibit. One week into the opening 

of Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex’s museum honoring the space shuttle era, the 

centerpiece of which is a suspended orbiter Atlantis with its cargo bay doors open wide and 

nearly within arm’s reach of guests. Delaware North Companies Parks and Resorts, the private 

company that operates the tourist complex just outside the gates of KSC, does not publicly release 

a detailed accounting of its attendance figures because it considers the information proprietary. 

However, company officials said the early days’ returns are exceeding their expectations. And, 

that’s heading into an extended Independence Day holiday weekend that tends to draw a larger 

than usual number of vacationers and day-trippers. Last weekend, the exhibit opened to 

astronauts, dignitaries and the die-hards who waited in line to be among the first to see. “It’s 

really going well so far,” said Andrea Farmer, a spokesperson for the Visitor Complex. The $100 

million exhibit’s first week in public view has gone off without an issue, she said. Web posted. 

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(2013). [Shuttle soaring: Atlantis exhibit smooth flying so far [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, July 5].] 

July 8: Showdown on NASA's future expected this week 

Conflicting visions of where the nation’s space program should be headed will get a full airing 

this week. A key House Science, Space and Technology subcommittee will begin crafting a bill 

Wednesday that would reauthorize NASA for the next two years. The impact of those decisions 

could be felt for the next decade, assuming they can be reconciled with the competing priorities 

of the Obama administration and lawmakers. The Republican-led panel is expected to vote on a 

fiscal 2014 measure that assumes sequestration budget cuts will remain in effect through at least 

fiscal 2015. That means NASA would receive a maximum annual budget of $16.8 billion, 

slightly more than it got in fiscal 2013 but not the $17.7 billion President Barack Obama is 

requesting for next year. Under the Republican bill, space exploration would get $300 million 

more (about $3 billion) than the administration wants. But the bill would eliminate $100 million 

in seed money for NASA’s mission to retrieve an asteroid. The GOP measure also would require 

that at least one of the aerospace companies NASA is assisting under its Commercial Crew 

program be ready to fly astronauts to the International Space Station by late 2017. But it would 

provide only $700 million next year — not the $821 million NASA said it needs to maintain a 

2017 schedule. And the bill would slash the requested Earth science budget by a third. There’s 

no guarantee that any House-approved NASA spending bill would get far in the Senate. Web 

posted. (2013). [Showdown on NASA's future expected this week [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, July 8].] 

Navy satellite hoisted aboard Atlas 5 launch vehicle 

The second satellite in the orbital assembly of the U.S. Navy's new mobile communications 

network was being loaded atop its United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket booster today at Cape 

Canaveral. Liftoff is scheduled for July 19 during a morning window of 8:48 to 9:32 a.m. EDT 

(1248-1332 GMT) from Complex 41. At nearly 15,000 pounds, the Mobile User Objective 

System satellite is a hefty cargo requiring the most powerful version of the Atlas 5 to carry the 

payload into a highly elliptical geosynchronous transfer orbit. MUOS 2 arrived in Florida on May 

13 after being flown on an Air Force C-5 transport aircraft from Lockheed Martin's satellite 

factory in Sunnyvale, Calif. Unloading at the Shuttle Landing Facility, the craft was taken to the 

commercial Astrotech satellite processing campus in nearby Titusville for final testing, the 

loading of propellants and encapsulation within the rocket's payload fairing. Crews early 

Monday moved the satellite across Kennedy Space Center and down to the Vertical Integration 

Facility where the Atlas awaited the arrival of its cargo. MUOS was hoisted atop the rocket to 

begin the connection process and complete the assembly of the 206-foot-tall launcher. A tip-totail electrical check, called the combined systems test, will be run this week to verify all is in 

readiness for flight. Rollout of the Atlas 5 aboard its mobile platform to the launch pad is 

planned for July 17. The launch team will initiate the seven-hour countdown in the early morning 

hours of July 19. Web posted. (2013). [Navy satellite hoisted aboard Atlas 5 launch vehicle 

[Online]. Available WWW: http://www.spaceflightnow.com/ [2013, July 8].] 

NASA IG Makes Case for Cargo, Crew, CASIS Success 

In a report today, NASA's Office of Inspector General (OIG) stressed that two factors will 

determine NASA's ultimate success in maximizing utilization of the International Space Station 

(ISS): attracting non-government users and reliable crew and cargo transportation. Noting that 

the United States paid $60 billion to build the ISS and currently spends $3 billion a year to 

operate it, the OIG report concludes that "it is essential that NASA make a concerted effort to 

maximize the research capabilities" of the space-based laboratory. The OIG gives NASA credit 

for utilization to date, saying that the agency is exceeding its goal of spending an average of 35 

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hours per week on scientific investigations, is performing over 100 investigations annually, and 

expects to increase the use of both internal and external research space in FY2013. The focus of 

the report is how to increase utilization beyond what has been achieved already. The Center for 

the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS) was created to bring in non-NASA users. NASA 

provides $15 million a year and CASIS is expected to bring in additional funds and users. The 

OIG report says that NASA and CASIS have not yet established precise metrics that would reveal 

how successful CASIS has been so far. A major focus of the report, however, is on the need for 

reliable crew and cargo transportation to and from the ISS to support research. NASA is relying 

on its commercial crew program to develop U.S. crew space transportation capabilities by 2017, 

but the OIG report points out that Congress has not provided the agency with the level of funding 

needed to meet that date. Not only is it costly to purchase Russian seats, but relying on Soyuz 

means only six instead of seven crew members can live and work aboard the ISS, further limiting 

the amount of research that be conducted, the report continues. The OIG only recommended 

action was for NASA to develop metrics to determine CASIS's success; NASA agreed to do 

that. Web posted. (2013). [NASA IG Makes Case for Commercial Cargo, Crew, CASIS Success 

[Online]. Available WWW: http://www.spacepolicyonline.com/ [2013, July 8].] 

July 10: Environmentalists: Don't allow spaceport in wildlife refuge 

A coalition of Florida environmental groups has called in the cavalry — this time to help stop a 

proposed spaceport inside the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. They're asking that top 

officials at the U.S. Department of the Interior, which manages the 140,000-acre sanctuary, 

become "directly involved" in plans to build a launchpad there, according to a new letter. Their 

aim is to offset the power of the Federal Aviation Administration, which is the lead agency in 

determining whether the state can locate a 150-acre spaceport at the northern boundary of 

Kennedy Space Center. "The FAA is not known as a very environmentally friendly agency," said 

Charles Lee of Audubon Florida, one of several groups to sign the July 3 letter. State officials 

bill the launchpad as critical to helping the KSC area recover from the 2011 retirement of the 

space shuttle, which cost thousands of local jobs. But the environmentalists worry it could cause 

problems for migratory birds, as well as rare wildlife such as the scrub-jay, and that recreational 

boaters and anglers could lose access to Mosquito Lagoon. Though the Interior Department has 

yet to respond, the letter itself is striking because it shows that several environmental and outdoor 

groups, from the Florida Wildlife Federation to the Orlando Kayak Fishing Club, have united in 

opposition. That fact alone could complicate plans by Space Florida, the state's aerospace booster, 

to start building the spaceport at the county border of Brevard and Volusia. The state is targeting 

the California company Space X, which would prefer a new facility far from the launchpads at 

KSC and Cape Canaveral so it can fly its rockets on its own schedule. Supporters expect SpaceX 

could bring at least scores of jobs to the area — though it's widely thought Florida is running 

second to Texas in the shadow race to lure SpaceX, founded by Internet tycoon Elon Musk. 

Space Florida expects that it would take about four years to complete the paperwork and build the 

facility. It's expected to cost about $100 million, though the company that uses the launchpad 

likely will pick up a chunk of the expense, along with some state dollars. But before that 

happens, Space Florida needs to clear several regulatory hurdles — starting with the 

environmental study being overseen by the FAA. Expected to begin this year, the study is 

expected to last at least a year and likely will examine a wide range of issues, from the effect on 

endangered species to which areas of the refuge, and nearby Canaveral National Seashore, would 

be closed to the public during launches. Officials with both Space Florida and the FAA said they 

expect the study to include input from the Interior Department, and they maintain that the 

spaceport project would not go forward without ensuring at least a baseline measure of ecological 

protection. Web posted. (2013). [Environmentalists: Don't allow spaceport to be built in wildlife 

refuge [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/ [2013, July 10].] 

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95

House Subcommittees Approve NASA, NOAA Funding Bills 

The House Appropriations Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS) subcommittee approved its FY2014 

funding bill that includes NASA and NOAA today, while its counterpart authorization 

subcommittee approved a Republican version of a 2013 NASA authorization act on a party-line 

vote. The FY2014 CJS appropriations bill calls for a significant cut to NASA and a more modest 

cut to NOAA. It was approved by the subcommittee by voice vote. The 2013 NASA 

authorization bill drafted by Republicans was approved by the Space Subcommittee of the House 

Science, Space and Technology Committee after defeating an amendment by ranking member 

Donna Edwards (D-MD) who offered her own version of the bill as a replacement. Her 

amendment was defeated on a party-line vote, and the bill was approved for forwarding to the full 

committee also on a party-line vote. Committee Democrats slammed the Republican bill saying 

that it "harms NASA" by cutting the amount of funding for the agency while imposing new 

requirements. These are just the first steps in the legislative process. The bills now must be 

marked up at the respective full committee levels, pass the House, and compromise must be 

reached with the Senate before bills are presented to the President for signature. Web posted. 

(2013). [House Subcommittees Approve NASA, NOAA Funding Bills [Online]. Available 

WWW: http://www.spacepolicyonline.com/ [2013, July 10].] 

July 11: Atlantis documentary airs tonight 

“Atlantis: Final Mission on the Space Coast” is a two-year journey looking at Shuttle Atlantis' 

transition from space traveler to museum showpiece. Its new mission is to inspire future 

generations of space travelers. Brighthouse Channel 9 and 1068 • DirecTV and AT&T Uverse 

channel 68 • Comcast channel 381. The documentary will air at 11:30 p.m. Web posted. (2013). 

[Atlantis documentary airs tonight [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/

[2013, July 11].] 

House bill kills NASA mission to snag asteroid 

Money for Earth science programs would be slashed and an asteroid retrieval mission would be 

scrapped under a NASA reauthorization bill approved by a key House panel Wednesday. On a 

rare party-line vote, the Republican-led House Science, Space and Technology Subcommittee on 

Space agreed to set the space agency's maximum budget at $16.8 billion a year for fiscal 2014 

and fiscal 2015. That's roughly what NASA received this year but considerably less than what 

Democrats and President Barack Obama are seeking. The GOP measure now goes to the full 

committee, where approval is expected. The bill includes an annual authorization of about $3 

billion for the Space Launch System designed to carry astronauts to Mars by the 2030s. And it 

authorizes $700 million for the Commercial Crew Program that will ferry Americans to the 

International Space Station. Both are top priorities for NASA, though the agency is asking for 

$821 million for the Commercial Crew Program. The GOP bill also would require that at least 

one of the aerospace companies NASA is assisting as part of the Commercial Crew program be 

ready to fly astronauts to the International Space Station by Dec. 31, 2017. There's no guarantee 

that whatever bill passes the House will go far in the Senate, where majority Democrats are more 

supportive of the president's agenda for NASA. NASA would get $17.7 billion under Obama's 

budget proposal for fiscal 2014. The space agency received a little more than $16.6 billion for the 

current fiscal year. Web posted. (2013). [House bill kills NASA mission to snag asteroid 

[Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, July 11].] 

July 12: 3rd AEHF Satellite Lands in Florida for September Launch 

The U.S. Air Force and Lockheed Martin Space Systems have delivered the third in a series of 

highly secure military communications satellites to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., in 

preparation for a September launch. The Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF)-3 

satellite arrived from Sunnyvale, Calif., July 10, the Air Force said in a press release. The satellite 

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will undergo preparation before being launched to geostationary transfer orbit atop a United 

Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket, the Air Force said. Web posted. (2013). [3rd AEHF Satellite 

Lands in Florida for September Launch [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.spacenews.com/

[2013, July 12].] 

No Contest for Pad 39A? SpaceX Appears To Be Only Bidder 

Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) appears to be the only company that put in a 

proposal to NASA to take over one of the space shuttle’s mothballed launch pads at the Kennedy 

Space Center (KSC) in Florida. NASA declined to comment on how many bids it received in 

response to a solicitation that closed on July 5, but a survey of U.S. launch companies by Space 

News shows only SpaceX saying it put in a proposal to take over Launch Complex 39A. United 

Launch Alliance, which flies the Delta and Atlas rockets, and ATK, which has been developing a 

shuttle-derived launcher called Liberty, said they passed on the Pad 39A solicitation. Orbital 

Sciences Corp., which this year completed the first test flight of its new Antares rocket to fly 

cargo to the international space station, launches from Wallops Island, Va. Company spokesman 

Barry Beneski said he did not know of any plans to expand to Florida. Likewise passing is Space 

Florida, the state-backed economic development agency that has been selected to take over 

operations and develop the shuttle’s runway for commercial operations. NASA is looking for a 

commercial partner to lease Pad 39A, and intends to keep the second shuttle launch pad, 39B, for 

its heavy-lift Space Launch System. The design for 39B also would accommodate commercial 

users. California-based SpaceX already flies its Falcon 9 rockets from Cape Canaveral Air Force 

Station, located just south of Kennedy Space Center, and is preparing for launch of its first rocket 

from a newly developed site at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The company has been 

on the hunt for a third site, preferably one that would be overseen by the Federal Aviation 

Administration, not NASA or the military. An environmental assessment of a potential site in 

Texas is under way. Documents posted on NASA’s solicitation website shows the agency wants 

to have a commercial operator for Pad 39A in place by Oct. 1, 2013, when funding for 

maintenance is slated for termination. Web posted. (2013). [No Contest for Pad 39A? SpaceX 

Appears To Be Only Bidder [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.spacenews.com/ [2013, 

July 12].] 

July 13: SLS on track for successful PDR conclusion 

The Space Launch System (SLS) is expected to pass its Preliminary Design Review (PDR) when 

the NASA Board meets on July 31. All “Element Level” PDRs have now been completed, ahead 

of the summit meeting, with zero “Red Risks” found with NASA’s new Heavy Lift Launch 

Vehicle (HLV). In what is a major milestone review of the SLS, hundreds of documents, known 

as the PDR data pack, have been created to overview the monster rocket that is set to be the 

centerpiece of NASA’s Beyond Earth Orbit (BEO) aspirations. Technically, the vehicle is in the 

process of overtaking the phase of development the Ares launch vehicles achieved, prior to the 

cancellation of the Constellation Program (CxP). More importantly, SLS is not suffering from the 

list of “Red Risks” that added to Ares I’s woes, as it battled against funding shortfalls, manifest 

slips and engineering challenges. Web posted. (2013). [SLS on track for successful PDR 

conclusion [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/ [2013, July 13].] 

July 14: Air Force considers privatizing Cape Canaveral operations 

Since the first rocket shot from the Cape in 1950, the Air Force has coordinated local launch 

activity and provided tracking and safety oversight for outbound vehicles — including pushing 

the destruct button if one veers off course. Meetings this week will explore a major change to 

that historic role, studying the possibility of privatizing some or all operations at Cape Canaveral 

Air Force Station and the Eastern Range, “the nation’s premier gateway to space.” Under a 

preliminary concept to be discussed in a public forum Thursday and Friday in Colorado Springs, 

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97

responsibilities now handled by the 45th Space Wing would be turned over to a spaceport 

operator approved by the Federal Aviation Administration. “The Air Force wants to understand 

issues associated with transitioning current government range operations at Cape Canaveral Air 

Force Station to a commercial spaceport,” reads an invitation sent to local officials. Air Force 

Space Command’s meeting announcement and a five-page concept summary stamped 

“PREDECISONAL” make clear that the study might not result in any action. If the concept were 

adopted — a process likely to take years — it’s not yet clear if it could dramatically reshape Cape 

launch operations or simply provide existing services more efficiently. The new site operator, 

rocket launchers and government agencies would collaborate to ensure public safety. The FAA 

has licensed eight spaceports across the country and issues safety approvals for commercial 

vehicles launching and reentering the atmosphere, including when SpaceX flies cargo to the 

International Space Station. The agency is expected to license launches from Florida of NASA 

astronauts on commercial systems anticipated in the next few years. Thousands of rockets have 

launched through the Eastern Range, which spans 15 million square miles, with no public 

casualties. But its high costs and bureaucracy have contributed to a perception that it is difficult to 

work with for non-government launchers. That environment has improved, but once-common 

commercial launches are now virtually non-existent from the Cape, having moved overseas. The 

Air Force’s preliminary study won’t affect Space Florida’s effort to establish the Shiloh launch 

complex at the north end of Kennedy Space Center and the Merritt Island National Wildlife 

Refuge, which is competing with other states to win commercial launches by SpaceX and others. 

Web posted. (2013). [Air Force considers privatizing Cape Canaveral operations [Online]. 

Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, July 14].] 

July 15: Space Florida Initiates Environmental Study 

A Federal Aviation Administration-led environmental study to address the potential impacts of 

constructing and operating a commercial launch complex in the general vicinity of the former 

citrus community known as Shiloh, Fla., will be performed by an independent consultant in 

accordance with FAA conditions and procedures, the State's aerospace development organization 

announced today. Space Florida has posted on its website a solicitation ("RFQ-SF-17-0-

2014/MB") for the submission of competitive written qualifications packages from professional 

environmental consulting firms to provide services in support of the FAA in preparation of an 

Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). The EIS is the next step in the initiative to establish a 

commercial spaceport complex jurisdictionally independent from the existing government launch 

facilities at Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, and the U.S. Air Force 

Eastern Range. The EIS will be used to support Space Florida's application to the FAA for a 

Launch Site Operator License for the operation of vertical launch facilities and associated space 

vehicle processing, launch, and recovery infrastructure. As the leading federal agency for the 

EIS, the FAA will select an independent consultant from those responding to the solicitation, 

based on procedures published in the Request for Qualifications. Space Florida will be 

responsible for engaging and retaining the FAA-selected consultant with funds provided by Space 

Florida under a Memorandum of Understanding entered into between the FAA and Space Florida. 

The independent consultant will perform the EIS under the direction of the FAA following 

federal environmental statutes, regulations, and guidelines as well as all applicable local, state, 

and federal laws as appropriate. Space Florida is proposing the construction and operation of the 

Shiloh Launch Complex on approximately 150 usable acres of undeveloped land, plus an 

additional 50 acres of buffer area. The proposed property is presently under the control of the 

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) within the boundaries of the Kennedy 

Space Center. The land is currently managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as a part of 

the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge under a land management agreement. The EIS will 

also analyze reasonable alternative locations to the proposed site. Web posted. (2013). [Space 

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98

Florida Initiates Environmental Study Process for Proposed Commercial Spaceport [Online]. 

Available WWW: http://www.spaceref.com/ [2013, July 15].] 

July 16: Senate Appropriations Approves $18 Billion for NASA 

The Senate appropriations subcommittee with jurisdiction over NASA approved $18 billion for 

the agency for FY2014 this morning, a significant increase over the level recommended by its 

House counterpart last week and more than the Obama Administration requested. The Senate 

Appropriations Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS) subcommittee, chaired by Senator Barbara 

Mikulski (D-MD), who also chairs the full committee, approved the bill with little discussion in a 

short markup session. The subcommittee approved $18 billion for FY2014, an increase above the 

$17.7 billion requested by the Obama Administration and significantly more than the amount 

approved by its House counterpart -- $16.6 billion (the full House Appropriations Committee will 

consider its subcommittee's recommendations tomorrow, but major changes are not expected). 

Web posted. (2013). [Senate Appropriations Subcommittee Approves $18 Billion for NASA 

[Online]. Available WWW: http://www.spacepolicyonline.com/ [2013, July 16].] 

Blue Origin Bids for Shuttle Launch Pad 

At least one other company is competing against Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) to 

take over a decommissioned space shuttle launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) 

here. Privately owned Blue Origin of Kent, Washington, also responded to a NASA solicitation 

for proposals for Launch Pad 39A, company president Rob Meyerson told SpaceNews July 16. 

“Blue Origin is considering various sites for our orbital launch operations, and submitted a 

proposal to NASA related to KSC Launch Complex 39A. We look forward to further discussions 

with NASA and Space Florida about the possibility of bringing our launch and vehicle assembly 

operations to the KSC area,” Meyerson wrote in an email. United Launch Alliance, ATK, Orbital 

Sciences and Space Florida all passed on the project. Blue Origin, which is owned by Amazon 

founder Jeff Bezos, is developing a reusable space vehicle called New Shepard. The company has 

an unfunded partnership agreement with NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, which is aimed at 

restoring a U.S. human space transportation system to the international space station. Web posted. 

(2013). [Blue Origin Bids for Shuttle Launch Pad [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.spacepolicyonline.com/ [2013, July 16].] 

July 17: NASA Amendment Would Weigh Marshall Closure 

U.S. Rep. Donna Edwards of Maryland, the ranking Democrat on the House Science space 

subcommittee, is expected to introduce an amendment to the NASA authorization bill July 18 

calling for a commission to consider closing NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, 

Ala. The amendment would establish a Center Realignment and Closure Commission that would 

be given six months to evaluate “consolidating all rocket development and test activities of the 

Marshall Space Flight Center and Stennis Space Center in one location” and recommend a 

location promising the greatest cost savings. The commission would also be asked to look at 

“relocating all operations of the Marshall Space Flight Center to both the Stennis Space Center 

and Johnson Space Center.” While the possibility of consolidating all NASA rocket development 

and testing activity in Mississippi might appeal to subcommittee’s chairman, Rep. Steve Palazzo 

(R-Miss.), the amendment is likely to encounter opposition from the committee’s lone Huntsvillearea member, Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.). Web posted. (2013). [NASA Amendment Would Weigh 

Marshall Closure [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.spacenews.com/ [2013, July 17].] 

House panel approves cutting NASA spending by $1.1 billion 

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A key House committee approved a bill Wednesday that would chop more than $1 billion from 

NASA’s budget next year, despite the agency’s warnings the cuts could compromise the nation’s 

global edge in space and science. The spending bill approved by the Appropriations Committee, 

which now heads to the full GOP-led House, would give NASA $16.6 billion in fiscal 2014. 

That’s a decrease of $1.1 billion from the current budget and about $1.4 billion less than 

contained in the bill Democrats are moving through the Senate. GOP leaders on the committee 

said they wanted to provide more money but couldn’t due to sequestration budget cuts. 

Appropriators had flexibility in determining which programs to fund but no wiggle room in the 

overall amount. Even if the House bill passes later this year, it will have to be reconciled with a 

Senate version that’s expected to call for providing NASA with $18 billion. Unlike the 

Republicans that run the House, the Democrats in charge of the Senate aren’t factoring 

sequestration into their spending bills because they say they’re optimistic Congress will end the 

automatic cuts. Under the House plan, key sectors of NASA’s budget, including science, 

exploration and space operations, would see a decrease of at least $200 million each. The plan 

would give NASA nearly $100 million more than it’s seeking to continue development of a deepspace mission designed to take astronauts to Mars by the 2030s — a top priority for GOP 

lawmakers. But it also would slash $321 million from NASA’s request for the “commercial crew 

program” that partners with private aerospace firms to transport astronauts to the International 

Space Station. Currently, astronauts have to hitch rides on Russian rockets at a cost of more than 

$70 million for each seat. The House bill would provide no money for an asteroid retrieval 

mission the agency says is an important stepping-stone to reach Mars. Lawmakers said more 

planning and study need to be done first. Web posted. (2013). [House panel approves cutting 

NASA spending by $1.1 billion [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/

[2013, July 17].] 

As Atlas Rolls to SLC-41, Delta IV Undergoes WDR 

In a day marked by many events dedicated to preparing for the launch of an Atlas V 551 rocket, 

over at nearby Space Launch Complex 37 (SLC-37) a Delta IV rocket underwent what is known 

as Wet Dress Rehearsal, or “WDR.” Both events took place at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station 

in Florida on July 17. Today’s WDR was conducted to validate that the Delta IV Medium is ready 

to deliver the Wideband Global Satcom 6 (WGS-6) for launch, currently set to take place 

Wednesday, August 7 at 8:29 p.m. EDT. As for the Atlas V, United Launch Alliance has about 

44 minutes to get the rocket off the pad and into the skies Friday, July 19. The launch window 

opens at 8:48 a.m. EDT. ULA operates both the Atlas V and Delta IV family of launch vehicles. 

Web posted. (2013). [As Atlas Rolls to SLC-41, Delta IV Undergoes WDR in Preparation for 

August Launch [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.americanspace.com/ [2013, July 17].] 

July 19: Who will launch from Kennedy Space Center's pad 39A? 

Competing proposals from two billionaire-backed private space firms have complicated NASA’s 

plan to lease a former Apollo and shuttle launch pad it no longer needs and can’t afford to 

maintain. NASA was close to an agreement on a 15-year lease of Kennedy Space Center’s pad 

39A to SpaceX, which could use it in the next few years for launches of astronauts to the 

International Space Station and for a planned heavy-lift Falcon rocket. But Blue Origin, which 

has not yet flown a vehicle in space but may compete with SpaceX long-term, has instead 

proposed taking over the pad and equipping it to serve multiple launch providers, including 

SpaceX. NASA is looking for commercial operators to take over the historic seaside pad that 

debuted with the first Saturn V blastoff in 1967 and was last used in 2011 for the final shuttle 

launch. The agency hopes to lease the mothballed pad by Oct. 1, when it plans to stop funding 

upkeep of a facility for which it has “no foreseeable” need. NASA would not comment on 

proposals under evaluation, which had to detail plans for shared or exclusive use for at least five 

years. Several U.S. launch companies did not submit proposals to use pad 39A, including ATK, 

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Orbital Sciences Corp. and United Launch Alliance, a joint venture owned by The Boeing Co. 

and Lockheed Martin Corp. ULA, however, which builds Atlas V and Delta IV rockets in 

Alabama and is competing with SpaceX to launch NASA crews and potentially national security 

satellites, has written Blue Origin a letter supporting its concept for Launch Complex 39. Web 

posted. (2013). [Who will launch from Kennedy Space Center's pad 39A? [Online]. Available 

WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, July 19].] 

Powerful Atlas 5 lifts massive Navy satellite into orbit 

Leaping off the launch pad Friday in its most powerful arrangement to boost its heaviest payload 

into orbit, a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket successfully deployed the second in a series of 

sophisticated spacecraft to grow the U.S. Navy's new mobile communications network that will 

span the globe. The energetic rocket, created by attaching five strap-on solid-fuel motors to the 

kerosene-fed main stage to deliver two-and-a-half million pounds of thrust, launched from Cape 

Canaveral at 9:00 a.m. EDT. The 206-foot-tall rocket blasted off after its overnight countdown 

progressed smoothly and a brief hold for upper level wind conditions to clear. It begins a string 

of five national security launches that the Air Force will perform with United Launch Alliance in 

a three-month span through October, using both Atlas and Delta 4 rockets from the Cape and 

Vandenberg Air Force in California. The future flights will deploy two Air Force 

communications spacecraft, a massive spy satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office and a 

new GPS bird. Web posted. (2013). [Powerful Atlas 5 lifts massive Navy satellite into orbit 

[Online]. Available WWW: http://www.spaceflightnow.com/ [2013, July 19].] 

Grumman workers reunite to mark moon landing 

Nearly 200 people responsible for the lunar module that put man on the moon 44 years ago have 

come back to the Space Coast to celebrate their achievement and teamwork. For some, it will be 

the first time back at Kennedy Space Center since they were laid off at the end of the Apollo 

program in the 1970s. Reunion attendees will tour Space View Park and the Apollo Monument 

in Titusville on Friday and dine Saturday at Kennedy Space Center in the Saturn V Building, 

which houses a lunar module. Former Grumman lunar module team members will also meet 

Apollo astronauts, including Fred Haise and Edgar Mitchell, during several social functions this 

weekend. Mitchell walked on the moon during Apollo 14 in 1971 and Haise was aboard Apollo 

13 in 1970. The reunions are not an annual event for the Grumman lunar module team. Its most 

recent get-togethers were two years ago in Stuart and nine years ago in Brevard County. This year 

will be the first time they have returned to the space center as a group. There are tentative plans 

to meet again 2016 and then 2019 to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the moon landing. 

Web posted. (2013). [Grumman workers reunite to mark moon landing [Online]. Available 

WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, July 19].] 

BRS Aerospace signs lease with Kennedy Space Center 

BRS Aerospace on Friday signed a lease with the Kennedy Space Center to open a research-anddevelopment operation in a former space shuttle facility. Miami-based BRS Aerospace will 

occupy the former Parachute Repack Facility at KSC, investing $7.4 million over three years on 

renovations and equipment. BRS plans to create 34 jobs over that period, paying an average of 

$62,100 a year. Company executives were on hand Friday for a lease signing ceremony 

involving KSC officials, and representatives from the state, Space Florida and the Economic 

Development Commission of Florida’s Space Coast. BRS will be doing research and 

development for parachutes, including commercial space applications, as well as production 

prototyping. The deal is part of NASA’s broader effort to bring private users into its facilities. 

BRS Aerospace was founded in 1980. Web posted. (2013). [BRS Aerospace signs lease with 

Kennedy Space Center [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, July 

20].] 

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NASA releases draft request for commercial crew proposals 

NASA has released a draft request for proposal (RFP) for commercial crew transportation to the 

International Space Station (ISS), including certification requirements and at least one flight. The 

Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) builds on the ongoing Commercial Crew 

Integrated Capability (CCiCap) program, a series of milestone-based awards going to three 

companies – Boeing, SpaceX and Sierra Nevada. Contrary to previous rounds of commercial 

crew funding - CCiCap and Commercial Crew Development (CCDev1 & 2), the contracts will be 

based on Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR), in which the government is able to set specific 

requirements and define approaches, with certain exceptions allowing contractors to retain 

property. Several involved companies have spoken out against the shift to FAR-based contracts, 

and the change was subject to contentious negotiations between NASA, the White House and 

members of Congress. Previous contracts were Space Act Agreements, which allow much greater 

leeway for contractors to design and build spacecraft. CCtCap contracts will be milestone based, 

like their predecessors, releasing designated funds only upon the contractor's demonstration of 

achieving a series of checkpoints. While previous rounds matured designs - CCiCap is intended 

to mature designs to the point of critical design review (CDR), the last major design stage before 

construction - CCtCap will involve construction and flight testing, leading to full NASA 

certification and at least one flight to the ISS with cargo. SpaceX has flown an uncrewed version 

of the Dragon capsule to the ISS, but certification to carry humans requires significant work. 

Currently, all transportation of humans to the ISS is conducted by Russia's Soyuz launch vehicle. 

Web posted. (2013). [NASA releases draft request for commercial crew proposals [Online]. 

Available WWW: http://www.flightglobal.com/ [2013, July 19].] 

July 20: Expedition yields Apollo 11 engine from deep sea 

Seen under black light through a special lens filter, the stenciled number appeared green and 

slightly blurry: “2044.” It was a significant find for a team conserving the corroded remains of 

Saturn V rocket engines that had spent more than 40 years on the Atlantic Ocean floor, until their 

recent recovery by Bezos Expeditions, led by Amazon.com and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos. 

The Rocketdyne serial number confirmed this F-1 engine component, a massive thrust chamber, 

had helped launch from Kennedy Space Center the most famous human spaceflight — the Apollo 

11 moon landing. The announcement came four months after the recovery team returned to Port 

Canaveral aboard the Seabed Worker with more than 25,000 pounds of engine parts raised from 

three-mile deep graves by remotely operated vehicles. Salvaged were thrust chambers, gas 

generators, injectors, heat exchangers, turbines and fuel manifolds, some weighing as much as a 

ton and others as small as a dime — “all simply gorgeous and a striking testament to the Apollo 

program,” Bezos said. Having experienced fiery launches, ocean impacts after high-altitude falls 

and decades in salt water, it was unknown if the artifacts could be traced to specific missions. 

“We left Florida knowing the conservation team had their work cut out for them, and we’ve kept 

our fingers crossed ever since,” said Bezos. A team at the Kansas Cosmoshpere and Space 

Center cleaned the components with freshwater and anti-corrosion agents, then painstakingly 

documented their condition, taking pictures and using 3-D scanners and CAD modeling. Bezos 

said a breakthrough came when a conservator scanning the thrust chamber spotted the “2044” 

stenciled in black paint. Further corrosion removal revealed more evidence stamped into its metal 

base: “Unit No 2044.” The serial number was a match for Engine No. 5 on the Apollo 11 mission 

carrying Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins. Five F-1 engines, the most powerful 

single-nozzle, liquid-fueled engines ever developed, boosted the first stage of Saturn V flights. 

Each stood 19 feet tall, weighed over 18,000 pounds and produced 1.5 million pounds of thrust. 

Enough pieces have been recovered to reconstitute two flown F-1 engines for public display, 

expected at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., and the Museum of Flight in Seattle. 

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Web posted. (2013). [Expedition yields Apollo 11 engine from deep sea [Online]. Available 

WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, July 20].] 

July 24: Orion capsule sticks drop-test landing 

NASA’s Orion spacecraft scored a big success Wednesday during a drop test that showed it could 

return astronauts safely to Earth even if its main parachute fails during atmospheric entry, descent 

and landing. Dropped from a military C-17 cargo aircraft flying 35,000 feet above the Arizona 

desert, a full-scale Orion test capsule deployed its parachutes over the U.S. Army’s Yuma 

Proving Ground. Live video broadcast on NASA TV showed the capsule descending under three 

huge red-and-white striped parachutes. The suspension line on the main chute was deliberately 

cut, but the two remaining chutes lowered the craft to a safe landing. NASA had not tested a 

parachute designed for human spaceflight at such a high altitude since the Apollo program in the 

late 1960s and early 1970s. NASA is developing the Orion spacecraft for human expeditions 

beyond Earth orbit. Asteroids, the moon, Mars and the Martian moons Phobos and Deimos are 

potential destinations. The first of those flights is slated for early next decade. The first flight 

test of an Orion spacecraft is scheduled for September 2014 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. 

A United Launch Alliance Delta IV rocket will propel the Orion to a point 3,600 miles away from 

Earth. Then, at the end of its second orbit, Orion will re-enter Earth’s atmosphere at about 20,000 

mph — a velocity that is 84 percent of the re-entry speed of a spacecraft returning from beyond 

Earth orbit. Other than the deliberate main parachute failure, Johnson said the test Wednesday “is 

very similar to what Orion will look like coming back” during the flight test next year. Web 

posted. (2013). [Orion capsule sticks drop-test landing [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, July 24].] 

July 25: KSC: Skylab astronauts mark 40th anniversary 

Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex guests can see a collection of Skylab astronauts on 

Saturday in conjunction with a 40-year anniversary reunion of the first U.S. space station. NASA 

astronaut Fred Gregory will lead a discussion with astronauts at 11 a.m. Scheduled participants 

include Karol “Bo” Bobko, Vance Brand, Jerry Carr, Bob Crippen, Owen Garriott, Ed Gibson, 

Jack Lousma, Bill Pogue, William Thornton and Paul Weitz. Skylab was first launched in May 

1973. Missions included studies of the sun and Earth, effects of zero gravity on the humans and 

other scientific experiments. The unit made a famously splashy and planned (but yet 

unpredictable) return, with debris landing primarily in the southern Indian ocean southeast of 

Perth, Australia in July 1979. Saturday's [July 27th] astronaut discussion is included in regular 

visitor complex admission, but seating is limited. Interested guests should check in at the 

Astronaut Encounter Theater. Web posted. (2013). [Kennedy Space Center: Skylab astronauts 

mark 40th anniversary [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/ [2013, July 

25].] 

NASA told to slow pad leasing at KSC 

Two congressmen have written NASA this week expressing “strong concerns” that the space 

agency might award use of a Kennedy Space Center launch pad to one company, widely 

understood to be SpaceX. U.S. Reps. Frank Wolf and Robert Aderholt, both members of a House 

subcommittee that approves NASA budgets, said Launch Complex 39A is a “unique, taxpayerfunded asset” that should be available to multiple rocket launchers. “It is surprising that NASA 

appears to be racing to lease LC-39A with little transparency and absent Congressional consent,” 

they wrote to NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. NASA doesn’t need the mothballed former 

Apollo and shuttle pad, one of two at KSC, and is offering it to companies willing to take on the 

operations and maintenance costs by Oct. 1. Two companies, SpaceX and Blue Origin, are 

known to have submitted proposals. SpaceX wants exclusive use of the pad to accommodate a 

steady pace of launches, starting in 2015, of commercial and government satellites and potentially 

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NASA astronauts. The company says that arrangement will ensure the dormant facility is put to 

use and help the nation and Florida develop their role in commercial launches that have almost 

entirely moved overseas. Blue Origin won’t be ready to launch before 2018, but proposes to 

operate and modify pad 39A and make it available to any other interested users by 2015. Wolf 

and Aderholt accuse NASA of “questionable actions” concerning the proposed lease. Without 

identifying specific companies, they suggest NASA was near a lease of up to 20 years with one 

company until others objected, forcing the agency to release an open request for proposals in 

May. Parts of Aderholt’s Alabama district are near the plant where United Launch Alliance 

builds Atlas and Delta rockets. Those rockets face competition from SpaceX in the coming years 

for launches of national security and science satellites. The two companies also are competing to 

launch NASA crews to the International Space Station. ULA has voiced support for Blue 

Origin’s multi-user concept, suggesting pad 39A could serve as a backup to the two pads it 

controls at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. However, ULA did not submit its own bid to use 

39A, nor did two other experienced U.S. launch providers, ATK and Orbital Sciences Corp. 

