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3 The Era of Commercial Spaceflight
Pages 14-22

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From page 14...
... At the time of the forum, he was a Boeing commercial test pilot astronaut scheduled to be on the first flight of the CST-100 Starliner. Commercial companies launching astronauts into space "is what the future of spaceflight holds," he said.
From page 15...
... To return astronauts to Earth, the service module will be jettisoned just after the deorbit burn. The crew Reuse "allows you to gain module will then land at one of five experience in a much shorter West Coast landing sites: two at the time and to start iteratively improving your spacecraft White Sands Test Facility in New based on what you get back." Mexico and one each near Wilcox, Arizona, at the Dugway Proving Ground in Utah, and at Edwards Air Force Base in California.
From page 16...
... In terms of international involvement, the H-II Transfer Vehicle designed by the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency has transported materials to the ISS. NASA still works with Russia to get crews back and forth, but Congress has mandated that the agency not use Chinese spacecraft to reach the station, although the Chinese have flown astronauts into space and are partnering with other nations.
From page 17...
... "Landing the boosters and reusing them is an incredible advantage if you want to fly over and over again and if you want to do this quickly," he said. "It allows you to gain experience in a much shorter time and to start iteratively improving your spacecraft based on what you get back and what you see." The boosters are currently designed to be used ten times, and the Crew Dragon will be used up to five times.
From page 18...
... "We have to figure out how to recycle everything that we take into space, and how we can use the materials on the planetary bodies where we place humans." Ultimately, this work will benefit people on Earth, she observed, because the Earth has finite resources, too. Crippen said that he firmly believes humans will visit Mars someday, but doing so will require living not just on the ISS but on another planetary body.
From page 19...
... We can conquer all kinds of issues that might otherwise create fractionization and dysfunctionality. We still have some, but in general the whole community pulls together." Moderator Deanne Bell with panelists Thomas Stafford and Robert Crippen.
From page 20...
... Developing the to think ethically and how to Space Shuttle took between $30 make the right decision, even billion and $40 billion in 2010 if it means the program is dollars, and the shuttle program slowed for a while." cost about $3 billion per year for four or five flights annually. For the cost of operating the Space Shuttle program for two years, two commercial providers have been doing development of spacecraft, two test flights, and six service flights back and forth to the ISS.
From page 21...
... When cutting corners becomes normal operations, "you forget to question things." Everyone working on a program needs to remain alert, to think about what they are doing, to question, to listen to the system, to make sure they have an environment where people can bring up questions, she said. That is the way "to create the right safety environment, whether you are moving fast or you are moving slow." Stafford put the necessary balance succinctly: "The worst thing you can have is an on-time failure." The safety mindset at NASA has carried over into the space industry, said Ferguson.
From page 22...
... You need a mix." The proper mix will depend on the mission, but both require an expensive infrastructure and both have their own fragility and limitations. "It is never going to be an ‘either-or.' It is always going to be an ‘and.'" Stafford sealed the argument by pointing out that the Curiosity rover covered the same distance on Mars in three and a half years that astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt did on Apollo 17 in three days.


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