#HL-20 Personnel Launch System

[lonestarflight]

"The HL-20 was built at Langley in October 1990 and is a full-scale non-flying mockup. This mockup was used for engineering studies of maintainability of the vehicle, as testing crew positions, pilot visibility and other human factors considerations. The HL-20 was a direct derivative of the HL-10 vehicle tested in the 1960s and bears a very close resemblance to engineering drawings produced at that time. Although evaluated as a possible 'space taxi,' the HL-20, sometimes called the 'Personnel Launch System,' was never built."

Date: October 22, 1991

NASA ID: L-1991-14834

[sciencespies]

Blue Origin launches second crewed New Shepard mission

https://sciencespies.com/space/blue-origin-launches-second-crewed-new-shepard-mission/

Blue Origin launches second crewed New Shepard mission

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Blue Origin launched Star Trek actor William Shatner and three others into space on a brief suborbital flight Oct. 13, the second crewed flight of the company’s New Shepard vehicle.

New Shepard lifted off from the company’s Launch Site One in West Texas at 10:49 a.m. Eastern. The vehicle reached an estimated peak altitude of 107 kilometers before the crew capsule, RSS First Step, landed 10 minutes and 15 seconds after liftoff. The booster landed under rocket power about three minutes earlier.

The vehicle carried four people, headlined by Shatner, best known for his role as James T. Kirk on the original Star Trek television series and later movies. At 90, Shatner is now the oldest person to fly to space, breaking the record set by 82-year-old Wally Funk on the first crewed New Shepard flight July 20.

Shatner is not paying for his seat, but two others are paying undisclosed amounts to be on the flight. Chris Boshuizen is a co-founder of Earth observation company Planet and a partner at investment firm DCVC. He became the third Australian to go to space. Glen de Vries is co-founder of Medidata Solutions, a clinical research company, and became vice chair of life sciences and healthcare at Dassault Systèmes when it acquired Medidata in 2019.

The fourth person on the flight was Audrey Powers, vice president of mission and flight operations at Blue Origin and chair of the board of directors of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation. She played a lead role in getting New Shepard approved to fly people. She said in a Blue Origin video that she was selected by company founder Jeff Bezos and senior leadership “to represent Team Blue and fly as the fourth astronaut” on the mission.

The launch was scheduled for Oct. 12, but the company postponed the launch a day because of winds. “The forecast two days ago told us this would a difficult day, both from the point of view of surface winds, which affect the personnel preparing the vehicle for launch, and the winds aloft,” said Nick Patrick, NS-18 lead flight director at Blue Origin and a former NASA astronaut, in a video the company released Oct. 12.

He added the company pushed back the liftoff from its originally scheduled time of 9:30 a.m. Eastern because the “tail end of today’s winds affect the rollout” early Oct. 13.

The vehicle itself was ready for launch on the originally scheduled date. Patrick said the vehicle passed a flight readiness review on Oct. 10. “Everything is in good shape for launch,” he said.

The flight is a bright spot for a company that has recently been mired in controversy. It protested NASA’s selection of SpaceX for a Human Landing System awards in April, and when the Government Accountability Office rejected that protest in July, it filed suit in the Court of Federal Claims. That has suspended work on the HLS program until Nov. 1 as the court takes up the case.

The company more recently faced accusations of a hostile workplace environment, including sexual harassment, as well as lapses in safety. Twenty-one current and former employees wrote an essay laying out those issues, including concerns that work to increase the New Shepard flight rate “was seriously compromising flight safety.” The Federal Aviation Administration said it was reviewing those claims but did not comment further.

“Safety has been baked into the design of New Shepard from day one,” said Jacki Cortese, senior manager of civil space government relations at Blue Origin, during the company’s webcast of the NS-18 launch. “It’s a robust vehicle designed with high margins. We’ve actually determined that the design can handle substantially more than what we see in flight.”

She added that external reviews of the vehicle by people with “deep experience” in spaceflight programs. “Unanimously, this team determined that New Shepard met the highest standards for certification.”

The flight was the fifth New Shepard flight this year, including three payload-only flights. That is the greater number of flights of the suborbital vehicle the company has performed in a single year. Company executives said in July that they expected to perform two more crewed flights this year, of which this one was the first. The second, projected for December, may be the first to carry six people, the full crew complement of New Shepard.

