Falcon 1, Flight 3 Launch Video

Video below

Why Won't ESMD Release Orion Parachute Test Vehicle Crash Photos?

Editor's note: I have made multiple requests of ESMD PAO starting on 2 August for pictures of the recent crash of the Orion Parachute Test Vehicle. AlI get back from ESMD PAO are responses such as "I don't, but I'll let you know when I know." Pictures were taken - to document the test and its aftermath. So why won't ESMD PAO release these pictures? What are they afraid of? Is there an ITAR issue? Or is this just an attempt to stall the release of images that would be bad PR for NASA? Is it time to file another FOIA request?

Orion Drop Test Fails, earlier post

Plasma Reboost

Plasma Rocket May Be Tested at Space Station, Discovery Channel

"NASA is considering flying a prototype plasma rocket engine designed by a former astronaut to the International Space Station for testing, officials said Wednesday. The engine is called a Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket, or VASIMR, and if that sounds like something you'd see on Star Trek, you're not too far from the truth."

Imaginary Party Splits and Bad Facts at the Washington Examiner

Rocket Man? Obama Tries to Hitch a Ride on Space Politics, Washington Examiner

"And some people, like Sen. Barack Obama, find the religion in space exploration when it's late in the campaign season, criticisms over his anti-space views are flying, and rumors of a Democratic party split over space are gaining velocity."

Space a Potential Fracture Line at Democratic National Convention?, Washington Examiner

"On the other hand, there's the presumptive nominee, Sen. Barack Obama, who's widely regarded as anti-space, despite this weeks's Google spin."

Editor's note: Question for author (former NASA PAO) Patricia Phillips: And you base these statements of yours on ... facts? You only seem to be citing "rumors". If you actually have some facts, please provide that underlying information to prove that Obama is indeed "anti-space" or perceived to be that way. For this to be an issue that is splitting the party thousands of people within the Democratic Party would need to be aware of this issue. You'll need to prove that too.

Oh yes, Patricia Phillips, who openly touts her NASA credentials, seems to be totally ignorant of a few historic facts as they relate to space exploration. NACA was the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics. NACA became NASA in 1958. But Obama is not talking about NACA. If Phillips had taken the time to carefully read or listen to what Obama said, she'd have seen that he was talking about bringing back "the National Aeronautics and Space Council". The Space Council, an advisory body operated by the White House and chaired by the Vice President is not - nor has it ever been - the same thing as NACA. Do a little more research before you dump on people in the future, Patricia.

Editor's update: I just got a really weird email from Patricia Phillips. Either she does not understand that she made an error or she does but has no intention of fixing it. Publicly released text and video of Sen. Obama speaking in Florida utterly refute her claim that he was talking about NACA. Oh well.

P.S. She also thinks a company named "McDonnell-Douglas" still exists.

SpaceX Telecon on Falcon 1 Launch Failure

SpaceX Determines Cause of Falcon 1 Launch Failure

"According to Elon Musk: We have a definitive understanding of what went wrong on Flight 3. The problem was due to a design error not a production or quality assurance issue. The thrust transient was longer than it was for the prior flight. The previous flight had an ablatively cooled engine. Flight 3 had a regeneratively cooled engine. The gap between engine cut off and staging was 1.5 seconds - which was fine for the ablatively cooled engine on Flight 2. But on Flight 3, with the regeneratively cooled engine, there was some residual thrust after engine shut down and this caused the first stage to be pushed back toward the second stage after separation and there was a recontact between the stages."

Editor's note: SpaceX puts everything on line - live - and comes back with a cogent failure analysis within a matter of days - for all the world to see. Contrast this with NASA's Ares/Constellation program wherein test failures are hidden and design flaws are suppressed.

I think I know who will get hardware on-orbit first.

Design Your Own Google Lunar X PRIZE T-Shirt

Google Lunar X PRIZE T-Shirt Design Competition!

"We've got rockets. We've got rovers. We've got a race. But what we don't have is a creative, original T-Shirt that perfectly captures the spirit of exploration and innovation of the Google Lunar X PRIZE.

And is any world-wide competition complete without a cool T-Shirt? No! So we're reaching out to you, our biggest fans, to help us solve this grand challenge, in true X PRIZE Foundation fashion (no pun intended)."

