NASA T38 Jets parked in their hanger

Sukhoi T-4 in the Russian Air Force Museum in Monino

Sukhoi T-4 in the Russian Air Force Museum in Monino

SBSS: Air Force satellite monitoring space junk

Clumsily orbiting near, alongside and occasionally straight into some of the world’s most valuable communications and research equipment, space junk is, without a doubt, a serious problem.

To make matters worse, so much of it is literal junk, from decommissioned satellites to unidentifiable metal debris, which is extremely difficult to track–at least, until now.

The Air Force’s awkwardly named Space-Based Space Surveillance satellite (SBSS), due to launch this weekend after nearly a year of delay, isn’t meant to be a cleanup tool. Instead, its primarily goal is to simply find out where the junk is: to track it, to measure it, and to provide scientists enough data to calculate its location.

Space junk has been a creeping concern for years, but it’s quickly becoming urgent. Current estimates place the number of significant man-made objects orbiting around the Earth near 500,000, less than 5% of which is in any way tracked.

It’s difficult to convey what that number means in terms of risk. Graphics like the one above make it seem like an orbiting shuttle would be viciously perforated in the course of a single orbit, while simple mathematical representations border on meaningless.

(500,000 pieces of space junk spread evenly along a typical orbital path of the ISS would come out to one piece every 282 feet. Add two more dimensions to this calculation and it loses force; leave them out and it doesn’t bear much resemblance to reality.)

In any case, minor collisions have been documented during shuttle missions, and the ISS has taken evasive action against incoming debris on at least eight occasions in the last 10 years.

The SBSS will use its orbital vantage point, and specifically designed instruments, to track debris with an acuity that ground-based equipment lacks, due to lack of mobility, lack of visibility and general unwieldiness. Among the gear on the satellite,

The SBSS spacecraft will be equipped with a visible sensor mounted on an agile, two-axis gimbal. This device will give ground controllers the flexibility to quickly move the camera between targets without needing to reposition the satellite itself or expend additional fuel.

The data collected by the SBSS should help keep orbiting equipment and crews safer in the short term, and eventually, or rather hopefully, contribute to future efforts to reduce space junk, none of which have, for lack of a better phrase, made it off the ground.

Image courtesy of the ESA

US Air Force tests hypersonic UAV

The US Air Force on Wednesday test launched a hypersonic cruise missile, with the vehicle accelerating to Mach 6 before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean, officials said.

The Air Force said the test flight of the X-15A Waverider lasted more than 200 seconds, the longest ever hypersonic flight powered by scramjet propulsion. The previous record was 12 seconds in a NASA X-43 vehicle.

"We are ecstatic to have accomplished most of our test points on the X-51A's very first hypersonic mission," Charlie Brink, program manager with the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio.

"We equate this leap in engine technology as equivalent to the post-World War Two jump from propeller-driven aircraft to jet engines," he said.

But about 200 seconds into the flight, "a vehicle anomaly occurred and the flight was terminated," the Air Force said in a statement.

"Engineers are busily examining the data to identify the cause of the problem," it said.

The Waverider was launched from Edwards Air Force Base in California, then carried under the wing of a B-52 aircraft before being released at an altitude of 50,000 feet off the Pacific coast.

A solid rocket booster then propelled the vehicle to about a speed of about Mach 4.8, before the X-51's special scramjet engine ignited.

The Waverider, built by Boeing and Pratt and Whitney Rocketdyne, reached an altitude of 70,000 feet and a top speed of Mach 6, the Air Force said.

Hypersonic flight begins at Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound.

NASA joins with Air Force to boost commercial space offerings

In a bold effort to significantly reshape its future, NASA today said it would partner with the US Air Force Research Laboratory (USAFRL) to develop a technology roadmap for the proposed use of reusable commercial spaceships.

The study of reusable launch vehicle, or RLVs will focus on identifying technologies and assessing their potential use. To accelerate the development of commercial reusable launch vehicles that have improved reliability, availability, launch turn-time, robustness and significantly lower costs than current launch systems. The study results will provide roadmaps with recommended government technology tasks and milestones for different vehicle categories.

NASA and the Air Force will begin the study by soliciting feedback from the emerging commercial space industry regarding emerging or existing technologies that would most benefit their existing and near-term space vehicle systems.

That list could include any number of commercial space firms from Xcor and Scaled Composites to Orbital and SpaceX.

According to NASA it will look at four categories of space vehicles to develop its roadmap:

1.Reusable, sub-orbital vehicles

2.Expendable and partially reusable, orbital vehicles

3.Reusable, two-stage orbital vehicles

4.Advanced vehicle concepts, such as single stage to orbit, air-breathing systems, in-flight refueling, and tethered upper stage

Within those vehicles, NASA and the Air Force will evaluate all manner of flight systems from space entry, descent and recovery systems to avionics, communications and flight control.

"Low-cost and reliable access to space will deliver significant benefits to all NASA's existing missions, from science to human exploration to aeronautics, as well as to our nation's security and to national economic growth," said Doug Comstock, director of NASA's Innovative Partnerships Program at NASA Headquarters in a release.

NASA recently said it would offer $50 million in stimulus money to further develop private commercial spacecraft. NASA said its Commercial Crew and Cargo Program looks to develop and demonstrate safe, reliable, and cost-effective capabilities to transport cargo and eventually crew to low-Earth orbit and the International Space Station.

The new program, known as CCDev, represents a milestone in the development of an orbital commercial human spaceflight sector, NASA stated. By maturing "the design and development of commercial crew spaceflight concepts and associated enabling technologies and capabilities," the program will allow several companies to move a few steps forward towards the ultimate goal of full demonstration of commercial human spaceflight to orbit, NASA said.

CCDev will go hand-in-hand with NASA's existing $500 million Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) which is supporting the private development of commercial cargo transportation from companies such as SpaceX and Orbital.

The program further develops the strategy that NASA's low-earth orbit work will soon be left to private hands. The agency could then focus on the moon and beyond, barring budget disasters.

Tight Budgets - Squeezes Current Programs
Of course that's a big maybe as the space agency is under pressure to better define its future, under a much smaller budget. For example, the Government Accountability Office recently said NASA is still struggling to develop a solid business case--including firm requirements, mature technologies, a knowledge-based acquisition strategy, a realistic cost estimate, and sufficient funding and time--needed to justify moving the Constellation program, which includes the two main spaceflight components, the Ares I Crew Launch Vehicle and the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle, forward into the implementation phase, the GAO stated.

Other issues
Some people are getting a little impatient with the pace of commercial space development. The Associated Press reported recently about Alan Walton, a "daredevil" venture capitalist who plunked down $200,000 nearly five years ago to be one of Virgin Galactic's "Founders", or first 100 customers. Now, he says, he plans to ask the company for his money back if there's no "fixed launch date" by next April, when he turns 74.

He will have to be quick because Branson is slowly selling off his shares in this venture to raise capital for his next money making scheme.