Nowhere else do companies share a launch pad. They questioned why NASA might lease 39A 

exclusively while it markets Kennedy’s other pad, 39B, as available for both the agency’s own 

planned exploration rocket and commercial use. “This logic is inconsistent and another example 

of NASA’s failure to rationalize its strategic use of its facilities,” they said. The pair requested 

NASA take no action before providing more detail about the process, including how much it 

really costs to maintain 39A. NASA has declined to discuss the proposals. Web posted. (2013). 

[NASA told to slow pad leasing at KSC [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, July 25].] 

July 26: ULA point out their launch processing prowess 

The United Launch Alliance (ULA) teams on both sides of the United States have successfully 

completed five major processing milestones within a period of eight days. Marking the 

unprecedented operational tempo, the company reminded their customers about its leading role in 

what is becoming an increasingly competitive market. The United Launch Alliance operate the 

Delta IV and the Atlas V rockets – the latter sporting what the company proclaims to be a 100 

percent track record since its 2002 debut – from their launch pads at Cape Canaveral Air Force 

Station (CCAFS) and Vandenberg Air Force Base (VAFB). The company is currently within a 

salvo of missions involving three launch pads and three different vehicles, as highlighted by their 

successfully completed milestones over the past eight day period. The flow included July 17′s 

Wet Dress Rehearsal (WDR) at Space Launch Complex 37 (SLC-37) at CCAFS for the upcoming 

Delta IV launch of the WGS-6 spacecraft – currently set to lift-off on August 7. While the WDR 

was taking place, their Atlas V rocket rolled out to the nearby Space Launch Complex 41 (SLC41), ahead of its successful launch with the MUOS-2 spacecraft on July 19. Just days after the 

MUOS-2 launch, two spacecraft were mated to their respective boosters for their upcoming 

missions. These operations saw the WGS-6 spacecraft mated to its Delta IV launch vehicle at 

SLC-37 at Cape Canaveral on July 23, while the NROL-65 spacecraft was mated to the Delta IV 

Heavy at Space Launch Complex 6 (SLC-6) at Vandenberg the following day. ULA’s order book 

is set to increase in 2014, with 15 missions manifested. The company is already moving through 

the midway point for its 12 mission schedule for this year. Web posted. (2013). [ULA point out 

their launch processing prowess [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/

[2013, July 26].] 

July 31: Commercial-space contenders visit KSC 

Two years since astronauts last launched from here, companies today will gather at Kennedy 

Space Center to learn more about contracts that NASA hopes will close the post-shuttle gap in 

U.S. human spaceflight. NASA plans to award contracts next summer to one or more companies 

to finish designs and certify the safety of commercial rockets and spaceships that could fly crews 

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to the International Space Station by 2017. The fixed-price contracts likely also will include the 

first commercial flights of crews to the station. The leading contenders to win the contracts are 

the three companies currently developing systems with $1.1 billion NASA split between them last 

year. The Boeing Co. and SpaceX won the biggest awards, with Sierra Nevada Corp. getting 

about half as much. They may not all advance to the final round, however. Budget pressures 

could force NASA to reduce the number of competitors or risk delaying flights beyond 2017. 

NASA’s draft request for proposals suggests each winner could be awarded at least two flights to 

the ISS, with the potential for up to six flights if only one winner is selected. The draft proposal 

leaves open the possibility that extra seats on the flights could be sold to space tourists. NASA is 

seeking industry feedback on the draft during briefings and one-on-one meetings today and 

Friday. That feedback will help “ensure that the certification process results in safe, reliable and 

cost-effective human space transportation using a public-private partnership model,” NASA 

Administrator Charlie Bolden said Wednesday. The process “marks another significant milestone 

on the path to once again launching American astronauts from U.S. soil,” Bolden said. Web 

posted. (2013). [Commercial-space contenders visit KSC [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, July 31].] 

Lease on Kennedy Space Center's Pad 39 may be near 

A long-term lease of a mothballed Kennedy Space Center launch pad may still be near, NASA 

Administrator Charlie Bolden suggested Wednesday. At least one company and some members 

of Congress have asked NASA not to award a single company exclusive use of pad 39A, saying it 

should be made available to multiple launchers. But Bolden said it was the neighboring pad 39B, 

which NASA is overhauling to support its own exploration rocket, that the agency has always 

envisioned for shared use. “We would prefer that the multi-use facility be 39B, and it’s built that 

way now,” Bolden told the NASA Advisory Council during a meeting at NASA headquarters. 

“It’s got a flame trench, a blast deflector in it that’s mobile. We think we can handle all takers on 

39B.” NASA had been close to a deal with SpaceX to take over pad 39A until Blue Origin 

submitted a competing bid. Although Blue Origin doesn’t expect to launch its own rockets from 

KSC until 2018, the company has proposed to modify and manage pad 39A to serve any 

interested launcher. Bolden said NASA has no use for 39A, which supported the Apollo and 

shuttle programs, and planned to demolish it unless there was private sector interest. Now, he 

said the agency does not want to continue spending the “couple million bucks” it would cost each 

year to keep the seaside pad from rusting away. “The problem is, we cannot afford to maintain a 

facility while the world thinks about it,” he said. “We’re either going to demolish it, or we’re 

going to let somebody use it and pay for it.” NASA wants to unload responsibility for the pad by 

Oct. 1, the start of the new fiscal year. Bolden said NASA had talked to United Launch Alliance 

about launching crews from pad 39B instead of modifying its existing Atlas V launch pad at the 

Cape. He wasn’t sure if a final decision had been made. Web posted. (2013). [Lease on Kennedy 

Space Center's Pad 39 may be near, Bolden says [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, August 1].] 

Showdown over NASA funding bills likely 

A key Senate panel narrowly approved a bill reauthorizing NASA on Tuesday, setting up a 

showdown with the House over how much money the nation’s space program should get. The 

three-year bill, which now heads to the full Senate, would give the space agency $18.1 billion in 

fiscal 2014, $18.4 billion in fiscal 2015 and, $18.8 billion in fiscal 2016. NASA received $17.7 

billion in fiscal 2013, which ends Sept. 30. The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation 

Committee passed the bill 13-12 along party lines, with Democrats in favor and Republicans 

opposed. If the Democratic-led Senate passes the bill as expected, lawmakers likely will have to 

reconcile it with a House bill that promises NASA much less. Earlier this month, lawmakers on 

the GOP-led House Science, Space and Technology Committee settled on a funding figure closer 

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105

to $16.8 billion for fiscal 2014 and fiscal 2015. A vote on the House floor is expected later this 

year. The partisan conflict over NASA funding largely involves each party’s view of how much 

money exists to spend on most federal programs, such as space and science. Republicans are 

unwilling to go beyond the overall allocations spelled out in the budget they approved earlier this 

year. Those levels assume the sequestration budget cuts Congress agreed to in 2011 will remain 

in effect. Democrats on the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee argued Tuesday 

that NASA reauthorization should be based on how much money the agency realistically needs, 

not on what might be available in the next budget cycle. The difference is not just about money. 

It’s also about NASA’s overall direction and whether the agency should be allowed — or trusted 

— to pursue the course it’s laid out for the next few years. Both the House and Senate measures 

would provide money to continue developing NASA’s top priorities: a deep-space mission to 

Mars, a joint venture with aerospace firms to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station, 

and completion of the James Webb Space Telescope. But while the Senate bill would permit an 

asteroid retrieval mission the agency wants to undertake as part of its stepping-stone approach to 

Mars, the House measure strictly prohibits it. Web posted. (2013). [Showdown over NASA 

funding bills likely [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, July 31].] 

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106

AUGUST 

August 1: NASA Awards Contract for Gaseous Nitrogen Supply 

NASA has awarded a contract to Air Liquide Large Industries U.S. LP of Houston to supply 

gaseous nitrogen to Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. This 

will include the continued operations and maintenance of the Kennedy pipeline system. The firm 

fixed-price contract includes an economic price adjustment clause. The total approximate value is 

$69 million over the potential 10-year life of the contract. The base period of performance, which 

begins on Aug. 1, will last two years. The contract also contains four two-year options that could 

extend the contract through 2023. Air Liquide will provide personnel, materials, and gaseous 

nitrogen production facilities necessary to support current and future NASA launch programs and 

activities at Kennedy and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. [“NASA Awards Contract for 

Gaseous Nitrogen Supply,” NASA Contract Release #C13-034, August 1, 2013.] 

NASA, private space teams compare notes 

From Alan Shepard’s Redstone rocket and Freedom 7 capsule through the space shuttle, a video 

showed the first launches of each American spacecraft that has carried people into orbit. Ed 

Mango, head of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, told an industry audience Thursday at 

Kennedy Space Center that one of their vehicles would someday be added to that footage. “The 

people in this room . . . are going to put the next U.S. vehicle into low Earth orbit,” he said, 

prompting applause. A run at that achievement, which would mean an end to reliance on Russian 

spacecraft, will start with the hefty contract NASA plans to award next July to one or more 

companies. Called the Commercial Crew Transportation Capability contract, it will include 

orders for at least two flights of four-person crews to the International Space Station, the first of 

which NASA hopes to fly by late 2017. Those will be preceded by at least one crewed test flight 

to the station, leading to final certification of the systems as safe enough to fly crews to the ISS. 

The competition is open, but boils down to three companies already developing systems with 

more than $1 billion in NASA support: The Boeing Co. and Sierra Nevada Corp., which plan to 

launch spacecraft atop United Launch Alliance rockets, and SpaceX. No other major launch 

provider appeared on a list of meeting attendees NASA provided. NASA asked them for 

feedback on a draft request for proposals that will be finalized in October. Company proposals are 

due in December. Web posted. (2013). [NASA, private space teams compare notes [Online]. 

Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, August 1].] 

August 2: SpaceX Appetite for U.S. Launch Sites Grows 

Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) is awaiting word from NASA about whether it 

can take over one of the space shuttle’s launch pads at the Kennedy Space Center here. But even 

if its proposal is accepted, bringing its current U.S. launch complex tally to three, the company 

will still pursue another site, most likely in Texas, for its growing commercial business. “Each of 

the pads has its own niche and we have plenty of business to fill each pad,” said Garrett Reisman, 

a former astronaut who now oversees SpaceX’s commercial crew programs. NASA is evaluating 

at least two proposals for Launch Pad 39A, an Apollo-era complex that was revamped for the 

now-retired space shuttle program. In addition to SpaceX, privately owned Blue Origin has said 

it would like to lease the complex on a non-exclusive basis. Reisman said SpaceX wants the pad 

whether or not it wins the next and final round of NASA’s commercial crew development 

program. The company is competing against Boeing and Sierra Nevada Corp., both of which plan 

to fly their spacecraft on United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas 5 rockets. ULA said it did not bid 

for the shuttle’s launch pad. Reisman said SpaceX wants to use Launch Complex 39A’s access 

tower, escape system and bunker for launching people, saving the time and cost of upgrading its 

existing Cape Canaveral Air Force Station launch pad, located just south of NASA’s spaceport, 

for crewed missions. The company also would fly its planned Falcon Heavy rockets, in addition 

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to Falcon 9s, from the Kennedy Space Center, Reisman added. “We want to start using it real 

fast,” he said. NASA is looking for a commercial partner to take over pad 39A by Oct. 1, 

documents posted on the agency’s procurement website show. SpaceX meanwhile is continuing 

to assess options for what would be a fourth launch site for its commercial customers. It 

specifically wants a site that would be licensed and overseen by the Federal Aviation 

Administration, rather than the U.S. military or NASA. An environmental assessment of site in 

Boca Chica Beach near Brownsville, Texas, is under way. Another site in Florida, as well as sites 

in Georgia and Puerto Rico reportedly are still under consideration. Web posted. (2013). 

[SpaceX Appetite for U.S. Launch Sites Grows [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.spacenews.com/ [2013, August 2].] 

 KSC Releases Commercial Crew Program Marketing Video 

The two minute video aims to capture the history and spirit of human spaceflight. The slick video 

does capture the essence, but seems to fall short of its goal. "NASA's Commercial Crew Program 

captures the rich history of human spaceflight and the American spirit as it works with the 

aerospace industry to chart new adventures and seeks to find safe and cost-effective ships to sail 

to the International Space Station." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v+hW8c-PBgQU4 Web 

posted. (2013). [KSC Releases New Commercial Crew Program Marketing Video [Online]. 

Available WWW: http://www.spaceref.biz/ [2013, August 2].] 

MAVEN makes its last stop before Mars 

A NASA spacecraft has reached its last stop before embarking on a 10-month journey to Mars, 

arriving Friday at Kennedy Space Center to prepare for a planned November blastoff. An Air 

Force C-17 cargo plane delivered the MAVEN orbiter from Colorado to the former shuttle 

runway around 8 p.m. MAVEN is short for “Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution.” The 

$671 million mission, carrying three suites of instruments, will spend at least a year studying the 

Red Planet’s upper atmosphere and climate history. Scientists hope to learn more about why 

most of Mars’ once thicker, warmer atmosphere was lost, changing a more habitable climate to its 

current cold, dry state. After its delivery here, the Lockheed Martin Corp.-built orbiter was 

headed to KSC’s Payloads Hazardous Servicing Facility for pre-launch testing. The spacecraft is 

expected to move to a Cape Canaveral launch pad in early November to be hoisted atop a United 

Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. The launch must hit a 20-day window between Nov. 18 and 

Dec. 7, or else wait two years for the proper planetary alignment to return. NASA says the 

mission is on track to launch Nov. 18 and begin orbiting Mars in September 2014. NASA on 

Tuesday [August 6th] will celebrate the anniversary of its Curiosity rover touching down on the 

Martian surface. After MAVEN, the space agency plans to launch the InSight stationary lander to 

Mars in 2016, and is studying the possible launch of another rover in 2020. Web posted. (2013). 

[MAVEN makes its last stop before Mars [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, August 3].] 

August 5: Congressman Introduces Bill for Commercial Spaceflight 

Congressman Kevin McCarthy (R) has introduced H. R. 3038, the Suborbital and Orbital 

Advancement and Regulatory Streamlining (SOARS) Act, intended to streamline the regulatory 

process associated with commercial spaceflight. The bill was referred to the House Science, 

Space and Technology Committee where it may get full support from the Republicans on the 

committee but likely no support from the Democrats. Co-sponsoring the bill is Congressman Bill 

Posey (R) of Florida, who is a member of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee. 

Support of the legislation from the commercial sector includes the Mojave Air and Space Port, 

Stratolaunch Systems and Virgin Galactic. According to Congressman McCarthy: - The bill 

ensures that innovative launch and reentry vehicles have a "one-stop shop" for regulatory 

oversight, instead of dealing with two or more separate sets of regulatory requirements. - The bill 

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fixes a technical issue with current law to allow vehicle manufacturers to use individual vehicles 

as test platforms while other individual vehicles are being used in commercial service. Current 

law requires all vehicles of the same design either to be used for one purpose or the other. - The 

bill creates a demonstration project to evaluate the benefits of using experimental aircraft to 

support launch and reentry activities. - These provisions promote safety and innovation by 

unifying regulatory oversight, allowing companies to test safety improvements rapidly, and 

providing opportunities to develop new approaches to supporting launch and reentry activities. 

Web posted. (2013). [Congressman Kevin McCarthy Introduces Bill to Streamline Commercial 

Spaceflight Regulations [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.spaceref.com/ [2013, August 

5].] 

Atlas V rocket selected for NASA asteroid mission 

A NASA spacecraft destined to fly an asteroid sample return mission will launch in September 

2016 aboard an Atlas V at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. United Launch Services, a 

subsidiary of United Launch Alliance, was awarded a firm fixed price launch services contract 

valued at about $183.5 million, NASA officials said Monday. The contract covers launch vehicle 

and payload processing as well as integrated services, telemetry and other launch support 

services, the agency said. NASA is developing a spacecraft that will rendezvous with an asteroid 

in 2018 and use a robotic arm to gather samples that will be returned to Earth in 2023. The 

spacecraft also will map the 1,900-foot-diameter asteroid, which is about the size of six football 

fields. Asteroids are the rocky remnants of the formation of the solar system, and the samples are 

expected to shed light on its origins and evolution. The cost of the mission is $800 million, 

excluding the launch services contract. The spacecraft is called OSIRIS REx, an acronym for 

Origins-Spectral-Interpretation-Resource Identification-Security-Regolith Explorer. NASA’s 

Launch Services Program at Kennedy Space Center is responsible for program management of 

the Atlas V launch. Web posted. (2013). [Atlas V rocket selected for NASA asteroid mission 

[Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, August 5].] 

August 7: Delta 4 rocket launches for Australian satellite deploy

A rocket launch funded entirely by Australia streaked to orbit Wednesday night from Cape 

Canaveral in a show of international cooperation between the U.S. military and its allies. A 

United Launch Alliance Delta 4 rocket roared off Complex 37 at 8:29 p.m. EDT (0029 GMT), 

lighting up the Florida sky mere minutes after the sun had set, on a 41-minute climb into a 

supersynchronous transfer orbit with WGS 6. The sixth Wideband Global SATCOM spacecraft 

was built by Boeing just like the previous five, but this satellite was paid for by Australia instead 

of the U.S. Air Force. Through a collaborative deal, signed in 2007 and extending through 2029, 

the Australian Defence Force agreed to buy WGS 6, its launcher and contribute to system 

sustainment costs in exchange for a piece of the worldwide communications capabilities provided 

by the growing satellite constellation. Web posted. (2013). [Delta 4 rocket launches for 

Australian satellite deploy [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.spaceflightnow.com/ [2013, 

August 7].] 

UFO or rocket? Strange 'clouds' seen over Broward 

Some thought it was a spotlight. Others wondered whether aliens were visiting us from afar. One 

person joked it was probably "swamp gas" from Florida. Turns out it wasn't one of theirs from a 

distant galaxy, it was one of ours. Hundreds — perhaps thousands — across Florida witnessed a 

white or bluish cloud shining in Wednesday's sky just before dusk shortly after a Delta IV rocket 

was launched from Brevard County. Reports of the peculiar spectacle came from as far north as 

Jacksonville and down to the Florida Keys, U.S. Air Force officials said. The National UFO 

Reporting Center received about a dozen reports from across the state, said director Peter 

Davenport. Scientists believe the swirly white or electric-bluish cloud was caused by the exhaust 

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plume of the rocket, which formed a cloud of ice crystals 240,000 to 280,000 feet above Earth. 

The illumination was caused by the sun still shining at that height. The two spacecraft with red 

lights that some reported seeing were likely the rocket booster and the rocket separating from 

each other, officials said. The formation of the cloud and the 8:29 p.m. launch time made 

conditions ripe for the spectacular sight. The same phenomenon was widely reported in South 

Florida in 2009, shortly after the launch of space shuttle Discovery. Web posted. (2013). [UFO 

or rocket? Strange 'clouds' seen over Broward [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/ [2013, August 8].] 

 

Former KSC shuttle hangars soon back in business 

Space Florida on Wednesday advanced plans to renovate two former shuttle hangars that might 

eventually house a secretive military space plane program. The agency’s board approved 

spending up to $4 million more to overhaul Orbiter Processing Facilities 1 and 2 at Kennedy 

Space Center, on top of $5 million committed last year from funds provided by the state 

Department of Transportation. As before, the future tenant was not identified, but is believed to 

be the Air Force’s X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle, a reusable unmanned system that resembles a 

small space shuttle. Previously, the Air Force has confirmed it is studying consolidation of X-37B 

operations at Kennedy or the Cape to save money. Space Florida President and CEO Frank 

DiBello said a customer is lined up to use the hangars that NASA no longer needs. “This is a 

project which involves the relocation of personnel and equipment from another state to Florida to 

conduct operations that are in support of Department of Defense activities,” he said. “This is 

activity which really represents next-generation systems work.” DiBello indicated the project, 

known as Coyote, could also make use of Kennedy’s former shuttle runway. That would support 

speculation about a space plane that could not only be processed and launched here but return for 

landing. The first two X-37B missions landed at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. A 

third flight, reusing a previously flown vehicle, launched from Cape Canaveral last December and 

remains in orbit. The spacecraft are built by The Boeing Co., which under a separate deal plans 

to lease a third shuttle hangar from the state for assembly of the CST-100 crew capsule, which is 

being developed to fly NASA and private astronauts. Space Florida said it recently began the first 

phase of renovations to the other two hangars, a process that will include demolition of shuttlespecific infrastructure like access platforms. The second phase, for which funding was approved 

Wednesday, would modernize the facilities for the new tenant to use for “spacecraft assembly, 

refurbishment and testing,” according to a meeting agenda. The new tenant will match half the 

refurbishment project’s cost. Web posted. (2013). [Former Kennedy Space Center shuttle 

hangars soon back in business [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, 

August 8].] 

August 8: Blue Origin Wary of Sharing Launch Pad with SLS 

NASA’s plan to share a space shuttle launch pad being modified for its new heavy-lift rocket with 

commercial users may have a fatal flaw. “As a commercial customer, you want some assurances 

that that pad is going to be available in the future and the way the government’s budgets are 

structured, if I have a customer who wants to fly to space in three years and I sign them up, I need 

to know that I have a launch pad to do that,” Rob Meyerson, president of startup Blue Origin, 

said. “There are no technical issues” with having multiple users of the pad, Meyerson told 

SpaceNews. “The issues are more with long-term commitment: Can a commercial customer be 

certain that access to that pad is going to there for two, three, four, five years out?” Rather than 

risk partnering with NASA on Launch Complex 39B, the pad being developed for the 

government-owned and -operated Space Launch System (SLS) heavy-lift rocket, Blue Origin is 

proposing that the agency let it take over Launch Complex 39A and turn it into a multiuser 

complex for its own rockets as well as those built and operated by other companies. One of 

those other companies, Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) submitted an alternative 

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proposal to use pad 39A exclusively for its Falcon 9 and planned Falcon Heavy rockets. 

Hawthorne, Calif.-based SpaceX already flies from a leased and renovated launch pad at Cape 

Canaveral Air Force Station, located just south of the Kennedy Space Center, and expects to fly 

its first mission from a second launch site at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California next 

month. It has orders for about 50 launches, including cargo runs for NASA to the international 

space station, and is competing to supply flight services for station crewmembers as well. Blue 

Origin, which is owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and SpaceX, owned by Internet 

entrepreneur Elon Musk, responded to a NASA solicitation for commercial users of pad 39A that 

is part of a wider agency effort to monetize or dispense with facilities and equipment idled after 

the retirement of the space shuttles in 2011. NASA will keep one launch pad, 39B, under its 

direct control, but with the SLS flight rate expected to be about once every year or two, the 

agency is designing the pad to accommodate other users. “The concept that they put in place for 

pad 39B is really good if you are going to do a multi-user pad,” said Frank DiBello, president of 

the state-backed Space Florida economic development agency. “They’ve got the mobile, or 

interchangeable, bases at the bottom of the launch pad so they can change them out. They’ve got 

flexibility built into the design so you can have your umbilicals in there, but (companies) are not 

likely to be able to operate that without some NASA oversight because it is an SLS pad.” Space 

Florida, which did not respond to the NASA solicitation for 39A, is looking into developing a 

commercial launch site north of the space shuttle launch pads in an area known as Shiloh. Both 

SpaceX and Blue Origin say they are ready to take over operation and maintenance of Launch 

Complex 39A on Oct. 1. Meyerson said Blue Origin could have the pad ready to support 

commercial users in 2015 and plans to fly its own rockets by 2018. Though NASA has yet to 

announce which, if any, of the proposals it will select for 39A, the issue already has drawn fire 

from U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.), chairman of the House subcommittee that oversees NASA 

funding, about the possibility of an exclusive-use agreement. “We were not trying to take sides,” 

DiBello told SpaceNews. “I am saying to let Kennedy Space Center do its job because I suspect 

they’ve got a rationale, they’ve got criteria and they are going to make a decision that is good for 

the agency. You have to believe that or all this is for naught.” Web posted. (2013). [Blue Origin 

Wary of Sharing Launch Pad with SLS [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.spacenews.com/

[2013, August 8].] 

August 10: Satellite to track climate change 

The world's first satellite dedicated solely to tracking atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide is 

being developed at a Gilbert, Ariz., manufacturing facility, as NASA scientists move to make 

space the next frontier in the study of global climate change. The satellite, estimated to cost about 

$468 million, promises to paint a more detailed picture of the environmental impact of global 

warming, including how forests and oceans are reacting to higher levels of CO2, scientists say. 

Tentatively scheduled for launch next July, OCO-2 will take about 200,000 samples of Earth's 

atmosphere each day, sifting through particles at a more precise level than other observation 

satellites, Gunson said. Web posted. (2013). [Blue Origin Wary of Sharing Launch Pad with SLS 

[Online]. Available WWW: http://www.spacenews.com/ [2013, August 8].] 

August 12: ATK picked for air-launched rocket project 

The company that built NASA’s solid-fueled shuttle boosters will make rocket stages for a Paul 

Allen-Burt Rutan venture that might fly its revolutionary air-launcher from Kennedy Space 

Center, officials said today. ATK will manufacture the first and second stages of an Orbital 

Sciences Corp. rocket that will be launched from the largest aircraft ever built. With an amazing 

wingspan of 385-foot, the Stratolaunch Systems carrier aircraft will haul the three-stage Air 

Launch Vehicle (ALV) to an altitude of 30,000 feet. Made by Orbital Sciences Corp. for 

Stratolaunch, the rocket will be dropped from the aircraft and ignited, propelling satellites – and 

maybe people — into space. The aircraft will require a 12,000-foot runway, and Kennedy Space 

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111

Center is a leading candidate. The shuttle landing strip at KSC is 15,000 feet long. Vandenberg 

Air Force Base in California and the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport in Virginia also are in the 

running. The value of the ATK contract was not announced. But it covers design and 

development of the two stages as well as flight hardware for the initial Stratolaunch missions. 

Flight testing is scheduled to begin in 2016, and the first space mission would follow in 2018. 

Officials with ATK said the new work highlights company expertise in building large-diameter 

solid rocket motors and advanced lightweight composite structures. The company built the 149-

foot-tall solid rocket boosters that provided first-stage propulsion for NASA’s space shuttle. 

Redesigned after the 1986 Challenger accident, 220 of the boosters were successfully launched on 

110 consecutive missions between 1988 and the 2011 retirement of the shuttle fleet. Headquartered in Arlington, Va., ATK also built solid rocket motors for the Air Force-developed Titan 

IVB and Delta II rockets. It currently manufacturers boosters for United Launch Alliance’s 

unmanned Delta IV rocket. Web posted. (2013). [ATK picked for air-launched rocket project 

[Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, August 12].] 

Back to the Future: KSC Swamp Works 

After the retirement of the Space Shuttle and completion of the International Space Station, 

NASA has been looking toward what’s next in human space exploration. Several centers have 

begun working on projects that could pave the way for the new ambitious goals of exploring 

asteroids and launching missions beyond low-Earth orbit. But such a shift in goals also requires a 

shift in culture. Taking a cue from NASA’s Apollo days, Kennedy Space Center (KSC) has taken 

steps toward changing the culture to one of hands-on, lean engineering and innovation 

development with the KSC Swamp Works. “KSC Swamp Works is what I call ‘Back to the 

Future,’” said Rob Mueller, senior technologist for the Systems Surface Office. “It’s an attempt to 

return to the early years of NASA when it was very hands-on, projects happened quickly, there 

were a lot of experiments, and sometimes failures happened, but we learned from the failures.” 

KSC Swamp Works includes the Granular Mechanics and Regolith Operations Lab and the 

Electrostatics and Surface Physics Lab. Both have been around for a few years as part of the 

Surface Systems Office but were previously located in an off-site building. When the 

opportunity—and budget—became available to move the labs back to Kennedy, the teams 

discussed their vision for an ideal environment in which to do new hands-on work. “I asked the 

team, ‘What do you want?’” said Jack Fox, chief of the Systems Surface Office. “I made sure the 

requirements matched the building we wanted. It’s a huge building because we wanted to 

reinvent everything into being a Swamp Works environment—cost-effective, hands-on, rapid 

ideas—and have both labs in the same space.” The teams didn’t want different codes and 

buildings that would inhibit joint brainstorming. Another building requirement to support this 

goal was to include an “innovation space.” With café seating and white boards, and walls and 

tables painted with whiteboard paint as well, the innovation space is located in a small, open loft. 

“It’s completely flexible, reconfigurable. The whole dynamic of the room can change,” said 

Mueller. “It’s not designed to be a room to have meetings. It’s designed to be a room where 

people can interact spontaneously and informally to come up with new ideas and innovative ways 

of working.” To further encourage openness and collaboration, the team also included a flexible 

work space as part of the building requirements. Meant to operate as a technology incubator, it 

allows anybody with a good idea to come in and have real estate available to try out a new 

technology. “They can’t stay there forever,” Mueller explained, “since it’s an incubator, but at 

least there’s a place for new ideas to get started.” The labs have a mix of primarily engineers, 

physicists, and chemists—both senior and fresh-outs—to help encourage innovative thinking and 

problem solving. But that diversity is part of the challenge of running a Swamp Works operation. 

“How do you get people together from different disciplines?” asked Mueller. “Usually we do this 

by creating a multidisciplinary team for a project, but we don’t always have all the disciplines we 

need.” To fill the gaps, the Surface Systems Office takes advantage of Kennedy’s matrix 

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112

organization and asks the Engineering and Technology Directorate for the help they need. 

Sometimes they find that expertise through more informal means. With an abundance of 

knowledge and ideas flying about, KSC Swamp Works has taken steps to formally capture 

lessons learned in the midst of their fast-paced efforts. Using a “make it, test it, and improve it” 

model of work, projects in the KSC Swamp Works labs often undergo several generations of 

builds, each an inexpensive attempt to improve on the one before. With so much excitement 

generated by doing hands-on work, it can be a challenge to get the teams to slow down and 

capture what they’ve learned from their efforts. Mueller reminds his teams of the incentives for 

taking the time to document that knowledge. “We try to tie things together with positive 

outcomes—like a conference or a new technology report or a patent application,” he explained. 

“In order to get credit for the work we’ve done, we write conference papers, which require us to 

document things well. We also write new technology reports, which could get published in 

NASA Tech Briefs and eventually lead to getting a patent on the work. We would like to protect 

intellectual property and license the new technology transfer to the public, and in order for the 

legal process of patenting to happen, you have to have documentation.” The KSC Swamp Works 

labs currently focus on the engineering and science of dealing with regolith—or space dirt. The 

superfine substance has a habit of getting into places it shouldn’t. Sneaking into space suits, 

jamming mechanical gears, and sticking to everything with strong electrostatic charge, regolith is 

a known nuisance. But mined effectively, it could be a valuable resource for future long-duration 

missions beyond low-Earth orbit. “We’re reinventing Kennedy to be a place where we do the 

high-risk, high-payoff work needed for future space exploration,” said Mueller. “It’s different 

from what we’ve done in the past, so there’s a big culture change. KSC Swamp Works is a pile of 

projects designed to show how Kennedy could be a different place in the future—still very 

successful, but probably a different way of doing business.” Web posted. (2013). [ASK 

Magazine: Back to the Future: KSC Swamp Works [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.appel.nasa.gov/ [2013, August 12].] 

Laser test depends on good aim to communicate 

Imagine keeping a laser pointer fixed on a spot the diameter of a human hair, from 30 feet away, 

while you’re walking. That’s roughly equivalent to the challenge ahead for an instrument that 

will demonstrate a laser’s ability to beam information to the ground from the International Space 

Station. If it works, laser communication promises to transmit data from spacecraft across the 

solar system 10 to 100 times faster than crowded radio waves. That could help a Mars rover 

unload science results to an orbiter flying overhead, or directly back to Earth. Sitting in a 

Kennedy Space Center lab last week, the instrument called OPALS was put through a last series 

of ground tests before it is installed in a spacecraft for a December launch to the station. 

Commands sent from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California were routed through the 

Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama to the payload at Kennedy, where the station’s power 

and data connections can be precisely simulated. Spacecraft typically communicate with each 

other and the ground through radio waves. It’s reliable, but there isn’t enough spectrum available 

to quickly return the huge quantities of information being collected by everything from Earthobserving satellites to interplanetary probes and Mars rovers, creating a backlog. OPALS, short 

for “Optical PAyload for Lasercomm Science,” will use light in the form of an infrared laser to 

send data. The mission’s goal is not the speedy data rates hoped for in the future, but first to 

show the laser can find and hold its target. Perched outside the space station orbiting at five miles 

per second, OPALS will attempt to lock its narrow beam on a ground station beacon 250 miles 

below in California — like the laser pointer challenge. The planned 90-day demonstration will 

also study how much the atmosphere and weather garble transmissions. Clouds could block the 

laser. Hot temperatures could generate turbulence that causes more errors, seen as pixilation in 

the video, than a cool day. Since its arrival last month, Kennedy personnel have played an 

important role getting OPALS ready for launch, like other station-bound payloads. “We want to 

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113

do everything we can to help them be successful on orbit,” said Jennifer Wahlberg of Titusville, 

NASA’s ISS integration lead for utilization payloads at KSC. Behind the scenes, it’s a brisk line 

of work at the post-shuttle space center, where payloads have shifted from girders and modules 

that built the station to the science instruments and experiments it was built for. After this week’s 

tests, which were proceeding smoothly, OPALS will enter “dwell” mode until a planned midOctober move to a SpaceX Dragon capsule. Web posted. (2013). [Laser test depends on good aim 

to communicate [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, August 12].] 

August 15: NASA Audit Warns More Delays, Cost Growth are Possible 

While managers of NASA’s Orion deep-space crew capsule program have made the best of a 

difficult budget environment, their coping strategy ultimately could cause delays and cost 

increases, an internal agency audit concluded. In a report released Aug. 15, NASA’s Office of the 

Inspector General said there is a price to be paid for developing major systems of the Orion 

Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle piecemeal rather than simultaneously. “We believe it vital that 

Congress and the public recognize that incremental spacecraft development is not an optimal way 

to sustain a human space program,” NASA Inspector General Paul Martin wrote in the report. 

“[D]elaying critical development tasks in complex spaceflight development programs increases 

the risk of cost and schedule problems and causes development of critical technologies to be 

deferred to later program phases when integration may be more difficult or the costs of material 

and labor greater.” Orion is the crew-carrying piece of NASA’s deep-space transportation system, 

the first such system the agency has set about building since the Apollo era. Orion’s intended 

carrier rocket is the heavy-lift Space Launch System (SLS), an initial variant of which is slated to 

loft two Orion missions to lunar space in 2017 and 2021. Only the latter mission would be 

crewed. Orion and SLS draw heavily on hardware designs for the Moon-bound Constellation 

program that the White House canceled in 2010. Congress subsequently ordered NASA to build 

the vehicles using any space shuttle and Constellation contracts that could practically be adapted 

for the work. NASA obliged, but with shrinking budgets and a continuing obligation to other 

programs, such as sending crew and cargo to the international space station, the agency has had to 

slow-roll some of the Orion and SLS work. The new report warned that this approach has already 

delayed tests on critical Orion subsystems and may well delay more. The agency’s watchdog 

pointed to two particular delays to make its point. First, the report said Orion’s maiden 

spaceflight, a stress test for the craft’s heat shields, was delayed from 2013 to September 2014. In 

that test, Orion will be placed into orbit by a United Launch Alliance Delta 4 rocket and then sent 

on a steep re-entry trajectory to simulate the stresses the craft would experience on a direct return 

from lunar orbit. Second, the report noted that a test of Orion’s launch abort system, which would 

propel astronauts to safety if something goes wrong during the ascent to space, has been delayed 

by four years due to budget pressure. The test was originally scheduled for 2015. The highaltitude test of the abort system, which ATK Aerospace of Magna, Utah, is providing as a 

subcontractor to Lockheed Martin, will be launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., 

on a converted Peacekeeper missile stage prepared by Orbital Sciences Corp., Dulles, Va. Besides 

these two tests, “NASA has delayed development of life support systems and some avionics due 

to budget constraints,” the report said. The White House requested about $1 billion for Orion in 

2014, an amount that House appropriators matched in a spending bill now awaiting a floor vote. 

Senate appropriators, who ignored the effect of across-the-board sequestration cuts that are still in 

effect, provided $1.2 billion for Orion. Web posted. (2013). [NASA Audit Warns More Delays, 

Cost Growth are Possible for Orion [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.spacenews.com/

[2013, August 15].] 

