Spaceport and Range Technology Development Initiative Al Sofge NASA Headquarters May 15, 2001

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Spaceport and Range Technology Development
Initiative Al Sofge

NASA Headquarters May 15, 2001
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Background-White House Led Range Study

• White House-led Interagency Review on the Future
  Management and Use of the U.S. Space Launch Bases
  and Ranges kicked off in March 1999
• Co-chaired by National Security Council and
  Office of Science and Technology Policy
• Review limited to Air Force Eastern and Western
  Ranges
• Participants included OMB, DoD, USAF, NRO, DOC,
  DOT, NASA
• Commerce Business Daily Announcement requesting
  input from the non-govt community

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Background-White House Led Range Study (cont.)

• Purpose To develop national strategy for future
  management and use of US space launch bases and
  ranges
• Focus on appropriate division of roles
  responsibilities between USG and US commercial
  space sector including spaceports
• Intended to result in recommendations to the
  President on policy, law, budgets

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Representative List of Respondents to Commerce
Business Daily Announcement Requesting Input

• Accomack County, VA
• Aerospace Industries Association
• Astrotech
• Boeing Joint Investment Team
• California Space and Technology Alliance
• Command and Control Technologies Corporation
• Directorate of Aerospace Fuels Management, Kelly
  AFB, TX
• George Mason University Institute of Public
  Policy
• Lockheed Martin
• Moonspace Corporation

• National Space Society
• Orbital Sciences Corporation
• Practical Innovations International, Inc.
• Quantum Technology Services, Inc. Spaceport
  Systems International
• Somerset County Commissioners, MD
• ACTA, safety contractor at Vandenberg AFB, CA
• United Paradyne Corporation
• Universal Space Networks
• Universal Synaptics
• VA Commercial Space Flight Authority
• Wicomico County, MD

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Background-White House Led Range Study (cont.)

• Final study report contained six recommendations
  with multiple desired outcomes
• Report recommendations were approved by the
  President
• OSTP and NSC co-signed an implementation memo on
  June 12, 2000, directing the appropriate Cabinet
  Secretaries and the NASA Administrator to
  implement the recommendations

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Study Recommendations

• Recommendation 1
• Propose alternative management structures to
  allow commercial and government users of the U.S.
  space launch bases and ranges adequate
  opportunity to communicate their requirements so
  they can be considered and factored into
  decisions on improvements and operations with the
  goals of providing greater user voice and
  improving operational flexibility.
• Recommendation 2
• Pursue means of improving efficiencies in range
  operations.

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Study Recommendations (cont.)

• Recommendation 3
• Encourage, permit, and maximize use of
  nonfederal funding sources (especially from
  states and spaceports) for the continued
  maintenance and modernization of the space launch
  bases and ranges to meet national needs for space
  transportation.
• Recommendation 4
• Explore options for replacing the excess
  capacity constraint in the current policy and
  legal framework, while retaining priority access
  for national security and critical civil sector
  missions, to allow a more complete partnership to
  develop between the federal government and the
  U.S. commercial space sector, including states
  and spaceports.

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Study Recommendations (cont.)

• Recommendation 5
• Develop common range safety requirements for
  government, civil, and commercial launches at
  federal and nonfederal launch sites and ensure
  that FAA resources are commensurate with its
  statutory requirements and safety
  responsibilities.

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Study Recommendations (cont.)

• Recommendation 6
• The Air Force and NASA should develop a plan to
  examine, explore, and proceed with
  next-generation range technology development and
  demonstration, with a focused charter to improve
  safety, increase flexibility and capacity, and
  lower costs for reusable and expendable launch
  vehicles. NASA should designate KSC as a
  National Center for next-generation RLV range
  technology development and demonstration, while
  the U.S. Air Force remains the overarching
  authority for Eastern and Western Range
  architecture.

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Study Recommendations (cont.)

• Recommendation 6-Desired Outcome
• NASA and the AF should agree on plans to
  coordinate, develop, demo next-generation range
  technologies and set goals for next-generation
  range technologies to
• Improve safety
• Reduce costs by orders of magnitude
• More efficiently support RLV and ELV operations
• Enable high launch rate ops using next-generation
  RLVs

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National Need to Coordinate Advanced Range
Technology Development

• The Advanced Range Technology Working Group
  (ARTWG) co-chaired by NASA and AF was formed
• First meeting March 1 at KSC
• Coordinate range technology development on
  National level
• State Spaceports, industry, other govt org and
  academia participated
• The ARTWG is focused on range technology

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Spaceport vs Range

• Spaceport Launch base
• Range Tracking, range safety function,
  telemetry
• Supporting Infrastructure Can support either or
  both

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Advanced Spaceport Technology Development

• A similar need exists to coordinate on a National
  level advanced spaceport technology development
• The Advanced Spaceport Technology Working Group
  (ASTWG) will focus on advanced spaceport
  technology development
• Chaired by NASA
• Participation by/inputs from AF, other govt org,
  State Spaceports, industry, academia