{"id":16667,"date":"2015-01-15T19:39:12","date_gmt":"2015-01-15T11:39:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/nasa-hopes-to-replace-cargo-lost-on-antares-failure-this-year\/"},"modified":"2015-01-15T19:39:12","modified_gmt":"2015-01-15T11:39:12","slug":"nasa-hopes-to-replace-cargo-lost-on-antares-failure-this-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/nasa-hopes-to-replace-cargo-lost-on-antares-failure-this-year\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA hopes to replace cargo lost on Antares failure this year"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"SpaceX's
SpaceX\u2019s Dragon spacecraft arrives at the International Space Station on Jan. 12 with 2.6 tons of supplies. Credit: NASA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

NASA officials say the International Space Station\u2019s logistics chain was designed to absorb a launch failure like the mishap that destroyed an Orbital Sciences Corp. cargo craft in October, but pressure is on SpaceX to deliver supplies on time this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just critical,\u201d said Mike Suffredini, NASA\u2019s space station program manager. \u201cWe can\u2019t operate without the logistics partners. With the Orbital standdown, we basically lost about 2.3 metric tons of cargo that we had planned for, so now we\u2019re adjusting for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Without regular cargo deliveries, officials may have to reduce the size of the space station\u2019s crew from six to three. In a worst case scenario, the space station could be temporarily abandoned.<\/p>\n

All the items destroyed in the Oct. 28 failure of Orbital\u2019s Antares cargo rocket can be replaced, officials said, and none of the equipment was critical in the sense that the space station needed the supplies immediately.<\/p>\n

But NASA will have to find a way to eventually launch all the lost supplies, and with Orbital\u2019s resupply system grounded until late 2015, the space agency has to turn to SpaceX, the space station\u2019s other cargo transportation provider.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t live without it,\u201d Suffredini said Thursday. \u201cWe\u2019re working very closely with SpaceX to fly as close to the times that we have on the manifest today.\u201d<\/p>\n

SpaceX launched its most recent resupply flight to the space station Jan. 10, the company\u2019s fifth operational cargo mission to the complex in nearly two-and-a-half years. With Orbital not expected to fly its Cygnus cargo craft again until late 2015, SpaceX will need to accelerate its launch rate to keep the space station stocked with food, provisions and experiments.<\/p>\n

On-time launches have eluded SpaceX in the past, but the company last year demonstrated its ability to launch two Falcon 9 rockets two weeks apart.<\/p>\n

SpaceX has up to 14 launches scheduled from Cape Canaveral in 2015, with one flight already complete. Five of the 14 launches are slated to carry cargo to the space station aboard SpaceX\u2019s Dragon supply ship, including the company\u2019s Jan. 10 launch.<\/p>\n

\"Mike
Mike Suffredini, NASA\u2019s space station program manager. Credit: NASA\/Aubrey Gemignani<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The next Dragon resupply run to the space station is set for launch April 8, followed by cargo missions in June, September and December. Suffredini said Thursday that NASA has asked SpaceX to move forward some of the flights.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re trying to pull these other flights up,\u201d Suffredini said. \u201cWe\u2019re doing all that because we need to do it that way in order to continue to have a robust research plan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Suffredini said the space station is resilient to short-term launch delays. Station managers plan to keep at least a four-month stock of food and spares on the outpost in case of disruptions in the supply chain from Earth.<\/p>\n

Before the Antares launch failure, NASA wanted to keep at least a six-month cushion of supplies on the station.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe lost a couple of months, and that just put a lot of criticality on the next two SpaceX flights,\u201d said Bill Gerstenmaier, associate administrator of NASA\u2019s human exploration and operations directorate.<\/p>\n

\u201cSpaceX-5 (which launched Jan. 10) was really important because we were running out of potentially food in May,\u201d Gerstenmaier said. \u201cThe next SpaceX flight in the April or May timeframe is also important after the Soyuz crew rotation in March, and that\u2019s a function of restaffing the crew.\u201d<\/p>\n

The SpaceX resupply missions will also deliver components needed for a series of spacewalks to outfit the space station for future dockings of commercial space taxis carrying astronauts.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe really needed this SpaceX flight to see that we were heading in a positive direction for the crew rotation flight,\u201d Gerstenmaier said. \u201cThen we\u2019ll have that next SpaceX flight, and after that, we\u2019re almost caught up.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Japanese HTV supply freighter is scheduled for launch in August to carry up another batch of equipment.<\/p>\n

Russia\u2019s Progress logistics vehicles will launch several times this year, but they are primarily filled with gear to support the space station\u2019s Russian crew members.<\/p>\n

