Space Launch Capability Research Articles

The Atacama Rover Astrobiology Drilling Studies (ARADS) Project.

With advances in commercial space launch capabilities and reduced costs to orbit, humans may arrive on Mars within a decade. Both to preserve any signs of past (and extant) martian life and to protect the health of human crews (and Earth's biosphere), it will be necessary to assess the risk of cross-contamination on the surface, in blown dust, and into the near-subsurface (where exploration and resource-harvesting can be reasonably anticipated). Thus, evaluating for the presence of life and biosignatures may become a critical-path Mars exploration precursor in the not-so-far future, circa 2030. This Special Collection of papers from the Atacama Rover Astrobiology Drilling Studies (ARADS) project describes many of the scientific, technological, and operational issues associated with searching for and identifying biosignatures in an extreme hyperarid region in Chile's Atacama Desert, a well-studied terrestrial Mars analog environment. This paper provides an overview of the ARADS project and discusses in context the five other papers in the ARADS Special Collection, as well as prior ARADS project results.

Assured Access: A History of the US Air Force Space Launch Enterprise, 1945–2020 by David N. Spires

Reviewed by: Assured Access: A History of the US Air Force Space Launch Enterprise, 1945–2020 by David N. Spires Michael W. Hankins (bio) Assured Access: A History of the US Air Force Space Launch Enterprise, 1945–2020 By David N. Spires. Maxwell Air Force Base: Air University Press, 2022. Pp. 505. The establishment of the United States Space Force in December 2019 initiated a wide public discourse on the militarization of space. What much of that discourse failed to acknowledge was that space had been militarized long before the popular crewed space programs of the 1960s. This history of U.S. Air Force (USAF) involvement in space is the subject of Assured Access, the latest work from David Spires, who has previously published several books documenting the service's activities in the final frontier. Based almost entirely on secondary sources, Assured Access offers little new information but does present a useful single-volume overview of the evolution of USAF space launch capabilities over a broad timespan. Spires traces how the USAF's quest to control the space domain in the years immediately after World War II brought it into sharp rivalry with the U.S. Army and Navy and, later, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Readers who may not be familiar with the level of Defense Department participation in NASA programs—for example, the heavy influence the Air Force had on the space shuttle's design—will find Spires's coverage excellent. The key turning point in Spires's narrative is the 1986 Challenger explosion, in which seven astronauts tragically lost their lives. This event caused the USAF to focus on its own fleet of Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicles built by United Launch Alliance (ULA), a joint venture between Lockheed Martin and Boeing. ULA soon had competition from companies such as SpaceX and Blue Origin, as the USAF sought "on demand" launches to lift payloads into orbit with increasingly short timeframes. One of the book's major themes is the USAF's reluctance to make major investments in the space domain. "Air Force leaders were less than enthusiastic about human spaceflight and frequently ambivalent about space in general" (p. 215), Spires says of the space shuttle era. This ambivalence continued into the twenty-first century, as Spires describes how the U.S. Space Force was created largely because Congress became frustrated with "Air Force stewardship of space and what they [Congress] perceived as the secondary role of space in a service dominated by air interests" (p. 350). Spires argues [End Page 629] that events such as the creation of the space shuttle program and the Space Force were powerful motivators in spurring the USAF to action in space and that the service has achieved its goals there. Published by the Air Force, Assured Access has some of the limitations common to institutional histories. Specifically, there is little historical argument present. There is also an almost exclusive focus on hardware, and the text often resorts to lengthy lists of specifications of particular systems. Broader connections to culture and society are mostly unexplored. This is not meant as a criticism: Spires's approach presents a valuable resource for collecting detailed specifications in one volume, and the fact that Air University Press offers the book as a free, searchable PDF adds to its usefulness. What is missing from the book is a clearer explanation of what the Air Force was trying to accomplish in space operationally. Spires frequently describes the purpose of these launches as "classified reconnaissance" missions with no elaboration. In fairness, some of the more recent programs might still be classified. Still, the reader is left with little idea of what all these Air Force satellites were doing and how their missions related to broader Air Force operations. Also, little mention is made of the Soviet and Chinese space efforts, some of which undoubtedly influenced USAF decision-making. These critiques do not detract from the value of Spires's work as a resource for contextualizing the evolution of Air Force space capabilities throughout the Cold War and beyond. Assured Access deserves a place on the shelves, or, as it were, in the browser bookmarks lists, of historians of...

