National Space Symposium Show News - April 7-10, 2008 - (Page 12)

THE NEXT FRONTIER Honeywell Taps Commercial Experience for Orion Crew Cockpit “We have been on every manned space flight with NASA,” says Honeywell space business vp Dave Douglass, “and are deeply involved on the Orion crew exploration vehicle development.” Honeywell’s space business, including NASA and U.S. Air Force satellite operation work, and a high-tech products business (page 11), generates revenues of about $1 billion a year. With Orion it’s gaining visibility, as Honeywell works toward a PrelimDave Douglass. inary Design Review of the Orion space vehicle cockpit as a subcontractor to Lockheed Martin. Key to the contract win, Douglass says, was a strategy of applying commercial avionics experience to the new spacecraft. “That was one of the original value propositions,” Douglass says, “to take capabilities that were originally developed as part of our commercial aerospace business and reuse that basic architecture for NASA.” “That would help NASA both with life cycle cost and to deal with the inevitable obsolescence issues that pop up.” Orion, after all, is the vehicle that’s going to take the U.S. back to the moon.“You bet it is,” Douglass says. Honeywell (Booth 502) is supplying guidance and control components for Orion’s Ares launcher too. Vibration an Ares I-X Concern Engineers are adding instrumentation to the first full-scale flight vehicle of NASA’s Ares I crew launch vehicle (shown right) in an effort to gather real data about thrust oscillation vibrations from the rocket’s solid-fuel first stage. Managers hope results from the Ares I-X test will give them a much better idea of just how bad the problem is, and steps to take to solve it. Ares I-X is scheduled to lift off from Launch Complex 39B at Kennedy Space Center on April 15, 2009. and Ares V Needs More Power NASA’s planned Ares V heavy-lift vehicle still doesn’t have the lift it needs to send astronauts back to the Moon, and must be beefed up from its present configuration to get the job done. Engineers are looking to add more than 10 metric tons to the throw-weight of the big rocket—already conceived as the largest launch vehicle ever built. T achieve a lift capability of about 75.1 metric tons, including margin, o NASA may add a sixth RS-68 rocket engine to its liquid oxygen/liquid hydrogen “core stage,” or extend the length of the twin shuttle-derived solid fuel boosters strapped to its side, or both. On a lunar mission Ares V likely would launch first, followed one orbit later by the Ares I carrying a four-seat Orion crew exploration vehicle. ATK for Orion Solar Arrays Alliant Techsystems (Booth 602) will design, develop and build UltraFlex solar arrays for the Orion crew vehicle under contract to prime Lockheed Martin (Booth 500). The initial design and development contract is expected to exceed $50 million. Program management, design, engineering, analysis, manufacturing, assembly and test work for the solar arrays will be conducted at ATK's facility in Goleta, Calif. Because the flight solar array system is expendable for each Orion mission, ATK expects continuous production through 2020 and beyond. The arrays, each more than 5m in diameter, will track the sun and provide power for Orion missions to low Earth orbit and the moon. Proton Breeze Failure Raises Questions The spotlight is on International Launch Services following the second failure in six months of a Proton Breeze M launch. ILS had planned to launch six or seven satellites this year but will now face delays as it requalifies the Proton. The company landed a record 17 satellite launch awards in 2007, raising its backlog to 22 firm orders. Early last month it landed two more launch awards, for a pair of Sirius digital audio radio spacecraft, just days after winning a contract to orbit a mobile TV satellite for United Arab Emirates startup S2M. IAC 2008 in Scotland at Summer’s End The British Interplanetary Society and the International Astronautical Federation are promoting the 59th International Astronautical Congress to be held in Glasgow, Scotland, from September 29-October 3. “IAC 2008 will provide an international focus for the global space industry, academic researchers and students worldwide,” says conference chair Sir Martin Sweeting. From Imagination to Reality is the theme. www.iac2008.co.uk April, 2008 Honeywell is providing cockpit avionics to NASA via prime contractor Lockheed Martin for the new Orion space exploration vehicle. 12 www.aviationweek.com/shownews http://www.iac2008.co.uk http://www.aviationweek.com/shownews

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of National Space Symposium Show News - April 7-10, 2008

Arthur Clarke, 1917-2008 Critical Questions Loom Beyond the Rocket Motor New GPS for the USAF Generals Have Their Say 2,500 Years in Space Virgin Senses Sea-Change Technology Spin-Offs

National Space Symposium Show News - April 7-10, 2008

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