#Space

[rjbailey]

HL-20 at Langley by NASA on The Commons Via Flickr: The NASA Langley Research Center lifting body, called the HL-20, is shown here in front of the hangar. The HL-20 was one of two concepts considered by NASA as a type of Personnel Launch System (PLS). In essence, it would serve as a space taxi to and from the space station. The full scale engineering model is 29.5 feet long, and 23.5 feet across the wingspan. Image # L-1992-05116 Date: April 28, 1992

[competitiveguide]

Current Affairs of 8th September 2018

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ISSF World Championship: Saurabh Chaudhary Clinches Gold India’s Saurabh Chaudhary continued his brilliant run of form as he clinched the 10 metres Air Pistol Junior gold at the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) Shooting World Championship in Changwon, South Korea. The 16-year-old produced an impressive show in the final to clinch the gold with a new junior world record. Arjun Singh Cheema claimed bronze in the same event with a score of 218 while Korea’s Hojin Lim clinched silver. 6th edition of Space Expo inaugurated The 6th edition of the biennial Bengaluru Space Expo was inaugurated by ISRO Chairman Dr.K Sivan in Bengaluru. The three-day event will showcase industry participation in Indian space programme. Dr.K Sivan also said that France will provide space medicines for Indian astronauts who will be part of India’s first Manned Space Mission Gaganyan. Swachhata Hi Seva Campaign launch on 15 Sept ‘Swachhata Hi Seva 2018’ a Jan Andolan for Swachhata to be observed in the run-up to the 4th anniversary of the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) from 15th September to 2nd October 2018. SHS aims at accelerating the Jan-Andolan for realizing the vision of a Clean India. The launch of the campaign will be done through video conference at more than 15 locations across the country. Sikkim’s data sharing & access portal launched The first data sharing and access portal of Sikkim has been launched by Chief Minister Pawan Kumar Chamling. The data sharing and accessibility platform will improve access to information and specify new data sets and records to be collected and published. The platform is intended to be used by all state government departments and PSUs. China launched satellite to monitor sea waters China launched a marine satellite to help improve the understanding of maritime waters and climate change. A Long March-2C rocket carrying the ‘HY-1C satellite’ was launched from China. The satellite will help monitor ocean colour and water temperatures, providing basic data for research on the global oceanic environment. India to partner in Izmir International show India is the partner country in the ‘Izmir International trade show‘ which began on September 7, 2018, in Turkey. India will also launch a business pavilion ‘Source India’ to increase exports to Turkey and other neighbouring countries. Source India, with 75 Indian participating companies, will be a multi-product pavilion. HM inaugurated Defence & HLS Expo A three-day defence and homeland security expo began in New Delhi on September 6, 2018. The expo was inaugurated by Home Minister Rajnath Singh. The objective of the expo is to enable the nation to become self-reliant in Home Land Security and Defence sector. 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Mohammed Amir from Iran won the silver medal and Russia’s Grigorii Shamakov won bronze medal. Hriday Hazarika was the only Indian to qualify for the men’s final. 87th Izmir International Tradeshow Begins In Turkey India is the Partner Country in the 87th Izmir International tradeshow which begins in Turkey. In this tradeshow India will also be launching a mega business pavilion ‘Source India’ hosting 75 Indian companies with the aim of tie-ups in order to increase India’s exports to Turkey and other neighbouring countries. The 87th Izmir International tradeshow will be held in Izmir – the third most populous city in Turkey, after Istanbul and Ankara. ONGC discovered oil reserves in M.P., Bengal Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) has made oil and gas discoveries in Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal that may potentially open up two new sedimentary basins in the country. ONGC has found gas deposits in a block in Vindhyan basin in Madhya Pradesh. 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From Blogger https://ift.tt/2wRFxUx via www.competitiveguide.in

[lonestarflight]

"The HL-20 space taxi, Langley's candidate personnel launch system, is one of several designs being considered by NASA as a complement to the Space Shuttle. Human factors studies, using Langley volunteers as subjects, have been ongoing since March 1991 to verify crew seating arrangements, habitability, ingress and egress, equipment layout and maintenance and handling operations, and to determine visibility requirements during docking and landing operations. Langley volunteers, wearing flight suits and helmets, were put through a series of tests with the craft placed both vertically and horizontally to simulate launch and landing attitudes, The HL-20 would be launched into a low orbit by an expendable rocket and then use its own propulsion system to boost itself to the space station. Following exchange of crews or delivery of small payload, the HL-20 would return to Earth like the space shuttle, making a runway landing near the launch site, The full-scale engineering research model of the HL-20 design was constructed by students and faculty at North Carolina State University and North Carolina A&T State University with the Mars Mission Research Center under a grant from NASA Langley."

