BOEING Reaches for the Stars -Boeing stands out as a publicly traded Aerospace firm that has “the right stuff” to make America great again as an Aerospace leader in the attainment of Space Science Innovations and Exploration.

BOEING Reaches for the Stars

Space Exploration has become a new vision for the major launch nations of the world; namely, America, ESA, Russia, China, Japan, and India that have over the last 11years launched 19 planetary space missions and by 2030 it is estimated that close to 80 space exploration will be launched. In each of the space voyager nations. Many are private and government funded projects to colonized the Moon and then onward to Mars. By 2027, the majority of missions will be to the moon as commercial and stock stakeholders are focusing on Moon colonization. The economic projection is that by 2027 over $20billion USD will have been generated. U.S. will have the Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway starting in 2023. China will connect three modules currently in low orbit and create its own Space Station by 2022. Japan will send its first unmanned Minerva II 1A and 1B to land on the Moon by 2021. India’s Chandrayaan-2 will be its second Lunar land and rover and expected to be launched between July 9 to 16, 2019.

BOEING

Headquartered in Chicago, The Boeing Company is a premier jet aircraft manufacturer and one of the largest defense contractors in the U.S. The company’s customers include domestic and foreign airlines, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), the Department of Homeland Security, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), other aerospace prime contractors, and certain U.S. government and commercial communications customers.

SATCOM-MILCOM

According to EuroConsult Research, “the 3,300 satellites over 50kg will be launched from 2018-2017 and represent a $284billion dollar market for the space industry in terms of manufacturing and launching. The future will see more economies of scale, software-centered, and vertical integration as well as data analytics.” Boeing has been extremely active in American satellites and launching missions. The Mission Control Center at Boeing Space & Intelligence Systems is located in El Segundo, California. Boeing launched the Wideband Global Satcom- assured high-date-rate communications connectivity for the war fighter and the GPS II F Global Positioning System used the world over.

The following are major Boeing Satellite milestones:

Dec 4 2018 Millennium Space Systems completes Successful ALTAIR™ Pathfinder Mission

Sep 25 2018 Boeing Completes Acquisition of Millennium Space Systems- small Sat manufacturing

Sept 11 2017 Boeing to Design and Build Seven Medium Earth Orbit Satellites for SES

Aug 18 2017 Boeing-Built Satellite Completes NASA’s Space Communications Network

June 02 2017 Boeing Satellite for ViaSat to Significantly Enhance Satellite Broadband Communications

May 18 2017 Boeing All-Electric Satellite for SES - Improve In-Flight Connectivity and Data

May 16 2017 Boeing-Built Satellite Will Enhance Global High-Speed Broadband Network

March 18 2017 Ninth Boeing-Built Wideband Global SATCOM Satellite to MilCOMM

Feb 20 2017 New Boeing Satellite Will Increase Connectivity throughout Asia Pacific

Feb 02 2017 Boeing, U.S. Air Force Extend Partnership to Sustain GPS Constellations

Jan 23 2017 Boeing's Second ABS All-Electric Propulsion Satellite Enters Service

Dec 07 2016 Boeing WGS-8 Satellite Nearly Doubles Bandwidth for Military Users

Aug 25 2016 Boeing Delivers Advanced Satellite Communications Network to Mexico

Feb 05 2016 Boeing, U.S. Air Force Complete GPS IIF Constellation

Future Space Exploration

The International Space Station Program brings together international flight crews, multiple launch vehicles, globally distributed launch, operations, training, engineering, and development facilities; communications networks, and the international scientific research community. It is shining example of America’s technological prowess. The U.S. Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepped on the Moon on July 30, 1969. Now, after 40 years, NASA and commercial space firms are planning on returning to the Moon. After numerous probes, SOJOURNER, CURIOSITY, LUNOKHOD 2, and OPPORTUNITY, scientist have concrete evidence that the moon has water, oxygen, silicon, titanium, and iron to establish a base and resupply the base after three short days from the earth. The plan is to set up mining operations and a large moon-based telescope as well as other instruments. The Moon will become the new ISS where crews will arrive and depart every three to six months. The Moon apparently Helium-3 that is valued at $5billion USD per metric ton. Why is it valued at that high price? He-3 can be used as an alternative to nuclear fission reactors. Looking towards the future, the US Congress passed the SPACE ACT, which gave private citizens to extract resources from outer space for their own gain. As in the era of the California Gold Rush, what ever your find is your claim to keep and benefit from. Of course, private citizens will have to figure out how to ferry themselves to outer space as an inexpensive wagon train or mules will not be available.

