January 19, 2017 - No. 006 In This Issue Australia to invest $12 million to test SBAS positioning technology New aviation high school complex in Houston has own hangar Engineered Propulsion Systems completes funding round for $765,000 Automation Technology Brings Safety and Reliability to Aviation Isavia Signs Agreement to Deploy Space-Based ADS-B Safran to Buy Zodiac for $10 Billion in All-French Aero Deal Eugene Cernan, Last Human to Walk on Moon, Dies at 82 NASA is in a strange and expensive pickle with the Russians Australia to invest $12 million to test SBAS positioning technology The Australian Government will invest $12 million in a two-year program looking into the future of positioning technology in Australia. The funding includes testing of satellite-based augmentation systems (SBAS) that can offer instant, accurate and reliable positioning technology. The improvements in positioning could provide future safety, productivity, efficiency and environmental benefits across many industries in Australia, including transport, agriculture, construction and resources. The two-year project will test SBAS technology that has the potential to improve positioning accuracy in Australia to less than five centimeters. Currently, positioning in Australia is usually accurate to five to 10 meters. While highly accurate positioning technologies are already available in Australia, they are expensive and only available in specific areas and to niche markets. Research has shown that the widespread adoption of improved positioning technology has the potential to generate upwards of $73 billion of value to Australia by 2030. Federal Minister for Infrastructure and Transport Darren Chester said the program could test the potential of SBAS technology in the four transport sectors - aviation, maritime, rail and road. "SBAS utilizes space-based and ground-based infrastructure to improve and augment the accuracy, integrity and availability of basic GNSS signals, such as those currently provided by the USA Global Positioning System (GPS)," Chester said. "The future use of SBAS technology was strongly supported by the aviation industry to assist in high accuracy GPS-dependent aircraft navigation. Positioning data can also be used in a range of other transport applications including maritime navigation, automated train management systems and in the future, driverless and connected cars," he said. Minister for Resources and Northern Australia Matt Canavan said access to more accurate data about the Australian landscape would also help unlock the potential of Northern Australia. "This technology has potential uses in a range of sectors, including agriculture and mining, which have always played an important role in our economy, and will also be at the heart of future growth in Northern Australia," Senator Canavan said. "Access to this type of technology can help industry and Government make informed decisions about future investments." The SBAS testbed will use existing national GNSS infrastructure developed by AuScope as part of the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy. It will test two new satellite positioning technologies - next-generation SBAS and Precise Point Positioning, which provide positioning accuracies of several decimeters and five centimeters respectively. The SBAS testbed is Australia's first step towards joining countries such as the U.S., Russia, India, Japan and many across Europe in investing in SBAS technology and capitalizing on the link between precise positioning, productivity and innovation. Early this year, Geoscience Australia with the Collaborative Research Centre for Spatial Information (CRCSI) will call for organizations from a number of industries including agriculture, aviation, construction, mining, maritime, rail, road, spatial and utilities to participate in the testbed. For more information about the SBAS testbed and National Positioning Infrastructure Capability visit the Geoscience Australia website. http://gpsworld.com/australia-to-invest-12m-to-test-sbas-positioning-technology/ Back to Top New aviation high school complex in Houston has own hangar HOUSTON (AP) - Students could not put down their cellphones when they walked into Sterling Aviation High School earlier this month. They took video of themselves walking through the sleek, three-story building, complete with a faux-runway painted along first- floor hallways. But while the two new gymnasiums, observation deck with views of nearby Hobby Airport and collaborative learning spaces sparked interest among students, the full-sized airplane hangar stole the show. The Houston Chronicle (http://bit.ly/2jVudyD ) reports the new Sterling High School may be the only high school in the United States with its own private airplane hangar. At 7,100 square feet, the dedicated space will soon house two single-engine planes, which used to bake in the sun as students studied their parts at the old campus next door. Flight simulators will be brought over from the old campus in coming weeks, and 17 engines