NASA, Navy practice retrieving Orion spacecraft 

During the glory days of the U.S. space program in the 1960s and ‘70s, astronauts returning to 

Earth splashed down at sea in their capsules and were picked up by the Navy. Now, NASA and 

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the Navy are training again for the first such recovery in a generation. On Thursday, they 

completed several days of tests, practicing the retrieval of an unmanned mock-up of the Orion 

capsule that the U.S. hopes to send someday to an asteroid and Mars. Navy divers and the crew 

of the USS Arlington carried out the exercise in the calm waters of the Elizabeth River at a Naval 

Station Norfolk pier. In a statement, Adm. Bill Gortney, commander of Navy’s U.S. Fleet Forces 

Command, welcomed the chance to take part again in recovering NASA astronauts “just as we 

did nearly a half-century ago in support of America’s quest to put a man on the moon.” From 

1961 to 1975, teams of Navy ships tracked and recovered Mercury, Gemini and Apollo spacecraft 

after they re-entered Earth’s atmosphere and splashed down. Typically, frogmen would swim up 

to the pitching, bobbing spacecraft and help the astronauts out. Then helicopters would hoist the 

men and their capsule and fly them to a waiting aircraft carrier. In a few instances, the astronauts 

would remain inside the capsule while a crane lifted it aboard a ship. After Apollo ended, U.S. 

astronauts began flying the space shuttle, which returns to Earth on a landing strip like an 

airplane. Now, with Orion still under development, the Defense Department and NASA have to 

dust off their old recovery playbook and update it to achieve something they haven’t done since 

1975. In a break with the past, the Navy doesn’t plan to use helicopters to retrieve Orion, 

although they will be available on standby. Instead, an amphibious transport ship will come close 

to the capsule and dispatch divers and small boat teams to go secure it. As they did on Thursday, 

those crews will attach a winch line to Orion and tow it into the amphibious ship’s well deck, a 

compartment that can be deliberately flooded. Then the well deck will be drained, allowing the 

astronauts to step out of the capsule. NASA decided to employ an amphibious ship about seven 

years ago, in part because it is less expensive than using a large nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. 

It also allows for astronauts who may be weakened by space travel to avoid a physically draining 

extraction at sea. The crew can stay inside the capsule while it is being recovered. Another 

reason for using the amphibious-ship method: The Orion capsule will be bigger and much heavier 

than the Apollo spacecraft that came before it. More training and testing of the procedure are 

planned in the coming years. Astronauts will not fly into space aboard Orion until 2021 at the 

earliest. SpaceX, a private company that has sent three of its Dragon cargo spacecraft to the 

International Space station so far, has been retrieving its unmanned capsules from the Pacific 

since 2010, though without Navy involvement. Web posted. (2013). [NASA, Navy practice 

retrieving Orion spacecraft [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, 

August 16].] 

NASA, Commercial Crew Partners Fund Milestones 

NASA announced Thursday it is adding some additional milestones to agreements with three 

U.S. commercial companies that are developing spaceflight capabilities that could eventually 

provide launch services to transport NASA astronauts to the International Space Station from 

U.S. soil. NASA is supporting the development of these capabilities through its Commercial 

Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) initiative. As part of this initiative, NASA is exercising and 

funding specific additional milestones for these next generation space transportation systems. The 

agency has extended the Space Act Agreements (SAAs) for The Boeing Company of Houston, 

Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) of Hawthorne, Calif., and Sierra Nevada Corporation 

(SNC) of Louisville, Colo., to include one or two additional milestones each under CCiCap. In 

their respective CCiCap SAAs, which were awarded in August 2012, NASA's partners listed 

optional milestones that could be exercised to continue the development and maturation of their 

space systems. After negotiation with the partners, NASA decided to fund revised portions of 

existing CCiCap optional milestones and extend the period of performance for the CCiCap SAAs 

from May 2014 to August 2014. The industry partners also will be contributing financially to the 

execution of these milestones. [“NASA, Commercial Crew Partners Fund Additional 

Development Milestones,” NASA Release #13-251, August 15, 2013.] 

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August 16: Orion spacecraft's budget and tech concerns mount 

An overweight spacecraft. A crack-prone heat shield. Dependence on Europe for a propulsion 

module. Those are a few of the challenges that could delay development of NASA’s Orion 

crewed exploration spacecraft, the agency’s internal watchdog office reported Thursday. But the 

biggest threat comes from the flat, roughly $1 billion annual budget for Orion that forces work on 

critical systems to be deferred until late in the spacecraft’s development, leaving little flexibility 

to handle any issues that arise. While managers are doing their best under the circumstances, 

NASA’s Office of Inspector General concluded it was “concerned about the future of the program 

given the risks associated with incremental development.” The report went further, saying that 

even after Orion is ready to fly crews, “NASA will continue to face significant challenges 

concerning the long-term viability of its human exploration program.” The budget outlook offers 

little funding for landers and surface systems, likely relegating astronauts to orbital missions until 

at least the late 2020s. NASA agreed with the funding challenges. “We believe it is vital that 

Congress and the public recognize that incremental spacecraft development is not an optimal way 

to sustain a human space program,” wrote Bill Gerstenmaier, head of human spaceflight 

programs, repeating a line from the inspector general’s report. Orion is being developed to fly 

four people beyond low Earth orbit on missions up to 21 days. The system includes a crew 

module, service module and launch abort system. A first test flight atop a Delta IV Heavy rocket 

is planned next fall, without a crew. Another uncrewed test flight atop NASA’s new Space 

Launch System rocket is targeted for late 2017, and the first crewed mission in 2021, potentially 

to an asteroid. In all, NASA expects to spend $16.5 billion to develop a crew-ready Orion. A test 

of Orion’s launch abort system has been pushed back by four years, to 2018. The Orion program 

expects to draw upon reserves to meet the 2017 flight date, potentially draining funds intended to 

support the crewed mission in 2021. The inspector general’s report noted Orion is already 

dealing with significant technical challenges, including: * The spacecraft’s weight must be 

reduced by 7 percent, or more than 5,400 pounds. NASA has made progress, but “concerns exist 

that these efforts will not be sufficient to alleviate the issue.” * A heat shield material has shown a 

tendency to crack. Next year’s planned flight will test it during re-entry, but that shield might not 

be delivered on time. A delay in that flight would likely delay the next one. * Computer system 

problems have slowed access to engineering data and drawings, delaying routine tasks by three to 

five hours per day. Upgrades are in the works, but required drawings might not all be ready in 

time for the 2017 flight. On top of those risks, Orion is dependent on outside programs. NASA 

earlier this year announced an agreement for the European Space Agency to provide Orion’s 

service module for the 2017 test flight. Web posted. (2013). [Orion spacecraft's budget and tech 

concerns mount [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, August 16].] 

NASA Exercises Expendable Launch Vehicle Contract Option 

NASA has exercised the first option on a contract providing integrated services for the 

preparation and launch of the next generation of the agency's scientific and exploration 

spacecraft. The two-year Option Period 1 on the Expendable Launch Vehicle Integrated Support 

(ELVIS) 2 contract, operated by a.i. solutions Inc. of Lanham, Md., begins Oct. 1 and is valued at 

about $56.5 million. The contract contains another potential option period that would begin in 

October 2015, if exercised. The ELVIS 2 contract began in April 2012 and has a potential 

maximum value of $138.1 million. This contract resulted from a competitive small business setaside. The ELVIS 2 contract supports NASA's Launch Services Program (LSP) and LSPsponsored missions, activities and strategic initiatives for multiple NASA programs, the Defense 

Department and other government agencies and commercial launch activities. The contractor will 

support program management; vehicle engineering and analysis; launch site engineering; 

communications and telemetry; technical integration services; LSP programmatic safety, 

reliability and quality assurance; LSP operations at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California; 

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information technology; and special studies. [“NASA Exercises Expendable Launch Vehicle 

Contract Option,” NASA Contract Release #C13-037, August 16, 2013.] 

August 18: Musk, Bezos fight to win lease of iconic NASA launchpad 

Two of the nation's best-known Internet entrepreneurs are waging a behind-the scenes fight to 

win the rights to one of Kennedy Space Center's most-iconic facilities: Launch Complex 39A, the 

pad that launched 82 space-shuttle missions, including the last one two years ago. Elon Musk, 

who made his fortune co-founding PayPal, and Jeff Bezos, who started Amazon.com, are both 

avid fans of space travel. And the rocket companies they founded are each seeking a NASA 

contract to transport astronauts to the International Space Station. Each wants to blast off from 

Launch Complex 39A, which has been idle since shuttle Atlantis lifted off to the station July 8, 

2011. With KSC not scheduled to launch another NASA-built rocket until at least 2017, what was 

once known as "America's Spaceport" is now a ghost town, and NASA is aggressively trying to 

lease out its unused facilities. At the center of the fight is California-based SpaceX, a rising 

power in the space world led by Musk, a brash, South African-born executive who created the 

company 11 years ago. SpaceX has already sent two supply capsules to the International Space 

Station — the first private company to do so — and is an odds-on favorite to win a contract to fly 

astronauts there as well. The company already has two U.S. launchpads — one is next door at the 

Cape Canaveral launch range — and it's angling for more. Musk envisions Complex 39A as the 

launch site for his astronaut-taxi service. But SpaceX doesn't want to share the pad. Company 

officials said they want exclusive rights because they anticipate a busy launch schedule, and they 

argue that modifying the facility to accommodate multiple users would be too expensive. Enter 

Bezos, the Amazon founder with a $25 billion net worth that he's willing to spend in areas that 

interest him. Two weeks ago, he announced he was buying The Washington Post for $250 

million. In March, he funded a three-week expedition that recovered Apollo-era rocket engines 

from the floor of the Atlantic Ocean; he's now paying to restore them. In 2000, Bezos founded a 

Washington-based space company, Blue Origin, that is developing its own line of reusable launch 

vehicles and capsules, though it has yet to put one in orbit. In October, it successfully tested an 

escape system for a crew capsule. Blue Origin has staked a claim to Launch Complex 39A with 

the idea of turning the facility into a "multiuser" pad that several companies could use. One 

potential partner is United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Boeing that 

remains one of the heavy hitters in the satellite-launch business. Its steady line of customers 

includes the Pentagon and National Reconnaissance Office. Sources on Capitol Hill and within 

NASA said Blue Origin's protests forced the space agency to announce a competition for the pad 

in May. The dispute also has drawn the attention of two members of the powerful House 

Appropriations Committee. Agency officials have put no timeline on a decision, although it's 

widely thought NASA wants to select a winner by Oct. 1, the start of the federal fiscal year. The 

agency spends at least $1 million a year maintaining Launch Complex 39A at a time when 

Congress is slashing budgets. In listing the property, NASA noted that "commercial use will 

protect LC-39A from deterioration resulting from non-use." Another old shuttle pad at KSC —

Launch Complex 39B — likely will be used by the Space Launch System, NASA's next big 

rocket, which one day could blast astronauts to a nearby asteroid. Web posted. (2013). [Musk, 

Bezos fight to win lease of iconic NASA launchpad [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/ [2013, August 18].] 

August 20: NASA seeks uses for 3 mobile launch platforms at KSC 

Commercial rocket launcher? Museum exhibit? Artificial reef? All are potential uses for three 

historic mobile launch platforms from which NASA’s moon rockets and space shuttles leapt 

toward space, but which now sit idle. If those don’t pan out, the two-story, 8.2 million-pound 

structures could be bound for the scrap heap. “NASA does not currently have a need for the 

Mobile Launch Platforms to support current and future mission activities,” said Tracy Young, a 

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Kennedy Space Center spokeswoman. “Because of this factor, we are seeking information and 

concepts for traditional and non-traditional potential use of the structures as well as potential 

disposal options.” The “MLPs” are the latest shuttle program remnants NASA is trying to 

repurpose or get rid of, since it can’t afford to store and maintain them indefinitely. The shuttles 

themselves are now on display around the country, including Atlantis at the KSC Visitor 

Complex. One of Kennedy’s two launch pads, the shuttle runway and orbiter hangars are among 

other former shuttle facilities seeking new tenants. The steel, battleship gray platforms served as 

bases atop which Saturn rockets and later shuttles were stacked and bolted for rollout atop 

massive crawler-transporters and placement on launch pad pedestals. They provided power and 

umbilical connections to the rockets and holes for flame and exhaust to flow through. NASA 

hopes private companies will claim one or more of them as bases for commercial rocket launches, 

either borrowing the equipment as needed or buying it at auction. Potential costs were not 

disclosed. Those proposals will get the greatest consideration, but the agency also is collecting 

information from companies that could demolish MLPs for recycling and disposal, like the shuttle 

service towers that were dismantled at pad 39B. A third option invites “alternative and 

innovative solutions for divestment,” uses that might not be space-related but could benefit the 

public. Examples: a museum exhibit, artificial reef or oil rig structure. NASA says it has no 

money available for any of the options, but wants to better understand their potential costs and 

risks. Proposals are due by Sept. 6. Any modification or deconstruction plan will require special 

approval, because the three mobile launch platforms are eligible for listing on the National 

Register of Historic Places for their service to the shuttle program. NASA is building a new base 

and tower for its next heavy-lift exploration rocket, the Space Launch System. It is modifying a 

mobile launcher originally designed for the canceled Ares I rocket. Web posted. (2013). [NASA 

seeks uses for 3 mobile launch platforms at KSC [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, August 20].] 

August 21: KSC Visitor Complex reopened after water main rupture 

Full admission and water services have been restored to Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex 

after a water main rupture, according to a press release. NASA contractors ruptured the water 

main while installing new lines Tuesday, cutting off water and forcing the Visitor Complex to 

offer reduced admission. The bus tour was still offered and the Apollo / Saturn V Center was 

fully operational. Guests to the center were provided a free ticket for future use. No parking fee 

was charged. With repairs complete, the Visitor Complex will be fully operational on Thursday. 

Web posted. (2013). [KSC Visitor Complex reopened after water main rupture [Online]. 

Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, August 21].] 

August 22: NASA’s NEXT Step for Cubesats Is a Dedicated Launcher

NASA is back in the hunt for a dedicated small-satellite launcher, with a firm, fixed-price 

contract aimed at reducing a backlog of more than 50 cubesats the agency has amassed through 

its Cubesat Launch Initiative flight brokerage program. Released for bids Aug. 5, the NASA 

Launch Services Enabling eXploration & Technology (NEXT) contract is a three-pronged 

experiment for the U.S. civil space agency, which is trying simultaneously to launch cubesats 

without relying on ride-along arrangements, accelerate development of a new space rocket and 

build a framework for buying such rockets on a commercial basis, should its latest cubesat launch 

experiment prove successful. A cubesat is a standardized small satellite design. Single cubesat 

units, which can be combined into a variety of multiunit configurations, measure 10 centimeters 

on a side and weigh about 1 kilogram. The tiny, relatively cheap spacecraft have long been 

popular in the academic community, but NASA, the National Science Foundation and parts of the 

U.S. military have also taken an interest. Under NEXT, NASA is looking for a rocket that can 

loft three three-unit cubesats at a time. Specifically, the launcher must be able to send a 15-

kilogram payload to a minimum orbital altitude of 425 kilometers at an inclination between zero 

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degrees and 98 degrees. The first, and only, NEXT launch would notionally take place in 2016. 

Envisioned as a commercial operation, the launch would require a license from the Federal 

Aviation Administration’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation. NEXT would be a oneoff contract, but it will give the agency an idea of what it needs to do should it ever decide to 

create a small-satellite launch catalog, similar to the NASA Launch Services 2 catalog it 

maintains for much larger vehicles. The smallest active rocket in that catalog today is Orbital 

Sciences Corp.’s Pegasus XL, which can boost around 450 kilograms to low Earth orbit. Web 

posted. (2013). [NASA’s NEXT Step for Cubesats Is a Dedicated Launcher [Online]. Available 

WWW: http://www.spacenews.com/ [2013, August 22].] 

Orbital's COTS Demonstration Launch Slips to September 17 

Orbital Sciences Corporation announced today that the test launch of its Antares rocket with a 

Cygnus spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS) is now targeted for September 17 

instead of September 15. Orbital says on its website that the decision to wait two more days 

came after a planning and coordination meeting with NASA. The launch time is 11:16 am 

Eastern Daylight Time with a 15 minute launch window. Launch is from the Mid-Atlantic 

Regional Spaceport (MARS) at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility, VA. This is Orbital’s 

demonstration flight under NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation System (COTS) program 

wherein the government is facilitating two companies, Orbital and SpaceX, to develop systems to 

take cargo to the ISS. SpaceX's Falcon 9/Dragon system became operational last year. Orbital 

was selected for the COTS program a year-and-a-half after SpaceX so its program is on a 

different schedule. Web posted. (2013). [Orbital's COTS Demonstration Launch Slips to 

September 17 [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.spacepolicyonline.com/ [2013, August 

22].] 

August 25: Delays, costs: Faith in NASA rocket's progress stumbles 

The rocket and spacecraft NASA is developing to carry crews into deep space already face 

questions about whether they’ll be ready, without additional funding, to blast off on a first test 

flight in late 2017. The programs are proceeding with daunting budget challenges and an abovenormal risk of delays or cost increases, according to recent agency reports and statements. Any 

significant slip in the first, uncrewed flight would delay hiring at Kennedy Space Center that is 

expected to ramp up ahead of the mission. It also could push back a first crewed flight targeted 

for 2021, driving up the cost on a program tentatively planning to spend more than $22 billion 

during the next eight years. NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden recently warned an advisory 

panel that the 321-foot high Space Launch System rocket was not expected to meet the agency’s 

usual standard for pushing a program forward. NASA strives for at least 70 percent confidence 

that programs over $250 million will come in on time and budget, but Bolden said he suspected 

the heavy-lift rocket might fall short “for a variety of reasons, mainly having to do with reserves.” 

NASA’s inspector general cataloged numerous challenges facing development of the Orion crew 

vehicle, principally that its flat annual budget increased the chance problems may be found late 

that require more time or money to fix. The SLS rocket has a similarly “flat-lined” budget. For 

now, managers say the three components of the exploration system — the rocket, Orion and 

ground systems at Kennedy — are making good progress. Web posted. (2013). [Delays, costs: 

Faith in NASA rocket's progress stumbles [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, August 25].] 

America's largest rocket set for launch Wednesday 

Igniting its three main engines in a staggered sequence for the first time, a United Launch 

Alliance Delta 4-Heavy rocket for U.S. national security is scheduled for liftoff from California 

on Wednesday morning [August 28th]. A new strategy, being employed to reduce the hydrogen 

flames generated during startup of the three Aerojet Rocketdyne RS-68 main engines, will see the 

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triple-body rocket light one engine two seconds before the other two. Counting down to liftoff at 

10:52 a.m. local (1:52 p.m. EDT; 1752 GMT), the Terminal Countdown sequencer will take 

control at T-minus 10 seconds and the starboard engine begins to ignite at T-minus 7 seconds. 

Unburned hydrogen is released through the engine and hits the burnoff sparklers beneath the 

rocket, creating a dramatic fireball around the vehicle's base, something that has become a 

customary trademark for Delta 4 launches over the past decade. But the new staggered process is 

designed to lessen that pre-liftoff fire before the 23-story-tall Heavy takes to the sky. With the 

first engine running and working to aspirate the forthcoming hydrogen flame from the other two 

boosters, the center and port engines will begin their ignition process at T-minus 5 seconds and 

see a significant portion of the resulting fire drawn into launch table instead of rising up. The six 

previous launches of Delta 4-Heavy rockets -- five from Cape Canaveral and one from 

Vandenberg -- commanded all three engines to ignite simultaneously. Web posted. (2013). 

[America's largest rocket set for launch Wednesday [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/ [2013, August 25].] 

August 26: Former astronaut takes over local ISS nonprofit group 

Former shuttle pilot Gregory H. Johnson has been named executive director at the Center for the 

Advancement of Science in Space, the local nonprofit charged with managing non-NASA 

research on the International Space Station’s national lab. Effective Sept. 1, Johnson will take 

over from Jim Royston, the organization’s interim director for more than a year since its first 

leader resigned over differences with the board. Started by Space Florida, CASIS is based at the 

state-owned Space Life Sciences Lab just outside Kennedy Space Center’s south gate. Web 

posted. (2013). [Former astronaut takes over local ISS nonprofit group [Online]. Available 

WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, August 26].] 

ISS Cargo Candidates Ready For Fly-Off 

The launch manifests of NASA's two commercial cargo service providers will bump up against 

one another in December when Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) and Orbital Sciences 

Corp. are slated to send competing rockets and spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS). 

NASA says both missions were intentionally scheduled for the end of 2013 in anticipation that 

one will experience delays in meeting target launch dates. SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon 

cargo capsule conducted their first two runs to the ISS, in October 2012 and March of this year, 

respectively. The latter marked the Hawthorne, Calif.-based SpaceX's first mission under a fixedprice Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract with NASA valued at $1.6 billion. 

However, the company is now completing work on a larger version of the launch vehicle that will 

deliver the next Dragon to the space station, an upgrade that has suffered repeated delays. Known 

as Falcon 9 v1.1, the new rocket will feature a more powerful engine, a larger payload fairing and 

extended fuel tanks, all of which will enable it to reach Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO), the 

destination of most commercial communications satellites. Initially slated to debut last fall, the 

v1.1 is not expected to launch before September, when it will loft a small Canadian science and 

technology demonstrator to an elliptical low Earth orbit from SpaceX's new launch pad at 

Vandenberg AFB, Calif. If successful, the demo is to be followed by SpaceX's first mission to 

GTO, during which the rocket will launch a commercial communications satellite from Cape 

Canaveral for Luxembourg-based fleet operator SES. In addition to the upcoming SES-8 mission, 

commercial launches for Thailand's Thaicom and Fort Lee, N.J.-based Orbcomm are also 

scheduled this year. Orbital, meanwhile, continues preparing for its first station demonstration 

visit under NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program. Slated for 

mid-September from NASA's Wallops (Va.) Flight Facility, the launch of Orbital's Antares 

launch vehicle carrying the Cygnus cargo vehicle marks the final milestone in the company's 

COTS agreement. A successful first flight paves the way for the Dulles, Va.-based company to 

begin routine resupply runs to the ISS as soon as December under a separate, fixed-price CRS 

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contract valued at $1.9 billion. Orbital's COTS demo schedule is contingent on the earlySeptember liftoff of NASA's Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Experiment Explorer atop a Minotaur 5 

rocket, the next mission slated to fly from Wallops. Web posted. (2013). [ISS Cargo Candidates 

Ready For Fly-Off [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.aviationweek.com/ [2013, August 

26].] 

August 27: Monster rocket to blast off from Pacific coast, rattle Southland 

The nation’s largest rocket is ready to blast off from Vandenberg Air Force Base north of Santa 

Barbara, carrying a massive, top-secret spy satellite for the federal government. As early as 10:52 

a.m. Wednesday, the 235-foot Delta IV Heavy rocket will lift off from the base's Space Launch 

Complex 6, leaving a thick white plume over the Pacific. The rocket, the tallest ever to be 

launched from the base, is set to place a classified spacecraft into polar orbit for the National 

Reconnaissance Office, the covert umbrella agency that operates spy satellites. This is the second 

time that a Delta IV Heavy rocket will be launched from Vandenberg. The first time, in January 

2011, a sound wave as loud as a freight train swept over nearby Lompoc, a town of about 43,000. 

Web posted. (2013). [Monster rocket to blast off from Pacific coast, rattle Southland [Online]. 

Available WWW: http://www.latimes.com/ [2013, August 27].] 

NASA's Mars mission gets rolling from Cape Canaveral 

With a honk of its horn Monday morning, a flatbed truck rolled off a ship onto a Cape Canaveral 

Air Force Station wharf carrying the booster that will blast NASA’s next Mars-bound orbiter into 

space. The United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket’s Centaur upper stage, wrapped in a 

protective cover, followed close behind. The rocket will now be prepared for a planned Nov. 18 

launch of NASA’s $671 million MAVEN mission. Short for “Mars Atmosphere and Volatile 

EvolutioN,” the mission is the first dedicated to studying Mars’ upper atmosphere. More than a 

year, the spacecraft will perform a series of dives through the Martian atmosphere to study its 

composition and how the Red Planet’s climate has changed over time. The mission officially has 

a 20-day launch window, but NASA officials said another 15 days are available if necessary, 

making it possible to launch through Dec. 23. “The spacecraft is doing really well,” said Chuck 

Tatro, MAVEN mission manager with Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Services Program. 

“They’re right on schedule.” The Lockheed Martin Corp.-built spacecraft arrived at KSC by 

plane from Colorado on Aug. 2, and this week is performing solar arrays tests. The launch vehicle 

took a more circuitous route, winding down three rivers to the mouth of the Mississippi River 

before cruising across the Gulf of Mexico, around the Florida Keys and up the east coast to reach 

the dock near Port Canaveral. The 107-foot long, bronze-colored booster and 42-foot Centaur 

rolled in to the Atlas Spaceflight Operations Center. After another Atlas V launches an Air Force 

satellite, planned for mid-September, they’ll be stacked inside a vertical processing tower at 

Launch Complex 41 and await MAVEN’s arrival from KSC in early November. Web posted. 

(2013). [NASA's Mars mission gets rolling from Cape Canaveral [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, August 27].] 

August 28: America's Largest Rocket Launches Top-Secret Spy Satellite 

The United States' largest rocket launched a spy satellite on a hush-hush mission Wednesday 

(Aug. 28). An unmanned Delta 4-Heavy rocket lifted off the pad at California's Vandenberg Air 

Force Base at 2:03 p.m. EDT (1803 GMT) Wednesday, carrying a classified payload to a polar 

orbit for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). Web posted. (2013). [America's 

Largest Rocket Launches Top-Secret Spy Satellite [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.space.com/ [2013, August 28].] 

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August 29: NASA Awards KSC and Pest Contract 

NASA has awarded a contract to SC Jones Services Inc., of Hampton Va., to provide grounds 

maintenance and pest control work at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The firm 

fixed-price contract has a one-year base period beginning Oct. 1, 2013, and four one-year options 

with a maximum value of $10.6 million. This procurement provides for the continued 

maintenance of Kennedy Space Center grounds, including cutting grass, edging trees, pruning 

shrubs, removing trees and stumps, weeding, mulching, leaf gathering, fertilization, vegetation 

cutting and removal, sod installation, emergency clean up, land clearing and pest control services. 

[“NASA Awards Kennedy Space Center Grounds and Pest Contract,” NASA Contract Release 

#C20-13, August 29, 2013.] 

August 31: New Moon Probe Raises Questions About What to Do Next 

The last moon mission on NASA’s current schedule — a small, unmanned spacecraft that will 

study moon dust and the lunar atmosphere — is scheduled to launch on Friday from Wallops 

Island, Va., elating scientists who study the moon but highlighting political questions about what 

NASA should do next. The Smart Car-size spacecraft, which NASA calls the Lunar Atmosphere 

and Dust Environment Explorer, will take 30 days to get into orbit around the moon, spend the 

next 30 days checking its equipment and proceed with scientific work for 100 days, searching for 

water molecules in the atmosphere and gathering data about the curious substance known as lunar 

dust. Then the probe, which goes by the acronym Ladee (pronounced laddie), will take a death 

plunge into the rocky surface of the subject it is studying. The results of the scientific program 

could be helpful in preparing for future manned missions to the moon. Although NASA currently 

does not have such plans, some members of Congress have called on the space agency to return to 

the moon rather than pursuing its current space objectives. Although there is wide agreement that 

NASA should ultimately aim for a manned flight to Mars, that goal is far off. The more 

immediate plan, which has been criticized on Capitol Hill, is to capture an asteroid and tow it 

closer to home so astronauts can visit it. But NASA has continued sending unmanned spacecraft 

to the moon; the coming mission will be the third to go there in five years. While scientists are 

excited about what the experiment may yield, they are also concerned about the absence of future 

moon voyages on NASA’s schedule. The Ladee spacecraft was conceived when NASA was also 

planning new manned missions to the moon, which would have been the first since 1972. But the 

Obama administration canceled that program, called Constellation, in 2010, calling it over budget 

and behind schedule. Ladee stayed in the pipeline. The spacecraft will search for water in the 

very thin lunar atmosphere, which is estimated to be 1/100,000th the density of Earth’s, perhaps 

similar to Mercury’s. Scientists want to find out how the ice on the moon’s poles managed to get 

there, said Richard Elphic, project scientist for the mission. They speculate that water molecules 

in the moon’s atmosphere may have migrated toward the poles and frozen in place, he said. Web 

posted. (2013). [New Moon Probe Raises Questions About What to Do Next in Space [Online]. 

Available WWW: http://www.nytimes.com/ [2013, August 31].] 

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SEPTEMBER 

September 2: KSC employment dips below lowest point 

Men had not yet set foot on the moon when Kennedy Space Center employment began a slide 

that purged more than 17,000 jobs over eight years. But two years after the final shuttle launch, 

the center has never employed fewer people than now. KSC’s total work force this summer 

dipped below 8,000 for the first time since NASA began keeping comprehensive records in 1964, 

two years after the center was formally established. The total — including civil servants, 

contractors, construction workers and other tenants — is about half what it was four years ago 

and hundreds less than the previous low reached in 1976, a year after American and Soviet crews 

met in space and five years before the first shuttle launch. With local astronaut launches not 

planned before 2017 on commercial vehicles and 2021 on a NASA rocket, Kennedy jobs may not 

have hit the bottom but aren’t expected to fall much further. Center Director Bob Cabana expects 

the numbers to stay flat for another year or more before the new commercial operations and 

NASA’s exploration program start to ramp up. “It will never be what it was during shuttle and 

Apollo,” Cabana said recently at an exhibit of the retired shuttle Atlantis at the KSC Visitor 

Complex. “It’s a different time, but I think it’s definitely a positive atmosphere here. Things are 

improving greatly on a weekly basis.” Brevard County’s unemployment rate has improved 

significantly even as space center staffing declined, from nearly 12 percent early in 2010 to 7.3 

percent this April, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. But that statistic and 

individual success stories can mask what still is a difficult local economy with thousands fewer 

jobs than the high mark in 2006, said Michael Slotkin, associate professor of economics at 

Florida Tech. More people have accepted lower living standards, are working part-time and 

without benefits or are leaving the area. He said it was fortunate that shuttle layoffs hit as the 

national economy began to recover from the housing and financial crises. Kennedy’s downturn 

blunted Brevard’s rebound, but its timing avoided the worst-case scenario of all three crises 

happening at once. For many of the roughly 7,800 people still working at KSC, including about 

2,000 civil servants, it might be possible not to notice the dramatically shrunken work force. 

Office buildings with full parking lots remain a bustle of planning for a modernized spaceport and 

future missions. The absence of people is most obvious in previously operational sites shut down 

except for renovations, such as orbiter hangars, launch pads and parts of the Vehicle Assembly 

Building. Unlike in the ’70s, there is no sure thing like the shuttle program to look forward to. 

Web posted. (2013). [KSC employment dips below lowest point [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, September 2].] 

September 4: Orbital on track for first test mission of Cygnus craft to ISS 

A new commercial cargo spacecraft is ready for a Sept. 17 launch from Virginia on its first test 

flight to the International Space Station, NASA and Orbital Sciences Corp. said Wednesday. 

Dulles, Va.-based Orbital tested its new Antares rocket in April, and will now attempt to fly the 

Cygnus spacecraft in orbit for the first time. The demonstration flight represents Orbital’s final 

milestone under NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program, which has 

contributed nearly $288 million toward development of the privately operated rocket and 

spacecraft. The same development program helped SpaceX establish its Falcon 9 rocket and 

Dragon capsule, which have since completed two contracted cargo flights to the station. Based 

on the cylindrical cargo modules that shuttles flew to and from the orbiting research complex, 

Orbital’s Cygnus will test systems and perform various maneuvers before being cleared to 

approach and berth at the station Sept. 22. The robotic spacecraft will carry about 1,500 pounds 

of low-value cargo, mostly food. During its planned 30-day visit, astronauts will pack the 

Cygnus with trash that will burn up with the vehicle when it re-enters the atmosphere. A 

successful demonstration would allow Orbital to start executing a $1.9 billion contract for eight 

resupply missions, which could start as soon as December. Web posted. (2013). [Orbital on track 

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for first test mission of Cygnus craft to ISS [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, September 4].] 

September 5: Houston To Seek Commercial Spaceport License 

Houston is poised to seek a commercial spaceport license from FAA to establish a runway-based 

complex supporting reusable launch vehicles, spacecraft assembly and flight training, as well as 

aerospace research and education. The proposed spaceport would occupy 439 acres of Ellington 

Airport property close to NASA’s Johnson Space Center. The municipal Houston Airport System 

(HAS), which manages a financially successful three-airport network, received Houston City 

Council approval for a $718,000 consulting agreement with RS&H, of Jacksonville, Fla., this 

summer to help guide the FAA application and environmental impact statement process, which is 

expected to take 12 to 15 months. The prospective Ellington Spaceport was established as 

Ellington Field in 1917 and once supported U.S. Army and Air Force operations. Today it 

supports NASA, Texas Air and Army National Guard and U.S. Coast Guard aviation activities, 

the Department of Homeland Security, and general aviation. Most of the Ellington grounds are 

undeveloped and accessible by major freeway, rail and water. The wide, 10,000-ft.-long runway 

could support 2,000-ft. extensions at either end. A southerly climb-out would lead spacecraft 

quickly out over the Gulf of Mexico for steep ascents. FAA currently lists eight licensed U.S. 

commercial spaceports in Alaska, California, Florida, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Virginia. In 

Texas, Corpus Christi and Midland are already pursuing commercial spaceport licenses to 

accommodate future SpaceX and XCOR Aerospace commercial plans. Web posted. (2013). 

[Houston To Seek Commercial Spaceport License [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.aviationweek.com/ [2013, September 5].] 

Shuttle time capsule to be sealed in Atlantis on Monday 

A time capsule filled with items related to NASA’s shuttle program will be sealed within a wall 

of the space shuttle Atlantis at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex on Monday, Sept. 9. 

A ceremony, set for 10 a.m., will be held inside the new Space Shuttle Atlantis exhibit at the 

Brevard County attraction. The time capsule is scheduled to be reopened in 2061. Inside the 

capsule are items such as a "Mission Accomplished" bear that traveled on Atlantis' last flight, a 

NASA logo sticker, mission patches from all 135 shuttle flights, a KSC lanyard and souvenir 

book, and director's coins that show off the accomplishments of all KSC directors. Web posted. 

(2013). [Kennedy Space Center: Shuttle time capsule to be sealed in Atlantis on Monday 

[Online]. Available WWW: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/ [2013, September 5].] 

September 6: NASA aims for the moon again 

NASA is headed back to the moon, this time to explore its thin atmosphere and rough dust. The 

robotic spacecraft LADEE will fly to the moon by way of Virginia’s Eastern Shore. Liftoff is set 

for late tonight from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility. Weather permitting, the soaring Minotaur 

rocket should be visible along much of the East Coast — as far south as South Carolina, as far 

north as Maine and as far west as Pittsburgh. LADEE — short for Lunar Atmosphere and Dust 

Environment Explorer — will be the first spacecraft to be launched into outer space from 

Wallops. And it will be the first moonshot ever from Virginia in 54 years of lunar missions. The 

unmanned Minotaur rocket consists of converted intercontinental ballistic missile motors. 

Scientists involved in the $280 million, moon-orbiting mission want to examine the lunar 

atmosphere. It will take LADEE one month to get close enough to the moon to go into lunar 

orbit, followed by another month to check its three scientific instruments. Then the spacecraft will 

be maneuvered from 30 miles to 90 miles above the lunar surface, where it will collect data for 

just over three months. The mission will last six months and end with a suicide plunge into the 

moon. Web posted. (2013). [NASA aims for the moon again [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, September 6].] 

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 Companies converge this week to collaborate with NASA 

Across the nation, NASA and commercial companies are collaborating on the development of 

new technologies that benefit both parties. NASA needs new tech for space exploration. 

Companies need new products and services to increase revenue and profits, or generate new jobs. 

NASA and the Economic Development Commission of Florida’s Space Coast are hosting a 

technology transfer conference Thursday that is expected to draw up to 100 organizations. “This 

is the first event of this size (locally) that I am aware of,” said Karen Thompson, chief 

technologist at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. “The EDC has been talking with us about trying 

to come up with these types of forums so we can reach out to companies and universities 

throughout the area and see how we could team with one another and help each other out.” KSC 

is widely known as a premier launch operations center. Now it also is making inroads to 

attracting spacecraft assembly and integration work historically done elsewhere. But Lynda 

Weatherman, president and CEO of the EDC, says the research and technology development 

work done at KSC is “the hidden gem.” NASA is no newcomer to technology transfer. In fact, 

the 1958 congressional legislation that created NASA deemed technology transfer to the private 

sector a “national priority.” The all-day conference at Courtyard by Marriott in Cocoa Beach will 

focus on several areas where KSC scientists, engineers and technologists are conducting 

groundbreaking work. One is robotics. Honeybee Robotics of New York City is working with 

KSC scientists who are developing a teleoperated crawler equipped with a soil excavator. The 

company provided NASA with a dust-tolerant connector device for mechanical, electrical and 

fluid systems on the excavator. Another area is environmental remediation. Bio Blend 

Technologies of Cantonment, Fla., is one of seven companies that have licensed environmental 

clean-up technologies invented by scientists and engineers at KSC and the University of Central 

Florida. In the early days of the U.S. space program, solvents used to clean Apollo Saturn rocket 

parts polluted areas around Launch Complex 34 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. NASA and 

UCF developed a method to remove the contaminant that is fast, effective and affordable. Now 

companies are using the technology for environmental cleanup at sites around the country. And 

yet another area is sustainable living. A substance now known to be toxic — Polychlorinated 

biphenyl, or PCBs — was widely used in 20th century manufacturing until banned by the U.S. 

