NASA's CCD poster, displaying the various commercial projects underway to support the ISS.
With the cancellation of the space shuttle program, America finds itself
once again at the unenviable position of lacking a ride into space. The
last time this happened was in the 1970's, as the Apollo-Soyuz project
came to an end in 1975, the Skylab space station burned up over
Australia, and the Moon landings were terminated by a government trying
to get out of the Vietnam War. American astronauts did not return to
space until the first flight or orbiter Columbia in 1981.
With the destruction of Columbia on mission STS-107 on February 1, 2003,
President GW Bush directed NASA to revise the shuttle program and
examine the agency's priorities and direction. Eventually it was decided
by President Bush in 2005 to cancel the space shuttle program in 2010
once the ISS finished construction. NASA was then directed to use the
savings from the termination of space shuttle missions to design and
build a new, less expensive rocket system (The Ares-1 rocket and the
Orion capsule) for flights to Earth Orbit, as well as a larger heavy
lift vehicle (Ares-V) which would lift large satellites, space stations,
and lunar explorers into Earth orbit. A plan was developed to build
Lunar landers and a base would be placed on the Moon. This plan was
called The Vision For Space Exploration and the rocket development
program was named the Constellation Program, reminiscent of the Apollo
Program and the Saturn series of rockets.
Ares 1-X launch, pad LC-39B, October 28, 2009.
Program patch for the Ares 1-X mission. Collectors, good luck getting this one. At least I've got the pin.
The Constellation program did not succeed as hoped. There were the
inevitable delays in design and testing of hardware, the program began
running up costs, and there were many disagreements in NASA management
and fights between the government and NASA. Basically, when the
government tries to make things, it always costs more than they plan.
Furthermore, Congress did not provide extra funding for the
Constellation program, which meant that as savings from the shuttle
retirements failed to be realized, and costs went up on developing new
rockets, money had to be found by moving it from other projects.
Eventually, only one test flight of the early Ares (Ares 1-X) was
performed on October 28, 2009.
President Obama announced the cancellation of the Constellation Program
in 2010, but then modified the idea two months later. Gone were any
ideas of a program to return to the Moon, plan for Mars, or any part of
the Constellation program. Instead, NASA would spend its money on
technology development, astronauts would fly to the ISS on Russian
rockets, and the ISS would be shut down in 2015. After enormous gasps of
shock by the space-supporting public and Congress, the life of the ISS
was extended to 2020. A fight in Congress over the change in the program
led to... a new change in the program. The White House and the NASA
administration developed a plan to give seed funding to private
corporations to develop new rockets and capsules to provide America with
access to low Earth orbit and the ISS, while NASA would develop the SLS
(Space Launch System) heavy lift vehicle, with the goal of eventually
exploring deeper space beyond the Moon and perhaps visiting asteroids.
(Actually it would take an entire book to cover the history of how the
Congress and White House fought over what direction NASA should take.)
Logo for the Commercial Crew Program initiative.
The Commercial Crew and Cargo Program Office, which oversees the seed
funding to private companies developing new systems into Earth orbit, is
run by NASA and is intended to eventually choose two independent
rocket/capsule programs which will support the ISS. This includes cargo
delivery as well as an eventual manned crew capability. Since the
program began in 2010, there have been some significant developments to
the point that there are about seven companies seeking CCD development
money. There are actually only a few contenders capable of making the
grade in the next little while. This coming weekend, one of the
competitors, Space Exploration technologies (SpaceX), will attempt a
grand mission to send the first private corporation's cargo craft to
dock with ISS and deliver supplies. Also this last week has seen other
companies make important announcements about their programs in the new
race to put Americans back in space.
While we wait for the SpaceX Dragon launch to the ISS on May 19, I'll
cover each of these major CCD programs and give you some links to learn
more information. In the meantime, peruse these Wikipedia links on the
programs I've mentioned:
Vision for Space Exploration:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vision_for_Space_Exploration
Constellation Program:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constellation_program
National Space Act of 2010:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_Authorization_Act_of_2010
Commercial Crew Development:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commercial_Crew_Development
By Mark Daymont
Space Center Educator
Spacerubble.blogspot.com
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