A Review of Indian Space Launch Capabilities

A Review of Indian Space Launch Capabilities

Research on the application of virtual instrument technology in simulation training

In orde to improve the space launch capability, the virtual instrument of the ground test equipment of the measuring system is studied by using the LaBVIEW technology in view of the present situation that there is no actual training equipment for measurement system in the emission field. A suit of virtual instrument for ground test equipment is developed to meet the requirements of daily post training. By analyzing the composition, function and working principle of the simulation training platform, this paper designs the system structure, simulation members, communication protocol and simulation flow of the simulation training platform, which can be used to complete the unit test, subsystem test, integrated test and fault disposal of the aircraft. The test operator can use the virtual instrument to have an intimate knowledge of the test flow, the operation steps, the test status, the fault disposal measures and other work contents. It can effectively improve the training level and test ability of the test operator in the emission field measurement system.

Mr. Bridenstine's “To Do” List

Mr. Bridenstine's “To Do” List

Shooting for the Stars: Introducing the National Space and Ballistic Missile (NSBM) Dataset

To what extent have space and ballistic missile capabilities proliferated globally and what impact have they had on global politics? To date, scholars have lacked a comprehensive data source on states’ global space capabilities and only limited data on their ballistic missile arsenals. The National Space and Ballistic Missile (NSBM) Dataset provides a new collection of data on states’ civilian and military rocketry programs and their presence in outer space, including information on states’ space launch capabilities, satellite capabilities, and human spaceflight. This data has potential applications for study of international security, international cooperation, and international political economy, especially as the importance of space assets continues to grow and greater numbers of countries gain access to space. This study illustrates a number of the important trends in the proliferation of space and missile capabilities revealed by our dataset. We also employ our new data to evaluate the role that supplier states have played in influencing the global proliferation of short-range ballistic missiles (SRBMs). We find that supplier states appear to be strategically motivated in preferentially helping their defense pact allies obtain SRBMs.

From Fishing Hamlet to Red Planet: India’s Space Journey ed. by P. V. Manoranjan Rao et al.

Reviewed by: From Fishing Hamlet to Red Planet: India’s Space Journey ed. by P. V. Manoranjan Rao et al. Roger D. Launius (bio) From Fishing Hamlet to Red Planet: India’s Space Journey. Edited by P. V. Manoranjan Rao, B. N. Suresh, and V. P. Balagangadharan. Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India: Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in association with HarperCollins India, 2016. Pp. 736. $34.99. EPUB 2015 download available free through ISRO at http://www.isro.gov.in/pslv-c25-mars-orbiter-mission/fishing-hamlet-to-red-planet-download-e-book. From Fishing Hamlet to Red Planet: India’s Space Journey is like so many other histories written by engineers and scientists, long on nuts and bolts and the march of progress but short on analysis and context. Edited by a senior Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) physicist, P. V. Manoranjan Rao, in association with two of his former colleagues in the organization, it seeks to explore the history of the ISRO. The editors assembled a team of colleagues to contribute sections to the book, and the authorship is without question a who’s who of Indian space leaders, as well as some others who are international figures in the spaceflight community. Rao believes that the main feature of this “compendium,” his descriptive term rather than “history,” is that it traces the space journey of India through the “original voices” of spaceflight pioneers from 1963 through 2015. The timing of this book was no accident. It originated as a fiftieth-anniversary history of space activities in India. On 21 November 1963, the first launch took place in India, a Nike Apache suborbital sounding rocket provided by NASA that was launched from the fishing village of Thumba, memorialized in the main title. In 2014 ISRO’s Mangalyaan spacecraft entered orbit around Mars. It was ISRO’s first interplanetary mission and with it India became only the fourth entity to reach Mars, after missions by [End Page 278] the Soviet Union, the United States, and the European Space Agency (ESA). These two pivotal events bookend the set of recollections here. With the first successful launch in 1963, Indian engineers and scientists pressed for the development of both satellites of all varieties and a national space launch capability. They had achieved this by the 1970s, a remarkable set of accomplishments on a much smaller budget than either the Americans or the Soviets deployed to pursue space activities. By the time of the publication of From Fishing Hamlet to Red Planet, India had become one of the top five spacefaring nations in the world. Rao and his associates present a largely thematic account, with major sections on the beginnings of the Indian space program, rocket development and operations, satellite construction and launch, ground support and guidance and control, applications technologies, relations between ISRO and industry, and recent developments since 2000. All of the chapters are essentially memoirs by practitioners, all of them triumphalist in tone. Readers will see stories here of a succession of ever more complex capabilities developed and used for scientific, military, and Earth-applications purposes. This book offers largely a first-person account, and as such it is useful for collecting in one place key participants’ recollections. It provides for the first time a comprehensive overview of the subject. It also offers the best discussions available about some of the key accomplishments of the Indian program. But for all its virtues, the overview offered here is a history written for engineers. Replete with formulaic and technical description, certainly to be expected in such a history, the authors concern themselves exclusively with the linear process of space research and development to the very great exclusion of any social or cultural factors that might have influenced ISRO’s history. As only one example, while India has been successful in much of its efforts in space, there were also notable failures passed over quickly or ignored completely in this work. For example, in April 2010 ISRO tested the three-stage Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle rocket. Designed and built by Indian engineers, during its third flight, the third stage’s cryogenic engine failed and the GSAT-4 communications and navigation satellite aboard was lost...

