Lunar Craft Undergoes Checkout Prior To Mission

A NASA spacecraft that will hit the moon has entered its final checkout phase, the space agency announced.

The Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, known as LCROSS, will take a significant step forward in the search for water on the moon.

Its main objective is to confirm the presence or absence of water ice in a permanently shadowed crater near a lunar polar region.

A major milestone, thermal vacuum testing of the LCROSS spacecraft, was completed June 5 at the Northrop Grumman Corp. [NOC] facility in Redondo Beach, Calif.

To simulate the harsh conditions of space, technicians subjected the spacecraft to 13.5 days of heating and cooling cycles during which temperatures reached as high as 230 degrees Fahrenheit and as low as minus 40 degrees.

Previous testing included acoustic vibration tests. Those tests simulated launch conditions and checked mating of connection points to the Atlas V rocket’s Centaur upper stage and the adapter ring for the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, known as LRO.

The satellite currently is undergoing final checkout tests. After all tests are complete, the LCROSS spacecraft will be prepared for delivery to Kennedy Space Center, Fla., for launch processing and integration onto the Atlas V as a secondary payload to LRO. Both spacecraft are scheduled to launch from Kennedy late this year.

After launch, the LCROSS spacecraft and the Atlas V Centaur upper stage rocket will execute a fly-by of the moon and enter into an elongated Earth orbit to position the satellite for impact on a lunar pole.

On final approach, the spacecraft and the Centaur will separate. The Centaur will strike the surface of the moon, creating a debris plume that will rise above the surface. Four minutes later, LCROSS will fly through the debris plume, collecting and relaying data back to Earth before impacting the lunar surface and creating a second debris plume. Scientists will observe both impacts from Earth to gather additional information.

LCROSS is a fast-paced, low-cost mission that is leveraging existing NASA systems, commercial-off-the-shelf components and the spacecraft design and development by Northrop Grumman Space Technologies.

LCROSS and LRO are components of the Lunar Precursor Robotic Program at the Marshall Space Flight Center at Huntsville, Ala. The program manages pathfinding robotic missions to the moon for the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate at NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C.

THAAD Demolishes Separating Target Missile For 35 Successes In 43 Tries

The Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defense system Wednesday scored another success when it killed a separating target missile, the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) announced.

That positive news for MDA comes as Congress is considering the MDA budget for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2009. Some lawmakers seeking to cut spending are questioning the worth of missile defense programs, saying that rogue nations wouldn’t use missiles to attack the United States for fear of reprisal, and terrorists wouldn’t do that because they won’t be able to obtain missiles.

Proponents of missile defense programs note that rogue nations could launch missiles from ships or submarines and U.S. military leaders wouldn’t know which nation was responsible. And terrorists already have access to missiles and rockets, such as Hezbollah members in Lebanon firing thousands of weapons into Israel to damage buildings and kill civilians.

Separately, a Lockheed Martin Corp. [LMT] official said he expects a contract to be signed late this year or early in calendar 2009 for more THAAD interceptors, and added that the current production line easily can accommodate increased output, such as a doubling of the interceptors production rate. "We expect a contract late this year," said Tom McGrath, Lockheed vice president — THAAD.

That afternoon test in the Pacific Missile Range Facility near Kauai, Hawaii, began when an Air Force C-17 transport aircraft launched the target missile with a mock warhead that separated from the booster rocket.

The Army operated the THAAD system. The interceptor is a product of Lockheed, while Raytheon Co. [RTN] makes the X-band radar.

Preliminary indications are that planned flight test objectives were achieved, MDA reported.

Interception of the target — a mock warhead separating from the booster rockets — occurred in the mid-endoatmosphere, or inside the atmosphere.

After the plane launched the target missile, the interceptor was launched about six minutes later from a mobile launcher at the THAAD launch complex on the range facility.

Upon hitting and demolishing the target, the THAAD added to an overwhelmingly successful record in tests.

