Fourth MUOS communication satellite clears launch-simulation test

The fourth Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) satellite in the launch order is progressing in its final testing phase, having successfully cleared acoustic tests.

This evaluation used powerful sound waves to simulate vibrations the satellite will experience during launch.

Now the satellite moves on to thermal vacuum testing, which is the last step in its environmental trials.

"MUOS-4 is showing all the benefits of learning curve and process improvements that we have implemented over time."

"To date, we have seen a 74 percent reduction in non-conformance defects and a 45 percent reduction in labour hours over our first build," said Iris Bombelyn, vice president of Narrowband Communications at Lockheed Martin.

The MUOS satellite will complete environmental and final system checkouts in the coming months, readying for launch in summer 2015.

MUOS is a next-generation narrowband tactical satellite communications system designed to significantly improve ground communications for U.S. forces on the move.

MUOS will provide military users more communications capability over existing systems, including simultaneous voice, video and data similar to the capabilities experienced today with smart phones.

US Lockheed Martin provides support services for NASA ISS program

Mission and flight crew operations support for NASA's International Space Station and future space missions is being supplied by Lockheed Martin.

The work comes as part of a team led by SGT Inc., and within an Integrated Mission Operations Contract II (IMOC II).

Lockheed said its mission support work includes flight controller training and real-time mission execution and ground-based human spaceflight services for the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle.

The services will be conducted at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

"We are thrilled to be a part of this contract, as it allows us the opportunity to support future exploration and human spaceflight missions," said Rick Hieb, vice president of Exploration & Mission Support in Lockheed Martin's Information Systems & Global Solutions business.

Rick Hieb is a former NASA astronaut and a veteran of three Shuttle missions.

He was a mission specialist on STS-39 and STS-49, and was a payload commander on STS-65.

"Together with SGT, we can apply resources and experience to ensure we are advancing NASA's mission through IMOC II"

SGT, Inc. provides aerospace engineering, earth and planetary science modeling and other services to NASA, the U.S. Department of Defense and other federal agencies.

US Court awards Injunction to Elon Musk, stopping import of Russian rocket engines

A US court has blocked a joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Boeing from buying Russian-made rocket engines, after private rocket operator SpaceX filed a lawsuit protesting the contract.

The preliminary injunction against the deal between the US Air Force and United Launch Systems (ULS) was issued late Wednesday by Judge Susan Braden of the US Court of Federal Claims.

The ruling blocks ULS, its parent company United Launch Alliance, and the Air Force from making payments to any entity subject to the control of Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin.

That includes NPO Energomash, the Russian state-owned company that makes the rocket engines that power ULA launches of US government and national security satellites.

Rogozin heads Russia's defense industry and space program, and is on a US sanctions list over the crisis in Ukraine.

SpaceX on April 28 filed a legal protest against the contract, which guaranteed the purchase of 36 rocket cores from ULA to be used in national security launches, on the basis that it was struck without any competition from other companies.

The deal was part of the Air Force's Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle Program, which is the fourth largest program in the defense budget at a cost of $70 billion, according to court documents.

However, it was unclear how much money was at stake in the ruling. The injunction would not apply to any purchase orders placed or money paid prior to April 30, the court documents said.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk told reporters last week that the Air Force's awarding of a contract without allowing other companies to compete was "not right" and raised the possibility that the deal could be a violation of sanctions.

The injunction did not address the issue Musk raised of fair competition, and could be lifted if the US Treasury, Commerce Department or State Department reviews the deal and finds it does not violate sanctions.

Solar Ultraviolet Imager (SUVI): New satellite sensor will analyze and predict severe space weather

Lockheed Martin engineers in Denver install the Solar Ultraviolet Imager (SUVI) on the GOES-R Sun Pointing Platform. 

SUVI was built at the Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center in Palo Alto, Calif.

Credit: Lockheed Martin

Lockheed Martin has delivered a new solar analysis payload that will help scientists measure and forecast space weather, which can damage satellites, electrical grids and communications systems on Earth.

The Solar Ultraviolet Imager (SUVI) instrument was integrated with the first flight vehicle of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) next-generation Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite, known as GOES-R.

The GOES-R Series spacecraft are designed and built by Lockheed Martin in Denver, Colo.

"It is enormously satisfying to see the first GOES-R satellite and its instruments coming together, and it is great to see SUVI in flight configuration on the satellite's Sun-Pointing Platform," said Jeff Vanden Beukel, Lockheed Martin SUVI program director at the Advanced Technology Center in Palo Alto, where the instrument was built.

"We look forward to continuing our collaboration with NASA and NOAA to produce state-of-the-art scientific instruments that increase safety and improve quality of life."

