NASA’s Kennedy Space Center is the ‘Bridge to the Future.’ Bob Cabana, Kennedy’s center director, echoed these words from Vice President Mike Pence’s most recent visit to the center during a presentation to members and guests of the National Space Club-Florida Committee on March 20, 2018.
“You just can’t beat what we have accomplished since the retirement of the space shuttle,” Cabana said. “I’m so pleased that we have a clear vision forward, and what we have to accomplish in the future.”
Cabana was happy to report that each of the programs at Kennedy — Exploration Ground Systems, Launch Services Program and Commercial Crew Program — are in a very stable position as the center moves forward.
Exploration Ground Systems (EGS) has come a long way in the past two years. Mid-year, EGS will have completed all of the infrastructure necessary to process and launch Orion and the Space Launch System. The team recently tested Orion recovery processes and procedures aboard the USS Anchorage in the Pacific Ocean. The final two large swing arm umbilicals have been installed on the tower of the mobile launcher. Preparations for the arrival of the SLS solid rocket motors were completed in the Rotation, Processing and Surge Facility.
“Inside the Vehicle Assembly Building, High Bay 3 is ready to go,” Cabana said. “We’ve got all of the work platforms installed. We’re ready to get the mobile launcher in there and begin verification and validation testing.”
Crawler-transporter 2 was totally refurbished in preparation for its role in missions to come. The crawler will carry the SLS rocket with Orion atop the mobile launcher to Launch Pad 39B for Exploration Mission-1, and will one day carry the rocket that will take us to Mars. At the launch pad, work is underway to complete the flame deflector in the flame trench. The upgraded environmental control system is undergoing verification and validation.
“Everything is ready to go at the launch pad to support SLS and Orion,” Cabana said.
At the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building, Lockheed Martin is busy preparing the Orion crew module for its first test flight atop the SLS rocket.
In the Launch Control Center, the first female launch director, Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, is starting simulations in Firing Room 1 to prepare for Exploration Mission-1. Cabana said that is a milestone, when simulations of launch procedures begin.
The Launch Services Program is busy with six missions in six months. NOAA’s GOES-S mission launched March 1 aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. NASA’s TESS mission is slated to launch April 16 on a SpaceX Falcon 9.
SpaceX also will launch its 14th Commercial Resupply Services mission to the International Space Station on April 2, again on the company’s Falcon 9 rocket.
In the Commercial Crew Program arena, Boeing and SpaceX are planning for test flights in August. Boeing plans to fly a crewed flight in November, and SpaceX in December.
“If we get test flights up on both of those this year, that’s going to be awesome,” Cabana said. “I really want to see crews flying to the International Space Station on a U.S. rocket, not having to rely on our Russian partner.”
In Exploration Research and Technology, researchers in Kennedy’s Swamp Works facility are doing in-situ resource utilization to demonstrate that commodities in places like the Moon or Mars could be resourced and used to support missions.
“If we can launch from Kennedy Space Center, then those same skills are going to be applicable when we’re on the Moon or Mars to launch from there. So we’re going to continue to find ways to better live on these surfaces,” Cabana said.
Kennedy continues to improve plant habitats. The Veggie plant growth system is doing a great job on the space station, allowing NASA to learn effective methods of farming in space. When astronauts are on long-duration spaceflights, it’s not just about growing their own food. Plants provide nutrition, scrub the air of carbon dioxide and provide oxygen. They also offer a psychological benefit in an enclosed environment.
Future plans include an electric propulsion module and getting the Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway around the Moon. Then NASA will have the ability to go back and forth from the Moon with a lander, and eventually adjust the orbit and go to Mars.
The economic outlook is looking up. When the shuttle program ended, the center went from a workforce of 15,000 down to 7,500. Today, there are about 7,800 people, civil servants and contractors, doing government work at Kennedy. The center has an impressive impact on the Space Coast and on the State of Florida.
“I think it’s only going to continue to grow. I think the goal of having 10,000 people working here would be realistic,” Cabana said. “More people are moving in. I think we’re in a good place. We’re not dependent on any one government program. We have a variety of programs to support the infrastructure and workforce at Kennedy.”
Kennedy Space Center is coming up on it its 60th anniversary. Cabana said of all the times in our history at the Cape, he thinks this is the most exciting.
“When you look across the board at all of the things that we have accomplished, and what’s on our plate as we move forward, I’ve said it before, in all of human history, only three nations have sent humans to space, The United States, Russia and China,” Cabana said. “But today, here at Kennedy, we have three companies building spacecraft to take humans to space: Boeing, Lockheed Martin and SpaceX. Three U.S. companies with spacecraft in development.”
For 2018, Cabana’s top priorities are ensuring success for the Commercial Crew Program: getting the vehicles certified, flying those test flights and eventually sending crews to the space station on U.S. rockets; completing all the infrastructure to support SLS and Orion; and seeing LSP continue to do amazing things.
“We have great leadership at NASA, but more importantly, we have very clear direction at Kennedy and nothing has changed for us here on the Space Coast,” Cabana said.
Kennedy Space Center is the “Bridge to the Future.” The center has a great path forward and will continue to be successful.