THE U.S. AIR FORCE AND THE NEAR SPACE JUMP

FROM: U.S. AIR FORCE
AFRL played major role in historic near-space jump
11/2/2012 - KIRTLAND AFB, N.M (AFNS) -- For more than nine minutes Oct. 14, an international audience watched as Austrian daredevil Felix Baumgartner egressed from a capsule 128,000 feet above the earth and fell toward the planet reaching speeds of 834 miles per hour, to become the first person to break the sound barrier outside of a vehicle.

When Baumgartner safely touched down 33 miles east of Roswell, N.M., shortly before noon, he had also achieved another milestone, topping Air Force Col. Joe Kittinger's 52-year-old record of the highest free fall by 25,200 feet.

The historic event would not have occurred without the significant participation of the Air Force Research Laboratory's Space Vehicles Directorate and one of its contractors, ATA Aerospace.

Five years ago, Red Bull Stratos, which sponsored Baumgartner's near-space jump, approached the directorate about supporting the mission, but the Kirtland-based organization's officials did not believe the activity had enough of a science and technology perspective, so they passed on it. About 18 months later, the directorate decided to assist the proposed mission, with the reversal attributable to a cooperative research and development agreement signed between the agency and ATA Aerospace.

"The agreement with ATA Aerospace allows a commercial company to use our facilities, evaluate equipment and conduct testing. It is a good way to offset costs and take advantage of excess capacity of both the facilities and equipment," said Harold "Vern" Baker, chief, Space and Integration Test Branch, Integrated Experiments and Evaluation Division, AFRL's Space Vehicles Directorate. "We realized that under the CRADA, we should be able to assist Baumgartner's jump and allow ATA to use our launch equipment for our high-altitude balloon program."

For Red Bull Stratos' two unmanned flights and the three manned missions (Baumgartner's two test jumps and his record-breaking decent), on-site ATA Aerospace staff performed liftoff and capsule-retrieval functions with the support and expertise of AFRL staff members Ed Coca, balloon launch director, and Baker, who ensured pre-and post-operations procedures had been conducted safely and properly. A 20-plus year veteran of the Air Force high-altitude balloon program, Baker watched Baumgartner's historic jump from mission control at the Roswell International Air Center.

"The balloon, which took Felix's capsule to 128,000 feet, was filled with 30 million cubic feet of helium," Baker said. "After about an hour delay due to winds, the balloon lifted off shortly after 9:30 a.m., for a two-and-a-half hour journey to the egress point. During that time, Felix's visor was not defrosting and there was concern the mission would have to be aborted."

Despite the defrost problem, the flight was not aborted and in-flight troubleshooting was attempted instead.

"The visor eventually defrosted from power in his suit, so after about 15-20 minutes, Baumgartner leapt from the capsule," Baker recalled."Several seconds into the free fall, he began to flat spin and there was a lot of concern in mission control, but he suddenly stabilized. He was also close to blacking out, but if that would have occurred, a drogue parachute would have been deployed. Those of us in Mission Control roared when Felix landed on the ground safe and sound."

ATA Aerospace employee Tracy Gerber, who has worked at the directorate since 1995 and has participated in many high-altitude balloon launches, said the opportunity to play a significant role in, and witness Baumgartner's leap into the history books, has been a career highlight.

"We've done a number of launches over the years, but none of them, in my opinion, compare to the one we did Oct. 14 with Red Bull Stratos and Sage Cheshire Aerospace, who built the capsule, and also the David Clark Company, which makes all the balloon suits for the NASA program did the one for Felix as well," said Gerber, Space Technology Research and Integrated Vehicle Experiments deputy program manager, in support of the Space Vehicles Directorate's Space Integration and Test Branch. "Getting to work with all these organizations was an incredible experience. Finally, from Oct. 23 to 28, I had the unique opportunity to attend a post-mission event in Salzburg, Austria, sponsored by Red Bull Stratos, to recognize all those involved in Felix's record-breaking jump."