This was the 35th successful hit-to-kill intercept of 43 attempts in the atmosphere and in space since 2001, and was the 29th of 30 successful tests conducted since September 2005, MDA noted.

The hit-to-kill success drew plaudits from the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance (MDAA).

This test marked the evolution of THAAD from taking out a single stage Scud-like target to a two-stage missile, Riki Ellison, MDAA president and founder, said.

He added that the THAAD test "allows the United States to move from a rogue nation missile defense position to a regional strategic evolution for missile defense." That is because "the THAAD system offers mobility and much larger areas of protection than the current terminal deployed systems such as the PAC-3 and SM-2 that the United States has deployed today."

"This infusion of proven layered mobile missile defense systems … dissuades those that threaten both the civilian populations and military forces in the respective regions," Ellison said. "The world needs non-escalatory and non-lethal missile defense systems like what was demonstrated [in the test] to provide global counter-proliferation and protection from those with intentions to threaten or harm with ballistic missiles."

The next THAAD test will occur "before the end of the year," McGrath said in responding to a question. This will involve a single target that will be pursued by two THAAD interceptors in a salvo shootdown.

This use of two or more interceptors is the sort of operation the United States would execute if an enemy missile has come close to its target and U.S. forces only have one last chance to kill it before it strikes.

Missile Defense Agency Runs Hardware In Ground Test

Components of the U.S. ballistic missile defense system (BMDS) passed tests, the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) announced.

That Integrated Ground Test (GTI)-03 checked hardware, software, and communication interfaces against simulated ballistic missile threats.

This is the third such test in an ongoing series to assess functionality and interoperability under increasingly stressing conditions, simulating concurrent theater, regional, and strategic attacks.

The test was conducted June 2-20 from the MDA Combined Test Force Ground Test Center located at the Missile Defense Integration and Operations Center in Colorado Springs, Colo.

The test used the Missile Defense System Exerciser to connect and control BMDS hardware-in-the-loop laboratories located across the United States.

Participants from the ballistic missile defense operational community included the National Military Command Center, BMDS Operational Test Agency, the Northern Command, 100th Missile Defense Brigade, 94th Army Air Missile Defense Command, 49th Missile Defense Battalion, and Cheyenne Mountain Directorate.

The test provided an opportunity for warfighters to practice and refine tactics, techniques, and procedures to defend the United States from ballistic missile attack.

Hardware-in-the-loop laboratories participating in the event included the Command, Control, Battle Management and Communications facility in Colorado Springs, Colo.; the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense facilities in Dahlgren, Va., Moorestown, N.J., and Point Loma, Calif.; the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense, Terminal High Altitude Area Defense and Patriot centers at Huntsville, Ala.; the Space-Based Infrared System and Joint Tactical Ground Station at Azusa, Calif.; the AN/TPY-2 Radar at Woburn, Mass.; and the Tactical Emulation Communication Systems.

Ground tests play a vital role in developing new technologies for missile defense by providing program officials with detailed information about emerging hardware and software system functionality, while reducing the cost and schedule demands that would be required to provide the same information through an extensive flight test program. GTIs enable simulated real-world threat scenarios to be simultaneously injected into geographically distributed tactical sensors and weapon systems. Tactical systems respond in real-time via their respective tactical communications links, allowing each individual BMDS system to operate in a tactically realistic environment.

After these GTI tests are run, Distributed Ground Tests (GTDs) are conducted using fielded assets with operational communications to more fully determine their BMDS capability. GTD-03 will be conducted later this year using a subset of the GTI-03 test cases.

Ares I-X First Stage Separation System Tested

The Ares I-X rocket first stage passed a test of the separation system, Alliant Techsystems Inc. [ATK] announced.

Ares will launch the Orion spacecraft, the next-generation U.S. spaceship replacing the space shuttles, with the first manned Orion flight now set for March 2015.

The first Ares flight test of Ares I-X next spring.

That just-completed test involved a replicated Ares I-X first stage forward skirt extension and forward skirt stacked and suspended two feet above the ground.