totaling about $50,000 are mounted to movable stands across the space. A handful of schools in places like Iowa, Nevada, New York City, Michigan, Massachusetts and Ohio have opened aviation technical schools at regional airports, but few, if any, have their own independent airplane hangars financed by public school districts. Houston Independent School District leaders said building the on-site hangar, which is not adjacent to a runway of any kind, was more of a necessity than a luxury. Justin Fuentes, principal at Sterling, said having the hangar on campus means the school is not at the mercy of aviation companies or leases. "We wanted something sustainable," Fuentes said. "When we've partnered with businesses in the past, some have ended up failing and we'd get cut off." Sterling has housed a pilot program for at least 10 years and introduced an aviation mechanic program last year. About 200 students are enrolled in both aviation programs this year. The school's magnet aviation programs are available to students districtwide. The new Sterling High School, which opened Jan. 4, is the first comprehensive high school financed by Houston ISD's 2012 bond and the first built in the district in nearly 16 years. The bond calls for the renovation or rebuilding of 40 schools, including 29 high schools. Sterling's new 237,000-square-foot campus, which can serve about 1,800 students, will replace the original brick school built in 1965. The school's price tag - $67.5 million - came in below the district's $72 million budget for building the new Sterling High and furnishing it with equipment and technology. The construction cost alone was about $49 million. According to a 2014 Texas Comptroller study, a high school that serves about 2,000 students should cost about $53.4 million to build, adjusting for inflation and regional price differences. "I think it's important, the neighborhood needs something great," Fuentes said. "Former bonds have come and gone, and not much has changed around here. We're the farthest- south school in HISD, and you get the assumption that it's forgotten. But this proves HISD and the city care. Now, this is a showpiece in the neighborhood that elevates the whole area." Rev. A.L. Hickman, a special education co-teacher at Sterling and pastor of the nearby New Commandment Christian Fellowship Church, agreed. "It's like a rose sticking out of a garden," Hickman said of the new school. "Every week my parishioners would ask about it. No one in this community doesn't know the school is here now, and they're so grateful to have it." http://qctimes.com/news/state-and-regional/iowa/new-aviation-high-school-complex-in- houston-has-own-hangar/article_42a9f1d1-01a9-54d2-ba1d-3e6493339b25.html Back to Top Engineered Propulsion Systems completes funding round for $765,000 Engineered Propulsion Systems has completed a funding round for $765,000. This is the latest round for the New Richmond-based manufacturer, currently in the process of attaining certification for its Graflight V-8 engine from the Federal Aviation Administration. All the investment dollars for this round came from previous investors, according to CFO Paul Mayer. He predicted the certification process will be complete by September, and if all goes well, production of this "greener" diesel engine will begin about a year from now. The company so far has raised $31 million of the $40 million Mayer says is needed to fund production of the engine. "Raising private equity for startups is always difficult," Mayer told WisBusiness.com, adding the seven-year certification process doesn't help. For companies like this, he said, investors need to know in the second or third year that the company can make it to the end with a profit. Many investors in Engineered Propulsion Systems are aviation enthusiasts who see value in the long-term. As the company works toward production, Mayer has no concerns about placing orders once that goal is attained. "There is tremendous pent-up demand for this engine in aviation," Mayer said. "We have engine orders already. It's not an issue of selling; its an issue of getting that blessing from the FAA." For now, the company is "keeping the technical aspects of this engine on the down-low," Mayer said, but general details can be found on its website. There, a section on engine details claims it will make flying "faster, cleaner and less costly." According to the website, CO2 output for the engine is expected to be 17 percent less than traditional diesel engines. It will run on lead-free Jet-A fuel. "It is weight-competitive, and considerably more efficient than a gas engine," Mayer said. Bosch General Aviation Technology is the company's manufacturing partner working on "the computer brains behind the engine," the part of the engine that required the most money to develop, according to Mayer. Hanno Miorini, managing director for Bosch General Aviation Technology has called the Graflight V-8 engine "a superior design." Engineered Propulsion Systems was issued a new patent early this month