COLORADO
SPRINGS, Colorado - The future of NASA's exploration agenda in a post-space
shuttle world - the Orion spacecraft and Ares boosters - is on target as it
moves from contractor blueprints to real hardware.
Still, challenges
remain - particularly in maintaining critical workforce skills in the transition between
shuttle and Orion programs.
NASA's
Constellation Program - the umbrella name for the space agency's Moon, Mars and beyond
visionary agenda - was kick started by U.S. President George W. Bush in
January 2004.
"We have a
road map," said Doug Cooke, NASA's Deputy Associate Administrator, Exploration
Systems Mission Directorate, speaking here at the 23rd National Space Symposium
staged by the Space Foundation. Given the intervening three years, NASA and its
industrial partners "have collectively made a tremendous amount of progress,"
he said.
Areas of
common interest
Cooke
observed that engine test stands and wind tunnels are active in helping to
shape the Orion
spacecraft program that will tote six people to the International Space
Station, as well as carry crews back to the Moon, then onward to Mars.
"We have a
lot of progress underway in testing hardware," Cooke said. Furthermore, the
role of other nations as well as entrepreneurs in creating a global strategy
for exploring the Moon is coming together, he noted.
"We're
looking for areas of common interest," Cooke explained.
Cooke said
shuttle decisions on flight hardware production have been made that are not
reversible. "We are shutting things down."
By end of
this calendar year, all components of Orion
and its Ares booster will be on contract, Cooke said.
Critical
path
Joining
Cooke on a panel of experts, John Karas, Vice President & General Manager, Human
Space Flight, Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company detailed the Orion program.
The company was selected by NASA to build the multi-purpose spacecraft.
Karas
highlighted the company's strategy to keep Orion on cost and schedule, and to
keep the crew safe. Queried about the toughest tasks ahead, he highlighted the
integration of contractor hardware matched to NASA requirements and the need
for all to communicate with each other - as well as with outside customers,
like the Congress and the public.
From a
hardware perspective, Karas said a "critical path" item is Orion's launch abort
system. It is, essentially, a three stage rocket, a "unique system unto
itself," he said, with a number of challenging requirements to provide full
abort profiles to keep the crew safe if the Ares rocket encounters problems.
Michael
Kahn, Vice President, Space Launch Systems, ATK Launch Systems, said progress
is being made on the Ares I and Ares V designs. Both boosters leverage shuttle
gear. The Ares I makes use of a five-segment solid rocket booster, with aspects
of the shuttle program-derived equipment undergoing upgrading and modification
to handle the job of boosting the piloted Orion craft, he said.
Upcoming
for the Ares I booster, Kahn said, are sets of rigorous and key tests,
including the booster's
test flight in 2009.
"We're
plugging along very well and staying on schedule," Kahn said.
Workforce
reductions
Former
shuttle astronaut, Richard Covey, USAF (Retired), now Executive Vice President
& Chief Operating Officer for United Space Alliance, LLC flagged the need
to keep an eye on the need for "significantly reduced" operations costs for
Orion contrasted to today's space shuttle prep and fly expenses.
Covey said
his company is creating a suite of new computer tools to simplify
Orion/Constellation operations. He did spotlight workforce uncertainty in the
transition of skills from shuttle to Orion operations.
A reduced
operations tempo, Covey said, will mean less people involved in getting Orion
launched. However, in building toward that capability, a strong and sizeable
engineering workforce will be necessary, he said.
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