Exploring the Final Frontier: An Empirical Analysis of Global Civil Space Proliferation

While space capabilities were once concentrated among a handful of leading powers, an increasingly large number of states have gained access to them. As of 2007, 58 countries possessed dedicated civil space programs, 44 countries had placed nationally owned satellites into orbit, and 9 countries had achieved domestic space launch capabilities. To date, however, no systematic inquiries have ever been conducted into which countries acquire space capabilities and why. Within this paper, I develop an explanatory account that explores the capacity-based factors and political motivations that influence countries' acquisition of space capabilities. I test my hypotheses via a quantitative analysis of the factors affecting 143 countries' acquisition of civil space programs, satellite capabilities, and space launch capabilities from 1950 to 2002. My findings shed new light on the primary causes of the proliferation of civil space capabilities and yield a number of important policy implications.

Exploring the Final Frontier: An Empirical Analysis of Global Civil Space Proliferation

While space capabilities were once concentrated among a handful of leading powers, an increasingly large number of states have gained access to them. As of 2007, 58 countries possessed dedicated civil space programs, 44 countries had placed nationally-owned satellites into orbit, and 9 countries had achieved domestic space launch capabilities. To date, however, no systematic inquiries have ever been conducted into which countries acquire space capabilities and why. Within this paper, I develop an explanatory account that explores both the capacity-based factors and political motivations that influence countries’ acquisition of space capabilities. I test my hypotheses via a quantitative analysis of the factors affecting 143 countries’ acquisition of civil space programs, satellite capabilities, and space launch capabilities from 1950-2002, which I augment with a case study of Israel’s space program. My findings shed new light on the primary causes of global space proliferation and have a number of important policy implications.

Space Launch Capabilities and National Strategy Considerations

Launching spacecraft into orbit is one of the most challenging and critical aspects of spaceflight, and thus, is a key element of any national space strategy. Over the last several decades, the United States, seeing the high cost of space access as a primary impediment to greater government and commercial utilization of space, has made several attempts to lower the cost of space access, but without success. This analysis challenges whether cost should be the primary criterion for any national space launch strategy. A review of six different civil, commercial, and national security space launch customers shows that for the four major existing customer segments, cost is a lower priority than launch reliability, crew safety, and schedule assurance. Only for two emerging customer segments, Operationally Responsive Space and entrepreneurial space ventures, is cost a primary factor. Given this analysis, existing launch systems actually meet most customers' needs, creating equilibrium in the market. Several events, though, could disrupt that equilibrium in the near future, including the development of new reusable suborbital vehicles and a shift to commercial providers for crew transportation to low Earth orbit.