on technical aspects of the engine. "It's revolutionary," Mayer said. "There is nothing like this out there." Because the military does not require FAA certifications, the company has already received its third military contract, and will do business with it this year after completing "extreme testing" with the Air Force. See an earlier story on EPS: www.wisbusiness.com/index.iml?Article=382624L See video of a test-flight with a proof-of-concept engine: http://eps.aero/the-eps- engine/flight-testing/ http://www.wisbusiness.com/index.iml?Article=384536 Back to Top Automation Technology Brings Safety and Reliability to Aviation While the development of self-driving cars has grabbed headlines, another industry is undergoing rapid development due to automation technology - aviation. Even in the most automated aircraft, pilots manage a daunting number of interfaces and a flood of information. In an attempt to alleviate pilot workload, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is working with the aviation industry to develop the Aircrew Labor In-Cockpit Automation System (ALIAS) program. In addition to aiding pilots, the goal of the program is to enhance mission performance and improve aircraft safety and reliability through advances in automation technology. Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin company, recently won the contract for Phase 3 to "improve and expand the capabilities developed through a tailorable autonomy kit for installation in both fixed-wing airplanes and helicopters," according to a press release. How Does It Work? The ALIAS project uses Matrix, "a capability toolkit that includes hardware and software as well as multi-spectral sensors that enable scalable automation." In the first two phases of the program, Sikorsky integrated its Matrix Technology into both a Sikorsky's Autonomy Research Aircraft (SARA) helicopter and a Cessna Caravan fixed-wing aircraft. With the ability to fit under the cabin and in the airframe of fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters, the Phase 2 demonstration system "quickly connects to an aircraft's existing mechanical, electrical, and diagnostic systems" and can be removed just as easily, as reported by DARPA News. Using ALIAS, the pilot can simply tap or swipe a tablet to control the aircraft, and can use the same device to control any ALIAS-equipped airplane or helicopter. The program proceeded to Phase 3 after successful ground demonstrations showed that ALIAS could respond to simulated flight contingency events like system failures. According to Scott Wierzbanowski, DARPA program manager, "In Phase 3, we plan to further enhance ALIAS' ability to respond to contingencies, decrease pilot workload, and adapt to different missions and aircraft types." He goes on to state that in the future, they "hope to design for and demonstrate the improved ALIAS system across as many as seven previously untested fixed- and rotary-wing platforms." Improving Aviation Safety Ultimately, the goal of the ALIAS program is to develop automation technology that allows operators to fly aircraft safely and reliably with one to two crew members onboard, improving their confidence and decision-making capabilities. With the recent rapid advances in automation technology, perhaps self-flying aircraft will take to the skies before self-driving cars are common on the highways. https://insights.samsung.com/2017/01/18/automation-technology-brings-safety-and- reliability-to-aviation/ Back to Top Isavia Signs Agreement to Deploy Space-Based ADS-B MCLEAN, Virginia, Jan. 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- On the heels of a successful launch of the first ten Iridium NEXT satellites on Saturday, January 14th, Aireon announced today that it has signed a data services agreement with Isavia, the Icelandic Air Navigation Service Provider (ANSP). Isavia will deploy Aireon's space-based Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) service throughout the Reykjavik Oceanic Control Area (OCA). In addition to providing enhanced redundancy to existing terrestrial surveillance resources in the southern part of the airspace, the AireonSM service will, for the first time ever, provide real-time surveillance and tracking in the region extending from 70 degrees north to the North Pole. With control of more than 5.4 million square kilometers of airspace, Isavia is looking to improve safety, and efficiency (through reduced separation) of operations by expanding the ADS-B service area. Continuity of service will be enhanced through use of Aireon's technology in airspace where line-of-sight surveillance is already. "Aireon is already working with our colleagues at NAV CANADA and UK NATS to introduce this capability for oceanic crossings in the North Atlantic. We had initially signed a memorandum of agreement to ensure the benefits would be realized, not only with safety, but also efficiency," said Asgeir Palsson director, Air Navigation Services, Isavia. "The benefits speak for themselves, and we are working closely