A linear-shape charge was detonated, detaching the two pieces of hardware horizontally. During an actual flight, once the first stage separates from the upper stage, the solid rocket booster will start to fall and at a predetermined altitude the forward skirt extension joint will be severed to facilitate deployment of the parachute recovery system. The first stage is designed to land in the ocean where it can be recovered for reuse.

This was the first demonstration of joint severance on a simulated first stage, and the first in a series of three Ares I-X first stage tests scheduled to demonstrate elements of the launch vehicle joint severance capability.

Standard Missile 6 Shoots Down Target In Successful Test

A Navy Standard Missile 6 (SM-6) extended-range anti-air missile for the first time successfully shot down a target missile Tuesday, Raytheon Co. [RTN] announced.

The test at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., saw a BQM-74 aerial drone launched.

Then the Standard Missile 6 began an intercept mission, using the newly-developed SM-6 active seeker. It was launched from the Navy Desert Ship interceptor testing asset.

The active seeker autonomously acquired and engaged the target using the Navy legacy command system, resulting in a direct hit.

This launch demonstrates the first successful integration of the Navy active missile technology into the weapon system to provide for both near-term advanced anti-air warfare and future over-the-horizon capability, Raytheon stated.

The SM-6 is being developed by the company to meet the requirement for an extended range anti-air warfare missile. The weapon is expected to deploy in 2011 to shield against fixed and rotary wing aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles, while delivering an over-the-horizon counter to the cruise missile threat.

SM-6 employs the Standard Missile-2 Block IVA airframe and the newly developed

active sensor. The SM-6 also will aid the Navy sea-based terminal ballistic missile defense requirement.

New Technology Tested In Launch From Wallops: MDA

The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) tested new technology, launching a flight test from the NASA facility at Wallops Island, Va., MDA announced.

Identified as the Next Generation Sensor Producibility flight test (NGSP-01), the test successfully demonstrated performance of emerging sensor technologies, materials, and designs that offer improvements for next-generation missile defense interceptors.

In the exercise, a Black Brant XI sounding rocket carried multiple optical and infrared sensors, along with various objects. Upon reaching the desired altitude in the exo- atmosphere, the objects were ejected to present a viewing scene for the sensors under test.

Data collected during NGSP-01 will undergo thorough analysis and be evaluated for use in developing future missile defense interceptor kill vehicles. The NGSP-01 experiment was not a weapon system exercise.

NASA’s Shuttle and Rocket Missions

Updated — June 27, 2008 – 1:20 p.m. EDT

Legend: + Targeted For | *No Earlier Than (Tentative) | **To Be Determined

2008 Launches

Date: October +

Mission: TacSat-3

Launch Vehicle: Orbital Sciences Minotaur Rocket

Launch Site: Wallops Flight Facility – Goddard Space Flight Center

Description: NASA will support the Air Force launch of the TacSat-3 satellite, managed by the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Space Vehicles Directorate. TacSat-3 will demonstrate the capability to furnish real-time data to the combatant commander. NASA Ames will fly a microsat and NASA Wallops will fly the CubeSats on this flight in addition to providing the launch range.

Date: Oct. 5 *

Mission: IBEX

Launch Vehicle: Orbital Sciences Pegasus XL Rocket

Launch Site: Reagan Test Site, Kwajalein Atoll

Description: IBEX’s science objective is to discover the global interaction between the solar wind and the interstellar medium and will achieve this objective by taking a set of global energetic neutral atom images that will answer four fundamental science questions.

Date: Oct. 8 +

Mission: STS-125

Launch Vehicle: Space Shuttle Atlantis

Launch Site: Kennedy Space Center – Launch Pad 39A

Description: Space Shuttle Atlantis will fly seven astronauts into space for the fifth and final servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope. During the 11-day flight, the crew will repair and improve the observatory’s capabilities through 2013.