Martian Chemistry

NASA Mars Phoenix Spacecraft Analyzing Martian Soil Data

"Within the last month, two samples have been analyzed by the Wet Chemistry Lab of the spacecraft's Microscopy, Electrochemistry, and Conductivity Analyzer, or MECA, suggesting one of the soil constituents may be perchlorate, a highly oxidizing substance."

Editor's note: Heads up NASA PAO: This press release says: "perchlorate, a highly oxidizing substance". Shouldn't that actually read "perchlorate, a (highly?) oxidized substance"? There is a difference between the two terms - and this release is all about science after all...

Orion Drop Test Fails

NASA Orion Parachute Test Vehicle Fails Drop Test

"All but one of the 18 parachutes inflated. Although all other parts of the test and the system itself performed as intended, the parachute responsible for getting the mockup to the correct test conditions - called a programmer chute - did not inflate during the test. As a result, the test failed. The engineering team will be studying the hardware and the parachutes, as well as analyzing computer models and imagery, to determine what caused the problem."

New NASA Contractor ID Regs

NASA proposed Rule: Personal Identity Verification of Contractors

"NASA proposes to revise the NASA FAR Supplement (NFS) to update procedures for compliance with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subpart 4.13, Personal Identity Verification of Contractor Personnel. FAR 4.13 requires that agencies include their implementing guidance of FIPS 201 and OMB guidance M-05-24 in solicitations and contracts that require the contractor to have routine physical access to Federally-controlled facilities and/or access to Federally- controlled information systems. NASA further proposes to designate The Assistant Administrator, Office of Security and Program Protection as the official with overall responsibility for verifying contractor employee personal identity."

Being Transparent - Regardless of What the Impetus Was

NASA Mars Phoenix Team Opens Window on Scientific Process, NASA

"The Phoenix project has decided to take an unusual step" in talking about the research when its scientists are only about half-way through the data collection phase and have not yet had time to complete data analysis or perform needed laboratory work, said Phoenix principal investigator Peter Smith of the University of Arizona, Tucson. Scientists are still at the stage where they are examining multiple hypotheses, given evidence that the soil contains perchlorate. "We decided to show the public science in action because of the extreme interest in the Phoenix mission, which is searching for a habitable environment on the northern plains of Mars," Smith added. "Right now, we don't know whether finding perchlorate is good news or bad news for possible life on Mars."

Editor's note: This is, of course, a wonderful thing for the team to do and I applaud them for doing so. People - you know the 99.99% of the real world outside of NASA - are really interested in what these Mars folks do - and they pay the bills. The more insight the public has, the more they are inclined to see the value of these missions and feel as if they are participating - albeit vicariously.

Alas, at the press briefing, I asked if the team had already decided to undertake this "unusual step" before the news broke - or if they would have done it had the news not broken. I really did not get a crisp answer. I then asked why it is, after a decade of having the Internet surprise NASA PAO again and again with news getting out ahead of NASA's planned release, that the agency has still not learned to adapt to this ever shifting fact of life in the 21st century. No real answer to that question either - and what I heard had a certain grumpiness to it. Listen for yourself.

NASA PAO is still in denial about how the world works. And so are the scientists who work on these missions, after-the-fact openness notwithstanding. They drop hints to the media and then get indignant when their hints appear online. Perhaps this latest instance will teach a few of them something. Alas, I am not holding my breath.

Rumor Control

NASA quickly goes into rumor-control overdrive over Mars findings, SF Chronicle

"It took Dwayne Brown, a leading NASA public affairs spokesman to tell a press teleconference: "There have been reports over the weekend that NASA had made a major finding that it was withholding from the public and this speculation has fueled a host of rumors." Neither the White House nor the President's science advisers have been briefed on the new findings by anyone, Brown stated. Then he turned the teleconference over to the scientists at Phoenix mission headquarters in Tucson. Well, it all turns out that indeed the scientists working with data from their analytical instruments aboard the spacecraft had detected something significant."

