NATIONAL HARBOR, Md.—Blue Origin is currently testing its powerpack for the BE-4 engine and is on path for full engine testing by the end of 2016, a company executive said Sept. 16.

Blue Origin Director for Strategy and Business Development Bretton Alexander said the company is testing the subscale of the engine and has already tested full scale injectors and multiple injector elements. Blue Origin, he said, has tested all of the BE-4 pumps, valves and components. Presentation slides shown during Alexander’s presentation said the valve testing included fuel, oxidizer and preburner fuel valves.

All this testing, Alexander said, allows for early discovery of issues before the BE-4 reaches the test stand at the end of 2016.  He said the BE-4 will be qualified by the end of 2017, a key milestone as United Launch Alliance (ULA) plans for a 2019 first flight of its next-generation Vulcan launch vehicle, which is slated to use the BE-4. The Air Force is also required to get off the Russian-developed RD-180 for space launch by 2019.

The BE-4 uses liquid oxygen and liquefied natural gas to produce 550,000 pounds of thrust at sea level. Blue Origin is partnering with ULA, which is a joint venture of Lockheed Martin [LMT] and Boeing [BA].

Blue Origin is also testing the BE-4’s staged combustion. This includes preburner injection elements, main combustion chamber injector elements and regenerative cooling. Alexander said at the Air Force Association’s (AFA) Air and Space conference that Blue Origin has performed more than 80 staged combustion tests. Aerojet Rocketdyne [AJRD] is also under contract with ULA to provide a competitive cost estimate, schedule and risk management plan for the AR-1 engine as well as the RS-68, RL-10 and solid rocket motors. ULA is also considering using the AR-1 in its Vulcan launch vehicle.

Blue Origin announced the week of Sept. 7 that it was expanding its existing BE-4 engine production capability to accommodate the initial production rate needed for Vulcan.

NASA’s inspector general is concerned about future enforcement of liability and insurance provisions for the agency’s commercial cargo and crew programs following how NASA, Virginia lawmakers and a state agency handled developments after the October Antares failure at Wallops Island.

NASA IG said in its Sept. 17 report (IG-15-023) the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority (VCSFA), which manages the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) at NASA’s Wallops Island Flight Facility, Va., asked NASA to pay for repairs to the VCSFA launch facility damaged in the Antares failure. Two weeks after the launch failure, four Virginia lawmakers wrote the head of a House appropriations panel, requesting $20 million for repair work at Wallops Island.

The following month, NASA IG said, Congress passed a consolidated appropriations act that contained an explanatory statement directing NASA to reallocate $20 million from its budget request toward its 21st Century Space Launch Complex Program, a line item that encompasses Wallops Island. Despite this, disagreements remained over who should pay for the launch pad repairs.

A key NASA official exchanged correspondence with the VCSFA executive director, informing him of the Space Act Agreement insurance requirements. The VCSFA executive director, in response, told NASA it didn’t inform the authority of its need to insure the launch pads. To satisfy Congress and avoid delays, NASA on March 13 issued a notice of intent to non-competitively increase the value of its existing contract with VCSFA by $5 million. NASA officials told NASA IG that the funding will come from other programs within the space operations budget, which includes the International Space Station (ISS) and the Space Communications and Navigation program.

In light of the Wallops Island experience, NASA IG remains concerned regarding future enforcement of liability and insurance provisions for commercial cargo and crew programs. NASA IG believes the requirements were clear: NASA was not financially responsible for damage to agency property or VCSFA property. Nevertheless, after the Antares failure, the Virginia congressional delegation took steps to make $20 million of NASA’s budget available to help fund Wallops Island repairs, funds that the inspector general believes could be put to better use.

“As NASA continues to rely on commercial companies to provide cargo, and soon crew, transportation services to ISS, it is important to ensure that all parties comply with procedures regarding obtaining (or waiving) insurance and clarifying who pays for what in the event of a mishap,” NASA IG said.

In its report, NASA IG also criticized Orbital ATK’s [OA] return to flight plan following its Antares failure, claiming it contains technical and operational risks and may be difficult to execute as designed and on the timetable proposed. NASA IG said although the Atlas V has a strong flight record and is a suitable rocket for Orbital ATK missions, the company will be integrating its Cygnus capsule with United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) Atlas V rocket for the first time. ULA is a joint venture of Lockheed Martin [LMT] and Boeing [BA].

NASA IG also said Orbital ATK must accelerate development of its modified Antares launch system, refitting it with new engines for two planned launches in 2016. This tight schedule, the IG said, does not include a flight test for the modified system and provides limited opportunities for qualification and certification testing.