with our North Atlantic neighbors. We anticipate optimizing the 160,000 flights that use our airspace every year." Isavia's northerly location makes it a key player in the North Atlantic (NAT) region bordering Gander Oceanic Flight Information Region (FIR), controlled by NAV CANADA, and Shanwick Oceanic FIR, controlled by NATS, to the south, and Bodo Oceanic and Murmansk FIRs in the northern part. Space-based ADS-B will provide a best-in-class technology for this region of the NAT, and give participating ANSPs 100 percent, real-time coverage. Isavia will also be conducting flight trials in polar airspace north of 70 degrees to evaluate the expected benefits of previously unavailable surveillance in polar airspace. "Isavia, given their location, have a strategic mission to utilize the most advanced technology. Not only will they use Aireon for increasing safety, but they will also use it as a contingency source of surveillance to add an extra layer to their robust series of cutting- edge technologies," said Cyriel Kronenburg, Vice President, Aviation Services, Aireon. "We will also be working closely with Isavia to test the impact of real-time surveillance in the North Pole. Isavia will soon have the ability to track a flight across the entire polar region, in real-time, an unprecedented capability in the history of aviation." For more information about Aireon visit: Aireon.com For more information about Isavia visit: Isavia.is About Aireon LLC Aireon is deploying a global, space-based Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) system capable of surveilling and tracking ADS-B equipped aircraft around the globe in real-time. The system will be used to provide ADS-B coverage that will span oceanic, polar and remote regions, where current surveillance systems are limited to line- of-site and densely populated areas. Aireon will harness the best of aviation surveillance advancements already underway and extend them globally in order to significantly improve efficiency, expand safety, reduce emissions and provide cost savings to aviation stakeholders. In partnership with leading ANSPs from around the world, NAV CANADA, ENAV, the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) and Naviair, as well as Iridium Communications, Aireon is developing an operational, global, space-based air traffic surveillance system expected to be available by 2018. For more information about Aireon, visit: www.aireon.com. http://finance.yahoo.com/news/isavia-signs-agreement-deploy-space-080000699.html Back to Top Safran to Buy Zodiac for $10 Billion in All-French Aero Deal Aircraft-engine maker Safran SA agreed to buy plane-seat supplier Zodiac Aerospace SAfor almost 10 billion euros ($10.5 billion) in an all-French deal that will unite two of the country's biggest aerospace groups. Safran will offer 29.47 euros per share in cash, which is 26 percent above Wednesday's close, the companies said Thursday. If at least half of Zodiac's equity is tendered, Safran will complete the purchase via a share swap, paying stock that was worth 32.63 euros Wednesday for each remaining Zodiac share. Safran, General Electric Co.'s partner in the CFM International alliance that produces engines for short-haul jets, is buying Zodiac after the cabin maker issued multiple profit warnings and saw its share price tumble amid delays in the supply of seats for Airbus Group SE's latest A350 wide-body jet. The deal provides an all-French solution that's likely to help allay concerns at Toulouse-based Airbus while building up a new national aerospace champion. Philippe Petitcolin, Safran's chief executive officer, said the deal will create the world's third-biggest aerospace supplier behind GE and Pratt & Whitney owner United Technologies Corp., and accelerate the return of Zodiac's interiors operations to "historical levels of profitability." Petitcolin will continue to run the group with Zodiac CEO Olivier Zarrouati as his deputy. Zodiac's founding families and two investment funds -- the Peugeot family's FFP and the Fonds Strategique de Participations -- have agreed to accept Safran stock and to hold it for at least two years. Together with a 14 percent stake held by the French state, Safran will now have a bigger bloc of long-term investors, helping to insulate management from short-term pressures. Hollande Backing French President Francois Hollande said in a statement that he welcomed the agreement, describing it as a "beautiful industrial operation." Safran shares rose as much as 3.9 percent to 68.87 euros in Paris, while Zodiac gained 24 percent to 28.85 euros, 62 cents shy of the offer price. The interiors specialist has seen its value slump 22 percent over the past two years, during which time Safran's worth has increased by one-third. The combination will unite Safran activities spanning turbines, landing gear, brakes and avionics with Zodiac's cabin interiors, fuel, lighting, safety and power-distribution gear. The buyer is also keen to access Zodiac technology key to development of the "more electrical