Phoenix Found More Than Water on Mars, earlier post
News From Mars: Soil Less Earth-like Than Thought, earlier post
NASA Uses Twitter To Shoot Down Mars Story, earlier post
Is Mars Poisonous? Tasty? Confusing? Tune In And See, earlier post

Is Mars Poisonous? Tasty? Confusing? Tune In And See

Dwayne Brown: Replays of this telecon will play all week. [Now online here] There were reports over the weekend that NASA was withholding information. This caused lots of rumors. This briefing will set the record straight. Mike Meyer, Michael Hecht, Peter Smith, Bill Boynton on telecon.

Mike Meyer: Media discussion could be significant but research results not conclusive. That is why NASA did not include perchlorate results. More result is needed. Results will be publicised widely once confirmed.

Lunar Lander Challenge Has Ten Teams

X PRIZE Foundation Announces Ten Teams Vying for Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge

"The X PRIZE Foundation today announced that ten teams will compete in the 2008 Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge, which will take place at Holloman Air Force Base in Alamogordo, New Mexico, October 24-25, 2008.

The Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge is a two-level, two million dollar competition requiring a vehicle to simulate trips between the moon's surface and lunar orbit."

Daily Yomiuri Publishes Inaccurate HTV Purchase Claims - Again

HTV spacecraft could take off - Japan's transport vehicle eyed as replacement for U.S. space shuttle, Daily Yomiuri

"In February this year, the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration made reference to the HTV in its budget message for fiscal 2009, saying it is possible it might purchase the HTV in the future. At a press conference one month later, NASA Administrator Michael Griffin expressed high hopes for the HTV, saying it was expected to make a large contribution in the supply of goods to the ISS."

Editor's note: Apparently the folks at the Daily Yomiuri are breathing their own fumes. NASA already responded to an earlier story 2 weeks ago and denied that HTV purchases are being considered.

Gutting COTS - Update, earlier post

NASA Names New PA&E Director

NASA Names New Associate Administrator for Program Analysis and Evaluation

"NASA Administrator Michael Griffin announced the appointment of W. Michael Hawes as the associate administrator for Program Analysis and Evaluation (PA&E). Hawes will succeed Scott Pace, who will leave the agency later this month to become director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University."

NOMAD Goes Down Again

NOMAD Status

Monday, August 4, 2008 - 5:36 P.M. Central: Due to a power outage at MSFC, there is no connectivity to the NOMAD infrastructure. Although servers are operational, there is no connectivity; therefore, users with accounts hosted at MSFC have no ability to send and receive email on desktops, laptops, Outlook Web Access (OWA), Instant Messanger (IM) or handheld devices. More info to come.

Monday, August 4, 2008 - 7:26 P.M. Central: Connectivity to all NOMAD services has been re-established. Some messages that are still in queue need to be delivered to BlackBerry and Treo users, but they will be delivered shortly. This outage was caused by an Army power failure at the Redstone Arsenal.

Editor's note: A power outage at an Army base crashes NASA's NOMAD? Every modern ISP I have ever heard of has back-up power - especially when critical services are hosted. I guess NASA went the cheap route. Does this mean that NASA has accepted an IT solution such that NOMAD-supported services can go down across the U.S. due to a single point failure in Alabama - one that the Army oversees? Who came up with this ingenious plan?

News From Mars: Soil Less Earth-like Than Thought

NASA Mars Phoenix Data More Negative On Potential For Life, Aviation Week & Space Technology

"NASA will announce today that new data from the Phoenix Mars lander indicate that it is looking less conclusive that soil analyzed by the lander's soil chemistry experiment is Earth-like and can support life.

An initial soil test by the Microscopy, Electrochemistry, and Conductivity Analyzer (MECA) instrument indicated that the soil is highly Earth-like. The second test, however, is leading scientists to view the data as more inconclusive."

NASA: Reports of Martian-Life Announcement 'Bogus', Fox

"Note the [Aviation Week] story said very, very clearly three times or so, NO life on Mars detected and Phoenix can NOT [detect life] in the first place," Covault wrote in an e-mail."

NASA Phoenix Lander Spacecraft Analyzing Martian Soil Data, NASA

"Scientists are analyzing results from soil samples delivered several weeks ago to science instruments on NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander to understand the landing site's soil chemistry and mineralogy."

