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hi everybody josh byerly here inside

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mission control i'm joined again by

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bruce manners who is a project executive

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for nasa's commercial orbital

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transportation services program or cots

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as we like to call it now kotz we've

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talked about several times here on nasa

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television you see the result of that

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work right now onboard the international

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space station with spacex being

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currently docked and delivering quite a

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bit of supplies to the space station

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orbital sciences is the other company

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that is working to provide cargo

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capability to the space station bruce

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works very closely with them so we

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thought we'd get bruce to give us an

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update on exactly how orbital is doing

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and what's ahead over the next couple of

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months for the company

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uh we're at a real exciting time in the

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program right now we've got a lot of

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hardware that's stacked up uh we're

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completed the pad at wallops flight

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facility where the where they're going

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to be launching the antares rocket from

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that pad is now finished to the point

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where they've been able to hand it over

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to orbital so they can roll out their

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first stage vehicle to do a hot stage

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stage one hot fire test on the pad

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so orbitals right now they've got uh

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that test vehicle on the pad they're

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getting ready to

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to start doing some cold flow tests

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where we start flowing fuel to the to

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the vehicle that'll check out all the

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systems for both the vehicle and also

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the pad and the ground ops and all that

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and then ultimately in about a month or

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so uh once they once they initiate the

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the

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cold flow tests we're expecting in about

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a month after that we would do a hot

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fire stage one hot fire on the pad

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which will be

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a really excellent test to

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validate the the design of the the first

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stage of the vehicle uh that'd be the

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first time they've fired two engines at

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once and uh we think it'll be a real

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good test to demonstrate both the ground

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ops and also the uh the system the

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flight systems let's talk about wallops

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for a second because i think a lot of

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people don't realize there's a big

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difference you know spacex uses cape

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canaveral which everybody's heard of you

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know it's on the air force side it's not

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technically kennedy space center but

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it's on on the air force side uh they've

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got their pad down there

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orbital decided to go a different

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direction they're going up to wallops

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which will give us it's an important

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thing because it gives us a different

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spaceport up there on the east coast but

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that's actually a nasa facility that

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they're sort of talk about the

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arrangement it's sort of a different a

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different setup it is a very different

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setup um they

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decided to fly from wallops in virginia

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that gave them a couple of different

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advantages in their mind uh and i think

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that those have largely panned out they

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first of all it's it's geographically

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very close to their main offices and

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gives us

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they're in dallas virginia so it's uh

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very simple and easy for them to uh

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transport their spacecraft

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from from over to the flight facility

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and then also it gives them an

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opportunity to

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open up a new range for a mid-sized

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launch vehicle

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and they felt that they would have

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you know better relationship have a good

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to find a good relationship with with

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with wallops for that sort of purpose

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and uh it's worked out pretty well for

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them it's a big stretch for for wallops

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and myanmar the mid-atlantic regional

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spaceport um which is actually a state

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of virginia entity uh the pad in the

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partnering arrangement there is is

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unique uh the pad is actually it sits on

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nasa ground at wallops nasa wallops but

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it's actually a state-owned

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and operated launch pad

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put together by the state of virginia

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and under the auspices of the

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mid-atlantic regional spaceport or mars

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right so basically what's happening is

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you've got this land that's at wallops

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that is managed by mars like you talked

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about they've been working over the past

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several months to get the pad ready they

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finally handed it over to orbital

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basically said okay here you go now you

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can go ahead and roll your rocket out

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there and start start ground processing

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right yes

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so let's talk about they've got a test

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flight coming up

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hopefully by the end of the year where

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they're going to test actually n teres

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which is the rocket and then coming up

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in the spring of 2013 that's when

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they're going to fly a flight sort of

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similar to what spacex did where they go

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up to the station do these demonstration

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maneuvers and do checkouts right yes if

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you look at the overall program of the

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demonstration that they're going to be

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executing it's similar in a lot of ways

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to what spacex already has executed uh

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in in december we're hoping to do the uh

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uh as you said a test of the antares

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launch vehicle it'll be a full-up test

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it'll be a full-up antares

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it'll be very similar to what spacex had

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done for a couple of times previously

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once under cots and once independently

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they're made in flight but it will be a

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full up demonstration of the launch

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vehicle they'll actually launch a

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payload mass simulator that's the same

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size and

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mold line and mass characteristics as

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the cygnus spacecraft and put that into

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orbit uh around

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and also they're gonna launch a couple

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secondary payloads that they would yeah

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that they have but it'll be a full up

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test of the of the launch vehicle um

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and we should show that that systems all

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check out and work out properly

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assuming success there then they've also

