Tuesday, February 28, 2017
First Integrated Piece of Space Launch System Hardware Headed for Cape Canaveral AFS - NASA's new deep space rocket
The Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage,or ICPS,which is the upper stage of the massive Space Launch System deep space rocket,is currently being transported by barge and truck to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station,Florida from Alabama.Its destination is the United Launch Alliance Delta IV Operation Center at the Cape.The ICPS is the first piece of integrated SLS hardware that will arrive at the Cape for final processing and testing before shipment to Ground Systems Development Operations at Kennedy Space Center prior to launch on Exploration Mission-1 in the 2018-19 time frame.At the request of the White House,NASA began a formal feasibility study on 17 February 2017 of making EM-1 the first crewed mission of the Orion spacecraft,moving that goal up from 2021.In a more informal study of the question the agency conducted on its own,NASA concluded it would be technically possible to meld the first crewed mission with the EM-1 shakedown mission of the integrated Orion/SLS.The formal review,with input from the Astronaut Office and a lot of consideration of crew safety,will be ready in about a month.*
Designed and built by Boeing in Huntsville,Alabama and United Launch Alliance,a Boeing/Lockheed Martin partnership,in Decatur,Alabama,the ICPS will propel Orion and 13 secondary payloads of CubeSats (small satellites) to a point beyond the Moon,into deep space.If EM-1 is crewed,NASA says there would likely be two crew members on an 8-9 day mission to cislunar space,in a high orbit around the Moon farther out than humans have gone before,where the goal of reaching the Mars system will be advanced through a series of Orion missions.*
Eventually,the ICPS will be replaced by the more powerful Exploration Upper Stage,or EUS,which will be capable of taking astronauts far beyond the Moon,to the Mars system or elsewhere.
Boeing (BA),Lockheed Martin (LMT)
Designed and built by Boeing in Huntsville,Alabama and United Launch Alliance,a Boeing/Lockheed Martin partnership,in Decatur,Alabama,the ICPS will propel Orion and 13 secondary payloads of CubeSats (small satellites) to a point beyond the Moon,into deep space.If EM-1 is crewed,NASA says there would likely be two crew members on an 8-9 day mission to cislunar space,in a high orbit around the Moon farther out than humans have gone before,where the goal of reaching the Mars system will be advanced through a series of Orion missions.*
Eventually,the ICPS will be replaced by the more powerful Exploration Upper Stage,or EUS,which will be capable of taking astronauts far beyond the Moon,to the Mars system or elsewhere.
Boeing (BA),Lockheed Martin (LMT)
Tuesday, February 21, 2017
The Afghan War:Mattis Scouts the Way Ahead for NATO
US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis,as he prefers being called,spoke with reporters yesterday in Abu Dhabi,UAE:
We anticipated that we might not be able to get into Afghanistan due to weather.We got the weather report yesterday.I was fortunate yesterday,before we left Munich,to speak with Afghan President Ghani at length.We were both there,and we took advantage of that opportunity,knowing I might not be able to see him today as we initially planned.I had a very in-depth discussion about the way ahead in Afghanistan.
And then I spoke by picture-video teleconference-with our NATO commander in the field,General Nicholson,and that went on for several hours,and this is all part of my getting my feet on the deck in terms of getting current on the situation that the coalition forces in Afghanistan face,both politically and strategically,and identifying the way ahead.*
On the situation in Afghanistan right now,again,my point in talking to President Ghani and talking to our field commander,the NATO field commander,is to gain their political and military appreciation of the situation.We're putting our thoughts together now.*
President Trump has been rightly reticent on it,because he's waiting for my assessment and the assessment from the intelligence community.And he's open to my advice on it;but first of all,I've got to formulate where I stand,and so this is the normal collection of the information,and to assess what other countries in the region are doing to help or hinder our efforts there.So we're still sorting that out and here shortly I'll have my thoughts collected.It shouldn't take too long;but I've got a fair number of issues in order to give a good recommendation for the way ahead.*
So I think it was a lot more damaging to the Taliban,and the Afghan National Defence and Security Forces paid a very heavy price to keep the Taliban on their back foot,but they paid it;they've held;and the Taliban is in a worse position today,even though I do not equate that to success on our side.*
I would not in any way contest it has been a hard fight all the way through.I think that's a very accurate point.I would question who came out on the shorter end of the stick.Right now I'd rather be on NATO's-be in NATO's position right now than I would want to be in the Taliban's,the retired US Marine Corps general and new Defense Secretary Jim "Mad Dog" Mattis told the journalists in Abu Dhabi yesterday.