SUVI will provide the required solar observational capabilities that enable NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center in Boulder, Colo.,;

• to monitor solar activity and to issue accurate, real-time alerts; when space weather could affect the performance and reliability of technological systems in space and on the ground, 
• through the enhanced detection of coronal holes, solar flares and coronal mass ejections, 
• as well as improved geomagnetic storm and power blackout forecasts.

Extreme Space weather is known to disrupt satellite operations, communications, navigation, and the distribution of electricity through power grids.

Timely forecasts of severe space weather events would help satellite operators and electrical grid technicians mitigate potential damage to such systems.

Lockheed Martin is under contract to build the first four next-generation GOES satellites (R, S, T, and U).

Four of the six instruments for the GOES-R satellite have been delivered to the Denver facility and are being integrated with the spacecraft.

Once the instrument complement is completely integrated, a full suite of environmental tests will be conducted. Launch of the GOES-R satellite is scheduled for the first quarter of 2016.

NASA Orion EFT-1: Final Reaction Control System Pod Arrives

Image above: Astronaut Don Pettit watches as a technician works on the Orion crew module inside the Operations and Checkout Building high bay at Kennedy Space Center on March 21. 

Photo credit: NASA/Dimitri Gerondidakis

The last of eight reaction control system (RCS) pods for NASA’s Orion Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1) arrived this week at Kennedy Space Center’s Operations and Checkout Building (O&C) from the manufacturer, Aerojet, in Redmond, Wash.

“Arrival of the final reaction control system pod marks a significant milestone as we prepare NASA’s Orion crew module for its first flight test,” said Glenn Chinn, the deputy manager of the Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle Program in Kennedy’s Orion Production Operations Office.

“The pods will provide the critical maneuvers necessary for Orion’s re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere.”

The first set of pods arrived at Kennedy on Feb. 18, with subsequent pods arriving March 11, and April 5 and 19.

Image above: A technician works on a reaction control system pod at the Aerojet facility in Redmond, Wash. 

The pod is one of eight that will be installed on the Orion crew module for Exploration Flight Test-1 and provide the critical maneuvers necessary for re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere.” 

Photo courtesy of Aerojet

The right-roll thruster pod with two rocket engines was the last to arrive, and joined the other seven pods already in the facility.

Included in the group are two pitch-up thruster pods with a single rocket engine; two pitch-down thruster pods, each with a single rocket engine; two right- and left-yaw pods, each with a single rocket engine, and a left roll thruster pod with two rocket engines.

Before the pods were delivered to Kennedy, Aerojet put each of them through a series of tests, including proof pressure and leak, engine vibration, rocket engine hot fire acceptance and electrical functional testing.

Lockheed Martin will unpack and visually inspect all of the pods. Then technicians will add short propellant line segments and line brackets to each.

Beginning in June, the pods will undergo additional proof pressure and leak testing, valve leak testing and rocket engine functional testing.

Aerojet will support processing activities that involve the rocket engine pods with procedure reviews, and on-site engineering and assembly support during installation and testing on the crew module.

Aerojet Program Director for Human Space, Sam Wiley, said he can’t wait for the RCS pods to be installed onto the crew module.

“We put our heart into our products and the installation work will wrap up more than three years of design and development activities,” Wiley said. “We’re ready to support EFT-1 for flight.”

The pods and their engines will be installed in various locations on the Orion crew module.

For more information, and to follow the progress of the NASA Orion spacecraft team check out their monthly newsheet.

NASA SDO Images: Colourful Mapping of Sun's Plasma - YouTube

According to NASA it's pure science and not art, but when Nicholeen Viall, a solar scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center created a new data visualization technique, the resulting solar images were reminiscent of an impressionist's painting.

Using raw solar data from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) and needing to represent it in a understandable manner, researchers often visualize the data through graphs and images. In the case of Viall's new technique, the result was not just informative but beautiful.

According to NASA, Viall wanted to look at SDO's in a different perspective. "SDO's Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA), constructed for NASA by Lockheed Martin, provides images of the sun in 10 different wavelengths, each approximately corresponding to a single temperature of material.

Therefore, when one looks at the wavelength of 171 Angstroms, for example, one sees all the material in the sun's atmosphere that is a million degrees Kelvin.

By looking at an area of the sun in different wavelengths, one can get a sense of how different swaths of material change temperature.

If an area seems bright in a wavelength that shows a hotter temperature an hour before it becomes bright in a wavelength that shows a cooler temperature, one can gather information about how that region has changed over time."

The technique involved using 12 hours of data representing the history of cooling and heating at a particular spot on the sun.

Each colour pixel represents a moment in that 12 hour period. NASA says that the heat history holds clues to the mechanisms that drive the temperature and movements of the sun's atmosphere.

The images Viall's created show that over a 12-hour period the material appears to be cooling. For there to be cooling there must have been heating going in the process as well.

But Viall's images don't show the steady heating expected. The conclusion is that the heating happens so quickly that it doesn't show up in the images.