Perspectives on Sino-US cooperation in civil space programs

Abstract China is one of the few countries with a space launch capability and it is now becoming more and more visible as a major player in the human access to and exploration of space. The USA is the only space superpower, as demonstrated by its wider range of missions, richer experiences and the highest budget devoted to space. There are currently no governmental bilateral space cooperation activities between the USA and China for many reasons. This paper presents an analysis of the positive and negative postures of both countries, while focusing on the ways in which the USA may benefit from space cooperation with China, starting in civil space programs. A feasible cooperative route for space collaboration between the two countries is proposed.

1.1.3 Concept Exploration into an Australian Indigenous Space Launch Capability

AbstractThis paper endeavours to explore the possibility of establishing an Australian indigenous space launch capability. The paper examines a trade space made up of a series of requirements and alterables derived from a mission statement and a set of objectives. This trade space is then optimised in an effort to maximise the benefits of such a capability, in order to determine whether the proposal is worth pursuing at the next level of system design.

Europe in Space, 1960–1973 by John Krige, Arturo Russo

792 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Europe in Space, 1960-1973. ByJohn Krige and Arturo Russo. Noordwjik , the Netherlands: European Space Agency, 1994. Pp. viii+142; illustrations, appendices, index. The combined European space effort began with modest aims and no intentions of competing with the superpower programs of the United States and the then-USSR. It was little more than a response plan aimed at coordinating and streamlining Europe’s underfunded independent national space programs, with the intent of keeping European industry up-to-date in cutting edge scientific develop­ ments and preventing an unsurmountable “technology gap.” The success ofthose fledgling efforts, which evolved into the Euro­ pean Space Agency (ESA), has been nothing less than spectacular. Today, ESA is arguably the world’s second-ranking space program. Its robust launch capacity is the world leader in commercial con­ tracts. Its telecommunications, meteorological, and scientific space programs are technology leaders. Having achieved unexpected par­ ity with the rest of the world’s major space programs, a reflective ESA commissioned this report, the first of a planned two-volume history. The handsome, clearly presented, lavishly illustrated book describes the institutional organizing and planning that by 1973 pro­ vided Europe with a coherent and coordinated action plan and thereby laid the structural foundation for its modern prominence. Europeans recognized early on the vast potential of space—the potential for telecommunications and scientific exploration to lead to technology spin-offs and ultimately to multiply military force— but were individually ill-equipped to exploit the new frontier. Krige and Russo efficiently describe the move to European unity, empha­ sizing four critical and confounding themes. The first was an extant institutional framework that encompassed separate coordinating in­ stitutions for satellite communications, scientific research, and an independent European space launch capability. Integrating these disparate programs was the initial difficult task. The second con­ cerned the distribution of space contracts and subsequent technol­ ogy, generally pitting the four countries with established national space programs (Britain, France, Italy, and Germany) against the smaller states, which relied completely on the combined effort as their high-tech conduit. Third, the former group felt the European effort should be subordinate to and complement their national ef­ forts, helping to provide a sunk-cost return, while the latter felt their interests were best protected by a separate and fully independent European space organization. The issue was and is linked to the pur­ suit of national interests and perceived state autonomy, highlighted by the “technological balance of power” (p. 83). Embedded within early negotiations was the continuing issue of an independent space launch capacity. This fourth major theme per­ vades the rest and is most evident in the ongoing Franco-British ri­ TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 793 valry regarding reliance on the Americans. This clash, characteristic of much of European integration efforts of the time, began with the British (pro-U.S.) view dominant and ended with the clear victory of the opposing French position. Analysis ofthe space launcher deci­ sion, emphasized in chapters six and seven, is the highlight of the story, demonstrating the authors’ keen insight and understanding of European integration concerns. The ESA opted to chronicle this story in-house, in a format that would promote the broadest possible appeal. Though Krige and Russo are European space’s foremost historians, Europe in Space is a nontechnical, wholly accessible introduction to the European space endeavor. The authors ably guide the reader through labyrinthine political negotiations and esoteric development programs with nary a footnote, and only the most abstract final references (appendix three, pp. 135-37). It is not, and in its defense was never intended to be, an academic space history of the rank of Walter McDougall’s unsurpassed . . . the Heavens and the Earth (New York: Basic Books, 1986). It is more properly a general introduction, comparing favor­ ably to William Walter’s attractive and approachable popular space history, Space Age (New York: Random House, 1992). Still, there is enough detail to satisfy the most demanding space enthusiasts. Read­ ers familiar with Interavia’s (formerly Jane’s) venerable Spaceflight Directory (published annually) will be comfortable with the level and comprehension of this book and will find it makes an excellent...