NASA IG said although NASA increased monitoring of Orbital ATK’s milestone plan and RD-181 engine testing for the modified Antares, it has not conducted detailed technical assessments of the modified system and the associated qualification testing results. Finally, NASA IG believes Orbital ATK’s plan to drop one of its scheduled Cargo Resupply Services (CRS) missions may disadvantage NASA by decreasing the agency’s flexibility in choosing the type and size of cargo the company transports to the ISS.

NASA IG said in past audits of spaceflight programs it has found project managers are often overly optimistic about the effort required to modify heritage technologies, in this case, incorporating the RD-181 engines into Antares, and underestimate the time needed to address known and unknown risks by assuming that most risks will not materialize. Before using the RD-181, Orbital ATK must modify the Antares first stage structure, steering mechanisms, fuel tanks and lines and flight control software to accommodate the new engine.

The extent of these modifications, coupled with the company’s aggressive launch schedule, will limit the time available to conduct qualification testing of the new engines and other components. Notably, with the first two RD-181 engines having been delivered to the United States in July, Orbital ATK plans two types of stage tests at NASA’s Wallops Island Flight Facility—cold-flow and hot-fire—but does not plan to conduct a full “test-like-you-fly” launch profile hot-fire test or a demonstration flight before the planned Orb-5 launch in March.

Further, NASA IG said Orbital ATK will have limited time to update and test launch control software for the new engine specifications if it plans to meet a March launch date.

United Launch Alliance (ULA) selected Orbital ATK [OA] over rival Aerojet Rocketdyne [AJRD] to provide brand new, first stage solid boosters on its future Atlas V rocket and next-generation Vulcan launch system.

ULA said Sept. 22 it entered into a long-term strategic partnership with Orbital ATK, effective 2019. Under this partnership, Orbital ATK is investing in the design, development and qualification of two new rocket motors with design similarities to each other that leverage the company’s solid motor technology. These motors will also be commercially available to support other customers.

Orbital ATK spokeswoman Jennifer Bowman said Sept. 22 Orbital ATK’s motors will provide additional thrust during takeoff and the initial phases of flight. Aerojet Rocketdyne currently provides the Atlas Solid Rocket Booster (SRB) on the Atlas V when additional thrust is necessary. The Atlas V 400 series launch vehicle integrates up to three SRBs and up to five SRBs on the Atlas V 500 series vehicle.

ULA spokeswoman Lyn Chassagne said Sept. 22 the company considered an Aerojet Rocketdyne offer for its future supplemental Atlas V and Vulcan boosters. Aerojet Rocketdyne did not return a request for comment by press time. Aerojet Rockedyne and Orbital ATK are the two domestic solid rocket motor developers.

Development of the new solid rocket boosters will commence immediately to support their introduction on ULA’s Atlas V vehicle in late 2018 and on Vulcan in mid-2019. Bowman said the new boosters will be part of Orbital ATK’s Graphic Epoxy Motor (GEM) family of motors. The new solid motor booster agreement expands the long-term relationship between ULA and Orbital ATK that already includes the supply of composite structures, nozzles, propellant tanks and booster separation motors for the current versions of Delta IV and Atlas V rockets.

Orbital ATK is also developing a fully-integrated third stage to launch NASA’s Solar Probe Plus mission on ULA’s Delta IV Heavy rocket in 2018. ULA is a joint venture of Lockheed Martin [LMT] and Boeing [BA].

The private sector is calling on NASA to publicly communicate a specific plan soon if it wants to use commercial space stations to support human research efforts if the International Space Station (ISS) is retired in the mid-to-late 2020s.

Charles Miller, president of NexGen Space LLC and former NASA senior adviser for commercial space, said Sept. 22 at a Secure World Foundation (SWF) event in Washington that NASA has enduring research needs on human adaptation to space that will last beyond ISS. This includes research to figure out how humans can live and work in space indefinitely and how to protect humans against health problems caused by microgravity and radiation.

Miller said Sept. 23 in a phone conversation NASA and the President Barack Obama administration announced in early 2014 the agency would transition to commercial space stations after ISS retirement, but that NASA has not announced a plan to do so 19 months later. This, he said, is creating uncertainty among companies thinking of investing in commercial space stations as they need to decide how much to invest and how to raise capital. NASA is committed to ISS through at least 2024.

“The clock is ticking and the decisions need to be made,” Miller told sister publication Defense Daily, saying that NASA stating its plans in the next year or two will allow industry to invest and provide certainty for NASA that industry will be ready when the agency comes calling. “It’s a win-win for NASA to say, definitively, what its needs are.”