Congress in 1979. KSC scientists developed a cost-effective method of extracting and treating 

PCBs from contaminated sediment in holding ponds, rivers, lakes and other bodies of water. 

NASA and a field-testing partner – a company performing analyses under a nondisclosure 

agreement at its own expense – are developing a green prototype removal and treatment system. 

The system is being field-tested with the Environmental Protection Agency and has potential 

application around the world. Web posted. (2013). [Companies converge this week to talk 

collaboration with NASA [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, 

September 6].] 

LADEE Launches From NASA Wallops 

A Minotaur V rocket carrying NASA's Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer 

(LADEE) lifts off from at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia on Friday, Sept. 6, 

2013. LADEE is a robotic mission designed to orbit the moon where and provide unprecedented 

information about the environment around the moon and give scientists a better understanding of 

other planetary bodies in our solar system and beyond. Web posted. (2013). [LADEE Launches 

From NASA Wallops [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.nasa.com/ [2013, September 6].] 

SpaceX Gets Ready for Falcon 9’s California Debut

Building on its experience setting up a space launch complex in Florida, California-based Space 

Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) is looking to begin operations in its home state this 

month, with a debut demonstration flight of an upgraded Falcon 9 rocket. Privately owned 

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SpaceX planned to conduct a static-test firing of the rocket’s new Merlin 1D engines the weekend 

of Sept. 7-8, the last major hurdle before a launch attempt could be made as early as a week or 

two later, founder and chief executive Elon Musk told SpaceNews. At press time, a NASA 

manifest had the launch slated for Sept. 14. The flight would be Falcon 9’s first from a newly 

refurbished launch pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The rocket is 60 percent 

longer than the company’s five previous Falcon 9 boosters, all launched from Cape Canaveral Air 

Force Station in Florida. Three of those rockets carried Dragon cargo capsules to the international 

space station for NASA. Two others were test flights. The rocket’s extension, which makes it 

more susceptible to bending during flight, is the most visible of several upgrades intended to 

increase the booster’s lift capacity and simplify operations. In addition to a new 5-meter payload 

fairing, the rocket has upgraded avionics and software as well as a new stage-separation system 

that cuts the number of attachment points from 12 to three. Because it is a demonstration mission, 

SpaceX offered launch services at a cut-rate price. MDA Corp. of Canada bought the ride for its 

500-kilogram Cassiope spacecraft, built in collaboration with the Canadian Space Agency and 

Technology Partnerships Canada. Following the Falcon 9 v1.1 flight from California, SpaceX 

plans to return to Florida for its first commercial mission, an SES World Skies communications 

satellite. Web posted. (2013). [Musk Says SpaceX Being “Extremely Paranoid” as It Readies for 

Falcon 9’s California Debut [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.spacenews.com/ [2013, 

September 6].] 

New NASA rocket faces delays 

The debut launch of NASA's next big rocket — now slated for 2017 — likely will be delayed a 

year or two because the agency simply does not have the money to finish the rocket and its 

accompanying crew capsule on time, a top NASA official said Friday. Lori Garver, leaving 

NASA after four years as deputy administrator, said NASA and Congress long have oversold the 

agency's ability to build the rocket, called the Space Launch System, and its Orion capsule on an 

annual budget of roughly $3 billion. If she's right, the double delay would mean more heartburn 

for Kennedy Space Center, which has been reeling since the 2011 retirement of the space shuttle 

caused the loss of thousands of jobs. It would also be another setback for NASA's humanspaceflight program, which hasn't built a new rocket in more than 30 years and relies on Russia to 

transport astronauts to the International Space Station. NASA has a lengthy record of schedule 

delays and cost overruns, starting with the agency's now-defunct Constellation moon program, 

which was to land a human on the moon by 2020. NASA spent five years and $13 billion on that 

project before President Barack Obama canceled it in 2010 — though pieces of Constellation, 

including the Orion capsule, remain as part of the current program. Constellation collapsed 

despite annual spending of nearly $3 billion — about what is being spent on SLS and Orion today 

— and NASA said it actually needed more than twice that amount. But there's no hope in today's 

constrained budget of spending that much on SLS and Orion. One sign of trouble was revealed 

last month when NASA's inspector general — who acts as the agency's watchdog — released a 

report that highlighted problems with Orion's heat shield, as well as efforts to get the capsule's 

weight below a 73,500-pound maximum. "The [Orion] Program faces significant risks in meeting 

NASA's goal of human exploration beyond low Earth orbit," the report said. Thanks to acrossthe-board cuts known as sequestration, NASA's 2013 budget was reduced to less than $16.9 

billion. If similar cuts come in future years — which is a strong possibility — NASA will have to 

choose between delaying SLS or cutting smaller programs, said Garver and others. Already there 

are signs that other programs are being squeezed to protect a few big-ticket items — the largest of 

which is SLS and Orion. For example, despite a $900 million cut to NASA's budget in 2013, the 

agency reduced its $3 billion budget for SLS and Orion by only about 4 percent, or $118 million. 

By contrast, about $229 million, or 15 percent, was slashed from the planetary science division —

which sends probes to other planets. Web posted. (2013). [New NASA rocket faces delays 

[Online]. Available WWW: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/ [2013, September 6].] 

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126

September 7: Anonymous NASA employee donates tons of school supplies 

Dwarfed inside the massive Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center, a crew of five 

men used a forklift to heave hundreds of boxes of surplus office supplies into a truck Friday. 

Standing watch over the operation was a NASA employee, the man responsible for spending 

$1,005 of his own money to purchase the leftover loot at a government auction. He then donated 

it all to Brevard County schools. The buzzing forklift loaded 63 shrink-wrapped pallets, each 

weighing 1,500 to 2,000 pounds, into the back of three AAA Mike Todisco’s Moving & Storage 

rigs. The crew later unloaded the boxes at Gardendale Elementary School on Merritt Island, 

where teachers will be able to comb through the haul for needed classroom supplies. Kathleen 

Joiner, who for 25 years has taught students at Imperial Estates Elementary in Titusville, helped 

coordinate the donation. “There’s a great need,” she said. “These materials are a lot of the things 

that we used to automatically be able to order from supplies, say, ‘OK, I need X-amount of boxes 

of markers.’ We don’t get that anymore.” No longer needed by NASA after massive layoffs, the 

supplies included anything you could find on a desk. The boxes held paint brushes, tape 

dispensers, computer paper. Pens and pencils. Cork boards and staplers. Somewhere between 

94,500 and 126,000 pounds total. Joiner called Mike Todisco, who donated three trucks and five 

of his employees to help get the supplies to the school. The man who bought and donated the 

supplies wanted to remain anonymous. The credit, he said, goes not to him, but to the moving 

company. “If it weren’t for them, this stuff would’ve been trash,” he said. Joiner said a districtwide email will be sent to notify teachers of an upcoming, but yet-unscheduled, distribution date. 

Web posted. (2013). [Anonymous NASA employee donates tons of school supplies [Online]. 

Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, September 7].] 

NASA robotic explorer runs into trouble after launch 

NASA's newest robotic explorer rocketed into space late Friday in an unprecedented moonshot 

from Virginia that dazzled sky watchers along the East Coast. But the LADEE spacecraft quickly 

ran into equipment trouble, and while NASA assured everyone early Saturday that the lunar 

probe was safe and on a perfect track for the moon, officials acknowledged the problem needs to 

be resolved in the next two to three weeks. S. Peter Worden, director of NASA's Ames Research 

Center in California, which developed the spacecraft, told reporters he's confident everything will 

be working properly in the next few days. LADEE's reaction wheels were turned on to orient and 

stabilize the spacecraft, which was spinning too fast after it separated from the final rocket stage, 

Worden said. But the computer automatically shut the wheels down, apparently because of excess 

current. He speculated the wheels may have been running a little fast. The LADEE spacecraft, 

which is charged with studying the lunar atmosphere and dust, soared aboard an unmanned 

Minotaur rocket a little before midnight from Virginia's Eastern Shore. It was a change of venue 

for NASA, which normally launches moon missions from Cape Canaveral, Fla. But it provided a 

rare light show along the East Coast for those blessed with clear skies. The Lunar Atmosphere 

and Dust Environment Explorer or LADEE, pronounced "LA'-dee," is taking a roundabout path 

to the moon, making three huge laps around Earth before getting close enough to pop into lunar 

orbit. LADEE, which is the size of a small car, is expected to reach the moon on Oct. 6. All but 

one of NASA's previous moon missions since 1959, including the manned Apollo flights of the 

late 1960s and early 1970s, originated from Cape Canaveral. The most recent were the twin Grail 

spacecraft launched almost exactly two years ago. The military-NASA Clementine rocketed away 

from Southern California in 1994. Web posted. (2013). [NASA robotic explorer runs into trouble 

after launch [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, September 7].] 

September 8: Blue Origin protests possible deal for pad 39A 

A dispute over control of a mothballed Kennedy Space Center launch pad is now in lawyers’ 

hands while political pressure on the process grows. Blue Origin last week filed a formal bid 

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protest with the U.S. Government Accountability Office regarding NASA’s plans to lease pad 

39A for commercial use. NASA has not announced a lease agreement but was known to be 

considering an exclusive deal with SpaceX. Also last week, five U.S. senators wrote to NASA 

urging Administrator Charlie Bolden not to pursue such an exclusive arrangement for even the 

minimum five-year duration. “An exclusive lease would provide a major advantage to one 

company in bidding for international launches,” reads the letter whose signers include Patty 

Murray of Washington, where Blue Origin is headquartered. Blue Origin of Kent, Wash., had 

proposed to take over and modify pad 39A to support launches by multiple rocket companies, 

though its own orbital launch vehicle won’t be ready until 2018. The protest could impact who 

ultimately uses the pad, but at a minimum will delay any lease award until the GAO reaches a 

decision, expected by mid-December. NASA had hoped to transfer the historic former Apollo 

and shuttle pad by Oct. 1, the start of a new fiscal year that does not anticipate funding to 

maintain the facility, estimated at $1.2 million in 2013. Blue Origin, started by Amazon.com 

CEO and billionaire Jeff Bezos, would not comment directly on the protest but reiterated its 

preference for a shared-use arrangement. NASA must respond to the GAO within 30 days of the 

protest filed Tuesday. Agency spokesman David Weaver said NASA was following an “open 

and fair” selection process that would ensure best value for taxpayers. Web posted. (2013). 

[Launch company Blue Origin protests possible deal for pad 39A [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, September 8].] 

September 9: Aerojet Rocketdyne Readies For New SLS Engine Production 

Aerojet Rocketdyne expects to begin preparatory work for restarting production of all-new RS-25 

engines as early as next month for future use in NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) vehicles in 

the 2020s. Unlike the original RS-25 versions developed as the reusable main engine for the 

space shuttle, the design focus for the new build units is on affordability and countering 

obsolescence issues that have emerged over time. Although NASA has 15 complete RS-25 

former shuttle engines in store at Stennis Space Center, and a 16th due to be assembled from 

existing parts, this will only provide sufficient engines for four launches of the SLS. The first 

stage of each SLS will use four RS-25s. Several early elements of the new build engine, which 

will retain the baseline RS-25 designation, are already under test or in development. The initial 

work is targeted at replacement parts for those at greatest risk from obsolescence such as digital 

engine controllers as well as others that can now be made from more advanced materials, or 

fabricated using more efficient methods or modern processes such as additive manufacturing. 

The full-duration, 330 sec. hot fire of the latest J-2X was completed on the A-1 test stand at 

Stennis on Sept. 5. The work included the final certification testing of the engine’s gimballing 

nozzle system which demonstrated its maximum range of movement of 5 deg. through several 

maneuvers including a circle, a square, a diamond pattern and ‘dithering’ back and forth. Further 

tests of the next J-2X are planned for the late 2013, early 2014 timeframe. Upcoming tests on 

engine 10003 will evaluate the nominal and off-nominal performance as well as comparing 

baseline characteristics to results from tests of the first two J-2X engines previously tested. A 

fourth and final J-2X will be tested, between evaluations of the RS25, starting in Jan 2015. Web 

posted. (2013). [Aerojet Rocketdyne Readies For New SLS Engine Production [Online]. 

Available WWW: http://www.aviationweek.com/ [2013, September 9].] 

KSC time capsule preserves shuttle's past for the future 

A square of insulating blanket that helped protect shuttle orbiters, and a needle that stitched them 

together. A bunny suit and booties worn during clean room processing work. A car placard that 

provided launch day access to restricted viewing areas. They are among dozens of mementos 

former shuttle workers selected to help tell their program’s story when a time capsule’s seal is 

cracked in 2061, on the 50th anniversary of the final mission. NASA dedicated the time capsule 

Monday at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, inviting children who might open it to 

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crowd around a plaque on a wall below the nose of the retired orbiter Atlantis. “As important as 

our past was, our future is what it’s all about," said KSC Director and shuttle astronaut Bob 

Cabana. “Just imagine where we’re going to be 50 years from now?” The time capsule concept 

was part of managers’ efforts to celebrate the 30-year shuttle program’s legacy as it came to an 

end, not just mourn its loss. “Our memories will live on,” said Patty Stratton, a former United 

Space Alliance executive who led the initiative along with NASA’s Rita Willcoxon. “It’s another 

memory that will go on for generations.” A nearby screen showed a slide show of the artifacts, 

each representing aspects of the hardware and people that made up KSC and the shuttle program. 

For example, a brick from a launch pad flame trench, a black orbiter heat shield tile and a strip of 

external tank foam insulation speak to important elements of shuttle processing and missions. 

The launch day experience is felt in a page from a countdown manual, a piece of a Launch 

Control Center window and a story about beans and cornbread, the traditional post-launch meal. 

Cabana got a laugh when imagining today’s kids pulling a Blackberry smart phone from the 

capsule. Already looking a bit dated, the phone holds a document about computing changes 

during the shuttle era and photos and comments about the future of KSC, according to a NASA 

reference guide. Monday’s dedication kept the focus on opportunities for the young 

“ambassadors of exploration,” but also provided a welcome opportunity to former shuttle 

program colleagues to reminisce. Web posted. (2013). [KSC time capsule preserves shuttle's past 

for the future [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, September 9].] 

Lockheed Martin lands commercial Atlas 5 contract 

A communications satellite for the Mexican government will launch on an Atlas 5 rocket from 

Florida in 2015, a rare win for the workhorse booster in the commercial launch market dominated 

by rockets from Europe, Russia and newcomer SpaceX. The Morelos 3 communications satellite, 

owned by the Mexican Ministry of Communications and Transportation, will launch on an Atlas 

5 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., according to Lockheed Martin Commercial 

Launch Services. Officials can tailor an Atlas 5 rocket to meet the demands of each mission by 

adding solid rocket boosters, a larger payload shroud and a second engine for the launcher's 

Centaur upper stage. Joan Underwood, a Lockheed Martin spokesperson, said the Morelos 3 

mission would use the rocket's 421 configuration, with a four-meter payload fairing, two solid 

rocket boosters, and a single RL10 engine on the Centaur stage. Underwood declined to disclose 

the financial value of the Morelos 3 launch contract. Atlas 5 rockets regularly loft payloads for 

the U.S. military and NASA, but it has not launched a commercial communications satellite since 

November 2009. Morelos 3 is owned by the Mexican government, but the launch is considered a 

commercial win for Lockheed Martin. Lockheed Martin's launch services division oversees 

commercial sales of the Atlas 5 rocket. United Launch Alliance, a partnership between Lockheed 

Martin Corp. and Boeing Co., builds and operates the Atlas 5 launcher. Web posted. (2013). 

[Lockheed Martin lands commercial Atlas 5 contract [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/ [2013, September 9].] 

September 10: Undersea Florida lab for 'aquanauts' back, thanks to FIU 

Astronaut training has resumed at an undersea laboratory in the Florida Keys. Starting Tuesday, 

five astronauts began spending five days living and working at the Aquarius Reef Base. While 

they’re underwater, they’ll be trying out an exercise device that could be used on the International 

Space Station and spacewalking tools. They also will evaluate protocols for communications and 

for working with a remotely operated vehicle, according to NASA. Scientists staying at Aquarius 

are called “aquanauts,” and since 2001 their ranks have included astronauts training for space 

missions. Astronauts last trained at Aquarius in June 2012 on a mission that simulated a visit to 

an asteroid. It seemed like the final astronaut training mission because Aquarius had been set to 

close by the end of last year after losing its federal funding to budget cuts. This week’s mission is 

the first at Aquarius since Florida International University took over its operations in January. 

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The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration owns the pressurized lab that sits about 

60 feet below the ocean’s surface a few miles off Key Largo. Web posted. (2013). [Undersea 

Florida lab for 'aquanauts' back, thanks to FIU's help [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, September 10].] 

September 15: Upgraded SpaceX Falcon 9 set for risky flight 

SpaceX is preparing a muscled-up Falcon 9 rocket for a debut launch from California whose odds 

of success are considered a coin toss — and that’s not counting an ambitious attempt to recover 

the rocket’s first stage. Targeting a liftoff this week from a refurbished pad at Vandenberg Air 

Force Base, the upgraded rocket features more powerful engines, longer stages, updated software 

and — for the first time — a satellite as the primary payload, shrouded in a new protective 

fairing. If that isn’t challenging enough, SpaceX will attempt to guide the rocket’s first stage to a 

soft landing in the Pacific Ocean as an early test of reusable booster systems. At stake is 

SpaceX‘s ability to serve a long list of commercial satellite customers, resume flying NASA 

cargo and begin earning eligibility to launch national security payloads. Many of those missions 

would launch from Cape Canaveral. The Falcon 9 last flew over six months ago, and SpaceX has 

yet to launch more than twice in a year. The rocket changes have delayed the upcoming flight for 

months, and Musk this summer congratulated teams for “overcoming many tough issues.” Air 

Force safety analysts have calculated a nearly 50-50 chance of failure for the first two launches of 

what SpaceX calls “version 1.1” of the Falcon 9, reflecting the historically high failure rates for 

new rockets. SpaceX was waiting to confirm a launch date after experiencing some glitches 

during an engine test-firing on the pad last week. The Air Force says the rocket is “significantly 

different” than the original Falcon 9 that flew five times, all from Cape Canaveral, including three 

launches to the International Space Station for NASA. If the planned launch of the small, 

Canadian-built Cassiope space weather satellite and several secondary payloads goes smoothly, 

the Falcon 9 could be ready to launch a commercial satellite from the Cape as soon as next 

month. Chief among the rocket’s upgrades are more powerful Merlin 1D engines, nine of which 

will be configured in a different pattern below the first stage. Together the kerosene-fueled 

engines will produce 1.3 million pounds of thrust at liftoff, a more than 50 percent increase over 

the earlier generation Merlin 1C engines. The more powerful engines require bigger propellant 

tanks that lengthen the rocket. The new Falcon 9 will stand 224 feet tall, nearly 70 feet higher 

than the version used previously to launch Dragon cargo spacecraft. The height includes a 43-foot 

tall, 17-foot diameter payload fairing built in-house. It’s not typical for rocket companies to 

make significant design changes just as a vehicle starts proving its reliability. Web posted. 

(2013). [Upgraded SpaceX Falcon 9 set for risky flight [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, September 15].] 

Success is in sight for commercial launch plan 

A program hailed as one of NASA’s biggest successes will declare mission accomplished if an 

Orbital Sciences Corp. cargo freighter safely links up with the International Space Station this 

week. For less than $800 million in taxpayer funds, the agency’s partnership with Orbital and 

SpaceX has produced two new cargo spacecraft and two new rockets at a fraction of what 

traditional NASA-led developments would have cost, according to NASA’s own analysis. 

Advocates say the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program, or COTS, has forever 

changed the agency, proving private companies can deliver critical space systems more 

affordably under the right conditions. Started in 2006, COTS addressed the need to service the 

space station after the shuttle’s planned retirement. The concept was to start flying cargo, and 

potentially crews, commercially, something never done before in space. “We started the program 

with the vision that we would be able to go to a catalog or the Internet and order up some cargo 

delivery services to the International Space Station,” said Alan Lindenmoyer, COTS program 

manager at Johnson Space Center. NASA then committed $500 million over five years, to be 

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split among two partners. More money was added later. If that sounds like a lot, consider: The 

agency will spend twice as much this year alone on the Orion capsule, which is being developed 

to fly crews in deep space and whose total cost is projected at more than $16 billion. Such 

complex projects have traditionally used “cost-plus” contracts, in which NASA pays all the 

program costs plus a profit margin to the contractors, and calls all the shots. Given its limited 

funding, COTS did things differently. Fixed payments were awarded for completion of preset 

milestones and the partners had to share the costs. In return, NASA ceded some of its usual 

control, specifying the basic functions that systems had to perform but letting companies create 

and own their designs. The arrangement meant the companies were partners rather than simply 

contractors. Delivering cargo or people to the space station still isn’t as simple as placing an 

order online, but COTS supporters say that vision is closer to reality. Web posted. (2013). 

[Success is in sight for commercial launch plan [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, September 15].] 

SpaceX Falcon 9 v1.1 Launch Delayed Till End of September 

Elon Musk tweeted this morning that SpaceX's launch of the Falcon 9 v1.1 from Vandenberg Air 

Force Base will be delayed until the end of September. Musk, founder and Chief Technology 

Officer of SpaceX, tweeted that the company will do another static fire test and "AF needs to test 

ICBMs, so probable launch Sept 29/30." The launch had been tentatively set for today, 

September 15, but anomalies were detected during a static fire test on Thursday, necessitating the 

second test. This will be the first flight of this version of the Falcon 9 and SpaceX's first launch 

from Vandenberg. Web posted. (2013). [SpaceX Falcon 9 v1.1 Launch Delayed Till End of 

September [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.spacepolicyonline.com/ [2013, September 

15].] 

September 16: Atlas 5 rocket on the launch pad for 40th mission 

An Atlas 5 rocket, crowned with a secure, jam-resistant U.S. Air Force communications satellite 

set for liftoff Wednesday, arrived at a launch pad in Florida on Monday after a condensed 

assembly and test campaign designed to help United Launch Alliance prepare for a bustling 

manifest over the next year. The 196-foot-tall rocket rolled out from its Vertical Integration 

Facility to its launch pad at Complex 41 on Monday, beginning the 1,800-foot journey on time at 

10 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT) and completing the trek less than an hour later. The ULA launch team 

planned to take a crew rest day before beginning the mission's middle-of-the-night seven-hour 

countdown at 8:04 p.m. EDT Tuesday (0004 GMT Wednesday). Engineers will switch on the 

Atlas 5, puts its systems through preflight testing, then load kerosene, liquid hydrogen and liquid 

oxygen into the launcher's two stages. Liftoff with the Air Force's third Advanced Extremely 

High Frequency communications satellite is scheduled for 3:04 a.m. EDT (0704 GMT) at the 

opening of a two-hour launch window. Web posted. (2013). [Atlas 5 rocket on the launch pad for 

40th mission [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.spaceflightnow.com/ [2013, September 

16].] 

Congress Voices Support for NASA LC 39-A Leasing 

Letter from Members of Congress to NASA Regarding LC 39A Leasing: "In particular, we 

commend NASA for undertaking an open, competitive process regarding Launch Complex 39, 

Pad A, (LC-39A) at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC). As you are aware, the NASA Inspector 

General and the Agency have identified LC-39A as excess infrastructure and have no "future 

mission-related uses for these facilities" (Report No. IG- 13-008). Consistent with the OIG's 

recommendation, as well as the need to reduce overhead in the current constrained fiscal 

environment, we understand that NASA is currently undertaking an open competitive process to 

transfer LC-39A to a private entity, with formal decisions relating to lease terms and duration to 

be determined through proper negotiation subsequent to award. Given KSC's expertise, it should 

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be within their purview and judgment to determine what factors to consider and outcomes to 

render. We urge you to proceed with these plans." Web posted. (2013). [Congress Voices 

Support for NASA LC 39-A Leasing [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.nasawatch.com/

[2013, September 16].] 

GAO: U.S. To Spend Almost $44 Billion on Launches 

The U.S. government is expected to spend nearly $44 billion on launch costs over the next five 

years, according to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released Sept. 9. The 

number represents the first time the federal government has compiled how much it spends on 

launch, often a sticking point for members of Congress who ask for a total and complain the 

figures they do receive offer limited transparency and are obscured by separate budgets for the 

Defense Department and NASA. “This information should help to inform plans to lower launch 

costs, increase competition, and invest in new programs,” the report reads. The largest part of 

launch costs from 2014 through 2018 will come from procurement, more than $28 billion, the 

report said. That includes about $12 billion for NASA — some $7 billion of which is expected to 

go toward the Space Launch System heavy-lift rocket the agency is developing for manned, deepspace missions — and $16 billion for the Defense Department. The defense figures are similar 

to recent figures compiled for 2013. Classified information from former National Security 

Agency contractor Edward Snowden and reported by the Washington Post revealed the National 

Reconnaissance Office, which buys and operates the nation’s spy satellites, requested about $1.3 

billion for launch costs in 2013, bringing the Defense Department’s total to about $2.8 billion for 

the year. “Because the agencies involved budget and account for their respective space launch 

efforts differently, the total government-wide funding to support these activities is difficult to 

determine,” the report reads. NASA’s costs for launch-related activities are expected to rise about 

19 percent annually, according to the report, in large part to transfer crew and cargo to the 

international space station. The NASA figures also include the cost of launching the weather 

satellites it builds on behalf of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Web 

posted. (2013). [GAO: U.S. To Spend Almost $44 Billion on Launches in 2014-2018 [Online]. 

Available WWW: http://www.spacenews.com/ [2013, September 16].] 

September 17: Antares Still on Track for Launch Wednesday Morning 

As of 8:00 am Eastern Daylight Time today (Tuesday), the launch of Orbital Sciences 

Corporation's Antares rocket and Cygnus spacecraft is on track for 10:50 am EDT tomorrow 

(Wednesday) from a pad at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) at NASA’s Wallops 

Flight Facility. The Cygnus spacecraft is taking supplies to the International Space Station (ISS) 

crew. This is Orbital's demonstration flight for NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation 

Services (COTS) program. The launch window is open from 10:50-11:05 am EDT tomorrow, 

Wednesday, September 18, 2013. Web posted. (2013). [Antares Still on Track for Launch 

Wednesday Morning [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.spacepolicyonline.com/ [2013, 

September 17].] 

Brazilian Hackers Hit NASA Not NSA 

As many Brazilians remain angry about the U.S. cyber-spying on Brazil, some Brazilian hackers 

decided to raise their objections online. The hackers mixed up America’s space agency with its 

security agency, accidentally hacking NASA instead of the NSA. After gaining access to NASA’s 

webpage, the hackers left a message that said “Stop spying on us” and urged the U.S. to not 

attack Syria. The space agency confirmed that the hacking had occurred, and NASA spokesman 

Allard Beutel further explained that “at no point were any of the agency’s primary websites, 

missions, or classified systems compromised.” “We are diligently taking action to investigate 

and reconstitute the websites impacted during the web-defacement incident,” he said. The cyber 

infiltration was prompted by the information leaks of former U.S. intelligence contractor Edward 

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Snowden, which indicated that the NSA had spied on the Brazilian president’s e-mail 

communications. Web posted. (2013). [Brazilian Hackers Hit NASA Not NSA [Online]. 

Available WWW: http://www.nationalreview.com/ [2013, September 17].] 

September 18: Atlas V roars to life with Air Force satellite onboard 

An Atlas V rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station this morning, roaring 

toward orbit with an Air Force communications satellite onboard. The 197-foot-tall United 

Launch Alliance rocket leap off its launch pad at 4:10 a.m. -- 66 minutes behind schedule. 

Launch managers had to wait for cumulus clouds to clear the area and upper-level winds to die 

down. Propelled by a sporty Russian main engine and three strap-on solid rocket boosters, the 

first stage of the rocket climbed a straight-up flight profile before curving out over the Atlantic 

Ocean. The three solid rocket motors were jettisoned about two minutes into flight and twinkled 

orange as they fell toward the sea. Riding aboard the Atlas V is the third of six Advanced 

Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) communications satellites. The jam-resistant spacecraft are 

each 10 times more capable than the Milstar constellation they are replacing. The launch was the 

40th for Atlas V rockets and the 75th since Boeing and Lockheed Martin merged the Atlas V and 

Delta IV rocket families under the United Launch Alliance banner in December 2006. The next 

launch for ULA at the Cape will be a Delta IV rocket with a Global Positioning System (GPS) 

satellite on Oct. 17. The launch window that day will open at 6:20 p.m. and close 18 minutes 

later. Web posted. (2013). [Atlas V roars to life with Air Force satellite onboard [Online]. 

Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, September 18].] 

State lawmakers back NASA's plan for Pad 39A 

Florida’s congressional delegation has unanimously backed NASA’s process for leasing a historic 

Kennedy Space Center launch pad for commercial use, countering concerns expressed by a 

handful of colleagues. SpaceX and Blue Origin are competing to win the lease of launch pad 

39A, a former Apollo and shuttle launch pad that NASA says it no longer needs. NASA was 

considering a lease to SpaceX, of Hawthorne, Calif., which wants exclusive use of the pad to 

support frequent launches it anticipates as soon as 2015. Kent, Wash.-based Blue Origin won’t 

have a rocket until 2018, but proposed operating the pad to support multiple users, and this month 

formally protested NASA’s handling of the matter. Two congressmen and five senators, mostly 

from states that are home to SpaceX competitors, endorsed that multi-user approach and 

questioned NASA’s rush to lease the facility. In their own letters over the past week, Florida’s 

representatives offer a different perspective. They describe NASA’s competition for pad 39A as 

fair and encourage the agency to put it to use as soon as possible. The U.S. Government 

Accountability Office is expected to weigh in on Blue Origin’s protest by mid-December. NASA 

had wanted to lease pad 39A for at least five years starting as soon as next month. The agency 

says it cannot afford to maintain the mothballed pad indefinitely at a cost of more than $1 million 

annually. Web posted. (2013). [State lawmakers back NASA's plan for Pad 39A [Online]. 

Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, September 18].] 

United Launch Alliance celebrate 75 launch milestone 

The United Launch Alliance (ULA) celebrated its 75 launch milestone when their Atlas V launch 

vehicle successfully lofted the AEHF-3 satellite out of Cape Canaveral Wednesday morning. 

While its successes with payloads such as military satellites continue, the company is also a front 

runner in the effort of returning America’s domestic crew launch capability in the second half of 

this decade. The company was formed at the end of 2006 as a joint venture between Lockheed 

Martin and Boeing. The merger consolidated all production and engineering capability into their 

bases in Decatur, Alabama and Littleton, Colorado. With a prime role in providing military 

launch services under agreements such as the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) 

contract, ULA have lofted spacecraft ranging from military spacecraft such as the X-37B, through 

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to highly secretive spy satellites. Web posted. (2013). [United Launch Alliance celebrate 75 

launch milestone [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/ [2013, 

September 18].] 

Wild hogs might be hunted on Merritt Island refuge 

Federal wildlife officials might allow the taking of an unlimited number of feral hogs during a 

deer hunt in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has 

proposed allowing a deer hunt on 6,000 acres in the central Florida refuge. Waterfowl hunting 

has been allowed in the refuge since the 1960s. Now federal officials want to expand those 

activities to deer and feral hogs. The agency is seeking public comment on the environmental 

assessment drafted for the proposed hunt. Officials say feral hogs are a nuisance that damage 

roads, dikes, trails and sea turtle nests in the refuge. They say including hogs in the deer hunt 

could help reduce the number of collisions between the hogs and wildlife officials’ vehicles. 

Web posted. (2013). [Wild hogs might be hunted on Merritt Island refuge [Online]. Available 

WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, September 18].] 

September 19: Shuttle Atlantis takes United Way 2013 under its wings 

United Way launched its 2013 campaign in style Thursday night - underneath the new Shuttle 

Atlantis exhibit at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. "We really want companies to pull 

out all the stops ... for the people that are going to be helped," said Rob Rains, president of United 

Way. The fundraising giant helps more than 42 different agencies through more than 60 programs 

from domestic violence shelters to Meals on Wheels to programs helping kids, he added. About 

300 people from all walks of life attended the kickoff. Web posted. (2013). [Shuttle Atlantis takes 

United Way 2013 under its wings [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/

[2013, September 19].] 

September 20: NASA Awards Follow-on Custodial Services Contract 

NASA has awarded a contract to Brevard Achievement Center of Rockledge, Fla., to provide 

custodial services to the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The firm-fixed price contract 

begins Oct. 1. It has a maximum value of $30.4 million with a potential performance period of 

five years. Brevard Achievement Center will provide custodial services, including recurring 

general cleaning and non-recurring custodial support for launch services, special events, and 

emergency cleanup for about 3.2 million square feet of general office, shop, warehouse and 

support areas at Kennedy. [“NASA Awards Follow-on Custodial Services Contract for 

Kennedy,” NASA Contract Release #C13-043, September 20, 2013.] 

SpaceX completes second static fire on new Falcon 9 

For the second time in a week, SpaceX's upgraded Falcon 9 rocket fired its engines on a new 

California launch pad Thursday in one of the final steps before the 22-story launcher is cleared 

for liftoff on a test flight no earlier than Sept. 29. The slender two-stage rocket, towering more 

than 220 feet over its hillside launch complex, ignited its engines Thursday afternoon at 

Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. The brief engine firing, known as a "static fire" in SpaceX 

parlance, includes an ignition and burn of the rocket's nine first stage engines for several seconds 

while the launcher is held on the launch pad by restraints. The rocket's Merlin 1D engines, 

arranged a new "octaweb" configuration, generate 1.3 million pounds of thrust at sea level. 

Launch of the Falcon 9 rocket, fitted with more powerful engines and enlarged fuel tanks, is 

expected from Vandenberg's Space Launch Complex 4-East on Sept. 29. SpaceX has a backup 

date Sept. 30 on the Air Force-run Western Range, which provides tracking, safety and 

communications support for launches from California. The Falcon 9's next launch after the Sept. 

29 test flight is scheduled for this fall from Cape Canaveral, Fla., with the SES 8 communications 

satellite. In the SES contract with SpaceX, the Luxembourg-based telecom satellite operator 

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stipulated the launch firm demonstrate the Falcon 9 v1.1, including its unflown 17-foot-diameter 

payload fairing, before putting SES 8 on the next Falcon 9 mission. Web posted. (2013). [SpaceX 

completes second static fire on new Falcon 9 [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/ [2013, September 20].]

September 23: Big blimp to tread lightly as it probes clouds' inner secrets 

The world's largest blimp leaves Central Florida on Tuesday on a month-long journey across the 

U.S., slipping into clouds and hanging out so its crew can try to determine whether they teem 

with microscopic life. The brilliant-white airship, owned by an Orlando company, is on a "sea to 

shining sea" science expedition for a British Broadcasting Corp. television project. "The point of 

this is to combine some great science with some great entertainment," said Jonathan Renouf, a 

BBC executive producer. "I think a project like this, using a huge airship to travel across 

America, captures the imagination." Emblazoned with the words "Cloud Lab" — a working name 

for the television project — the 200-foot-long airship recently spent a week on shakedown flights 

over Orlando and Titusville. It's a flying laboratory, packed with instruments that will study 

clouds' behavior and chemistry, listen to the sounds made by bats and birds, probe atmospheric 

gases and measure Earth's surface features. "It can hover and hang around inside a cloud," said 

David Smith, a NASA microbiologist at Kennedy Space Center and one of nearly a dozen 

scientists involved in the Cloud Lab project. Smith said his blimp-mounted experiments will try 

to collect microbes, including bacteria and fungi that may be "making a living" in the moist, 

shaded interior of clouds. The discovery of such microbes would build on scientists' knowledge 

of the places that can sustain life, including locations beyond Earth, and lead to further 

exploration of the role microbes may play in triggering cloud formation and rainfall, Smith said. 

Hugging the belly of the 68-foot-tall blimp is a gondola the size of an RV — 38 feet long and 81⁄2 

feet wide. Normally, there's space for two pilots and 13 passengers inside, but packed with 

computers and experiment hardware, Cloud Lab has room for only eight TV or science crew 

members. Web posted. (2013). [Big blimp to tread lightly as it probes clouds' inner secrets 

[Online]. Available WWW: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/ [2013, September 23].]

September 25: Musk Calls Out Blue Origin, ULA for ‘Phony Blocking Tactic’

SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk lashed out at Blue Origin and United Launch Alliance 

Tuesday night, accusing the two companies of trying to stymie SpaceX’s expansion plans with a 

“phony blocking tactic” that has stalled the lease of an old space shuttle launch pad SpaceX wants 

to take over. Both SpaceX and Blue Origin want to lease Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy 

Space Center, Fla., from NASA. Blue Origin, a 13-year-old startup backed by Amazon.com 

founder Jeff Bezos, gave NASA a proposal in July for converting the pad “into a commercial 

spaceport available to all launch companies,” the company’s president, Rob Meyerson, told 

SpaceNews Wednesday. SpaceX, in contrast, proposed an exclusive-use lease for its Falcon 

family of rockets, but said late last week it would be open to sharing the pad with other 

users. SpaceX’s apparent about-face came three weeks after Blue Origin filed a protest with the 

U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), preventing NASA from leasing the pad until the 

dispute is resolved. The GAO has until Dec. 12 to issue a ruling; NASA — eager to save the $1.2 

million annual maintenance cost — had been hoping to lease the pad by Oct. 1, the start of the 

government’s 2014 budget year. Blue Origin’s bid to transform Pad 39A into a commercial 

spaceport has received backing from several U.S. lawmakers — including Washington’s Patty 

Murray, the senior senator from Blue Origin’s home state — who have written NASA 

Administrator Charles Bolden in support of turning the idle shuttle pad into a multi-user facility. 