NASA's Mars News Is Not Life, But Perchlorate, Slashdot

"In an update to the little green men story of not-life-on-Mars, NASA has twittered: 'The buzz this weekend was due to an interesting soil chemistry finding, still preliminary, but now avail here:' where 'here' is NASA Spacecraft Analyzing Martian Soil Data. The exciting bit: 'Within the last month, two samples have been analyzed by the Wet Chemistry Lab of the spacecraft's Microscopy, Electrochemistry, and Conductivity Analyzer, or MECA, suggesting one of the soil constituents may be perchlorate, a highly oxidizing substance.

JSC Closing for Edouard

Editor's 12:34 pm EDT note: Word has it from JSC employees that the center is closing at noon and that it will be closed tomorrow as well due to the impending arrival of tropical storm Edouard. However, the JSC Center Status website has not been updated to reflect that - yet.

Editor's 1:32 pm EDT update: NASA JSC Center Closing Announcement

"JSC will close at noon today (except for those employees completing critical closure activities in advance of Tropical Storm Edouard). The center will remain closed tomorrow, Aug. 5, and will resume normal operations on Wednesday, Aug. 6. Employees should be off site by 5 p.m. today."

Mike Griffin's Evolving Opinion On ISS and Shuttle

NASA's Griffin Tells Forum Crowd There Are No Guarantees In Space Travel, Aero-News.net

"The US and its partners have invested $100 billion in the [ISS]," said Griffin, "so it does seem short-sighted to not spend the $3 billion a year to maintain the Shuttle. " Directing his comments to the children in the audience, "Sometimes Washington does silly things."

What Mike Griffin *Really* Thinks About NRC's Space Station Report (2005 posting)

"I'm copying a bunch of folks on this note because it concerns the nucleus of a strategic problem for us in going forward with the VSE. Bottom line, we're going to have to answer the specific issues in this report. We're going to have to define the program of activity for ISS that obtains from it the utility that it can provide. We may NOT be able to fund that activity at present; I consider that almost a fact on the ground. But we can put in place the kind of peer-reviewed science that we WOULD do, given the money, and that we WILL do, when we can afford it."

Why the U.S. should return to the moon and venture on to Mars, (edited transcript), USA Today (2005)

"Q: In retrospect, was the shuttle program a mistake?
Griffin: My opinion is that it was.

Q: Was the space station a mistake?
Griffin: I would not have built the space station. We are now trying to change the path while doing as little damage as we can."

Editor's note: First the ISS and the Shuttle were "mistakes" (Griffin's own words). Now their imminent demise is "short sighted".

NASA Still Unable to Solve Media Induced Problem with Ares 1 Design

NASA's Griffin Tells Forum Crowd There Are No Guarantees In Space Travel, Aero-News.net

"A few audience questions centered on the vibration issues associated with the Constellation launch. Dr. Griffin expressed the opinion that much of the concerns were "media induced" and that NASA was close to fixing the problem."

Editor's note: I wonder why the Ares PDR is having such a difficult time with this "media induced" design issue, Mike? They just can't seem to solve it no matter what they try. Could it be that there are just too many journalists on NASA's payroll particpating in the PDR?

Mike Griffin Wishes He Could Continue Flying The Shuttle

NASA's Griffin Tells Forum Crowd There Are No Guarantees In Space Travel, Aero-News.net

"When asked what would he do if "wishes were free" and NASA's budget were doubled (the equivalent of the inflation-adjusted program for Apollo), the Administrator's response was as follows: 1) [We] wouldn't rely on another country and would develop a new system in parallel to continuing to use the Space Shuttle; 2) Begin working on vehicle systems sooner; and 3) Do more advanced research, the "blue sky stuff."

Editor's note: Wait a minute: after 3 years of saying that NASA must retire the Space Shuttle, is Mike Griffin now saying that he'd continue flying the shuttle if he had enough money - despite what the CAIB recommended (safety, recertification etc) ? Hmm ... this sounds a lot like something one of the presidential candidates (and their surrogates) has been saying ...

Idiots and Politicos Are Not Welcome on the 9th Floor

Michael Griffin at Oshkosh, The Space Review

"[Griffin] did point out that, contrary to press reports, the Bush administration has not interfered with political appointments on staffing. He said that he wanted control of who was on his staff because he doesn't want to work with "idiots" (and he did use the word "idiots").