We anticipated that we might not be able to get into Afghanistan due to weather.We got the weather report yesterday.I was fortunate yesterday,before we left Munich,to speak with Afghan President Ghani at length.We were both there,and we took advantage of that opportunity,knowing I might not be able to see him today as we initially planned.I had a very in-depth discussion about the way ahead in Afghanistan.
And then I spoke by picture-video teleconference-with our NATO commander in the field,General Nicholson,and that went on for several hours,and this is all part of my getting my feet on the deck in terms of getting current on the situation that the coalition forces in Afghanistan face,both politically and strategically,and identifying the way ahead.*
On the situation in Afghanistan right now,again,my point in talking to President Ghani and talking to our field commander,the NATO field commander,is to gain their political and military appreciation of the situation.We're putting our thoughts together now.*
President Trump has been rightly reticent on it,because he's waiting for my assessment and the assessment from the intelligence community.And he's open to my advice on it;but first of all,I've got to formulate where I stand,and so this is the normal collection of the information,and to assess what other countries in the region are doing to help or hinder our efforts there.So we're still sorting that out and here shortly I'll have my thoughts collected.It shouldn't take too long;but I've got a fair number of issues in order to give a good recommendation for the way ahead.*
So I think it was a lot more damaging to the Taliban,and the Afghan National Defence and Security Forces paid a very heavy price to keep the Taliban on their back foot,but they paid it;they've held;and the Taliban is in a worse position today,even though I do not equate that to success on our side.*
I would not in any way contest it has been a hard fight all the way through.I think that's a very accurate point.I would question who came out on the shorter end of the stick.Right now I'd rather be on NATO's-be in NATO's position right now than I would want to be in the Taliban's,the retired US Marine Corps general and new Defense Secretary Jim "Mad Dog" Mattis told the journalists in Abu Dhabi yesterday.
Tuesday, February 14, 2017
Russia Challenges NATO by Deploying New Missile,Violating Treaty
According to Administration officials who spoke anonymously to The New York Times,Russia has now deployed a new land-based intermediate range cruise missile in clear violation of the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.The INF Treaty was signed by President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1987.US intelligence has known about Russian testing of such a weapon since 2008 and the Obama administration formally accused Moscow of violating the INF Treaty by testing the missile in 2014.*
Known as the SSC-8 by the Pentagon,the missiles are seen as a direct threat to Europe.Russia has two battalions of the SSC-8.One of them is based at the Russian missile test range at Kapustin Yar;while the other was moved from there in December to an undisclosed location in Russia.Each battalion consists of four missile launchers and more than four missiles,intelligence analysts believe.The short range nuclear-tipped ballistic missile Iskander-M uses a similar type of launcher,but is not itself in violation of a treaty.The Pentagon has drawn up options to respond to the SSC-8 with,such as beefing up European missile defences or developing new US air or sea-based cruise missiles.*
The INF Treaty bans US and Russian missiles that can travel 300-3400 miles.It also forbids the production of launchers for such missiles.*
According to former US Defense Secretary and CIA Director Robert Gates,appearing before Congress in 1985,Soviet deployment of cruise missiles provides them with new multidirectional capabilities against US targets.*
At a 1 December 2015 Congressional hearing,Brian P. McKeon,Principal Undersecretary of Defense for Policy,said that the Joint Staff assessment tells us that the deployment of such a system by the Russian Federation would increase the risk to our allies and be an indirect threat to the US...the Administration determined that we need to consider Russian actions with respect to the INF Treaty in the context of its overall aggressive and bellicose behaviour that flouts international legal norms and destabilises the European security order.Russia is not violating the INF Treaty in isolation from it overall aggressive behaviour.*
Speaking at the same 2015 hearing,Rose Gottemoeller,who was then Undersecretary of Arms Control and International Security,and is now Deputy Secretary General of NATO,saidwe have made it very clear that this is not a technicality,a one-off event,or a case of mistaken identity,but a serious violation of one of the most basic obligations under the INF Treaty.Russian officials have denied violating the Treaty and told us the issue was closed.We do not accept this response.*