United Launch Alliance (ULA), the Denver-based Boeing and Lockheed Martin joint venture that 

launches the vast majority of U.S. government payloads, also weighed in, telling SpaceNews in 

July it planned to “continue to share our technical expertise in launch infrastructure with Blue 

Origin to enable their leadership to manage the asset for multi-user capability, for which ULA 

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could be one of the users.” SpaceX’s bid for Pad 39A received an implicit assist from Florida’s 

congressional delegation this month when U.S. Sens. Bill Nelson (D) and Marco Rubio (R) and 

all 27 of the state’s House members wrote Bolden following Blue Origin’s Sept. 3 GAO protest 

to encourage the NASA boss to ignore outside pressure in selecting a caretaker. SpaceX 

currently launches its Falcon 9 rocket from nearby Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., and is 

preparing to conduct its first launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., as soon as 

Saturday. On Friday, SpaceX appeared to change its position on Pad 39A exclusivity, emailing 

reporters to say NASA and other launch providers would be welcome to use the launch complex 

if SpaceX gets the five-year lease. Web posted. (2013). [Musk Calls Out Blue Origin, ULA for 

‘Phony Blocking Tactic’ on Shuttle Pad Lease [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.spacenews.com/ [2013, September 25].]

September 26: NASA Awards Construction Contract for Kennedy 

NASA has awarded a contract to A. West Enterprise of Albany, Ga., to provide construction 

services for the revitalization of the medium-voltage electrical distribution systems in the 

industrial and payload processing areas at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The firm-fixed price 

contract was awarded to A. West Enterprise Sept. 25 and has a maximum value of $5.7 million 

with a performance period of two years. A. West Enterprise will provide construction services 

for the revitalization of Kennedy Space Center’s medium voltage electrical distribution systems 

in the industrial and payload processing areas. Work includes the demolition, replacement and 

installation of underground medium voltage cable systems. Also included in the project will be 

the installation of underground duct systems for medium-voltage and low-voltage cable systems, 

as well as replacing various transformer and substation equipment. [“NASA Awards 

Construction Contract for Kennedy,” NASA Contract Release #C23-13, September 26, 2013.] 

NASA Awards Follow-on Mail Services Contract 

NASA has awarded a contract to Anthony Wayne Rehabilitation Center (AWRC) of Fort Wayne, 

Ind., to provide mail services to the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The firm-fixed 

price contract begins Oct. 1. It has a maximum value of $11.5 million with a potential 

performance period of five years. AWRC will provide mail services, including mail distribution 

and courier services for 92 buildings and 670 mail stops, as well as operating several mailrooms 

at Kennedy. [“NASA Awards Follow-on Mail Services Contract,” NASA Contract Release 

#C24-13, September 26, 2013.] 

NASA Awards Construction Task Order for Kennedy 

NASA has awarded a task order to Sauer Inc. of Jacksonville, Fla., to provide construction 

services for a new computer data center building at Kennedy Space Center. The firm-fixed price 

task order was awarded against the General Construction indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity 

contract Sept. 19. It has a maximum value of $11.1 million with a performance period of one 

year. Sauer Inc. will build the Kennedy Data Center (KDC) computer data center building. The 

KDC will facilitate the closure of five existing inefficient data centers (totaling 25,000 square feet 

of compute space), in exchange for one state-of-the-art, Tier 2 power-efficient facility (with 5,300 

square feet of compute space). The new facility will allow Kennedy to effectively meet the 

objectives of OMB’s Federal Data Center Consolidation Initiative, which targets reductions to the 

number of data centers and associated information technology systems at federal installations, 

which will result in significant reductions to the center’s electrical power and cooling costs. The 

facility will pay for itself out of energy and operations savings in approximately eight years. 

[“NASA Awards Construction Task Order for Kennedy,” NASA Contract Release #C25-13, 

September 26, 2013.] 

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September 27: Industry, FAA Draft Safety Document 

In an attempt to forestall congressional direction of the process, the U.S. Federal Aviation 

Administration’s (FAA) Office of Commercial Space Transportation has produced a 50-page list 

of safety practices that could serve as the cornerstone for future commercial human spaceflight 

safety regulations. Formally known as “Draft Established Practices for Human Space Flight 

Occupant Safety,” the document is the result of information gathering that began last year when 

FAA officials started sitting in on monthly conference calls with the agency’s industry-led 

Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee (COMSTAC). On these calls, 

representatives of commercial spaceflight companies discussed areas of their businesses that 

would be ripe for regulation, once the FAA is allowed to begin rulemaking in about two 

years. Under the Commercial Space Launch Act of 2004, the FAA may set rules to protect the 

uninvolved public from commercial spaceflight activities, such as launches, but it may not 

regulate industry participants until October 2015 unless there is a catastrophic accident before 

then. New Mexico-based Virgin Galactic, which aims to fly paying customers to the edge of 

space, is now poised to begin operations in 2014. If that schedule holds, the FAA would have 

about a year to study one commercial human spaceflight operation before it could begin writing 

rules for the entire industry. Web posted. (2013). [Industry, FAA Look To Stay One Step Ahead 

of Congress with Draft Safety Document [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.spacenews.com/ [2013, September 27].] 

How a Potential Government Shutdown Could Affect NASA 

A government shutdown on Tuesday (Oct. 1) would force NASA to cease most of its operations 

and furlough the vast majority of its workforce, space agency officials say. Fewer than 600 of 

NASA's 18,000 or so employees would likely keep working through a shutdown, with the aim of 

ensuring the safety of human life and the protection of property, according to a plan the space 

agency submitted today (Sept. 27) to the Office of Management and Budget. The International 

Space Station (ISS) and its six crewmembers would not be hung out to dry. "To protect the life of 

the crew as well as the assets themselves, we would continue to support planned operations of the 

ISS during any funding hiatus," the NASA plan states. "Moreover, NASA will be closely 

monitoring the impact of an extended shutdn to determine if crew transportation or cargo 

resupply services are required to mitigate imminent threats to life and property on the ISS or other 

areas." Likewise, currently operating scientific spacecraft would be maintained and the data they 

return home safeguarded. But the outlook would not be good for future missions. Such 

contingencies will go into effect if Congress fails to fund the federal government beyond the end 

of the current fiscal year, which ends Monday (Sept. 30). Web posted. (2013). [How a Potential 

Government Shutdown Could Affect NASA [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.space.com/

[2013, September 27].] 

September 29: SpaceX Successfully Launches Upgraded Falcon 9 Rocket 

SpaceX successfully launched its upgraded Falcon 9 v1.1 rocket today on its maiden flight from 

the Vandenberg Air Force Base in what appeared to be a picture perfect launch. The rocket was 

carrying the Canadian CASSIOPE satellite as its main payload along with three small nanosats. 

While similar to the original Falcon 9 the new upgraded version sports the more powerful Merlin 

1D engines which had yet to fly, a much longer fuselage, a new larger fairing and a number of 

other upgrades to the rocket including its software. The launch window opened up at 12:00 p.m. 

ET and SpaceX had three hours to launch the rocket today. However with weather conditions 

almost perfect the rocket lifted off right as the launch window opened. The launch to orbit looked 

particularly smooth with no apparent issue. All the satellites deployed as expected. This was the 

first launch for SpaceX at its new Vandenberg Air Force Base launch facilities. Web posted. 

(2013). [SpaceX Successfully Launches Upgraded Falcon 9 Rocket on Maiden Flight (Updated) 

[Online]. Available WWW: http://www.nasawatch.com/ [2013, September 29].]

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September 30: NASA Awards First CubeSat-Class Launch Services Contract 

NASA has selected Generation Orbit Launch Services Inc., of Atlanta, Ga., to provide a CubeSatclass launch via the NASA Launch Services Enabling eXploration and Technology (NEXT) 

contract. NEXT is an element of a strategic initiative led by NASA’s Launch Services Program 

(LSP), focused on assuring long-term launch services while also promoting the continued 

evolution of the U.S. commercial space launch market. The NEXT launch service will deliver 

three 3U-configuration CubeSats to a 264-mile orbit via a Federal Aviation Administration 

(FAA)-licensed launch aboard Generation Orbit’s GOLauncher 2 rocket in August 2016 from 

Cecil Field Spaceport in Jacksonville, Fla. NEXT is a pathfinder contract for future acquisitions 

of launch services for low-cost and/or high-risk tolerant payloads. It sets the groundwork for LSP 

to utilize different contracting strategies that tailor the spectrum of government insight and 

approval based on the risk tolerance of the spacecraft. The total cost value for the NEXT launch 

service is approximately $2.1 million. This new contract resulted from a competitive award setaside for small businesses only. GOLauncher 2 will launch CubeSats as the primary payload via 

the NEXT contract due to their ability to tolerate the higher risk of a new nano-class rocket while 

also helping to provide additional opportunities for the many CubeSats awaiting launch 

opportunities under NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative (CSLI). [“NASA Awards First CubeSatClass Launch Services Contract,” NASA Contract Release #26-13, September 30, 2013.] 

KSC Visitor Complex COO steps down 

Bill Moore, chief operating officer of Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, announced he is 

leaving the space-themed theme park. The visitor complex is managed by Delaware North 

Companies Parks & Resorts for NASA. Web posted. (2013). [KSC Visitor Complex COO steps 

down [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, September 20].]

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OCTOBER 

October 1: Closed until further notice 

When lawmakers failed to agree on a deal to fund the federal government by midnight on the last 

day of the fiscal year, it duly shut down on October 1st. Web posted. (2013). [Closed until 

further notice [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.economist.com/ [2013, October 5].] 

NASA Is Grounded 

Today is NASA’s 55th anniversary. On Oct. 1, 1958, President Eisenhower established the 

civilian space agency as a way for this great nation to explore the Universe. Web posted. (2013). 

[NASA Is Grounded [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.slate.com/ [2013, October 1].] 

Mobile Launcher major modifications to begin for SLS 

The former Ares I Mobile Launcher (ML) will soon begin major modification work -pending the 

status of the government shutdown – ahead of its role with the Space Launch System (SLS). 

Work will begin with the demolition of the launch mount, which was designed with Ares I in 

mind, ahead of the installation of an array of umbilical connections. When SLS rolls out for the 

first time in 2017, the huge vehicle will be already mated to its Mobile Launcher, following 

stacking and integration flow within the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB). The stack and ML 

will depart the famous building atop of one of the modified Crawler Transporters, making the 

slow crawl to the modified “clean pad” at complex 39B, where engineers will be making the 

numerous connections between the ML and the pad electrical, hydraulic and fuelling lines. 

Following integration testing, SLS – with Orion – will be readied for launch. The ML – designed 

by RS&H (base and structure), along with ASRC Aerospace Corporation (prop systems etc.) –

consists of the main support structure that comprises the base, tower and facility ground support 

systems, which include power, communications, conditioned air, water for cooling, wash-down, 

and was designed with ignition over-pressure protection in mind. Hensel Phelps engineers 

worked on the structure at the mobile launcher park site area just north of the VAB, with trestles 

and girders arriving by barge in February of 2009, beginning the opening phase of work to create 

a base platform – one which is lighter than the current Mobile Launch Platforms (MLPs) that 

previously hosted the Space Shuttle stack. Web posted. (2013). [Mobile Launcher major 

modifications to begin for SLS [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/

[2013, October 1].] 

October 2: NASA slammed by shutdown, but its fans fight back online 

Few agencies have been socked as badly by the government shutdown as NASA, which has seen 

97 percent of its 18,250-member workforce either furloughed or put on call. The lack of 

personnel has halted nearly every function at the space agency. Processing of a new Mars 

spacecraft at Kennedy Space Center has stopped. Planned instrument tests for NASA's new James 

Webb Space Telescope are on uncertain ground. Even the NASA website is down. But the radio 

silence hasn't stopped NASA's online friends from voicing their support -- as well as using a dash 

of humor to poke fun at policymakers in Washington. For example, though NASA has suspended 

its official Twitter account for its Mars Curiosity rover, its snarky alter-ego -- the ever-popular 

“SarsasticRover” -- is still weighing in on the government shutdown and its effects on NASA. 

Web posted. (2013). [NASA slammed by shutdown, but its fans fight back online [Online]. 

Available WWW: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/ [2013, October 2].] 

October 3: The Shutdown Could Further Delay NASA's Lease of Pad 39A 

Bad news for NASA officials hoping for a swift resolution to the bid protest that’s holding up the 

agency’s plan to lease a space shuttle launch pad that’s costing taxpayers $100,000 a month in 

maintenance costs. With the U.S. government shutdown, the Government Accountability Office 

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is not working on the bid protest Blue Origin filed last month over NASA’s solicitation for 

proposals to lease Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center, Fla. NASA received competing proposals 

from Blue Origin and Space Exploration Technologies Corp. The agency had hoped to conclude a 

lease agreement by the Oct. 1 start of the federal government’s 2014 budget year. But that did not 

happened. Prior to the government shutdown, the GAO had been scheduled to rule on the dispute 

by Dec. 12. But as Nextgov.com reports via DefenseOne, such deadlines may be extended by up 

to one day for every day the government remains closed. The “vast majority” of its personnel 

cannot work during the government shutdown, the Government Accountability Office said on its 

website, noting that this includes staff in its bid protest office. The GAO Office of General 

Counsel determined that the bid protest office must close for the duration of the shutdown. “There 

will be no personnel monitoring protest filings at GAO during the time our office is closed,” 

GAO noted. Any new protest received while GAO is closed will be treated as filed on the day 

that GAO resumes operations. Any deadline for an agency filing -- such as an agency report or 

other filing requested by GAO -- may, upon request, be extended by up to one day for each day 

that GAO is closed. Web posted. (2013). [Why the Shutdown Could Further Delay NASA's Lease 

of Pad 39A [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.spacenews.com/ [2013, October 3].] 

117 workers furloughed at KSC visitors center 

Even though they don’t work for the government, 117 workers at the visitor center outside 

Kennedy Space Center have been furloughed due to the ongoing shutdown. A spokeswoman for 

Delaware North Companies, which runs the complex, confirmed that the employees have been 

put on temporary leave, adding that "we will call them back" when the shutdown ends. In all, 

about 650 workers are employed by Delaware North at the visitor center. Kennedy Space Center 

closed early this week, after 2,069 NASA employees were told not to come to work because 

Congress had failed to pass a budget for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1. Only nine federal 

workers -- part of the security force -- are still working at the base. Andrea Farmer, the Delaware 

North spokeswoman, said the laid-off visitor center workers drove tour buses into KSC, acted as 

tour guides or worked at an exhibit on KSC property. Because the KSC gates are closed, neither 

the workers nor visitors are allowed on the base. “While the government shutdown has had an 

impact on our guest experience and an impact on some of our workforce, we are continuing to 

monitor the situation and will resume the tours as soon as the shutdown has ended -- and we are 

hopeful it is ended quickly,” Farmer said. Web posted. (2013). [117 workers furloughed at KSC 

visitors center [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/ [2013, October 3].] 

October 4: Most of NASA Idled but Mars Orbiter Gets Reprieve 

The first U.S. government shutdown in 17 years idled over 95 percent of the NASA workforce 

and threatened the looming launch of a Mars-bound science orbiter until agency officials gave the 

project special permission to keep working toward its mid-November liftoff. “I learned this 

morning that NASA has analyzed the MAVEN mission relative to the Anti-Deficiency Act and 

determined that it meets the requirements allowing an emergency exception,” Bruce Jakosky, the 

University of Colorado, Boulder-based lead scientist for the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile 

Evolution (MAVEN) mission, informed colleagues Oct. 3. Federal agencies were required to 

furlough all nonessential personnel when Congress failed to enact a routine stopgap spending 

measure by the Oct. 1 deadline for approving fresh appropriations. Exceptions were made for 

military personnel, law enforcement officials, air traffic controllers, government meteorologists 

and other such civil servants deemed essential to protecting national security and preserving life 

and property. NASA suspended MAVEN launch preparations Oct. 1, sparking an outcry from 

Mars exploration advocates and Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), who issued a press release Oct. 2 

drawing attention to the possibility of the Mars orbiter mission missing its four-week launch 

window. By the next day, MAVEN was granted an emergency exemption on the grounds that the 

orbiter must launch this year to protect the rovers NASA already has at Mars. “MAVEN is 

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140

required as a communications relay in order to be assured of continued communications with the 

Curiosity and Opportunity rovers,” Jakosky told SpaceNews. “The rovers are presently supported 

by Mars Odyssey launched in 2001 and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter launched in 2005. 

Launching MAVEN in 2013 protects the existing assets that are at Mars today.” Jakosky said 

spacecraft processing work at Kennedy Space Center, Fla., had resumed and that MAVEN 

remained on track for a Nov. 18 liftoff from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station aboard a United 

Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket. If MAVEN does not launch by Dec. 15, the orbiter will be 

grounded until January 2016, when Earth and Mars are once again in favorable alignment. Web 

posted. (2013). [U.S. Government Shutdown | Most of NASA Idled but Mars Orbiter Gets 

Reprieve [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.spacenews.com/ [2013, October 4].] 

 SES Approves Satellite Shipment for Falcon 9 Launch 

Satellite fleet operator SES has authorized the shipment of its SES-8 satellite to Florida to prepare 

for launch aboard a Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) Falcon 9 rocket despite 

concerns among insurance industry officials that the Sept. 29 demonstration flight of a new 

Falcon 9 variant did not meet a key objective. Luxembourg-based SES has said it is awaiting 

more data from SpaceX about why the Falcon 9 v1.1’s upper-stage engine did not complete a 

second ignition at the end of the vehicle’s inaugural mission as planned. A re-ignition of the 

upper stage will be required to place SES-8 into geostationary transfer orbit, the dropoff point for 

most telecommunications satellites. But in a demonstration of how much it wants Hawthorne, 

Calif.-based SpaceX to establish itself in the commercial launch market, SES on Oct. 2 

authorized satellite builder Orbital Sciences to pack SES-8 into a container and bring it to Cape 

Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., by truck. SES has stuck with SpaceX despite the launch’s 

multiple delays in part because it secured a price of well under $60 million in return for being the 

first established fleet operator to publicly announce a Falcon 9 contract. But it was also at least 

partly because canceling the launch might delay SpaceX’s establishment as a commercial launch 

alternative. An insurance official said that if SES and its underwriters draw different conclusions 

from the telemetry data they receive from SpaceX, SES could offer sweeteners such as a 

guarantee of future insurance business, or an offer of a higher premium, or to self-insure part of 

the launch risk and reduce underwriters’ exposure. Web posted. (2013). [SES Approves Satellite 

Shipment for Falcon 9 Launch Despite Questions [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.spacenews.com/ [2013, October 4].] 

October 8: Furloughed workers use downtime to benefit Brevard 

Margaret Truitt turned over a clump of black seaweed and exposed another cigarette butt, which 

she plucked with a pronged pick-up tool and deposited in a bucket. More than 30 furloughed 

Kennedy Space Center employees on Tuesday morning performed the cleanup near the Cocoa 

Beach Pier, eager to do something positive as they began a second week of forced free time. The 

federal government’s partial shutdown has left thousands on the Space Coast carefully watching 

their bank balances amid concerns about missed paychecks. It has brought work at KSC nearly to 

a standstill, with most of the center’s 2,000 civil servants furloughed and many of the nearly 

6,000 contractors also sent home, forced to use up vacation or sick days or take unpaid leave. 

More than 100 KSC Visitor Complex workers also were furloughed because bus tours can’t take 

guests to stops inside the center. At Patrick Air Force Base, hundreds of civilians returned to 

work this week preparing to launch rockets after being furloughed last week, but uncertainty 

remains over whether they’ll be paid for their forced time off. The military personnel have been 

kept on the job since the partial shutdown started Oct. 1. Web posted. (2013). [Furloughed 

workers use downtime to benefit Brevard [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, October 8].] 

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141

SES-8 Satellite Arrives at Cape for Falcon 9 Launch 

Satellite fleet operator SES on Oct. 8 said its SES-8 telecommunications satellite had arrived in 

Cape Canaveral, Fla., to prepare for a November launch aboard the new SpaceX Falcon 9 v1.1 

rocket. Luxembourg-based SES had ordered SES-8 shipped by road transport on Oct. 2 from 

manufacturer Orbital Sciences Corp.’s Dulles, Va., plant, following Falcon 9 v1.1’s inaugural 

flight Sept. 29 from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. SES said it is proceeding on the 

assumption that a November launch is feasible pending a SpaceX accounting of the upper-stage 

anomaly and the proposed corrective actions. Insurance underwriters backing the $200 million 

SES-8 launch policy are also waiting for questions to be answered. Web posted. (2013). [SES-8 

Satellite Arrives at Cape for Falcon 9 Launch [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.spacenews.com/ [2013, October 8].] 

October 9: NASA seeks input plutonium-packing Mars rover 

Nearly seven years before its planned launch from Cape Canaveral, officials on Wednesday 

invited the public to comment on NASA's plans to send a nuclear-powered rover to look for signs 

of past life on Mars. Because NASA is considering plutonium as a power source for the Mars 

2020 mission’s rover, the agency must complete an environmental impact study that seeks public 

input, a process that continues tonight in Viera. “The Mars 2020 mission is the next giant step in 

the strategic exploration of Mars,” said George Tahu, program executive from NASA 

headquarters, in one of the taped presentations shown at the Cocoa Beach Country Club. It was 

the first of two meetings proceeding despite the federal government's partial shutdown. Like 

Curiosity, which launched in 2011 and landed on the Red Planet last year, and 26 missions before 

it since 1961, Mars 2020 plans to use a Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator, or RTG, to 

provide power and heat in Mars’s harsh environment. The “multi-mission” RTG provided by the 

U.S. Department of Energy would use the natural decay of plutonium-238 dioxide to generate 

heat and electricity for rover systems and science instruments. Wednesday’s meeting was able to 

go ahead despite the government shutdown because mission leaders are contractors from NASA’s 

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and two furloughed NASA representatives appeared on videos 

recorded before the shutdown began Oct. 1. The Mars 2020 mission proposes to launch a rover 

very similar to Curiosity. While Curiosity has sought to determine if Mars could have once 

harbored life, the next rover hopes to find evidence of past life. The mission might also collect a 

cache of rocks for future return to Earth. Comments on the scope of the Mars 2020 

environmental study may be submitted by Oct. 30. A draft is expected to be published by next 

spring, again offering opportunities for public comment, and a final version by next fall. Web 

posted. (2013). [NASA seeks input plutonium-packing Mars rover [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, October 9].] 

October 10: USAF Assessment Of Upgraded Falcon 9 Mission Delayed 

The U.S. Air Force’s work to determine whether the Sept. 29 first launch of Space Exploration 

Technologies’ (SpaceX) Falcon 9 v1.1 rocket will count toward the company’s requirements for 

certification to compete for government launches is being delayed by the U.S. government 

shutdown. Mystery still surrounds what happened when Hawthorne, Calif. -based SpaceX 

commanded a restart of the upper stage engine following the drop-off of a small Canadian science 

satellite and three experimental payloads into polar low Earth orbit. Company founder Elon Musk 

has refuted suggestions that a rupture occurred with the upper stage. The Air Force’s delay in 

assessing the mission’s results is due to the government shutdown, which began Oct. 1. Much of 

the technical work underpinning the Air Force’s space procurement programs is handled by The 

Aerospace Corp. The company imposed a work stoppage for 2,000 of its 3,500 employees on 

Oct. 3 in accordance with direction from the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center. During 

the shutdown, The Aerospace Corp. is only authorized to continue mission critical tasks such as 

work supporting upcoming launches and addressing flight operations. Web posted. (2013). 

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[USAF Assessment Of Upgraded Falcon 9 Mission Delayed [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.aviationweek.com/ [2013, October 10].] 

Scott Carpenter, one of original Mercury 7 astronauts, dies 

Godspeed, Scott Carpenter. The second American to orbit the Earth, Carpenter died Thursday 

after a stroke. He was 88. Along with John Glenn, Carpenter was one of the last two surviving 

original Mercury 7 astronauts for the fledgling U.S. space program. Carpenter was launched into 

space from Cape Canaveral on May 24, 1962, and completed three orbits around Earth in his 

space capsule, the Aurora 7, which he named after the celestial event. It was just a coincidence 

Carpenter said that he grew up in Boulder, Colo., on the corner of Aurora Avenue and 7th Street. 

But even before Carpenter ventured into space, he made history. On Feb. 20, 1962, he gave the 

historic send-off to his predecessor in orbit: “Godspeed, John Glenn.” It was a spur of the 

moment phrase, Carpenter later said. Carpenter’s turn came a little more three months later. At a 

time when astronauts achieved fame on par with rock stars, folks across the country sat glued to 

their TV screens, anxiously awaiting the outcome of Carpenter’s ride. He overshot his landing by 

288 miles, giving NASA and the nation an hour-long scare that he might not have made it back 

alive. The fallout from that missed landing was a factor that kept NASA from launching 

Carpenter into space again. So he went from astronaut to “aquanaut” and lived at length on the 

sea floor — the only man to ever formally explore the two frontiers. Web posted. (2013). [Scott 

Carpenter, one of original Mercury 7 astronauts, dies [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, October 10].] 

October 11: SpaceX realign next two Falcon 9 missions 

SpaceX have opted to slip their next two missions, to allow for corrective work on the upper stage 

engine. The company’s Falcon 9 v1.1 is now set to launch with the SES-8 spacecraft no sooner 

than November 12, with the Thaicom-6 satellite set to follow just one month later. Both launches 

will take place from Cape Canaveral’s SLC-40 launch complex. The debut launch of the 

upgraded Falcon 9 successfully deployed Canada’s Cassiope spacecraft into orbit on September 

29. However, after safely deploying its payloads, the upper stage was then set to restart its Merlin 

VacD engine for a second burn related to SpaceX’s ambitions to create a fully reusable launch 

system. An anomaly with the restart held no mission impact, but the company’s CEO and chief 

designer, Elon Musk, did note they expected to implement corrective actions ahead of the next 

launch. Although details as to what SpaceX plan to do to “iron out” the issue are understood to 

be proprietary, the company decided to delay the next launch, per L2 information, from 

November 1 to November 12, to allow engineers to work on the problem. This next launch will 

be the Falcon 9 v1.1′s debut from SpaceX’s SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral, tasked with lofting the 

SES-8 satellite into a geostationary orbit, a mission profile that requires the upper stage to restart 

for what will be two required burns. Web posted. (2013). [SpaceX realign next two Falcon 9 

missions [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/ [2013, October 11].] 

Atlas 5 launcher erected for MAVEN’s launch to Mars

United Launch Alliance on Friday began assembling the Atlas 5 rocket assigned to launch 

NASA's MAVEN mission in November and send the orbiter on a 10-month cruise to Mars to 

help decipher the red planet's thinning atmosphere. The Atlas 5's bronze first stage traveled from 

a storage building at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., to the Vertical Integration Facility at 

Complex 41 early Friday. Cranes hoisted the 106.6-foot-long first stage vertical and deftly placed 

the rocket atop the Atlas 5's mobile launch table. Powered by an RD-180 main engine delivering 

860,000 pounds of thrust, the first stage is known as the Common Core Booster. It houses tanks 

to hold 50,000 gallons of chilled liquid oxygen and 25,000 gallons of RP-1 fuel, a highly refined 

variety of kerosene, for the RD-180 engine's four-minute burn to reach the upper atmosphere. 

Technicians planned to add an interstage adapter before hoisting the Atlas 5's Centaur upper stage 

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143

atop the booster Monday, completing the build-up of the two-stage rocket. The launch of NASA's 

Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution, or MAVEN, mission only requires the most basic 

version of the Atlas 5 rocket. Called the "401" configuration, the Atlas 5 rocket for MAVEN 

features no solid rocket boosters, a Centaur stage with a single RL10 engine, and a four-meter 

payload fairing. Web posted. (2013). [Atlas 5 launcher erected for MAVEN’s launch to Mars

[Online]. Available WWW: http://www.spaceflightnow.com/ [2013, October 11].] 

October 15: Planned Delta IV launch delayed 

The Air Force and United Launch Alliance have delayed next week’s planned launch of a new 

Global Positioning System satellite from Cape Canaveral. The launch on a Delta IV rocket was 

targeted for 5:53 p.m. next Wednesday, but could slip a couple of weeks. The 45th Space Wing 

could not immediately confirm the reason for the slip or a new target launch date. Web posted. 

(2013). [Planned Delta IV launch delayed [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, October 15].] 

October 16: KSC Credit Union celebrates 50th year 

Local civic and community officials this morning joined employees and executives from 

Kennedy Space Center Federal Credit Union – which is celebrating its 50th year - for a 

ceremonial groundbreaking of its new branch being built in Melbourne. The new full-service 

branch will be located at 2200 N. Wickham Rd., just south of Lake Washington Road. The new 

branch will join KSCFCU’s other 12 branches throughout Brevard and Volusia counties. “We 

are proud and excited to be breaking ground on the new Melbourne branch which will serve much 

of the south Brevard area,” KSC Federal Credit Union’s chief executive officer Joe Mirachi said. 

The new branch will have at least eight full-time employees, expanding to 12 full-time employees 

within five years. Local contractor Rhodes Building Co., in charge of construction for the new 

branch, expects the project to create 286 construction jobs for the next six months. The building 

should be completed by early March, 2014.” Web posted. (2013). [KSC Credit Union celebrates 

50th year [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, October 16].] 

October 17: KSC employees returning to work

“Welcome back KSC employees” reads an electronic sign this morning at the entrance to 

Kennedy Space Center on State Road 405. NASA has instructed the center’s roughly 2,000 civil 

servants to report to work at 10 a.m., when the center officially reopens. More than 5,000 

contractors were told to check in with their managers, and some had reported to work by 8 a.m. 

Normalcy is returning to the center, where work largely ground to a halt after the federal 

government’s partial shutdown took effect Oct. 1. However, a center hotline message recorded 

late Wednesday asked employees for patience as some food and IT services would take longer to 

come back online. “As KSC starts up again after the shutdown, please expect some delays,” the 

message said. The Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex is taking steps to resume bus tours 

through the space center's restricted area, but that is not expected to happen today. The complex 

is calling back more than 100 furloughed employees and some housekeeping work will be 

necessary to get tour sites ready, like the Apollo Saturn V Center, that staff have not been able to 

access for more than two weeks. “We are working towards resuming our tour operations and 

bringing our crew members back,” said spokeswoman Andrea Farmer. Web posted. (2013). 

[KSC employees returning to work [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/

[2013, October 17].] 

 Kennedy Space Center: Bus tours return Friday 

The bus-tour component at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex will again get rolling on 

Friday. The buses had been halted due to the partial federal government shutdown and the access 

issues that presented. The visitor complex is privately operated and remained open during the 

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interruption, with the exception of the bus tours that run onto government property for stops such 

as the Apollo/Saturn V Center. The Brevard County attraction's Up-Close Tours, which require 

an additional charge at explore NASA sites such as a launch pad and the Vehicle Assembly 

Building, will also resume Friday. Web posted. (2013). [Kennedy Space Center: Bus tours return 

Friday [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/ [2013, October 17].] 

October 18: Engine review delays Delta IV launch 

Launch of a Delta IV rocket and Global Positioning System satellite from Cape Canaveral is on 

hold while United Launch Alliance studies adjustments related to an upper stage engine fuel leak 

during a launch last year. Liftoff of the Air Force’s GPS IIF-5 satellite had been targeted for next 

Wednesday from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The analysis of the Aerojet Rocketdyne 

RL10B-2 engine will not impact NASA’s planned Nov. 18 launch of the Maven Mars orbiter 

mission on an Atlas V rocket, which uses a similar upper stage engine, ULA said Friday. The 

engine glitch occurred during the October 2012 launch of a Delta IV carrying another GPS 

satellite. The satellite successfully reached its intended orbit despite the upper stage producing 

less thrust than expected. An investigation determined a fuel leak in the engine system was 

responsible. Two more medium Delta IV rockets and one heavy version have launched since 

then, but ULA said continued investigation had produced new information about the engine’s first 

start. The launch delay will allow engineers “to further assess these updated conclusions and 

assess the improvements already implemented and determine whether additional changes are 

required prior to the next Delta IV launch,” ULA said in a statement Friday afternoon. The 

rocket has completed standard preparations at Launch Complex 37 and is ready to receive the 

GPS spacecraft and proceed with a launch attempt pending a go-ahead once the latest engine 

assessment is completed “in the coming weeks,” ULA said. Web posted. (2013). [Engine review 

delays Delta IV launch [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, 

October 18].] 

NASA Mulls Common Upper Stage for Launch Services 

NASA is studying ways to add an upper stage compatible with multiple agency-approved rockets 

to its NASA Launch Services catalog, but the government shutdown that ended Oct. 17 ensured 

the effort got off to a slow start. NASA awarded study contracts to Aerojet Rocketdyne of 

Sacramento, Calif., and Orbital Sciences Corp. of Dulles, Va., Sept. 26, days before a 

congressional stalemate shut down the federal government for 16 days, leaving agency officials 

unable to meet with the companies it is paying to perform the so-called Upper Stage Service 

Study for the NASA Launch Services Program. One thing NASA did manage to do before the 

shutdown took effect was turn the funding taps on. “We got the funding a couple of days before 

the shutdown occurred, so we have started work,” Pieczonka said. Aerojet Rocketdyne’s contract 

is worth $299,578 while Orbital’s is worth $236,913. Orbital operates several rockets but does 

not build propulsion systems for any of them. Aerojet Rocketdyne, on the other hand, has no 

rockets of its own but builds cryogenic upper-stage engines for United Launch Alliance’s Atlas 5 

and Delta 4 rockets, and the core-stage engine for Delta 4. Officials with NASA’s Launch 

Services Program could not be reached Oct. 17 or Oct. 18 for comment about the Upper Stage 

Service Study. Web posted. (2013). [NASA Mulls Common Upper Stage for Launch Services 

Catalog [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.spacenews.com/ [2013, October 18].] 

October 19: KSC's former shuttle pad waits in limbo 

In scale models, the pieces fit together like Lego. Rockets snapped onto custom adapters that 

could be swapped in and out of a mobile launcher. An umbilical tower’s lines and access 

platforms adjusted to fit each system. Roll them out to a Kennedy Space Center launch complex, 

and virtually any commercial rocket could now blast off from a pad that for decades served only 

the shuttle. “We had a plan where essentially you could do any number of vehicles,” said Dan 

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Brandenstein, retired chief operating officer of United Space Alliance, which sketched out the 

concept before the shuttle’s retirement. “They could just ‘plug and play’ the adapters they need 

and use the launch pad as often as they need it, and not have the overhead of owning it full time.” 

USA’s pitch never gained traction, but the idea has won new prominence with Blue Origin’s 

proposal to manage KSC’s launch pad 39A as a shared commercial pad, instead of NASA 

awarding an exclusive lease to SpaceX. The competing proposals have billionaire CEOs (Elon 

Musk founded SpaceX; Amazon.com’s Jeff Bezos is behind Blue Origin), industry rivals and 

members of Congress debating the best and most practical use for the mothballed former Apollo 

and shuttle pad. That has delayed at least for a few months a critical next step in KSC’s 

transformation into a multi-user spaceport for government and commercial launches. But beyond 

the corporate and political jockeying is a basic question: Could competitors share the pad? Would 

that work? Supporters believe that would be the most fair and economical use of a special facility 

in which taxpayers have invested hundreds of millions of dollars. Commercial launchers would 

benefit by splitting the expense of operating a major piece of infrastructure, lowering launch 

costs. Skeptics point out that such an arrangement has never been tried before by the larger, 

liquid-fueled rockets most likely to launch from pad 39A. The pad’s fate is in limbo as NASA 

awaits the outcome later this year of a bid protest Blue Origin filed with the U.S. Government 

Accountability Office. The space agency says it would cost more than $1 million annually to 

maintain the mothballed pad, an expense it can’t afford moving forward. If a satisfactory lease —

which NASA had hoped to award by Oct. 1 — isn’t secured, 39A could sit idle or rust away. 

Backed by Amazon.com’s Bezos, Blue Origin says it is willing to invest heavily in pad 39A so 

that anyone interested, including SpaceX, could start launching from there by 2015. Blue Origin 

won’t have its own orbital rocket until at least 2018, but would manage and maintain the pad as a 

commercial spaceport inside KSC, helping to ensure “the fullest use of this unique national 

asset.” United Launch Alliance, which dominates launches of government satellites and is 

competing with SpaceX to launch NASA astronauts, has backed Blue Origin’s idea. The BoeingLockheed Martin joint venture has not committed to using pad 39A but says access to it could be 

helpful down the road. A new launch pad in Virginia is also promoting itself as a multi-user 

facility, though Orbital Sciences Corp. is the only tenant now. To implement the concept here, 

Blue Origin, which operates a private suborbital launch site in Texas, would need to tackle 

complex technical hurdles that USA’s “plug and play” models only began to address. Each 

rocket has a different height, diameter and weight, and may use different propellants. Access 

points vary for technicians and fuel, power, electrical and communications lines. Each liftoff 

exerts different forces on a pad, from the way engines spew flame to the rumble they produce. 