aircraft," it said. The enlarged group will have 92,000 staff, half of them in France, more than 20 billion euros in sales and recurring operating profit of 2.7 billion euros. Paris-based Safran was formed in 2005 from a merger of engine maker Snecma and security specialist Sagem, and traces its origins to Gnome, which was founded in 1905 and made the first rotary aviation engine. Zodiac traces its origins to 1896 and the production of the first hot-air balloons for sport and tourism. Limited Savings Safran made an approach for its compatriot in 2010 before dropping the bid following a negative reaction from the Zodiac board, which said the companies had little overlap and limited potential for cost savings. The engine giant revived its interest last April after Zodiac cut its profit forecast eight times, sending its shares plunging, people familiar with the matter said at the time. Safran has identified cost savings of 200 million euros, mainly from joint procurement and marketing, and will also aim to "accelerate" the recovery of Zodiac's seats business, according to the statement. Petitcolin said on a media call that while "a seat and an engine are obviously not the same," certification rules and industrialization processes are identical. The deal should give earnings per share a double-digit boost in the first full year, he said, and is in line with Safran's increased focus on defense and aerospace, which in September saw it open talksto sell its identity and security operations to private- equity firm Advent International Corp. for 2.43 billion euros. A350 Relief Andy Chambers, an analyst at Edison Investment Research, said in a note that while the synergies appear limited, the merger's timing "looks favorable" in terms of Zodiac's potential recovery over the next 18 months. Airbus Chief Operating Officer Fabrice Bregier said Jan. 11 that the A350 interiors issue has begun to ease. After almost three years struggling to meet delivery schedules at both the European planemaker and Boeing Co., Zodiac last year also reported progress in the redesign and production of seat shells at a plant in California, and of lavatories for the A350. Safran has a market value of 28 billion euros and in 2015 posted net income of 1.5 billion euros, up 19 percent, on sales of almost 18 billion euros. Zodiac, based in Plaisir, near Paris, had revenue of 5.2 billion euros in the 12 months through Aug. 31 and net income of 108 million euros, a 41 percent decline. Lazard and Bank of America Merrill Lynch are advising Safran, with BoA also underwriting a 4 billion-euro bridging loan, while Zodiac has retained Rothschild and BNP Paribas. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-01-19/safran-to-buy-zodiac-aerospace- in-all-french-aviation-deal Back to Top Eugene Cernan, Last Human to Walk on Moon, Dies at 82 Eugene A. Cernan, the commander of the Apollo 17 lunar-landing mission in 1972 and the last human to walk on the moon, died on Monday in Houston. He was 82. His death was announced by NASA. A ferocious competitor with a test pilot's reckless streak, Mr. Cernan (pronounced SIR- nun) rocketed into space three times, was the second American to drift weightless around the world on a tether, went to the moon twice and shattered aerospace records on the Earth and the moon. He also slid down a banister on a visit to the White House and once crashed a helicopter in the Atlantic while chasing a dolphin. Skimming the lunar surface in a rehearsal for the first manned landing, he erupted with salty language heard by millions when his craft briefly spun out of control. But he made spacewalks and romps over the lunar surface look routine, and in a way they were. Three and a half years after Neil A. Armstrong took mankind's first step onto the lunar surface in 1969, Mr. Cernan, a Navy captain and one of the nation's most experienced astronauts, landed with a geologist-astronaut near the Sea of Serenity in the final chapter of the Apollo program, America's audacious venture to fulfill President John F. Kennedy's 1961 pledge to put Americans on the moon. Captain Cernan was the last of 12 Americans to set foot on the moon in six Apollo landings. Two other missions were lunar orbital test runs, and Apollo 13 was an aborted landing after a malfunction. While Apollo 17 conveyed the drama of televised moonwalks, the awesome historicity of the Armstrong flight had faded, along with public interest in lunar missions that by 1972 had begun to seem repetitive. Still, his mission was a technological triumph. While Ronald E. Evans, a Navy commander, piloted a command ship in lunar orbit, Captain Cernan and Harrison H. Schmitt, the first scientist to go to the moon, descended to the virtually airless, soundless surface in a four- legged lander that settled in a narrow valley of boulders and craters. After a 250,000-mile voyage from Earth, they put down 300 feet from their target. "The Challenger has landed," Captain Cernan announced in a broadcast to the world the Apollo crew saw hanging in the sky. "I'd like