Date: January 22, 1992

NASA ID: EL-1996-00163

[lonestarflight]

HL-20 full ccale mockup being prepared for transport to Space Dev in Denver, Co.

Date: June 15, 2006

Internet Archives: 2006-L-00390, 2006-L-00391, 2006-L-00393, 2006-L-00390, 2006-L-00394, 2006-L-00396, 2006-L-00395, 2006-L-00409, 2006-L-00438

[lonestarflight]

Top view of Langley HL-20 Lifting Body.

Photographed by James Schultz.

Date: April 28, 1992

NASA ID: EL-2001-00435

[lonestarflight]

The HL-20 experimental aircraft mock-up.

Photographed by James Schultz.

Date: October 22, 1990

NASA ID: EL-2001-00472

[lonestarflight]

The HL-20 Personal Launch System (PLS) is a concept for assured access to space for people and priority cargo. Pictured is the PLS operating at the Space Station Freedom, which became the International Space Station.

Date: April 26, 1990

NASA ID: EL-1996-00177

source

[lonestarflight]

Personnel Launch System Test On Visual Motion Simulator by NASA/Langley Research Center (NASA-LaRC).

"A research pilot performs a simulated approach and landing in the HL-20 lifting body vehicle. This study, conducted at NASA Langley Research Center's Visual/Motion Simulator, demonstrated the feasibility of the HL-20 as an unpowered glider in landing on a conventional runway."

Date: April 23, 1991

NASA ID: NIX-EL-1996-00183

[lonestarflight]

Concept art of the HL-20 re-entry and landing.

source, source

[lonestarflight]

Concept art of the HL-20 Personnel Launch System on top of a NLS-1 rocket, being moved to a launch complex at Kennedy Space Center. The HL-20 concept study for a spaceplane to complement to the Space Shuttle and ferry Astronauts to Space Station Freedom. Although, it was not fully funded nor approved for development. The design work was used for Sierra Space's Dream Chaser.

source

[lonestarflight]

Concept art of the launch of HL-20 on top of a NLS-1 rocket.

source

[lonestarflight]

"The NASA Langley Research Center lifting body, called the HL-20, is shown here in front of the hangar. The HL-20 was one of two concepts considered by NASA as a type of Personnel Launch System (PLS). In essence, it would serve as a space taxi to and from the space station. The full scale engineering model is 29.5 feet long, and 23.5 feet across the wingspan."

Date: April 28, 1992

NASA ID: L-1992-05116

[sciencespies]

Study recommends minimizing elements for Artemis lunar lander

https://sciencespies.com/space/study-recommends-minimizing-elements-for-artemis-lunar-lander/

Study recommends minimizing elements for Artemis lunar lander

WASHINGTON — A study by a space propulsion company concludes that a human return to the moon by 2024 will require minimizing the launches needed for the lunar lander and also using storable, rather than cryogenic, propellants.

Aerojet Rocketdyne was one of 11 companies that received contracts in May 2019 from NASA as part of a Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships, or NextSTEP, program to perform initial design studies of lunar lander concepts. Aerojet’s contract focused on the transfer module, which would transport the lunar module’s ascent and descent stages from the lunar Gateway to a low lunar orbit.

“But to do that, we obviously needed to study the overall architecture, so you knew the best way to fit the transfer vehicle element into the overall architecture,” Tom Martin, director of business development at Aerojet Rocketdyne, said in a March 20 interview.

That led the company to perform an extensive analysis of potential ways to get a lander to the moon. Aerojet completed that work and provided the results to NASA at the end of last year, and Tim Kokan, principal engineer at the company, presented the study at a Jan. 30 meeting of the Future In-Space Operations group.

The study looked at more than 326,000 different potential architectures, using varying combinations of launch vehicles, module designs and propulsion options. Aerojet used an approach called “utility analysis” to score the performance of each architecture using various technical and cost criteria, then picked 21 architectures for further study.