In preparation for the big day, Baker arrived on scene late Saturday and then after discussions with three operations managers, including Gerber, he and Coca directed the helium inflation of the balloon at about 3 a.m. Shortly before 6 a.m., Baumgartner entered the 2,900-pound capsule. Three and half hours later, he began his ascent at a rate of about 1,000 feet per minute. The rest is history.

"Our expertise, our contract support and the contractor expertise we've developed played a huge part in Felix's successful mission," said Baker. "ATA Aerospace spent a lot of time, effort and money putting together all the procedures, processes and countdowns, and deserves much of the credit in making the record-shattering event happen. Although Felix was the main focus and rightly so, it took a team of dedicated and determined individuals to ensure it was mission possible."

　

U.S. AIR FORCE ANNOUNCE ATLAS V LAUNCH

FROM:  U.S. AIR FORCE
Air Force Officials Announce Milestone Atlas V Launch
By Amaani Lyle
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, June 20, 2012 - As part of the Defense Department's ongoing efforts to maintain assured, affordable access to space through 2030, the Atlas V rocket successfully lifted off from Space Launch Complex-41 at Florida's Cape Canaveral, Air Force officials said.

"This is an exciting time for the U.S. space launch community, said Scott Correll, the program's executive officer. "From today's successful launch of the 50th EELV to the recent success of Space X's support to NASA with their Falcon 9 is clear the commercial space transportation industry is making notable strides."

The EELV program replaced the existing fleet of launch systems with two families of launch vehicles -- the Boeing Delta IV and Lockheed Martin Atlas V -- built and operated by the DOD's prime contractor, United Launch Alliance, Correll said.

An official from the Space and Missile Systems Center at Los Angeles Air Force Base explained that the Atlas V is a critical part of a spectrum of government missions.
"Atlas V launches space-based infrared systems, global positioning systems, the defense meteorological satellite program, and the advanced extremely-high frequency system satellites," said Air Force Col. Bob Hodgkiss, director of the launch systems directorate. "I'm pleased to report that this year we have also already launched the wideband global sat-com IV aboard a Delta IV, and the Navy's mobile user objective system satellite 1 aboard Atlas V."

Because of considerable program costs, which can run as high as several billion dollars per launch, quality assurance and the development of a competitive market are paramount, Air Force officials said.

"Since the Air Force must by law self-indemnify, we do a very rigorous evaluation of the physical, electrical and radio frequency interfaces between the rocket, the satellite and the ground systems," Hodgkiss said of the process to determine flight readiness. "My team is the government's insurance policy, so we need to be sure we have the highest probability of success in one of the riskiest activities the Air Force does."

On the business side of the program, Hodgkiss said, the program's primary users, the Air Force, NASA, and the National Reconnaissance Office are developing strategies to infuse competition into space launch as a cost reduction measure.

"We are balancing the commitment we will make to ULA with the potential to reintroduce competition to the program when one or more commercial launch companies have demonstrated to the Air Force they are reliable launch providers," the colonel said.
Correll asserts that certifying new entrants will potentially enable competition, thereby lowering costs and creating innovation in government payloads such as communications, navigation, weather satellites, and science and national security missions.

"The framework offers multiple paths to on-ramp potential new entrants and part of this strategy requires an entrant to demonstrate at least one launch of a vehicle configured as an EELV class national security space launch," he said.

ULA's next launch and the NRO's next mission, the Delta IV NROL-15, is scheduled for June 28.

"Our soldiers, sailors, Marines, airmen, Coast Guardsmen and intelligence community are dependent upon the warfighting capabilities we enable," Correll said. "Our priority and focus remain mission success first while controlling costs in this constrained fiduciary environment."

X-37B ORBITAL TEST VEHICLE RETURNS HOME

FROM:  AIR FORCE SPACE COMMAND
The Air Force's unmanned, reusable space plane landed in the early morning of June 16 at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., a successful conclusion to a record-setting test-flight mission that began March 5 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. (U.S. Air Force file photo) 

Air Force space vehicle comes in for a landing
by Tech. Sgt. Julie Weckerlein
Air Force Public Affairs Agency

6/18/2012 - WASHNGTON (AFNS) -- The Air Force's unmanned, reusable space plane landed in the early morning of June 16 at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., a successful conclusion to a record-setting test-flight mission that began March 5, 2011, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla.