Date: Nov. 10 +

Mission: STS-126

Launch Vehicle: Space Shuttle Endeavour

Launch Site: Kennedy Space Center – Launch Pad 39A

Description: Space Shuttle Endeavour launching on assembly flight ULF2, will deliver a Multi-Purpose Logistics Module to the International Space Station.

Date: Nov. 13

Mission: STSS Demonstrators Program – Missile Defense Agency

Launch Vehicle: United Launch Alliance Delta II

Launch Site: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station – Launch Complex 17, Pad A

Description: STSS Demonstrators Program is a midcourse tracking technology demonstrator and is part of an evolving ballistic missile defense system. STSS is capable of tracking objects after boost phase and provides trajectory information to other sensors and interceptors. To be launched by NASA for the Missile Defense Agency.

Date: Nov. 24 *

Mission: LRO/LCROSS

Launch Vehicle: United Launch Alliance Atlas V

Launch Site: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station – Launch Complex 41

Description: The mission objectives of the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite are to advance the Vision for Space Exploration by confirming the presence or absence of water ice in a permanently shadowed crater at either the Moon’s North or South Pole.

Date: Dec. 1 *

Mission: SDO

Launch Vehicle: United Launch Alliance Atlas V

Launch Site: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station – Launch Complex 41

Description: The first Space Weather Research Network mission in the Living With a Star (LWS) Program of NASA.

Date: Under Review

Mission: STS-119

Launch Vehicle: Space Shuttle Discovery

Launch Site: Kennedy Space Center – Launch Pad 39A

Description: Space Shuttle Discovery launching on assembly flight 15A, will deliver the fourth starboard truss segment to the International Space Station.

Date: Dec. 12 *

Mission: GOES-O

Launch Vehicle: United Launch Alliance Delta IV

Launch Site: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station – Launch Complex 37

Description: NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) are actively engaged in a cooperative program, the multimission Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite series N-P. This series will be a vital contributor to weather, solar and space operations, and science.

2009 Launches

Date: Jan. 15

Mission: OCO

Launch Vehicle: Orbital Sciences Taurus Rocket

Launch Site: Vandenberg Air Force Base – Launch Pad SLC 576-E

Description: The Orbiting Carbon Observatory is a new Earth orbiting mission sponsored by NASA’s Earth System Science Pathfinder Program.

Date: Feb. 1

Mission: NOAA-N Prime

Launch Vehicle: United Launch Alliance Delta II

Launch Site: Vandenberg Air Force Base – Launch Pad SLC-2

Description: NOAA-N Prime is the latest polar-orbiting satellite developed by NASA/Goddard Spaceflight Center for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). NOAA uses two satellites, a morning and afternoon satellite, to ensure every part of the Earth is observed at least twice every 12 hours. NOAA-N will collect information about Earth’s atmosphere and environment to improve weather prediction and climate research across the globe.

Date: Feb. 16

Mission: Kepler

Launch Vehicle: United Launch Alliance Delta II

Launch Site: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station – Launch Complex 17 – Pad 17-B

Description: The Kepler Mission, a NASA Discovery mission, is specifically designed to survey our region of the Milky Way galaxy to detect and characterize hundreds of Earth-size and smaller planets in or near the habitable zone.

Date: April 30

Mission: STSS ATRR – Missile Defense Agency

Launch Vehicle: United Launch Alliance Delta II

Launch Site: Vandenberg Air Force Base – Launch Pad SLC-2

Description: STSS ATRR serves as a pathfinder for future launch and mission technology for the Missile Defense Agency. To be launched by NASA for the MDA.

Date: June 15

Mission: Glory

Launch Vehicle: Orbital Sciences Taurus Rocket

Launch Site: Vandenberg Air Force Base – Launch Pad SLC 576-E

Description: The Glory Mission will help increase our understanding of the Earth’s energy balance by collecting data on the properties of aerosols and black carbon in the Earth’s atmosphere and how the Sun’s irradiance affects the Earth’s climate.

Source: NASA