to dedicate the first step of Apollo 17 to all those who made it possible." He and Dr. Schmitt found themselves in a desolate but recognizable landscape near the Taurus Mountains and the Littrow Crater, a region of hills, cliffs and escarpments littered with tumbled rocks. After establishing a nuclear-powered base station, they set up scientific experiments and began three days of explorations on foot and in a battery- powered rover mounted with a television camera. As color video pictures streamed across the gulf of space, the astronauts collected bluish- gray and tan rocks four billion years old, drilled eight-foot heat-probe holes and journeyed to a 7,000-foot mountain called the South Massif and to the edge of a deep crater. There they found a fumarole, an ancient vent for volcanic gases, and collected strange orange and red soil samples. On three rover excursions that took them 21 miles to craters, rock slides and mountain walls, and in 22 hours of moonwalks, they collected 250 pounds of rocks and soil to carry home and left experiments that delivered data for years. The captain also scratched his daughter's initials - TDC, for Teresa Dawn Cernan - in the lunar dust, a talisman that might last eons on a lifeless world. The mission completed, the captain took his last steps on the lunar surface and spoke for posterity. "America's challenge of today has forged man's destiny of tomorrow," he said in words slightly garbled on recordings. "And as we leave the moon and Taurus-Littrow, we leave as we came, and, God willing, we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind." Dr. Schmitt climbed into the lander, followed by Captain Cernan. With a graceless farewell from the captain - "Let's get this mother out of here" - the two astronauts blasted off and rejoined the orbiting command module. The trip back to Earth and the splashdown in the South Pacific, on Dec. 19, 1972, went like clockwork. In the decades since the Apollo program, the wonder of America's early achievements in space has been overtaken by space shuttles, international space stations, unmanned explorations of the solar system's outer worlds and the possibility of a landing by humans on Mars. Captain Cernan's name has sometimes been linked with Armstrong's as the first and last humans to walk on the moon. But with budget constraints and other worlds beckoning, his lofty hopes for another generation to return have not been realized. No human has set foot on the moon in the 44 years since his mission, and there are no plans to return. Eugene Andrew Cernan was born in Chicago on March 14, 1934, to Andrew Cernan, a supervisor at a naval installation, and the former Rose Cihlar. He graduated from Proviso Township High School in Maywood, Ill., in 1952, and received an electrical engineering degree from Purdue in 1956 and a master's in aeronautical engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif., in 1963. As a naval aviator, he logged 5,000 hours of flying time and 200 landings on aircraft carriers. In 1961, he married Barbara Jean Atchley. They divorced in 1981. He later married Jan Nanna, who survives him, as do his daughter, Teresa Cernan Woolie; two stepdaughters, Kelly Nanna Taff and Danielle Nanna Ellis; nine grandchildren; and a sister, Dolores Riley. Captain Cernan became a NASA astronaut in 1963. In his first spaceflight, Gemini 9 in 1966, he joined Col. Thomas Stafford of the Air Force on a three-day orbital mission testing rendezvous and docking procedures. He also circled the world twice as a tethered spacewalker. At 32, he was the youngest man to go into space. His second spaceflight, with Colonel Stafford and Cmdr. John W. Young of the Navy in 1969, was Apollo 10, the final rehearsal for Apollo 11, which months later landed Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the moon. The eight-day Apollo 10 trip included a Cernan- Stafford descent in a lunar module to within eight nautical miles of the surface. It did everything but land. It also photographed landing sites and sent back the first live television pictures from the moon. Captain Cernan's final spaceflight, the capstone of the Apollo series, did not generate the worldwide excitement of the Armstrong-Aldrin adventure. But it did set records: the longest lunar landing flight (nearly 302 hours) and the longest lunar surface extravehicular activities (22 hours and 6 minutes). Captain Cernan also set a career record of 566 hours in space, 73 of them on the moon's surface. After Apollo 17, Captain Cernan helped develop the United States-Soviet project Apollo- Soyuz. In 1976, he retired from the Navy and NASA and became an executive of Coral Petroleum in Houston. He founded the Cernan Corporation, an energy and aerospace consultant, in 1981 and was chairman of the Johnson Engineering Corporation from 1994 to 2000. Mr. Cernan, who lived in Piney Point, a suburb of Houston, contributed to ABC's coverage of space-related news; narrated and was featured in documentaries; and wrote (with Don Davis) an autobiography, "The Last Man on the Moon," published in 1999. In 2010 congressional testimony, he and Armstrong, who died in 2012, criticized President Obama's plan to cancel NASA's program to send astronauts back to the moon and later to Mars and to invest in private companies for new space technologies. Mr. Cernan called the budgetary decision a "slide to mediocrity" and "a blueprint for a mission to nowhere." https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/16/us/eugene-cernan-death.html?