The X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle, one of two such vehicles, spent 469 days in orbit to conduct on-orbit experiments, primarily checkout of the vehicle itself.

"The vehicle was designed for a mission duration of about 270 days," said Lt. Col. Tom McIntyre, the X-37B program manager. "We knew from post-flight assessments from the first mission that OTV-1 could have stayed in orbit longer. So one of the goals of this mission was to see how much farther we could push the on-orbit duration."

Managed by the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office, the X-37B program performs risk reduction, experimentation, and concept of operations development for reusable space vehicle technologies. The X-37B mission is the longest space mission only after the NASA Discovery shuttle program.

The 11,000-pound state-of-the-art vehicle, which is about a fourth the size of the shuttle, allows space technology experts to continue sending up experiments, with results returning safely to Earth for study.

"With the retirement of the space shuttle fleet, the X-37B OTV program brings a singular capability to space technology development," McIntyre said. "The return capability allows the Air Force to test new technologies without the same risk commitment faced by other programs"

The vehicle was initially a NASA initiative, but was transferred to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency in 2004. When it first launched in 2006, it was lauded for its cutting-edge technologies, such as the auto de-orbit capability, thermal protection tiles, and high-temperature components and seals.

"The X-37B's advanced thermal protection and solar power systems, and environmental modeling and range safety technologies are just some of the technologies being tested," said McIntyre. "Each mission helps us continue to advance the state-of-the-art in these areas."

UNITED LAUNCH ALLIANCE ATLAS V ROCKETS LIFTED OFF TO SPACE

FROM:  U.S. AIR FROCE
United Launch Alliance Marks 60th Successful Launch by Delivering the AEHF-2 Satellite to Orbit for the U.S. Air Force
5/4/2012 - Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla.,  -- A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket carrying the Advanced Extremely High Frequency-2 (AEHF-2) satellite for the United States Air Force lifted off from Space Launch Complex-41 here at 2:42 p.m. EDT today. This was ULA's 4th launch of an aggressive 11 mission schedule for the year and marks the 30th Atlas V mission and the 60th launch for ULA.

"ULA is proud to serve alongside our mission partners and privileged that the Air Force entrusts the ULA team to deliver critical national security capability to orbit for our soldiers, sailors, airman and Marines around the world," said Jim Sponnick, ULA vice president, Mission Operations. "Through our focus on attaining Perfect Product Delivery, ULA remains dedicated to providing reliable, cost-effective launch services while continuing our unwavering commitment to 100 percent mission success. Today's successful launch was the 60th since ULA was formed just over five years ago and we congratulate the AEHF team on this important step toward delivering these critical protected communications capabilities."

This mission was launched aboard an Atlas V Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) 531 configuration vehicle, which includes a 5-meter diameter RUAG Space payload fairing along with three Aerojet solid rocket motors attached to the Atlas booster. The Atlas booster for this mission was powered by the RD AMROSS RD-180 engine and the Centaur upper stage was powered by a single Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne RL10A engine.

The AEHF constellation is a joint-service satellite communications system that will provide survivable, global, secure, protected and jam-resistant communications for high-priority military ground, sea and air assets.

Developed by the United States Air Force to provide assured access to space for Department of Defense and other government payloads, the EELV Program supports the full range of government mission requirements, while delivering on schedule and providing significant cost savings over the heritage launch systems.

ULA's next launch is the Atlas V NROL-38 mission for the National Reconnaissance Office scheduled June 18 from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla.

ULA program management, engineering, test, and mission support functions are headquartered in Denver, Colo. Manufacturing, assembly and integration operations are located at Decatur, Ala., and Harlingen, Texas. Launch operations are located at Cape Canaveral AFS, Fla., and Vandenberg AFB, Calif.