“The highest utility scoring configurations are the two-element configurations,” Kokan concluded, with just ascent and descent stages and without a transfer stage. In those scenarios, the heavier descent stage would launch on a Space Launch System Block 1B rocket, with its Exploration Upper Stage (EUS), and the ascent stage on a commercial launch vehicle, such as a Falcon Heavy or Vulcan Heavy.

Another issue, Martin said in the interview, was that lander propulsion systems that relied on liquid hydrogen as a fuel raised issues because there was “a whole lot of risk” about the maturity of cryogenic fluid management technologies.

“If you want to pull off 2024, we really think you need to base it on storable propellant solutions for the ascent and descent elements, and you need to have SLS in the architecture to lift at least the descent element,” Martin said.

Since completing the study for NASA, he said Aerojet has continued to refine the architectures. “The philosophy is, with all the things that need to happen for 2024, you really need to minimize new technology development, because that’s a schedule and programmatic risk, and you really need to reduce the complexity of the architecture,” he said. That latter issue involves reducing the number of “mission-critical events” like launches and dockings.

While the study as presented in January had two-element solutions involving SLS and commercial launch vehicles with the highest scores, Martin said the company has looked at launching an integrated lander on a single SLS.

“Our conclusion that the best way to achieve the 2024 mission on schedule was to go to the [near-rectilinear halo orbit] with an ascent element and descent element both launched on the cargo EUS version of SLS, and launch the crew up on SLS/Orion,” he said. “When you look at the number of mission-critical events and when you look at the total architecture cost, that ended up being the best solution.”

That approach would use the same orbit as the lunar Gateway, but would not require the Gateway, with Orion docking with the lander directly. “In 2024 you could do the rendezvous without Gateway being there,” he said. “The architecture is set up to support Gateway when it becomes available.”

That approach appears to be the one that NASA is favoring, based on public comments in recent weeks by agency officials. At a March 13 meeting of the NASA Advisory Council’s science committee, Doug Loverro, associate administrator for human exploration and operations, said he was “taking Gateway out of the critical path” for a 2024 lunar landing, but would develop the Gateway at a slower pace for supporting later missions.

He also appeared to shift away from the three-element approach to lunar lander development. “Program risk is driven by which things haven’t you done in space before that you would now have to do in this mission,” he said, specifically mentioning the three-element lander concept. “We’ve never done that before, so we’d like to try to avoid doing things we’ve never done before.”

At least one company bidding on NASA’s Human Landing System (HLS) program has proposed an integrated lander. Boeing said in November it submitted a bid to NASA for an integrated lander that would launch on an SLS. By contrast, the “national team” led by Blue Origin that includes Draper, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman offered a three-element design that could be launched on a range of vehicles.

Companies like Blue Origin have advocated the use of cryogenic propellants like liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen because they could eventually be sourced from the moon, if future missions find it feasible to mine water ice deposits at the lunar poles. Martin said such systems could make sense later, but only after infrastructure is in place on the Moon to turn that water ice into propellants.

“We really need to focus on how we enable longer-duration surface operations,” he said, such as power, transportation and other logistics on the lunar surface. “From the perspective of in-situ propellant production on the surface, that’s probably the step after we have a sustained presence on the surface.”

Martin declined to comment on what proposal or proposals Aerojet was involved with. NASA previously said it plans to announce initial awards for the HLS program in late March or early April.

Martin acknowledged that, while Aerojet has cryogenic engines like the RS-25 and RL10 that will be used on SLS, it doesn’t have any off-the-shelf storable propellant engines that could be used for a lunar lander. “We have multiple products in our inventory that are fairly mature in terms of their development,” he said. “We’re looking at how we can bring those systems forward very quickly.”

One option, he said, would be to use a version of the engine that powers the Orion spacecraft’s service module, which for early missions of that spacecraft will involve shuttle-era Orbital Maneuvering System engines. Another option is the XLR-132, an engine the company worked on with the Air Force Research Lab. Although development of that engine stopped years ago, Martin said the company still has some engine hardware, and personnel who worked on the project are still at Aerojet.

“We’re looking at how we leverage Aerojet Rocketdyne’s advanced manufacturing capability,” he said of the XLR-132, “to basically take that design and get into development and production as quickly as possible.”

#Space