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Behind the Scenes of NASA's Orbital ATK ISS Resupply Mission (hothardware.com)
Reader MojoKid sheds more light on NASA's unmanned cargo ship: The Orbital ATK CRS-6 mission that launched last week at NASA Cape Canaveral, Florida not only delivered supplies to the International Space Station (ISS), but also carried a number of research projects on NASA's Cygnus spacecraft. On board the CRS-6 were Gecko Grippers, which attempt to mimic the adhesion properties of gecko feet. Through the use of nanomaterials, Gecko Grippers can be repeatedly applied and removed from a surface without losing their adhesive properties via the use of van der Waals forces. They are also unaffected by temperature, pressure or radiation. Also in tow for the mission are supplies for the Saffire Experiment, which will be the largest man-made fire in space with data beamed back to earth so researchers can understand its properties and results. It's also impressive to see the NASA VAB (Vehicle Assembly Building), which is one of the biggest structures in the world covering 8 acres and measuring 525 ft tall, as well as the SLS Crawler, which is designed to move large spacecraft components supporting up to 18 million pounds and has been utilized for the Apollo and Space Shuttle programs.
If only I had mod points, I'd mod this down.
Ob: https://www.penny-arcade.com/c...
a number of resupply missions are done by private companies now....
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
They are done by the private industry...
The Cygnus spacecraft is owned by Orbital, not NASA (the article summary used here isn't very clear on that). NASA contracts ALL U.S. resupply missions out to Orbital ATK and SpaceX.
Link: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/launch/index.html
They are done by the private industry... The Cygnus spacecraft is owned by Orbital, not NASA (the article summary used here isn't very clear on that). NASA contracts ALL U.S. resupply missions out to Orbital ATK and SpaceX.
So far.
But they just added Sierra Nevada to the list of commercial resupply providers:
https://www.nasaspaceflight.co...
http://www.sncorp.com/AboutUs/...
http://www.geoffreylandis.com
It's like what, 250 miles? A man on a bicycle could easily cover that distance in a day.
These government contractors are featherbedding and milking a sweet deal.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
All these government contractors are charging some embarrassingly inflated $/lb to transport cargo to the ISS.
ATK says they're sending 4400 lbs, but when it gets there, what does it weigh? ZERO! So (0 + 4400)/2 * $/lb means there additionally soaking our government for TWICE the weight of cargo actually shipped. These villains have no shame about raping the public purse of the Republic.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
$10-$20 is certainly for fedex :) The price range is more in the 4.000$ to 13.000$ per Kg for sending stuff at LEO. It has been said that spaceX could break the 1.000$/Kg barrier.
I read the article. I worked at Vandenberg AFB and have been sent to Canaveral for work. I checked Wikipedia to see if something dramatic has changed in the past few months. Why does the article yammer about something called a "Titan V", which does not exist?
Hey dumbass, this was a private industry launch. NASA has been contracting with independent companies for cargo to the ISS since the Space Shuttle stopped flying - both to Russian space firms, and to several American ones.
For this flight, the contract was to Orbital ATK, but due to the grounding of the Antares 100 lift vehicle (after one exploded in late 2014), Orbital ATK subcontracted the launch vehicle (at their own cost) to United Launch Alliance. The Cygnus spacecraft is also made by Orbital ATK, and is part of the cost.
Total cargo was 3513kg. It was part of an ongoing NASA contract, with precise details not known, but the original contract was $1.9B for eight flights, or $237M per launch. This contract was later extended with three more flights, presumably at similar costs.
This was the heaviest Cygnus launch to date, so dividing the payload mass by the cost gives us a lower bound on cost-per-mass of $67K per kilogram, or $31K per pound. So you're off by at least two orders of magnitude, probably closer to three.
Incidentally, the price-per-kilogram of a Saturn IB launch was $25K/kg (or thereabouts - it never flew to the ISS's orbit, so I had to make some estimates), and the price-per-kilogram of a Space Shuttle launch was $98K/kg (full program cost divided by successful launches) to $28K/kg (individual launch cost). All three of those numbers are adjusted for inflation, BTW, I'm not trying to bullshit on this. Also incidentally, the Falcon 9/Dragon flights to the ISS under the same program have a cost-per-mass of $40K/kg (they're more public with their pricing), although this includes a substantial deorbiting payload, which only SpaceX currently offers in any substantial amount.
And for one last dose of perspective, shipping from L.A. to NYC is $23/kg ($9/lb), for an overnight Fedex shipment of 400kg (the mass of the earliest test CRS flights). You literally think that shipping to outer space should cost no more than twice what it costs to ship around the country. Maybe you should get some perspective before you start bitching?
Reality is not responsible for living up to your ill-informed fantasies.
Frankly, if you look into it, all space missions were done by private companies....
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?