Editor's note: Ah, so Mike Griffin actually asked the White House if he could hire former deputy FEMA Director Patrick Rhode (who has left NASA), Karl Rove's political operative Jane Cherry (now NASA's White House Liaison), and of course, George Deutsch to come to work at NASA HQ? I am not suggesting that any of these folks are idiots (since Mike has decided that they are not) but they were all overt political appointees foisted upon NASA - however Mike Griffin wants to try and spin things.

NASA Uses Twitter To Shoot Down Mars Story

Editor's note: NASA PAO has had absolutely nothing to say about the article in Aviation Week regarding additional discoveries made by Mars Phoenix.

However, of all things, the MarsPhoenix Twitter feed commented on this issue overnight: "Heard about the recent news reports implying I may have found Martian life. Those reports are incorrect" and "Reports claiming there was a White House briefing are also untrue and incorrect."

Why is PAO letting a robot take the flack on this? Oh yes, the Av Week article did not claim that Martian life had been found. I guess robots do not read all that well. There is a vast difference between "potential" for life and "discovery of life". Aviation Week is very clear on what it is reporting. Why can't NASA PAO be equally as precise - officially - in what it is denying?

White House Briefed On Potential For Mars Life, Aviation Week

"Sources say the new data do not indicate the discovery of existing or past life on Mars."

Rumors Abound About 'Potential for Life' on Mars, Wired

"The reason that all this seems so hush-hush is due to a future paper and press release that appears likely to pop out of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and its Science magazine," Leonard [David] writes. "Whatever the poop is from the scoop that's been studied by Phoenix, that information is purportedly going through peer-review."

White House Briefed On "Potential For Life" On Mars, Slashdot

"FTA: It would appear that the US President has been briefed by Phoenix scientists about the discovery of something more 'provocative' than the discovery of water existing on the Martian surface. This news comes just as the Thermal and Evolved Gas Analyzer (TEGA) confirmed experimental evidence for the existence of water in the Mars regolith on Thursday."

Rumors of Life on Mars are Greatly Exaggerated, io9

"But the Twittering voice of the Phoenix, NASA news services manager Veronica McGregor, told tweeters they shouldn't get too excited ... And the Mars Phoenix wouldn't lie to us, would she?"

NASA prepares for possible announcement on potential for life on Mars, Tech Herald

"However NASA, through its Twitter account, denied any such claims."

Apparently there's something more exciting yet to be announced by Phoenix, Planetary Society

"According to Craig Couvalt of Aviation week, it was interesting enough to brief the President's Science Advisor; however, the Phoenix mission's Twitter feed denies this."

NASA's next small step may be into Martian manure, Sydney Morning Herald

"NASA has said little about the claims, although it has used the social networking site Twitter to downplay the reports..."

Towards A Common Sense Approach to the VSE - And Beyond

Infrastructure needed for future space exploration, The Space Review

"We need to establish a broader set of space mission interests and requirements based on overall national goals--not just those perceived by the NASA--and carefully identify the existing and planned space program capabilities that could relate to this unified need. We also need to establish independent advisory and review teams that could help to ensure that the national plan reflects a sound basis for achieving national goals and which is not swayed by regional and shortsighted special interest groups."

Falcon Launch Video and Message from Elon Musk

Audio recording of short press conference (quality is poor, sorry)

From: Elon Musk
Sent: Saturday, August 02, 2008 9:45 PM
To: Space Exploration Technologies
Subject: Plan Going Forward

Elon

Video below

Falcon 1 Launch Anomaly

SpaceX Sets August 2 for Falcon 1 launch

"Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) has scheduled the launch of the Falcon 1 Flight 3 mission for Saturday, August 2nd. The launch window will open at 4:00 p.m. (PDT) / 7:00 p.m. (EDT) and remain open for five hours. If launch is delayed for any reason, SpaceX has range availability to resume countdown through August 5. Lift-off of the vehicle will occur from SpaceX's Falcon 1 launch site at the Kwajalein Atoll, about 2500 miles southwest of Hawaii."

Editor's note: Check here for SpaceX updates. You can also follow the PreSat and NanoSailD (payload) Twitter feeds for more information.

LIVE WEBCAST

Editor's update: SpaceX update: "Launch control says that there has been an anomaly on the vehicle". (see this link for more info)