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independently been developed or putting

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together the next launch vehicle

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it's largely uh in good shape

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they've got all the pieces at wallops

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are for it already and then they also

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have the full cygnus spacecraft and so

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in the early first quarter early second

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quarter of next year they're hoping to

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do their full up mission to the

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international space station where they

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would demonstrate delivering cargo to

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the international space station

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talk about you know there was a i guess

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sort of a strategic choice that was made

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by orbital versus spacex spacex can

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return things back to earth uh you know

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we need that capability to bring things

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back orbital decided to go along the

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lines of what htv atv and progress do

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which is to burn up in the atmosphere

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but that's beneficial too because

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obviously you gotta you know you can

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imagine not taking the trash out at your

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house over six months it would get a

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little cluttered you know so it's

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important to actually get stuff off the

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station and to send it back what are the

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benefits of that i mean it sort of

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simplifies the spacecraft design a bit

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right it simplified the spacecraft's

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design for them um i think orbital

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decided early on that they wanted they

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they wanted to get more involved with

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manned space flight they didn't want to

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uh make a huge leap into uh developing a

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full up returnable vehicle they they

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have a lot of experience in commercial

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spacecraft and in in launch vehicles for

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smaller launch vehicles like their

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pegasus and minotaur launch vehicles

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so this seemed to be to them and i think

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it is a good marriage of it was a

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stretch goal for them to get into the

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demand space flight and develop

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to be delivering cargo to the

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international space station but not a

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huge reach to where they were also

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deliver developing a vehicle that would

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return right

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so you know i was up there i guess a few

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weeks ago and i was actually i'm very

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impressed to see they've actually got

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all these cygnus vehicles that are just

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in different stages of being built i

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mean they're very very far along with it

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it's very cool to see that yes they've

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they've you know at this point they're

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really into a production mode on those

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spacecraft they have

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we have the spacecraft for the

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demonstration mission is you know pretty

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much i would say uh finished

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with it's all its development hardware

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testing uh they're going through some

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some risk reduction activities right now

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they also have wright following right

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along their first

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mission or vehicle that they used for

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the that will be used for their crs

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mission their first actual cargo

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delivery to the space station it's

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largely finished as well and sitting

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waiting uh you know finishing up its

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integration tests and and

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they really have gotten into a

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production mode and if you go there as

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you said you can see

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various vehicles in flow and in in

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production just as you would go if you

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were to go to a ford plant and see a

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number of cars in production

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at the beginning there's stuff that

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looks like lots of different pieces and

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at the end there's a spacecraft yeah

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let's talk about you know how you work

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with the company we spent a lot of time

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talking with mike corcott who's your

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counterpart that worked with spacex as

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part of the cots program and

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um

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you know he talked about some of the

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lessons learned you know sort of finding

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this new path working with these

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commercial companies how closely have

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you been talking to him and sort of what

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they learned lessons learned you know

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working with spacex and and you know now

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seeing the flight up there that's on

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board the space station now uh how close

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to have you worked with him we've we

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worked quite closely uh we talked uh you

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know he was just down the hallway from

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me in the office and so we did talk

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quite a bit about what the experiences

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they were having we just uh were able to

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sit down and talk with orbital

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um to give them some some direct lessons

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learned that we all had picked up from

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from the

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first mission from spacex that

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reinforced some of the things we were

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already doing

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like simulating and doing lots of sims

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with the operations teams and we you

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know we were able to roll lots of

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lessons learned into what we're doing

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here yeah

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do you look at the spacex mission now

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you see the spacecraft that's up there

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actually uh you know attached to the

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space station to go okay you know we're

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getting this is about to become very

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real uh see it's getting pretty pretty

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close absolutely uh we did start a long

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time after we started two years after

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spacex that's right because spacex

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started in 2006 you guys started in

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2008. yes we had they had a two-year

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head start on us um so seeing them now

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delivering their first uh cargo to the

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space station under the crs contract you

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know it really is inspiring for us to

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realize where we uh where we're gonna

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end up and also that how far we've come

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with you know starting two years after

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them and really now ending six months or

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a year after the uh after their they've

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they completed up i feel like we made a

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lot of ground up yeah well bruce thanks

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a lot for coming along of course we'll

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uh we'll pay close attention as orbital

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continues to move towards this test

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flight coming up toward the end of the

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year and uh the uh the flight up to the

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space station in the spring of 2013

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which is not not that far away as these

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months seem to go by pretty quickly

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don't they yes they do it's been a

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pleasure thank you very much so if you

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want to find out the latest about

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orbitals we have a new link set up on

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the nasa website just go to www.nasa.gov