LUNAR ORBITING PLATFORM-GATEWAY

The next step, the “LUNAR ORBITING PLATFORM-GATEWAY,” will be a colonized MARS that Hollywood created in the imagination of the American people for living in a new frontier for future generations as the Earth becomes over populated and resources are diminished. Cost is not an objection as the survival of the human species is more important than printed paper or minted gold. The Kennedy commitment to have Americans on the Moon cost the taxpayers $150billion and the ISS with the help of Russia’s technology and experience with the MIR, cost $100billion. The true cost for this great leap in space exploration is unknown but this is the “Seventh Wave.” According to Bill Zebuhr who wrote in Issue 78, March/April 2008 of Infinite Energy Magazine, “Discoveries made during the seventh wave will not only enable great new technologies but will reveal truths that have been kept under cover by science, religion, and government. Myths about the Big Bang, dark matter, aspects of relativity, and the reality behind quantum mechanics will fall along with the myths…”

NASA Dreams

In the last nine years, NASA has worked with private partnerships to have another means of bringing supplies and crews to the International Space Station (ISS). NASA has a defined goal of cost-effective space transportation infrastructure to begin with 100% U.S. A. manufactured space vehicles. The next stage is to travel to and from the International Space Station (ISS) a crew of four, thirdly a platform for humans to travel to and back from the Moon, and finally to reach Mars and establish a permanent base. From these three skips along the oceans of deep space, normal human space exploration will become the reality from the dreams of 19th and 21st Century science fiction writers such as Jules Verne, H. G. Wells, Jack London, Hugo Gernsback, Robert A. Heinlein, Arthur C. Clarke, A. E. van Vogt, and d Isaac Asimov. This is a small list and does include the thousands of years of forward thinkers and writers who viewed mans ultimate destiny to be travelers beyond the heavens. Commercial Crew Programs began in 2010 under the (CCDev1) by NASA funding Boeing, United Launch Alliance, and Paragon Space Development, under the Space Act Agreements that promoted cost sharing and competition. The next year, NASA funded another (CCDev2) cost sharing agreement awarding Boeing, Sierra Nevada, SpaceX, and Blue Origin. In 2012, NASA awarded the Space Shuttle crew flight services to Boeing, SpaceX, and Sierra Nevada to support the development of integrated systems. The companies also were to develop data products to implement NASA’s flight safety and performance requirements. In 2014, NASA selected Boeing and Elon Musk’s privately-owned and Silicon Valley VC launched SpaceX for two Commercial Crew flight tests and up to six operational taxi missions for each company by (2024). Unfortunately, tragedy hit when on May 2015 SpaceX crew Dragon was aborted on the launch pad. Four months later, NASA selected Astronauts Behnken and Hurley for the SpaceX Dragon crew flight test and Williams and Boe engaged with Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner missions. Three years later in August of 2018, NASA decides to add former shuttle commander, Chris Ferguson and four new NASA Astronauts to crew flight tests and the first operational mission aboard the Boeing Starliner and Musk’s Dragon. Due to a medical issue, Eric Boe was retired and replaced by Mike Fincke who traveled and served on the ISS for two times.

SpaceX Falcon 9

On April 20, 2019, during the Falcon 9 static-fire for the uncrewed DM-1 a severe explosion was observed. NASA and SpaceX confirmed that there was some kind of unexplained event during a series of engine tests of the Crew Dragon capsule, after witnesses reported and shared pictures of a plume of orange smoke visible from 4 miles away. A SpaceX public relations employee explained that “Earlier today, SpaceX conducted a series of engine tests on a Crew Dragon test vehicle on our test stand at Landing Zone 1 in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The initial tests completed successfully but the final test resulted in an ‘anomaly’ on the test stand.” Damage to the Falcon and the launch site appeared severe from photos and eyewitnesses. NASA’s Administrator Jim Bridenstine acknowledged the explosion but did not provide further details. Earlier in March 2019 Bob Behnken and Dough Hurley successfully made the maiden voyage to the ISS and prior to the anomaly the final test for a crewed mission was to be scheduled in July 2019.