Near-term U.S. military and commercial launch systems: A post cold war assessment of future needs

In late 1992, the Vice President's Space Policy Advisory Board made a number of major space policy recommendations that impact the United States launch industry. These recommendations included greater cooperation and synergism and less duplication between the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Department of Defense (DOD); development of a new, more efficient space launch capability to replace the aging and operationally expensive current launch systems that are finding it increasingly difficult to compete in the global commercial market place; transition to more cost-effective ways of meeting both unmanned and manned space transportation needs in the 21st century; prudent relaxation of security regulations to foster increased world trade; sharing of capabilities with allies and friendly states; and expansion of efforts to forge partnerships with other nations in carefully selected areas. The recommendations were intended to aid the incoming administration and the new president in making funding decisions for near-term future launch systems. In the light of these recommendations, this paper examines the limitations of the current U.S. expendable launch fleet; the performance, operability, reliability, and cost-effectiveness enhancement options available; the availability of new technologies and design changes that can be applied to current systems; the requirements that would have to be met to make U.S. systems more competitive in the global market place; and the advisability of replacing or augmenting current systems with a new “Spacelift” vehicle or family of vehicles. The Spacelift concept is described and assessed against projected domestic and global mission requirements, including possible manned missions. Expendable options are compared with current launch systems and with near-term future systems such as Ariane 5. Alternative design approaches, such as partially reusable concepts; fully reusable systems; and the possibility of using foreign space assets, such as engines, are also addressed. In addition, budgetary and political constraints on implementing the Space Policy Advisory Board's recommendations are discussed.

Launch Vehicles of the Future: Earth to Near-Earth Space

None of us thought, when this colloquium was scheduled, that the timing would enable it to become a celebration as well. The launch, after years of postponements, of the Hubble Space Telescope, has cast a galactic glow over the proceedings here this week. But at the same time, the frustrating delays caused by the collapse in 1986 and very slow regeneration of the U.S. space launch capabilities since then make this discussion of near-earth access very pointed.As we know, the sheer momentum of the U.S. Space Shuttle Program has dominated our perceptions of space launch for a decade and a half. It reached its peak in the early 1980s when our national policy placed nearly total reliance on the Shuttle as our means of access to space. It was a policy doomed to fail, for obvious and not-so-obvious reasons.

United States Launch Vehicle Systems

AbstractUnited States policy for national space launch capability provides for a balanced mix of launches, utilizing the Space Shuttle and Expendable Launch Vehicles (ELVs). It also directs government agencies to encourage and support the development of a domestic commercial expendable launch vehicle industry. This is to be accomplished by contracting for necessary ELV launch services directly from the private sector and by facilitating access by commercial launch firms to national launch and launch-related property and services they request to support these commercial operations.The current mixed fleet includes the Space Shuttle and four expendable launch vehicles - Titan, Atlas, Delta and Scout. New small class launch vehicles, including Pegasus, are in development. In addition, studies are underway to assure that the United States has cost-effective, reliable access to space, heavy-lift launch capability, and a new manned spacecraft after the current Space Shuttle reaches the end of its operational life. This paper will highlight the current capabilities of the mixed fleet and summarize the plans for new or modified United States launch vehicles through the first decade of the next century.

National Space Launch Recovery Program

The USAF's plans for providing space launch capabilities through 1995 are outlined in this transcript of the speech given by Col. Martin at the National Technical Meeting of the Institute of Navigation, Santa Barbara, California, January 1988.