Assuming those engineering challenges can be met, potentially more daunting operational 

questions quickly arise. To start with, who goes first? If launches were frequent, conflicts could 

arise over which are given priority and for how long. Companies might balk at a competitor 

calling the shots rather than some independent third party, which so far does not exist for 39A. 

Worse, what if a competitor’s rocket blew up on the pad, grounding launches indefinitely? In 

United Space Alliance’s concept, a second mobile launcher could replace a damaged one. 

Brandenstein said the technical challenges were manageable and companies would evaluate the 

risk of an accident against potential cost-savings. “The bottom line is in anything there’s 

challenges and nothing in that line of work is totally risk-free,” he said. But it’s a risk companies 

have not yet been willing to take. If more demand to launch from KSC soon does develop, 

NASA has invited companies to use neighboring pad 39B, which the agency only expects to use 

for its exploration rocket every other year or so. But Blue Origin has been cooler to the idea of 

sharing a pad with the government. The federal government’s recent partial shutdown, which 

halted most work at KSC, likely hasn’t made either pad look more appealing as a commercial 

launch site. Musk says SpaceX would use pad 39A to launch civil government missions like 

International Space Station cargo and crews or NASA science satellites, while concentrating 

military launches at its existing Cape Canaveral pad, should the company win all that business. 

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He continues to pursue a commercial launch complex outside federal jurisdiction, and calls Texas 

the leading candidate. Space Florida hopes to develop one or two pads at the north end of KSC 

that could keep commercial launches from leaving the state. Web posted. (2013). [KSC's former 

shuttle pad waits in limbo as competing proposals are considered [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, October 19].] 

October 21: Poll: NASA Second Only to CDC As Favorite Federal Agency 

The public may not trust the government as a whole, but it likes many federal agencies, especially 

NASA. Those are the findings in a new poll by Pew Research conducted in the midst of the 

shutdown. Among the questions asked in the October 9-13 poll was whether selected federal 

agencies are viewed favorably. NASA came in second at 73 percent. The Centers for Disease 

Control and Prevention (CDC) was the only agency with a higher score -- 75 percent. DOD was 

third at 72 percent. The IRS was at the bottom of the list, with just a 44 percent favorable 

rating. Federal workers are viewed favorably by 62 percent of those polled. Web posted. 

(2013). [New Pew Poll: NASA Second Only to CDC As Favorite Federal Agency [Online]. 

Available WWW: http://www.spacepolicyonline.com/ [2013, October 21].] 

October 22: Boeing Finalizes Agreement for Kennedy Space Center Facility 

Boeing [NYSE: BA] has finalized an agreement with Space Florida to use a processing facility at 

NASA's Kennedy Space Center to build the Crew Space Transportation (CST)-100 spacecraft, an 

important step toward restoring the United States' ability to launch humans into space. "The 

resources and expertise on the Space Coast are essential to our plans and this agreement solidifies 

our partnership with the state of Florida," said John Mulholland, Boeing vice president and 

program manager, Commercial Programs. "Boeing is committed to providing the most 

innovative, safest and cost-effective commercial space transportation system to NASA and other 

commercial customers, and adding the capabilities of the processing facility to our portfolio plays 

a big part in our plans." Renamed the Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility (C3PF), 

the former space shuttle hangar known as Orbiter Processing Facility-3 is being modernized by 

Space Florida to meet requirements for building the CST-100 capsule. Boeing's Commercial 

Crew Program is on track for an expected 2016 test launch time frame, with work continuing in 

Houston, Huntington Beach, Calif., and Florida. In partnership with NASA, Boeing is continuing 

to develop the CST-100 with the successful completion of water-recovery tests. The company 

recently unveiled the full-scale CST-100 mock-up to the world in Houston. Boeing's CST-100 

spacecraft will shuttle astronauts to low-Earth-orbit locations such as the International Space 

Station and expandable space habitats being developed by Bigelow Aerospace. The CST-100 is 

designed to accommodate up to six crew members or a mix of crew and cargo. Web posted. 

(2013). [Boeing Finalizes Agreement for Kennedy Space Center Facility [Online]. Available 

WWW: http://www.spaceref.com/ [2013, October 22].] 

October 26: Crew capsule construction about to take off at KSC 

Pieces of a hatch, windows and other parts The Boeing Co. will use to build a prototype 

commercial space taxi should begin arriving in town within a few weeks. By year’s end, several 

hundred components needed to assemble a structural test article of the company’s CST-100 

spacecraft will be housed in a former shuttle hangar at Kennedy Space Center. “We’re really on 

the upswing,” said John Mulholland, head of Boeing’s development team, in an interview this 

week. Jobs will follow the hardware — if Boeing wins a NASA contract next summer to fly 

astronauts to the International Space Station. The company two years ago announced plans to 

hire up to 550 people to support commercial crew operations based in former shuttle facilities at 

KSC, including Orbiter Processing Facility 3. A $6.6 million state incentive contract signed 

around the same time anticipated the first 140 jobs by the end of 2012, and the rest by 2015. But 

NASA’s Commercial Crew Program budget, which is also helping SpaceX and Sierra Nevada 

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147

Corp. to develop spacecraft, has stretched out the schedule. The space agency now hopes to 

award one or two contracts by next September, leading to commercial crew flights to the ISS 

starting in 2017. At least one crewed orbital test flight is planned before the operational missions. 

Space Florida continues a roughly $20 million renovation of the former orbiter hangar, space 

shuttle main engine shop and office space at KSC that Boeing said earlier this week it plans to 

move into next spring. A joint tenancy agreement signed this summer enables Boeing to start 

installing systems in parallel with the modernization effort that should wrap up next summer. 

Boeing would then be ready to assemble the structural test article, which is used to test how the 

vehicle handles the aerodynamic and other pressures expected during a launch and return from 

space. Space Florida says it is finalizing the terms of a use agreement including matching 

investments by Boeing. The state-funded improvements are considered generic enough to be 

useful to other tenants should Boeing not win the commercial crew competition — a possibility 

the company says it has not entertained. Web posted. (2013). [Crew capsule construction about to 

take off at KSC [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, October 26].] 

October 28: Dream Chaser suffers damage during test 

Damage to a mini-shuttle being developed in partnership with NASA to fly astronauts is being 

assessed after a hard landing during its first, unpiloted free flight test Saturday in California. The 

left landing gear of Sierra Nevada Corp.’s Dream Chaser failed to deploy as the vehicle glided to 

a touchdown at Edwards Air Force Base, after being dropped from a helicopter at 11:10 a.m. 

local time. Louisville, Colo.-based SNC is investigating the anomaly and did not provide details 

about the condition of the Dream Chaser test vehicle. However, early indications are that it can 

be repaired and fly again. The Dream Chaser is one of three private spacecraft — and the only 

winged system — in development under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, with public and 

private funding. Boeing’s CST-100 and SpaceX’s Dragon, both capsules, are the others. After 

the spacecraft designs are completed, NASA plans to award contracts to one or two companies 

next summer to continue building and testing systems, aiming to fly astronauts to the 

International Space Station by 2017. If selected, Sierra Nevada intends to base its Dream Chaser 

program at Kennedy Space Center. The spacecraft would launch from Cape Canaveral on an 

Atlas V rocket and return for landings on Kennedy’s former shuttle runway. Web posted. (2013). 

[Dream Chaser suffers damage during test [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, October 28].] 

It's alive! Orion capsule powered up for first time 

The first space-bound version of NASA’s Orion exploration crew capsule was powered up for the 

first time last week at Kennedy Space Center, about a year before its planned launch on a test 

flight from Cape Canaveral. NASA and spacecraft manufacturer Lockheed Martin Corp. said 

tests of the Orion crew module’s main control computers went well, and marked the start of six 

months of testing as more electronics are added. Orion is being prepared to launch without a 

crew next fall atop a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket. The mission called 

Exploration Flight Test-1, or EFT-1, will test the spacecraft’s heat shield as the vehicle reenters 

the atmosphere at 20,000 mph. NASA is targeting another uncrewed flight in 2017, on the 

maiden launch of the Space Launch System rocket, and a first crewed flight in 2021, possibly to 

an asteroid. Web posted. (2013). [It's alive! Orion capsule powered up for first time [Online]. 

Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, October 28].] 

Management Changes at Commercial Crew Program 

Ed Mango has resigned as head of NASA's Commercial Crew Program. Kathy Leuders, Deputy 

Program Manager, will be taking over for Mango. Web posted. (2013). [Management Changes at 

Commercial Crew Program [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.nasawatch.com/ [2013, 

October 28].] 

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148

Sequester would delay NASA missions 

NASA was able to largely avoid serious consequences from the first phase of sequestration 

budget cuts, but the next round poses a threat to the nation’s space program, according to 

congressional lawmakers and agency officials. Those cuts could delay missions and imperil 

programs that already face tighter budgets and fiscal uncertainty. Fiscal 2014 began Oct. 1, but 

lawmakers remain far apart on how much discretionary spending to approve this year for NASA 

and other federal agencies. Most mandatory spending for entitlement programs is unaffected by 

sequestration. NASA received nearly $16.9 billion in fiscal 2013. The House Appropriations 

Committee has approved $16.6 billion in fiscal 2014 while a bill approved by the Senate 

Appropriations Committee calls for $18 billion. President Barack Obama has requested $17.7 

billion. The space agency will continue to be funded at the fiscal 2013 level (roughly $1.4 billion 

per month) at least through December while House and Senate negotiators work out a longer deal. 

Central to those discussions is whether to continue sequestration. Earlier this year, top NASA 

officials warned that another year of sequestration would be bad news for an agency that budgets 

for the long term and needs consistent funding sources for its multi-year missions. Web posted. 

(2013). [Sequester would delay NASA missions [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, October 28].] 

Space club to honor communicators with award 

The National Space Club Florida Committee will honor Andrea Farmer of the Kennedy Space 

Center Visitor Complex and John Zarella of CNN with the 2013 Harry Kolcum Memorial News 

and Communications Award during its monthly luncheon meeting on Nov. 12. The event will be 

held at the Radisson Resort at the Port Convention Center in Cape Canaveral at 11:30 am. The 

Kolcum award recognizes the contributions of professional Florida-based journalists and 

communicators who inform the public about our nation's space program with an emphasis on 

launch and mission operations in Florida. It is named for the late, veteran aerospace writer who 

worked for Aviation Week & Space Technology and was a founding member of the NSC-FL. 

Farmer, is senior public relations manager of the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, which 

is operated by Delaware North Companies Parks & Resorts on behalf of NASA. Web posted. 

(2013). [Space club to honor communicators with award [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, October 28].] 

October 29: Promoter blames shutdown for delay of Rocketman triathlon 

The next launch of the Rocketman Florida Triathlon has been postponed five months as the 

promoter tries to negotiate a deal to use Kennedy Space Center as part of the course. In May, 

about 1,400 participants biked past launch pads and the Vehicle Assembly Building. But the 

promoter said the recent federal government shutdown forced him to abandon the idea of holding 

the event again next spring. “When the government shutdown for three weeks, I couldn’t get a 

hold of anybody at NASA,” Mitch Varnes said. “I think I could have had it approved in the first 

week of October if that hadn’t happened.” Another factor that stalled negotiations, according to 

Varnes, was the departure of Bill Moore, who stepped down last month as chief operating officer 

of Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. “There were too many delays that were out of my 

hands,” Varnes said. “We just decided we couldn’t make a May race.” KSC Visitor Complex 

officials are still in talks with the race promoter. “We are working through the process,” said 

Andrea Farmer, a spokeswoman for the KSC Visitor Complex. “There is a lot of work that needs 

to be done.” The event had to be moved to State Road 405 near the Astronaut Hall of Fame after 

the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said it would not allow cyclists to again use roads on the 

Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge to reach the space center. An agency report in July 

concluded the event was not appropriate for the refuge, citing a reduction in visitors to both the 

refuge and the Canaveral National Seashore and a disruption to migratory birds. KSC Visitor 

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149

Complex officials will have to approve a new route for the bicycle portion of the race that would 

enter the space center from the east. Web posted. (2013). [Promoter blames shutdown for delay of 

Rocketman triathlon [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, October 

29].] 

Chief quits commercial crew office at KSC 

The Kennedy Space Center manager in charge of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program left that 

position last week, NASA disclosed Tuesday. Responding to media inquiries, NASA said Ed 

Mango had stepped down “to tend to personal matters,” effective Oct. 21. Leadership of the 

important human spaceflight program is now under the control of Mango’s deputy, Kathryn 

Lueders, who is based at Johnson Space Center in Houston and is serving as the acting program 

manager. A NASA spokesman said the agency would locate a permanent replacement at KSC 

but provided no timeframe. The Commercial Crew Program office represents KSC’s only 

leadership role in a major human spaceflight program, an assignment first announced in 2010 as 

the shuttle program was winding down. Previously Johnson, home of the astronaut corps and 

Mission Control, had led NASA’s human spaceflight endeavors. The Commercial Crew Program 

is working with three companies to develop private spacecraft that could resume flights of 

astronauts from U.S. soil — launched from the Space Coast — by 2017, ending reliance on 

Russia for access to the International Space Station. The public-private partnership is generally 

seen as a success, making steady progress with significantly less funding than the system NASA 

is developing for deep space exploration missions, which hopes to fly a crew by 2021. Mango, 

who joined KSC in 1986, oversaw about 200 program employees, about half of them at KSC, 

according to his official NASA biography. He now is assigned to the deputy center director’s 

office at KSC, reporting to Janet Petro. Web posted. (2013). [Chief quits commercial crew office 

at KSC [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, October 29].] 

Maven on target for Nov. 18 launch to Mars 

Early this month, NASA’s Maven mission briefly symbolized the damage a federal government 

shutdown could cause, as its ability to hit a limited launch window to Mars appeared threatened. 

After winning a special exemption two days into the partial shutdown, the mission has made up 

the lost time and is now progressing comfortably toward a planned 1:28 p.m. Nov. 18 launch 

from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. “We’re just three weeks away,” said David Mitchell, 

Maven project manager from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, during a press briefing 

Monday at NASA headquarters. “We’re on the doorstep of going to Mars.” Maven will lift off 

atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket that is slated to be fueled today for a practice 

countdown. The $671 million Maven mission — short for “Mars Atmosphere and Volatile 

Evolution” — will be the first to study Mars’ upper atmosphere and history of climate change. 

Previous missions have shown that liquid water once flowed over the surface of Mars, whose 

atmosphere was thick and warm enough to hold water and potentially to support microbial life. 

The Maven spacecraft will spend one Earth year orbiting Mars to study the atmosphere’s

composition and how it responds to solar activity. From those observations, scientists will be 

able to estimate how thick the atmosphere once was and for how long, and what processes caused 

such a drastic change. In addition, Maven could serve for a decade as a communications relay for 

current and future rovers and landers working on Mars. It was that critical communications 

capability that earned Maven its reprieve from the government shutdown. Launching very late in 

the window, which runs through mid-December, or missing the window and having to wait 

another 26 months, would require Maven using up more fuel that could eat into its relay lifespan. 

The Maven spacecraft was fueled last week and is expected to move to the launch pad and be 

hoisted atop the Atlas V rocket Nov. 6. A Nov. 18 liftoff would put Maven on course to enter 

orbit around Mars on Sept. 22 next year. Web posted. (2013). [Maven on target for Nov. 18 

launch to Mars [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, October 29].] 

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150

NOVEMBER 

November 1: Florida To Invest $500,000 in NanoRacks 

Space Florida, a state-backed economic development agency, will invest up to $500,000 in 

NanoRacks LLC, an in-space commercial services provider that next month will fly its first 

cubesat launcher to the international space station. The $500,000 represents the final piece of a 

$3.1 million round of Series A investment in XO Markets, the holding company for Houstonbased NanoRacks. Previously, XO Markets raised $2.6 million from outside investors including 

Near Earth LLC, a Connecticut-based financial services firm that specializes in financing for 

satellite and space technologies. Space Florida’s board of directors gave chief executive Frank 

DiBello a green light to proceed with negotiations for the $500,000 investment during its Oct. 30 

meeting in Miami. The company was not identified by name during the meeting, but NanoRacks 

Managing Director Jeffrey Manber later confirmed the financing was for his firm. DiBello told 

SpaceNews the direct investment in a company was not Space Florida’s first, nor its largest. 

Previous investments include $1 million to U.K.-based Cella Energy, a hydrogen storage 

developer, for a facility near the Kennedy Space Center. More typically, Space Florida makes 

loans that can be converted into equity at a later date. Florida’s investment in NanoRacks will 

cover some of the costs of two pieces of hardware to be flown to the space station. The first is a 

small-satellite launcher that is slated to fly to the station in December aboard an Orbital Sciences 

Corp. Cygnus cargo ship. The launcher will be operated from Japan’s Kibo module, which 

includes a small airlock, robotic arm and external platform. The Japan Aerospace and Exploration 

Agency (JAXA) already operates a cubesat launch service aboard the station, similar to what 

NanoRacks intends to provide on a commercial basis. Cubesats are standardized, 10-centimeter 

sided cubes weighing about 1.2 kilograms. Designed by California Polytechnic State University 

and introduced in 1999, cubesats are relatively inexpensive miniature spacecraft that produce 

their own power and transit signals. Individual cubesats can be configured to fly together. More 

than 30 cubesats are scheduled to be flown inside NanoRacks’ launcher and deployed from the 

station early next year, Manber said. Web posted. (2013). [Florida To Invest $500,000 in 

NanoRacks [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.spacenews.com/ [2013, November 1].] 

November 2: Brevard residents get sweet Nov. deal on KSC admission 

Brevard County residents are getting a deeply discounted rate to the Kennedy Space Visitor 

Complex this month. The $15 admission price for adults, and $10 cost for children 11 and 

younger, is a 70 percent discount off normal prices. All that’s required for entry at the discounted 

rate is canned food or a nonperishable food item. It’s part of the Visitor Complex’s “30 Days of 

Giving” program. The program started Friday and runs through Nov. 30. The food donations, 

which will be collected when visitors pay for their admission, will go to the Brevard Sharing 

Centers. The discounted admission prices, good for as many as six people in each group, 

includes: the new Space Shuttle Atlantis, Kennedy Space Center bus tour, featuring a Saturn V 

moon rocket; Angry Birds, Space Encounter, the Shuttle Launch Experience, Astronaut 

Encounter, Hubble 3D and Space Station 3D in IMAX and the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame. The 

food donations will support the Central Brevard Sharing Center, North Brevard Charities and 

South Brevard Sharing Centers, which provide emergency assistance to individuals and families 

in need. Through community donations, area sharing centers are able to provide more than 

25,000 pounds of food to 900 individuals and families a month. The “30 Days of Giving” 

program is an annual event in support of the United Way of Brevard. Web posted. (2013). 

[Brevard residents get sweet Nov. deal on KSC admission [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, November 2].] 

November 5: NASA selects UCF to lead research center 

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151

NASA has awarded the University of Central Florida leadership of a $6 million center that will 

study asteroids and planets in support of human and robotic exploration. UCF’s Daniel Britt, a 

physics professor who has designed instruments for Mars rovers, will lead the new Center for 

Lunar and Asteroid Surface Science, or CLASS. CLASS is one of nine centers named Tuesday 

as part of the newly formed Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute, which NASA 

says will focus researchers on questions concerning space science and human space exploration. 

UCF’s winning bid was selected from among 32 proposals submitted to competitive peerreviewed evaluation. In addition to Britt, UCF said the center involves 15 lead researchers from 

the university, the Florida Space Institute, Kennedy Space Center, other NASA centers, and 

universities around the nation, in addition to 23 collaborating researchers from the U.S. and four 

other nations. Web posted. (2013). [NASA selects UCF to lead research center [Online]. 

Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, November 5].] 

November 6: NASA's Orion Sees Flawless Fairing Separation in Second Test 

The three massive panels protecting a test version of NASA's Orion multipurpose crew vehicle 

successfully fell away from the spacecraft Wednesday in a test of a system that will protect Orion 

during its first trip to space next year. The panels, called fairings, encase Orion's service module 

and shield it from the heat, wind and acoustics it will experience during the spacecraft's climb 

into space. The service module, located directly below the crew capsule, will contain the in-space 

propulsion capability for orbital transfer, attitude control and high-altitude ascent aborts when 

Orion begins carrying humans in 2021. It also will generate and store power and provide thermal 

control, water and air for the astronauts. The service module will remain connected to the crew 

module until just before the capsule returns to Earth. During Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1), 

the spacecraft's flight test next year, a test service module will be attached to the capsule. Unlike 

conventional rocket fairings, these panels are designed to support half of the weight of Orion's 

crew module and launch abort system during launch and ascent, which improves performance, 

saves weight and maximizes the size and capability of the spacecraft. Each panel is 14 feet high 

and 13 feet wide. The fairings' work is done soon after launch. They must be jettisoned when 

Orion has reached an altitude of about 560,000 feet. To make that possible, six breakable joints 

and six explosive separation bolts are used to connect the fairing panels to the rocket and each 

other. In a carefully timed sequence, the joints are fired apart, followed shortly by the bolts. Once 

all of the pyrotechnics have detonated, six spring assemblies will push the three panels away, 

leaving the service and crew module exposed to space as they travel onward. This test, conducted 

by Orion's primary contractor, Lockheed Martin, at the company's Sunnyvale, Calif., facility, was 

the second test of the fairing separation system. The first occurred in June, when one of the three 

fairing panels did not completely detach. Engineers determined the issue was caused when the top 

edge of the fairing came into contact with the adapter ring and kept it from rotating away and 

releasing from the spacecraft. Because of the engineers' confidence in successfully eliminating 

the interference, they maintained plans to increase this week's test fidelity by emulating the 

thermal loads experienced by the fairings during ascent. They used strip heaters to heat one of the 

fairings to 200 degrees Fahrenheit and simulate the temperatures the panels will experience. 

Exploration Flight Test-1 is scheduled for September 2014. During that flight, an uncrewed Orion 

will launch to an altitude of 3,600 miles, more than 15 times farther into space than the 

International Space Station. It will orbit Earth twice before re-entering the atmosphere as fast as 

20,000 mph. The data gathered during the flight will influence design decisions, authenticate 

existing computer models, and innovative new approaches to space systems development It also 

will reduce overall mission risks and costs for subsequent Orion missions to an asteroid and 

eventually Mars. [“NASA's Orion Sees Flawless Fairing Separation in Second Test,” NASA 

Release #13-328, November 7, 2013.] 

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November 7: A Rare New Bacterium Thrives In Spacecraft Cleanrooms 

Tersicoccus phoenicis is no ordinary microbe. This rare bacterium can withstand chemical 

cleaning, ultraviolet rays, and a dearth of nutrients to live in some of the most sterile places 

around: the cleanrooms that space agencies like NASA and the European Space Agency keep as 

clean as possible to prevent Earth's bacteria from hitching a ride into space. First collected by 

NASA from the floor of a cleanroom at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida during the launch 

preparations for the Phoenix Mars Lander, Tersicoccus has also been found in an ESA spacecraft 

cleanroom in French Guiana. These cleanrooms are home to fewer microbes than anywhere else 

on Earth. Only a few hundred survive the sterilization treatments. Occasionally, scientists find 

microbes that exist solely in one cleanroom, and nowhere else, yet this is the first bacteria to be 

found in two separate spacecraft cleanrooms, 2,500 miles apart, but nowhere else on Earth. The 

berry-shaped Tersicoccus phoenicis is so unlike the usual bacteria we know and love that 

scientists classified it as an entirely new genus. Just because we haven't found this weird little 

guy elsewhere doesn't mean it doesn't exist in nature. Knowing what bacteria can survive in 

cleanrooms becomes important once the spacecraft assembled there starts looking for microbes 

outside our planet. We wouldn't want to think we'd discovered life on Mars, only to have it be a 

regular old Earth bacterium that hitchhiked a ride on Curiosity. Web posted. (2013). [A Rare New 

Bacterium Thrives In Spacecraft Cleanrooms [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.popsci.com/ [2013, November 7].] 

November 12: NASA, industry likely to team up 

The nation's space program is increasingly reliant on private partners to send astronauts into 

space as its slice of the federal budget diminishes. And an industry report issued Tuesday 

suggests that trend must continue if the U.S. wants to maintain its global leadership in space 

exploration. At the peak of the Apollo program, NASA's share of the federal budget was about 

4.5 percent. Now, it's less than one-half of 1 percent at a time when Russia and China are 

increasingly competitive in the space sector. NASA's share of the budget could shrink even more 

in January if a budget deal a congressional committee is working on does nothing to prevent 

another round of sequestration spending cuts. The agency's role as the world's trailblazer in space 

could disappear within a decade because it lacks the resources for missions beyond low Earth 

orbit “without significant help,” said Robert Bigelow, president of Bigelow Aerospace, which 

produced the report released Tuesday. NASA commissioned Bigelow, which builds expandable 

spacecraft, to examine how private companies could team up with the space agency to achieve 

mutual goals at a time of tight budgets and political squabbling over the space program's future. 

Bigelow cited signs of progress in cargo delivery missions to the International Space Station by 

private aerospace companies after the shuttle retired. NASA also hopes to use companies to ferry 

astronauts from U.S. soil as early as 2017, if sequestration is avoided. But returning to the moon 

or sending astronauts to Mars — NASA's highest-profile goal — will require private help, 

Bigelow said. Despite the uncertain budget situation, the head of NASA's human exploration 

program said “tremendous progress” is being made on the Orion capsule designed to carry 

astronauts to Mars by the 2030s, and on the heavy-lift SLS rocket that will propel them there. 

Web posted. (2013). [NASA, industry likely to team up [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, November 12].] 

November 13: NASA, partners celebrate success of COTS program 

The NASA program that helped ready private vehicles to resupply the International Space Station 

offers a model for future projects as federal budgets tighten, space agency and industry officials 

said Wednesday. NASA and its two commercial resupply partners, SpaceX and Orbital Sciences 

Corp., gathered to celebrate the end of the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program, 

or COTS, under which both companies developed new rockets and spacecraft. SpaceX President 

Gwynne Shotwell called the program “revolutionary” and a success for taxpayers. NASA 

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Administrator Charlie Bolden said the public-private partnership, started under the George W. 

Bush administration, inspired the Obama administration’s decision to expand the model to 

crewed flights. But Bolden warned that launches of those missions from Florida will slip beyond 

2017 if Congress does not fully fund NASA’s request for about $821 million for the Commercial 

Crew Program this year. House and Senate appropriations committees so far have approved 

spending levels between $500 million and $775 million, respectively. NASA spent $788 million 

on the entire COTS program, including $396 million paid to SpaceX and $288 million to Orbital. 

The last payment was made Nov. 5. Each company says it invested more than NASA’s 

contribution toward development of the new vehicles — SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon 

capsule, and Orbital’s Antares rocket and Cygnus spacecraft. Key to the program’s success, all 

agreed, was its use of non-traditional contracts under which NASA provided advice but sacrificed 

control over designs. In addition to requiring the partners to invest their own money, NASA paid 

fixed amounts only when they met technical milestones such as a design review or test flight. 

Web posted. (2013). [NASA, partners celebrate success of COTS program [Online]. Available 

WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, November 13].] 

Private flights to ISS slowed? 

An already-delayed NASA program that will use private companies to transport astronauts to the 

International Space Station could be pushed back another three years due to budgetary and other 

issues, a new report from the agency’s chief watchdog warns. NASA initially projected its 

Commercial Crew Program would begin trips to the space station in 2015, taking over for the 

space shuttles that were retired in 2011. But Congress hasn’t come close to granting the agency’s 

requests for money for the program. NASA received 38 percent of its requests for fiscal years 

2011-2013, bringing its current aggregate budget shortfall to $1.1 billion, according to the report 

issued Wednesday by Inspector General Paul K. Martin. That gap is expected to grow if 

Congress doesn’t agree on a way to avoid further rounds of sequestration budget cuts. Private 

spacecraft won’t be carrying astronauts to the space station until at least 2017 because of the 

funding shortfall. Further gaps threaten to push back the first crewed flights until 2020, the 

inspector general said. Without a way to transport astronauts on its own, NASA relies on Russia 

to carry Americans to the orbiting lab — at more than $70 million a seat. One reason lawmakers 

haven’t fully funded the Commercial Crew Program is their fear the program is draining 

resources from NASA’s more ambitious missions into deep space. Web posted. (2013). [Private 

flights to ISS slowed? [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, 

November 13].] 

SpaceX targeting Nov. 25 Falcon 9 launch from Cape 

SpaceX is now targeting Nov. 25 for its first launch of an upgraded Falcon 9 rocket from Cape 

Canaveral Air Force Station, one week after NASA’s planned launch of the Maven mission to 

Mars on an Atlas V rocket from a neighboring launch pad. “We wanted a little bit more time to 

make sure the launch site was ready for us, and wanted to give the crew a little bit of rest,” 

SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said today. “They’ve been working really, really hard to get 

this flight off.” In addition to begin the first Florida launch of the taller, more powerful Falcon 9, 

after a test flight from California, the mission is also SpaceX’s first launch of a commercial 

communications satellite to geosynchronous transfer orbit about 22,000 miles above the planet. 

NASA, meanwhile, is targeting a 1:28 p.m. EST launch this Monday of the $671 million Maven 

mission atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. The mission features an orbiter that will 

study the Red Planet’s upper atmosphere and how it has changed over time. Shotwell’s update 

about the commercial launch, which had been planned for Nov. 22, came during a press 

conference celebrating the end of a NASA program that helped SpaceX and Orbital Sciences 

Corp. develop new rockets and spacecraft to resupply the International Space Station. The 

Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program, or COTS, became a model NASA 

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expanded to crewed flights. The agency hopes to fly astronauts to the station commercially by 

2017. Web posted. (2013). [SpaceX targeting Nov. 25 Falcon 9 launch from Cape [Online]. 

Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, November 13].] 

ULA Pressed To Find More Savings 

United Launch Alliance (ULA) is looking at options to restructure its workforce in an effort to 

save money as the company nears completion of negotiations for a first-ever multiyear deal for 

the sale of Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle cores to the U.S. Air Force. “We are signing up 

for significant year-over-year savings that we honestly don’t have plans today to [realize],” says 

Dan Collins, chief operating officer for ULA, which builds and operates the Atlas V and Delta IV 

EELV rocket families. “We are sticking our head out and our neck out.” The company is in the 

final throes of negotiating a deal for the sale of 36 rocket cores to the U.S. Air Force with priced 

options for up to 14 more. This is expected to provide launch services for the next five years for 

the Pentagon and intelligence community. Air Force Program Executive Officer for Launch Scott 

Correll is retiring from his post in the middle of next month; he says he hopes to have the deal 

inked by then. In an effort to reduce cost, ULA is studying its expenses. One emerging pattern is 

that highly paid engineers only spend about 35% of their time on actual engineering tasks. The 

remainder was found to be dedicated toward work such as design drafting that can be handled by 

lower-paid employees, Collins said. “We are now overpaying for the time engineers are 

drafting,” Collins said. Those engineers would largely prefer to dedicate more time toward more 

specific engineering tasks, he added. Shifting non-engineering tasks to non-engineer employees 

could save millions of dollars annually, he said. As ULA looks at how to rebalance its workforce, 

the company is also under pressure to re-examine its engineering processes. This had once been 

considered taboo, as ULA’s rigorous processes (and those of the previously separate Boeing and 

Lockheed Martin teams that merged to form the company in 2006) have successfully placed 

payloads into orbit 75 times. Financial pressure brought on by sequestration, however, has opened 

a door to engineering changes that was once closed. “To go mess with your recipe is a risk that 

our customer saw as a step too far,” Collins said. “That is no longer the case.” ULA is reviewing 

whether some of its work could be automated, for example, without compromising mission 

assurance or whether lower-cost employees can offload some of the non-specialized work now 

done by ULA engineers to lesser-paid employees. The Pentagon spends just more than $2 billion 

annually on EELVs and associated services. Web posted. (2013). [ULA Pressed To Find More 

Savings [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.aviationweek.com/ [2013, November 13].] 

November 14: KSC Awards Ground Systems Support Contract 

NASA has selected Millennium Engineering and Integration Company of Satellite Beach, Fla., to 

provide support to the Ground Systems Development and Operations (GSDO) Program at the 

agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The cost-plus-fixed-fee contract includes a base 

period, four option periods and an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (ID/IQ) component. The 

contract will begin in February 2014, following a 30-day phase-in period. With all options and 

ID/IQ included, the total potential contract value is $97.2 million and the potential performance 

period is five years. GSDO provides support to NASA's Orion spacecraft and Space Launch 

System rocket. The contract work includes ground and spaceflight systems planning and design; 

project management and integration; operations, integration and analysis; technical requirements 

development; management and compliance; and cost, risk and schedule integration and analysis. 

Subcontractors to Millennium are Avatar Technologies of Melbourne, Fla.; Booz Allen Hamilton 

of McLean, Va.; All Points Logistics LLC of Merritt Island, Fla.; and Red Canyon Engineering 

and Software of Denver. [“NASA Awards Ground Systems Development and Operations 

Support Contract,” NASA Contract Release #C13-050, November 14, 2013.] 

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November 16: President Kennedy visited the Cape 6 days before he was killed 

President John F. Kennedy visited Cape Canaveral three times within a 21-month period: 

• Feb. 23, 1962: Honored John Glenn after he became the first American to orbit Earth. 

• Sept. 11, 1962: Tour of Launch Operations Center launch complexes. 

• Nov. 16, 1963: Briefed on Gemini, Apollo program progress; watched Polaris missile launch. 

Kennedy was assassinated Nov. 22, 1963, during a visit to Dallas. Kennedy Space Center as we 

know it was just getting off the ground when President John F. Kennedy visited Cape Canaveral 

for the last time, 50 years ago today. Inside the Launch Complex 37 blockhouse, scale models 

arranged on a table previewed what the massive Vehicle Assembly Building, launch pad 39A and 

Saturn V rockets would look like. There, pointing to the models and charts propped on easels, 

NASA leaders briefed the president on progress developing the facilities and rockets that would 

support moon shots by his end-of-the-decade goal. The Apollo program’s enormous cost —

NASA’s total budget had jumped from $500 million in 1960 to $3.7 billion in 1963 —

increasingly was under attack as Kennedy prepared to campaign for re-election. Kennedy himself 

had begun to express some doubts privately, had recently proposed cooperating on moon 

missions with the Soviet Union and was awaiting the results of a high-level review of the nation’s 

military and civil space programs. Like the nation, NASA’s Launch Operations Center, which 

within a week would be renamed in Kennedy’s honor, was consumed with shock and sorrow, 

remembers Jack King, then NASA’s local director of public information. “It’s something I 

remember and it’s very close to my heart, to have him here just a week before he went to Dallas,” 

said King, of Cocoa Beach. On Nov. 16, 1963, the president flew up from his family home in 

Palm Beach and landed on the skid strip of what is now Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. At 

Launch Complex 37, astronauts Gus Grissom and Gordon Cooper led off with an update on the 

Gemini program. George Mueller, the associate administrator for manned spaceflight, followed 

with an Apollo progress report. Kennedy then moved to a nearby pad where a Saturn I rocket 

was being prepared for launch, worrying his Secret Service detail by walking beneath the main 

engines for an up-close look. A famous image shows Kennedy standing with legendary rocket 

scientist Wernher von Braun near a model of the rocket and pointing up to the real thing. 

Kennedy considered it extremely important — and instructed NASA officials to emphasize to the 

press — that the million-pound thrust booster would for the first time exceed the Soviets’ lifting 

capability. Boarding a helicopter, he flew over Merritt Island, where pilings forming the Vehicle 

Assembly Building’s foundation poked out of the ground. The helicopter whisked the president 

to a Navy ship 30 miles out at sea, from which he watched a Polaris missile launched from the 

nuclear submarine Andrew Jackson. Returning to shore, his tour concluded. Kennedy was 

impressed by what he saw. Robert Seamans, a NASA associate administrator who served as a 

guide during the visit, later said the president may have grasped for the first time the dimensions 

of the projects he had approved. Today, NASA and Kennedy Space Center are trying to “rightsize” the spaceport for an entirely different human spaceflight program, one lacking a space race 

to drive national interest and the big budgets that made Apollo possible. KSC now has no use for 

most of the Vehicle Assembly Building and the launch pad from which the moon landings 

embarked. But the image of Kennedy during his final visit here, seeing what was possible at this 

emerging spaceport, still resonates with those charting the agency’s new direction. “That’s where

we still are, is the art of the possible,” said Trey Carlson, who is leading KSC’s development of a 

new master plan. “We are going through the time right now where we could completely change 

the landscape of how things are out here.” NASA is developing a Saturn V-class rocket for 

occasional deep space missions, and hopes a variety of commercial launchers make use of the 

center’s excess capacity. For those who were here as the race to the moon took off, the 

anniversary of Kennedy’s final visit conjures a feeling of sadness at what followed and pride at 

what was ultimately accomplished. Web posted. (2013). [President Kennedy visited Cape 

Canaveral six days before he was killed [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, November 16].] 

