Space Access Update is Space Access Society's when-there's-news publication. Space Access Society's goal is to promote affordable access to space for all, period. We believe in concentrating our limited resources at whatever point looks like yielding maximum progress toward this goal.
For the moment, our main focus is on supporting the government's "SSRT" (Single Stage Rocket Technology) program, DC-X and its recently funded followon, SX-2. Space Access Update is thus for the moment largely about the technology and politics of DC-X and SX-2, though we also cover the subject of reusable SSTO (Single Stage To Orbit) policy in general.
We anticipate a change of focus soon if all goes well. Once SX-2 startup is (with your help!) assured, we plan to begin working on establishment of a healthy second X-rocket development track at NASA, and on getting development of suitable engines started for the fully reusable orbital transports that should come after SX-2 and NASA's X-rocket.
With luck and hard work, we should see fully reusable SSTO testbeds flying to orbit toward the end of this decade, with production ships a-building shortly thereafter. Join us and help us make this happen.
Henry Vanderbilt, Editor, Space Access Update
[For more info on Space Access Society or on the DC-X/SSTO video we have for sale, write us at 4855 E Warner Rd #24-150, Phoenix AZ 85044, or email hvanderbilt@bix.com. Please forgive any delay in our reply; we're a couple weeks behind in answering non life-or-death email right now.]
DC-X's de-mothballing reached the point of the first try at a brief launch- stand engine test Saturday June 11th. The vehicle's systems overall worked well despite its six months in storage, but there was one significant glitch: one of DC-X's four RL-10A5 rocket engines shut down earlier than planned, presumably because the computer engine monitoring system detected some sort of out-of-limit condition from the sensors on that engine.
Data from the test run are being analyzed to pin down the precise reason for the shutdown. More when we know more.
Presumably the first re-flight won't be taking place this Wednesday after all. It seems likely the Wednesday timeslot (White Sands Missile Range hosts dozens of test programs and time is tightly scheduled) will be used for another ground test firing, if the DC-X crew can be reasonably sure they've identified and fixed the problem by then.
Assuming this glitch doesn't eat a lot of time, the main pacing factor for the first re-flight will likely be WSMR timeslot availability. We'll report any new schedule information as soon as we get hold of it.
The House Appropriations Committee is due to mark up the House FY'95 Defense Appropriations bill during this coming week. You'll recall the House FY'95 Defense Authorization already calls for $100 million for the SX-2 high-speed reusable rocket testbed.
(Roughly speaking, Authorizations bills are Congress's official shopping list, while Appropriations bills are where Congress actually writes checks. The two don't necessarily match on all points.)
The House Defense Appropriations markup will start Monday in the HAC Defense Subcommittee (John Murtha, D PA, Chairman). Representative Murtha has provided important support to the SSRT project already over the past year. We're cautiously optimistic about favorable treatment in this week's markup.
The Senate Armed Services Committee did mark up their FY'95 DOD Authorization last week, but that's about the only thing that went as expected.
For starters, SSTO research was assigned to Senator Exon's "Nuke" subcommittee (Subcommittee on Nuclear Deterrence, Arms Control and Defense Intelligence, chaired by James Exon, D NE) rather than Senator Bingaman's Defense Technology subcommittee as we'd expected. This may have been intentional on someone's part or it may have been simply out of habit, since SSRT did start in the old SDIO.
The effect of this change was to kill any chance of getting SX-2 funding in during the subcommittee mark; Senator Exon doesn't support SSTO (so far) and the "Nuke" subcommittee's overall slice of the budget was tight this year. In the language that came out of Exon's subcommittee, DOD SX-2 was zeroed out, and the existing money and management team were designated for transfer to NASA.
Then in the full SASC, Senator Trent Lott (R MS) proposed an amendment that would restore $100 million for SX-2 in USAF. The vote ended up an 11-11 tie, meaning the amendment had failed and the zero-out language stood.
Or did it? We heard a report Friday that an influential SASC member who had recently come around to supporting DOD SX-2 had worked out a way to assure the funding, with the implication that it was already taken care of.
The SASC's Friday press release, however, listed the zero-out/transfer to NASA as what the SASC had done. At that point, everyone left town for the weekend and we were left to puzzle over what might be going on.
We'll know more in the next couple of days. Meanwhile, we're in pretty good shape even if the SASC markup does contain the zero-out/transfer to NASA language. A tie vote in the full SASC is a lot better than we could manage last year; it indicates we have a resonable chance of getting the funding back in, either in the full Senate consideration of the FY'95 DOD Authorization, or later on during the House-Senate conference, when the SASC will provide the Senate conferees.
If you're in contact already with the office of anyone on the House Appropriations Committee, Defense Subcommittee, and you haven't already done so, remind them why DOD SX-2 is a good idea and ask them for their support in this week's FY'95 DOD Appropriations markup. This is more a matter of working existing contacts than trying for large volumes of mail, and chances are those of you this is aimed at have already gotten the word from Allen Sherzer's alert last week.
For the rest of you who want something useful to do, it can't hurt to write both your Senators, ask them to support SSTO research in both DOD and NASA, and give them a brief explanation of why we need to fly fast-turnaround, small-crew reusable rocket X-demonstrators -- it's an inexpensive way for the government to leverage private development of vastly cheaper space transportation, of course. This is not immediately urgent, but it is good groundwork for the future.
Check your local phone book blue pages under "US Government", "Senators" for
the names if you don't have 'em handy. Then write to Senator
And to all of you out there working on this, thanks.
Henry Vanderbilt "Reach low orbit and you're halfway to anywhere Space Access Society in the Solar System." 4855 E Warner Rd #24-150 - Robert A. Heinlein Phoenix, AZ 85044 602 431-9283 voice/fax "You can't get there from here." (hvanderbilt@bix.com) - Anonymous -- Permission granted to redistribute the full and unaltered text of this -- -- piece, including the copyright and this notice. All other rights -- -- reserved. In other words, intact crossposting is strongly encouraged. --