\"File
File photo of an Orbital Sciences Corp. Cygnus supply ship approaching the International Space Station. Credit: NASA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Orbital Sciences will not launch its Antares rocket again until at least early 2016. The company is switching the booster\u2019s first stage to a new engine \u2014 opting to replace the rocket\u2019s troublesome decades-old AJ26 engines with newly-built Russian RD-181 powerplants.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, Orbital purchased at least one Atlas 5 rocket from United Launch Alliance to send up a Cygnus logistics spaceship in the fourth quarter of 2015. Orbital\u2019s decision to buy a launch from a third-party provider will come out of the company\u2019s own coffers, and NASA\u2019s contract payments will remain unchanged, according to Gerstenmaier,<\/p>\n

\u201cWe initially assumed that Orbital wouldn\u2019t fly for 18 months,\u201d Gerstenmaier told a NASA advisory committee on Tuesday. \u201cWe assumed they would not be flying until 2016. They went out on their own and determined that they needed to fly to keep viable, so they went out and acquired an Atlas 5 for a fall launch.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Orbital lost Antares, they could have said, \u2018We\u2019re done,’\u201d said NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden. \u201cBut they didn\u2019t. (Orbital chairman and CEO) David Thompson was on a phone the very next morning to everybody that he knew that produced launch vehicles to say, \u2018I have an obligation to NASA, and I intend to fulfill that. Can you help?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he called every launch vehicle provider there was, even out of the country,\u201d Bolden said. \u201cAfter their analysis, they came up with the Atlas 5 and said they think they can fly by the end of the year. If that\u2019s successful \u2014 if Cygnus is berthed to the International Space Station by the end of 2015 \u2026 that would be a major achievement for commercial space.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gerstenmaier said the company\u2019s decision to pay for an Atlas 5 rocket was in the mutual interest of Orbital and NASA, and validates a key tenet in space agency\u2019s commercial cargo program.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat shows that our basic contracting strategy for services is viable because they were incentivized to not just sit and wait for 18 months,\u201d Gerstenmaier said. \u201cThey were incentivized to find another way to provide the service, so they could continue the revenue stream to their corporation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Orbital Sciences signed a $1.9 billion cargo resupply contract with NASA in December 2008. The terms of the deal called for Orbital to deliver 20 metric tons, or 44,000 pounds, of hardware to the space station over eight missions. Orbital says it can now achieve its contractual commitment in seven flights.<\/p>\n

SpaceX cinched a similar deal worth $1.6 billion to send up the same mass of supplies, but in 12 flights. SpaceX also returns intact cargo and research specimens to Earth, while Orbital\u2019s Cygnus spacecraft disposes of trash.<\/p>\n

NASA turned to commercial operators to meet the space station\u2019s logistics needs after the retirement of the space shuttle.<\/p>\n

\"Astronaut
Astronaut Terry Virts at the hatch leading into the cargo cabin of SpaceX\u2019s Dragon spacecraft. Credit: Terry Virts via Twitter (@AstroTerry)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Gerstenmaier said the Antares launch failure proved the value of having at least two suppliers capable of sending cargo to the space station. It also shows why NASA selected two companies \u2014 Boeing and SpaceX \u2014 to fly astronauts to the complex.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t put all your critical spares on one vehicle,\u201d Gerstenmaier said. \u201cIf you can split between two vehicles or three vehicles, from a redundancy standpoint then you can effectively utilize your redundancy.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said NASA already directed SpaceX to redesign its Dragon cargo capsule to carry water to the space station, a capability that only Orbital\u2019s Cygnus spacecraft was previously able to handle.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe thought we had enough redundancy so we didn\u2019t have to make design changes to carry water on both vehicles, but now, in hindsight, we need to make a design change,\u201d Gerstenmaier said. \u201cWe accepted some non-redundancy items to keep costs down, now we know we need that redundancy.\u201d<\/p>\n

With two cargo transportation providers, NASA can live with more risk on each resupply mission, Gerstenmaier said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll our equipment is critical,\u201d he said. \u201cSome is more important than others. What we\u2019re talking about is risk tolerance. I can take higher risks with station cargo because of the ability to (fly something) again. Even if I lose a spacesuit, I\u2019ve still got 12 others, so it\u2019s not the end of the world. It\u2019s not where you want to be, but it\u2019s usually better than not flying until you get comfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s going to be a long period of time where these guys (commercial cargo contractors) are not going to be potentially as reliable as other providers,\u201d Gerstenmaier said. \u201cWe need to accept that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SpaceX\u2019s Dragon spacecraft arrives at the International Space Station on Jan. 12 with 2.6 tons of supplies. Credit: NASA NASA officials say the International Space Station\u2019s logistics chain was designed to absorb a launch failure like the mishap that destroyed an Orbital Sciences Corp. cargo craft in October, but pressure is on SpaceX to deliver […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2349,937,717,233,1602,3964,3900,2260],"class_list":["post-16667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-bill-gerstenmaier","tag-charlie-bolden","tag-international-space-station","tag-iss","tag-iss-cargo","tag-mike-suffredini","tag-orb-3","tag-orbital-sciences"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16667"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16667"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16667\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}