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November 17: NASA's MAVEN Mars orbiter on pad for Monday launch 

NASA's next Mars orbiter has reached its Cape Canaveral launch pad, on track for a planned 

blastoff at 1:28 p.m. EST Monday. A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket carrying the 

MAVEN spacecraft -- together standing 188 feet tall -- rolled a short distance from a processing 

tower to the seaside pad at Launch Complex 41, starting around 10 a.m. The launch countdown 

will start early Monday, with the loading of supercold propellants into the booster and Centaur 

upper stage starting around 11:30 a.m. There's a 60 percent chance of favorable weather during 

the two-hour launch window. The $671 million MAVEN mission is the first dedicated to 

studying Mars' upper atmosphere and the processes that have diminished it over time. It will help 

explain how a planet that once supported liquid water on the surface transformed into a cold, dry 

desert. Web posted. (2013). [NASA's MAVEN Mars orbiter on pad for Monday launch 

[Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, November 17].] 

November 18: NASA's MAVEN orbiter on way to Mars after Atlas V launch 

A NASA satellite has safely reached orbit and is on its way to Mars after a 1:28 p.m. blastoff 

today from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The $671 million MAVEN mission lifted off atop 

a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Launch Complex 41, which produced a 

tremendous rumble that set off car alarms at nearby Kennedy Space Center. The rocket 

disappeared through clouds about a minute into flight. The first stage and payload fairing 

separated as planned, and the first of two Centaur upper stage engine burns began on time. The 

MAVEN spacecraft is scheduled to separate from the rocket and begin its 10-month cruise to 

orbit around Mars just under 53 minutes after liftofff. MAVEN is the first mission dedicated to 

studying Mars' upper atmosphere and history of climate change. Web posted. (2013). [NASA's 

MAVEN orbiter on way to Mars after Atlas V launch [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, November 18].] 

November 19: Celebwatch: Clooney in Brevard? 

Was he or wasn’t he? Following last week’s reports that filming for “Tomorrowland” with 

George Clooney took place in downtown Titusville and at Kennedy Space Center Visitor 

Complex, there still have been no confirmed sightings of the Oscar-winning actor. However, 

Clooney’s co-star, actress Britt Robertson, shot some scenes at Space View Park riding a bicycle. 

Robertson is best known for her starring roles in the short-lived CW TV shows “Life 

Unexpected” and “The Secret Circle.” The up-and-coming blonde starlet, who is sporting darker 

locks for the “Tomorrowland” role, also had screen time in “Dan in Real Life” with Steve Carell. 

Tweens may know her from Disney Channel’s “Avalon High,” a twist on King Arthur and the 

Knights of the Round Table tale. British actor Hugh Laurie, who starred as Dr. Gregory House 

on Fox’s hit medical show “House” from 2004-12, also stars in “Tomorrowland,” along with 

actor/country singer Tim McGraw. Scenes for “Tomorrowland” were shot in neighboring New 

Smyrna Beach. There have been no reported sightings for Laurie or McGraw. Space Coast Film 

Commissioner Bonnie King said scenes from the film were shot at Space View Park last week, 

and Brenda de Treville, senior marketing manager for the KSC Visitor Complex, said scenes 

were being shot in a launch pad area at KSC. Web posted. (2013). [Celebwatch: Clooney in 

Brevard? [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, November 19].] 

Terminating Human Spaceflight Among CBO’s Options

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a report yesterday with a list of 103 ways to 

reduce the deficit over the next decade. Among them is terminating the human spaceflight 

program. CBO is part of Congress and primarily supports the House and Senate Budget 

Committees and "scores" legislation to inform Congress of the economic implications of passing 

any bill headed to the floor for debate. It also provides analysis on a broad range of topics, 

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offering options, but not policy recommendations. This report, Options for Reducing the Deficit: 

2014-2023, comes at a time when the House and Senate Budget Committees are meeting in 

conference to try to resolve the impasse over how to reduce the deficit. CBO lists 103 options, 

of which 28 would affect "discretionary spending," the category in which NASA funding 

resides. Of those 28, nine relate to defense programs, five to transportation, and the remainder to 

a wide variety of programs, one of which is "eliminate human space exploration programs." CBO 

calculates the nation would save $73 billion between 2015 and 2023 by terminating "NASA's 

human space exploration programs and space operations programs, except for those necessary to 

meet space communications needs (such as communications with the Hubble Space Telescope)." 

The report offers brief (1-2 page) explanations of the pros and cons of adopting any of the 103 

options. For human space exploration, CBO's analysis identifies the primary "pro" as advances in 

electronics and information technology "have generally reduced the need for humans to fly into 

space" -- basically that robotic spacecraft are sufficient. The primary "cons" are that terminating 

human spaceflight in low Earth orbit would "end the technical progress necessary to prepare for 

human missions to Mars" and "there may be some scientific advantage" to humans performing 

research aboard the International Space Station. The report does not mention the international 

implications of terminating the human space exploration program. Web posted. (2013). 

[Terminating Human Spaceflight Among CBO’s Options for Deficit Reduction [Online]. 

Available WWW: http://www.spacepolicyonline.com/ [2013, November 19].] 

November 20: Bike trail proposed for Merritt Island refuge 

Bicyclists will get more than just exercise on a trail through the Merritt Island National Wildlife 

Refuge. The proposed path would have stops for viewing and learning about wildlife in the area. 

“It is not just to get from Point A to Point B but to stop and enjoy the island and learn 

something,” said Jazlyn Heywood, Florida Department of Transportation project manager. A 

U.S. Fish and Wildlife report ruled that the bicycle portion of the Rocketman Florida Triathlon in 

May was not an appropriate use for the refuge after 1,400 participants passed through on their 

way to and from Kennedy Space Center. “Bicyclists can be extremely disturbing to wildlife if 

they are in open areas, scientific research has shown,” said Layne Hamilton, refuge manager. 

Web posted. (2013). [Bike trail proposed for Merritt Island refuge [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, November 20].] 

Former head of Commercial Crew program faces charge 

After stepping down last month as the head of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, Ed Mango 

has pleaded guilty to a federal felony charge that he improperly intervened to help a colleague to 

whom he had loaned money. Mango loaned undisclosed amounts starting in October 2012 to the 

colleague – identified in court records as “C.T.” – including funds to hire a lawyer after her arrest 

last December, according to a plea agreement signed Nov. 13 and filed this week in the U.S. 

District Court in Orlando. The charge of attempting to influence a matter in which Mango had an 

undisclosed financial interest carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 

fine. Federal prosecutors have recommended adjusting the sentence downward multiple levels, 

and Mango’s lawyer, Kepler Funk, will argue for no prison time. According to court documents, 

when the colleague, who also worked for the Commercial Crew Program, faced discipline by 

NASA, Mango contacted senior Kennedy Space Center officials – including the center director 

and director of human resources – urging them to limit the financial impact of any punishment to 

“C.T.” Mango resigned Oct. 21 as manager of the Commercial Crew Program, one of NASA’s 

highest profile human spaceflight programs, which is working with several companies to develop 

U.S. spacecraft to taxi astronauts to the International Space Station by 2017. He left “to tend to 

personal matters,” according to a NASA statement, and was reassigned to the deputy center 

director’s office at KSC. Mango is expected to appear at the federal court in Orlando in early 

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December. Web posted. (2013). [Former head of NASA's Commercial Crew program faces 

federal charge [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, November 20].] 

Disney movie films at Kennedy Space Center 

Hollywood visited the Kennedy Space Center this week as Walt Disney Pictures’ 

“Tomorrowland” movie filmed at the space center. The movie stars George Clooney and Hugh 

Laurie and is scheduled for release in May 2015. NASA said filmmakers have been shooting 

scenes at Launch Pad 39A. That's the same pad that launched the first men to the moon and many 

space shuttle missions. The space agency currently isn't using the pad. NASA said the filming 

hasn't interrupted operations at the space center. "The film crew was very interested into how it fit 

into their show, and so they're bringing in their equipment, and vehicles, and the crew itself and 

all of their cameras, and a lot of equipment there to be able to film the shots that they would like 

to be able to have," said NASA spokesperson Lisa Malone. Most of the filming has been at night, 

according to NASA, and shooting just wrapped up here at the space center. Web posted. (2013). 

[Disney movie films at Kennedy Space Center [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.mynews13.com/ [2013, November 20].] 

November 21: JFK legacy to states: Space industry jobs 

As the Minotaur 1 rocket launched from Virginia and Maryland's spaceport Tuesday night, it 

provided a subtle reminder of President John F. Kennedy's legacy. It was his commitment to 

getting a man on the moon that launched American space exploration and transformed rural 

Southern economies with high-paying science jobs. Looking back on Kennedy's presidency after 

50 years, states can be thankful for the space program, which brought jobs and investment to 

states including Florida, Texas, Mississippi and California, and swelled the ranks of NASA 

contractors nationwide. Making the moon mission a top priority came with hefty funding for 

NASA -- $5.2 billion at its peak in 1965, which then amounted to 5 percent of the federal budget. 

At the beginning of 1966, at least 420,000 people were working directly or indirectly for NASA. 

More than 18,000 of those employees worked at the John F. Kennedy Space Center in Cape 

Canaveral, Fla. That's roughly the same size of NASA's entire workforce in 2013. In the late 

1960s, NASA employment made up 57% of the jobs in Hancock County, Miss., 22% of the jobs 

in Brevard County, Fla., and 17 percent of the jobs in Huntsville, Ala. The Apollo project, which 

flew 17 lunar missions from Florida's Kennedy Space Center from 1966 to 1972, eventually cost 

$24 billion, according to the National Parks Service. To support the missions to the moon, NASA 

built the Johnson Space Center in Houston, the John F. Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, 

the Mississippi Test Facility in Hancock County, Miss., the Michoud Assembly Facility in New 

Orleans, and the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. Kennedy's signature domestic 

policy challenge to America was as much a tactic of the Cold War as it was an interest in space. 

Getting to the moon, Kennedy told NASA administrator James Webb in an Oval Office meeting 

in 1962, "is important for political reasons, international political reasons. This is, whether we 

like it or not, in a sense a race," Kennedy said. The aerospace industry is still a major force in the 

Southern economy, even as NASA budgets have steadily declined since astronauts Neil 

Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon in 1969. Private companies, including Boeing, 

have pledged to build spacecraft in Florida and Alabama in the coming years. Web posted. 

(2013). [JFK legacy to states: Space industry jobs [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.usatoday.com/ [2013, November 21].] 

November 22: Falcon 9 engine restart glitch blamed on thermal conditions

SpaceX says frozen fluid lines prevented the Falcon 9 rocket's second stage engine from reigniting on a Sept. 29 test flight, but engineers are confident extra insulation will resolve the 

thermal problem on the Falcon 9's next mission set for liftoff Monday on the company's first 

launch to geostationary transfer orbit. The aborted engine restart on the Falcon 9 test flight was 

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caused when fluid lines for the second stage Merlin engine's igniter fluid froze after long 

exposure to cold oxygen, according to Emily Shanklin, a SpaceX spokesperson. SpaceX's Merlin 

engines use pyrophoric igniters with a hypergolic fluid called triethylaluminum-triethylborane, or 

TEA-TEB. The system allows an engine to restart multiple times on the ground or in flight 

without refurbishment. The customer for the Falcon 9's next mission, Luxembourg-based SES, 

appears satisfied with the fix. The global satellite operator approved fueling of the SES 8 

spacecraft and the satellite, already shrouded inside SpaceX's 17-foot-diameter payload fairing, is 

ready for attachment to the Falcon 9 rocket. The SpaceX launch team rehearsed countdown 

procedures Thursday. Launch controllers filled the Falcon 9 rocket with liquid oxygen and 

kerosene propellants and checked the readiness of the launcher and ground systems before 

Monday's countdown. Web posted. (2013). [Falcon 9 engine restart glitch blamed on thermal 

conditions [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.spaceflightnow.com/ [2013, November 22].] 

November 23: 3, 2, 1, contract: NASA will soon select commercial builders 

NASA has opened the final phase of a competition that will determine which U.S.-built 

commercial spaceship will fly astronauts to the International Space Station — and there is a 

chance it could be more than one. The space agency this week invited companies to submit 

proposals for contracts that will lead to the first crewed commercial flights to the ISS, which are 

expected to launch from Florida by the end of 2017. “We are going to have in 2017 a U.S. 

capability to fly our crews to the International Space Station,” said Kennedy Space Center 

Director Bob Cabana. “It will happen.” Based at KSC, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program is 

now helping three companies complete designs of their spacecraft: capsules by Boeing and 

SpaceX, and Sierra Nevada’s Dream Chaser mini-shuttle. That design work will wrap up next 

summer. The next step is to begin building and testing systems to certify that the spacecraft is 

safe for astronauts, culminating in a crewed test flight to the station. Companies must submit 

proposals by Jan. 22 for the contracts known as the Commercial Crew Transportation Capability 

Contract, or CCtCap for short. The competition is open, but only the three existing competitors 

are expected to qualify based on the development work they have completed. Depending on 

funding, NASA plans to award at least one fixed-price contract by September. In addition to the 

certification efforts, the contracts will include at least two — and as many as six — operational 

flights to the station. The first crewed flight will end a gap in human launches to orbit from U.S. 

soil that began with the space shuttle’s retirement in 2011. KSC will host a conference Dec. 4 to 

discuss the new competition’s goals and answer industry questions. Web posted. (2013). [3, 2, 1, 

contract: NASA will soon select commercial builders [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, November 23].] 

November 25: Today's Falcon 9 rocket launch is a Florida first 

A new SpaceX rocket will attempt its “toughest” mission today with a twilight launch of a type of 

satellite rarely seen around here anymore — one not owned by the U.S. government. The 

planned 5:37 p.m. liftoff would be the company’s first of an upgraded Falcon 9 rocket from 

Florida, after a test launch in California, and the first launch of a commercial communications 

satellite from Cape Canaveral in four years. The Falcon 9 has sent several spacecraft to the 

International Space Station about 250 miles up, but never placed a communications satellite in the 

orbit where they operate more than 22,000 miles above the equator. Today’s launch for 

Luxembourg-based SES, one of the world’s largest operators of communications satellites with 

54 already in orbit, could establish SpaceX as a lower-cost player able to recapture commercial 

launches all but lost to overseas competitors. The launch of the SES-8 satellite will be the second 

flight of the upgraded Falcon 9, known as “version 1.1,” which stands 224 feet tall and fires 

Merlin engines that generate 1.3 million pounds of thrust at liftoff, among other changes. A Sept. 

29 test flight in California completed its mission, but an optional restart of the rocket’s upper 

stage engine — a maneuver necessary for this mission — failed. SpaceX determined that an 

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igniter line froze, and believes added insulation will prevent a repeat. Web posted. (2013). 

[Today's Falcon 9 rocket launch is a Florida first [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, November 25].] 

Citing technical problem, SpaceX scrubs Falcon 9 launch 

A much-anticipated launch of a commercial satellite by SpaceX was scrubbed Monday at Cape 

Canaveral, Fla., and pushed back three days after a technical problem halted the countdown less 

than four minutes before ignition. The precise nature of the problem was not immediately clear. 

The next attempt will be at 5:38 p.m. Thursday, SpaceX said. The 224-foot-tall, two-stage Falcon 

9 rocket has flown only once before in the configuration that SpaceX calls “version 1.1.” Elon 

Musk, the SpaceX chief executive and founder, called this the company’s “toughest mission to 

date” on Twitter. Less than two months ago, a Falcon 9 with the same configuration launched 

successfully from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, but the second stage didn’t relight 

the way engineers hoped it would. For this launch, Musk said, the company needed that second 

stage to fire properly a second time to get the satellite into the proper orbit. The mission is 

supposed to send a nearly 7,000-pound SES-8 communications satellite into an elliptical, high 

Earth orbit, called a geostationary transfer orbit. The satellite is owned by Luxembourg-based 

SES and will provide services for South Asia and the western Pacific. SpaceX has designs on the 

lucrative military and national security launch business. That part of the industry has been 

dominated by United Launch Alliance, a 50-50 partnership of Boeing and Lockheed. Web posted. 

(2013). [Citing technical problem, SpaceX scrubs Falcon 9 launch [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ [2013, November 25].] 

November 27: Mica questions if NASA has let go of enough KSC property 

NASA is in the midst of a huge yard sale at Kennedy Space Center, peddling unused hangars, 

assembly buildings, launch complexes and even a landing strip to commercial space companies. 

But at the request of U.S. Rep. John Mica, R-Winter Park, Congress soon may be asking whether 

the space agency is cleaning out the closets thoroughly enough. NASA is trying to save millions 

of dollars it spends maintaining rocket-launch properties it no longer needs because of the space 

shuttle's retirement while hoping to fuel the emerging commercial space industry at Cape 

Canaveral. Mica said he will call for a congressional hearing early next year to explore NASA's 

options for land or buildings that might no longer be needed among the 140,000 acres and scores 

of facilities at KSC. Mica has not suggested that NASA is hoarding assets. But he said he wants 

to have a look as part of his ongoing crusade to spotlight federal property that's wasted or 

underused. At stake is how extensively KSC is transformed into a multiuser spaceport, with the 

Air Force, NASA and commercial space companies working side by side to develop and launch 

or fly whatever they need. Tom Engler, who helps oversees that change as deputy director of 

KSC planning and development, said the agency has received plenty of interest from private 

companies. Some specialized facilities, such as a parachute-repacking plant, were relatively easy 

to pitch to specific businesses. Other prospects, such as parts of the huge, iconic Vehicle 

Assembly Building, have also drawn interest, but he said NASA is being careful about how to 

package such opportunities. Leaving the facilities unused is not without cost. A report issued by 

NASA's inspector general in February estimated that the agency is spending more than $1.3 

million a year to maintain the shuttle landing strip, and as many as seven launch-related facilities 

are underutilized or may not be needed anymore, costing $29 million a year. Mica said he wants 

a hearing on KSC properties before the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and government 

Reform in February, possibly on the Space Coast. NASA already has put a few facilities in 

private hands, while others have been mothballed or demolished to reduce maintenance costs. 

Earlier this year, for example, NASA signed deals to lease its parachute-repacking facility to 

Ballistic Recovery Systems Aerospace for 10 years, at $158,314 a year; a fuel complex to United 

Paradyne Corp. for 15 years at $33,000 a year; and its Hangar N to PaR Systems for 15 years, at 

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$147,376 a year. The pattern was set two years ago, when NASA cut a similar deal with Boeing 

and Space Florida, the state's public-private agency, to take over, rebuild and run an orbiterprocessing facility. The partners have turned it into a manufacturing plant for Boeing's nextgeneration manned space capsule, Orion. Among the biggest deals in the works, NASA and 

Space Florida are expecting to enter negotiations soon for the state to lease the shuttle landing 

strip. Space Florida wants private customers to do everything from test-driving land vehicles to 

launching horizontal-takeoff spacecraft. Kennedy also is in talks with companies for the massive 

Launch Complex 39A, used by rockets from Apollo to the space shuttle; and three mobile launch 

platforms used for rocket assembly. Other items, such as the launch control center and the orbiterprocessing facilities, used to prepare space shuttles for flight, also are available. Web posted. 

(2013). [Mica questions whether NASA has let go of enough unused KSC property [Online]. 

Available WWW: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/ [2013, November 27].] 

November 28: Former "Voice of NASA" Arthur "Skip" Mackey dies 

Arthur J. "Skip" Mackey Jr. died Nov. 19 in Fort Lauderdale after a long illness. He was 80. 

Mackey studied engineering at Dartmouth (because they didn’t offer training as a forest ranger, 

according to his longtime friend, Frank Perkins). He worked for NASA at the Cape for many 

years. Most famously, during the 1960s and 1970s, he served as the “Voice of NASA” for 

countdown broadcasts, Perkins said. Once, he warned off an errant fishing boat using a Citizens 

Band radio. Web posted. (2013). [Former "Voice of NASA" Arthur "Skip" Mackey dies 

[Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, November 28].] 

See Holidays in Space at Kennedy Space Center

If you'd like a holiday celebration that's truly out of this world, head over to the Kennedy Space 

Center from November 29 to January 5 to enjoy "Holidays in Space." This special celebration 

features an amazing toy collection with everything from ray guns and space ships to spacethemed banks and action figures. The exhibit, "Through the Toy Box: An Out of This World 

Collection," spans 100 years of space-themed playthings. Of course, no Christmas celebration 

would be complete without Santa. He's on hand, along with Mrs. Claus. greeting kids from his 

gold throne through December 24. The first 200 good little boys and girls to visit Santa each day 

get a voucher for a free gift. Kodak representatives will be on hand to capture a family portrait 

and sell prints of the special moment. The entire complex is decked out for the holidays, with a 

42 foot tree, themed to the International Space Station, set up out in the Rocket Garden. It has 

strobe lights, warm white bulbs, and 600 miniature flags honoring the 155 ISS partner countries. 

The ISS mural just outside the garden is also decked out in lights. Web posted. (2013). [See 

Holidays in Space at Kennedy Space Center: Special event through January 5 [Online]. 

Available WWW: http://www.examiner.com/ [2013, November 28].] 

November 29: Engine Inspection on Tap after SpaceX Scrubs Launch 

SpaceX will take several days to examine the causes of a slower-than-expected increase in 

pressure in the Falcon 9 rocket’s first stage cryogenic oxygen tank that forced a last-second scrub 

of its planned Nov. 28 launch of the SES-8 telecommunications satellite. The first of two 

countdown aborts occurred at T minus zero second — the moment of ignition of the first-stage 

engines. SpaceX had hoped to nail down the issue within the time it took to restart the countdown 

at T minus 13 minutes, but at T minus one minute 48 seconds decided that this countdown too 

should be aborted. "We called manual abort. Better to be paranoid and wrong. Bringing rocket 

down to borescope engines," SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk tweeted after the second abort 

of the day. The Nov. 28 abort followed a Nov. 25 countdown stop, in the final few minutes 

before liftoff, because of an oxygen-pressurization issue. Flight attempts from the Cape Canaveral 

Air Force Station, Fla., spaceport were suspended for two days, on Nov. 26 and 27, because of 

heavy commercial air traffic congestion on the eve of the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday. The U.S. 

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Federal Aviation Administration had given SpaceX authorization to fly on Nov. 28 and 29, but 

the company wants to give itself more time to get to the bottom of the issue. The mission’s goal 

is to place the SES-8 telecommunications satellite, owned by fleet operator SES of Luxembourg, 

into a supersynchronous transfer orbit from which SES-8 will power its own way to final 

geostationary position. SpaceX had not announced a new target launch date as of early Nov. 29. 

Web posted. (2013). [Engine Inspection on Tap after SpaceX Scrubs Thanksgiving Launch 

[Online]. Available WWW: http://www.spacenews.com/ [2013, November 29].] 

Launch center renamed 50 years ago for JFK 

Fifty years ago, a phone call interrupted Jack King’s Thanksgiving dinner with friends in Cocoa 

Beach. NASA headquarters was on the line to let the Launch Operations Center’s public 

information director know about an important development. The next day, the space agency’s 

local operations would be renamed in honor of President John F. Kennedy, one week after he was 

slain in Dallas. “We woke up the next morning, and we were the Kennedy Space Center,” 

remembers King, now 82. “It was quite a momentous time, without any question.” On Nov. 29, 

1963, seven days after the president was fatally shot, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed 

Executive Order No. 11129, renaming both NASA’s Launch Operations Center and Station No. 1 

of the Atlantic Missile Range as the John F. Kennedy Space Center. This name change at the 

spaceport created confusion by lumping together civilian and military operations, according to the 

NASA special publication, “Moonport: A History of Apollo Launch Facilities and Operations.” 

In response, the Air Force switched the name of Cape Canaveral Missile Test Annex to Cape 

Kennedy Air Force Station in 1964. That’s also the year the U.S. Board of Geographical Names 

changed the name of the geographical landmass from Cape Canaveral to Cape Kennedy —

spawning controversy on the Space Coast. Why? The term Cape Canaveral dates to the Spanish 

explorers, and sailors have used the triangular coastal headland as a navigational landmark for 

centuries. Cape Kennedy ultimately proved unpopular across the Sunshine State. In May 1973, 

Gov. Reubin Askew signed a bill restoring the historic name Cape Canaveral to Florida’s maps, 

road signs and official documents. The bill stated that the Cape was the “oldest continuously 

used place name on the American Atlantic coast.” The U.S. Board of Geographical Names 

unanimously followed suit that October, replacing Kennedy with Canaveral for the monikers of 

the landmass and Air Force base. The fledgling city of Cape Canaveral, which incorporated in 

May 1963, chose to retain its name throughout the ensuing naming controversies. NASA 

personnel, meanwhile, mostly felt their center’s new name was a fitting tribute to the leader who 

had issued the challenge to land men on the moon within a decade. Web posted. (2013). [Launch 

center renamed 50 years ago for JFK [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/

[2013, November 29].] 

November 30: SpaceX targets Monday evening for Falcon 9 launch 

SpaceX is targeting Monday [December 2] for a third attempt to launch the SES-8 

communications satellite from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, the company said today. 

"Rocket engines are healthy, but cleaning turbopump gas generators will take another day," CEO 

Elon Musk tweeted. "Aiming for Mon eve launch." The launch window Monday would open at 

5:41 p.m. EST, and there's a 60 percent chance of favorable weather conditions. Technical issues 

thwarted the first two launch attempts, last Monday and Thursday. On Thanksgiving, the Falcon 

9 booster's nine engines fired briefly, but cut off when computers sensed thrust building more 

slowly than expected. In another Twitter message today, Musk said the abort was caused by 

oxygen in the ground-side igniter system. Launching Sunday was not an option. As with the two 

days before Thanksgiving, the Federal Aviation Administration would not close the air space 

because of the high volume of air traffic around the holiday. SpaceX is attempting to launch its 

upgraded Falcon 9 rocket for the first time from Florida. The 224-foot rocket is carrying its first 

commercial payload, aiming for an orbit more than 22,000 miles over the equator. The launch 

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would be the first of a commercial communications satellite from the Cape in four years. Web 

posted. (2013). [SpaceX targets Monday evening for Falcon 9 launch [Online]. Available 

WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, November 30].] 

The stratospheric rise of NASA's Instagram 

50,000 followers agree: no one does selfies quite like NASA. It's the year of the “selfie” and the 

year that social media-transmitted self portraits were taken to new heights, with the arrival of U.S. 

space agency NASA on Instagram. In less than three months, the space agency has accumulated 

over 350,000 followers and given them an incredible insight into the day-to-day lives of 

astronauts and NASA’s work unraveling the mysteries of the universe. NASA launched the 

account on September 6 -- promising to take its fans on "an out-of-this-world journey through 

images of Earth and beyond" -- and soon spawned a slew of viral trends. The account's first post 

highlighted the launch of the agency's LADEE research robot. But the spacecraft's lift-off threw 

up some unexpected results in the form of an ill-fated photobomber, soon to be known as 

#nasafrog. Three months in, the account is going strong, picking up hundred more followers each 

day. And that's as good an excuse as any to have another gawk at 15 of the most awe-inspiring, 

incredible and moving NASA Instagram photos so far. Web posted. (2013). [The stratospheric 

rise of NASA's Instagram [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.cnn.com/ [2013, November 

30].] 

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DECEMBER 

December 3: Falcon 9 roars off launch pad at Cape Canaveral 

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket successfully delivered its first commercial communications satellite 

into orbit after a 5:41 p.m. blastoff today from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. SpaceX 

confirmed about 40 minutes after liftoff that the SES-8 satellite had separated from the rocket's 

upper stage in its targeted orbit. The 224-foot rocket set sail from Launch Complex 40 on its 

third attempt, lifting off at the opening of the launch window after an apparently trouble-free 

countdown. The launch was the first from Florida, and second overall, of SpaceX's upgraded 

Falcon 9 rocket, and the first from the Cape in four years of a commercial satellite. Web posted. 

(2013). [Falcon 9 roars off launch pad at Cape Canaveral [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, December 3].] 

December 2: Mango pleads guilty to felony 

The former head of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program will learn within a few months if he 

faces prison time for breaking federal law by intervening in a personnel matter in which he had a 

financial interest. In federal court in downtown Orlando on Monday, Ed Mango pleaded guilty to 

a felony charge that carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison, though his lawyers will 

seek no prison term when he is sentenced in February or March. According to a plea agreement 

signed last month, Mango loaned an undisclosed amount of money to a NASA colleague who 

worked on the Commercial Crew Program when she became the subject of a criminal 

investigation last fall and was arrested at Kennedy Space Center last December. The Commercial 

Crew Program is based at KSC. He then pressured senior KSC officials, including Center 

Director Bob Cabana and the head of human resources, to limit discipline against that colleague 

without disclosing his financial interest in her continued employment and ability to repay the 

loan. A KSC spokesman said any agency discipline against Mango would await completion of 

the legal proceedings. Web posted. (2013). [Mango pleads guilty to felony [Online]. Available 

WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, December 3].] 

December 4: NASA Plans Major Restructuring of NASA Advisory Council 

NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden has decided to significantly restructure the NASA Advisory 

Council (NAC), which provides independent external advice to the agency. Three of the NAC's 

eight committees will be eliminated, including the Education and Public Outreach Committee, 

and the activities of a fourth -- the Commercial Space Committee -- will be merged with another. 

NASA just renewed the NAC charter in October, making only minor changes to the number of 

times a year it meets (three instead of four) and reducing its level of funding. That renewal kept 

the same committees NAC has had since Bolden became Administrator: Aeronautics; Audit, 

Finance, and Analysis; Commercial Space; Education and Public Outreach; Human Exploration 

and Operations; Information Technology Infrastructure; Science; and Technology and Innovation. 

NAC’s next meeting is at Kennedy Space Center, FL on December 11-12. A detailed agenda has 

not yet been posted, but an overall agenda posted in the Federal Register shows that it will discuss 

topics in each of the areas of the original eight committees except for commercial space. Web 

posted. (2013). [NASA Plans Major Restructuring of NASA Advisory Council [Online]. 

Available WWW: http://www.spacepolicyonline.com/ [2013, December 4].] 

Heat Shield for NASA's Orion Spacecraft Arrives at KSC 

NASA's Orion spacecraft is just about ready to turn up the heat. The spacecraft's heat shield 

arrived at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida Wednesday night aboard the agency's 

Super Guppy aircraft. The heat shield, the largest of its kind ever built, is to be unloaded 

Thursday and is scheduled for installation on the Orion crew module in March, in preparation for 

Orion's first flight test in September 2014. The heat shield began its journey in January 2012 in 

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Colorado, at Orion prime contractor Lockheed Martin's Waterton Facility near Denver. That was 

the manufacturing site for a titanium skeleton and carbon fiber skin that give the heat shield its 

shape and provide structural support during landing. They were shipped in March to Textron 

Defense Systems near Boston, where they were used in construction of the heat shield itself. 

Textron installed a fiberglass-phenolic honeycomb structure on the skin, filled each of the 

honeycomb's 320,000 cells with the ablative material Avcoat, then X-rayed and sanded each cell 

to match Orion's design specifications. The Avcoat-treated shell will shield Orion from the 

extreme heat it will experience as it returns to Earth. The ablative material will wear away as it 

heats up during Orion's re-entry into the atmosphere, preventing heat from being transferred to 

the rest of the capsule. The heat shield delivered to Kennedy will be used during Exploration 

Flight Test-1, a two-orbit flight that will take an uncrewed Orion capsule to an altitude of 3,600 

miles. The returning capsule is expected to encounter temperatures of almost 4,000 degrees 

Fahrenheit as it travels through Earth's atmosphere at up to 20,000 mph, faster than any spacecraft 

in the last 40 years. Data gathered during the flight will influence decisions about design 

improvements on the heat shield and other Orion systems, authenticate existing computer models, 

and innovative new approaches to space systems and development. It also will reduce overall 

mission risks and costs for future Orion missions, which include exploring an asteroid and Mars. 

[“Heat Shield for NASA's Orion Spacecraft Arrives at Kennedy Space Center,” NASA Release 

#13-361, December 4, 2013.] 

December 5: House Delays Vote on NASA Termination Liability Bill 

The House Science, Space and Technology Committee delayed its planned markup today of a bill 

that would affect how NASA handles termination liability for three of its major human 

spaceflight programs -- Orion, the Space Launch System (SLS), and the International Space 

Station (ISS). The committee did approve three other bills, but committee chairman Rep. Lamar 

Smith (R-TX) said that committee Republicans and Democrats needed more time to work on this 

one. The markup was rescheduled for Tuesday. The bill, H.R. 3625, was introduced by Rep. Mo 

Brooks (R-AL) earlier this week. The language originally appeared as sec. 702 of the 

committee's version of the 2013 NASA Authorization Act (H.R. 2687), which was approved by 

the committee on a party line vote in July, but has not been reported from the committee 

yet. The chances of that bill passing anytime soon is rather slim, and committee Republicans 

apparently are anxious to deal with this one issue sooner rather than later. In a statement 

explaining the intent of the bill, Brooks said that a total of $507 million is being held by the 

Orion, SLS and ISS contractors against the possibility that the government might terminate the 

contracts. Government contracts include a provision that the contract can be cancelled at the 

convenience of the government and under Federal Acquisition Regulations the government is 

liable to pay certain costs if it does. In some cases funds are set aside to pay for those 

costs. Brooks wants that money spent on executing the programs rather than being held in 

reserve. The bill would also prohibit NASA from unilaterally cancelling the programs without 

congressional consent. Web posted. (2013). [House Committee Delays Vote on NASA 

Termination Liability Bill [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.spacepolicyonline.com/

[2013, December 5].] 

23 Axe Apollo Fans with the Right Stuff Win Free Space Trips 

Twenty-three people are now the proud recipients of free trips to space and back again. For the 

past week, more than 100 participants from over 60 countries around the world have taken part in 

mental aptitude tests, combat training in a fighter jet and zero-gravity flights to distinguish 

themselves as the most worthy of one for one of the coveted tickets to space with Space 

Expedition Corporation under a project by the makers of Axe Apollo body spray. SXC manages 

trips aboard the reusable XCOR Aerospace Lynx spacecraft, a commercial space plane that is 

expected to begin flying customers in 2014 or 2015. After a yearlong competition, and one week 

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of astronaut training, the lucky winners of the 23 tickets were announced here at the AXE Apollo 

Space Academy Thursday (Dec. 5) in the rocket garden at the Kennedy Space Center. A ticket on 

the Lynx usually costs $95,000. Web posted. (2013). [23 Axe Apollo Fans with the Right Stuff 

Win Free Space Trips [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.space.com/ [2013, December 8].] 

Atlas blasts off despite cold temps 

Coping with unusually cold weather that threatened to delay departure, an Atlas 5 rocket got off 

the ground late Thursday night at Vandenberg Air Force Base. The United Launch Alliance 

booster, standing 19 stories tall, blasted off from Space Launch Complex-3 on South Base at 

11:14 p.m. The temperature at the time of the launch was close to freezing. The rocket carried a 

spy satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office plus a dozen CubeSats, or small satellites. 

Web posted. (2013). [Atlas blasts off despite cold temps [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.santamariatimes.com/ [2013, December 5].] 

December 6: NASA Astronauts To Fly as ‘Participants’ 

NASA astronauts will fly as “space flight participants” aboard commercial spaceships being 

developed to taxi crews to and from the international space station, the Federal Aviation 

Administration (FAA) Office of Commercial Space Transportation has determined. “NASA 

astronauts do not meet the definition of ‘crew’ as provided in the statute ... because the definition 

of crew requires them to be employees of the licensee or subcontractor licensee. NASA 

astronauts are neither, so they will be flying under the category of ‘space flight participant,’ under 

the current regulations,” Pam Underwood, FAA deputy division manager at the Kennedy Space 

Center, said during a Dec. 4 industry briefing at the Florida spaceport. The ruling does not limit 

the scope of the work government-employed astronauts can perform aboard commercial space 

taxis, including piloting the vehicle, aborting launch if necessary, overseeing emergency response 

and monitoring and operating environmental controls and life support systems, the FAA said. 

NASA sought the clarification because FAA regulations prohibit “space flight participants” to 

pilot launch or re-entry vehicles for public safety reasons. Relevant regulations, the FAA added 

in a footnote, “simply require that space flight participants: (1) be informed of risk; (2) execute a 

waiver of claims against the U.S. Government; (3) receive training on how to respond to 

emergency situations; and (4) not carry any weapons onboard.” NASA has been working 

formally with the FAA since June 2012 to sort out responsibilities and oversight as the U.S. 

government shifts toward purchasing orbital spaceflight services commercially rather than 

operating its own space transportation system. Web posted. (2013). [NASA Astronauts To Fly as 

‘Participants’ on Commercial Space Taxis, FAA Rules [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.spacenews.com/ [2013, December 6].] 