Known as the SSC-8 by the Pentagon,the missiles are seen as a direct threat to Europe.Russia has two battalions of the SSC-8.One of them is based at the Russian missile test range at Kapustin Yar;while the other was moved from there in December to an undisclosed location in Russia.Each battalion consists of four missile launchers and more than four missiles,intelligence analysts believe.The short range nuclear-tipped ballistic missile Iskander-M uses a similar type of launcher,but is not itself in violation of a treaty.The Pentagon has drawn up options to respond to the SSC-8 with,such as beefing up European missile defences or developing new US air or sea-based cruise missiles.*
The INF Treaty bans US and Russian missiles that can travel 300-3400 miles.It also forbids the production of launchers for such missiles.*
According to former US Defense Secretary and CIA Director Robert Gates,appearing before Congress in 1985,Soviet deployment of cruise missiles provides them with new multidirectional capabilities against US targets.*
At a 1 December 2015 Congressional hearing,Brian P. McKeon,Principal Undersecretary of Defense for Policy,said that the Joint Staff assessment tells us that the deployment of such a system by the Russian Federation would increase the risk to our allies and be an indirect threat to the US...the Administration determined that we need to consider Russian actions with respect to the INF Treaty in the context of its overall aggressive and bellicose behaviour that flouts international legal norms and destabilises the European security order.Russia is not violating the INF Treaty in isolation from it overall aggressive behaviour.*
Speaking at the same 2015 hearing,Rose Gottemoeller,who was then Undersecretary of Arms Control and International Security,and is now Deputy Secretary General of NATO,saidwe have made it very clear that this is not a technicality,a one-off event,or a case of mistaken identity,but a serious violation of one of the most basic obligations under the INF Treaty.Russian officials have denied violating the Treaty and told us the issue was closed.We do not accept this response.*
Tuesday, February 7, 2017
How Serving in the US Marine Corps Helped a NASA Mission Manager-Commercial Crew Program
Trip Healey,a former US Marine Corps sergeant and helicopter squadron door gunner with 550 hours flying time,is one of two Mission Managers for NASA's Commercial Crew Program,which is scheduled to launch its uncrewed test in November 2017 of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft on a Falcon 9 rocket.Healey himself is assigned to the Boeing Starliner spacecraft,which is slated for its uncrewed test launch on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket in June 2018.He described for the NASA website how his four years in the Marines helps him do his NASA work today:
I am a Marine,and as a Marine,it's all about mission accomplishment,taking care of your troops,and getting the job done.I think that background helps me in my position here.
I grew up around helicopters,jets,flying on helicopter missions,and just being on the flight line-aviation became part of my blood.There are so many lessons learned from that environment that translated into the NASA workforce-like teamwork;mission accomplishment;and watching out for one another.
I learned and applied the thought of only focusing on what was within my span of control and not focusing on those things I could not affect.What I did for the team as the daily planner was lay out a battle rhythm to get the work done,which seemed to change in scope and complexity on a daily basis.That is a great trait of a Marine-to be expeditious and get the job done-and a commonality shared with NASA.But the real analog between the Marines and NASA is that everyone is fully committed,no matter what the sacrifice,because the team feels as though what we are doing is bigger than any of us.*
After the Marines,Trip earned a BS in aeronautical engineering and a Master's in technical management from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.*
Boeing (BA)
I am a Marine,and as a Marine,it's all about mission accomplishment,taking care of your troops,and getting the job done.I think that background helps me in my position here.
I grew up around helicopters,jets,flying on helicopter missions,and just being on the flight line-aviation became part of my blood.There are so many lessons learned from that environment that translated into the NASA workforce-like teamwork;mission accomplishment;and watching out for one another.
I learned and applied the thought of only focusing on what was within my span of control and not focusing on those things I could not affect.What I did for the team as the daily planner was lay out a battle rhythm to get the work done,which seemed to change in scope and complexity on a daily basis.That is a great trait of a Marine-to be expeditious and get the job done-and a commonality shared with NASA.But the real analog between the Marines and NASA is that everyone is fully committed,no matter what the sacrifice,because the team feels as though what we are doing is bigger than any of us.*
After the Marines,Trip earned a BS in aeronautical engineering and a Master's in technical management from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.*
Boeing (BA)
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