RIP Crew Module Simulator

After a day of trials by weather and an eventual scrub, the Ares I-X booster launched Wednesday morning into a hazy Florida sky. After a 2 minute, twelve second burn of its sole solid rocket booster, the vehicle performed a planned stage separation, with the booster itself parachuting down to the recovery area in the Atlantic Ocean. The Upper Stage Simulator continued its parabolic track and crashed in to the ocean, taking with it the Orion Crew Module Simulator. Even though it was only a mockup, and not even what you could call a boilerplate, it is sad that it won't wind up on display anywhere.

Kennedy Space Center Director Bob Cabana described it as "the most beautiful thing he ever saw". I agree, but adding the thrill was less like watching humans travel to space aboard a Shuttle, and more like a large model rocket. Like a model rocket, the X-1 used a reusable booster launched with solid fuel, and deploying a recovery system. There was no recovery system for the USS and the CMS, so as planned they were expendable. So good-bye CMS! We hardly knew you! And we end with a cardinal rule of model rockets: If you don't want to lose it, don't launch it!

My apologies for the shaky cam!

Spacecraft of the Week #8

Tomorrow morning, Tuesday, October 20, shortly after midnight, an event will occur that has not happened in almost 30 years. A new launch vehicle will leave the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center and make its way to Launch Complex 39B. Atop the Ares I-X booster is our Spacecraft of the Week. The 'Crew Module Simulator' is a boilerplate of an Orion Spacecraft. Mounted on a simulated service module and topped with a Launch Abort System Simulator, the CMS is heavily instrumented to provide feedback of the forces experienced in the launch.

The Ares I-X has been the center of some controversy. Built as a test for the more powerful Ares I, this uprated Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster (SRB) was never intended to launch alone. Paired up along side an external fuel tank , SRBs have helped launch Space Shuttles since 1981. With modifications and an extra segment of rocket fuel, the Ares I was intended to launch astronauts to orbit and the International Space Station. Critics fear that undampened vibrations of the burning solid fuel would prove fatal for astronauts aboard. The same fears arose after the Saturn V's first flight. Engineering provided an answer and the Saturn V became one of the most successful boosters in history. The Ares I-X will provide similar data and provide engineers with a benchmark for final development of the Ares I.

But first, the CMS and the Ares I-X need to get to the pad. Tomorrow will be an exciting day for space hardware enthusiasts, and sitting atop the object of their attention will be our Spacecraft of the Week, the Crew Module Simulator.

Go for Orion

The new Orion spacecraft has just completed its preliminary design review, or PDR. This follows over 300 technical reviews, 100 peer reviews and 18 subsystem design reviews. The PDR is an important step in the development of the new spacecraft, verifying engineering reliability and safety, and is needed before manufacturing begins. Though an important step, waiting on this has not stopped NASA from the testing of subsystems, including the Launch Escape System. The Pad Abort 1 test boilerplate is in New Mexico waiting for it's upcoming test at the White Sands Missile Range. It will be launched by the power of the LES rockets in the same manner as was done with Apollo capsules in the 60's. I'll be watching to see what happens to this Orion test article. It may be tough to keep track of all the test articles, boilerplates and models to come in the next few years, but that is my goal to keep the Field Guide the most complete guide to American spacecraft on the internet!

Orion PORT Trainer Cross Country Trek

The Post-landing Orion Recovery Test trainer is on it's way across the southern US from KSC to JSC. It stopped yesterday at the Challenger Center in Tallahassee, FL, with a planned visit today to the Naval Aviation Museum, Pensacola, Fla., from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. CDT. The remainder of the trainer's itinerary places it at these locations:

-- StenniSphere, NASA's Stennis Space Center, Miss., Wed., Aug. 12, 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. CDT.
-- Museum of Natural Science, Jackson, Miss., Aug. 13, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. CDT
-- NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas, Aug. 14, 3 p.m. CDT through Aug. 17, approximately 9 a.m. CDT

Be sure to stop by if you are close to one of these sites. And send me a picture or two!