According to NASA this supports those theories that say nanobursts of energy help heat the corona.

More images and video are available from the NASA Goddard web site.

Amateur Astronomer Captures Jupiter

Image Credit: NASA/Damian Peach

This image of Jupiter and its moons, icy Io and, the largest of Jupter's moons, Ganymede was acquired by amateur astronomer Damian Peach, when Jupiter was close to opposition. 

South is up and the "Great Red Spot" is visible in the image.

Ground-based astronomy will play a vital role in the success of NASA's Juno mission.

Because Jupiter has such a dynamic atmosphere, images from amateur astronomers will assist the JunoCam instrument team predict what features will be visible when the camera's images are taken.

With its suite of science instruments, the Juno spacecraft will investigate the existence of a solid planetary core, map the planet's intense magnetic field, measure the amount of water and ammonia in the deep atmosphere and observe the planet's auroras.

Image credit: NASA/JPL

Juno's primary goal is to improve our understanding of Jupiter's formation and evolution.

The spacecraft will spend a year investigating the planet's origins, interior structure, deep atmosphere and magnetosphere.

Juno's study of Jupiter will help us to understand the history of our own solar system and provide new insight into how planetary systems form and develop in our galaxy and beyond.

Juno's principal investigator is Scott Bolton, Director of Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., manages the mission.

Lockheed Martin Space Systems of Denver, Colo., is building the spacecraft. The Italian Space Agency, Rome, is contributing an infrared spectrometer instrument and a portion of the radio science experiment.

Lockheed Martin Completes Primary Structure of NASA's MAVEN Spacecraft

NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) mission has reached a new milestone.

Lockheed Martin has completed building the primary structure of NASA's MAVEN spacecraft at its Space Systems Company facility near Denver.

The Mars Atmosphere And Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) spacecraft is scheduled to launch in November 2013 and will be the first mission devoted to understanding the Martian upper atmosphere.

In the photo taken on Sept. 8, technicians from Lockheed Martin are inspecting the MAVEN primary structure following its recent completion at the company's Composites Lab.

The primary structure is cube shaped at 7.5 feet x 7.5 feet x 6.5 feet high (2.3 meters x 2.3 meters x 2 meters high). Built out of composite panels comprised of aluminum honeycomb sandwiched between graphite composite face sheets, the entire structure only weighs 275 pounds (125 kilograms).

At the center of the structure is the 4.25 feet (1.3 meters) diameter core cylinder that encloses the hydrazine propellant tank and serves as the primary vertical load-bearing structure. The large tank will hold approximately 3,615 pounds (1640 kilograms) of fuel.

"It's always a significant milestone when the project moves from a paper design to real hardware and software," said Guy Beutelschies, MAVEN program manager at Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company.

"Seeing the core structure reinforces the fact that MAVEN is no longer just a set of ideas that scientists and engineers have come up with, it is starting to become a spacecraft."

In mid October, the structure will be moved to Lockheed Martin's Structures Test Lab and undergo static load testing, which simulates and tests the many dynamic loads the spacecraft will experience during launch.

Despite the primary structure's light weight, it's designed to support the entire spacecraft mass during the launch, which applies an equivalent axial force at the launch vehicle interface of approximately 61,000 pounds when including accelerations up to 6 Gs.

After completion of the static tests, the structure will be moved into a clean room to start propulsion subsystem integration. The Assembly, Test and Launch Operations (ATLO) phase begins July 2012.

Heat Shield of Multi Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV)

Work on the heat shield and thermal protection backshell of the Multi Purpose Crew Vehicle ground test article, or GTA, was completed in preparation for environmental testing.

This image is of the crew vehicle at the Lockheed Martin Vertical Test Facility in Colorado. The crew vehicle will undergo rigorous testing to confirm its ability to safely fly astronauts through all the harsh environments of deep space exploration missions.

Image Credit: Lockheed Martin

A Perfect STORRM

NASA and its industry partners Lockheed Martin Space Systems and Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp., successfully demonstrated a new sensor technology that will make it easier and safer for spacecraft to rendezvous and dock to the International Space Station.

This new docking navigation system prototype consists of an eye-safe lidar Vision Navigation Sensor, or VNS, a high-definition docking camera, as well as the avionics and flight software. Both sensors will provide real-time three-dimensional images to the crew with a resolution 16 times higher than the current space shuttle sensors.

This next generation system also provides data from as far away as three miles - three times the range of the current shuttle navigation sensor.

"You are looking at the future of rendezvous and docking right here," said David L. Taylor, president and CEO of Ball Aerospace, as he welcomed dozens of NASA and industry engineers to the demonstration.

The hardware will be tested by astronauts aboard STS-134, the last planned shuttle mission, currently scheduled for February 2011, as part of the Sensor Test for Orion Relative Navigation Risk Mitigation (STORRM) Development Test Objective (DTO).