U.S. House Approves One-year Launch Indemnity Extension 

The same week Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) launched its first commercial 

satellite, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a compromise bill that, at the behest of House 

Democrats who say they favor a broader revision of existing commercial space legislation, would 

extend the current indemnity regime for U.S. commercial launch companies for only a year. The 

proposed one-year extension of a 25-year-old law that protects U.S. companies from third-party 

damage claims arising from catastrophic launch failures cleared the House Dec. 2 and now heads 

to the Senate for consideration. The Senate returns from recess Dec. 9 and has until Dec. 31 —

when the indemnity shield expires — to reach some kind of accord with the House. “While I 

would have preferred a longer extension, this bill buys us time to work on a long-term extension 

that we will take up next year,” House Science Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) said 

on the House floor Dec. 2. House Republicans favor a five-year launch indemnity extension and 

included just such a measure in their NASA authorization bill, which, like its counterpart bill in 

the Senate, was approved in committee but never made it to the floor. With precious few 

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legislative days left on the calendar, authorizers have given up on passing a NASA bill this 

year. The launch indemnity regime was established by the U.S. Commercial Space Launch Act 

Amendments of 1988 and has been renewed six times since, most recently at the end of 2012. 

The liability shield covers damage claims above and beyond those covered by the insurance the 

Federal Aviation Administration requires companies to purchase for each launch they carry out. 

No company has ever claimed indemnity in the 25 years the law has been on the books. Web 

posted. (2013). [U.S. House Approves One-year Launch Indemnity Extension [Online]. 

Available WWW: http://www.spacenews.com/ [2013, December 6].] 

December 7: Rocket Crafters may no longer be crafting rockets 

One of the lesser known, and more quixotic, companies in the NewSpace field in recent years has 

been Rocket Crafters. The Utah-based company entered the field a few years ago with plans to 

develop hybrid rocket motors and vehicles that would use them, including suborbital spaceplanes. 

The company, though, disclosed few details about its development efforts and plans beyond its 

rather basic website. That did not stop the company from signing agreements with spaceports and 

local governments eager to attract a part of the commercial spaceflight industry. In July 2012, 

Rocket Crafters and local officials announced a deal to establish the company’s corporate 

headquarters in Titusville, Florida, on the state’s “Space Coast” near Cape Canaveral. The 

company promised to create up to 1,300 fulltime jobs there and invest $72 million into facilities 

at the Space Coast Regional Airport, just across the Indian River from the Kennedy Space Center 

(KSC). Local officials proposed getting an FAA spaceport license for the airport to allow Rocket 

Crafters to perform suborbital flights there. In return, the company received “a State of Florida 

Qualified Target Industry Tax Refund (QTI) and workforce incentives,” according to the Space 

Florida announcement, and even a welcome from KSC officials, who were not involved in the 

deal but wanted to talk with Rocket Crafters about “how Kennedy’s unique assets and technical 

capabilities may be made available to enable their success.” Rocket Crafters vice president Eric 

Witcher said the company currently has only two employees in Florida, and “has abandoned 

plans to create a rocket that can transport cargo and humans into space.” Web posted. (2013). 

[Rocket Crafters may no longer be crafting rockets [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.newspacejournal.com/ [2013, December 7].] 

December 9: International Space Station set to turn 15 

Everyone wanted to know: Who would be the first person to enter the new International Space 

Station? Bob Cabana, commander of the shuttle mission responsible for linking the station’s first 

pieces together, wouldn’t tell the press or even his own crew. The answer came on Dec. 10, 1998 

— 15 years ago Tuesday — when hatches to the U.S. Unity node and Russian-built Zarya module 

swung open for the first time in space. Side by side, Cabana and cosmonaut crewmate Sergei 

Krikalev floated through. “It was an International Space Station, and I felt it very important that 

we enter as an international crew,” Cabana, a four-time shuttle flyer who has led Kennedy Space 

Center since 2008, told Florida Today in a recent interview. NASA and its 15 international 

partners are celebrating the station’s birth 15 years ago this month, and its growth into a research 

complex weighing over a million pounds and stretching longer than an American football field. 

Crews have lived there continuously for more than 13 years, with six-person expeditions now the 

norm. Orbiting 260 miles above Earth, the station is now the centerpiece of the U.S. human 

spaceflight program, though it is just starting to tap its potential as a national laboratory and faces 

questions about its long-term future. It all started on Nov. 20, 1998, when Cabana’s five 

crewmates gathered at his Houston home for dinner and NASA TV coverage of the launch of the 

Functional Cargo Block, known as Zarya (“star”), atop a Proton rocket from the Baikonur 

Cosmodrome. Endeavour blasted off Dec. 4 with the Node 1, or Unity, in its payload bay. The 

shuttle crew attached Unity to the orbiter’s docking port with a robotic arm, then got ready to 

grab Zarya. Cabana remembers seeing the 41-foot long, 50,000-pound Russian module get 

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bigger and bigger as Endeavour approached. At one point, a firing of the shuttle’s attitude 

thrusters resulted in Zarya suddenly sliding dangerously into the payload bay. “I fired the 

thrusters to get away from it and it didn’t move, it kept coming,” Cabana said. “For a while there, 

it was a little bit tense.” Once everything was lined up properly, the modules were connected 

slowly but smoothly on Dec. 6, and the International Space Station was born. “Those two 

modules came together, and have been joined ever since, Russians and Americans in space,” 

Cabana said. Two spacewalks to connect cables and install antennas set the stage for the shuttle 

crew of five Americans and Krikalev to enter for the first time. Assembly continued through the 

final shuttle missions in 2011, adding girders, solar arrays and modules from the U.S., Russia, 

Europe and Japan, and robotic systems from Canada, at an estimated $100 billion. The station is 

scheduled to operate through 2020, but NASA hopes it can be extended as long as 2028, which 

studies have shown is technically feasible. Web posted. (2013). [International Space Station set to 

turn 15 [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, December 9].] 

NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite Arrives at KSC

NASA's newest Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) is in a temporary home at the agency's 

Kennedy Space Center in Florida waiting to be attached to a United Launch Alliance Atlas V 

rocket that will take it into Earth orbit Thursday, Jan. 23. The TDRS-L spacecraft arrived at 

Kennedy Friday, Dec. 6. After being unloaded from a U.S. Air Force C-17 aircraft, it was 

unpacked and inspected to ensure it sustained no damage on its flight from the Boeing Space and 

Intelligence Systems satellite factory in El Segundo, Calif. TDRS-L is the second of three 

replenishment satellites for the TDRS constellation, which currently consists of eight spacecraft. 

TDRS-K was launched in January 2013. The last of the three, TDRS-M, is on track to be ready 

for launch as early as 2015. Of the 11 TDRS satellites launched, eight still are operational. Four 

of those already are beyond their design life. Two have been retired. One was lost in a space 

shuttle accident. NASA's Space Communications and Navigation Program, a part of the Human 

Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington, is 

responsible for the TDRS network. Launch management of the Atlas V launch service for TDRSL is the responsibility of the mission directorate's Launch Services Program at Kennedy. 

[“NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite Arrives at Kennedy Space Center,” NASA Release 

#13-367, December 9, 2013.] 

December 10: ISS pioneers recall early days of space outpost 

Before launching separately, the International Space Station’s first two pieces were never fitted 

together on the ground. The first attempt to connect the Russian and American modules came 

250 miles above Earth, 15 years ago this month. It worked, as did most of the assembly effort 

that spanned more than a decade and produced an orbiting research complex longer than an 

American football field. “I would say the International Space Station is one of our greatest 

engineering achievements in the last several decades,” said Nancy Currie, the NASA astronaut 

who grappled Russia’s Zarya module with shuttle Endeavour’s robotic arm for connection to the 

U.S. Unity node on Dec. 6, 1998. On Tuesday at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, 

Currie joined crewmates Jerry Ross and Bob Cabana, the director of Kennedy Space Center, in 

reminiscing about their mission, which gave birth to the station. The international partnership 

now considered one of the station’s greatest legacies was just starting to be forged. On Dec. 10, 

15 years ago Tuesday, Cabana invited cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev to float through the station 

hatches side by side in a show of international partnership, as the six-person shuttle crew entered 

the station for the first time. Cabana, Currie and Ross, who flew 15 shuttle flights between them, 

believe the station will serve in the coming years as an important platform for testing 

technologies needed for long duration spaceflight to distant destinations. Web posted. (2013). 

[ISS pioneers recall early days of space outpost [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, December 10].] 

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NASA upbeat about Morpheus' up-and-down test 

Sixteen months after making national news with a test flight that crashed and burned at Kennedy 

Space Center, NASA’s Morpheus lander completed a successful do-over Tuesday. Flying for the 

first time without a tether, the new-and-improved “Bravo” version of the prototype lander 

climbed 50 feet up, hovered and then touched down about 20 feet from where it lifted off near the 

former shuttle runway, within six inches of its target. There were no pyrotechnics other than a 

few easily extinguished grass fires. “It feels fantastic,” said Jon Olansen, the project manager 

from Johnson Space Center, said of the nearly one-minute flight. “We knew this vehicle could fly 

very well.” In August 2012, the original Morpheus lost navigation data a split-second after liftoff 

on its first free flight, causing it to keel over and explode on impact near the same site. The 

$750,000 Bravo replacement vehicle looks essentially the same as the first one, with four spindly 

legs and four large silver propellant tanks, but features about 70 upgrades to improve components 

and redundancy in some systems. The improvements didn’t break the bank, however, because 

the project is aiming for rapid technology development at relatively low cost, and thus accepts 

more risk. Project Morpheus has spent about $10 million over more than three years, not 

including team salaries, Olansen said. Its goal is to test a system powered by liquid oxygen and 

liquid methane, which are known as “green” propellants, and equipped with autonomous landing 

sensors. A series of test flights, continuing next week, will attempt to gradually increase the 

lander’s altitude and lateral range, to a peak of 820 feet up and about 1,600 feet over. The landing 

sensors are expected to enter the picture in February or March, challenging Morpheus to find a 

safe landing site in a boulder- and crater-strewn hazard field resembling a lunar landscape. The 

sensors should allow Morpheus to change landing targets in mid-flight if they see an obstacle at 

the first location. KSC built the nearly 1,000-square-foot hazard field, and designed a new 

mobile launch pad with a flame trench that was used on Tuesday and limited noise vibrations on 

the lander as it lifted off. “Today was a great, nominal test,” said Greg Gaddis, the project's site 

manager at KSC. Web posted. (2013). [NASA upbeat about Morpheus' up-and-down test 

[Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, December 10].] 

December 11: Bill spurs NASA contractors to spend $500 million in reserve 

Aerospace companies working on some of the space program's most ambitious missions have 

squirreled away $507 million in federal money in case Washington decides to reverse course and 

cancel their programs. Closing a program in the works for years isn't cheap. It's also unusual. 

Lawmakers fear that putting federal money aside for unlikely possible emergencies threatens 

missions that need money now to remain on schedule and within budget. On Wednesday, the 

House Science, Space and Technology Committee approved a bill making clear that Washington 

will cover the cost of terminating four specific big-ticket items if the decision to cancel is one of 

"convenience," such as shifting policy or budgetary reasons, and not contractor performance. 

Those four programs are the International Space Station, the Space Launch System that will 

propel astronauts into deep space, the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle that will take astronauts 

to Mars, and the James Webb Space Telescope. The bill "helps accelerate progress on these vital 

space programs by allowing these programs to spend dollars that have already been appropriated 

on actual work rather than withholding these funds on the unlikely chance of program 

termination," GOP Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama said before the committee voted to send the 

measure to the full House. In 2010, President Barack Obama canceled NASA's Constellation 

program that would have returned astronauts to the moon after independent experts described the 

program as financially unsustainable. Scrapping Constellation angered some lawmakers who felt 

blindsided by the decision, and it's been expensive. NASA estimates that closing the program 

could cost close to $1 billion, according to a 2011 report by the Government Accountability 

Office. Issues also arose between NASA and companies about who was liable for those costs, 

leading to "disruptions in work activities" by some contractors, GAO found. Democratic Rep. 

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Donna Edwards of Maryland, who helped craft the bipartisan bill the committee approved 

Wednesday, said that if the government nixes any of the four specified missions, the measure 

would shield other NASA programs from being raided to cover those expenses. NASA is 

declining to take a position on the bill. But spokesman David Weaver said the agency remains 

"fully committed" to funding both components of its crewed mission to Mars. Web posted. 

(2013). [Bill would spur NASA contractors to spend $500 million held in reserve [Online]. 

Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, December 12].] 

UCF awarded NASA grant to study asteroids, meteors 

NASA officials toured the University of Central Florida Tuesday as part of a new grant to explore 

outer space. UCF Physics professor Dr. Daniel Britt is excited to team up with scientists from the 

Kennedy Space Center. "This will allow us to do a lot of really neat stuff.” Britt and NASA 

established the Center for Lunar and Asteroid Surface Science with the $6 million grant. During 

the tour, NASA scientists looked at a drop tower that simulates what the conditions are like on an 

asteroid. The students and scientists examined a piece of a meteorite and talked about different 

experiments that will give them a better understanding of space. Britt said there’s a lot to 

accomplish by working together. "The whole idea is that you cut costs and you cut risks by 

exploring smarter.” Britt said by exploring smarter they hope to have a greater understanding of 

space. Over 1,000 people were injured in Russia this past February after a meteor blast shook the 

region. Britt said having a better understanding of how often and why this happens could keep the 

public safer from similar situations. "The issue is how often does that occur and what can you do 

about it and this is something we’ll be looking into.” "It’s been a long time in coming," said 

Kennedy Space Center representative Jack Fox. "We are very excited to have more of a long-term 

relationship with UCF.” UCF leaders said results from the upcoming research will benefit 

NASA’s future exploration missions. The research will begin at the start of the year when they

are expected to get the money. Web posted. (2013). [UCF awarded NASA grant to study 

asteroids, meteors [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.mynews13.com/ [2013, December 

11].] 

December 12: 94% of Americans Feel That NASA Should Be Maintained 

According to the latest YouGov Omnibus research, 94% of adult Americans surveyed feel it is 

important that NASA and the US space program are maintained. Men are more likely to have 

strength in the opinion with one in three (32%) stating it is extremely important for the United 

States to maintain NASA compared with one in four (23%) women. Reasons why the public 

believe it is important to maintain the space program vary strongly with age. Younger 

respondents (aged 18 to 34) focus on the idea of human excellence generally or the environmental 

issues they may encounter in their lifetimes. Respondents who are older (55 and over) -- and lived 

through the original space race and cold war -- are more likely to highlight defense issues such as 

strategy or global dominance. So how much should we be funding NASA? Their 2014 budget 

has been set at $16 billion, the lowest since 2007. Overall, four in ten (39%) Americans think this 

is about right with almost the same proportion (38%) saying this is too low. Just under one in four 

(23%) feel this is too high. Gender plays an interesting part again here, with almost half (47%) of 

men stating this is too low compared with 29% of women. One alternative to the public funding 

of space missions is to encourage the private sector to stump up some of the cash. This view is 

popular among Americans, with half (50%) of adults stating that space exploration should be 

funded equally from public funds and private cash through companies such as Virgin Galactic 

and SpaceX. A further one in seven (14%) feel space exploration should be mainly funded 

privately and 18% think private companies should fully fund it. Reaching Mars in an unmanned 

mission is one thing, but how long until we can land people on the planet? Two-thirds (66%) of 

the public believe this will happen in the next 50 years -- more than two in five (44%) believe we 

are a maximum of 20 years off. Around one in five (22%) believe this will never happen, 

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however, with women being more skeptical than men (29% stating this compared with 15% of 

men). Finally -- given the opportunity to take a space flight free of costs, would you go? Just one 

in four (25%) of the public said they definitely would, a further 19% stating they probably would. 

The gender divide is as strong here as with other thoughts on space with one in three (33%) of 

men saying definitely compared with just 17% of women. Total sample size was 1170 adults. 

Fieldwork was undertaken between 28th November - 1st December 2013. The survey was carried 

out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all US adults (aged 18+). 

Web posted. (2013). [NASA upbeat about Morpheus' up-and-down test [Online]. Available 

WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, December 12].] 

Launch pad bid protest resolved 

The resolution of a bid protest on Thursday clears the way for NASA to negotiate the lease of a 

former Apollo and shuttle launch pad at Kennedy Space Center. SpaceX is the likely beneficiary 

of the U.S. Government Accountability Office’s denial of a protest by Blue Origin, the only other 

company to propose leasing the mothballed launch complex 39A, which NASA no longer needs. 

NASA continues to evaluate both companies’ proposals but “is looking forward in the near 

future” to selecting a partner, the agency said in a statement. “Permitting use of this valuable 

national asset by commercial entities will ensure its continued viability and will allow for its 

continued use in support of U.S. space activities,” the statement said. Blue Origin and SpaceX 

did not comment Thursday. According to the GAO’s 12-page decision, Blue Origin filed protests 

last summer — first with NASA, then with GAO — because it believed NASA was not properly 

evaluating the proposals to lease the pad. Seattle-based Blue Origin, which was founded by 

Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos, argued that NASA’s lease criteria clearly favored an approach that 

would support multiple users of the launch pad over an exclusive deal. Blue Origin had proposed 

such a “multi-user” approach, while SpaceX wanted exclusive use of the pad. After NASA chief 

Charlie Bolden made comments that the agency preferred neighboring pad 39B as a “multi-user” 

pad, and wanted 39A put to use as soon as possible so it would not deteriorate, Blue Origin said 

NASA was ignoring its own lease criteria. NASA responded that it favored neither a multi-user 

nor an exclusive approach, and GAO agreed. Web posted. (2013). [Launch pad bid protest 

resolved [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, December 12].] 

December 13: NASA Negotiating with SpaceX after GAO Rejects Blue Origin 

Capping off a summer of controversy that pitted two of the most prominent “new space” 

companies against one another, NASA announced Dec. 13 it is negotiating with Space 

Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) on a lease of Launch Complex 39A, a mothballed 

space shuttle launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA announced its decision 

in a press release a day after the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) denied a protest 

from Kent, Wash.-based Blue Origin, which had challenged the fairness of NASA’s method for 

choosing a lessee and delayed the start of negotiations between the agency and its preferred 

tenant by about three months. Neither SpaceX spokeswoman Emily Shanklin nor Blue Origin 

spokeswoman Brooke Crawford had any immediate comment about NASA’s decision on Dec. 

13. Blue Origin could again appeal to the GAO, now that the competition to lease the pad has 

wrapped up. GAO, in a 12-page decision released Dec. 12, asserted its jurisdiction over the lease 

competition by disagreeing with NASA’s assertion that the plan to lease Pad 39A did not amount 

to a procurement. SpaceX had been at loggerheads with Blue Origin about leasing Pad 39A for 

months. SpaceX wanted exclusive use of the pad, while Blue Origin — whose case was 

supported by its business partner United Launch Alliance — wanted to make the pad a multiuser 

facility. GAO ultimately agreed with NASA and denied the protest. The agency’s solicitation, 

GAO decided, allowed for either single- or multiuser concepts. Pad 39A costs the agency about 

$1.2 million a year to maintain in a mothballed state. NASA said this summer it wanted to get a 

lease signed before Oct. 1. If no lessee could be found, NASA told GAO inspectors, the agency 

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would have been willing to let the pad — from which the Apollo 11 Moon mission blasted off —

“rust to the ground.” Web posted. (2013). [NASA Negotiating Pad Lease with SpaceX after GAO 

Rejects Blue Origin Protest [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.spacenews.com/ [2013, 

December 13].] 

Survey: Federal workers still willing to put in extra effort 

In the annual Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey administered by the Office of Personnel 

Management, seventy-four percent of NASA workers reported that they were satisfied, compared 

to 72 percent at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Nearly all respondents in this year's survey 

indicated that they were willing to put in extra effort at their jobs and that they feel that their work 

is important, but year-to-year comparisons show a significant decline in satisfaction, according to 

an analysis by the OPM. Web posted. (2013). [Survey: Federal workers still willing to put in 

extra effort as job satisfaction drops [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.baltimoresun.com/

[2013, December 13].] 

SAIC to lay off 60 workers at Kennedy Space Center by Jan. 31 

Science Applications International Corp. is planning to lay off 60 workers by Jan. 31 because it 

lost a NASA contract. The McLean, Va.-based technical, engineering and information 

technology company told the state it would lay off the workers in a notice to the Florida 

Department of Economic Opportunity, The workers aren’t unionized. Lauren A. Darson, a 

spokeswoman for the company, said SAIC (NYSE: SAIC) provides technical support to NASA’s 

Kennedy Space Center, and submitted a proposal to NASA for a follow-on contract. NASA chose 

another contractor for the work, and the contract ends Jan. 31. “SAIC has provided approximately 

56 employees working on the NASA contract with 60 days of notice of a possible reduction in 

force effective Feb. 1, 2014, which may result in permanent layoffs,” Darson wrote in an email. 

“SAIC is committed to helping transition employees and minimize disruption to the community. 

SAIC will assist employees in their search in finding employment elsewhere in the company as 

well as with other companies, including the new contractor to NASA.” Web posted. (2013). 

[SAIC to lay off 60 workers at Kennedy Space Center by Jan. 31 [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.bizjournals.com/ [2013, December 13].] 

December 16: Space Week aims to intrigue future scientists 

Until Monday, Bryce Valverde had only seen a space shuttle on TV. Inside the Kennedy Space 

Center Visitor Complex, the Suntree Elementary sixth-grader was struck by the size of the retired 

orbiter Atlantis, and eager to learn more. After all, he might be at the controls of a future crew 

module someday. More than 5,000 Brevard Public Schools students got that chance during the 

past two weeks. Sixth-graders spent a day at the Visitor Complex as part of Brevard Space 

Week, a program that aims to get kids excited about science, technology, engineering and math 

study and careers by making connections with space programs launched from their backyards. 

Members of the National Space Club Florida Committee pledged a minimum of $25,000 to help 

fund the event, a total the Brevard Schools Foundation matched. This year was the first students 

could see a real shuttle orbiter at the Visitor Complex and participate in related experiences at the 

$100 million Atlantis exhibit, which opened last summer. Web posted. (2013). [Space Week aims 

to intrigue future scientists [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, 

December 16].] 

December 17: NASA's Morpheus lander takes second flight at KSC 

A prototype NASA lander today completed a second free flight at Kennedy Space Center. The 

lander called Morpheus climbed 82 feet and hovered, then doubled its altitude and flew forward 

about 150 feet before descending into a hazard field set up at the north end of KSC’s former 

shuttle runway. NASA confirmed the 81-second test flight, which lifted off at 1:37 p.m., met its 

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173

goals and landed within a few inches of its target. The free flight was the second in a week of the 

new prototype, which was built after the first vehicle crashed and exploded during a flight attempt 

at KSC last year. The liquid methane-fueled Morpheus lander, named for the Greek god of 

dreams, is testing “green” propulsion technologies and autonomous hazard detection and landing 

systems that are expected to be incorporated into test flights next year. Web posted. (2013). 

[NASA's Morpheus lander takes second flight at KSC [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, December 17].] 

December 19: NASA Awards Launch Services Contract for InSight Mission 

NASA has selected United Launch Services LLC of Centennial, Colo., to launch the Interior 

Exploration Using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) mission to 

Mars. InSight will launch in March 2016 aboard an Atlas V 401 rocket from Space Launch 

Complex 3E at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The total cost for NASA to launch 

InSight is approximately $160 million, including spacecraft processing, payload integration, 

tracking, data and telemetry and other launch support requirements. InSight is scheduled to land 

on Mars in September 2016 to begin a two-year science mission. InSight is a lander that will 

address one of the most fundamental issues of planetary and solar system science - understanding 

the processes that shaped the rocky planets of the inner solar system more than 4 billion years 

ago. The mission will investigate the interior structure and processes of Mars to understand better 

the evolution of rocky planets such as Earth. InSight will perform this science using two 

instrument packages. NASA's Launch Services Program at the agency's Kennedy Space Center 

in Florida is responsible for management and oversight of the Atlas V launch services. NASA's 

Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., provides management for the InSight mission. 

United Launch Services, LLC operates as a subsidiary of United Launch Alliance. [“NASA 

Awards Launch Services Contract for InSight Mission,” NASA Contract Release #C13-053, 

December 19, 2013.] 

SpaceX launch contracts gave it edge to win KSC pad 39A 

SpaceX’s significant roster of launches under contract gave it the edge over Blue Origin to win 

use of a historic Kennedy Space Center launch pad, according to a NASA selection statement 

released today. NASA last week chose to negotiate with SpaceX to lease launch pad 39A, the 

launching point for the Apollo moon landings and dozens of shuttle missions. Both companies 

proposed 20-year leases and said launches could begin in 2015, and NASA evaluators found both 

the billionaire-backed companies had the financial resources to operate the pad. A key difference 

was that SpaceX wanted exclusive control of the pad while Blue Origin planned to make it 

available to multiple rockets. However, SpaceX has more than 40 launches under contract while 

Blue Origin, which is still developing an orbital rocket for flight by 2018, has none. “Blue 

Origin’s multi-use approach involved uncertainty regarding the extent other users would use the 

pad,” wrote Richard Keegan Jr., director of NASA’s Office of Program and Institutional 

Integration, in the 13-page selection statement. “In contrast, SpaceX’s approach for exclusive use 

and its proposed manifest was specific, firm, and included customers under contract. I determined 

the certainty and number of launches associated with SpaceX’s proposal outweighed the potential 

benefits associated with Blue Origin’s multi-use approach.” Keegen continued: “I concluded that 

SpaceX’s proposal better met the Government objective of ‘fullest commercial use of space’ with 

its early, consistent, and more certain launch manifest.” The selection statement blacked out the 

amounts each company proposed to invest in the launch pad, which is one of two at KSC, and the 

numbers of flights planned each year. According to the statement, Blue Origin’s multi-use vision 

depended on SpaceX using the pad, but there was no certainty SpaceX would under that operating 

model. Blue Origin’s model also assumed companies would pay to design rocket interfaces 

enabling a variety of vehicles to share common pad infrastructure, and potentially to build other 

support facilities, adding uncertainty to the business case. The release of NASA’s decision came 

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after the U.S. Government Accountability Office rejected a bid protest in which Blue Origin 

argued NASA was not evaluating the proposals properly. Web posted. (2013). [SpaceX launch 

contracts gave it edge to win KSC launch pad 39A [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, December 19].] 

December 26: Shiloh launch complex is set for federal review 

Space Florida's plan to build a state-run launch complex on the environmentally sensitive fringes 

of Kennedy Space Center is ready for its federal and public vetting over possible environmental 

impacts. At stake are Florida's plans for a new launch complex marketed to private rocket 

companies weighed against environmentalists' hopes that the Merritt Island National Wildlife 

Refuge will be forever protected. To compete for the growing private satellite launching business 

that has migrated overseas in recent decades, Space Florida, a public-private agency, wants to 

carve out about 200 acres known as the Shiloh site and build two state-of-the-art rocket launch 

complexes on 60 of those acres. The property is owned by NASA but managed as part of the 

wildlife refuge. Space Florida expects a new launch center could be largely free of much of the 

federal red tape and the competing national priorities that can bog down private launches from the 

nearby KSC or from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station launch complexes. It's also close enough 

to the old KSC space shuttle landing strip, which Space Florida also is seeking to acquire, that the 

agency thinks companies could use them together. "It's the only place, we believe, that Florida 

could offer the capability for a purely commercial launch site," said Dale Ketcham, Space 

Florida's director of strategic alliances. But the spot is within one of the most revered natural 

places in Florida, a 140,000-acre sanctuary of marshes, beaches, lagoons and abundant wildlife. 

"You're basically talking about the first major deviation from close to 50 years of preservation as 

policy for the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge," said Charles Lee of Audubon Florida, 

one of several environmental groups that asked the U.S. Department of the Interior to intervene 

against the proposal. In Thursday's Federal Register, the Federal Aviation Administration –

which regulates all non-government space-launch complexes – published its notice to begin the 

public and federal agency comment period on the proposal. The FAA did not specify a timetable 

for completion of the environmental impact study, but a draft of the report is expected by the end 

of 2014. Besides laying out all the potential environmental effects for analysis, debate and 

conclusions, the comment period also will allow people to suggest alternatives, such as a different 

site for the complex. Web posted. (2013). [Shiloh launch complex is set for federal review 

[Online]. Available WWW: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/ [2013, December 26].] 

 Space shuttle Endeavour to be featured in flowers at Rose Parade 

NASA’s retired space shuttle Endeavour is again to take to the streets of Los Angeles, this time as 

the leading feature on a flower covered float as part of the 125th Tournament of Roses Parade in 

Pasadena, California on New Year’s Day (Jan. 1). The California Science Center in October 

celebrated the one year anniversary of the real space shuttle Endeavour being delivered to its 

Samuel Oschin Pavillion for display. Web posted. (2013). [Space shuttle Endeavour to be 

featured in flowers on Rose Parade float [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.collectspace.com/ [2013, December 26].] 

December 29: Launches, test flights make for busy 2014 along Space Coast 

More than a dozen launches are planned from Cape Canaveral, including flight tests, as NASA 

and commercial companies work to return people to space from American soil. On Friday, Jan. 3, 

SpaceX plans to launch a television satellite. The launch window for their Falcon 9 rocket is 

scheduled to open at 5:50 p.m. from pad 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. It will be 

another big year for SpaceX. The commercial company is not only ramping up more commercial 

satellite launches, they’ll also continue unmanned resupply missions to the International Space 

Station. This summer, SpaceX will conduct a critical test by launching a Dragon capsule with a 

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dummy inside. It’s all to prepare their spacecraft for future manned missions. Space Florida 

leaders are counting on 2014 to help boost work for Brevard County. “Things are building,” said 

Dale Ketcham from Space Florida. “It didn’t go away like many people think. It’s still here, and 

it’s growing, so we’re encouraged, certainly about 2014.” Perhaps the biggest launch of the year 

though will happen in September. NASA’s Orion spacecraft will launch on board a Delta IV 

rocket for its first ever test flight. Orion is NASA’s choice to send humans to an asteroid and 

Mars. United Launch Alliance also has several government and military missions planned for the 

new year. The first is a NASA communications and data relay satellite planned for launch Jan. 

23. Web posted. (2013). [Launches, test flights make for busy 2014 along Space Coast [Online]. 

Available WWW: http://www.mynews13.com/ [2013, December 29].] 

December 30: Shiloh conversation starts soon 

Two public meetings in February will give local residents the chance to weigh in on a 

controversial state proposal to develop launch pads at northern end of Kennedy Space Center in 

the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. The meetings on Feb. 11 and 12 mark the start of a 

Federal Aviation Administration-led study of potential environmental impacts from Space 

Florida's proposed Shiloh launch complex. The complex is named for the citrus community 

located near the Brevard-Volusia border before NASA seized the land for the Apollo moon 

program. Web posted. (2013). [Shiloh conversation starts soon [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.floridatoday.com/ [2013, December 30].] 

December 30: Cape Canaveral’s Complex 17’s Historic Career Draws to a Close

Yet another historic element of Cape Canaveral Air Force Station’s launch infrastructure is 

coming to an end. The demolition of the Space Launch Complex 17’s (SLC-17) blockhouse at 

Cape Canaveral Air Force Station is almost complete, with the rest of SLC-17 soon to follow. 

The last launch to take place at Space Launch Complex 17 was the GRAIL mission launched in 

2011. Currently, the mobile service towers are still standing, but this too is only a temporary 

situation. Soon charges will bring the MSTs’ storied career to a pyrotechnic close. Construction 

on the facility had started on Nov. 29, 1956 with the first launch taking placed on Jan. 25, 1957. 

SLC-17 was refurbished during the 1960s so as to be able to support a broader range of 

Expendable Launch Vehicles (ELVs) which were derived from the Thor system. After these 

upgrades were made, Thor became the Delta family of rockets. SLC-17 had the longest service 

record of any pad located at Cape Canaveral. SLC-17 was used initially to launch the PGM-17 

Thor rocket. Thor evolved into the Delta II, which saw its last flight from the Cape with the 

launch of NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission which launched 

to the Moon on Sept. 10, 2011. When all was said and done, some 164 launches took place at 

SLC-17. Some of NASA’s most famous missions have seen their start at SLC-17, like NASA’s 

Explorer and Pioneer probes, the Orbiting Solar Observatories, Solar Maximum, TIROS, 

the Mars Pathfinder mission, the twin Mars Exploration Rovers: MER-A – Spirit and MER-B -

Opportunity, MESSENGER, Deep Impact, the Mars Phoenix Lander and Dawn. There were 

also less-than-successful incidents which marred SLC-17′s track record. On January 17, 1997, a 

Delta II carrying the GPS-IIR-1 Global Positioning Satellite for the U.S. Air Force exploded 

some 13 seconds after liftoff due to a crack in one of the launch vehicle’s solid rocket boosters. 

GPS IIR-1 was to be the final launch that utilized the blockhouse at SLC-17. At least for the next 

four years, Florida’s Space Coast will only see launches from Space Launch Complex’s 37, 40 

and 41. SLC-37 is the launch site of the Delta IV rocket, SLC-40 is the Florida launch site for 

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and SLC-41 is where the Atlas V family of rockets is conducted from. In 2017 

NASA plans to launch the first of the space agency’s new heavy-lift booster the Space Launch 

System From Launch Complex-39B. In the following year, NASA’s Orion spacecraft will be sent 

aloft from the Cape’s Space Launch Complex 46 atop the first stage of a Peacekeeper missile 

where it will conduct an ascent abort test. Web posted. (2013). [Cape Canaveral’s Space Launch 

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176

Complex 17’s Historic Career Draws to a Close [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.spaceflightinsider.com/ [2013, December 30].] 

December 31: United Launch Alliance marked banner year in 2013 

Launching a new spacecraft to Mars, one to survey Earth's land resources and a host of national 

security satellites marked a record-breaking year for United Launch Alliance in 2013. The 

company, an alliance between Boeing and Lockheed Martin, conducted 11 launches in 2013, 

including 8 Atlas and three Delta flights. It was the most number of Evolved Expendable Launch 

Vehicle flights in a year since the program began in 2002. And 10 of the 11 launches, including 

every Atlas, flew on the first countdown attempt, a remarkable on-time string. Web posted. 

(2013). [United Launch Alliance marked banner year in 2013 [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/ [2013, December 31].] 

 NASA criticizes Challenger song sample 

NASA officials say the 1986 accident that led to the doom of the space shuttle Challenger 

accident and its crew "should never be trivialized," in response to a new song from Beyonce that 

features an audio sample recorded just after tragedy struck. The space agency issued a statement 

late Tuesday after the pop star began to receive criticism from Challenger families and others for 

using the short sample. It includes the words "major malfunction" as an allusion to a failed 

relationship. In a statement to ABC News on Tuesday, Beyonce said that her "heart goes out to 

families of those lost in the Challenger disaster" and that the song was recorded with the 

"sincerest intention" to help those who've lost loved ones. The snippet comes at the beginning of 

her song "XO" from her new self-titled album. Full statement from NASA: "The Challenger 

accident is an important part of our history; a tragic reminder that space exploration is risky and 

should never be trivialized. NASA works every day to honor the legacy of our fallen astronauts as 

we carry out our mission to reach for new heights and explore the universe." Web posted. (2013). 

[Beyonce, we have a problem: NASA criticizes Challenger song sample [Online]. Available 

WWW: http://www.nbcnews.com/ [2013, December 31].] 

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APPENDIX A 

2013 MAJOR NASA LAUNCHES

Mission TDRS-K [Tracking and Data Relay Satellite]

Launch Vehicle Atlas 5

Launch Site SLC-41, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station

Launch Date January 30, 2013

Mission: LDCM [Landsat Data Continuity Mission]

Launch Vehicle: Atlas 5

Launch Site: SLC-3E, Vandenberg Air Force Base

Launch Date: February 11, 2013

Mission: IRIS [Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph]

Launch Vehicle: Pagasus XL

Launch Site: L-1011 aircraft, Vandenberg Air Force Base

Launch Date: June 27, 2013

Mission: MAVEN [Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution]

Launch Vehicle: Atlas 5

Launch Site: SLC-41, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station

Launch Date: November 18, 2013

Web posted. (2014). [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/tracking/launchlog.html

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APPENDIX B 

2013 LAUNCHES

CAPE CANAVERAL AIR FORCE STATION

Mission: CRS2

Launch Vehicle: Falcon 9 [SpaceX]

Launch Site: SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station

Launch Date: March 1, 2013

Mission: SBIRS GEO 2

Launch Vehicle: Atlas 5

Launch Site: SLC-41, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station

Launch Date: March 19, 2013

Mission: GPS 2F-4

Launch Vehicle: Atlas 5

Launch Site: SLC-41, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station

Launch Date: May 15, 2013

Mission: WGS 5

Launch Vehicle: Delta 4

Launch Site: SLC-37B, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station

Launch Date: May 24, 2103

Mission: MUOS 2

Launch Vehicle: Atlas 5

Launch Site: SLC-41, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station

Launch Date: July 19, 2013

Mission: WGS 6

Launch Vehicle: Delta 4

Launch Site: SLC-37B, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station

Launch Date: August 7, 2013

Mission: AEHF 3

Launch Vehicle: Atlas 5

Launch Site: SLC-41, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station

Launch Date: September 18, 2013

Mission: SES 8

Launch Vehicle: Falcon 9 [SpaceX]

Launch Site: SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station

Launch Date: December 3, 2013

Web posted. (2014). [Online]. Available WWW: 

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/tracking/launchlog.html

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