Bigelow Aerospace is developing an expandable space habitat that draws upon NASA’s TransHab habitat concept. Known as the B330, it will have 330 cubic meters of internal space. The craft will support zero-gravity research, including scientific missions and manufacturing processes. Beyond its industrial and scientific purposes, Bigelow envisions the B330 as a destination for space tourism and a craft for missions destined for the Moon and Mars.

Bigelow Director of D.C. Operations and Business Growth Mike Gold said Sept. 22 commercial providers need some sort of interaction and endorsement from NASA. He cited the civil space agency’s substantial support for commercial spaceflight, but he feared that the nation is setting itself up for a “human space station gap,” as the only space station in low earth orbit (LEO) when ISS retires will be Chinese.

“I think the least we could see is NASA acting as a smart customer for agreeing to fly its astronauts or purchasing volume aboard a commercial space station,” Gold said Sept. 22 at the SWF event.

Gold said he’s hearing from NASA that the private sector has to stand or fall by itself in LEO, inferring that industry can’t solely rely on the agency for a market. Gold said Bigelow can stand eventually, is willing to fail, and that Bigelow founder Robert Bigelow is investing his own money in a commercial space station, but that NASA needs to play some role as catalyst or at the least “priming the pump.”

Miller said in a Sept. 23 email that NASA has the ability to provide long-term guidance, and state a general need for a service, outside of the traditional request for information (RFI) or request for procurement (RFP) process. NASA spokeswoman Stephanie Schierholz said Sept. 23 the agency would be unable to comment by press time Sept. 23.

Aerojet Rocketdyne [AJRD] is paying Orbital ATK [OA] $50 million to settle a disagreement stemming from Orbital ATK’s Antares launch failure in October, according to a Securities and Exchange Committee (SEC) filing.

As part of a settlement, the two companies mutually agree to terminate a contract where Aerojet Rocketdyne agreed to provide 20 AJ-26 liquid propulsion rocket engines to Orbital ATK for the Antares program. In exchange for the one-time $50 million payment by Sept. 30, Orbital ATK is returning the title to 10 engines remaining to be delivered under the contract. Aerojet Rocketdyne is seeking reimbursement from its insurance of a portion of the settlement costs.

The agreement also settles all claims the parties may have had against each other stemming from the Oct. 28 Antares failure, which took place during a NASA Cargo Resupply Services (CRS) mission to deliver food and supplies to the International Space Station (ISS). The explosion took place shortly after liftoff and damaged the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS), located at Wallops Island, Va. The Antares rocket, called ORB-3, was powered by two AJ-26 engines.

Aerojet Rocketdyne spokesman Glenn Mahone said Sept. 24 in a statement both Aerojet Rocketdyne and Orbital ATK submitted their own investigations into the failure to both NASA and the FAA. Mahone, in the statement, declined to provide details of the company’s report, citing proprietary reasons. Mahone said in an email Sept. 24 the settlement precludes both companies from pursuing legal action over the Antares failure.

The AJ-26 is a refurbished NK-33 engine developed by Russian manufacturer Kuznetsov in the late ’60s and early ’70s for the Soviet Union’s N-1 lunar rocket.

Whether or not House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) replaces John Boehner (R-Wis.) as House speaker, one space consultant believes McCarthy’s position in House leadership benefits the commercial space industry.

“(McCarthy) has been a force of support for commercial space for years,” James Muncy, founder of independent space policy consultancy PoliSpace, said Sept. 25. “He did it when he was whip, he’s done it as majority leader and if he becomes speaker…or if he stays as majority leader, either way, it’s good for commercial space.” CAPITOL

McCarthy represents the 23rd District of California, most of which is north of Santa Barbara and Los Angeles and east of Bakersfield. Northeastern Los Angeles County and eastern Kern County are the sites of the Mojave Air and Space Port as well as government installations like Edwards AFB, the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division at China Lake and NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center.

Muncy said commercial space has been a part of McCarthy’s history dating back to his days in the California State Assembly, where he was first elected in 2002. McCarthy was elected to Congress in 2006 and was elected majority leader in 2014. Boehner on Sept. 25 announced he’d retire as speaker at the end of October.

Muncy said McCarthy knows all the players who have come out of Mojave over the years, including Burt Ratan and the leaders of Virgin Galactic, XCOR Aerospace and Masten Space Systems.

“He knows about entrepreneurs, he sees them, talks to them,” Muncy said. “It’s not that he’s pro-commercial (space) because that sends money to Kern County, he’s pro-commercial because these are the Thomas Edisons and Henry Fords of commercial space out there.

“McCarthy knows commercial space,” Muncy said. “He has literally had in his district the Silicon Valley of commercial space flight, it’s all been happening there.”