_r=0 Back to Top NASA is in a strange and expensive pickle with the Russians NASA, in dealing with Russia's monopoly on human spaceflight, is hoping Boeing can help - that is, by buying tickets the company owns for rides aboard Russian rockets. When NASA retired its last space shuttle in July 2011, it expected commercial carriers like SpaceX and Boeing to launch its astronauts into space by 2015. But both companies hit snags with the development of their rockets and spaceships, causing the first planned launches to slip to 2018, according to a September 2016 audit by NASA's Office of Inspector General (OIG). This left NASA with one option for getting astronauts to and from the International Space Station (ISS) for the next 3 years: a Russian spacecraft called the Soyuz. NASA is no stranger to buying Soyuz seats - it has done so for more than a decade - but Russia has taken full advantage of its temporary monopoly to charge ever-more- exorbitant sums for them. And now the space agency may need more than it originally expected. As Eric Berger reported Wednesday at Ars Technica, NASA issued a new solicitation on January 17 to buy two more Soyuz seats from Boeing, plus "an option to acquire crew transportation from Boeing for three crewmembers on the Soyuz in 2019." In other words: NASA may end up buying five tickets aboard the Soyuz from Boeing. If that sounds a little convoluted, particularly since Boeing's delays helped put NASA in this pickle in the first place, welcome to the current state of human spaceflight industry. As Berger notes at Ars Technica, RSC Energia - the Russian entity that makes and launches Soyuz rockets and spacecraft - recently settled a $320 million lawsuit with Boeing. Part of Boeing's settlement package includes five Soyuz seats and, according to NASA's recent solicitation, one is scheduled for 2017, another for 2018, and three for 2019. NASA wants those tickets to ensure it's making good on its roughly $75 billion investment in the ISS, set to disband in 2024, by filling it up with as many crewmembers as possible. What might NASA pay Boeing for each of its Soyuz tickets? A NASA representative declined to provide Business Insider with an estimate, but noted "prices will be finalized during contract negotiations" and that the space agency "will ensure it receives a fair and reasonable price for the transportation services from Boeing before a contract is awarded." Representatives from Boeing also wouldn't give specific numbers, but told Business Insider in an email that "the pricing is attractive" and that "we would not charge NASA more than what they would pay Roscosmos [Russia's space agency] if they were purchasing these seats directly." If what Roscosmos charges is any guide, however, Boeing's Soyuz seats could still cost NASA dearly. When NASA still had the space shuttle in 2008, Roscosmos charged it as little as $21.8 million per Soyuz seat. By 2018, however, it intends to charge NASA $81 million per seat - an increase of 372% over 10 years: That's according to NASA OIG's September 2016 audit data. The chart below, also based on the report, factors in the price of a seat and the number of astronauts that NASA plans to launch (about six per year) to show how much NASA has paid Russia and could end up paying for Soyuz seats. The total cost over 12 years is more than $3.36 billion - and that's not including the possible purchase of Boeing's three Soyuz seats for 2019. Assuming NASA's budget remains roughly $18.5 billion a year, that means about 3% of the agency's funding could be diverted to Russia in 2018: A presentation given by a NASA official in May 2016 estimates the cost of each seat aboard SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft and Boeing's CST-100 Starliner spacecraft will be $58 million. The Sept. 2016 audit made clear that any other hiccups in the NASA's commercial crew program, which could earn Boeing and SpaceX up to $4.2 billion and $2.6 billion (respectively) for their services, will be costly. "Given the delays in initiating a U.S. capacity to transport crew to the ISS, NASA has extended its contract with the Russian Space Agency for astronaut transportation through 2018 at an additional cost of $490 million," the report stated. "If the Commercial Crew Program experiences additional delays, NASA may need to buy additional seats from Russia to ensure a continued U.S. presence on the ISS." Indeed, that looks to be the way things are headed now. http://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-buying-russian-soyuz-seats-2019-2017-1 Curt Lewis