Russia’s Engines and Launch Vehicles

The political winds have shifted against the heavily sanctioned Russian economy and its former close partnership with the USA. In the years following the de-orbiting of the MIR, Russia had been a great partner with NASA and provided safe trips to and from the ISS. Since 2015, the political News Media has projected Russia as an unreliable partner thus resulting in the USA’s movement away from Russian Space Technology with a cancel and replace political strategy. The RD-180 is a rocket engine designed and built in Russia. It features a dual combustion chamber, dual-nozzle design and is fueled by a kerosene/LOX mixture. RD-180 engines are currently used for the first stage of the American Atlas V launch vehicle; however, it is being replaced by the Jeff Bezo’s BE-4 rocket engine that is being manufactured in Kent Washington. It features re usability with a minimum design life of 25 launches and landings and uses liquid natural gas (methane) fuel and liquid oxygen oxidizer. A single RD-180 engine currently powers the first stage of United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) Atlas V rocket. Russia’s launchers have also been targeted for economic sanctions by replacement technology. The Antares and Soyuz rocket launchers, both extremely reliable, are being replaced by Elon Musk’s Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy. Billionaire owner of Amazon and The Washington Post is working on three launchers with new engines; namely, New Glenn 2-stage, New Glenn 3-stage, and the New Glenn Landed Boosters.Jeff Bezo plans to use eight BE-4 engines on the New Glenn a 270 ft (82 m) tall heavy-lift rocket with 3.85 million pounds (17,100 kN) of thrust. ULA’s Gravity Well Conquerer will use twin BE-4 Advanced rocket engines with 1.1 million pounds of trust and six jumbo monolithic solid rocket boosters. The three features of the Gravity are advanced manufacturing, high reproducibility, and lower cost.

Boeing CST-100 Starliner

Boeing and its past corporate partners have a long experience manufacturing space vehicle such as the Apollo Command Module and the Space Shuttle. The estimated cost for the CST-100 Starliner is tagged at $4.9 billion and can transport up to 4 - 7 crew members.. The dimensions including the engine propulsion module are 15ft.and a height of 6.6ft. The engines for abort and for maneuvering the Starliner while in orbit are manufactured by Aerojet/Rocketdyne and located in the disposable service module. The crew module can be used for ten times, but the service module will be discarded after each touchdown. The initial launch vehicle will be the Atlas V 422/ Centaur. Cape Canaveral will not only serve as the Launch pad for Boeing’s Starliner, but for the Musk’s Dragon as well. Docking to the ISS will be automatically completed with powerful computers aboard and not require crew efforts;however, if a problem develops, each astronaut is trained to manually over-ride the system. The Starliner is designed with the safety of the crew as the number one priority. The Starliner has an escape system that propels the crew to safety quickly. As in the case of the Soyuz, the Starliner will parachute down to dry land and use airbags to soften the roller coaster ride from low orbit to the ground. The soft landing sites will be determined by weather and include White Sands New Mexico, Dugway Proving Ground in Utah, Willox Playa in Arizona, and finally Edwards AFB located in Kern County in southern California, about 22 miles (35 km) northeast of Lancaster and 15 miles (24 km) east of Rosamond.

NASA - BOEING Partnership

NASA provided $8billion and paid the total cost for development of the Starliner and the Dragon. In April 3, 2019, NASA released a statement that the Crew Flight Test of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner can be expected later in 2019 and will be a long-duration flight and the crew could stay at the ISS for longer than the normal six-month crew rotation, but that has not been confirmed at the time of this article. The key is that NASA is working with Russia's Roscosmos to adjust schedules and crew for upcoming Soyuz missions to create a smooth transition and safety. Dennis Muilenburg, CEO of Boeing, has a fixed eye on the future Boeing commitment, “I am convinced that the first person that gets to Mars is going to get there on a Boeing rocket.”

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