SpaceX launch preps ISS for commercial crew visits

SpaceX's seventh International Space Station resupply mission is scheduled to lift off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 10:21 a.m. next Sunday.

The mission's most prominent payload is a 1,150-pound, 5-foot diameter ring called a "docking adapter" that commercial crew capsules will need to link up with the orbiting research complex.

The capsules now under development include an upgraded version of the SpaceX Dragon cargo ship set to blast off on a Falcon 9 rocket, and Boeing's CST-100, which will be assembled at Kennedy Space Center and launched by United Launch Alliance Atlas V rockets.

The International Docking Adapter, or IDA, is the first of two that will establish a pair of berthing ports on the outpost's Harmony node, the same place shuttles docked.

The ports will receive the new U.S. crew vehicles, and potentially U.S. cargo craft or international vehicles equipped with the same standardized docking system.

After flying up in the Dragon's unpressurized "trunk," the adapters will be removed robotically and installed later with the help of spacewalking astronauts.

NASA's Scott Kelly and Kjell Lindgren are expected to perform the first spacewalk, possibly in mid-August.

The adapters' addition is the next step in a reconfiguration that NASA describes as the station's most significant since its construction was completed in 2011.

Ground teams last month used a robotic arm to relocate a storage module. Earlier this year, three spacewalks routed hundreds of feet of cables that helped prepare for the docking adapters.

What remains to be seen is how soon astronauts actually dock at the station in a U.S. spacecraft.

Current budget proposals in Congress would give NASA's Commercial Crew Program, which is led from KSC, $200 million to $300 million less than the $1.2 billion the space agency requested for next year.

NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden said "gutting" the program that way would delay astronaut launches from the Space Coast that were targeted for late 2017, extending reliance on Russia for rides to orbit.

WGS lands for launch

The Air Force this week confirmed it is on track for a July 22 launch of its seventh Wideband Global Satcom communications satellite (WGS-7) from Cape Canaveral, atop a United Launch Alliance Delta IV rocket.

The spacecraft was shipped to Kennedy Space Center's former shuttle runway on May 28.

If schedules hold, the launch would follow about a week after ULA's planned July 15 launch of a Global Positioning System satellite from the Cape by an Atlas V rocket.

Hawthorne Hyperloop

Remember the "Hyperloop"?

Elon Musk, miffed about the cost of California's high speed rail project, in 2013 proposed the conceptual system of tubes and pods as an alternative for whisking people between big cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco.

The CEO of SpaceX and electric car maker Tesla Motors has not invested in developing the concept.

But SpaceX recently announced a competition to design human-scale pods designed and built by teams of university students and independent engineers.

"While we are not developing a commercial Hyperloop ourselves, we are interested in helping to accelerate development of a functional Hyperloop prototype," the company said in a statement.

The company plans to build a one-mile track next to its headquarters in Hawthorne, California, which is also its factory for Falcon 9 rockets and Dragon capsules.

"Break a pod!" the statement concluded.

Roger, Huntsville

Sierra Nevada Corp.'s Dream Chaser mini-shuttle is seen as likely to land on Kennedy Space Center's former shuttle runway if it can win a contract to deliver cargo to the International Space Station.

But the company isn't limiting its options to Florida.

SNC last year announced a partnership to study a proposed spaceport at Houston's Ellington Field, and this week at the Paris Air Show announced it would do the same with the international airport in Huntsville, Alabama.

The company says the Dream Chaser could land on any runway able to accommodate a Boeing 737 or Airbus 320 class aircraft, and features non-toxic propellants. It also can be shipped easily by cargo aircraft from a landing site back to its launch site — presumably in Florida, as Sierra Nevada so far plans to lift off atop United Launch Alliance's Atlas V rocket.

LightSail stretch

If you enjoyed The Planetary Society's first LightSail mission, there's less than a week left to contribute to the second mission via the Kickstarter crowdfunding site.

The campaign easily blew past its initial $200,000 goal, and as of Thursday was approaching a stretch goal of $1 million. Visit www.kickstarter.com and search "LightSail."

The first LightSail test flight, packaged in a small CubeSat, launched from Cape Canaveral last month and successfully deployed a Mylar sail. The second mission, targeting launch next year with a projected cost of $5.5 million, hopes to demonstrate solar sailing by using only sunlight's momentum to propel the small spacecraft.

Space Rendezvous

Mark your calendar: The nonprofit Astronaut Scholarship Foundation's annual Astronaut Autograph and Memorabilia show will be back Nov. 5-7 at Kennedy Space Center, and features a new name: Space Rendezvous 2015.

Astronauts will sign memorabilia and guests can learn more about NASA's next exploration rocket and capsule, the Hubble Space Telescope's 25th anniversary and international space collaboration since the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project mission 40 years ago. Small discussions with astronauts and astronaut scholars also will be offered.

Event proceeds support the foundation's college scholarship program. Visit http://astronautscholarship.org.