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starship-design: O'Keefe Says OSP Will Cover Exploration Vision
O'Keefe Says OSP Will Cover Exploration Vision
Aviation Week & Space Technology
11/03/2003, page 28
Frank Morring, Jr.
Washington
(Embedded image moved to file: pic08281.gif)
O'Keefe telling skeptical lawmakers OSP will cover exploration 'vision'
Earth to Orbit
NASA hasn't committed itself to accelerating its proposed Orbital Space
Plane
(OSP) program by two years, and it won't issue a contract on the project
until
Congress has a say on any long-term space-exploration plans the White House
may
propose, Administrator Sean O'Keefe has told members of Congress worried the
space
agency is getting ahead of itself on the $15-billion program.
Two of the most influential NASA overseers on Capitol Hill--Rep. Sherwood
Boehlert
(R-N.Y.), chairman of the House Science Committee, and that panel's ranking
Democrat, Rep. Ralph Hall of Texas--last week urged O'Keefe to defer work on
the
OSP until there is a clear idea of where the U.S. is going in space. After
an
exchange of letters didn't settle the question, O'Keefe said he would
discuss it
directly with Boehlert.
"The recent creation of an inter-agency space policy group in the White
House is
testimony to the fact that the nation has made no decision on the outline of
its
human space flight agenda," Boehlert and Hall wrote O'Keefe in a letter they
released Oct. 27. "Therefore, neither the mission nor the benefits of the
OSP are
knowable at this point."
The pair particularly questioned the validity of NASA estimates on the cost
of
accelerating development of OSP so it could start serving as a crew rescue
vehicle
for the International Space Station as early as 2008, two years ahead of the
schedule in the current Integrated Space Transportation Plan.
Dennis Smith, the OSP program manager, has told lawmakers it will cost
$11-13
billion to build a down-only crew rescue version of OPS that could be
stationed at
the International Space Station (ISS) after launch on an expendable rocket.
Sen.
John McCain (R-Ariz.), chairman of the Senate panel, said the overall OSP
estimate
was $15 billion, presumably including its two-way crew transport vehicle
(CTV)
variant.
(Embedded image moved to file: pic04734.jpg)(Embedded image moved to file:
pic00053.pcx)
European engineers conceived this OSP winged vehicle with an escape pod for
crew
survivability on ascent. Lawmakers say policy should shape the craft.Credit:
EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY
"Given NASA's current cost estimates for the program, the OSP five-year
budget
plan that accompanied the FY 2004 NASA budget request is clearly no longer
credible," Boehlert and Hall wrote. "Thus the credibility of the accelerated
OSP
program plan and cost estimate, formulated prior to decisions on the design
of the
OPS and in the absence of any cost estimates for NASA's other planned space
transportation initiatives, also must be considered questionable."
O'Keefe reminded Boehlert, Hall and the Senate panel that NASA won't issue a
request for proposal for OSP until the end of this month at the earliest,
and
won't award a contract until next August. By that time, he said, Congress
will
have had time to consider the issues raised in the letter written by
Boehlert and
Hall.
"The administration is reviewing the overall plan for a crew transfer
vehicle to
the International Space Station (ISS) in light of overall U.S. space
exploration
goals, as part of the FY 2005 budget process," O'Keefe wrote the two House
members. "This planning horizon will permit ample time for Congress to fully
consider this important endeavor."
That didn't satisfy Boehlert and Hall, who released O'Keefe's letter and
stated
"it does not explain how the Orbital Space Plane fits into an overall vision
for
the human space flight program, but rather acknowledges that such a vision
is
still being developed." O'Keefe disagreed, and said late Thursday he would
take
the matter up with Boehlert.
"We're making no contractual commitments that would preclude a mid-course
correction," O'Keefe said of the OSP planning process. But as in the past,
he
would not speculate on whether the White House discussions would produce a
better
idea of what the mission of the OSP will be beyond transporting crew to and
from
the ISS, saying again that the ultimate decision will be made and announced
by
President Bush.
"There is an interagency process underway, in which we are looking at
various
options for the vision objectives as well as the strategic modifications to
the
basic plan as presented," O'Keefe told Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Tex.).
Until
Bush announces his space exploration "vision," O'Keefe said, the long-term
U.S.
space effort will continue to be focused on three exploration
enablers--nuclear
power and propulsion, human endurance in space, and broadband
communications--outlined in the Fiscal 2004 budget request (AW&ST Feb. 10,
p. 63).
He said that work would support human exploration to any of the destinations
under
discussion--the Moon, Mars or the L2 Lagrange point where big human-services
space
telescopes could work with less heat interference from Earth and the Sun
(AW&ST
Oct. 27, p. 27).
"WE ARE NOT committing the administration or the Congress beyond the scope
of what
is contained in the budget today," O'Keefe told Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.).
"That
said, we are exploring the option to accelerate [OSP], and to the extent
that that
will be pursued, there will be ample opportunity to do that question and
incorporate it as part of the president's [Fiscal 2005 budget] well before
any
[OSP] contract."
Adm. (ret.) Harold W. Gehman, Jr., who headed the Columbia Accident
Investigation
Board, told the Senate panel that while his group did not endorse any design
or
destination for future U.S. space vehicles, it did urge a clear link between
the
vehicle and its "concept of operations." Regardless of what the ultimate
destination of human space exploration is, in moving from the surface of the
Earth
to low-Earth orbit (LEO) the OSP will have to traverse the most difficult
and
dangerous leg of the trip, Gehman said.
"We need some leadership to say that just getting into and out of low-Earth
orbit
without killing a lot of people is a goal worthy in and of itself," Gehman
said.
"That's hard to argue because it isn't very jazzy."
After the hearing, Gehman said the best OSP design would be one that could
evolve
into a vehicle that goes beyond LEO, an argument European engineers made in
recommending a winged OSP based on the Hermes spaceplane (AW&ST Oct. 27, p.
28).
In a proposal likely to find interest on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers are
on the
verge of directing NASA to study ways of improving crew survivability on the
space
shuttle, one European concept would even have an "ejectable cabin" lifting
body
within the winged vehicle that could eject in the event of an accident on
ascent,
or be used as an ISS lifeboat (see diagram).
"I don't see any reason why the same vehicle which is used to get into and
out of
low-Earth orbit couldn't also go to other places," Gehman said, stressing
that
flight frequency requirements for a CTV are also likely to increase in the
years
ahead. "L2 is not much different from low-Earth orbit."