Orion heat shield delivered to KSC

James Dean, FLORIDA TODAY

A critical piece of an Orion crew exploration capsule arrived Thursday at Kennedy Space Center, more than two years before a planned unmanned test flight around the moon.

Lockheed Martin last week shipped to Kennedy Space Center the heat shield structure for an Orion exploration capsule being assembled for an unmanned test flight around the moon in late 2018.

A NASA Super Guppy aircraft touched down on the former shuttle runway with the structure that will support the Orion’s head shield, which is designed to withstand temperatures exceeding 4,500 degrees Fahrenheit. With a diameter of 16.5 feet, the heat shield is the largest ever built for a crew capsule.

NASA hopes to launch an unmanned Orion from KSC in late 2018, sending it around the moon. Exploration Mission-1 will be the first launch by NASA’s 322-foot Space Launch System rocket.

Orion prime contractor Lockheed Martin said teams at KSC would spend six months attaching blocks of Avcoat heat shielding material to the newly arrived structure, plus insulation and flight instrumentation.

The heat shield is being put together differently than the one that flew on Orion’s only flight to date, Exploration Flight Test-1 in December 2014.

The coating on that shield was a large, monolithic structure. The new one will feature about 300 individual blocks with gap fillers in between, similar to the shields on shuttle orbiters.

NASA made the change to improve the shield’s performance. Still, the shield’s evolving design represents a risk to the program “because of uncertainty about the blocks’ ability to adhere to the support structure, as well as performance of the gap filler material,” according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

SpaceX plans Sept. 3 launch from Cape Canaveral

OSIRIS-REx ready to roll

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx asteroid sampling mission is poised to move to its launch pad in preparation for a Sept. 8 liftoff from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

The booster and Centaur upper stage of a United Launch Alliance Atlas V vented gaseous propellant during a “wet dress rehearsal” test at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Launch Complex 41 on Thursday. The rocket awaits arrival of NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft on Monday in preparation for a Sept. 8 liftoff.

Weather permitting, the mission’s spacecraft on Monday will roll from a Kennedy Space Center processing facility to Launch Complex 41.

There it will be hoisted atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket, topping it out at 189 feet tall. The 65th Atlas V rocket will launch with the help of a single strap-on solid rocket booster.

Prior to the payload’s arrival, teams on Thursday fueled the rocket on the pad for a successful countdown rehearsal.

The $800 million mission aims to send a probe to the asteroid Bennu to retrieve at least a 2-ounce sample of surface material for return to Earth by 2023.

NASA's OSIRIS-REx nearing launch to collect asteroid sample

Another ISS spacewalk on tap

International Space Station astronauts Jeff Williams and Kate Rubins on Thursday, Sept. 1, will team up for their second spacewalk in less than two weeks.

NASA astronaut Jeff Williams during an Aug. 19 spacewalk outside the International Space Station. Williams and Kate Rubins are scheduled to perform another spacewalk together on Sept. 1.

Their main goal is to retract an inactive radiator that NASA wants to protect as a spare. Retracting the radiator on the Port 6 truss segment will make it less vulnerable to potential damage from space debris.

The spacewalkers also hope to install high-definition cameras expected to provide better inspections of Russian Soyuz crew spacecraft and parts of the station than are currently available.

The six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk will be the fifth for Williams, who last week broke the NASA record for most days in space (520), and second for Rubins.

You can watch the action live on NASA TV.

Spacewalk readies ISS for Boeing, SpaceX crews

Kelly congratulates new NASA record holder

Scott Kelly on Wednesday offered congratulations to NASA astronaut Jeff Williams, who broke Kelly’s record for most days in space by a U.S. astronaut.

In Mission Control on Aug. 24, former NASA astronaut Scott Kelly, left, phoned International Space Station commander Jeff Williams to congratulate him on breaking Kelly's NASA record for most days in space. Williams surpassed Kelly's mark of 520 days and is expected to reach a total of 534.

Williams surpassed 520 days over his four flights, and will reach 534 if he lands as planned on Sept. 6 in a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

“It’s great to see another record broken, and especially by a Sardine,” Kelly radioed from Mission Control in Houston, referring to the nickname for the 35-person NASA astronaut class that both men were selected to in 1996.

Kelly famously completed the first yearlong mission aboard the ISS in March and retired from NASA soon afterward. He poked a little fun at Williams, too, suggesting his mere six-month mission — the norm for station expeditions — was no endurance feat.

“My question is: You got another 190 days in you?” asked Kelly, who is writing a book about his experience titled "Endurance."

“That question’s not for me, that’s for my wife,” Williams replied.

Williams served as Kelly’s backup for the one-year mission. Williams said he told his family he’d get home sooner if he ended up flying the longer mission in Kelly’s place, but they weren't interested.

“Thank you again for doing it so I didn’t have to,” said Williams.

Williams' record is expected to be broken next year by Peggy Whitson. The NASA records fall nearly a year short of the all-time record held by Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka, who has spent 879 days in space.

NASA's Williams sets U.S. space record

Mexsat network complete

Boeing last week declared the Mexsat communications network operational after completing tests for the Mexican government.

Artist rendering of one of the Mexsat satellites built by Boeing, part of the overall Mexsat system Boeing designed, integrated and delivered to the government of Mexico.

The network’s two satellites include Morelos-3, launched from Cape Canaveral by a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket on Oct. 2, 2015.

That was a critical mission for Mexico’s Ministry of Communications and Transportation. It came on the heels of a Russian Proton rocket’s failed launch months earlier of the second Mexsat spacecraft, called Centenario. The first satellite, Bicentario, launched in 2012 on an Ariane 5 rocket.

Boeing said the network, which also includes control stations and user terminals, will make high-speed data and voice communications possible across the entire country.

After failure, Mexico counting on Atlas V to deliver satellite

Juno gets close

NASA’s Juno spacecraft on Saturday morning, Aug. 27, was scheduled to dive within 2,500 miles of Jupiter’s swirling clouds, the closest the probe will get during a mission scheduled to end early in 2018.

Artist rendering of NASA's Juno spacecraft at Jupiter.

"This is our first opportunity to really take a close-up look at the king of our solar system and begin to figure out how he works," said Scott Bolton, the mission’s lead scientist from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas.

NASA expects to release images snapped by “JunoCam” late next week.

"No other spacecraft has ever orbited Jupiter this closely, or over the poles in this fashion," said Steve Levin, Juno project scientist from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "This is our first opportunity and there are bound to be surprises. "  

Juno launched from Cape Canaveral on an Atlas V rocket in 2011 and entered orbit around the planet on July 4 this year.

Another 35 close flybys are planned during Juno's prime science mission. The spacecraft eventually will plunge into the Jovian atmosphere and be destroyed, a deliberate move planned to ensure it does not accidentally contaminate the ocean moon Europa or another moon.

ULA wins Mars 2020 rover launch

Contact Dean at 321-242-3668 or jdean@floridatoday.com.And follow on Twitter at @flatoday_jdean and on Facebook at facebook.com/jamesdeanspace.